Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
December 22, 2020
Good morning
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Leading the News . . .
Congress approves $892B Covid relief package . . . The U.S. Congress on Monday approved an $892 billion coronavirus aid package, throwing a lifeline to the nation’s pandemic-battered economy after months of inaction, while also keeping the federal government funded. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the package into law. Following days of furious negotiation, both legislative chambers worked deep into the night to pass the bill - worth
about $2.3 trillion including spending for the rest of the fiscal year - with the House of Representatives first approving it and the Senate following suit several hours later in a bipartisan 92-6 vote. Reuters
Legislation provides for two new museums on the Mall . . . A number of more obscure provisions have been tucked into the 5,000-plus page stimulus bill that Congress is expected to pass later Monday night. The bill would green-light the creation of two new Smithsonians on the
National Mall, could punish illegal streamers for up to 10 years and calls it a 'clear abuse' if or any other country interferes with Tibet's process for recognizing its next Dalai Lama. The package also decriminalizes unauthorized uses of Smokey Bear, gives tax breaks to racehorse owners and bans the U.S. Postal Service from handling e-cigarettes. A years-long effort in both cases, the bill allows for the creation of the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum and the National Museum
of the American Latino. Daily Mail
Bill includes "biggest action ever taken" to address climate change . . . The package is headlined by a measure to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a climate-warming refrigerant, by 85% by 2035, which would be one of the most significant emissions-reducing measures ever passed. It is
the only major bill in recent memory that directly sets out reductions in a specific greenhouse gas. HFCs account for a small percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere but are considered more powerful than carbon dioxide. Washington Examiner
Biden: It's just the beginning . . . President-elect Joe Biden applauded lawmakers for coming together and pushing forward with a compromise COVID relief package, but warned that it was “just the beginning.” “I am heartened to see members of Congress . . . reach across
the aisle, and work together. This is a model for the challenging work ahead for our nation,” Biden said. Still, he argued, “this action in the lame-duck session is just the beginning. Our work is far from over.” New York Post
He will bankrupt the country, or at least grind down the military, before he is done.
Relief checks to start hitting next week . . . Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday that $600 direct payments included in the COVID-19 relief package that Congress is expected to approve on Monday will hit recipients’ bank accounts next week. “People are going to see this
money at the beginning of next week,” he said in an appearance on CNBC. Washington Examiner
Lawmakers start declining early access to vaccine . . . A small but growing number of lawmakers are declining early access to a COVID-19 vaccine that’s being offered to them under continuity of government policies. A handful of lawmakers in both parties, including Reps. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
and incoming Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), all made a point of announcing they would refuse a vaccine before all frontline health care workers and seniors get inoculated. The Hill
Why were they put to the front of the line in the first place? Who needs them?
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Trump meets with lawmakers about election challenge . . . White House chief of staff Mark Meadows announced that President Trump huddled with “several” members of Congress to discuss an effort to “fight back” against President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
“Several members of Congress just finished a meeting in the Oval Office with President @realDonaldTrump, preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned,” Meadows said in a Monday evening tweet, a stark break from federal and state officials who say they have not seen evidence of widespread voter
fraud. The missive alludes to a last-ditch bid by House Republicans to get Congress to reject Biden’s Electoral College victory when the new session of Congress meets to certify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. Washington Examiner
Today's Trump schedule
Barr does not plan to appoint special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden . . . Remember, Barr is leaving Wednesday. So it will fall to his replacement, Jeffery Rosen, or someone else President Trump appoints attorney general to make the decision. I believe that Barr is leaving early, under good terms — at least outwardly — to allow Trump to make these decisions without having to fire him.
According to the Washington Examiner: Attorney General William Barr said he had rejected the idea of appointing a special counsel either to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, or to look into President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud, and said he did not believe that the federal government should seize any voting
machines either. White House Dossier
Video || Pelosi complains about "faith-oriented" people who don't believe in
science
Deplorables, fuckers, faith-oriented people. It’s all the same to the Left.
Pelosi blames Trump for "most" of the US Covid deaths . . . Uh, did she not get the memo for Biden on uniting America? I guess she understood that it was just for laughs. So of course, the people responsible for most of the deaths in America from Covid are the leaders of the
Chinese Communist Party. But those are not people Democrats are terribly concerned about. White House Dossier
Video || Biden gets his Covid vaccine
Ouch! Don't watch this!
Chris Christie might challenge Trump in 2024 . . . Former two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he wouldn’t rule out another presidential bid even if his longtime friend President Trump launches a 2024 run to try to return to the White House. Christie – who ran unsuccessfully for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination before suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump – was asked Monday during a radio
interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt if he’d rule out a run of his own if Trump, who’s already flirting with another White House bid, decides to launch a 2024 campaign. "I would not. No," Christie said. "I would not rule it out, Hugh." Fox News
Ah, so that's what's with all the trump criticism lately.
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Highest ranking Treasury officials hacked . . . Suspected Russian hackers compromised dozens of Treasury department email accounts and breached the office that houses its top officials, as part of a broad campaign targeting several critical federal government agencies, a senior senator said Monday. The Treasury Department doesn’t know all of the activity the hackers engaged in or precisely what information was stolen, Sen.
Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said. Wall Street Journal
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South Korea scrambles jets as Chinese, Russian planes enter defense zone . . . South Korea said on Tuesday it had scrambled fighter jets in response to an intrusion into South Korea’s air defence identification zone by 19 Russian and Chinese military aircraft. “This incident seems to be a joint military drill between China and Russia but it requires a further analysis,” the JCS said in a statement. Reuters
Barr announces charges against Lockerbie suspect . . . Attorney General William Barr on Monday announced criminal charges against a third Libyan suspect in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Masud, who is detained in Libya, is being charged in the US in the terrorist attack that killed 270 people, including 190 Americans. Barr announced the charges on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing.
New York Post
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Google, Facebook agreed to team up to fight possible antitrust action . . . Facebook and Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version
of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week. Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them. Wall Street Journal
Apple hopes to start making cars in 2024 . . . Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology. Central to Apple’s strategy is a new battery design that
could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range, according to a third person who has seen Apple’s battery design. Reuters
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More than 70 West Point cadets accused of cheating . . . More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic scandal since the 1970s at the Army's premier training ground for officers. Fifty-eight cadets admitted cheating on the exam, which was administered remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have been enrolled in a
rehabilitation program and will be on probation for the remainder of their time at the academy. Others resigned, and some face hearings that could result in their expulsion. The scandal strikes at the heart of the academy's reputation for rectitude, espoused by its own moral code, which is literally etched in stone: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” USA Today
Former CIA chief: UFOs might be aliens . . . 'Life is defined in many different ways,' Brennan said during a podcast. 'I think it’s a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe.' 'But I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and
that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life,' Brennan continued. Daily Mail
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Sex-crazed new "roaring 20s" to follow the pandemic: Yale prof . . . Sex, sacrilege and spending await society on the other side of the coronavirus pandemic. So says Yale professor Dr. Nicholas Christakis. According to Christakis, who is also a social epidemiologist, society will make up for lost time as soon as it’s safe to, with hedonism quickly replacing conservative socializing — but that reversal remains years away.
“During epidemics you get increases in religiosity, people become more abstentious, they save money, they get risk averse and we’re seeing all of that now, just as we have for hundreds of years during epidemics,” Christakis said. “In 2024, all of those [pandemic trends] will be reversed.” New York Post
North Carolina allows restaurants and bars to deliver mixed drinks . . . Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is allowing restaurants and bars to sell mixed drinks for takeout as small businesses attempt to stay afloat through the winter months. Cooper signed an executive order Monday that allows bars and restaurants to sell alcoholic mixed drinks for either takeout or delivery to customers during the Coronavirus pandemic. Daily Caller
I've just identified the state to which I will retire.
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Keith
Keith Koffler
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