Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
February 16, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Reality check: Biden, Dems buck bipartisanship with ambitious agenda . . . President Biden’s vision for the nation came into clearer focus now that a Democratic-run Washington put impeachment to bed and his administration took center stage with a policy platform touching on issues from taxes and transportation to the economy, energy and immigration. The spotlight promise a reality check on the bipartisan chops Mr. Biden brags about as he
seeks to strike deals with Republicans, cater to his party’s left flank Mr. Biden’s ambitious agenda includes:
• Increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour;
• Opening a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants;
• Rolling back 2017 Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans;
• Increasing the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%;
• Setting a goal for the U.S. to go to 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050;
• Spending $2 trillion to rebuild America’s highways, bridges, airports and other infrastructure.
Biden has been unwinding parts of the Trump legacy through executive orders, which have pleased his base and angered Republicans. Washington Times
Poll: Majority say Biden has prioritized unity . . . A majority of voters say President Biden has prioritized unity so far in his term, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds. Fifty-seven percent of registered voters in the Feb. 8-9 survey said they think Joe Biden has made uniting the country a priority in his actions so far as president. Forty-three percent of respondents said he has not. The Hill
Really?
Hospitals still ration medical N95 masks as stockpiles swell . . . One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many millions of N95 masks are pouring out of American factories and heading into storage. Yet doctors and nurses say there still aren’t nearly enough in the “ICU rooms with high-flow oxygen and COVID germs all over.” Companies Prestige Ameritech, are drowning in respirators because as they are able to churn out 1
million masks every four days, but don't have orders for nearly that many. So Prestige recently got approval from the government to export them. The logistical breakdown is rooted in federal failures over the past year to coordinate supply chains and provide hospitals with clear rules about how to manage their medical equipment. Associated Press
North Korean hackers tried to steal Pfizer vaccine know-how, lawmaker says . . . South Korea’s intelligence agency has said North Korea attempted to steal information on coronavirus vaccines and treatments by hacking Pfizer Inc, a lawmaker briefed by the agency said on Tuesday. Digital espionage targeting health bodies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as state-backed hacking groups scramble to
secure the latest research and information about the outbreak. Reuters
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Sixty-two percent say third political party is needed in US . . . Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. needs a third major political party because the GOP and Democratic Party "do such a poor job representing the American people," according to a new Gallup poll. In the survey released Monday, 62 percent of Americans said the third party was needed, while 33 percent said the two existing major parties do an "adequate" job
representing the majority of Americans' political views. It's the largest percentage of people to say the U.S. needs a third party since Gallup began polling on the question in 2003. The Hill
Seventy-five percent of Republicans want Trump to play prominent role in GOP: poll . . . Three-quarters of Republicans said they want former President Trump to play a prominent role in the Republican Party despite his second impeachment trial, according to a poll released on Monday – two days after his acquittal. A Quinnipiac University poll determined that 75 percent of Republican respondents expressed interest in Trump continuing to
play a prominent role in the GOP, while 21 percent said they wouldn’t want that. Sixty percent of all Americans said they did not want Trump to have an important role in the Republican Party, including 96 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents. The Hill
Covid wars launch Florida's Ron DeSantis into GOP ‘top tier’ . . . The Florida governor’s clashes with the media and reluctance to embrace coronavirus restrictions are fueling conservative chatter about a 2024 presidential bid. With a Covid death count cover up and a pandemic-related, Republicans are embracing DeSantis as a red-state exemplar, pointing to rates of, and in the most-populous blue states. “Ron DeSantis is having a
moment with conservatives,” said Josh Holmes, a top adviser to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Politico
Jason Chaffetz says he's open to challenging Mitt Romney in Utah Senate primary . . . Former congressman Jason Chaffetz says he is open to running against Sen. Mitt Romney in Utah.
With a smile on his face, the retired politician told Fox News host Sean Hannity, "Yea, I would," when asked Monday evening about a primary challenge against Romney just days after the GOP senator voted a second time to convict former President Donald Trump on an article of impeachment. Chaffetz represented Utah's 3rd Congressional District from 2009 to 2017, and served as chairman of the Oversight Committee for the final couple of years. After retiring, Chaffetz joined Fox News as a
contributor. Washington Examiner
Utah GOP rejects Mitt Romney censure: 'There is power in our differences . . . The Utah Republican Party refused to censure Sen. Mitt Romney for voting to convict former President Donald Trump. The party issued a statement Monday taking some thinly-veiled shots at other state parties and defending both Mr. Romney vote and the acquittal vote by Utah’s other Republican senator, Mike Lee. Washington Times
North Carolina Republican Party votes to censure Burr for vote to convict Trump . . . The North Carolina Republican Party's central committee voted unanimously on Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) over his vote on Saturday to convict former President Trump. The committee announced the censure in a statement that argued Burr's vote to convict went outside the authority of the Constitution. "Tonight, the North Carolina Republican
Party Central Committee (NCGOP) voted unanimously to censure Senator Richard Burr for his vote to convict former President Trump in the impeachment trial which he declared to be unconstitutional," the committee said in a statement" The Hill
Mixed Response From GOP to Nikki Haley's Break With President Trump . . . Amid the Trump impeachment trial Friday, there was relatively minor reporting of Nikki Haley’s most public break with the former president she once served as United Nations ambassador. “We need to acknowledge he let us down,” Haley, who is widely mentioned as a Republican presidential candidate in 2024, told Politico in an interview Friday morning. Referring
to the violence at the Capitol Jan. 6, the former South Carolina governor said of Trump: “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.” In a series of interviews with both Republican activists and seasoned political scientists, Newsmax found a very mixed reaction to Haley’s break with Trump. Newsmax
Mitch McConnell begins “project” to undermine Trump: George Will . . . Apparently the principled longtime conservative columnist is a great admirer of longtime Republican establishment political operative Mitch McConnell. Will is right about one thing. The next two years, at least, is going to be a battle between Trump and McConnell for the Republican Party. From Will’s column: McConnell knows that Trump’s grip on the
Republican base — its activist core, which is disproportionately important in candidate-selection primaries — remains unshaken. But not unshakable. Trump’s potential problems, legal and financial, might shrink his stature in the eyes of his still-mesmerized supporters. McConnell knows, however, that the heavy lifting involved in shrinking Trump’s influence must be done by politics. White House Dossier
Joe Biden’s "Nine-to-Five" day . . . CNN is claiming that it is 9:00 am until 7:00 pm. But that’s what they’ve fed to CNN, which likely eagerly digests what the White House tells it. According to CNN:
He has established a regular schedule, including coffee in the mornings with the first lady, meetings and phone calls from the Oval Office starting just after 9 a.m. and a return to his residence by 7 p.m. Unlike his most recent predecessors . . . Biden is more of an early-to-bed type. He has expressed a preference for a fire built in the Oval Office fireplace, and sometimes adds a log himself to keep it going. His dogs, two German Shepherds called Major and Champ, sometimes join
him. The door to the Oval Office is not considered open to just anyone, as it sometimes was under Trump. White House Dossier
Sounds like 'sleepy Joe' likes to . . . sleep.
Biden, Dems To Unveil Bill That Would Provide Pathway To Citizenship For 11 Million Illegal Immigrants . . . The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress will unveil an immigration reform bill later this week that is expected to include a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. The “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” will include the immigration commitments that Biden released when he first took office, according
to NBC News. The president’s proposal provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants, expands the refugee resettlement program and adds unspecified new technology to the US-Mexico southern border. Daily Caller
‘Team Biden’ Sought To Cultivate Ties To Businessman Who's Now Awaiting Sentencing On Federal Charges . . . After the presidential election in 2012, a longtime adviser to Joe Biden urged the then-vice president’s sons, Hunter and Beau, to cultivate relationships with a group of wealthy political donors in order to “pull them in a little closer to Team Biden,” according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. One of the
sought-after donors was Imaad Zuberi, a politically-connected Pakistani-American businessman now awaiting sentencing on charges of tax evasion, obstruction, campaign finance violations and foreign agent violations. Federal prosecutors have accused Zuberi of using millions of dollars in political contributions — many of them illegal — to cozy up to both Democratic and Republican politicians to help his personal business interests and to strengthen his ties to multiple foreign governments. Daily Caller
Sullivan is Biden's national security 'listener' . . . When Hillary Clinton was deciding whether she’d run for president for a second time in 2012, she talked up Jake Sullivan, a young aide at the time who is now President Biden’s national security adviser. “Now we travel all over the world together and people say how excited they are to meet a potential future president of the United States, and of course they mean Jake.” The line
was made as a wink-wink moment for Clinton's own presidential prospects. But nearly nine years later, it doesn't seem as far-fetched for Sullivan, who at 44 is the youngest national security adviser in 60 years. The Hill
WaPo, CNN 'fact-checkers' silent as Harris falsely claims Biden 'starting from scratch' on vaccine rollout . . . The mainstream media's most prominent "fact-checkers" have kept silent about Vice President Kamala Harris' debunked claim that the Biden administration did not inherit a coronavirus vaccine rollout plan. "There was no stockpile ... of vaccines," Harris told Axios co-founder Mike Allen that aired on HBO Sunday.
"There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations. And so in many ways, we're starting from scratch on something that's been raging for almost an entire year!" Harris directly contradicted White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci's remarks last month responding to CNN reporting that made a similar claim. "We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution," Fauci said during a White House press briefing. Fox News
Pelosi announces independent 9/11-style commission into Capitol siege . . . A 9/11-style commission will be established to review the deadly security failures at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday. In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said a preliminary review by retired four-star general Russel Honoré indicated that a full commission was needed to ensure against another deadly
breach of Congress.
“It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened,” Pelosi wrote. New York Post
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Iraq rocket attack hits US forces, killing contractor . . . A rocket attack on U.S.-led forces in northern Iraq on Monday killed a civilian contractor and injured a U.S. service member, the U.S. coalition in Iraq said, in the deadliest such attack in almost a year. The barrage of rockets hit in and near a military air base occupied by the U.S.-led coalition at Erbil International Airport.
The attack, claimed by a little-known group that some Iraqi officials say has links with Iran, raises tension in the Middle East while Washington and Tehran explore a potential return to the Iran nuclear deal. Reuters
Spike in ransomware complaints flooding FBI include attacks on hospitals . . . An uptick in ransomware complaints flooded the FBI in the final months of 2020, including a spate of attacks on hospitals, The Washington Times has learned.
In each of the last four months of 2020, the FBI received more than 200 complaints about ransomware, according to data compiled by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center that was shared with The Times. Victims’ cash losses more than tripled in 2020 year over year to $29.1 million, according to data collected by the FBI. Washington Times
China targets rare earth export curbs to hobble US defense industry . . . China is exploring limiting the export of rare earth minerals that are crucial for the manufacture of American F-35 fighter jets and other sophisticated weaponry, according to people involved in a government consultation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last month proposed draft controls on the production and export of 17 rare earth minerals in
China, which controls about 80 per cent of global supply. Beijing officials ask industry executives if proposed restrictions will harm western contractors Financial Times
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Kremlin hasn't ruled out proposal from Elon Musk for Clubhouse talk with Putin . . . A spokesman for the Kremlin called Tesla founder Elon Musk's proposal to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin on the audio-based social media app Clubhouse "interesting." “We want to figure it out first. President Putin does not personally use social networks directly. He doesn’t have them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
Monday. On Saturday afternoon via Twitter, Musk asked the Kremlin if the Russian president would join him for a conversation on Clubhouse, an app that allows users to join virtual rooms and engage in audio dialogue over the internet. Washington Examiner
Bangladesh court sentences five to death for killing US blogger . . . A court in Bangladesh sentenced to death five members of an Islamist militant group on Tuesday for killing a U.S. blogger critical of religious extremism six years ago. Avijit Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was hacked to death here by machete-wielding assailants in February 2015 while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair. His wife and
fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed suffered head injuries and lost a finger. Reuters
House Bill Calls for US to Boycott Beijing Olympics . . . Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.) introduced a measure on Monday that calls on the United States to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics if they are not moved out of Beijing, China, citing the Communist government’s human rights abuses and failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The resolution calls on the U.S. Olympic Committee to propose a new site outside of China for the 2022
games. If that location is rejected, the "United States Olympic Committee and the Olympic Committees of other countries should withdraw from the 2022 Olympic Games," the resolution says. Washington Free Beacon
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Biden to extend mortgage relief, ban on home foreclosures . . . President Joe Biden is extending a ban on home foreclosures for federally backed mortgages by three months and expanding a mortgage relief program in a push to stabilize the nation's housing affordability crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The foreclosure moratorium was set to expire March 31 and instead will be in place through June 30. It's the second time Biden has extended the ban after he used one of his record number of Day One executive actions to push back a previous Jan. 31 end date. USA Today
Robinhood CEO admits communication failure in GameStop saga . . . Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the investing app could have more clearly explained why it had to block trades of GameStop and other stocks during last month’s Reddit-fueled market frenzy. “I think the challenge was that no doubt we could have communicated this a little bit better to customers,” Tenev said on a recent episode of the financed-focused “All-In” podcast. The
admission came ahead of Tenev’s appearance at a Thursday congressional hearing where lawmakers will probe January’s unprecedented surge in GameStop’s share price. New York Post
Cryptocurrency Seeks to Lure Firearms Companies Amid Threat Banks Will Cut Off Gun Industry . . . With the looming threat that the financial industry may shut its doors to the gun industry, a Utah man is hoping that his cryptocurrency geared toward purchasing firearms will take off. Since Democrats took full control of the government last month, a proposed rule that would protect businesses such as the firearms industry has been scuttled,
opening the possibility that companies will see their financial services cut off. Rob McNealy, a Second Amendment supporter, created the Universal Settlement Coin (TUSC), a cryptocurrency that focuses on providing the firearms industry with a tool that would allow gun stores and firearm-related manufacturers to provide goods and services completely outside of the banking industry. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly seen as a viable alternative for purchasing goods. Washington Free Beacon
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Ron DeSantis pushes bill aimed to take power away from Big Tech . . . Florida Gov. DeSantis on Monday said he will support legislation to shift the balance of power back to consumers in the state and away from Big Tech. DeSantis, a Republican, spoke during a press conference in Tallahassee, and announced that he and Florida House leaders will push a bill (HB 969) that gives consumers the right to demand information
about how companies use their data so they can, in part, "retain their privacy." Fox News
Cold snap leaves one dead, over 4 million with no power in Texas . . . At least one person was dead and more than 4 million were without power in Texas after a rare deep freeze forced the state’s electric grid operator to impose rotating blackouts because of higher power demand. The cold snap sweeping Texas reached the northern part of neighboring Mexico as well, where authorities said 4.7 million users lost power early on Monday. Around
midday, service had been restored to almost 2.6 million of them. President Joe Biden declared an emergency on Monday, unlocking federal assistance to Texas, where temperatures ranged from 28 to minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 to minus 22 Celsius). Reuters
Parler returns online following month-long hiatus after Capitol riot . . . Parler came back online Monday, more than a month after Amazon forced the controversial social network into a lengthy hiatus. The Twitter-like platform also named conservative activist Mark Meckler as its interim CEO after its board of directors fired co-founder John Matze, who led the company through most of its unplanned pause. Parler went dark in early
January after Amazon Web Services booted the site from its servers over its failure to police its users’ violent posts in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. New York Post
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Deputies: Man proposes using rings stolen from other lover . . . A Florida man stole an engagement ring and wedding bands from a girlfriend and used them to propose to another girlfriend, according to authorities.
Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies issued an arrest warrant for Joseph Davis, 48, who had not been found as of Friday. Their investigation started earlier this year when a woman from Orange City, Florida, told detectives she had discovered her boyfriend was actually engaged to someone else. When she looked up the fiancée’s Facebook page, she noticed a photo of her wearing a wedding band and engagement ring that was identical to her own from a prior marriage, the sheriff’s office
said in a news release. When the Orange City woman checked her jewelry box, she found her rings were missing, as were several other pieces of jewelry, including a diamond ring that belonged to her grandmother. The Orange City woman reached out to the fiancee, who returned some of the items, and they both called it off with Davis. Associated
Press
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