Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
March 30, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Malicious software attacks ‘spiraling out of control’: report . . . Research revealed that hacks using a new and aggressive form of ransomware increased 200 per cent last year. The study by the Royal United Services Institute think-tank and cyber specialists at BAE Systems warned that ransomware use is “spiraling out of control”, with Britain suffering the second-highest number of “double extortion” attacks after the US. All
types of ransomware hack — in which cyber criminals encrypt data systems and demand a fee to unfreeze them — have boomed during the coronavirus pandemic, as remote working has eroded cyber defenses. The report focused on the increasing problem of double extortion attacks, where hackers not only block access to an organization’s systems but also threaten to release intellectual property or other sensitive information unless a ransom is paid. Financial Times
America's digital defender is underfunded, outmatched and ‘exhausted’ . . . The agency that protects the U.S. from hackers is hobbled by funding woes, a talent shortage and growing pains that are jeopardizing its ability to counter sophisticated threats. As the Biden administration hustles to contain the fallout from two massive cyberattacks that hit in the span of four months, the fledgling agency created to fend off such assaults is so
overwhelmed by the deluge that many insiders doubt its ability to counter another major breach. Staffers are worn out, money is tight and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is struggling to keep up with multiple competing crises, including the recently uncovered intrusions blamed on Russia and China, according to interviews with 15 people familiar with CISA’s work. Among them are four current employees and five former agency officials. CISA — with roughly 2,000 employees —
is so consumed with recovering from the existing breaches that it’s too stretched to prepare for the next attack, potentially making future breaches more widespread or more damaging to U.S. economic and national security. Politico
As Covid-19 Vaccinations Ramp Up, Hesitancy Wanes . . . The findings come from the latest release of a large-scale survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and developed in concert with the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics. The most recent survey gauged responses from nearly 80,000 adults between March 3 and March 15. The survey found about 17% of adults said they would either definitely or probably not get vaccinated,
down from 22% in January. The decline was almost entirely due to fewer respondents saying they probably won’t get the shot; the share saying they definitely won’t has remained essentially unchanged in the past two months. Survey shows decline in reluctance, driven by increasing willingness in Southern states and more broadly among Black Americans. Wall Street Journal
WHO Buries Dismissal Of Lab Leak Theory In Last Pages Of 123-Page Origins Report . . . The World Health Organization dedicated a little over one page to dismissing the lab leak theory at the very end of its 123-page COVID-19 origins report, according to the draft copy. While the draft report did acknowledge that lab accidents do happen, it stated that the lab leak hypothesis is “extremely unlikely” because the three laboratories in Wuhan
that were working with coronaviruses prior to the pandemic “all had high quality biosafety level (BSL3 or 4) facilities that were well-managed” and had in place a staff monitoring program that showed “no reporting of COVID-19 compatible respiratory illnesses during the weeks/months prior to December 2019.” Both statements conflict with previous claims by the U.S. government. Daily Caller
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Trump’s heir? Pence reemerges, lays groundwork for 2024 run . . . Former vice president Mike Pence is steadily reentering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024. He’s joining conservative organizations, writing op-eds, delivering speeches and launching an advocacy group that will focus on promoting the Trump administration’s accomplishments. But Trump’s neglect in mentioning Pence during a podcast interview earlier
this month signals the former vice president’s unique challenge. For someone who built a reputation as one of Trump’s most steadfast supporters, Pence is now viewed with suspicion among many Republicans for observing his constitutional duty in January to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration, a decision that still has Trump fuming. Associated Press
Trump launches 'the official website of the 45th President' . . . Former President Trump and former first lady Melania Trump have launched a website meant to allow supporters to request their participation in events, submit letters and ask for personalized
greetings. A brief statement from the former president's office Monday evening announced the launch of "the official website of the 45th President of the United States." The website 45office.com includes a message that reads "Through this office, President Trump will
remain a tireless champion for the hardworking men and women of our great country — and for their right to live in safety, dignity, prosperity, and peace." The Hill
Trump asks 'Where's Durham?' as investigation nears third year . . . Former President Trump late Friday questioned the whereabouts of special counsel John Durham as his investigation into the Justice Department’s Russian collusion probe is about to enter its third year. “Where’s Durham? Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?” Mr. Trump said in a statement. Mr. Durham was appointed in April 2019 by
then-Attorney General William P. Barr to investigate the origins of the Russia probe that overshadowed much of the Trump presidency. Mr. Durham’s investigation has only resulted in one prosecution. A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation earlier this year for doctoring evidence to justify continued
surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide in 2016. Mr. Durham’s failure to produce a report before the November election left Mr. Trump and his allies extremely frustrated with the progress of his pace. Washington Times
President Biden releases first wave of judicial nominees . . . After four years of Trump and Republicans shaping the courts, Democrats now get their turn. Biden announced his first slate of judicial nominees Tuesday, tapping a diverse pool of 11 candidates for the federal bench. Perhaps the most high-profile name on the White House’s list was Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — a
potential Supreme Court pick — who Biden nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Biden’s three picks for the circuit court vacancies are African American women. Among his other nominees are “candidates who, if confirmed, would be the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history, the first AAPI woman to ever serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of D.C., and the first woman of color to ever serve as a federal judge for the District of
Maryland,” the White House said. Politico
Smugglers see migrants as 'merchandise' and dollar signs . . . In February, changes in U.S. border policy and the search for a better life incentivized more than 100,000 migrants to travel to the United States and cross the southern border. Children are now forced to stay in “jail-like” Border Patrol facilities past the 72-hour legal limit because more appropriate shelters are already at 94% capacity. A critical part of this humanitarian
catastrophe is that many migrants are vulnerable to human trafficking, including children and adolescents. For smugglers, migrants are seen as merchandise. According to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, “Moving human beings as cargo pays in the billions of dollars for transnational criminal smuggling organizations.” In February, smugglers received $411.5 million – an average of $14.7 million per day – for transporting migrants from Central America and Mexico to the United
States. Washington Times
‘Domino impact’: Border agents pulled off patrol sparks spike in ‘gotaways’ . . . Most of the attention at the border is on the capture of children and families, but an even bigger problem could be the people who are getting away right now. As agents are pulled off their regular patrol duties to take care of children and families, as many as 800 to 1,000 people a day are likely sneaking by the Border Patrol and winding their way deeper
into the U.S., according to one former official. They are not getting COVID-19 testing, and they often have troubling criminal cases. Drugs are also coming through the same holes in the border’s defenses, said Mark Morgan, who was acting commissioner at Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration and served as chief of the Border Patrol in the Obama years. Washington Times
Hunter Biden blockbuster: Memos detail effort to assist indicted Ukrainian oligarch . . . At time, his father's administration considered Dmitri Firtash a fugitive felon. Hunter Biden and his business partner engaged in an effort to assist a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch indicted by his father's administration, an effort that briefly captured the FBI's attention and led one of the lawyers in the case to express concern that using the
then-vice president's son might backfire, according to emails, text messages and interviews. Firtash, one of Ukraine's wealthiest businessmen, already had been indicted by the Obama-Biden administration more than a year earlier on corruption charges in Chicago, allegations that Firtash has long denied. Just the News
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Trump Afghan pullout deal unachievable, says ex-Pentagon leader . . . The May 1st deadline to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan is “not a deadline that could have ever been achieved,” former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday. But Hagel, a retired sergeant and former Republican senator for Nebraska, also said it’s high time for U.S. forces to vacate America’s longest war.
Roughly 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan with the war in its 20th year, but President Biden is facing a May 1 deadline to withdraw them all under a deal brokered between the Trump administration and the Taliban last year. The U.S. pullout hinges on the Taliban fulfilling commitments including breaking from al Qaeda and reducing violence in Afghanistan — benchmarks the U.S. military has said the insurgents have yet to meet. The Hill
DOD Hires a ‘Diversity And Inclusion’ Officer Who Compared Trump To Hitler . . . The official hired this month to oversee US Special Operations Command’s office of diversity and inclusion compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler in a photo posted to Facebook last year. USSOCOM, which directs counterterrorism and unconventional warfare operations for the military, announced Thursday that Richard Torres-Estrada took over on
March 1 as chief of the Diversity & Inclusion unit. The Pentagon recently formed the unit as part of its push for more diversity in its ranks and chain of command. Daily Caller
Palestinian Terrorists Issue Death Threat on US Reformer as Biden Seeks Closer Ties . . . After more than a week of silence in the face of questions, the State Department said it is concerned about the safety of a prominent pro-democracy Palestinian-American who recently received death threats from a terror organization affiliated with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Fadi Elsalameen, a human-rights and anti-corruption activist who is seen as a leading challenger to Abbas's presidency, is facing death threats over his efforts to reform the Palestinian government and orient it more toward the West. The fledgling government is gearing up for elections next month. The death threats were formally issued earlier this month by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed terrorist group loyal to Abbas's Fatah political party. Elsalameen, in a March 20 Twitter
message disclosing the threat, said he has no security detail and called on the Biden administration to strongly denounce the threats emanating from the Martyrs Brigades. Washington Free Beacon
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Canada Urges Halt of AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine in People Under 55 . . . Canadian authorities recommended Monday a halt on administering the AstraZeneca PLC Covid-19 vaccine on people under the age of 55 in light of evidence from Europe on potentially serious side effects targeting younger women. Canadian officials said the change in guidance on AstraZeneca stems from the emergence of additional reports of blood
clotting in people who received the vaccine in Europe. A recent preprint research looked at nine patients whose ages ranged from 22 to 49 and who had developed thrombosis, which occurs when a blood clot forms inside a blood vessel, beginning four to 16 days after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine. Eight of the patients were female. Four of the nine patients died. Wall Street Journal
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Biden revenue plan includes 'marriage penalty' . . . President Biden’s plan to raise revenue by increasing taxes on higher-income individuals and households appears to have a catch – it may penalize married couples. The president has been clear all along that families earning up to $400,000 would not be the target of the tax hike, but it was unclear whether there would be a lower income threshold for individual filers.
Experts say Biden's plan may be putting some couples at a ‘significant disadvantage' as some earners would find themselves in a higher bracket if they get married. White House Dossier
It’s very simple. If you and your girlfriend or boyfriend are making 200,000 per year, under the Biden plan, you don’t get hit with the extra tax. Get married, and then you’re at the $400K threshold and you start to get taxed.
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Sheet music complicit in ‘white supremacy,’ . . . Staff members within the University of Oxford’s music department have reportedly suggested removing sheet music from the school’s curriculum because of its supposed connections to a "colonial past." The professors further suggested that certain classical music skills – like playing the piano and conducting orchestral arrangements – ought not to be required
given that they "structurally center white European music" and cause "students of color great distress." The same faculty also reportedly questioned whether the current curriculum was complicit in "white supremacy," pointing to the program’s focus on "white European music from the slave period" – composers like Mozart and Beethoven. Fox News
Is that where common sense folks say 'enough with the lunacy?' Clearly, the racist leftist movement simply seeks to destroy the Judeo-Christian civilization under the guise of inclusion. We all must start speaking up. We can't just leave it to Tucker Carlson to fight the fight.
GoFundMe Yanks Page Run by Virginia Parents Fighting Woke Curriculum . . . GoFundMe bowed to pressure from progressive activists and deactivated a fundraiser affiliated with a group of Virginia parents fighting the infusion of critical race theory in Loudoun County Public Schools. Scott Mineo created his GoFundMe in mid-March after a members of a private Facebook group called Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County launched an
intimidation campaign against a number of parent groups, including his Parents Against Critical Theory. The group compiled a list of parents, identified their spouses and employers, and called for members to find ways to shut down their websites, the Daily Wire reported. GoFundMe is the latest tech company to censor users whose speech does not conform with progressive orthodoxy. Washington Free Beacon
Loudoun County is here, in our backyard, just miles from DC, the heart of the Swampland. Not only the progressive mob is forcing their pernicious ideology on our kids, they are denying the parents' our ability to fight against this lunacy. Classic totalitarian playbook.
Yale fires psychiatry professor who declared Trump and his supporters insane . . . Some sanity in the Ivy League? White House Dossier
Homeschooling numbers soar amid continued school closings . . . Parents in the U.S. are continuing to show elevated interest in homeschooling, signaling a potential surge as the future of institutional in-person schooling throughout the country remains unclear in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Beginning just over a year ago, schools throughout the country began to close down. Most school districts switched to "virtual"
learning models in which students studied lessons via Zoom-based instruction, with many of them required to sit in front of computer screens for long hours every day. Interest in homeschooling shot up late last year, particularly as teachers nationwide were refusing to return to classrooms and in-person education in the winter and spring of 2021 appeared less likely. Some schools across the country have since opened up for in-person instruction, yet homeschooling leaders across the country
are reporting still-elevated homeschool activity from parents who in normal years would likely not have considered it. Just the News
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Business At The Capitol Grinds To A Halt After Biden Falls, Blocks Hallway . . . Disaster has struck Congress, as President Joe Biden has fallen sideways in the main Capitol hallway and become stuck, blocking all Congressional business. Congressional staffers heard Biden gibbering incoherently, so he seems fine other than the fact that he’s stuck. “Has he tried standing up?” Representative Jerry Nadler suggested. “Yes, he’s tried!”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi answered. “We have to destroy the walls and then he’ll have room to become unstuck,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated. She then pulled out the hammer and sickle she always carries and started to attack the hallway walls. “Destroy all the walls!” “We have to face facts,” declared Vice-President Kamala Harris grimly. “The only way we’re going to free up the hallway is to blow up Biden with dynamite.” This is satire. Babylon Bee
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Rebekah Koffler
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