Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
February 1, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
GOP scrambles to unify heading into next election cycle . . .
Republican leaders are scrambling to unify a deeply fractured GOP, fearing that a failure to do so quickly will ignite an intraparty battle that could sabotage their chances of recapturing the House, Senate and presidency in the coming years. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has urged members of his conference to stop attacking one another following the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and former President Trump’s impeachment. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is also
calling for an end to the feuding, warning that emerging fights over ideological and political purity could jeopardize the party’s chances of winning back its majorities in the House and Senate in 2022. The Hill
Trump stocks new PAC with tens of millions as he bids to retain control of GOP . . . Save America, Trump's new political group, launched in the aftermath of Trump's 2020 election loss.
The money in Trump’s PAC, detailed in a new financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday evening, was largely raised via grassroots fundraising appeals pleading for help with legal challenges aimed at the 2020 election results. But Save America spent little money at the end of last year, reporting only $218,000 in merchant fees to Republican online donation processor WinRed. Politico
Unclear if all COVID survivors will recover their diminished senses . . . In the coming year, there will be at least a million new cases of people in the U.S. with chronically diminished senses of smell or taste due to COVID-19, researchers predict. Studies suggest up to 80% of people who have COVID-19 symptoms experience smell or taste dysfunction, with a significant association between the two
senses. Some experience reduced ability to smell or taste. Some have a complete loss. And some experience distorted senses, where certain tastes and smells change or become unpleasant – an increasingly common outcome, called "parosmia." The researches don't know if COVID-19 survivors will be able to recover their diminished senses. USA Today
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SECSTATE promises US 'will take action' in response to military coup in Burma . . . Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken condemned reports that the Burmese military took control of the country and detained senior leaders—including Aung San Suu Kyi, its de facto leader—and called for the military to "reverse these actions immediately." Myawaddy TV, which is controlled by the military, announced the takeover and cited a section
of the military-drafted constitution that allows the military to take control in times of national emergency. Fox News
Didn't take long to start contemplating new 'endless wars.'
Republicans press Biden to scale back $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan . . . Ten moderate Republican U.S. senators urged President Joe Biden on Sunday to significantly downsize his sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package to win bipartisan support as Democrats in Congress prepared to push ahead with his plan this week. Biden responded by inviting the Republican lawmakers to the White House this week for talks, spokeswoman Jen
Psaki said, even as he continues to seek a comprehensive, large-scale measure. Reuters
Biden’s ‘Buy American’ Clean Energy Conundrum . . . President Biden's latest climate-focused executive order promises a bustling clean energy sector backed by "good-paying union jobs." That sector's supply chain, however, is largely dominated by China. Biden's order calls on the federal government to purchase union-built, American electric vehicles. But both Chevrolet and Nissan's top electric offerings fall well below the federal
government's domestic "component test" to determine American-made status, and Ford's latest electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E, will be built in China and Mexico. China also controls much of the world's lithium battery supply, including 77 percent of global cell capacity and 60 percent of global component manufacturing. Biden climate envoy John Kerry, meanwhile, suggested Wednesday that disgruntled oil and coal workers could simply find new jobs in the solar sector. Washington Free Beacon
Once united in support of Biden, environmentalists and unions clash over pipelines . . . Environmentalists and labor unions that threw their support behind President Biden now find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle over the construction of big pipeline projects between Canada and the United States. The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. Biden’s administration aims to transition the U.S. economy
towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and his initial moves towards that goal included cancelling a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline (KXL) and reducing oil-and-gas leasing. Reuters
John Kerry family private jet emitted estimated 116 metric tons of carbon over past year . . . FAA records indicate Biden climate czar John Kerry still owner of private jet. John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, called out for family's private jet while stressing the need for America to act on carbon emissions. Data compiled by the flight tracking firm FlightAware and obtained by Fox News show that John Kerry's family
Gulfstream GIV-SP spent around 22 hours and 22 minutes in the air over the past year. Using Paramount Business Jets emissions calculator, Fox News found that Kerry's planed accumulated an estimated 116 metric tons of carbon between trips dating from Feb. 9, 2020, to Jan. 10, 2021. The typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year Fox News
Asian-American Activists Blast Biden’s ‘Pandering’ Anti-Racism Order . . . Activists said that President Biden ignored the actual concerns of Asian Americans when he signed a "pandering" executive order against anti-Asian coronavirus rhetoric that failed to mention affirmative action policies that discriminate against Asians. Biden signed an order to combat "racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders" on Tuesday. The order—which requires federal agencies to fight anti-Asian racism and promote "sensitivity" toward the Asian community in their pandemic response—was met with skepticism by some activists. Kenny Xu, an activist and author of an upcoming book, An Inconvenient Minority, called the order mere lip service aimed at progressives. Washington Free Beacon
How about an order to prevent Harvard and other schools from discriminating against Asian Americans?
State Dept Spox: ‘Largest Threat to U.S. National Security are US Cops’ . . . The State Department’s newly installed deputy spokesperson, Jalina Porter, said in a 2016 Facebook post that the "largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S cops," according to a screenshot of the post obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Porter, who was recently tapped by the Biden administration to serve as State Department spokesman Ned Price’s deputy, emphasized that it was US police that presented the largest threat to the homeland, "not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else." Porter’s comments were made on Sept. 20, 2016, and appear to be in reference to video footage released that day of an unarmed black man being shot by police officers in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Washington Free Beacon
Biden told his brother to stay out of shady business deals . . . During the campaign, Joe Biden told his younger brother Frank to watch out for business deals that might “hurt you.” What he meant, of course, was deals that might “hurt me.” The campaign was a little late to try to instill some ethics into the Biden Family Inc. His close relatives’ shenagans could bring him down. It’s good the mainstream press is at least looking
at this. But remember, the only thing you get out of Biden’s downfall is President Harris. White House Dossier
GOP lobbyist Matt Schlapp says wife, two daughters were 'accosted' by angry neighbor . . . Republican lobbyist Matt Schlapp announced his young daughters and wife were “accosted” by a neighbor. “My wonderful wife and my two youngest girls, 9 and 10, were accosted by one of our neighbors, a few doors away. When either side turns their politics into intimidation it is wrong. In this case it may well be a crime. Disagree with me all you
want but leave my girls alone. I mean it,” Schlapp wrote on Twitter early Saturday evening. Epoch Times
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Iran expert says he's confident Biden will rejoin nuclear deal . . . Trita Parsi, a Georgetown University professor and the executive vice president for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said he is confident that the Biden administration will rejoin the Iran nuclear deal from which former President Trump withdrew the U.S. Parsi noted that several top Biden administration officials played crucial roles in crafting the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and that the Trump administration’s plan of applying pressure on Tehran through sanctions only led to further uranium enrichment in Iran. The Hill
Trump’s Afghanistan withdrawal in doubt under Biden . . . The Biden administration is sounding a strikingly skeptical tone on the prospects for a durable Afghan-Taliban power-sharing deal, putting into doubt a major diplomatic achievement of the Trump administration. The U.S. is receiving warnings from Kabul that peace talks with the militants are going nowhere. A successful deal is critical to U.S. hopes to withdraw the last 2,500
American combat troops in Afghanistan, but there were indications Sunday that allied forces fighting alongside U.S. troops are not ready to go home. Washington Times
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Myanmar military seizes power in coup, leaders arrested . . . Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy party in early morning raids. The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud,” handing power to military chief
Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station. New York Post
Russia Arrests More Than 5,100 at Pro-Navalny Protests . . . Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets on Jan. 31 across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. More than 5,100 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and some were beaten. Russian authorities mounted a
massive effort to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last weekend in the largest, most widespread show of discontent that Russia had seen in years. Epoch Times
No worries, now that Biden had a 'friendly call' with Putin, Russian police will immediately stop detaining and beating protesters.
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Google deletes thousands of negative Robinhood app reviews . . . Google appeared to remove nearly 100,000 negative reviews for the Robinhood app after outraged investors bombarded the stock-trading startup with complaints. Amateur traders urged each other online to leave negative reviews for the app in the Google Play Store after Robinhood froze trading on shares of GameStop and other stocks whose prices have exploded
this week. New York Post
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Kushner, Berkowitz nominated for Nobel peace prize for Israel deals . . . Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, were nominated by a friendly attorney on Sunday for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in negotiating four normalization deals between Israel and Arab nations known as the “Abraham Accords.” The deals were announced in a four-month span between mid-August and mid-December and were
the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in 25 years as the region girds for a prolonged confrontation with Iran.
Nominating the pair of former deputies to then-President Donald Trump was American attorney Alan Dershowitz. Reuters
GOP's Adam Kinzinger launches anti-Trump PAC . . . Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, is launching a political action committee to push back against a House GOP leadership team and party that he says have become too closely aligned to the former president. The “Country 1st” PAC, unveiled in a six-minute video released Sunday, will challenge the current direction of a GOP that Kinzinger says
has wrongly become a “Trump-first party” to the detriment of the nation, as seen by the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Washington Times
Trump Announces New Impeachment Legal Team . . . Former President Donald Trump announced his new impeachment defense team, hours after his previous legal team disbanded on Sunday. Trump second impeachment trial is set to begin Feb. 9. The new lawyers, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, have experience representing individuals in Trump’s circle, including Roger Stone. Daily Caller
46 Senators Introduce New Bill to Protect Babies Who Survive Abortions . . . In the wake of growing reports proving that babies do survive abortions, a group of U.S. Senators re-introduced legislation Thursday to protect babies who survive abortions from infanticide. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, and 45 other senators, would require health care workers to provide the
same degree of care to a baby who survives an abortion that would be given to any other baby born at the same gestational age. It also requires that the baby immediately be transported to a hospital.
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Website offers $3,000 for 'Sleeping Beauty' to test out mattresses . . . A mattress reviewing platform said it is seeking "a real-life Sleeping Beauty" to get paid $3,000 to test out mattresses. SleepJunkie.com said the chosen candidate "will be paid to sleep on the job" by trying three top-rated mattresses in a two-month period and writing detailed reviews of each experience. The "Sleeping Beauty" will be
paid $3,000 for the mattress testing job, as well as being allowed to keep the mattress of their choice at the end of their duties.
"To be the right fit for the role you will need to be a self-starter, available to work immediately and independently, have clear writing skills, good evaluation skills and be exceptionally good at sleeping," the website said. The posting does reveal one catch to the deal: "Our Sleeping Beauty will also have to be able to sleep alone to ensure an undisturbed night's sleep." Applications are being accepted on the website. UPI
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Rebekah Koffler
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