Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
February 18, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Trump: Rush Limbaugh was a “legend” . . . Rush Limbaugh died yesterday of lung cancer at the age of 70. Donald Trump called into Fox News to express his thoughts. Speaking Harris Faulkner and Bill Hemmer, Trump said “There aren’t too many legends around, but he is a legend.” “He had tremendous insight. He got it, he really got it,” the former president said. “Rush was irreplaceable.” Trump also released a statement
that you can see in White House Dossier
Liberals Reacted To Rush Limbaugh’s Death By Sneering And Celebrating . . . Prominent liberals began celebrating Wednesday just minutes after conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh’s wife announced that he had died from complications of lung cancer. “Rush Limbaugh was one of the most harmful and poisonous people in the modern United States of America,” said Jared Yates Sexton, a political commentator and associate professor
at Georgia Southern University. In a now-deleted Tweet, Meghan McCain called on people to “show grace when famous people they disagree with die.” Daily Caller
US life expectancy drops a year during COVID , most since WWII . . . Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates Thursday from
the CDC. Health experts say it shows the profound impact of COVID-19, not just on deaths directly due to infection but also from heart disease, cancer and other conditions. Associated Press
One-third of US military members are declining COVID-19 vaccinations . . . Roughly one-third of US military members have declined to get vaccinated for COVID-19, a Pentagon official said in a report Wednesday. Air Force Maj. Gen. Jeff Taliaferro, the Joint Staff’s vice director for operations, told a congressional panel that “acceptance rates are somewhere in the two-thirds territory.” While the vaccine is “clearly safe for service
members,” soldiers need education “to help them understand the benefits” of the shots, he told the House Armed Services Committee. In total, the Defense Department has fully vaccinated 147,000 service members and 359,000 have received a first dose, Pentagon official Robert Salesses told the outlet. Those who have declined can still be deployed, Taliaferro said. New York Post
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Republicans back Mitch McConnell amid Trump feud. . . Republican officials and operatives on Wednesday reminded the Trump wing of the GOP that the former president owes much of his legacy to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, insisting that the veteran Washington powerbroker shouldn’t be summarily discarded for disloyalty to former President Donald Trump. Even Trump supporters bucked the call to turn their backs on the
Senate GOP leader and emphasized that it is the Kentucky Republican who still has power in Washington. Washington Times
Trump ready to make McConnell's life miserable . . . Allies of former President Trump say he’s determined to make life miserable for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump’s political machine, which has $60 million in a super PAC and an unmatched grassroots fundraising apparatus, is vowing to go aggressively after GOP lawmakers in primaries in the wake of an unprecedented feud between the nation’s two most powerful
Republicans. Trump was prepared to give McConnell a pass, sources in his orbit stated, after he gave a blistering post-impeachment floor speech saying the former president was “practically and morally” responsible for the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. But McConnell’s follow-up op-ed knocking Trump in The Wall Street Journal was the final straw, provoking a blistering response from the former president. The Hill
Trump Stops Leaves Door Open for Possible 2024 Presidential Run . . . President Donald Trump stopped short of committing to a 2024 presidential run Wednesday on Newsmax TV, saying he is seeing poll numbers that "are through the roof." "I won't say yet, but we have tremendous support," Trump told "Greg Kelly Reports."
Trump joked to host Greg Kelly that even the Senate impeachment trial managed to boost his 2024 political cachet. "I'm the only guy who gets impeached and my numbers go up," Trump said. "Figure that one out. "Let's say somebody gets impeached, typically your numbers would go down. They would go down like a dead balloon." "And I'm looking at poll numbers are through the roof." Newsmax
Trump threatens a Tea Party redux . . . In the months before the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans, stuck deep in the minority in the U.S. Senate, began to see the glimmerings of a path back to the majority. Rising voter anger over a glacial economic recovery handed the GOP an unlikely win in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, and polls showed other Democratic incumbents in trouble. But a vein of unrest had opened among Republican voters
upset with leaders in Washington they saw as insufficiently conservative or conspiratorially aligned with Democrats. The Hill
Biden says during town hall 'we didn't have' a COVID vaccine when he took office . . . President Biden was slammed by conservatives on social media after saying, “We didn’t have a vaccine,” when he came into office on Jan. 20. Conservatives, including former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, quickly took issue with Biden’s comment. McEnany reminded in a tweet that "President Trump brought about the fastest vaccine for a novel
pathogen in history." Washington Times
Trump: Joe Biden Either Lying or ‘Mentally Gone’ on Vaccine Gaffe . . . Former President Donald Trump has lambasted his successor, President Joe Biden, as being either dishonest or “mentally gone” when Biden falsely claimed that the United States did not have a COVID vaccine when he assumed office. “He was either not telling the truth or he was mentally gone, one or the other,” Trump told Newsmax TV on Wednesday. Epoch Times
And sometimes it's both - Sleepy Joe is mentally gone and he is lying.
How Biden could curb the Second Amendment without Congress . . . Guns will be in Joe Biden's crosshairs. “I think that President Biden will try to get away with as much as he can with executive orders,” Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told Fox News, adding that his organization is “very prepared to go to court” if Biden oversteps.
“What we’re expecting him to do is anything with foreign commerce — if the firearm is being imported in or magazine or ammo is being imported in — he could by executive order try to do something in that nature,” Gottlieb continued. Gottlieb said Biden could use the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to tighten regulations he says are “beyond the scope of what Congress has given him the authority to do,” in which case he says the foundation is prepared to sue. White House Dossier
Joe Biden talks with Israel's Netanyahu for first time as president . . . President Biden on Wednesday spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since Mr. Biden was sworn into office last month. Mr. Biden described it as a good conversation. The two leaders talked about Iran, among other subjects, and Mr. Biden reaffirmed his support for the recent normalization of relations between Israel and
other countries in the Middle East like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, according to the White House. The Trump administration helped broker those peace deals, known as the Abraham Accords. Washington Times
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National Guard troops to stay in DC over violence concerns in March . . . Nearly 5,000 of National Guard troops will remain in Washington, D.C., in early March amid concerns over followers of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, some of whom hold out hope former President Trump will be returned to office March 4. “Some of these people have figured out that apparently 75 years ago, the president used to be inaugurated on March 4.
OK, now why that's relevant, God knows, at any rate, now they are thinking maybe we should gather again and storm the Capitol on March 4. ... That is circulating online," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said during a Wednesday hearing. Smith added that there would not necessarily be specific unrest on March 4 but that there were concerns around the date. The Hill
Any thoughts on deploying some troops to guard the Southern Border instead?
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North Korea Turning to Cryptocurrency Schemes in Global Heists . . . The US Justice Department unsealed an indictment Wednesday against two alleged members of North Korea’s military intelligence services, accusing them of hacking banks and companies in more than a dozen countries including the U.S. as part of a wide-ranging scheme to steal $1.3 billion over the past half-decade for Pyongyang. North Korean hackers
are increasingly focusing their criminal activity on the world of cryptocurrency and have recently built malicious cryptocurrency apps, launched ransomware attacks and promoted a fraudulent initial coin offering in pursuit of digital cash, prosecutors said. Wall Street
Journal
Facebook 'unfriends' Australia: news pages go dark in test for global publishing . . . Facebook faced an angry backlash on Thursday after blocking news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government which could be a test for the future of online publishing worldwide. The move was denounced by media groups, politicians and human rights groups in Australia and beyond, as it became clear that official health
pages and emergency warnings had been scrubbed along with news sites, just three days before the launch of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme. Reuters
Facebook’s Australia News Ban Hits Essential Services . . . The Facebook pages of Australia’s Queensland, South Australia, ACT Health, the WA Fire and Emergency Services, and the Bureau of Meteorology have been blocked after the social media giant banned Australians from sharing news. The pages were blocked as Facebook followed through on its threat to restrict Australians from sharing news on its platform in response to a proposed
media bargaining code. The pages, which provide crucial government health and weather information and alerts, were blacked out on Thursday morning. Epoch Times
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Jobless Claims to Keep Easing as US Economy Picks Up . . . Worker applications for unemployment benefits are expected to have eased again last week, potentially adding to signs that layoffs are declining as the economic recovery picks up. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that the number of workers applying for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 773,000 last week, down
slightly from 793,000 the prior week. Jobless claims—a proxy for layoffs—have fallen from 926,000 in early January. “We’re heading in the right direction,” said Marianne Wanamaker, a labor economist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and former adviser to the Trump White House. Wall Street
Journal
Gas prices to rise as winter storm rages . . . Gasoline prices are expected to rise 10 to 20 cents a gallon in the coming days after winter storms knocked out about a dozen refineries in Texas, capping a sharp run-up in prices since Halloween and possibly heralding a move toward $3 by summer as the pandemic eases. Regular unleaded gas averaged $2.54 a gallon nationally Wednesday, up two cents from the previous day, according to
AAA.
The storm also has disrupted package deliveries to consumers and product shipments to retailers, possibly leading to shortages of some items on shelves. And it has shut hundreds of stores and factories. USA Today
IRS says all stimulus checks have been delivered. Here's what to do if you didn't get one . . . The Internal Revenue Service said this week that it has finished issuing stimulus checks to all of the eligible taxpayers that it has on file -- meaning some Americans will need to ask for the money when they file their 2020 tax return. Starting last April, the IRS sent more than 160 million stimulus checks worth $270 billion. Some payments may
still be in the mail, but otherwise, you will have to use a recovery rebate worksheet to calculate how much you should receive and claim that amount on Line 30 on your 2020 tax return. The IRS will include your stimulus payments as part of your refund check. Fox Business
Universal basic income could be coming for kids . . . In recent years, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and presidential candidates have touted “universal basic income,” a cash stipend to everyone with no strings attached, as the answer to poverty, automation and the drudgery of work. It has never gotten off the ground in the U.S. Instead, something similar in spirit but cheaper and more practical may be in sight. Both President Biden and Sen.
Mitt Romney have proposed significantly expanding the child tax credit and dropping many of its restrictions, in effect turning it into a near-universal basic income for children. The main aim of their proposals is to reduce child poverty, which is higher in the U.S. than in most advanced countries. Fox Business
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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Behind ‘Anti-Racist’ Math Push . . . A radical new push to purge math curricula of allegedly racist practices like showing your work and finding the correct answer is bankrolled by one of the nation's most prominent nonprofits: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is the only donor mentioned on the homepage of A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction, a group of 25
education organizations whose curriculum states that asking students to show their work and find the right answer is an inherently racist practice. Over the past decade, the Gates Foundation has given upward of $140 million to some of the groups behind Pathway, whose antiracist resources are the basis for a new teacher training course offered by the Oregon Department of Education. Washington Free Beacon
Pro-Trump OAN, Newsmax, Gateway Pundit saw traffic spike in 2020 . . . Far-right, pro-Trump news sites saw their web traffic grow by triple digits in 2020, according to a study by web traffic company SimilarWeb. Newsmax, OAN and Gateway Pundit all saw their traffic grow by triple digits. Traffic to oann.com grew by 148 percent to 76.9 million visits; at newsmax.com it grew by 141 percent to 223 million, and at
thegatewaypundit.com traffic rose by 109 percent to 309.8 million. The three news sites and others like them have come under greater scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol riots. The Hill
Fox Nation Launching New Podcast With Tucker Carlson . . . Fox News’ Tucker Carlson will be launching a new video podcast and a series of specials on Fox Nation, the network’s subscription-based streaming service. Fox Nation signed a multi-year deal with Carlson and he will continue to host his primetime show on Fox News during the week, according to a press release. Carlson’s content for Fox Nation will begin streaming in April
2021 and will only be available on the streaming service. Carlson plans to publish at least three video podcasts every week. The podcasts will include “interviews with newsmakers” plus “a discussion of the issues shaping the country.” Daily Caller
Tucker is one of the smartest and most fearless people I know.
FBI investigating Cuomo’s handling of NY nursing homes . . . The FBI and the Eastern District of New York US Attorney’s office have opened an investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources said. The probe is examining the Cuomo administration’s actions relating to the nursing homes and other long-term care facilities after thousands of their residents died of COVID-19. In
its early-stages, the investigation is focusing on some senior members of Cuomo’s coronavirus task force. New York Post
Parler Interim CEO Says Trump is Welcome on the Platform, Facebook Has A Problem . . . Parler’s interim CEO, Mark Meckler, told Daily caller the former President Donald Trump would be welcome on the app - since he has been kicked off of almost every single social media platform - “as long as he follows our community guidelines." ". . . we’d be happy to have Donald Trump on the platform. There is no direct communication
taking place with Donald right now, or anybody else in the president’s team,” Meckler said. Meckler also discussed if he is considering suing Facebook after director Sheryl Sandberg placed blame on Parler to only later find out her website was the most used platform to plan the Capitol riot. Daily Caller
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Man gives venomous cobra a drink from water bottle . . . An Indian man came to the rescue of a thirsty -- and potentially deadly -- cobra by pouring water from a bottle into the venomous snake's mouth. The video, shared by Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda, shows the man, believed to be an IFS official, gently holding the water bottle while the cobra drinks from the opening. The man touches the cobra with
his other hand to keep the snake steady and calm while drinking. "Love and water. Two best ingredients of life," Nanda tweeted. UPI
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Rebekah Koffler
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