THE SHOW NOTES: Ignoring The National Debt, ISIS Claims Responsibility, & That's Just Gay
Welcome! A felon lept over the bench to attack a Nevada judge during his sentencing yesterday.
BREAKING: Active shooter at a high school in Iowa.
NEW: Record half million people crossed the treacherous Darién Gap in 2023 - The Guardian
REVOLT: Biden campaign staff issue anonymous letter protesting approach to Israel-Hamas war - Politico
MUST READ: How Major University Discriminated Against White And Asian Candidates - Newsweek
HEADLINE: How Texas A&M’s Deal with Qatar ‘Puts American Security at Risk’ - The Free Press
IGNORED: The US national debt hit a record $34 trillion - CNN
LISTEN: I am turning on the microphone to talk about all of this and more. Listen live here.
That’s Just Gay
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay warned readers in The New York Times (paywall) that the orchestrated campaign to oust her was really about declaring war on trusted institutions. Here’s the quote that matters.
As I depart, I must offer a few words of warning. The campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns don’t end there. Trusted institutions of all types — from public health agencies to news organizations — will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility. For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal.
This guest piece from Gay was so bad that the Times’ opinion editor dismissed it as self-serving and recommended 4 other essays instead. Yikes.
Related: Harvard's Plagiarizing President Resigns. Media Say Racism Made Her Do It. - Washington Free Beacon
Problems For Iran?
The death toll from the largest terrorist attack in Iran since 1979 continues to rise with ISIS just now claiming responsibility. More than 100 people are dead and hundreds more are injured after a pair of bombs were remotely detonated at a public event honoring the four-year anniversary of General Qassem Soleimani’s death at the hands of a US air rade.
Iraq: A US drone strike earlier today killed the leader of an Iran-aligned militia group operating in neighboring Iraq who was directly responsible for killing Americans. Iranian-backed militias have conducted 115 attacks on U.S. and allied forces in the region since the October 7th attacks.
Houthis: Weeks after the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen essentially shut down international shipping in the Red Sea, the US and 12 allies have issued a final warning for the Houthis to cease attacks on shipping vessels or face military consequences.
Bomb Threats
Multiple state capitols were forced to be evacuated on Wednesday due to anonymous bomb threats. Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Michigan, and Mississippi were forced to shut down temporarily when state employees received explicit bomb threats via email. After extensive searches were conducted at each capitol, no bombs were found.
Context: The news follows a recent uptick of attempted swatting instances targeting elected officials. Sen. Rick Scott, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Georgia Secretary of State Office’s COO Gabriel Sterling have all been swatted since Christmas.
Related: Florida man arrested and accused of threatening to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell and his kids - NBC
New Jersey Wants No Part Of New York’s Migrant Mess
New Jersey officials are making sure the Big Apple doesn’t dump the out-of-control migrant mess on the Garden State — and are even deploying cops to usher asylum seekers from the US border onto Manhattan-bound NJ Transit trains as soon as they get off their buses.
The scrap across the Hudson comes as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tries to rally the state’s mayors to form a unified front, while New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleads with Murphy to take on at least part of the migrant burden that is burying the five boroughs.
“New Jersey just said, ‘F–k this,'” one source close to the situation told The Post on Wednesday. “New Jersey Transit cops were waiting for them in Secaucus to show them how to get on the train to New York.”
Full story at The New York Post.
Left-wing climate group is quietly preparing judges for global warming cases
A little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits is quietly training judges nationwide on preparing for cases related to climate change, according to a Fox News Digital review.
The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute (ELI) created the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) in 2018, establishing a first-of-its-kind resource to provide "reliable, up-to-date information" about climate change litigation, according to the group. The project's reach has extended to various state and federal courts, including powerful appellate courts, and comes as various cities and states pursue high-profile litigation against the oil industry.
Full story at Fox News.
Fed officials said rates could remain high ‘for some time’
Most Federal Reserve officials wanted to keep borrowing costs high “for some time”, according to minutes of their meeting in December, adding to doubts that the US central bank is poised to begin cutting interest rates as early as March.
While officials expressed optimism that the Fed was quelling inflation, they were also careful not to commit to any immediate loosening of monetary policy, according to a record of the meeting published on Wednesday.
Full story at the Financial Times (paywall).
Trending news:
Freed Israeli hostage says she endured ‘psychological warfare’ during 50 days of Hamas captivity - CNN
Record half million people crossed the treacherous Darién Gap in 2023 - The Guardian
Private payrolls added 164,000 in December, beating expectations, ADP says - CNBC
New Jersey deploys cops to send dumped migrants to NYC in desperate move - NY Post
Trump asks US supreme court to review Colorado ruling removing him from 2024 ballot - The Guardian
Democrats! Time to Re-Embrace Merit, Free Speech, and Universalism - The Free Press
Vatican defends Pope Francis allowing blessings for same-sex couples - Axios
Here’s what’s happening in Gaza right now - Understanding War
The ‘CEO’ of Hamas Who Found the Money to Attack Israel - WSJ (paywall)
Market snapshot:
Claudie Gay: Who wrote her OP-ED piece in the New York Times? There are two women highly qualified to replace Gay. Dr. Carol Swain, who actually wrote works that Claudine Gay plagiarized and Condoleezza Rice.
"Trusted institutions of all types — from public health agencies to news organizations — will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility. "
Sorry, no.
The loss of their legitimacy and credibility is self-inflicted. From health agencies repeatedly changing their guidance on Covid, vaccines, masks and more to 'news' outlets abandoning all pretense of objectivity and impartiality in their coverage, they've done it to themselves. They're just upset people are saying the emporee has no clothes.