Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
April 5, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Pentagon on alert as Russia steps up saber rattling in Eastern Europe . . . Russia has upped its saber rattling in Eastern Europe and the Arctic, a move that has put the Biden administration on alert. In the past two weeks, Moscow has moved to test Washington and its allies on land, in the air and at sea with a buildup of military equipment in eastern Ukraine, military flights near Alaskan airspace and submarine activity in the
Arctic. “I think we’ve been very clear about the threats that we see from Russia across domains. ... We're taking them very, very seriously,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday. Russia’s aggressive actions have prompted U.S. European Command to raise its alert status to its highest level, and the activity in Ukraine, in particular, has prompted Biden’s top national security leaders to call their Ukrainian counterparts and other leaders in the region. The Hill
This is not saber rattling and it has been going on for much-much longer than two weeks. Russia's escalatory actions in Ukraine must be viewed as Indications & Warnings (I&W, in intel speak) for an impending conflict in Eurasia, which - if broke out - would likely entangle the United States. To understand Putin's motivations and how he plans to execute Russia's anti-American strategy, consider pre-ordering my upcoming book Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America.
Kremlin says Russian military movements near Ukraine pose no threat . . . The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian military movements near its shared border with Ukraine posed no threat to Ukraine or anyone else and that Moscow moved troops around its country as it saw fit. NATO voiced concern last week over what it said was a big Russian military build-up near eastern Ukraine and as Russia warned that a serious escalation in the conflict
in Ukraine’s Donbass region could “destroy” Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday told reporters on a conference call that Russia was always looking out for its own security. Reuters
Russia views Ukraine as part of its strategic buffer zone. Because of the perceived weakness of current US President, Putin will likely take provocative actions in the region - before the end of Biden's term - to solidify Russia's geopolitical dominance in Eurasia. We will discuss Russia's threat to the United States at this Friday's White House Dossier Happy Hour.
US Grant to Wuhan Lab's Coronavirus Research Was Never Scrutinized By HHS . . . An oversight board created to scrutinize research that would enhance highly dangerous pathogens did not review a National Institutes of Health grant that funded a lab in Wuhan, China, to genetically modify bat-based coronaviruses. Experts say the NIH grant describes scientists conducting gain-of-function research, a risky area of study
that, in this case, made SARS-like viruses even more contagious. Federal funding for gain-of-function research was temporarily suspended in 2014 due to widespread scientific concerns it risked leaking supercharged viruses into the human population. Daily Caller
US puts J&J in charge of plant that botched COVID vaccine, removes AstraZeneca . . . The United States has put Johnson and Johnson in charge of a plant that ruined 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and has stopped British drugmaker AstraZeneca from using the facility, a senior health official said on Saturday. J&J said it was “assuming full responsibility” of the Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore, reiterating
that it will deliver 100 million doses to the government by the end of May. In a separate statement late Sunday, Emergent said it expects to align with the U.S. government and AstraZeneca to ramp down manufacturing for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at its Baltimore plant. Reuters
Why some Republicans think vaccine passports will backfire on Democrats . . . Republicans are seizing on the intensifying debate over coronavirus vaccination passports as part of their strategy for recapturing control of Congress in 2022. GOP strategists acknowledge the growing eagerness among Americans to be vaccinated against COVID-19. But many are also betting that emerging debates about so-called vaccine passports will help
them play on voters’ fears of government overreach and privacy violations. The idea of vaccine passports has gained increasing attention in recent weeks as eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations has rapidly expanded and Americans begin to see glints of a post-pandemic normal on the horizon. The White House has indicated that it will issue basic guidelines for such programs, though it has also said that it has no plans to create a centralized, federal requirement. The Hill
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Biden administration ditches Trump’s ‘deficient’ asylum screening policy . . . Homeland Security has issued new rules requiring every affirmative-asylum decision to undergo a supervisor’s review, in a move the department described as “quality assurance” but which one former staffer said was an attempt to browbeat officers into approving more cases. The memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services revokes a Trump-era policy that had
chiefly limited reviews to decisions by new asylum officers, figuring that those on the job more than six months or who had done at least 150 cases no longer needed hand-holding. Washington Times
Biden faces backlash from US states to his clean energy agenda . . . Republican-led state capitols are considering bills that would punch holes in President Joe Biden’s green revamp of the US electricity system by promoting fossil fuels or piling costs on to renewable energy. The proposed legislation reverses a dynamic that played out over the past four years, when lawmakers in states controlled by Democrats moved to counteract Donald
Trump’s climate rollbacks. One analyst described a “Biden backlash”.
Legislators have sharpened their focus since a winter storm caused blackouts in Texas and Midwestern states in February. Despite a varied set of causes, some have invoked the crisis to propose new constraints on solar and wind power. If enacted, the bills would cloud Biden’s objective of driving down carbon emissions from the electricity sector, one that he intends to bolster with a $2tn federal infrastructure plan announced last week. Financial Times
Gun control advocates applaud Biden funding plan but say more must be done . . . Gun control advocates are pushing President Biden to take more aggressive action on gun violence following three deadly mass shootings in as many weeks.
Democrats and outside groups are praising the $5 billion for community violence prevention programs tucked into the president’s massive infrastructure package, which was unveiled Wednesday and is likely to get the next big legislative push on Capitol Hill. But they say more must be done. The Hill
Trump calls for baseball boycott after MLB All-Star Game pulled from Atlanta . . . Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game from Atlanta over a voting law Georgia passed to try to reduce the chances for fraud. Donald Trump issued a statement Friday asking people to ditch baseball and other “woke” institutions.
“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans, and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections,” he said. “Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!” White House Dossier
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US Allies Threatened By Russian Nukes Under Biden . . . Russia's growing nuclear arsenal and President Biden's inaction on nuclear weapons may put American allies in grave danger, Republicans and defense experts say. Vladimir Putin's surging nuclear stockpile and military buildup leaves NATO allies all the more in need of protection from the U.S. military, according to Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson
Society, a British think tank. Mendoza said Europe needs more than Biden's harsh words for Putin's regime, particularly as Democrats weigh Pentagon cuts and advocate against America's nuclear capabilities. "The world is going to get more rather than less dangerous " Mendoza said. "What actually needs to be felt in Europe is that the U.S. will be there to support its NATO allies on the front lines." Allies in Europe want American nukes to defend against Russia, Republicans and defense
experts say. Washington Free Beacon
Having briefed, as a DIA senior intelligence officer, multiple heads of US Combatant Commands - who would be commanding US forces, in the event of a conflict involving Russia and the US, I concur with the British analyst's conclusions. A Russia-NATO conflict, involving nuclear escalation is no longer a theoretical discussion.
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Russia flexes its ‘sovereign internet’ with move to curb Twitter . . . The recent move by Russia’s internet censor to start slowing Twitter was a sign of Moscow’s resolve to take on Silicon Valley and marked a test of its new infrastructure for a “sovereign internet” less dependent on western tech companies. Exerting greater control over foreign social networks — the biggest outlet for dissent in Russia — has become
more pressing for the Kremlin after supporters of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny used them to organize nationwide protests in January. Moscow has threatened to ban Twitter this month if it does not delete 3,168 posts that it says encourage illegal activities. The warning came after President Vladimir Putin said society would “collapse from the inside” if the internet did not “submit to formal legal rules and the moral laws of society”. Parallel web has been designed to give
Moscow more control and reduce reliance on foreign tech. Financial Times
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Biden's bet on taxes . . . President Biden and the Democrats are making a big bet that the politics of taxation have changed. In their view, the American public — frustrated by the economic impact of COVID-19 and years of stagnation for the middle class — is willing to countenance higher taxes, at least on corporations and the wealthy. The notion that there is a link between higher taxes and you not doing better is simply not the
lived experience of the majority of people in the United States,” said Simon Rosenberg of the centrist New Democrat Network, contending that there is simply no data to support the idea that higher taxes per se slow economic growth. The Hill
NYC budget likely to tax business, top earners by billions . . . New York lawmakers are closing in on a state budget deal that will likely increase taxes on top earners and big businesses by billions of dollars — a move which would make wealthy New Yorkers fork over the highest taxes in the country. Legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the weekend ironed out the final terms of the Empire State’s mammoth $200 billion spending proposal —
including a so-called “millionaire’s tax” — but broke on Sunday for the Easter holiday. They were expected to reconvene in Albany on Monday. Sources said the agreement is expected to include tax hikes and additional revenues totaling roughly $5 billion. New York Post
It is a mystery to me why anyone who has become successful - and not simply economically - because of the capitalism, would support radical liberals' movement towards socialism. It has been demonstrated again and again that capitalism brings freedom and prosperity, while socialism results in poverty and suffering.
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It’s a Misperception That Firearms Aren’t Safe, Gun Shop Owner Says . . . Geneva Solomon is co-owner of Redstone Firearms in Burbank and Ontario, California, where she and her husband not only sell firearms but teach gun safety. Solomon joins the “Problematic Women” podcast to tell how she became passionate about gun ownership and safety. She also discusses her recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and
why universal background checks will not lead to fewer crimes committed with guns. Daily Signal
You will not see Ms. Solomon sharing her views on CNN or MSNBC. As an African American, her views on Second Amendment are anathema to the leftist radicals.
Report: Suspect In Killing Of Capitol Police Officer Was A Nation Of Islam Supporter . . . The 25-year-old man who allegedly killed a Capitol police officer on Friday was a supporter of the Nation of Islam, the extremist group led by Louis Farrakhan. Noah Green was fatally shot after ramming his vehicle through a checkpoint at the Capitol. He hit two officers, killing one, 18-year Capitol police veteran William “Billy” Evans. Green
was shot after exiting his vehicle with a knife and lunging at officers. Green, an Indiana native, was a supporter of the Nation of Islam, according to federal law enforcement officials familiar with the attack. Daily Caller
Oops.
YouTube Deleted 2.5 Million ‘Dislikes’ from Biden White House Videos . . . YouTube has deleted about 2.5 million ‘dislikes’ from videos on the official White House channel of President Joe Biden, according to data collected and posted online by a researcher who wished to remain anonymous. YouTube recently announced that it’s testing a new page design that hides the dislike count. “We have policies and systems in place to ensure that the
engagement on YouTube is authentic, and remove any fraudulent metrics,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email, but when asked, wouldn’t go into details on what criteria it uses to make these calls.The White House videos have seen these kinds of interventions on an ongoing basis, but it appears it’s only the dislikes that are disappearing. Epoch Times
Police Came To Disrupt A Canadian Church Service And The Pastor Was Not Having It . . . Pastor Artur Pawlowski of the Street Church in Alberta, Canada was not having it when police officers interrupted a Passover celebration Saturday night. A video went viral of Pawlowski yelling at the group of police officers who had disrupted the church gathering after the pastor shared the nearly five minute-long video on his Facebook
page. “Please get out, get out of this property, immediately get out,” Pawlowski told the six police officers who were standing inside the entrance to the church. “Get out of this property immediately.” “I don’t want to hear a word,” he told the officers. “Out! Out! Out of this property immediately until you come back with a warrant, out.” Daily Caller
During a Passover service?! Seriously?
Disparate treatment in two fund-raising fraud cases renews debate over dual Justice system . . . Just a few short weeks apart, the U.S. Justice Department settled two major fund-raising cases involving foreign money injected into American elections. In February, a longtime Democratic bundler named Imaad Zuberi, who also donated to Donald Trump’s inauguration, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and millions in fines in a criminal
information that alleged he routed foreign money into U.S elections, sometimes through straw donors. Last week, Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, 75, a large donor to the Clinton Foundation, got a fine, no prison and deferred prosecution for allegedly routing his foreign money to straw donors to help Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and some GOP congressional candidates. An associate also made a secret loan to Obama-era Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who failed
to disclose the assistance.
The cases have remarkable similarities. Both involved foreign straw donations and tax issues. Both were prosecuted by the same office, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. And both men are reported to have provided significant assistance to the U.S. government. The only thing that separates the two men’s cases is the severity of the punishment. Chagoury, two of his associates and LaHood got off easy with deferred or no prosecution deals while Zuberi received one of the stiffest penalties
ever for campaign finance and lobbying violations. Just the News
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Rebekah Koffler
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