Washington DC to expand vaccine eligibility to those ages 16 and older . . . Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced on Monday that all residents of the nation’s capital over the age of 16 will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine beginning later this month. Bowser said all Washingtonians ages 16 and older will be eligible for the vaccine on April 19. Essential workers who fall under the third tier of the city’s Phase 1C category, which includes essential higher education employees, individuals working in construction and essential employees working in information technology, will become eligible on April 12.  All Washington, D.C. residents can pre-register now to schedule appointments for their inoculation. The Hill

 

 

Dems will only need 50 votes to pass Biden $2.2 trillion spending bonanza . . . The Senate parliamentarian ruled Wednesday that the $2.2 trillion Biden “March to Socialism” proposal can be passed by a simple majority of the Senate, without the support of a single Republican. Normally, only one spending bill a year can be passed under “reconciliation” rules, which allow senators to avoid a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break.

But Schumer got to work and found a way to convince the Senate parliamentarian to rule that, on a technicality, they could run a second bill under reconciliation rules. So forget about it, it’s passed. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia will demand a few changes so he can tell his conservative voters that he did something. But in the end, he is not going to get in front of this train. So they’ll get 50 Democratic votes and Vice President Harris will happily cast the tiebreaker. White House Dossier

Biden objects to baseball in Georgia but not the Olympics in China . . . Joe Biden assertively backed taking the All-Star Game out of Georgia because he disagreed with a voting bill there that continues to allow Georgia citizen to vote on Election Day, well before Election Day, and by mail with incredible ease. And yet he thinks it is a “Jim Crow” law. Which is a terrible insult to those who suffered under actual Jim Crow. The 2022 winter Olympics will be held in Beijing. The People’s Republic of China has NO voting, oppresses and tortures its citizens, and is committing genocide against a minority group there, the Muslim Uighurs. How can he possibly support having the Olympic in Beijing if he is going to take a baseball game out of Atlanta? The Wall Street Journal notes: “Mr. Biden objects to Georgia’s new voting law as an “atrocity,” though it offers more avenues to vote than New York and Delaware, among other states. The President is so offended that he asked a sports league to boycott an American state, doing economic harm to the Atlanta area, and essentially smearing the state Legislature as bigots. White House Dossier

Russia threatens US interests in Arctic . . . As ice thaws in the Arctic, Russia is building up a military presence unseen since the end of the Cold War, as confirmed by the Pentagon on Monday.

Russia's military buildup along its Arctic coastline is threatening a key strategic route that could be used by the United States to protect the homeland. In recent years, Russia has built 475 new military sites, including bases north of the Arctic Circle and 16 deep-water ports. The use of new and old military bases, an expanded fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers and submarines, and the presence of bombers and jets put Russian offensive platforms within striking distance of the U.S. The Pentagon would not confirm what weapons were being tested by Russia in the Arctic. “We're watching this,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. “We're committed to protecting our U.S. national security interests in the Arctic.” Washington Examiner

Satellite images show large Russian military build up in Arctic: report . . . Russia is building upon military bases, hardware and underground storage facilities on its Arctic coastline, with bombers, MiG31BM jets and new radar systems close to the Alaskan coast, according to satellite images provided to CNN by space technology company Maxar. Included in the buildup is the Poseidon 2M39 unmanned stealth torpedo, a so-called super-weapon powered by a nuclear reactor.  Moscow intends for the torpedo to be able to elude U.S. and NATO coastal defenses and is “part of the new type of nuclear deterrent weapons,” the head of Norwegian intelligence, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, told CNN. The Hill

 

 

 

President Invites Netanyahu to Form Next Israeli government . . . A skeptical president tasked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday with forming a new government, after another inconclusive election deepened political stalemate in Israel. The country’s longest-serving leader, in power consecutively since 2009, now faces the tough challenge of enlisting enough allies for a governing coalition. Under law, Netanyahu will have 28 days to do so, with the possibility of a two-week extension before President Reuven Rivlin picks another candidate or asks parliament to choose one. Continued deadlock could ultimately result in a new election. Reuters

 

Secretary of Treasury Yellen wants a GLOBAL corporate tax . . . Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made the case for a global minimum tax that would prevent U.S. companies from moving overseas to avoid higher taxes at home. Ms. Yellen on Monday called for global coordination on an international tax rate that would apply to multinational corporations regardless of where their headquarters are located. She said such a global tax could halt the “thirty-year race to the bottom” in which countries have competed against each other by lowering their corporate tax rates, as the U.S. did under President Trump. White House Dossier

 

Globalism at its finest. Now we’ll need permission from someone in Belgium to change our corporate taxes. Prepare under the Biden-Harris Administration to  forfeit plenty of our sovereignty that Donald Trump had just fought so hard to get back.
 

Challenging the woke narrative about attacks on Asian-Americans . . . In the dominant Main Street woke narrative, the growing attacks on Asian-Americans are all about Trump, Covid-19 and white supremacy.  The way the two recent prominent cases of Brandon Elliot and Robert Aaron Long are being reported in the press obfuscates the complexity of the anti-Asian prejudice and violence and a larger issue of black-on-Asian crime, which the woke narrative’s champions are desperate to suppress or ignore. The Justice Department’s 2019 Criminal Victimization report notes that “of those committing violence against Asians, you discover that 24 percent such attacks are committed by whites; 24 percent are committed by fellow Asians, 7 percent by Hispanics; and 27.5 percent by African-Americans.” Assaults on Asian-Americans cannot easily be squeezed into a progressive narrative of white supremacy. Asian Americans don’t need narratives. They need the people who commit these terrible crimes to be properly identified, condemned, and prosecuted —no matter what race they are. Wall Street Journal

 

Calling on Biden to take concrete action against the real racism and violence towards Asian Americans . . . A national coalition of Asian-American advocacy groups is challenging the prevailing narratives of anti-Asian hate and calling on the Biden administration to take concrete action. They have asked President Biden to do the following: 1) denounce racial preferences against Asian Americans in higher education; 2) identify, condemn, and prosecute attackers of Asian Americans, regardless of race; and 3) help strengthen police protection of Asian-American communities, especially in urban areas. The new coalition will hold a virtual press conference today, April 6, at 2:00 p.m. EDT to discuss their recommendations. For more information and to join the press conference, visit Washington Asians for Equality. 

 

 

Andy Ngo, prominent expert on Antifa reveals why he had to leave the United States . . . Journalist Andy Ngo, who for years has been documenting the anarcho-communist group Antifa left the country amid threats of violence against not only him but his family members. “It was just not safe anymore for me,” he said, adding that there was an “escalation of safety concerns.” Ngo said that when he was covering the far-left group after the 2016 election, “the response to that Democratic outcome was for people to take to the streets in masses to reject that outcome, and in Portland, many people chose to manifest their frustration through violence and destruction. FBI Director Chris Wray told a panel in 2020 that Antifa is more of an ideological movement than an organization. Ngo said that Antifa “ is also a movement.” It has groups that are organized into formal groups, that includes Rose City Antifa, “the oldest Antifa organization in the U.S.,” which is based in Portland, Oregon, the epicenter of the movement’s violent activity. Epoch Times

 

 

Was officer’s knee on Floyd’s neck authorized? . . . A critical factor for jurors to consider at a former Minneapolis police officer’s trial in George Floyd’s death is whether he violated the department’s policy on neck restraints when he knelt on Floyd’s neck. The Minneapolis Police Department banned all forms of neck restraints and chokeholds weeks after Floyd’s death, but at the time of his May 25 arrest by Derek Chauvin and other officers, certain neck restraints were permitted — provided certain guidelines and conditions were followed. Take a look at the policy, which was a focus of testimony Monday, and how it could factor into a verdict for Chauvin, who is charged with murder and manslaughter. Associated Press

 

Texas Teacher Instructed Students To Watch Video Of George Floyd’s Death And Keep It Secret . . .  Parents of students at a Texas public high school were outraged after discovering a teacher reportedly instructed students to watch a video of George Floyd’s death and the Derek Chauvin trial, numerous sources reported.  Parents with children enrolled in Cedar Hill High School wrote a letter to the teacher who created the unapproved class assignment, which instructed students not to discuss what they watched of the trial with family for six weeks, WFAA reported Friday. “It is unfathomable to me that you felt it appropriate to force my child to watch George Floyd’s murder on television in your classroom, and then move on with his day as if nothing had happened,” the letter stated, according to WFAA. Daily Caller