News and Headlines: In The news, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
‘Progressive Sounds of the Season’ parody commercial from PragerU’s Will Witt is tickling more than a few funny bones
We at TheBlaze couldn’t be happier to pass along to our readers some holiday musical cheer from our friends at PragerU: “Progressive Sounds of the Season.”
No, it’s not an actual musical compilation in the spirit of K-Tel — but it should be.
Instead, it’s a parody video ad for a fictional album, and in the clip Will Witt describes — and unfortunately sings to — holiday tunes with altered lyrics that are sure to please that special woke activist in your life.
Google confirms it notifies children if parents are monitoring their accounts
Google’s child-notification policies received attention when film director Robby Starbuck claimed on Twitter that his 7-year-old child had received a warning from Google that his account was being monitored.
“Your privacy is important to us,” the company wrote to the 7-year-old boy, “and we want to remind you that your parent … is supervising your Google account.”
The company pointed to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the recently passed UK Age Appropriate Design Code as examples of child-privacy advocacy to which it adheres.
Tulsi Gabbard: ‘Heartless, Arrogant, Unelected CDC Bureaucrats’ Giving Vaccine to Healthy Americans Before Elderly
In a video message posted online on Monday, Gabbard torched CDC officials for distributing the vaccine to healthy “so-called ‘essential workers’” and politicians while elderly Americans and those with underlying health conditions have yet to receive the vaccine.
Members of Congress who are under 65-years-old and healthy, Gabbard said, should not accept the vaccine until elderly Americans and those with health problems have access to the vaccine.
“This is immoral and bad health policy. I planned to take the vaccine but will now stand in solidarity with our seniors by not doing so until they can,” Gabbard said. “I urge my colleagues in Congress who are under the age of 65 and healthy to join me.”
Man dragged Georgia deputy for 30 feet while fleeing traffic stop, police say
Elmer Pence, a 43-year-old from Acworth, is now facing charges including aggravated assault on a police officer and reckless driving, according to the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that Pence was pulled over Saturday afternoon in Canton and “at some point during the traffic stop the deputy requested the driver exit the vehicle and the driver grabbed the deputy’s arm and started driving away.
“The deputy was able to disengage from the driver after approximately 30 feet and was not injured,” the statement continued. “The driver then fled the area.”
Coroner blasts COVID-19 death rates, calls data misleading
A coroner in Colorado is speaking out, claiming states across the country are inflating their numbers of COVID-19 deaths.
One America News spoke with that coroner to learn more.
Newsom sued by restaurant owner over California coronavirus shutdown
In a lawsuit filed Sunday in federal court, the owner of the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks claims that Newsom’s orders have been overbroad and not based on science and that Newsom improperly allowed an unelected State Public Health Officer to determine which businesses can stay open and which must close without legislative input.
“Defendants, in a gross abuse of their power, have seized the Coronavirus pandemic to expand their authority by unprecedented lengths, depriving Plaintiff and all other similarly situated small business owners in California of fundamental rights protected by the U.S. and California Constitutions,” the complaint states.
LA County mom appeals to DA Gascon after special charges dismissed against 3 accused of son’s brutal murder
Investigators have said Julian Andrade was repeatedly beaten and stabbed until he lost consciousness.
The suspects, believing he was dead, drove him to the mountains in Azusa to dispose of the body.
Realizing he was still alive, the suspects stomped on his head.
They threw his body off a cliff, according to investigators, but still heard him struggling.
One suspect allegedly climbed down to attack the 20-year-old again.
The three suspects were charged with special circumstances of deadly weapon, kidnapping and robbery – charges that would have put them away for life without parole, if convicted.
With those charges dismissed in court Friday, they could be eligible for parole in 20 to 30 years.
DA George Gascon took office earlier this month promising to end sentence enhancements.
2nd Amendment | Full Measure
It’s been nearly a year since we explored the second amendment sanctuary movement.
Cities and counties declaring they would fight new gun control laws.
NYC restaurants band together to ban Andrew Cuomo from dining in their establishments
“He can eat at some sh—- roadside diner outside of Albany but he will not be served anywhere in New York City, known universally as the world’s greatest dining destination! If he has to use the restroom he can go pee on my street-corner,” said bar owner Larry Baird.
Members of a Facebook group by the name of “NYC Restaurant Open,” which is comprised of several restaurant and bar owners from the city, have signaled support for the Cuomo ban.
“Completely schizophrenic behavior,” one group member said. “How are they coming up with these rules is beyond any logical reasoning.”
Politics:
New COVID-19 Relief Bill Also Creates 2 New Museums and a Library, References Dalai Lama Controversy
Well, the 5,593 page behemoth has finally been released to the public, as well as to the curious legislators who are supposed to vote on it. Just printing this monstrosity was a nearly fatal task:
The file containing it was so unwieldy that it kept crashing Congress’s computers.
The main thrust of the bill is to provide $600 per person to people below a certain income threshold and to expand the Paycheck Protection Program for various businesses.
But that’s not all—not by a long shot.
For instance, the bill also instructs the Smithsonian Institution to create two new identity-based museums: one for women, and one for Latinos.
In short, this is an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink bill. It contains dozens if not hundreds of policy proposals that ought to be considered on their own merits,
Democratic memo declares ‘rise of white Christian nationalism is a national security threat’
The proposal was formally presented by Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jared Huffman, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, and endorsed by Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney.
“We’ve offered the new administration a roadmap to restore our basic constitutional values and protect science, reason and public health in American government,” Raskin and Huffman said in a joint statement.
The proposal calls for Biden’s team to work with Congress and governors to “advance a secular agenda at all levels of government, taking into account the current makeup of the federal courts and new, unfavorable precedents that your administration will have to contend with.”
In the document, the group argues that Trump has “empowered the religious right in ways no other administration has before, making significant advances in enacting their Christian nationalist agenda.”
RUMBLE VIDEO: Rand Paul Triggers Liberal Meltdown, Speaks About Science of Masks
Commentary/Opinion:
Liberals claim they’re pro-science… not anymore.
AOC Claims ‘National Security Policy’ Why She Got Vaccine Before More Vulnerable People
“I was actually surprised by this too,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a Q&A posted to her Instagram over the weekend, taking questions after sharing a video of herself receiving the vaccine:
“I was expecting we’re going to get it a lot later,” the 31-year-old congresswoman continued. “But– and healthcare workers for the record, health care workers have started to receive it.”
“Not everybody obviously yet has been vaccinated but when it comes to Congress’s access, it’s due to something [called] continuity of governance planning, which is essentially national security planning,” she continued.
Franklin Graham: ‘I Tend to Believe’ Trump’s Claim Election ‘Rigged’
Rev. Franklin Graham detailed in a Facebook post Saturday many of the ways in which the Democrats and media have “maligned” and “falsely accused” President Donald Trump.
“The President has been maligned, falsely accused, and attacked on every front since before the election in 2016,” Graham wrote. “When President Trump says that this election has been rigged or stolen, I tend to believe him.
He has a track record of being right.”
Biden Adviser Praises CDC Panel for Favoring Minorities in Vaccine Rollout Plan
The prioritization of essential workers in the early vaccine phases is partly intended to fast-track vaccine distribution to minority groups, who make up a disproportionate share of essential workers, even though older members of the population are most at risk of dying from the coronavirus.
The CDC panel cited the under-representation of minorities among older adults and the large share of minorities among essential workers in its deliberations over how to achieve the goal of mitigating “health inequities” through targeted vaccine allotment.
The recommendation passed the CDC panel on a 13-to-1 vote. The sole committee member to oppose the phased schedule, Henry Bernstein, said he believed adults aged 65 to 74 should have been included in the immediate next phase.
House intends to reissue subpoena for Trump’s financial records next year
The House has been pursuing Trump’s financial documents form his accounting firm, Mazars USA, since Democrats took power in early 2019 but the effort has been tied up in the courts.
The case landed before the Supreme Court this year, and the justices determined that the lower courts had failed to scrutinize the subpoena closely enough, kicking it back to them for further review.
Now, as the congressional session winds down, the House is signaling that it intends to continue pursuing Trump’s financial documents even as he prepares to leave office.
Newt Gingrich: Communist China’s influence in America is a real threat, Swalwell case puts it in stark relief
Commentary/Opinion:
Now, I want to share a series of stories that illustrate just how real and dangerous the communist professor’s analysis of the Chinese Communist dictatorship’s penetration of America really is.
The most amazing part of the story is not that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is desperately trying to keep him on the House Intelligence Committee.
The most fascinating question is:
Why did Pelosi appoint him after the FBI had warned her he had been in a dangerous relationship with a Chinese spy?
But the Chinese Communist penetration of the United States is focused as much on economic power as on political power.
The size of the Chinese market and the aggressive use of economic rewards and punishment by the totalitarian dictatorship give it enormous influence over selected industries and companies.
Rand Paul EXPLODES On Senate Floor Over $600 COVID Stimulus Checks
The Races in Georgia | Full Measure
The two primary runoffs in Georgia could define whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, or Democrats take over Congress entirely.
The implications are drawing a lot of outside money to the Peach State, in what’s being called the most expensive race of its kind ever. Scott Thuman follows the money.
Trump goes to U.S. Supreme Court, asks justices to reverse Pennsylvania election cases
“Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., President Trump’s campaign committee, today filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the US. Supreme Court to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases which illegally changed Pennsylvania’s mail balloting law immediately before and after the 2020 presidential election in violation of Article II of the United States Constitution and Bush v. Gore,” a campaign statement from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says.
“This represents the Campaign’s first independent U.S. Supreme Court filing and seeks relief based on the same Constitutional arguments successfully raised in Bush v. Gore,” the statement notes.
Hilton: Lack of govt action made people skeptical about the election
Commentary/Opinion:
‘The Next Revolution’ host reacts to allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The Plot to Steal America
2020 has been a year like no other… everything we know, everything we trust, and everything we come to rely on has changed.
World News:
EU-UK trade talks slog on past another Brexit deadline
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, meanwhile, displayed insouciance over whether an agreement is reached or not, saying Britain would “prosper mightily” even if the talks collapsed overnight.
“Not that we don’t want a deal,” Johnson hastened to add during an afternoon news conference.
British and EU negotiators were still deadlocked over fishing rights with only 10 days to go before a chaotic, costly economic break between both sides is to become official.
Barring a late breakthrough, it would impose tariffs on trade between the sides, on top of the customs and other administrative red tape imposed by Britain’s decision to leave the 27-nation bloc.
North Korean fishing boat captain publicly executed for listening to banned foreign radio: report
The U.S.-funded news source reported last week that a man who was identified only by his surname Choi was executed in front of dozens of other captains after admitting to authorities to listening to RFA for more than a decade.
“In mid-October, a captain of a fishing boat from Chongjin was executed by firing squad, on charges of listening to Radio Free Asia regularly over a long period of time,” a North Korean law enforcement official told RFA, according to the news agency.
“They publicly shot him at the base in front of 100 other captains and managers of the facility’s fish processing plants. They also dismissed or discharged party officials, the base’s administration and the security officers who allowed Choi to work at sea.”
Israel set to bar international travel; New nuclear deal with Iran inevitable- TV7 Israel News 21.12
1) Israel is closely monitoring emerging reports related to the newly-exposed variant of the Coronavirus.
2) In light of the reported spread of a new corona-virus variant; Jerusalem is deliberating shutting its borders to international flights hermetically.
3) Germany calls on Iran to stop “tactical maneuvers” which undermine the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Commentary/Opinion:
Dennis Prager: The Left Teaches Young People “Your Past Is Awful and Your Future Is Awful”
Commentary/Opinion:
Dennis Prager, host of The Dennis Prager Show, told attendees of Turning Point USA’s 2020 Student Action Summit Saturday that “the left loathes America” and is teaching younger generations that their own past and future are bleak.
Glenn: THIS is the problem with our society today
Commentary/Opinion:
The messages from two listeners remind us that we are NOT alone in feeling scared, outnumbered, or bullied by the left.
In fact, part of the left’s strategy is to make you feel that way.
But Glenn reflects on 2020, saying that — despite the struggle and the fear for what’s ahead — this year reminded him what’s really worth standing for.
He says one of the biggest problems plaguing our society today is that we’re too quick to complain…but instead, we should not let the left chip away at our belief that tomorrow will be a better day.