Quick News Daily Podcast: Recent Episodes
Quick News Daily
A fresh sounding news podcast that saves you time. Ditch the formal, “both sides” coverage for facts and analysis from an outlet outside of the D.C. mainstream.
Enjoy, and thank you.
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Catch Bo Burnham's amazing comedy special "Bo Burnham: Inside" on Netflix right now. All music belongs to Bo Burnham and Netflix.
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Quick News Daily switches things up again, this time with a recommendation for something to stream: Chernobyl. While this episode first aired last year, the commentary is sadly still extremely relevant. Regardless, this is an incredible miniseries, so whether you've seen it already or need a reason to start it, tune into this discussion.
You can find Chernobyl streaming on HBO Max.
Listen to Part 2 of our Chernobyl review here, and Part 3 here.
Any audio samples are licensed under Fair Use for the purposes of a review.
On this throwback episode episode of Quick News Reviews that first aired on New Year's Eve 2020, I take a look back at 2016's "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice", specifically the Ultimate Edition. In Part 1, I talk about the background of this movie and the original Justice League movie (2:04), the score (5:13), the main story (6:24), and the characters of Bruce Wayne/Batman (10:50), Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (16:13), and Lois Lane (18:00).
Stay tuned for Part 2!
All clips and audio from the movie that were used during this show are the property of Warner Bros. They are used for the purpose of a critical review and discussion.
Zack Snyder's commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpQdKbt8iw&t=7759s
On this week's Quick News Daily Podcast, we catch up on all the biggest news stories, rapid-fire style. First, we start with what we do and don't know about what the Delta variant means for vaccinated people, as well as an update on Johnson & Johnson vaccine boosters. Then, we go over a T-Mobile hacking, new dinosaur discoveries, a new method to making French fries, and (technically) self-driving cars.
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Today at Quick News Daily, we don't have a new show for you. Instead, we go back to an April episode of Quick News To Go, our original weekly recap show. Get nostalgic by reminding yourself what it was like when we thought the pandemic was ending the first time.
Then, transition perfectly into current times with the ending song, "Facetime with My Mom" by Bo Burnham. Catch his amazing comedy special "Inside" on Netflix right now. All music belongs to Bo Burnham and Netflix.
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On this week's Quick News Daily Podcast, we have a lot of important news stories to get to. We start by catching up on the latest COVID news, explaining how viruses replicate, and our body's two types of immunity to them. Next, we cover the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the discovery of new dinosaurs, and updates to Facebook Messenger's privacy.
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DB Code: https://bit.ly/37cP8YP
On this episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we're still talking a lot about the Delta variant of COVID-19. We'll also be giving you information on the booster shot situation, other emerging (?) variants, and protests about showing proof of vaccination. We'll also briefly touch on climate change, as well as possibly applying to be a Martian astronaut!
**Read the latest on COVID booster shots here.
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That's The Way It Is by Daniel Lanois (owned by Daniel Lanois and any associated persons or organizations)
Big Swing Band by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Today on the Quick News Daily Podcast, as the world deals with the Delta Variant of the coronavirus, we'll get you the latest facts to help you become safer. We’ll also be touching on the evictions that could come from this COVID resurgence, troubles at the International Space Station, an update on Myanmar, and another underreported military situation. Finally, we close with testimony from police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6th who know first-hand that the people who showed up that day were not peaceful protesters or tourists.
**At the time of recording, the new eviction moratorium was not yet in place. Read the latest news on that here. ----more----
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On a brand-new edition of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we're back to covering the latest developments of the coronavirus. In addition, we'll revisit a prior episode where I give you some of my top free, easy-to-use websites that'll make your life easier! Those websites are:
- https://www.ilovepdf.com/
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/
- https://www.wordhippo.com/
- https://smile.amazon.com/
- https://temp-mail.org/en/view/
- https://10minutemail.com/
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Use the code "OMIO5" at https://omio.sjv.io/c/2544961/1078765/7385
We’re back with a new episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast! This week, we cover topics like tensions between the U.S. and China, European flooding, a study linking alcohol and cancer even more closely, top economists’ bet for the next Chair of the Fed, uncertainty for DREAMers (again), and even more!
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On this episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we try to cover more news and spend more time together. Stories that we discuss include COVID misinformation (aka lies), Japan banning fans from the Olympics, Pfizer teasing a COVID booster shot, the economy and why workers aren't "lazy", and new symptoms based on how much you've been vaccinated.
Listen to the Last Podcast on the Left episode discussing how we're facing the same issues now that people faced after the Black Death: The Black Death Part V
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Welcome to a special edition of the Quick News Daily Podcast! On our first episode on Life Improvement Radio, we have a lot of news to cover.
First, we discuss the largest ransomware attack ever, then two types of recalls (for the California Governor and Tyson Foods), followed by the return of the cruise industry and updates on COVID.
Full List of Recalled Tyson Products
Pictures of the Labels for the Recalled Products
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Today, we have some exciting news about a partnership between Quick News Daily and the Helium Radio Network!
Check out Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast app or this Saturday on HeliumRadio.com from 11-11:30am eastern time!
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On today's Quick News Daily, we cover all things COVID. From vaccines to variants to possible health concerns, we have all the latest information. Plus, we cover the reported bipartisan infrastructure deal, as well as a great website for daily details about the Biden Administration.
NOTE: Details of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework were not known at the time of this recording, but more information can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-support-for-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-framework/
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Today’s topics covered by Quick News Daily include the United States buying and donating 500 million more COVID vaccines, travel certificates in the EU, and the Biden Administration doing its own national security review of TikTok.
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Get caught up on the biggest news with the Quick News Daily Podcast! Today, we cover the first Alzheimer's drug to be approved by the FDA in nearly 20 years, President Biden and Vice President Harris' schedules for their first foreign trips in office, and what the U.S. plans to do with our extra COVID vaccines.
Listen to Quick News on your favorite podcast app: http://bit.ly/QuickNewsEpisodes
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Today, the Quick News Daily Podcast is back to its original format (almost). We cover some of the biggest stories from the recent days, including Dr. Fauci's emails, the Trump Administration seizing the phone and email records of journalists, and the dubious story about COVID's origins in a Chinese lab.
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Quick News Daily is back with more websites you can use every day to make your life easier! The websites featured in this episode are:
- StandardNotes.org
- LastPass.com
- JoinHoney.com
- FileHippo.com
- UnitConverters.net
If you haven't heard it, check out The Best Websites You Haven't Heard About (Part I) right
On this episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast, I shake up the format of the show and bring you a different type of news.
Today, I talk about six websites that you can use in your everyday life to be more productive, more creative, safer online, and give back!
They're free to use and don't require you to download anything! These websites are:
- https://www.ilovepdf.com/
- https://www.virustotal.com/gui/
- https://www.wordhippo.com/
- https://smile.amazon.com/
- https://temp-mail.org/en/view/
- https://10minutemail.com/
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We’re not quite ready to return to regular programming, so in case you missed it, here’s the biggest episode we’ve done so far! There's just one problem: since it was my first time with a guest, I had some audio issues on my end (meaning I forgot to plug in my microphone...), so my apologies for that. Luckily, J-L's audio is just fine, and he's the real star of the episode.
Of course, a very special thank you to J-L for giving my show a chance. Help me thank him by checking J-L at JLCauvin.com, his YouTube channel, and his Twitter account.
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It's been a while since there was a new episode, so I wanted to give an update on where I'm at.
EDIT: as it turns out, switching the websites was not as easy as it seemed, which caused some issues with how the episodes are released. As a result, we're back to the original website so that you can still find the episodes on all the platforms.
Pulled from C-SPAN, here are some of the highlights from President Biden's speech before Congress last Wednesday. Listen to the highlights in just under 17 minutes instead of sitting through an entire hour-long speech with applause breaks!
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The end song is "Select" by Patrick Patrikios
Find other outro songs on Quick News Daily's Spotify playlist of all the ending songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3TnuLarfmPZg19jVVN396x?si=4347c9d453d547bd
Ahead of President Joe Biden's first address to the "full" Congress (limited to 200 due to COVID), several new policies are rolling out or being proposed. We discuss his executive order on minimum wage for federal contractors, increased funding for the IRS (find out why that's a good thing), and more! Plus, the latest mask guidance from the CDC and how the Census results will impact future elections.
Biden's address to Congress is scheduled for Wednesday at 8pm CT, but they're always fashionably late (on purpose).
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Quick News Daily's Spotify playlist of all the ending songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3TnuLarfmPZg19jVVN396x?si=4347c9d453d547bd
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So sorry about the weird schedules lately, but thank you for your patience!
READ NOW: Five Takeaways after Derek Chauvin's Conviction
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We have a lot to cover on this Friday edition of Quick News Daily. We cover everything from the latest on the Duane Wright case, sanctions, withdrawing from Afghanistan, and trying to figure out what South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is thinking.
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To hear today's end song, "Superman Rising Pt. 2 / Immovable" by JunkieXL (who, along with WarnerMedia, owns the rights to the song) from Zack Snyder's Justice League, check out the Quick News Daily Outro Songs playlist on Spotify: http://bit.ly/QuickNewsOutroSongs
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Today's Quick News Daily Podcast focuses on three big topics: tons (!) of new appointments and nominations to the Biden Administration, the killing of Daunte Wright and the aftermath, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine news.
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Today, we'll be talking about President Biden's gun control announcement, unrest in Ireland, jobs numbers, and COVID-related illnesses.
I also make reference to the reports that Congressman Matt Gaetz allegedly paid for the sex trafficking with Venmo (come on man) and the death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
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Hear "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2 and more on Quick News' Spotify Playlist
On this episode of the Quick News Daily podcast, we have details on the new/old Facebook breach, updates on Florida, Georgia, and Arkansas, and is Biden bringing trains back in style?
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
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On the first episode of the new week for Quick News Daily, we'll discuss the Los Angeles earthquake, Friday’s attack at the US Capitol, a toxic situation in Florida (we’ll have to narrow that down), and more!
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Visit podgo.co/apply to get paid for your hard work, especially if you're a small, new podcast!
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On our final show of the week, we cover topics like the first major reporting on President Biden's economy, more results from a new Pfizer COVID vaccine trial, the fallout from Georgia's attack on voting rights, and Jen Psaki nailing it again during a press briefing.
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Today, we cover a new real-world study from the U.S. that shows how impressive the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are, even after one dose! Then, we talk about a possible union forming at Amazon and Volkswagen's (Voltswagen?) interesting PR stunt, which you'll need to get your tin foil hat on for.
Plus, we try to unpack what in the world is going on with Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.
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On the (almost) one year anniversary of Quick News Daily, we start with the story that nobody else seems to be talking about: the deadly coup in Myanmar. Then, we discuss Jen Psaki's appearance on Fox News discussing Biden's infrastructure plan. Plus, how does Phil Swift fit in with the Suez Canal?
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Time Stamps:
- Episode 1: 00:00 to 9:37
- Episode 2: 10:15 to 16:16
- Episode 3: 16:17 to end
- Come Together (Remix) by Gary Clark Jr. and JunkieXL: 28:09
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This episode of Quick News Daily is basically a reminder of why you should turn to us for news. We take a long look at the embarrassing showing from the media yesterday, mainly because Biden held his first press conference where he took questions from reporters (spoiler alert: he was perfectly normal and boring).
Plus, we pay respect to the genius, Alan Turing, and a new law passed by New Zealand's parliament.
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On this episode, it is a first for Quick News Daily: an entire show hosted by automated text-to-speech voices. It may be a bit strange at first, but it's still written by me, so it'll still have all the same jokes and sarcasm.
On the episode, we talk about the AstraZeneca data that was released and the possibility it was "misleading", Equal Pay Day, more confirmations to the Biden Administration, and Vice President Harris taking charge on the border issue.
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Even though the Quick News Daily Podcast took an entire week off, there still aren't many new stories to cover. On this episode, we go over the latest info about the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine and the sanctions on Chinese officials for their roles in the human rights violations in their country. Of course, we can't leave without talking about the fantastic new movie Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max.
Watch Zack Snyder's Justice League: https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYDAnZgCFQ8IJpQEAAAAN:type:feature
Get caught up on all of the week's top headlines and breaking news with Quick News To Go from Quick News Daily.
On this episode of your #1 quick news podcast, we cover Biden stealing my thunder and signing the stimulus yesterday when I said it'd be Friday, his speech from the White House, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine getting emergency approval.
We also cover Georgia's attack on voting rights and the ridiculous talk about Biden's relationship with the media.
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On a truly quick episode of Quick News Daily, we discuss all the latest happenings in the Biden Administration, as well as two new studies from the British Medical Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine.
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As we cover the latest headlines from Monday and the weekend, we have to start with a deep dive into the COVID relief bill (aka the American Rescue Plan) that was passed by the Senate on Saturday and what it means to you and your family. We also cover President Biden's executive order to increase access to voting and his call for a new Voting Rights Act, and more!
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On the final Quick News Daily of the week, we take a look at more consequences from the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the earthquakes that struck "near" New Zealand, even more trouble for ERCOT, and our favorite Wisconsin senator, Ron Johnson, who is now affectionately called "Ron-Anon".
Quick News is an affiliate of Amazon.
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On today's Quick News Daily, we're talking more about COVID vaccine distribution (and my personal feelings that these companies should stop promising to deliver amounts they know they can't). We also talk about Biden's latest confirmation to his cabinet, the first hiccup in the nomination process (spoiler: Republicans finally remembered what Twitter is after 5 years), and FBI Director Chris Wray's testimony about the January 6th insurrection.
Finally, we discuss President Biden's first sanctions against Russia in retaliation to Alexei Navalny's poisoning, as well as Congress' frustration about the U.S. airstrike in Syria last Friday.
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On the return of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we cover everything from the Justice Department fighting to keep people from being evicted, two stories about two different COVID vaccines, Virginia legalizing marijuana, and the human rights violations in Myanmar.
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On this episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we cover a variety of stories. The two we spend the most time on are Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's comments in front of the Senate and what they mean for your wallet, as well as a Washington Post story covering the re-opening of a Trump-era facility for migrants children (though there are no cages involved). Then, we cover the bilateral "meeting" with Canada and PM Justin Trudeau and updates on the Texas energy situation, Biden confirmations, and the insurrection.
EDIT: contrary to what I said at the end of the show, I will NOT be having a show on Friday. Stay tuned to all of Quick News Daily's social media accounts for the latest news updates, particularly Instagram and Twitter.
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COVID vaccine quick guide table: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/quick-guide-covid-vaccines-moderna-pfizer-astrazeneca/
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On a new week of the #1 quick news podcast, we take a look at a variety of stories from all around the globe. We have COVID updates from the US, the state of US-Iran sanctions and relations, and President Biden accepting a request for additional federal resources from Texas Governor Greg Abbott (who is a Republican, regardless of what Don Jr. thinks). We also have information about an oil spill near Israel, as well as frustrations over the investigation into the start of the COVID pandemic.
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Transcript:
COVID UPDATES Starting off, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former leader of the FDA, said he thinks that the decline in COVID infection rates that we’ve been seeing will continue. He also said that the variants will probably be more common in the coming months, but that it won’t be enough to matter. He said, “I think it’s too little, too late in most parts of the country. With rising vaccination rates and also the fact that we've infected about a third of the public, that's enough protective immunity that we're likely to see these trends continue.” I like how he just throws in there “yeah, we’ve been so crappy at containing this thing that it’ll actually help us”.
As of Saturday, there had been about 61.2M vaccines administered, and 75M doses had been delivered.
Another interesting snippet of the interview with Dr. Gottlieb was this quote talking about the WHO’s investigation into how COVID started: “The most likely scenario here is that this came from nature, that this was bouncing back and forth between people and animals for a period of time and finally broke out," he said. "I think the lab leak theory, the fact that this could have been an accident out of that lab is never going to be fully dispelled. And the WHO shouldn't walk away from that so easily.”
In other COVID news, a non-peer-reviewed study of about 300 people in an Indian hospital showed an interesting result regarding people with glasses. Took place over two weeks last summer.
Patients were between 10 and 80 years old, all reported COVID symptoms. Of these people, 19% wore glasses most of the time, meaning that 81% did not (not trying to talk down, just don’t want you to have to do mental math when I’ve had this information for a while).
Researchers found participants touched their face up to 23 times each hour on average and their eyes an average of three times per hour. People with glasses were 2-3x less likely to get COVID. The reasoning: this still works off of the assumption that you can touch something contaminated with COVID, then your mouth, nose, or eyes. We’ve been focusing so much on masks that contaminated surfaces haven’t really been talked about in a while. But, as for why glasses matter, if you wear glasses, it literally just is more work to touch your eyes.
I’m not sure how it would help since COVID is aerosolized, meaning it gets into regular air particles, but I’d have to assume glasses work sort of like a face shield and block particles from talking to people. The CDC even talked about possibly wearing goggles or something for a while there, but I think they chose not to try pushing that because they saw what happened with masks (or Trump ordered them not to).
Texas Update (Biden/Abbott) Check this out, major breaking news… CNN Breaking News We have a president that will help all Americans, not just the ones who voted for him! Amazing! What a concept!
I say this because Joe Biden signed a declaration saying that Texas was in a state of a major disaster, meaning that they can get some additional funding.
Before we get to what that covers, let’s do a quick fact check of something you might be hearing from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who’s a Republican even though Donald Trump Jr. called him a Democrat for some reason. Gov. Abbott might be trying to spin Biden’s order as only “partial assistance”, and he’s partially right. Abbott was trying to get approval for individual and public assistance for all 254 counties in Texas. President Biden approved public assistance for all 254 and individual assistance for 77 counties. So, what’s the difference between these two?
According to this USA Today article, “Individual assistance is given directly to residents who ‘sustained losses due to disasters,’ while public assistance can be used to repair or replace public facilities or infrastructure damaged or destroyed by a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The White House said that the individual assistance is available to regular people in those 77 counties, as well as local governments and some nonprofit organizations. This money is in addition to the supplies that FEMA already gave to Texas to help during the power outage. This was supplies like power generators, diesel fuel, water, and blankets.
Biden also said on Friday that he “directed several federal agencies including Health and Human Services and the departments of Defense and House and Urban Development to ‘"identify other resources that can provide and address the growing needs of the folk in Texas."’
And speaking of being self-aware and not needing the spotlight to feed his fragile ego like someone else would have (who could that be?), Biden said that he wanted to visit the state like presidents normally do during disasters, but he didn’t give an exact date because he doesn’t want to go until he knows his presence won’t create another “burden”.
Thank god Trump didn’t have to deal with huge snowstorm during the vaccine rollout.
After Abbott convened what his office described as an "emergency meeting" Saturday with lawmakers to discuss the issue, the Public Utility Commission on Sunday met to sign two orders, including one that would direct energy providers to temporarily stop disconnecting customers from power or water because they have not paid.
The commission also signed an order to stop companies from sending invoices or bill estimates to customers “until we work through issues of how we are going to financially manage the situation we are in,” commission Chair DeAnn Walker said.
“Disconnect for non pays cannot occur on a Sunday and that’s why we're acting today at this hour... trying to stop any from occurring tomorrow,” Walker said before the three-member commission approved the orders.
Merrick Garland Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday
We’ve heard about what happened during his Supreme Court nomination fiasco, but let’s get a little more information.
By the early 1990s, Garland was prosecuting a violent gang that terrorized people in a public housing project and was helping to advance a case against D.C.'s then-mayor, Marion Barry, on drug charges.
Garland would soon travel to the site of the deadliest domestic terrorism attack in American history. He oversaw the search warrants, protected the chain of evidence and insisted that reporters have access to court proceedings.
Garland played an important role in other confrontations with extremists in those years, including a lengthy 1996 standoff with the heavily armed Montana Freemen. The Justice Department and the FBI were eager to avoid a repeat of deadly incidents in Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, only a few years earlier.
Georgetown University law professor Paul Butler said he thinks Garland will be aware of the times and the message that the Biden Administration is trying to send regarding race.
Garland took an early and important lead to update policies that protect employees from sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct.
Iran Last Thursday, Acting U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council on behalf of President Joe Biden saying the United States “hereby withdraws” the decision by Trump to re-impose U.N. sanctions on Iran.
The nuclear agreement was working, and Iran was starting to get a little more friendly. Then Donald Trump had to come through and cancel it because it was created and negotiated by Obama, and he can’t let Obama have any nice things. So, he backed out of the agreement so he could get those sanctions back on Iran.
For context, a big majority of the members of the European Union Security Council even went so far as to say that Trump’s decision was illegal because the US wasn’t a member of the agreement since he withdrew, so the US couldn’t re-impose sanctions on a country for a deal we weren’t even a part of anymore.
The White House also announced that President Biden is willing to restart talks with Iran about getting back to the 2015 agreement (Iran stopped following the rules when we did, so they’ll have to agree to stop their nuclear program again). National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Iran’s government hadn’t responded yet.
Another part of this deal that Biden is trying to negotiate the release of dozens of Americans and other dual citizens that Iran has arrested for spying in the past couple of years. Jake Sullivan called these arrests a “complete and utter outrage” and said that it was a “significant priority” to get those hostages back.
Oil Spill An oil spill happened off the coast of Israel last week and has led to Israel's biggest maritime ecological disaster in years. Authorities have been closing the country's beaches and beginning a massive cleanup effort.
The Israeli government said to avoid going to beaches from the country's northern border with Lebanon all the way to the south near the Gaza Strip. They’re doing this because there’s all this melted tar in the water, and tar exposure can make people sick and irritate the skin.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority warned that the “consequences will be seen for years to come.”
Israeli environmental minister Gila Gamliel said Saturday that there are no more oil slicks visible off Israel's coast. However, the ministry warned that large waves are forecasted for later this week. The waves could carry chunks of sticky tar from beach to beach, making the cleanup even more difficult.
Israeli and European authorities are investigating what happened. Currently, Israeli officials believe a ship spilled anywhere from tens to hundreds of tons of oil in the Mediterranean, beyond the country's territorial waters.
The spill likely happened about a week ago when stormy weather affected the region. As I alluded to before, they don’t have a suspect yet as for which tanker was responsible. Israeli authorities are working with European officials to review satellite images of ships that passed through the area.
Gamliel said Saturday that the ministry had zeroed in on fewer than a dozen ships, and was attempting to narrow it down further in the coming days, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
COVID Origins Jake Sullivan: "We do not believe that China has made available sufficient original data into how this pandemic began to spread, both in China and then eventually around the world," he said. "And we believe that both the WHO and China should step up on this matter."
The researchers said the outbreak almost certainly did not start in a Chinese lab, but that its path from animals to humans needs further investigation.
And it sounds like there’s some disagreement within the WHO team about whether that’s the right conclusion. One of those team members, Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, told NPR's Steve Inskeep that said she and her team believe the pandemic did not originate at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. "The market is not the whole story," she said. "The market has been one of those spreading events but there also was circulation outside of, aside from the market." Very mysterious.
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Today, we’ve got a lot of stories to catch up on, and they’re all basically either local or international. We’re covering topics like Chicago’s spending of COVID funds, Boris Johnson, updates on Texas’ power outage and leadership outage (Ted Cruz), as well as Mount Etna news.
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Transcript:
FEB. 19TH
OPEN Friday, February19th. Today, we’ve got a lot of stories to catch up on, and they’re all pretty much local or international. We’re covering topics like Chicago’s spending of COVID funds, Boris Johnson, updates on Texas’ power outage and leadership outage (Ted Cruz), as well as Mount Etna news.
CHICAGO
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her administration have been catching some heat the past few days since the news broke that of the $1.2B that Chicago received from the federal government for COVID relief, they spent $281.5M of it on personnel costs for the Chicago Police Department. Obviously, with everything that happened last year, that’s not real popular with some folks.
Last summer, Ald. Daniel La Spata says he asked the mayor to put federal money toward housing relief or other programs to help struggling residents. He said he and other aldermen heard from residents that they didn’t want federal money targeted toward police payroll.
City Budget Director Susie Park said no relief money had yet been spent on police funding when she spoke to aldermen in June.
These personnel costs were for things like police performing wellness checks on residents, airport security when travelers had to be screened for COVID-19, security at the McCormick Place coronavirus field hospital and security at virus testing sites.
And there was still money that went to the city’s public health response to the disease, to homeless services, to O’Hare and Midway airports, and to senior citizen assistance.
The headlines were misleading because they wanted you to believe this was a big chunk of the money that Chicago got for COVID relief, but it was about 1/6. That’s a lot, but it’s better than the 1/3 number I was seeing floating around on Twitter (people were saying that the city only got $600M in funding).
If we’re actually about paying people for their work, then this shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not like it was for additional task forces to hunt down BLM members or something.
BOris johnson
The UK listeners might have a better idea about this than me, but Boris Johnson is such a strange figure. I cannot get a read on this guy. One second he sounds like a typical conservative xenophobe, and the next he’s got ideas like getting the G-7 countries to form ways to speed up the development of vaccines, treatments, and tests.
And this isn’t just a plan for COVID, this is a plan for all emerging diseases. Johnson is looking to prevent future pandemics. He said, “The development of viable coronavirus vaccines offers the tantalizing prospect of a return to normality, but we must not rest on our laurels. As leaders of the G-7 we must say today: never again.” He also went on to talk about the need for these countries to combine their resources and knowledge so that we can make sure “vaccines, treatments and tests to be battle-ready for future health threats.”
Considering that the COVID vaccine was developed in about 300 days, which is the fastest one yet, reducing it down to 100 days is really ambitious (it usually takes 4 years or more). But he makes a great point: we can’t do this again. All of these lockdowns, all the masking, all the social distancing, people are just not going to go for it again. And to do all that again for another year? Forget about it. Unless it’s some worst-case scenario where it’s a flu-like virus that’s as deadly as Ebola, I don’t think that many people who have lived through this would take this many precautions again.
In addition to that plan, Johnson will also be confirming that the UK will share a majority of any extra COVID vaccines with Covax. Covax is a really cool organization that is led by both the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (aka CEPI). This organization helps get poor countries equitable access to COVID vaccines.
So, all in all, a really good streak of news coming from the UK. On these specific topics, I’ll give Boris some real respect.
TEXAS As we hear more details coming out of Texas and the whole power situation there, it seems like we’re getting some people who are trying to improve their image after failing to keep the power on. It sounds like Uncle Rico telling you he used to be able to throw a football over that mountain and that he would have gone pro if he hadn’t hurt his knee in his senior season at the local community college. It just sounds too heroic, and it’s coming from the company that did it. But I’m going to tell you anyway because, if nothing else, maybe you can learn a thing or two about how a power grid works.
So, when I’m talking about Uncle Rico spinning his BS, this is what I’m talking about: “officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the power grid that covers most of the state, said Texas was dangerously close to a worst-case scenario: uncontrolled blackouts across the state.” They went on to say that their grid operators made a quick decision to go to rolling blackouts, otherwise that worst-case scenario would mean that the state might have had blackouts for months.
According to ERCOT, the grid operators were seeing warning signals that the energy supply was decreasing insanely fast. The reason that this is bad is that if demand for the power is greater than the supply of power, this could cause grid equipment to be set on fire, substations to blow up, and/or power lines to go down. If that would have happened, it would have taken months to get to all of that equipment and repair it, which is why the power would have been out for so long.
Now, maybe some of it was confirmed by outside sources because Bernadette Johnson, the senior vice president of power and renewables at Enverus (which is basically and IT company for oil and gas companies), is quoted as saying “As chaotic as it was, the whole grid could’ve been in blackout. ERCOT is getting a lot of heat (no pun intended I’m sure), but the fact that it wasn’t worse is because of those grid operators.”
The reason I’m still skeptical and saying this is some Uncle Rico BS is because ERCOT took the names of their leadership off of their website on Tuesday night. The group said it’s because they were getting threats, and I don’t doubt that they were, but it also seems like a convenient way to avoid something that us regular folks call “consequences for their actions”. I know for people of a certain stature in the business world aren’t used to that pesky concept of “consequences”, but I guarantee that there will be numerous investigations into whether they prepared as well as they knew they should have.
TED CRUZ You’d have to say it has not been a good start to 2021 for Ted Cruz. First, he supported an insurrection but even they didn’t want him on their team. Then this week, he decided to take a trip down to Cancun while parts of his state are suffering from rolling blackouts that aren’t rolling, people freezing to death, and a former governor saying that the people would rather freeze than take help from the evil federal government. That made me realize something: how are Texans not more afraid of rolling blackouts? I mean, the name has black in it…
Yes, Ted had to issue this apology: CRUZ CLIP
That other noise you hear in the background, besides the protesters shouting at Cruz to resign, is Ted throwing his teenage daughters in front of the bus, then getting behind the wheel and running them over. “I was just trying to be a dad”? My girls were cold? I guess Ted is actually so spineless and weak that he would even say that his daughters basically made him take them to Cancun (you know, like working class people can do whenever they feel like it. “Hey, want to go to Cancun tomorrow, just because?”).
I mean, you know it’s bad when you have former House Rep and King of Benghazi Trey Gowdy saying this on Fox News: GOWDY CLIP
The weirdness doesn’t even stop there. Even his friends are snakes! That, or they were just trying to be nice to the Cruz family and it went too far and now the friends are sick of them. But why do I say all that?
As it turns out, someone who was in a group chat with Ted’s wife Heidi shared screenshots of their conversation which proves this wasn’t just because his daughter wanted to. In these screenshots that were given to the New York Times, Mrs. Cruz said “Anyone can or want to leave for the week? We may go to Cancún” because their house was, in all-caps, “FREEZING”.
So, to recap, Ted left his constituents in the cold and dark, tried to blame his daughters for it, then got proven to be a liar because someone who’s close enough to his wife to be in a group chat with her shared screenshots from said group chat with the New York Times. Again, the classic Al Franken quote comes to mind: “Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz, I like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.” How does everybody hate this guy, yet he keeps winning? That shows you that for the south, all that matters is that R next to your name.
MT. ETNA
There were 2 eruptions this week: one Tuesday and one Wednesday (Thursday in Italy).
The Thursday eruption was worse. Lava was flowing for over an hour and reaching heights of 300 meters. Ash reached an altitude of 30,000 feet.
I was really shocked to see that there weren’t any injuries or deaths. However, a few paragraphs later, I read this: “Etna regularly erupts, but it also serves as a popular tourist destination. Some travelers visit just to see the eruptions. The volcano is active almost once a year.”
On today's episode of the best quick news podcast in the land, it's hard to find news topics to talk about, mainly due to the extreme situation in Texas and the southeast. However, aside from that big story, we cover North Korea trying to hack Pfizer, a no-confidence vote in the Capitol Police leadership, and President Biden's help for homeowners and his strategy so far to try to reset America's relationships around the world (who knew actually being prepared for calls was part of the job?).
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It’s a light news day today as we go over the fallout from Republicans closing their eyes and plugging their ears like a child as they voted not to convict Donald Trump during the impeachment trial, despite the evidence being clear as day. We also cover one of the first “scandals” of the Biden presidency, which they handled in about a day, once again showing that it’s not that hard to be an adult. Finally, we go over the end of the WHO team’s time in China investigating the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Transcript:
Impeachment
We’ll start with impeachment, because although it might seem like this didn’t impact us everyday Americans, it actually might open the door to headaches for all of us.
57-43 to impeach Trump. That’s good, and the most bipartisan in history, but you need 67 senators to vote to convict. Honestly, I was really surprised that Democrats got 7 Republicans to join in considering that only Mitt Romney voted for it last time. These seven Republicans were: Mitt Romney, Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).
These aren’t exactly profiles in courage: Burr and Toomey retiring; Sasse, Collins, and Cassidy just got re-elected since 2018, so they’re betting that this blows over by the time they have to run again. Murkowski and Romney are the only ones I give real props to. Murkowski faces re-election next year, but she lost a primary one of the previous times she ran, and then she won as a write-in candidate (which is basically unheard of). Romney has been consistent for almost the entire time since 2016 when he gave that speech calling Trump a fraud and a phony. He had to tone it down when he was running in the primary for that Utah seat, but otherwise, he’s been the one who’s had a real conscience.
The only thing I can say is: thank god Susan Collins didn’t say that Trump learned his lesson from impeachment this time.
The big hoopla from the weekend was the fact that Democrats won the vote to call witnesses during the trial, but instead, they decided to just read a statement from one of the Republican House members who voted for impeachment. She said that Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the House, told her about a call he had with Trump on the date of the insurrection. Apparently, he told Trump to “call off the riot”, but Trump said no and told him, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Everybody on Twitter started talking about the Democrats and Chuck Schumer blowing it. Some of the analysts on TV started with the classic “Dems in disarrary. The Democrats are weak and bad at politics. You may not like him, but Mitch McConnell is a wily, smart politician” lines of BS. If you’ll notice, this was mainly coming from Never Trump Republicans, as well as the far, far left (people who want AOC to run in the primary for Senate in New York against Chuck Schumer). It’s just so lazy.
They were always going to say the Democrats blew this and Republicans were strong for sticking together. The truth is that Democrats would have gotten a conviction from any other jury in America if this was a normal criminal case. They proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt without witnesses. They were never going to convince enough Republicans to convict; why would they start listening to evidence if witnesses came forward? The video footage exists.
The media tried to pull this same narrative with the Biden campaign a couple of times, but he just straight up ignored it and he won, so that’s clearly what you have to do.
The other thing about witnesses is that you don’t just call them right away, you have to debate about who you’re gonna call (Ghostbusters), then you have to depose them. This would have taken weeks, but people need help now. Regular people don’t necessarily care what happens to a guy who’s not even in charge anymore if they can’t make their house or rent payments, or they’re still searching for work. The Senate needs to work on that stimulus bill, which they wouldn’t have done if this was still going on.
Now, going forward, there is bipartisan support for a group similar to the 9/11 Commission to be set up to investigate this more thoroughly. Senators Chris Coons, a Democrat, and Bill Cassidy have both talked about how this needs to be done, and Lindsey Graham is also joining their side for some reason (maybe just to screw up the evidence).
From the outside, the two leaders of the actual 9/11 Commission sent a letter to Joe Biden to say that this was necessary to set up. So, hopefully that comes to fruition, or that there are some criminal cases brought against Trump and others.
White House Let’s go over one of the first “big” scandals of Biden’s time as president. By the end, I think you’ll see that if this happened during Trump’s presidency, we would have just called it “Thursday”. Nevertheless, let’s at least make you aware so that you know if the people you elected are being ethical and holding themselves to the standards they promised.
It all started last week when Vanity Fair published a story saying that a reporter from Politico was working on an article about Deputy Press Secretary TJ Ducklo’s romantic relationship with a reporter from Axios. Ducklo then threatened Palmeri over her piece, saying that he would "destroy her" if she published it. Ducklo also allegedly made misogynistic comments to Palmeri and talked about her own personal life. At one point, he even accused her of being "jealous" about his relationship with McCammond, so good to know that we stooped to elementary school levels when we were threatening a reporter.
Originally, Jen Psaki and Chief of Staff Ron Klain suspended Ducklo one week without pay, but some news outlets pointed out that Biden had told his staff on their first day that he would fire them “on the spot” if they “treated another colleague with disrespect”, so I’m sure they urged him to resign to avoid looking like hypocrites from the start.
Truthfully, it’s a good rule, and it’ll help Biden distinguish himself from Trump even more. When you’re trying to get the White House back to a point of being respectable, you have to overcompensate and be extreme in the other direction just to get the culture on track again. That’s true for any time you come in and try to change how things are run compared to the last person who led the organization.
I was asking myself the entire time “what is so important about this story getting out? Why would he go to those lengths to threaten her?” Well, basically, it comes down to conflicts of interest.
Axios told Politico that McCammond had "disclosed her relationship" with Ducklo in November and was "taken off the Biden beat." However, Palmeri pointed out that McCammond's still covers Vice President Kamala Harris and that she had commented “glowingly” (according to Palmeri) about Biden after he was inaugurated. So, obviously, some people are afraid that there would be some bias in her reporting since her partner works close to the people she’s covering.
Honestly, it was just good to get this guy out of there. That stops questions from the media, it would have just hung around, especially if he ever had to take over for Jen Psaki sometime. He was really just more of a liability and a distraction at this point.
WHO
The team from the WHO discovered signs that the original COVID outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than anyone previously thought, and now they’re trying to get access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city for more testing. Unsurprisingly, China hasn’t let them examine those samples so far.
The team was made up of 17 scientists from the WHO and 17 from China.
The lead investigator for the WHO mission, Peter Ben Embarek, told CNN the mission had found several signs of the more wide-ranging 2019 spread, including establishing for the first time there were over a dozen strains of the virus in Wuhan already in December. The team also had a chance to speak to the first patient Chinese officials said had been infected, an office worker in his 40s, with no travel history of note, reported infected on December 8.
The disease could have hit an estimated 1,000-plus people in Wuhan already by December. Embarek said, "We haven't done any modeling of that since. But we know ...in big ballpark figures... out of the infected population, about 15% end up severe cases, and the vast majority are mild cases."
The team was allowed to access broadened types of genetic material that came from early coronavirus cases in December. This allowed them to look at partial genetic samples, rather than just complete ones. As a result, they were able to gather 13 different genetic sequences of the SARS-COV-2 virus from December 2019.
Another interesting thing: “Some of them are from the markets... Some of them are not linked to the markets.”
The team was given analysis from Chinese scientists of 92 suspected Covid-19 cases from October and November 2019. These were patients who had COVID-like symptoms and were severely ill. The interesting part about these 92, according to Embarek, is that they did not emerge in clusters like you would normally see disease outbreaks. Instead, they were spaced out in small numbers across both months, and across the whole province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located.
The original patient, patient zero, doesn’t seem connected to the markets either. "He has no link to the markets," said Ben Embarek. "We also spoke to him. He has a very -- in a way -- dull and normal life, no hiking in the mountains type of things. He was an office worker in a private company."
They hope to get more access to blood samples from that time, but China is being very stingy. I wonder if we’ll ever know the actual truth.----more----
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Welcome to the final new episode of the week for Quick News Daily. I hate to sound like a broken record, but the most important topics for our everyday lives are pretty much the same these days. We have news on COVID about vaccines and double masking. We’ve got news on some new executive orders from President Joe Biden, plus some more updates on impeachment.
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Transcript:
COVID VACCINES Starting off the show, I want to bring a new study of the COVID vaccines to your attention. I’m not sure how this one compares to the South African study in terms of how accurate it could be, but it was led by William James, a professor of virology at the University of Oxford. I want to warn you right away that like most other studies about COVID, this one hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed.
His team took blood samples from people who had recovered from COVID, as well as people who had been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. They also broke it down by whether the vaccinated volunteers had received one or two doses. They then tested this blood against one of the first variants from a year ago, the South African variant, and the UK variant (which this article from the Guardian calls the “Kent Variant”. I guess they like to blame specific areas over there).
In terms of antibodies, the blood had moderate protection against the original variant, slightly less protection against the UK version, and then no ability to neutralize the South African variant. That said, when it comes to your immune cells that fight off an infection once you get it, people who either had COVID originally or those who got one dose all had strong immune cell responses. These experts are definitely encouraged about this because they think it means our immune cells are protecting against different regions of that all-important spike protein. If they protect against more areas of that, then we could be protected against other variants that might show up.
In terms of people who got second doses, Professor James said “In more than 90% of cases, the antibodies that people are generating after the second dose are up at the sort of level that neutralises the virus and which we would expect to protect them from infection. We’re pretty confident that they’ll be protected from infection by the South African strain and the Kent strain, as well as the [original] strain of the virus.”
Since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very similar, it seems that if you got either of those vaccines, you should still be in pretty good shape.
I have to just take a second and tell you how much it bothers me that this article (again, since it’s from the UK) kept calling the vaccines “jabs” instead of “shots”. I know it’s just because we’ve known it as “shots”, but “jabs” just creeps me out for some reason.
DOUBLE MASKING Finally, we have some data about whether double masking actually helps prevent you from getting COVID. This data is actually coming from the CDC, which is even more encouraging.
They found that by either wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask, or just a surgical mask with the ear loops knotted and sides tucked in to get a closer fit, you can reduce your exposure to airborne particles by over 90%!
In their experiments, they found that just by themselves, a surgical mask blocked 42% of particles if an infected person coughs, while a cloth mask blocked 44%. However, when they’re combined, they blocked 92% of particles.
When it comes to regular breathing and you’re around someone without a mask, your exposure is decreased by 65% when you do the knotting technique and 83% if you double mask. This goes up over 95% if both people are double masking or doing the knotting technique.
They also say to test that your mask is filtering correctly, you should practice wearing them in front of a mirror. If your mirror fogs up from your breath, it’s working. If you feel it on your eyes or your glasses steam up, it’s not working. It sounds counterintuitive, but you’d rather have it go out the front, which is how it gets filtered. If it’s coming out the top, it means the masks are actually blocking the air completely, and it has to go somewhere, so it’s just a straight-up hole on the top or out the sides, with no filtration.
EUGENE GOODMAN/IMPEACHMENT Flipping over to impeachment, I have to give another shoutout and thank you to Capitol Police officer, and now Deputy Sergeant at Arms, Euguene Goodman. On Wednesday, after I had already recorded the show, the Democratic Impeachment Managers played another never-before-seen video. This time, it showed security footage of Mitt Romney heading down a corridor, straight for the mob, obviously not knowing he was going the wrong way. Then, right before he turns the corner, Officer Goodman comes sprinting in out of nowhere to point him in the opposite direction and lead him to safety. With how outspoken he’s been of Donald Trump, it’s not hard to imagine that the mob might have hurt Mitt Romney pretty badly.
When he was questioned by reporters during a break, Romney even admitted he didn’t know how close he had come to the mob and said, “I did not know that was Officer Goodman. I look forward to thanking him when I next see him”. They were then spotted chatting during a break later in the day, and Romney said he used that time to thank him.
Matt Romney, Mitt’s son (I guess they have a sense of humor), was really gracious towards Officer Goodman, tweeting “we appreciate your bravery and service, Officer Eugene Goodman!!”, with a super cool action photo of Goodman pointing Romney in the other direction.
Literally, this officer was like a one-man team of Avengers. He was everywhere that day! Between saving Romney and leading the mob away from the defenseless senators who were still in the Senate Chamber, Eugene Goodman almost single-handedly prevented the mass murder of a huge portion of our government.
One of the things that hit me the hardest is actually the cover art for this episode, which you can see best on Spotify, which is that Sergeant Goodman was just standing there in the back of the Senate Chamber while this new video played. He played it really cool, but I wonder if he was grinning under his mask thinking, “yeah, that was me. Pretty amazing, huh?” I know I would have.
In terms of the actual trial, the prosecution wrapped up their case yesterday, so Trump’s team took over today. To give you a sense of what it’s been like, I’ll start with this Beastie Boys. If the defense was arguing about that song, they’d say that because the Beastie Boys said you have to “fight for your right to party”, then that means that either your parents have to let you party, or you have to kill your parents.
Their main evidence for today was a super long video of clips of all of these Democrats saying “fight”, totally out of context, and then showing the protests/riots from this past summer. It’s just a stupid strawman, whataboutism argument that if the Democrats want to convict Trump for saying “fight like hell”, then they should all be convicted too for these statements. Just a super dumb argument because they don’t have any other defense. Honestly, do not waste a single second watching the actual presentations from Trump’s team. Just wait for me to talk about it, or listen to the news tonight when they play the highlights.
BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDERS President Biden made some more executive order news recently, so I want to go over two of those stories.
The first one is something I haven’t even heard about, but he announced an executive order “directing a government-wide supply chain review for critical goods in the coming weeks, with the chip shortage a central concern behind the probe”, with the priority of “identifying choke points in supply chains”.
Apparently, these semiconductor chips are hard to come by these days, which is hurting the auto industry and the video gaming industry. Some possible solutions that executives from companies that make these chips, like Intel and Qualcomm, have suggested to create tax incentives and initiatives to bring more chip manufacturers back to the US. Nothing is final yet, but if COVID has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t necessarily rely on foreign manufacturing all the time.
The other executive order was one that he actually signed, which I’ve mentioned before. Biden officially rescinded Trump’s national emergency declaration about the US-Mexico border. Yes, that’s right folks, no more taxpayer dollars are going to be used to fund the wall! I mean, Mexico was supposed to pay for it, but who’s counting anyway?
END Hey, some exciting news: Quick News Daily has joined the social media platform VERO! VERO is a newer app that I actually learned about from director Zack Snyder after he used it to do those livestream commentaries for Batman v. Superman and Man of Steel. It’s a newer social media app, and it’s supposed to be the anti-Facebook/anti-Instagram.
It shows you exactly how much time you spend on the app. There are no ads, no algorithms, and there aren’t any notifications that are designed to keep you scrolling. You can even sort between friends (who you actually know), acquaintances, and regular followers. Plus, your posts can be pictures, a link, music, movies or TV shows, books, apps, games, or places. It’s really cool!
I’d suggest downloading it soon because eventually there will probably be a subscription. I’m not even sponsored by it, I just thought it was more ethical than Facebook. Also, since it’s so new, I figured I had a good chance of establishing Quick News Daily as a major player on there. The usual media people like CNN, the New York Times, etc. aren’t even on there yet. So, go check that out; the link to my Quick News Daily account is in the episode description.
While I’m on my soapbox giving out free ads to people, I might as well tell you about a search engine I found called Ecosia. Companies pay to advertise on Ecosia, and when you search and scroll past their ads, Ecosia gets money. They then use those profits to plant trees all over the world (they partner with local groups that do most of the work).
They even let you track how many trees you’re responsible for. For example, on my laptop, I’m at 146 trees. Honestly, even if you know what you’re looking for is on Wikipedia or the URL is just really long, just search for it on Ecosia and help plant a tree.
You can find all of that information, and more, if you still have questions, at Ecosia.org. That link is also in the episode description.
On this Wednesday edition of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we have a lot of topics to catch up on. We start out with the coup in Myanmar, then switch over to Biden's plan to expand the availability of the COVID vaccine before trying to tell you why that AstraZeneca vaccine news might not be as bad as the headlines suggest. We also get into impeachment pt. 2 and the attack on a small Florida town's water treatment facility, and more!
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On our Monday episode, we catch up on the big news from late Friday and the weekend. We cover everything but the NFL's help with mass COVID vaccinations, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's fight against extremism in the military, a new Biden immigration policy regarding Central America, Lou Dobbs getting canned at Fox Business, and more!
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More Policies Unveiled by the Biden Administration
00:00:00 - 00:05:07
Today is Monday, February 8th. Thanks for joining me back here. Once again my name is Brett Spangler, and today we have a bunch of different stories again. Some smaller ones mostly smaller ones. We have a lot of covid stuff. We have a lot more Biden policy issues because he did his first national interview with Norah O'Donnell last Friday and we revisit a story that we did about a month ago about the flu in just the flu season the flu numbers for this year kind of interesting. Well i mean it has to be otherwise. I wouldn't waste your time with it so in any case. Let's jump right back into it. NFL commissioner roger. Goodell wrote a letter to President Joe Biden last week. He offered to President. Joe Biden to use every NFL stadium as a possible mass vaccination. This means that there are thirty. Nfl sites that would be up for grabs now. You might be thinking. Well, wait a second, there are 32 NFL teams but only 30 stadiums. Well, the thing is the jets and the giants share one as do the Los Angeles Rams in Los Angeles Chargers. Some of these are actually already open. They have one in Phoenix for the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta, Baltimore, the Carolina Panthers' stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, , Houston, and Miami New England (which is actually Foxborough, Massachusetts). Speaking of the NFL, the super bowl was yesterday and there were about twenty five thousand fans in attendance. Probably about a third of the usual number. That would be there. And as sort of a tribute to healthcare workers there were seventy five hundred completely vaccinated healthcare workers who showed up as part of that crowd. I saw a lot of chatter on twitter about it's not really honoring healthcare workers if you're creating like a superspreader event and you know i'm not sure how i feel about that. Honestly one thing to keep in mind. Is that the empty seats. They had a bunch of cardboard cutout people. So if you thought it looked packed it really wasn't necessarily as packed as it was looking also. The stadium is outdoors and as we know. Transmission outdoors is nearly well. I wouldn't go that far but it's pretty safe. That said the chances are pretty good. That people were still waiting in line for concessions. Maybe they didn't offer am. I didn't see that or somewhere. Outside of the seats. They were probably in closer. Groups are closer proximity than they were in the stands. And that's kind of what i worry about. But i dunno moving onto other good vaccination news pfizer says that it's been analyzing how they've been making the covid vaccine and they found a number of different ways to improve so that they can make their manufacturing process even quicker. The improvements that they've found should take the manufacturing time from about one hundred and ten days per batch to about sixty days per bench. And that's nearly cutting it in half. That is pretty impressive. The president of the Immunization Policy and Knowledge Translation consulting firm said that “Nobody’s ever produced mRNA vaccines at this scale, so you can bet your bottom dollar the manufacturers are learning as they go. I bet you every day they run into some vaccine challenge and every day they solve it, and that goes into their playbook.”
Some of these improvements include faster quality control and testing, adding manufacturing lines in the three plants where the vaccines are made, and speeding up the time it takes to make the DNA from 16 days down to about 9 or 10 days.
As of this morning at 9AM eastern time, there have been 42 million COVID vaccines administered (so actually in people's arms), and there have been 59 million distributed.
So over the weekend, the Biden administration announced that it is withdrawing the US from agreements with three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. These agreements required a lot of people who are trying to get asylum at the US- Mexico border to actually go to these countries and apply there for some reason. Reading here from the Bloomberg article that I found that Secretary of State Tony Blinken said the administration “intends to work with the Central American nations to reduce some of the insecurity and poverty that cause people to flee in the first place while maintaining the security of the U.S. border.”
Trump also started using COVID as an excuse to deport almost everyone who came to the border.
In other immigrations news, Biden also set up a task force to help reunite families that were separated as a result of Trump’s family separation policy.
There was some news about this last week, but it became official over the weekend: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has signed a memo that directs his commanding officers and supervisors to do a one-day standdown sometime within the next sixty days to try to address the extremism that we're just finding out about or that we are confirming is going on in the armed forces. This means that on that particular day whatever day they choose, these leaders will have to lead discussions on the importance of our oath of office. A description of impermissible behaviors and procedures for reporting suspected or actual extremist behaviors”. Lloyd said in the memo that this training is just the first step in “what I believe must be a concerted effort to better educate ourselves and our people about the scope of this problem and to develop sustainable ways to eliminate the corrosive effects that extremist ideology and conduct have on the workforce.”
A recent study that was done by NPR found that nearly one in five people who have been charged in the Capit0ol Insurrection had some type of military history. This goes along with a two thousand nineteen survey that the military times conducted where they found that thirty six percent of active duty. Readers had seen quote evidence of white supremacist and racist ideologies in the military in just one year before in two thousand eighteen. That same number was only twenty two percent which is still ridiculously high. So now we have over a third in. That was like two years ago. Yeah i think this is gonna take more than one day just a really short follow up story here about our story on fox news getting sued from Friday years a sign that maybe i was right in that fox news wasn't actually that proud of their reporting about the 2020 election: on Friday night, Fox Business cancelled the show Lou Dobbs Tonight, which is actually the biggest show on their network into fuel. Remember Lou Dobbs was one of the three hosts that was named in that lawsuit and they still could be far from over for these people who are still lying about the election. Because listen to what this dominion spokesperson. The Dominion voting machine company. What he said that we should expect next from his company. Can you give us a preview of when the next lawsuits Dominion. We'll be filed. I'm not here to make news on that front but let me say this. Mike lindell is begging to be sued and at some point we may well oblige him. So here's the remaining scoop. On some other Biden administration policies. Here are a couple of videos about Biden talking about the urge and the need to pass the stimulus package relatively quickly purply. That's in fact we're going to be in a situation where a long long time and Appreciate y'all truman. Over because urgency mature movement. this about people's lives. this is not just about people's lives people. Are i tell any of. You are really hurting people of victims. Just look at all the number people who needed sneaky mental health services now. Suicides up people are really really drug abuse against when people are really feeling the whole on how to get out you give them a lot of hope. Hope the as they. So they're deliver the grace of god and goodwill encrypt not rise. We can really begin to do something. Consequentially so i wanna thank you all and but i you know president president bobby put me in charge of recovery act and it was hard as hell get the votes for to begin with and it was hard as hell getting a number retired but one thing we learned. Is you know we can't do too much. We can do to little do to sputter but again the end result is not just a macroeconomic impact on the economy and our ability to compete internationally. People's lives real live. People are hurting and we can fix. We can fix it. The irony of all ideas is when we held them. We are also helping our competitive capacity through the remainder of this decade. And it's real. It's got a chance to do something here. And i thank you for for last night yesterday much. You're going to be doing recovery. Act and i can hardly wait to sit down with. Putin defies not work on infrastructure. To thank you all for being here. Thank you for Trump hand. I know some in congress think we've already done enough to deal with the crisis in the country.
00:10:04 - 00:15:04
Others think that things are getting better and we can afford to sit back neither do little or do nothing at all. That's not what i see. I see enormous pain in this country. A lot of folks out of work a lot of folks going hungry staring at the ceiling tonight wondering what am i going to do tomorrow. A lot of folks trying to figure out how to keep their jobs and take care of their children. A lot of folks reaching the breaking point suicides are up. Mental health needs increasing violence against women and children's increasing. A lot of folks are losing hope. And i believe the American people are looking right now to their government for help to do our job to not let them down. So i'm going to act and i'm going to act fast. I'd like to be. I like to be doing it. With the support of republicans. Republicans some really fine people want to get something done. But they're just not willing to go as far as we have to go. I've told both republicans and democrats. That's my preference to work together. But if i have to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting drier bogged down negotiation or compromise on a bill. That's that's up to the crisis this an easy choice. I'm going to help. The American people are hurting. Now that's why. I'm so grateful to the house and the senate for moving so fast on the American rescue plan in Friday spoke about that budget resolution that passed africa harris. Broke the tie. So let's just hear that call as our fifty. The nays are fifty. The senate being equally divided the vice-president votes in the affirmative and the concurrent resolution as amended is adopted. That is going to be fun to hear for at least the next two years. Then we have press secretary. Jen psaki not taking any bs from fox. News reporter let the thousands of fossil fuel industry workers whether it's pipeline workers or construction workers who are either work or will soon be out of work because by e when it is and where it is that they can go for their green job and that is something the administration has promised. There is now a so. I'm just curious when happens when those people well it certainly welcome you to present your data of all the thousands and thousands of people who won't be getting a green job. Maybe next time you're here you can present. That would be getting green jobs. So i'm just asking when that happened. Richard Trumka who is a friend longtime friend of Joe Biden says about that day one eastone. He says i wish he. The president has paired that. Were carefully with the thing that he did. second by saying. Here's where we are creating jobs. So there's partial evidence from Richard trumka. Well you didn't include all of his interview. Would you like to include. How about this. The international union of North America said the keystone decision will cost one thousand existing union jobs and ten thousand projected construction jobs. Well what mr Trump. Also indicated in the same interview was that president Biden has proposed a climate plan with transformative investments and infrastructure and laid out a plan that will not only create millions of good union jobs but also helped tackle the climate crisis. That guy was peter doocy from fox news and i always hate his questions because he takes four ever to get to the point he just beats around the bush because his conscience is fighting him the whole time and at least that's what it seems like. It's like that tiny little part of them that still has morals and ethics is trying to tell him. He's being deceiving and a bad journalist. But pete here just wants at fox news money one of the more unexpected Biden policies. I would say. Just because. I never thought he would actually do. It is that he announced on Friday. That Trump wouldn't be eligible to receive intelligence briefings anymore. This is the first time that a former president has been cut out of these briefings. But we've never truly had a president Trump, have we? Biden explained in that norah o'donnell interview saying quote. I just think that there's no need for him. To have the intelligence briefings. What value is giving him. An intelligence briefing. What impact does he have at all other than the fact that he might slip and say something and he also said that has shown quote erratic behavior. Well that certainly the polite way to say that. He's been acting crazy honestly if he didn't read them well he was president. Why should he get them now. I mean the way. I imagine it. They practically had to create puppet shows and plays to get him the information that was in those briefings like they probably had to act it out for him. The man doesn't or possibly can't read so the story here as promised is about the flus really bad year sir remember.
00:15:04 - 00:21:26
I talked a couple weeks ago. About how bad well not. How bad how good for us it was that. This year's flu season is almost nonexistent. In that was in new york city as it turns out that sort of the case. Globally this reporting from the atlantic followed a doctor from the mayo clinic in rochester minnesota. And they just sort of talked it over with them. What they're seeing in. Why we might be seeing this really good flu season for us. He said on december first that they began testing all patients with respiratory symptoms for covert and the flu so thousands and thousands of these tests have turned up positive for covid but out of the twenty thousand flu tests that they've run which is ten times. The usual number zero have come back positive for the flu since early fall. Eight hundred thousand flu tests in the. Us have been done and only fifteen hundred have been positive. That's point two percent for context. That's about one hundred times so last year. We had a hundred times more cases at this time when we had done. Eight hundred thousand tests back then. The flu positivity rate was anywhere between twenty and thirty percent twenty and thirty percent a lot of other respiratory viruses have disappeared as well well disappeared in quotes because they're still out there somewhere including ones for the common cold. Obviously, the reason for this is the number of restrictions and precautions that we've had to put in place social distancing masks, etc and all of that help because the regular flu and COVID spread in pretty much the same ways however covert spreads more easily because it can be passed on by people who don't even have symptoms. For example, just look at all these super spreader events. That didn't happen before. It's not like if you went to the movie theater and just anyone had the flu. You all suddenly got the flu. There are also differences at the macroscopic level. Like how it sticks to the particles that we exhale when we breathe or talk like COVID sticks more easily so is easier to transmit of course doctors have some problems with all of this for one our bodies might start to sort of forget the flu, meaning that they won't be able to produce the right or enough antibodies to fight it off as effectively before. Although, I imagine if you got your flu shot this year. Probably in pretty good shape second. It makes it harder for the world health organization to recommend the right ingredients for the flu vaccine. For next year. I had always heard that it was like some crazy long process in that it took like a year to make them and they had to start planning a year in advance but this article finally went into detail about how the flu vaccine is made so the. Who meets twice a year to recommend vaccine ingredients to countries in the northern and southern hemispheres. There's one meeting for each sensor winters. Take place at opposite times and actually the northern hemisphere later this month when that happens the WHO recommends what to put in the vaccine based on the data that they've collected from the flu samples from all around the world from that data. They pick out which flows are causing the most trouble. And that's why it'll be tougher this year with fewer flu cases. There's also less data, so they have to guess more than they usually would on which flows will be around this winter now. The reason that they have to start doing this now in so early is that flu vaccines usually take about six months to make. However, this new technology that we're using for covid vaccines could make a huge difference with flu vaccines in just the very near future. A lot of companies are already studying this since the mr can be switched out pretty quickly and they can adjust though probably be able to make flu vaccines in just a few weeks once able to focus on that instead of covid so that would be pretty interesting now. The doctors did emphasize that. We're not just done with the flu. It is still out there and people and maybe people just aren't getting tested because they're always at home but still that's one silver lining. I can't imagine like residents’ homes if we had both at the same time because they struggle with flu anyways man. We dodged a bullet there. All right folks. that's gonna do for me here today for the news. Just remember no show tomorrow back on Wednesday and then back on Friday. Then it'll be our new schedule but if you wanna leave some feedback about quick news daily and what I can do to improve. There is still that linked to the form in the episode descriptions. You can fill out that google form and let me know what you think contributors to the show also have a direct line to me and speaking of which. Let's thank those contributors. We have our producer. Cathy and executive producer. One and we thank you so much as always for supporting the show into actually on the steady paycheck websites. Which is what. I'm still going through just for the time. Being unless there are special circumstances. I did cut it down from three tiers to two tiers. So for a dollar, you get some things including a shoutout at the end of Monday shows and then for five dollars you get some other things so go check out those new tears and maybe consider signing up. Teach your name on the show. If you want. Those links are in the description as well otherwise stay safe out there stay home if he can get vaccinated as soon as you can. And I’ll see you right back here on Wednesday.
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We close out the week with four quick-hitting stories: another voting-related company suing Fox News, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' fight to keep people safe from their state legislature, the first step towards a COVID stimulus bill, and Mitt Romney's surprisingly bold plan to help families with children.
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Announcement: Yes, Quick News Daily is moving to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule for the immediate future due to school. Hopefully, sooner than later, we can return to an episode for every day of the week.
Today, we discuss a myriad of different issues, such as Jeff Bezos resigning from Amazon, AOC being libeled by a right-wing troll, new information about Governor Andrew Cuomo's early handling of the pandemic, and more!
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On this episode, we take a look at how Moderna is looking to increase their distribution of COVID vaccines, President Biden's plan to replace all current government vehicles with electric ones, why the UK will be seeing an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong, and more!
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On a new week (and month) of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we start out with important stories like reassurance about the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine from Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, the mask mandate for interstate travel finally going into effect, the horrible military coup taking place in Myanmar (Burma), and finally answering all your questions about the recent GameStop stock craze (come for the fun, stay for hearing me try to say "GameStop stock" multiple times).
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Get caught up on all of the week's top headlines and breaking news with Quick News To Go from Quick News Daily. The latest news headlines from this week include Dr. Fauci speaking out about the new strains of COVID, the Chinese government flying bombers and jets over Taiwan, another Takata airbag recall, why there are still protests in Portland, the latest confirmations in the Biden administration, and many more!
The models covered by the recall include the 2007 to 2011 Ford Ranger, the 2006 to 2012 Ford Fusion, the 2006 to 2012 Lincoln Zephyr, the 2007 to 2010 Ford Edge, and the 2007 to 2010 Lincoln MKX. The Mazda vehicles being recalled are the 2007 to 2009 B-Series pickup trucks.
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On this jam-packed episode coming off a short break, we cover topics like the Biden administration's new approach to COVID task force briefings, the purchase of more COVID vaccines, new executive orders for health care and climate change, and an update on his nominees.
Link to the article showing the up-to-date list of nominees and cabinet positions: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/updated-biden-cabinet-confirmations-npr/
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Today's top headlines include Janet Yellen making history as she's sworn in as Treasury Secretary, Tony Blinken being confirmed as the Secretary of State, and California's reopening. Also, we go over Biden's big effort to encourage the federal government to "Buy American" again, and his new executive orders to phase out private prisons and housing discrimination.
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On a new week of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we cover a range of topics (real issues, not the president's Twitter account for once). These topics include Dr. Fauci reappearing on TV to give reassurance about the COVID vaccines' effectiveness against the new strains of the virus, the Chinese government flying bombers and jets over Taiwan, and another recall regarding Takata airbags (see below for more info).
Then, we cover why there are still protests going on in Portland, and when Donald Trump's second impeachment trial will start.
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The models covered by the recall include the 2007 to 2011 Ford Ranger, the 2006 to 2012 Ford Fusion, the 2006 to 2012 Lincoln Zephyr, the 2007 to 2010 Ford Edge, and the 2007 to 2010 Lincoln MKX. The Mazda vehicles being recalled are the 2007 to 2009 B-Series pickup trucks.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls
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This week's topics include: the last days of the Trump presidency, the Biden/Harris Inauguration, President Biden's COVID relief plan, new DNI Avril Haines, new Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Josh Hawley.
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On the last news podcast of the week, we try to keep up with President Biden as he wastes no time implementing his "wartime strategy" against COVID. We cover what his new rules regarding air travel could mean for both passengers and flight attendants, as well as the safety of traveling on a plane these days.
Then, I take a look at the temporary ban on drilling for oil on federal land or in federal waters, the confirmation of Avril Haines to the Director of National Intelligence position, and the impending nomination of retired Army General Lloyd Austin (who has officially been confirmed by the Senate since I recorded this). Lastly, I talk about what our good friend, Josh Hawley, has been up to.
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On the first episode of Quick News Daily in the Biden/Harris era, we bask in their Inauguration and the fact that the "adults are back in the room" for our government. But besides just the meaning of the change, I also detail President Biden's busy first two days in office, which include a flurry of executive orders aimed at controlling the coronavirus pandemic.
Later, I discuss the news of 12 National Guard members that were pulled from their duties at the Inauguration, 2 of which had ties to right-wing terrorism. Then I discuss the former president's ban from Facebook and YouTube, which may go on longer than originally planned.
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OPEN Today is Thursday, January 21st, and welcome to a new age. As you heard from them there, Joe Biden is now our president, and Kamala Harris is now our vice president. It was historic, it meant so many things to so many groups, and it took a weight off the country’s shoulders. I guess I’m just jumping right into it, but it is the elephant in the room, so we might as well cut to the chase.
It just felt so great to be able to trust who was in charge again. As I’ve said many times, from the campaign until now, the differences between Trump and Biden could not be more noticeable. Based on everyone who shared their reaction on TV or on social media, I think we all felt better now that there is real experience back in the White House; we could all breathe a bit easier.
When you think about it, it was basically an escape from a 4-year hostage situation. Trump controlled our lives for 4 years with his unpredictability and the way he always made everything a culture issue. You simply could not escape him. He came up in conversation with friends and family a lot, and whether you supported him or not became a true point of division.
Now, we have real human beings, who are decent and empathetic, back in charge. Not only that, but with the diversity Biden is bringing in, the White House looks more like America than it has in quite some time.
It really hit me when Vice President Harris was swearing in the 3 senators in the afternoon. You had a Latino, a Black man, and a Jewish man being sworn in by the first Asian, first Black, and first female vice president. That’s what America is supposed to be. That’s what those terrorists tried to stop 2 weeks ago when they stormed the Capitol. They were afraid because the administration didn’t look as much like them, and that made them so scared that they got angry.
But we won, and they lost.
Honestly, even when everybody showed up to the Inauguration in masks, you could just feel a change. There wasn’t anybody bullying these people around. And Vice President Harris even wore one when she was on the Senate floor. What a concept!
I also didn’t realize until last night that it was 50 years ago yesterday that JFK was inaugurated. He’s a personal hero/fascination of mine, so I thought that was cool.
Another thing I want to get out of the way right away is that yes, I’ll be referring to Joe and Kamala as “president” and “vice president” more today than I said “President Trump” ever, and yes, that does seem biased. However, like I said a while back, I call people by their title when they act like their title; when they deserve it. Trump never acted presidential, so I never felt like he deserved to be referred to as “president”. In fact, that’s what I mean by “this show is more informal than regular news”, because even by using those titles, you normalize Trump. What Trump did and what Trump was were not normal, and we can’t think that they were. They were awful, disgraceful, and we can’t ever let that happen again.
BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDERS Now, onto what President Biden has done so far in office. Yesterday evening, he signed 15 executive orders and 2 executive actions. So, what’s the difference between executive orders and executive actions? Well, an executive order is legally binding, so it means more. An executive action, on the other hand, is basically just symbolic. So, let’s go over those, but be warned: I’m not always sure which ones are “orders” and which ones are “actions”. When you read about them, the news media treats them like they’re interchangeable, and they’re not. At all.
There were about 9 different categories that Biden addressed. First, in terms of masks, he signed an order requiring masks and social distancing in all federal buildings and all federal property, and by all federal employees and contractors (and he even wore a mask while signing the bill, which sent a huge message).
Other orders included:
- Stopping the United States from withdrawing from the World Health Organization, which is a great thing for people worldwide.
- Extending a pause on student loan payments and foreclosures.
- Several big ones on climate. First, rejoining the Paris Climate Accord. Second, revoking the permit for building the Keystone Pipeline, which I didn’t even know was being considered. Finally, he required reviews of Trump’s policies that got rid of, or weakened, protections for federal lands, as well as a review of the cuts in regulations about fossil fuel emissions. You heard Biden and his team talk about climate change more yesterday than Trump did in 4 years.
- This next order was a fun one: President Biden revoked Trump’s national emergency declaration about the border wall, which means that money that was supposed to be going to other programs will actually go to those programs It also stopped the building of any new wall until a review is done to see how taxpayer money is being spent on the project.
- Speaking of revoking, he also revoked the “Muslim Ban”, which banned people from 7 Muslim-majority countries.
- This is the one that I suspect is more of an “action” than an “order”: Biden ordered his cabinet to preserve and protect DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which is a relief for hundreds of thousands of people who have lived in America all of their life but are technically undocumented since they were brought here by their parents when they were very young.
- Staying on that subject of undocumented immigrants, there was an order from Trump that said all 11 million people who are undocumented in the US were priorities for getting deported. Biden revoked that order as well, and instructed the Department of Homeland Security to review their enforcement priorities.
- Actually, all of these last ones are related to immigration. For the census, Biden ordered that every person in America should be counted, like it says in the Constitution. Trump tried to exclude undocumented people, even though they still do live here, which is what the census tries to figure out.
- And lastly, this one seems like more of a proposal than an order. The President issued an order that proposes legislation that would give green cards and a path to citizenship for every undocumented person who was living here before the start of this year.
Now, all of that was just day one. Today, if he hasn’t already done so by the time you hear this, President Biden plans on signing 10 more executive orders.
As the Huffington Post points out, some are more specific than others. The specific ones include things like requiring the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services to create new guidelines for reopening schools, ordering OSHA to issue new standards to protect workers from COVID, ordering FEMA to fully reimburse states for various expenses they had from COVID and using the National Guard to open and operate 100 mass vaccination clinics. There was also an order to develop online dashboards to offer COVID-related data. He wants that data to get as detailed as information about your specific county.
Another big one was using the Defense Production Act to “force” companies to make supplies that are necessary for COVID-related products. These are things like needles and the solution that mixes with the medicine part of the vaccine, and N95 masks, which are going to be important in defending against these new mutations.
Some of the broader orders are:
- Ordering the CDC to work with states to update their pandemic plans
- Requesting the creation of a plan to figure out how to speed up our development and distribution of therapeutic treatments.
- Creating public education campaigns about the vaccines to make people more comfortable with them
- Reminding the different agencies involved about the disparities based on race, geography, disability, etc. to make sure the vaccine is distributed equally. I’m sure this is to prevent people from “buying” their spot in line, and so we don’t forget about the minority communities that have been most affected by this, but also are usually forgotten about in these programs.
Overall, it’s been a very busy 24-36 hours since Biden was officially sworn in, and boy, do things feel different. Maybe it’s just because I pay such close attention to this stuff, but everything seems different already. There are actual plans being made and actions being taken to help with COVID; it doesn’t feel like we’re just on our own anymore.
Negotiations for new nuclear deal with Russia, sec of education paused student loan payments and put interest rate for them at 0%
I’m no historian, but I would guess that this has to be the most productive first two days in presidential history. They didn’t even know how to turn on the lights for god’s sake.
NATIONAL GUARD 12 National Guard members were removed from duties for President Biden. Two of them were relieved for possible links to right-wing extremist movements, according to the New York Times.
The two who were directly linked to the extremists made “inappropriate comments or sent inappropriate texts”, according to defense officials. The other 10 that were taken off the detail were apparently removed “for reasons unrelated to recent events in the Capitol”. I find that hard to believe, but hey, I’m not complaining; I’m glad that they were that thorough.
According to this article, out of the 100ish people that the FBI has arrested so far, 6 of them have had military ties of some kind.
This isn’t necessarily related to the story, but I just want to mention that this story was behind a paywall on the New York Times’ website. In case you want to get around that without subscribing, there’s a website called printfriendly.com where you can copy the URL link for the story, paste it in on printfriendly, and then it basically transforms it into a PDF, even if it’s behind the paywall. Just a life hack tip there.
TRUMP YOUTUBE/NEW PARTY I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the media basically forgetting Trump for the day yesterday and keeping the focus on President Biden and Vice President Harris. Maybe it’s just because I was watching “the radical left MSDNC”, but even on Twitter, I didn’t see a single video of Trump landing in Florida. I guess I’ll have to break the streak, but just for a minute or two, because I think there’s also a risk that if we just don’t talk about him ever, we’ll just pretend like it never happened. I know I sound like I’m trying to have it both ways, but forgetting the past is how we got Trump in the first place.
First, YouTube has extended its ban on Trump’s account for another week, so I think that means he won’t be able to upload new videos or do livestreams until next Wednesday. Additionally, they said that comments will be disabled on his videos indefinitely. The Google CEO, since Google owns YouTube, said that there aren’t any plans to completely delete his account, but that he’ll be treated like any normal person. This means that if he violates the company’s policies 3 times in the span of 90 days, then he’ll have his account terminated.
This was also interesting to me: Facebooks COO and Communications Director have indicated that Trump might be banned longer than they originally said, according to NBC News and The Hill. Both of those officials have said that there are “no plans” to lift the ban, and the Comms Director even added that “the indefinite block we placed on the President's ability to post from those accounts remains in place and there are no plans to lift it”. They must really be getting nervous about Democrats holding them accountable.
Also, just quickly, Trump has apparently been floating the idea of forming a new political party, separate from the Republicans. According to these sources, he would want to call the new party the “Patriot Party”, because nothing says “patriot” more than trying to violently overturn a free and fair election.
Obviously, I’m all in on this idea; I think he should do it. He can divide the Republican vote as much as he wants so that they can never win another election. They deserve it.
COVID I was going to talk about some new COVID mutations out of South Africa and Denmark, but it’s honestly just confusing and sounds unnecessarily scary, in my opinion.
On the last episode of Quick News Daily during the Trump Administration, we go over a leaked memo detailing Biden's first actions as president, the vetting process for National Guard troops defending the Inauguration, and the MyPillow guy's legal troubles with Dominion Voting Systems.
UPDATE: the AP now reports that 12 National Guard members have been pulled due to their ties to right-wing terrorists.
I also cover how it's questionable if Senator Josh Hawley is even legally a resident of the state he supposedly represents, and why you should #SimonSchusterBoycott (here's my tweet). Lastly, I cover the thuggish tactics that Ron DeSantis is allegedly using to silence Rebekah Jones.
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Transcript:
BIDEN TIMELINE Some news organizations got access to an internal memo from Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain. The memo outlines what steps Biden will take in his first 10 days, so let’s go through those so you have an idea of what to expect. And by the way, I’m just going to play “The Twelve Days of Christmas” under this because when I was reading this in my head, I realized that’s what it sounded like.
On his first day in office (Inauguration Day):
- Biden will reverse the “Muslim Ban”
- Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord
- Ask the Department of Education to extend the current pause on student loan payments and interest
- Issue a mask mandate both on federal property and when traveling between states (on public transportation, I’m sure).
- Propose an immigration reform bill
On his second day in office:
- Sign executive orders to fight the COVID crisis and help safely reopen schools and businesses
On his third day in office:
- Biden will direct his cabinet agencies “to take immediate action to deliver economic relief to working families”, whatever that means.
In the next 7 days, Biden plans to take more executive actions on:
- Criminal justice reform
- Expanding access to healthcare
- Providing support to communities of color and other underserved communities
He’ll also make moves to “restore dignity to our immigration system” and start trying to reunite families that were affected by Trump’s family separation policy.
Klain also said that more actions will be taken once they check with their legal counsels to make sure everything is sound in that respect.
INAUGURATION VETTING U.S. defense officials say they are concerned about an insider ambush or other threat from service personnel who are supposed to be protecting the inauguration, leading the FBI to vet the event for all 25,000 National Guard soldiers coming to Washington. Finally! I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s realizing we have a huge problem with the police and military.
On Sunday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the AP that officials are aware of the possible danger, and he warned commanders to be on the lookout for any issues within their ranks. National Guard members are also getting training to help identify potential insider threats.
McCarthy and other leaders have said that they haven’t found any signs of risks so far, and officials said the vetting has not flagged any problems yet.
McCarthy and these military leaders went through a three-hour security drill on Sunday to prep for the Inauguration. There were as many as 36 of these military officials that participated in this training, along with even more National Guard officers and staff.
During the training, they went over every step of DC’s complicated security lockdown procedures. McCarthy and others kept firing pop quiz questions at them, asking how the troops would respond to various scenarios and how they would communicate with other law enforcement groups within the city.
Their main concern is the scenario where an armed group of people attack, especially if they have explosive devices with them. The scary thing is that McCarthy told the AP that the intelligence reports he’s seen suggest that there actually are groups that are organizing armed rallies around Inauguration Day.
To counter these potential attacks, the National Guard will, in fact, be armed. The Secretary said that they’ve been going through drills on when and how to use force, and how to work efficiently with law enforcement partners. According to McCarthy, this includes “constant mental repetitions of looking at the map and talking through scenarios with leaders so they understand their task and purpose, they know their routes, they know where they’re friendly, adjacent units are, they have the appropriate frequencies to communicate with their law enforcement partners.”
Just based on this article, I’m feeling pretty good about this McCarthy guy. He doesn’t seem to be messing around, he knows the importance of the day, and he even went so far as to say that “we want to send the message to everyone in the United States and for the rest of the world that we can do this safely and peacefully.” Man, I sure hope so. I hope this isn’t just all talk or like saying “the Titanic is unsinkable!”
MYPILLOW According to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, “Officials with Dominion Voting Systems have sent Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, a (cease-and-desist) letter warning him of pending litigation.” They’re doing this because he’s been lying as much as Rudy and Trump about their voting machines and how they’re responsible for massive fraud, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill by now.
In the letter, Dominion called out Lindell by saying, “You have positioned yourself as a prominent leader of the ongoing misinformation campaign.”
I have to say, I’m not usually a huge fan of big companies, but I like how Dominion is taking no prisoners while defending themselves. They sued Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion, they’re going after Fox News and Newsmax, and after receiving a cease-and-desist letter of their own, \ some conservative outlet called the American Thinker got scared so bad that they printed this huge retraction that you have to hear to believe.
They start off the retraction by saying that these 4 writers of theirs published various articles that falsely accused Dominion of fraud. Then they really drop the hammer by saying,
“These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact. Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims.
It was wrong for us to publish these false statements. We apologize to Dominion for all of the harm this caused them and their employees. We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion’s track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error.”
Yikes. If you’re a right-wing outlet, and you get your readers to believe this BS, and then you completely admit that you lied to them, that means that you know you’re in deep doo-doo legally.
JOSH HAWLEY I have a lot of beef with our old friend, Josh Hawley. You know, the seditious traitor senator from Missouri? Well, as it turns out, “from Missouri” might not actually be appropriate for Josh.
You see, after hearing Rick Wilson mention it on his podcast, I looked it up on my own, and sure enough, Josh Hawley is officially registered to vote at his sister’s home in Missouri since he doesn’t have one. Hawley actually lives full-time in a $1.3 million house in Northern Virginia.
This is a big deal because similar incidents like this have caused other politicians to lose their seat or even face felony charges. It also just further shows how much of a hypocrite and horrible person Hawley really is.
Back in 2018, Hawley attacked his opponent, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, for spending too much time in Washington. He even said “She flies over us in her private plane … to her luxury condo in D.C.”
The Editorial Board for the Kansas City Star really went after Josh, and I really couldn’t have done it better myself. They said (this is a long quote, but bear with me, it’s worth it), “But, leave it to our junior senator to turn this into yet another pretend instance of sneering elites unfairly roughing him up. When McCaskill, who always had a house in Missouri, also kept a place in D.C. while serving there, Hawley made that out to be evidence that she had become an out of touch elitist, of course. But now that he is being dinged for living in his D.C.-area home full time, that’s somehow an uppity attack on Everyman Josh Hawley — son of a banker and graduate of Stanford and Yale — for living in humble Ozark. Where he’s not actually living. Maybe this unvaried aria of resentment is just what America will be looking for in a president four years from now. But in case it’s not, Senator, you might want to at least try out some other material.” Ouch. I honestly don’t know if I can say anything else on the subject, that was brilliant.
I’m done with Josh on that subject, but there’s another one I have to talk about. The conservative publisher Regnery Publishing has agreed to pick up Hawley’s book and publish it after Simon & Schuster dropped it because of his traitorous attack.
Now, you might think I’m going to attack Regnery, but I’m not. They are who they are: a garbage publishing company.
Actually, I’ve got a bone to pick with Simon & Schuster. You see, they handle distribution and sales for Regnery titles in Canada and export markets around the world, so they only dropped the book when the spotlight was on them. They thought they could get away with distributing it quietly since it’s just overseas markets. Well, I don’t think they should be able to have fake morals and values. That’s why I’m going to ask you retweet a tweet of mine and use the hashtag “#SimonSchusterBoycott”. The link to that tweet is in the description of this episode, so that should take you right to Twitter to retweet it.
REBEKAH JONES This story just makes me mad. It’s an update on Rebekah Jones. Jones is that former data person from Florida who created her own dashboard because the governor, Ron DeSantis, wasn’t letting her report accurate COVID numbers in her official position.
Last month, on December 7th, DeSantis was probably behind the raid on her house, which was conducted under the disguise of being for an investigation into an unauthorized email being sent out to state employees. They seized all of her things, but as I said back then, they left a lot of the stuff that they would have needed to prove that she sent the email, which pointed to the whole raid being a political hit to find out who her sources were and how she was getting the data.
Well, sometime between Friday and Saturday, Jones and some media outlets got word that there was going to be an arrest warrant issued against her, so she negotiated and eventually turned herself in on Saturday.
She was charged with a third-degree felony of “offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices.” The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that during that raid, they found evidence that she “illegally accessed the system sending a message to approximately 1,750 people and downloaded confidential FDOH data and saved it to her devices.”
The part that just infuriates me is that since being put in jail, Jones has tested positive for COVID. If she suffers any long-term effects from COVID, it’s all on DeSantis. This is clearly not justice, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, it’s just a move to intimidate her. If you ask me, I think somebody should be investigating DeSantis for blatant abuse of power.
WATCHES/COVID Smartwatches and fitness wearables can play a valuable role in the early detection of COVID-19, according to recent studies. Researchers from Mount Sinai have found that Apple Watch can detect minor changes in the heartbeat of a consumer that may mean that they have coronavirus a full week before they feel sick, as reported by CBS News. One company is now designing a custom wearable to detect COVID.
Overall, this could be another helpful way to detect asymptomatic carriers and let them know so that they stay home and don’t spread it anymore.
A similar study conducted by Stanford University where participants wearing Garmin, Fitbit, Apple and other trackers discovered that up to 9.5 days before the onset of symptoms, 81% of patients who tested positive for COVID saw changes in their resting heart rate.
Even without these special add-ons, a smartwatch or wearable could still be useful. Recently, the PGA Tour started using Whoop health trackers to monitor for COVID. One golfer, Nick Watney, thinks that this may have helped him realize that he was COVID positive before the test confirmed it.
On today's Quick News Daily Podcast, we cover a lot of smaller stories that are making headlines. These include stories about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris resigning her Senate position today, when Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock could be sworn in as U.S. Senators from Georgia, and what effect Twitter's ban on Trump is already having. Also, we'll cover the changes to the Inauguration, like a Tom Hanks-hosted TV program, and President-elect Biden's stimulus plan (The American Rescue Plan).
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Transcript:
SENATE Kamala Harris is resigning from the Senate today so that she can prep for her role as Vice President, which is still so, so fun to say.
This means that the current California Secretary of State will fill her seat. He said that he expects to be sworn in on Wednesday.
Another thing I’ve been wondering is when exactly do Jon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock get sworn in in the Senate?
Well, according to WXTL in Georgia, every country in Georgia was able to meet the deadline of certifying their results by midnight this past Friday.
No precincts or counties reported any changes in the outcome, so again, no fraud there.
Warnock and Ossoff have to bring their certification papers to DC, and once they do that, they’re usually sworn in the next day.
Even though I’m sure they could head there today with their papers, everywhere I’ve looked says that Democrats will get control of the Senate on January 20th, so I guess everyone just kind of takes a break until then.
BIDEN STIMULUS PLAN I think it was Friday of last week, President Biden (I’m just going to start calling him that, if you don’t mind) introduced his plan for a $1.9 trillion emergency legislative package to fund a nationwide vaccination effort and provide direct economic relief to Americans. He’s calling the plan “The American Rescue Plan”.
"In this pandemic in America, we cannot let people go hungry. We cannot let people get evicted. We cannot let nurses, educators and others lose their jobs when we so badly need them. We must act now and act decisively," Biden said.
Woah, is that our president saying that? Is our president actually getting involved in passing bills and doing actual work? I thought he was just supposed to tweet about what he’s watching on Fox & Friends.
The American Rescue Plan will include more than $400 billion toward dealing with COVID, including $160 billion to execute a national vaccination program, expand testing and mobilize a public health jobs program.
The proposal includes $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans and extends and expands unemployment benefits, including a $400 weekly unemployment insurance supplement, through September.
The CNN article says “Biden's plan invests $50 billion to expand Covid-19 testing, providing funds to purchase rapid tests, expand lab capacity and help schools and local governments implement regular testing protocols. Biden will also ask for $30 billion to invest in the disaster relief fund to ensure sufficient supplies and protective gear, and to provide total federal reimbursement for critical emergency response resources.”
The request includes $30 billion in rental, utility, energy, and water assistance for those hit hardest by the pandemic, as well as extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until September 30th.
In terms of small business help, Biden is proposing $15 billion in flexible grants to more than 1 million of the hardest hit small businesses. He is proposing investing $35 billion in government funds into state, local, tribal, and nonprofit small business financing programs.
Biden's plan would provide additional resources for high-quality, affordable childcare. He will request a $25 billion emergency stabilization fund to assist childcare providers in covering their costs to operate safely. It would also provide emergency paid leave to an additional 106 million Americans in order to help reduce the spread of the virus.
There’s also a proposal for the child tax credit to be made refundable for the year, and that Congress increase the credit to $3,000 per child, or $3,600 for a child under the age of 6 and make 17-year-olds qualifying children for the year.
Biden is asking f $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local and territorial governments in order to support front line workers, keeping them on the job and paid.
I don’t know, I don’t want to get too optimistic because it is Congress, after all. Plus, they always say that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
To get this deal passed, they just need to make sure they keep moderate Democrats, like Joe Manchin, happy.
The lives and futures of tens or hundreds of millions of Americans really should not come down to one or two people, especially old white dudes who are probably millionaires, but that’s our system right now, unfortunately.
It is a very good step in the right direction though, because it’s about helping working Americans, not just tax breaks and straight up money for companies. I honestly don’t get how blue-collar workers think that Republicans are their friends and Democrats are their enemies.
And, I hate to say it, but Manchin had a good point on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday. He said, “I'm on board by helping people that need help, people that really can't make it, people that don't have a job. Sending checks to people that basically already have a check and aren't going to be able to spend that or are not going to spend it -- usually are putting it in their savings account right now -- that's not who we are."
So, you might be asking “when is the earliest the money could start flowing?” The answer, according to Kevin Kosar, a resident scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and co-editor of the book Congress Overwhelmed, might be mid- to late February.
Another CNN article pointed out that in his speech Thursday night, Biden said he would like to work with members of both parties to enact his American Rescue Plan, indicating that he wants to go the traditional route, which would require the backing of at least 10 Republican senators.
INAUGURATION The arrests for the insurrection at the Capitol just keep piling up.
There won’t be an actual parade from the Capitol to the White House, just a virtual parade (whatever that is).
There won’t be inaugural balls either, but it might actually be better this year. Instead of these, we’ll get a special TV program that’s hosted by Tom Hanks.
This will run from 8:30 PM ET to 10:00 PM ET. It’ll be on the original networks, and also on cable on CNN and MSNBC.
The program will include performances from Jon Bon Jovi, who campaigned with Biden in Pennsylvania, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, and Ant Clemons.
As for President Sore Loser, Trump plans to leave the White House on Inauguration Day and have a departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. This means he’d be the first president in modern history to skip the inauguration of the next president.
As for the departure ceremony, I don’t know about you, but that kind of seems like a misuse of military resources. I’m not sure if we care about those things all the time, or if it’s just when Democrats try to ask why we’re spending so much money on the military. Yeah, I am pretty salty about that topic…
After the departure ceremony, Trump will use our hard-earned tax dollars one last time to use Air Force One to fly to Mar-a-Lago.
Speaking of programming for the Inauguration, that reminds me: I won’t be having a show on Wednesday. It’ll be much more captivating to watch the swearing ins and speeches.
MISINFORMATION According to research by Zignal Labs, which the Washington Post reported on Saturday, online misinformation about election fraud decreased by 73 percent in the after Twitter banned Trump on January 8.
Zignal found that the use of hashtags that were used by right-wing people about the Capitol riot also dipped considerably
Mentions of the hashtag #FightforTrump, which was across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media services in the week before the rally, dropped 95 percent. “#HoldTheLine” and the term “March for Trump” also decreased more than 95 percent.
Get caught up on all of the week's top headlines and breaking news with Quick News To Go from Quick News Daily. This week's news includes fallout from the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, how the flu shot may help your chances against COVID, new strains popping up in Ohio, a lawsuit against the NYPD for their conduct during the Black Lives Matter protests, Andrew Yang's candidacy for NYC Mayor, and more!
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The pet foods, made by Midwestern Pet Foods Inc., that are in the recall are:
- Sportmix
- Pro Pac Originals
- Splash
- Sportstrail
- Nunn Better
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Today's latest headlines from Quick News Daily include news from Moderna, information about possible new US COVID strains in Ohio and the South African variant, and why Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg did too little too late. Also discussed are the start of the WHO's COVID origins investigation and Andrew Yang's entrance into the race to become Mayor of New York City.
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Transcript (mostly accurate):
First segment excluded so the subject of this portion of the show cannot find it as easily.
MODERNA
I guess the Moderna CEO is out on a media tour for some reason because he made some more notable comments at another conference. This time, it was at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.
As for his notable comments, they were that he thinks COVID will be around forever. He said, “We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever”.
Viruses that are around continuously, like the flu and the common cold, are called “endemic viruses”. I just thought I’d put that in there in case it’s a trivia answer or you want to sound smart some time.
This actually led me down a rabbit hole, because this CNBC story had links to new information on the South African virus, as well as 2 possible new strains that researchers found that originated in the US.
For the potentially new US strains, it’s the same old story we’ve been hearing: the mutations seem to be making COVID more contagious but have no effect on how deadly it is or how well the vaccine will work.
One of the strains has only been found in one patient, which is pretty crazy. They said that this one had a mutation that’s identical to the UK one, so it made me wonder “are you guys not seeing this? It’s in one person and it’s identical to the UK one? Maybe it’s just the UK one?”
As for the South African strain, it’s spread to a couple of other countries now: the UK, France, Switzerland, Japan, Austria, and Zambia.
The UK Health Secretary said “I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant, and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa. This is a very, very significant problem…and it’s even more of a problem than the UK new variant”. That’s scary enough in itself, but he just didn’t explain why he said any of this.
Thankfully, Dr. Scott Gottlieb (he’s the former CDC Director that I trust most) said that the South African one is concerning him because it seems to be rejecting antibody drug treatment. So, technically, it could become more deadly. But, for what it’s worth, the CDC still says there’s no evidence that it causes more severe illness or that it’s more deadly.
Since this is the common pattern we’re seeing (every single new strain is more contagious but not more deadly), I just have to ask: are all of these mutations helping it spread more quickly, or are these changes actually not doing anything in terms of how easy it is to spread and it’s spreading more quickly because people are being dumb and getting tired of COVID rules?
Obviously, there are changes to the virus because it’s been confirmed by its genetics, but is it actually just some coincidence that it’s spreading quickly and they happened to catch the new strain when they test?
The other interesting thing that was in this story about the US variants was about calling these the “UK variant” or “South African variant”. Now that I think about it, it’s probably just trying to shake the blame now that the US might have variants, but some expert in the article said that it’s not really fair to call the variants by where they’re from because it really could have started in another country that isn’t as advanced and isn’t looking for mutations, and it wasn’t found until it reached a country that was more scientifically well-equipped.
BIG TECH
One of my favorite podcasts to listen to, The New Abnormal with Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson, had a great guest on the last episode. The guest was Scott Galloway, who’s a professor at NYU and, apparently, an expert in the world of big tech. The great part was him explaining why Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn’t some hero for finally banning Trump, permanently, or why Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a great guy, and what Congress can do about all this.
One of the best quotes was when Galloway said “There is nothing noble, there is nothing patriotic, there was nothing civic in Zuckerberg or Dorsey kicking these people off of their platforms. This is them trying to wallpaper over their delay and obfuscation. People who get DUIs typically have driven drunk 200 times before they kill a family or they’re pulled over, and these guys have been driving drunk and all of a sudden, a family got killed, and now they’re sorry. They deserve zero f’ing credit for doing the right thing in the bottom of the ninth inning.”
He said that their change of heart in banning people is a direct result of Democrats winning the Senate, and Dorsey and Zuckerberg realizing that now that Democrats are running things, their companies could be broken up through antitrust lawsuits from the Justice Department.
People are saying that there’s blood on Trump’s hands since 6 people have died from that event, but really, a white supremacist killed a protester in Charlottesville way back in 2017. They also didn’t do anything when Trump said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. The CEOs didn’t decide to kick Trump off until they saw that Mitch McConnell wasn’t going to be majority leader anymore.
Galloway also suggested that there needs to be a “perp walk” for these CEOs (a perp walk is the walk you see on TV when the cops bring the perp to the station in handcuffs in front of all the media so that they’re caught on camera. It’s meant to humiliate and shame them). I think he’s right, honestly. He gave a good example: if someone calls a celebrity and says “I can get your kid into Harvard if you give me $50,000”, the celebrity isn’t going to do that anymore because they perp-walked Aunt Becky (Lori Loughlin) and threw her in prison for a couple months. If some CEOs and/or board members of these social media companies get punished for what they’ve let happen on their sites, then other companies will start to shape up.
He also explained Section 230 that we’ve been hearing a lot about. He said that it was originally designed to protect smaller companies who didn’t have the budget to monitor the content from other people on their platform.
He suggested should move back to that where it’s just for companies who make less than some amount of money, so Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. would have to monitor what’s on their site, and some small startup (who doesn’t have the same amount of resources, like Quick News Daily) wouldn’t.
They already can, but they just don’t want to. He gave an example for YouTube, and I’ve experienced it firsthand: when I post my shows to YouTube, almost as soon as it’s posted, I get a copyright notice from YouTube because I use that 2-second clip from that song from Hamilton play Never Gon’ Be President. That one. They also get me for playing the 1812 Overture from V for Vendetta at the end of my shows. The 1812 Overture is public domain because it was made before like 1920, but I like the version from V for Vendetta the best, so I use that one. However, I guess that’s copyrighted, so if I made any money on my YouTube videos, that money would go straight to the composer of the V for Vendetta soundtrack.
The point of that long example is to show that if YouTube’s AI algorithms can find a 2-second clip of a song from Hamilton in my video, they can find a bunch of right-wingers planning to storm the Capitol or kidnap the Governor of Michigan, it’s just that they don’t want to.
COVID INVESTIGATION
Experts from the World Health Organization are due to arrive in China today/yesterday to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. They’ll meet with their counterparts from China, and the big question is whether they’ll visit Wuhan, which is ground zero.
This is notable because China is suffocating (figuratively) anyone trying to research the origins of the virus. Sure, people can research it, but if you want to publish the data or findings, it has to be approved by this brand-new task force that’s managed by China’s Cabinet. China’s Cabinet is directly commanded by, who else, Chinese President Xi Jinping. So, when it comes down to it, that means that research that is published is questionable at best.
In case you’re wondering what the Chinese people are hearing on their TVs, state media has resorted to pushing conspiracy theories that say the virus is actually from somewhere else, so that’s healthy.
This secrecy almost certainly led to warnings coming too late, not enough information getting to the World Health Organization, and slowed down testing early on.
Now, hopefully, we’ll be able to settle where this came from once and for all. Was it just someone eating an undercooked bat or pangolin? Were they studying coronaviruses in bats and then it accidentally got out? Reputable scientists say that it almost certainly came from bats and got to us through an intermediate animal that they eat from the wet markets over there, but the right-wing theory is that it was a weapon that got out.
I can’t remember if I said it on the podcast, but I think it came from a bat because of a crazy dream I had. Maybe I’ll revisit that when the WHO finishes their investigation (or sooner since that could be a while).
ANDREW YANG Thursday morning, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang officially joined the race to become Mayor of New York City.
Yang has already been criticized for his lack of engagement in the city's civic and political life before deciding to run for mayor. He’s also going to be cast as “out of touch”, and he made some comments in a recent interview that will give his critics some ammo when it comes to that, be he has lived in NYC since 1996.
On this episode of the #1 quick news podcast, we go over several stories, including a pet food recall (see more info below), the impeachment vote in the House, new details about what happened during the insurrection at the Capitol, the New York AG going after the NYPD for their conduct during the Black Lives Matter protests, and more!
The pet foods, made by Midwestern Pet Foods Inc., that are in the recall are:
- Sportmix
- Pro Pac Originals
- Splash
- Sportstrail
- Nunn Better
They are dry dog and cat foods that expire on or before July 9th, 2022.
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Sources
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Transcript (mostly accurate):
DOG FOOD RECALL
I want to get to this story right away though, because it could affect a ton of listeners. The following products made by Midwestern Pet Foods have been recalled due to contamination by a toxin from mold: Sportmix, Pro Pac Originals, Splash, Sportstrail and Nunn Better dry dog and cat foods. This affects products made with corn that expire on or before July 9th, 2022.
Aflatoxin (which sounds like it should be a type of insurance from Aflac) comes from a type of mold called Aspergillus flavus, which can be found on corn and grains that are used to make the food. If your pet ingests enough, it can cause general sickness and/or death, but the thing that’s almost scarier is that it can cause liver damage without your pet showing any symptoms.
The symptoms to look for in your pet are sluggishness, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice, and diarrhea.
So far, 70 dogs have died, and 80 have become ill from these products. No illness yet reported in humans or cats, but the FDA still recommends washing your hands after handling pet food at any time, not just when it might have aflatoxin/Aflac-toxin in it.
The types Midwestern Pet Foods products that are in the recall are listed in the show description.
IMPEACHMENT You heard it from Nancy Pelosi in the beginning of the show: by a vote of 232-197, the House impeached Trump for a second time yesterday, which makes him the first president to ever be impeached twice.
I think that pretty much ends the debate on who’s the worst president in our history, especially post-slavery. I guess maybe I would argue that he’s certainly the most incompetent in history, because looking back Reagan did horrible stuff because he was effective and actually got laws passed (but the Senate and/or the House were always controlled by Democrats during his time, so he couldn’t go on a total rampage). Also, there were a bunch of pro-slavery presidents before Lincoln, so they’re awful in an even different kind of way, but I think it’s clear that Trump is mentally unfit and completely narcissistic, so he makes whatever decisions are best for him, including attacking his own government.
I guess the notable news was that this time, there were actually 10 Republicans who joined in and voted to impeach him in the House, as opposed to 0 last time.
One of the Republicans who voted to impeach, Peter Meijer, said he and some of his colleagues have started wearing body armor and changing up their daily routines because they’re afraid of being attacked. And that truly is sad, but I have to say, I have a real problem with all of these Republicans in Congress sending their staff to talk to news outlets anonymously and telling the reporters “so and so would have voted to impeach Trump, but they were afraid for their family’s safety, so they couldn’t”. That’s BS. Do these people think that the 222 Democrats who voted for impeachment are living in rainbow land with unicorns? No way! They’ve had to deal with threats for 4 years! Grow up and do your job, don’t try to get sympathy for being a racist sympathizer.
Now, here’s the problem: Mitch McConnell, of course, said that he’s not going to call the Senate back for a special session to hold this impeachment trial, which means that this thing won’t start until at least January 20th (though January 21st is more likely because the 20th is Inauguration Day). This means we’ll still have to deal with Trump having power for 6 more days, which is bad in itself. It’s also bad, in the immediate sense, because everything in Congress stops while this trial takes place. This means that they won’t be able to work on another stimulus bill right away, which seems to be Joe Biden’s first priority, and Americans need more than $600, plain and simple. That said, I did see a report today that said Biden is asking the Senate to do both impeachment and get some of his confirmations through.
So, you might ask “why even bother doing this?” Basically, it comes down to one thing: protecting us against this happening in the future. The first way it does that is making sure Trump is convicted so that any future presidents will know that if they cross this line, both sides will come together and remove you from office. It also makes sure that this stands out in the history books so that everyone knows that this isn’t going to fly.
The second way it protects the future is that if a president is impeached, they are banned from running for federal office forever. This means that even if he wants to and is alive at the time, Trump can’t run again in 2024. Some hopeful people are saying this could be why Senate Republicans vote to convict because he’d be out of their way if they want to run for president themselves in 2024, or he’d just be even more irrelevant because he can’t keep threatening to run again, so they won’t have to keep worrying about making him happy.
CAPITOL FALLOUT
As I mentioned a couple days ago, we keep slowly learning more and more about what happened on the date of the insurrection. Former Chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, said that he asked for the National Guard to be called in 6 times, before and during the insurrection.
I was surprised to learn that the Capitol Police numbered around 1,400 that day, but they were still quickly overrun by the estimated 8,000 rioters.
Sund says that during a conference call with several law enforcement officials at about 2:26 p.m., he asked the Pentagon to provide backup. When the mob reached the Capitol complex at about 12:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it took about 15 minutes for the west side perimeter of the building to be breached, so I’m not really sure how that would have helped since it was like 2 hours after this.
Senior Army official Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, said on the call he couldn't recommend that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy authorize this, saying “I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background”. That’s a stupid reason.
Mayor Muriel Bowser also wanted a light police presence at the Capitol to try to avoid another Lafayette Square incident, which seems like a bad call, in hindsight. She requested 340 National Guard members, and she got them, but they were only requested to be traffic cops, essentially. She was relying on the DC Metro police to do actual enforcement of the law.
I’m just waiting to find out how deep the planning of this attack went, in terms of how members of law enforcement, or even members of Congress, helped to plan this thing out.
There’s confirmation that at least 2 Seattle police officers were put on administrative leave because they traveled to DC to take part in the event. There are also unconfirmed accusations by several Democrats in Congress that they saw other members leading “tours” for white supremacists in the day or two before the insurrection, so there are some thoughts that maybe they showed the terrorists where certain offices were.
Sort of related to that, I saw a photo of super Trumpy Congressman Matt Gaetz on his phone on the House floor just before the attack happened. This may sound normal, but even the members aren’t supposed to have cell phones out there, so why would he be on his phone on this day of all days? Maybe it’s a coincidence and this happens all the time, but maybe there’s something to it.
At least it sounds like the FBI isn’t messing around with this investigation. For this story, NPR said a federal investigator said the public will be shocked to learn what they’ve learned so far, so if this is some FBI guy saying this, it must be some real stuff.
INAUGURATION SECURITY
Multiple defense officials tell CNN that the total request for National Guard is close to 30,000 guardsmen to support US Capitol Police, Park Police and Washington Metropolitan Police Department, but officials believe that the actual number will be closer to 20,000.
The more than 20,000 National Guard members expected for Biden's inauguration is more than three times the number of active duty US troops currently in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined.
In the article I was reading from CNN, they used this mention of the Middle East to weirdly inject news about the troop drawdown over there and compare what Trump wants to do with that to what Biden wants to do with that. It’s just awkwardly shoehorned in there like they didn’t have enough for a full story on its own, but the writer still wanted it in there because they had to spend time doing research for it and didn’t want it to go to waste.
Discussions are underway about raising the terrorism threat level, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, though one source cautioned no changes are expected as of now. One of the officials said the discussions began following last week's insurrection and was based on information that a similar attack by "armed militias" could happen at the Capitol or elsewhere. One official said “the chatter is off the charts right now” for something like that happening again, which is definitely a scary thought.
CNN reported earlier this week that thousands of armed Ya’ll Qaeda terrorists are plotting to surround the US Capitol ahead of Biden's inauguration, according to a member of Congress who had been briefed about the situation. Several officials told CNN that there is a much better feeling that things are organized and being put into place correctly because the Secret Service is in charge, with one official simply saying: "They don't mess around."
The DC Mayor said public parking garages in some areas of downtown DC and near the Capitol will be closed off starting at 6:00 a.m. ET Friday, and they’ll stay closed until the inauguration is over. Any cars left in those garages will be inaccessible until after the Inauguration.
It was also just announced that the National Mall will be closed to the public on Inauguration Day, and there will be no big screens, toilets, or panels for people to stand on. In fact, Joe Biden’s advisers have gone so far as to say this is intended to be a virtual event.
Also, originally, Biden had been planning on traveling to the Inauguration via Amtrak, but that’s out the window now too.
VIA GETTY
To lighten the mood, I just have to talk about this funny thing that happened after the insurrection last week. Obviously, since there were barely any arrests that happened while the whole thing was happening, people were sharing pictures of every terrorist that they could so that the FBI could find them later.
So, this reporter from CNN simply shared a picture of the guy stealing the podium, and the caption said, “Via Getty, one of the rioters steals a podium from the Capitol”. This was an unfortunate way to phrase it, because by saying this picture is from Getty (“via Getty”) at the beginning of the sentence, the “via” was capitalized.
Usually, you put photo credit in parentheses at the end of a sentence, but because this guy did it this way, people thought “via Getty” was someone’s name.
They started retweeting the tweet and saying “Via Getty that is his name let’s get this guy and serve justice (sic)” and “I want Via Getty and everyone else who participated in this domestic terrorism at the Capitol today arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
Just let this be a lesson: slow down before you fire off that tweet and think about what you’re actually saying. Also, remember that Getty Images is a thing.
NY ATTORNEY GENERAL I have to say, I was especially happy to see this piece of news: Letitia James, the Attorney General for the state of New York, is suing the NYPD and its leadership over what she calls their “excessive, brutal, and unlawful” handling of the protests after George Floyd’s death.
She says that officers used “indiscriminate, unjustified, and repeated use of batons, pepper spray, bicycles and a crowd control tactic known as ‘kettling’ against peaceful protesters”; key word: peaceful.
She skewered them by also saying “Over the past few months, the NYPD has repeatedly and blatantly violated the rights of New Yorkers, inflicting significant physical and psychological harm and leading to great distrust in law enforcement."
Of course, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner came out and said that the department is open to reform but that “more oversight does not speed up the process of reform”. Well Mr. Deputy Commissioner, we wouldn’t need another layer of oversight if the oversight you’re doing actually worked, now would we?
In the suit, the state used some of the more than 1,300 complaints and 300 written statements as evidence, including that of Rayne Valentine, who recorded 6 NYPD officers using physical force against a protester in a subway station. After his shift at a local hospital, Valentine started recording. When the officer told him to back up, and he did, Valentine says the officer charged him anyway and that, allegedly, multiple officers hit and kicked Valentine for 90 seconds. He had to turn right around, go back to the hospital he just got done working at, and get 7 staples for a wound on his head.
According to this CNN article, “the AG says that officers struck protesters with blunt instruments at least 50 times, unlawfully deployed pepper spray on at least 30 occasions, and pushed or struck protesters at least 75 times”. She also states that police arrested 12 legal observers for violating curfew, even though legal observers and medics were exempt from the curfew. Doesn’t that seem convenient, arresting the people who are making sure you’re following the law?
To their credit, groups like Legal Aid and the ACLU have already filed lawsuits against the Mayor, the NYPD, and its leadership.
For what it’s worth, I say “got get ‘em”. What I saw on news coverage, including reporters getting targeted, arrested, and beaten on live TV, as well as the news that officers all over the country were part of the insurrection last Wednesday, we need a real hard look at who’s supposedly protecting us. It might be uncomfortable to rip off that band aid, but frankly, we’ve got a lot of white supremacist, wannabe fascists in our departments all across the country. Think about it: if these cops were so extremist in New York, one of the most liberal, progressive places in the country, do you really think that your police department in rural Michigan or Minnesota or Kansas isn’t chock full of these deplorables? Like I said during the protests, the defense that they always use that “it’s just a couple of bad eggs” is ridiculous. We have cartons and cartons of bad eggs, and only a few that stayed good in the refrigerator.
Today on your favorite daily news podcast, we go take a small break from updates about the Capitol Insurrection fallout to talk about the other major issue in this country: COVID. Thankfully, it's mostly good news.
Specifically, we'll look at the early tests of the Pfizer vaccine against the new COVID mutations from the UK and South Africa, then we'll talk about the crazy decrease in flu numbers for this year and why getting the flu shot will help you in the fight against the coronavirus.
However, we also have to talk about some bad news, which pertains to Curative, a major manufacturer of COVID tests, and the accuracy of those tests.
Lastly, I will still go over some new information about the Capitol Takeover. We'll take a look at the top 20 companies who have made donations to the congressmen and women who opposed certifying the election results, how much they donated, and what they've said about supporting these seditious politicians going forward.
Find other podcast players where you can listen to Quick News Daily
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On this episode of Quick News Daily, we're still recovering from last week's insurrection in the nation's capital. As it goes with events like this, the information comes out slowly at first, then it builds and turns into an avalanche of news. We also briefly cover how the Biden Administration will distribute the COVID vaccine versus how the Trump Administration has been managing that so far.
Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast platform: https://www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews
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Get caught up on all of the week's top headlines and breaking news with Quick News To Go from Quick News Daily.
On this week's show, we start off slowly on Monday and Tuesday with stories on the Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed COVID vaccines and the UK's struggle with COVID before the week intensifies, starting with the Georgia Senate Runoff on Tuesday. We go over those results, and what they could mean for the future, before covering the failed, deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Understandably, on today’s Quick News Daily, we go over the disgusting display at the U.S. Capitol by domestic terrorists.
Sources
On this Quick News episode, we talk about the HUGE wins in the Senate runoffs in Georgia, where both Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won. We also talk about the disgraceful actions of the Pennsylvania legislature, and the equally horrid decision made by Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley in the Jacob Blake case.
Coming tomorrow: comments on the domestic terrorism at the US Capitol today. Listen to Joe Biden's speech here: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/president-biden-addresses-nation-capitol-building-takeover/
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Rough Transcript:
OPEN
Today is Wednesday, January 6th, and all I can say is: wow! It's really not an exaggeration to say that the world that we woke up to yesterday morning vs. the world that we woke up to this morning are two completely different worlds. Not only did one Democrat win in Georgia, but they ended up winning both Senate runoffs, giving Democrats control of the Senate (because it'll be 50 R's and 50 D's when these two are sworn in, and VP Kamala Harris will be there to break most of the ties for Democrats). I really never expected them to win, and it's incredible when you think about what this means going forward. Let's stop beating around the bush and get right into it.
GEORGIA
The race has already been called for Raphael Warnock over current Senator Kelly Loeffler (aka QAnon Kelly aka KKKelly for her embrace of conspiracy theories and white supremacy). They haven't called the race for Ossoff yet (as of the time of this recording), even though most of the votes are absentee votes from heavily-Democratic counties. I get that they want to be careful, but at some point, being cautious turns into being stupid and ignoring the facts of the situation.
So, I'll give you the quick Wikipedia facts about Georgia's new Senators (and I literally am just reading off of Wikipedia, it's not like this is any great reporting).
In the 1990s, Warnock served as the youth pastor and then assistant pastor at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York (sorry if I'm butchering that church name). While Warnock was there, the church declined to hire workfare recipients as part of organized opposition to then-mayor Rudy Giuliani's workfare program.
In 2005, Warnock became senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, which is Martin Luther King Jr.'s former congregation. He is the fifth and the youngest person to serve as Ebenezer's senior pastor since its founding. This says that Warnock has stated that he will continue in the post while serving in the senate, although I'm not quite sure how that'll be possible.
In March 2014, Warnock led a sit-in at the Georgia State Capitol to press state legislators to accept the expansion of Medicaid offered by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He and other leaders were arrested during the protest. From June 2017 to January 2020, Warnock chaired the "New Georgia Project", a nonpartisan organization focused on voter registration.
In terms of his political positions, Warnock supports expanding the Affordable Care Act and has called for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He also supports increasing COVID-19-relief funding. A proponent of abortion rights and gay marriage, he has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood. He opposes the concealed carry of firearms, saying that religious leaders do not want guns in places of worship. Warnock has long opposed the death penalty, having advocated for death row inmate Troy Davis, who was executed in 2011 for killing a police officer despite evidence that supported his innocence.
Warnock will be the first Black Democrat in history to represent a former Confederate state in the United States Senate, and the first Black senator from Georgia, period. That's not for lack of trying, it's just because that's literally how the system is designed in Georgia: so that Black citizens don't have any political power. In fact, the runoff process that Warnock just won was actually designed by a segregationist for the sole purpose of making sure that no African Americans could win. Georgia state representative Denmark Groover (by the way, what a helluva name that is. That sounds like a comic book character), a Democrat (from back when Democrats were the racist party in the South), came up with this system in 1963 because the thought was that if the race wasn't just between two people and there were other non-White candidates running against a Black candidate, then White voters would split their votes between the two White candidates, and the Black voters would all vote for their one candidate, so the Black candidate would win. In this runoff system, if nobody gets to 50% in the general election, there's a runoff between only two candidates. Groover thought that this would allow white voters to coalesce around their candidate, and that there would be more white voters than black voters. This whole thing makes Senator-elect Warnock's win so much sweeter.
MAGA and Proud Boys started getting into fights with DC police after the race was called for Warnock, so apparently Blue Lives Don't Matter?
As for Senator-elect Jon Ossoff, Ossoff worked as a national security staffer and aide to U.S. Representative Hank Johnson for five years.[14] He had top-secret clearance for five months.[15] He left Johnson's office in 2012 to earn a master's degree at the London School of Economics.[16] Before working for Johnson, he served as an intern for U.S. Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis, who recommended him to Johnson.[17][18]
Since 2013, Ossoff has been managing director and chief executive officer of Insight TWI, a London-based investigative television production company that works with reporters to create documentaries about corruption in foreign countries.[19][20] The firm produced BBC investigations about ISIS war crimes and death squads in East Africa. He was also involved in producing a documentary about the staging of a play in Sierra Leone.[20]
Loeffler is US Senator even though she never won more votes than anyone an election (appointed, didn't win in November, didn't win last night), just like Donald Trump didn't win the popular vote either of the times he was on the ballot.
PENNSYLVANIA
Here's one thing that Republicans have done that they should enjoy while they can: yesterday in Pennsylvania, Republicans in the state legislature refused to swear in a Democratic member who won reelection in November.
GOP leaders forcefully seized control of the proceedings from Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman after Fetterman tried to insist on seating Sen. Jim Brewster for a new term (you know, like the voters chose). The Republican majority voted to remove Fetterman from presiding over the session.
The Department of State has confirmed that Brewster won another term by just 67 votes over Republican Nicole Ziccarelli. This came after the state confirmed that certain mail ballots where voters didn't mark the dates properly could still be counted.
Ziccarelli has challenged the results in federal court, and her case is still pending with no deadline for action. She's asking for 311 mail ballots that arrived at election offices on time, but were missing handwritten dates, to be thrown out. That's it: they were missing dates. That sure doesn't sound like fraud to me.
The state Supreme Court already ruled that ballots like these can be counted, but the problem is that the Senate district includes parts of two counties: Allegheny and Westmoreland. Allegheny County chose to count mail ballots without handwritten dates, but Westmoreland County did not. And here's the thing: I agree that this it's funky to count one county's but not the other's for the same Senate race, but if Ziccarelli and Republicans weren't afraid of voters, they'd be suing to count the ballots, not to have them thrown out.
Republican leaders have said they intend to keep the seat empty while they "review" the election outcome. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman called the situation "fairly unique, if not unprecedented." Yeah, because the people voted someone in, the courts affirmed that it was legal, but you and your cronies are still denying reality. That's what's unprecedented here. Corman didn't say how long Republicans plan to keep the seat empty.
JACOB BLAKE
The big story in my neck of the woods yesterday was the decision from Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley to not charge any of the officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake. If you'll remember, Blake was shot 7 times in the back by Officer Rusten Sheskey.
DA Graveley is a Democrat, so a small part of me trusts him more than if a Republican had said this, but at the same time, he was squirming around so much during this announcement that you could tell he was making the wrong decision. Just go back and look at the body language.
"It's absolutely incontrovertible that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife during this encounter. ... All the discussion that he's unarmed contradicts even what he himself has said multiple times." You know what's "incontrovertible" Graveley? The fact that all 7 shots went into Blake's back. Is it really self-defense when all 7 bullet holes are in the victim’s back? Nobody has killed someone while their own back was turned to them.
Also, the officer said “he used deadly force...because he was afraid Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, was trying to kidnap a child in the back seat of the vehicle” Can someone explain to me how you knife someone while driving away? Is it now self-defense to shoot someone just because they have a knife/gun on the floor of their car? These people are basically arguing that you can just kill anyone as long as they happen to have some sort of weapon in their car. These 2nd amendment people will say it's okay Blake was shot, but they don't realize what that argument means. But they don't understand that because they're probably white and Blake wasn't, so they never have to face any consequences.
Police gave (murderer) Kyle Rittenhouse water and said they appreciated his group helping them out. The police also shot Jacob Blake 7 times in the back. Rittenhouse audio
Police aren’t afraid of weapons, they’re afraid of black people with weapons.
Evers also announced Monday he is mobilizing 500 National Guard troops ahead of the decision at the request of local officials. Remember: this means it's easier for them to call in 500 troops and deal with "riots" than it is to simply charge 1 white dude with attempted murder.
On today's Quick News Daily Podcast, we finally learn the motive of the doctor who destroyed COVID vaccines in Wisconsin, and we have information about the lockdown imposed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Also, we go over issues you might be having when you try to track your COVID stimulus check on the irs.gov website, California Gov. Gavin Newsom floating new ideas to help distribute the COVID vaccine, and our good night on Twitter against Sen. Josh Hawley.
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews
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WISCONSIN DOCTOR
Well, when the news outlets confirmed that the pharmacist who intentionally damaged those COVID vaccines was, in fact, Steven Brandenburg, it didn't take long to find out his motivation behind what he did.
According to Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol, Brandenburg "formed this belief they were unsafe." Gerol did not offer any more specific information on why Brandenburg was convinced they were harmful, but he did start to explain the problems going on in his life. He explained that the 46-year-old is in the process of divorcing his wife, and he said another Advocate Aurora Health employee reported that Brandenburg had taken a gun to work twice.
The story gets more complicated when we start to talk about what might happen to Brandenburg in terms of criminal punishment.
Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the DA couldn't submit proof to the court that the drugs had been damaged and that therefore a crime had been committed. Gerol said that "apparently the only way they can discover that or tell us that is if they test them. It's unknown how much time that will take". There is a crime known as attempted criminal damage to property, Gerol said, and that "would be a misdemeanor and that would seem to apply at some point in time in the future."
But Brandenburg's troubles with the law don't end with the state of Wisconsin: The FBI and U.S. Food and Drug Administration are also investigating.
As for what happens with Brandenburg in the immediate future, Judge Paul Malloy set a $10,000 signature bond for Brandenburg and ordered him to surrender all his firearms to sheriff's deputies, not to leave Wisconsin, not to work in the health care field, and to have no contact with Aurora employees.
Brandenburg was released on Monday
Brandenburg had already surrendered some weapons to police at the request of his ex-wife, said DA Gerol. Court records Brandenburg's former wife filed for divorce in June 2020.
UK LOCKDOWN AND ASTRAZENECA
Well, it sounds like Britain is having a heck of a time with the coronavirus at the moment, whether it's related to the new strain of the virus or not.
It's gotten so bad that Prime Minister Boris Johnson reimposed measures that were in place during the first lockdown last spring, including closures of secondary and primary schools to everyone except the children of key workers and vulnerable children. I read that sentence from the CNN article so many times, and I still don't even know what that means. Why would they be sending vulnerable children to be around more kids? Do they mean vulernable to the virus, or kids with a bad home life? Someone from the UK can help me out on that.
He also added that this means it will not be "possible or fair for all exams to go ahead this summer as normal," and alternative arrangements are being put in place. Yeah, I'm just saying, I think that's the least of their problems right now. Don't worry about the exams, man.
People will be allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons like shopping for essentials, exercise, and medical assistance. Johnson also said people could still leave home "to escape domestic abuse", which is definitely an important thing to include (although I'd hope that if you need to flee because of domestic abuse, you wouldn't wait for the government to say you can do so. Just go!).
International departures are now limited to those who have "a legally permitted reason," such as work. Outdoor sports venues will have to close. Nurseries will not be closed, and neither will elite sports. Places of worship will remain open on the basis that attendees adhere to social distancing rules. These restrictions are expected to remain in place at least through the middle of February.
The UK is back in crisis mode because new daily Covid-19 cases have been above 50,000 cases for nearly a week, and hospitalizations exceed April's peak.
While the lockdown announcement was a relief for many, education unions continued their call for school staff to be prioritized for vaccinations. Others complained about the lack of notice provided to parents over the immediate closure of schools.
The good news is that even more help is on the way for them, and the my mixup between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Moderna vaccine is finally solved. They are definitely different, because Britain became the first nation to inject people with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, outside of trials, on Monday.
UK regulators approved the vaccine on December 30 and said it will initially be delivered at "a small number of hospitals for the first few days for surveillance purposes," before the rest of the doses arrive at medical practices later in the week, according to England's National Health Service (NHS).
This story also said that they're moving full speed ahead with their plan to frontload the first dose of the vaccine, meaning they're hoping to get a lot of people partial immunity, as opposed to a smaller number of people having complete immunity. The British Medical Association (BMA), a body representing UK doctors, has criticized the move to postpone appointments for the very vulnerable patients currently awaiting their second shots.
The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine also has the potential to protect millions more people around the world. AstraZeneca has promised to supply hundreds of millions of doses to low and middle-income countries, and to deliver the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis to those nations in perpetuity. The vaccine is significantly cheaper than others which have been approved and, crucially, it would be easier to transport and distribute in developing countries because it doesn't need to be stored at freezing temperatures, and these developing/third-world countries are unlikely to have the infrastructure and refigeration capabilities needed for, say, the Pfizer vaccine.
IRS WEBSITE
The Get My Payment tool on IRS.gov is designed to show the statuses of the first and second stimulus payments.
Yet some people who received their first round of checks via direct deposit are getting a status that reads "Payment Status Not Available."
"We are unable to provide the status of your payment right now because we don't have enough information yet (we're working on this), or you're not eligible for a payment," the message reads.
The website's FAQ page, however, is unclear whether this status is temporary or indicates that the IRS is unable to issue a second stimulus payment. The IRS appears to be making updates to its guidance.
Those who are eligible and do not get a second COVID-19 relief check may be able to claim it when they file their 2020 taxes this year. Technically, the second stimulus check is an advanced payment of this tax credit.
CALIFORNIA COVID
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state is looking to enlist dentists, pharmacy techs, members of the National Guard and others to help speed up the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations, which has fallen far short of the goal.
Nearly 1.3 million doses of the vaccine have been received so far, with another 611,500 to be shipped to the state, Newsom said. Just 454,306 doses of vaccines had been administered in California, as of Sunday. Newsom previously said the state planned to administer 2 million doses by the end of 2020.
The California Dental Association said it welcomed the call for dentists to help administer vaccines and noted that the Department of Consumer Affairs on Monday approved a waiver to allow them to do so.
CDA President Judee Tippett-Whyte said “dentists are ready, willing and able to help administer COVID-19 vaccinations to the public. We can help with surge capacity at clinics and vaccinations sites – wherever we’re needed to quickly administer vaccinations and save lives.”
Meanwhile, a community advisory committee is set to discuss the next phase of the vaccine's rollout. The ADA called for dentists to be moved up in priority for who gets vaccinated first.
On today's Quick News Daily Podcast (and the first one for this year), we talk a lot about COVID, including new guidance from the UK about "mixing and matching" and the Wisconsin pharmacist who deliberately destroyed COVID vaccines. Then, we take time to discuss Trump getting caught on tape while pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to commit election fraud.
Find podcast platforms to listen and subscribe to Quick News Daily: https://www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Part 1 of my review: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/quick-news-reviews-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-part-1/
Part 2 of my review: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/quick-news-reviews-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-part-2/
Full Batman v. Superman review: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-full-review/
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Sources: ⦁ https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/legal-complaints/donald-sherman-testifies-gsa-transition/ ⦁ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/health/coronavirus-vaccines-britain.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur ⦁ https://www.npr.org/2020/12/31/952536531/pharmacist-arrested-accused-of-destroying-more-than-500-moderna-vaccine-doses ⦁ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine.html ⦁ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine.html ⦁ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
I've already reviewed the Ultimate Edition of Batman v. Superman over the course of two episodes. But for those who want to listen to it all in one episode, I figured I would combine them.
In Part 1, I talk about the background of this movie and the original Justice League movie (2:04), the score (5:13), the main story (6:24), and the characters of Bruce Wayne/Batman (10:50), Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (16:13), and Lois Lane (18:00). Then, after a short break, I talk about Henry Cavill's Superman (23:07), Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor (28:11), things I forgot to mention in Part 1, and any miscellaneous things I learned from Zack Snyder's commentary (38:12).
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Zack Snyder's commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpQdKbt8iw&t=7759s
Part 1 of my review: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/quick-news-reviews-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-part-1/
Part 2 of my review: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/quick-news-reviews-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-part-2/
Starting where I left off from on Part 1, in Part 2, I talk about Henry Cavill's Superman (1:00), Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor (5:56), things I forgot to mention in Part 1, and any miscellaneous things I learned from Zack Snyder's commentary (16:05).
Part 1 link: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/quick-news-reviews-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-part-1/
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Watch Zack Snyder's BvS commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpQdKbt8iw&t=7759s
All clips and audio from the movie that were used during this show are the property of Warner Bros. They are used for the purpose of a critical review and discussion.
On this episode of Quick News Reviews, I take a look back at 2016's "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice", specifically the Ultimate Edition. In Part 1, I talk about the background of this movie and the original Justice League movie (2:04), the score (5:13), the main story (6:24), and the characters of Bruce Wayne/Batman (10:50), Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (16:13), and Lois Lane (18:00).
Stay tuned for Part 2!
All clips and audio from the movie that were used during this show are the property of Warner Bros. They are used for the purpose of a critical review and discussion.
Zack Snyder's commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogpQdKbt8iw&t=7759s
Today on our final news show of the year for Quick News Daily, we discuss a wide variety of stories. We talk about a ceiling fan recall, the new COVID variant being detected in the U.S., and why disinfecting surfaces might not be that necessary to fight COVID. Additionally, I discuss the Nashville bombing suspect and the slow vaccine distribution process here in America.
Check your ceiling fans if you bought any of the Hampton Bay 54-inch Mara Indoor/Outdoor fans between April and October of this year. The defective products were found in these four finishes:
- matte white (UPC No. 082392519186)
- matte black (UPC No. 082392519193)
- black (UPC No. 082392599195)
- polished nickel UPC No. 082392599188)
If you have one of these defective fans, Contact King of Fans for a replacement at (866) 433-1291, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or by email at MaraRecall@KingofFans.com.
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Find where to listen to Quick News: https://www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
⦁ https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/politics/vaccine-rollout-behind-schedule/index.html ⦁ https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article248144590.html ⦁ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-depot-fan-recall-blades-spin-off/ ⦁ https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/29/951269665/first-u-s-case-of-u-k-covid-19-variant-found-in-colorado ⦁ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/28/stimulus-check-trump-money/ ⦁ https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/28/948936133/still-disinfecting-surfaces-it-might-not-be-worth-it ⦁ Defective Fan Tutorial ⦁ https://www.npr.org/transcripts/950360046
Transcript:
OPEN
Today is Wednesday, December 30th, and actually, this might be the final news show of this year, our first year of this show. What an up and down 8 months it's been. Well, I'll try to close it out strong with today's show. We've got everything from updates on the Nashville bombing suspect, ceiling fans, the mutated COVID virus from the UK showing up in America, and a couple of other things (if we're lucky). Let's get caught up right away.
CEILING FANS
I want to start with a story that might be affecting you right now without you even knowing it. In fact, I'm going to ask you to check your ceiling fans if you've installed any between the months of March and October. Why am I asking you to do this? Well, there has been a recall issued for 190,000 ceiling fans sold by Home Depot because the blades could spin off while in use.
The type of fan is the Hampton Bay 54-inch Mara Indoor/Outdoor fan, and they were sold in stores and online from April through October of this year for about $150. About 182,000 of the fans were sold in the U.S. and another 8,800 were sold in Canada.
King of Fans, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based distributor of the product — sold exclusively by Home Depot — said it had received 47 reports of the product's fan blades detaching. At least two consumers got hit by a blade. In addition, four instances of property damage were also reported.
King of Fans says to stop using the fans immediately, and to check them for signs of defects. If you have one of these fans, inspect it right away. If you notice "blade movement or uneven gaps between the blades and fan body" during your inspection, you should contact King of Fans for a free replacement.
The trouble does not impact all of the Mara 54-inch fans, according to the company. They've offered a link to a YouTube video showing consumers how to determine if a fan is defective and needs to be replaced. That link is in the show notes/description so you can watch and know what you're looking for.
If your fan does have this defect, you can contact King of Fans for a replacement. I have their phone number and email in the show notes/description as well.
I have to take a swing at our British and French listeners: maybe you've been tuning out if you're from there because if you just heard "king" and "possible beheading", you probably just thought I was talking about history.
COVID VARIANT
Well, it was inevitable: the first confirmed case of the new UK-version of the coronavirus has been found in the US in Colorado. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said that the man who tested positive is in his 20s, has not been traveling, and is currently isolating.
"The individual has no close contacts identified so far, but public health officials are working to identify other potential cases and contacts through thorough contact tracing interviews," the governor said in his statement.
This new virus variant was also found in France for the first time just a couple of days ago as well.
I didn't hear about this, but last week, the CDC announced that anyone coming to the U.S. from the U.K. must receive a negative coronavirus test result before beginning the trip. But, again, I'm not sure how effective these roadblocks are because we're just checking people from the UK. People could go from the UK, through another country, and then come here. Maybe it's "if you've been in the UK in the last X days, you have to test negative". At the same time, at least we're doing something to slow it down.
COVID TRANSMISSION
Sticking with slowing the transmission of COVID, there's new data that shows that it might be overkill to be disinfecting surfaces. Emanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University, said that "in hospitals, surfaces have been tested near COVID-19 patients, and no infectious virus can be identified".
However, they do find viral RNA, which is like "the corpse of the virus", according to Goldman. That's what's left over after the virus dies. He also said that "they don't find infectious virus, and that's because the virus is very fragile in the environment — it decays very quickly".
Scientists have found out that the early surface studies were done in pristine lab conditions using much larger amounts of the virus than would be found in a real-life scenario.
In fact, Dr. Kevin Fennelly went so far as to say that there's no scientific data to justify this cleaning. Dr. Fennelly is a respiratory infection specialist with the National Institutes of Health.
As you can imagine, spraying disinfectant is not only unproductive, it's potentially dangerous, according to Delphine Farmer, an atmospheric chemist at Colorado State University. Heavy use of disinfectants like bleach and hydrogen peroxide can "produce toxic molecules that then we breathe," she warns.
So what should we be doing with this information? These experts suggest that when you're out in public, be aware of surfaces you touch, and wash your hands often. They say it's much more effective to wash your hands thoroughly than try to clean everything you touch. Obviously, I'm not going to go out and just start feeling up hard surfaces, but that's comforting to know we don't really have to worry about that part of it.
NASHVILLE BOMBING SUSPECT
Mention parked right against building, played different recording when cops got close, waited until cops left --> makes no sense (Fox News' theory)
According to sources familiar with the investigation into the bombing suspect, he was interested in various conspiracy theories.These theories include ones involving "lizard people", which is just as crazy as it sounds. This is a belief that shape-shifting reptilian creatures appear in human form and are bent on world domination.
In addition, the suspect is believed to have spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park, sources said. Oh, so he was living the dream? Just kidding...
The investigators have found some writings that are believed to be associated with the bomber. These writings apparently contain ramblings about assorted conspiracy theories.
Multiple law enforcement sources also told ABC News earlier this week that investigators looked at whether Warner had paranoia about 5G cellular technology. I'm sort of skeptical about this one. If he really was an IT guy, he would understand 5G more than most people. At the same time, if you're out there believing in Lizard people, he probably wasn't thinking very logically.
Anyone who knew the suspect and hasn't yet spoken with investigators is asked to call 800-CALL-FBI.
But here's the craziest part of the entire story: Petula Clark said she was in "shock and disbelief" at use of her song "Downtown" leading up to the explosion. Holy crap, Petula Clark is still alive? That's the most shocking part of this whole thing!
VACCINE BEHIND SCHEDULE
Let's close out our 2020 shows by going back and talking about some more COVID news. I hope you're sitting down for what I'm about to tell you: the Trump Administration is botching the delivery of the COVID vaccines.
The federal government's Operation Warp Speed had promised that 20 million doses would be administered before January 1. However, the latest data from the CDC shows that just over 11 million doses have been distributed, and only 2.1 million have actually been administered to people.
Now, the Trump administration is coming up with some logical-sounding excuses, but they're still excuses. Senior officials told CNN that the vaccine distribution is on track and they blame the gap on a lag in reporting data.
The CDC's dashboard, which is currently being updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, says that a large difference between the number of doses distributed and the number administered is expected at this point in the Covid vaccination program.
Unfortunately for them, and us, Dr. Fauci called BS on the notion that distribution of the vaccine is on track. He told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Tuesday morning that the US is "certainly not at the numbers that we wanted to be at the end of December. Even if you undercount, 2 million as an undercount, how much undercount could it be. So we are below where we want to be."
Yesterday, Biden called out Trump and Operation Warp Speed. He said, "As I have long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should. If it continues moving as it is now, it will take years, not months to vaccinate the American people."
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said there were major reasons for issues around distribution: vaccine supply, inadequate infrastructure and communication.
On vaccine supply, Benjamin said, the US does not have what it needs to vaccinate the roughly 330 million people who will need it. Current numbers show the US has about 11.4 million doses on hand, and administration officials have said to expect 20 million doses on hand by early January. This is significantly lower than had originally been promised by the administration, which was touting 100 million doses by the start of the year.
"This is going to be the greatest operational challenge we've faced as a nation, but we're gonna get it done," Biden said.
Biden has set a goal of administering 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office, and on Tuesday, he unveiled the first concrete steps he'd take to help make that a reality, including a more nationwide approach to the vaccine process than the Trump administration.
Biden said his administration would help set up mass vaccination sites and send mobile units into communities that are hard to reach. The President-elect said he would use the Defense Production Act to ramp up vaccine production.
Another important thing that his administration would do is launch a public education campaign to promote the safety of vaccines, particularly among Black, Latino and Native American communities, which have expressed hesitancy about the vaccine.
As for Benjamin's thoughts on what to do, he said "this requires leadership and coordination at the federal level. The targeted use of the Defense Production Act to address production roadblocks and regulatory barriers. A stronger federal, state and local partnership is also needed for coordination. The Biden administration can address this by providing the leadership, strengthening the delivery infrastructure and enhanced communication."
All I can say is thank goodness we're just several weeks out from Inauguration Day, because Trump and his cronies have all messed everything up at every turn. In fact, that's actually kind of impressive to be so wrong so many times.
On today's Quick News Daily, we'll be talking about the Brexit deal from last week, a pretty crappy move by GoDaddy.com, and the latest news on the fiasco with the stimulus deal in Congress.
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Sources:
- GoDaddy Employees Were Told They Were Getting a Holiday Bonus. It Was Actually a Phishing Test.
- Twitter Thread on GoDaddy Phishing
- Trump Signs Coronavirus Relief And Spending Bill
- Details Of Coronavirus Relief Bill: Direct Payments, Unemployment
- New Year's Eve from the CDC
- Panic! At The Disco - Roaring 20s (Official Audio)
"Roaring 20s" by Panic! at the Disco is the property of the band, their record label, distribution companies, and any of the other original owners. You can download the full "Pray for the Wicked" album here: https://patd.lnk.to/PrayForTheWickedID or listen to it on YouTube using the link above in the Sources list.
Mostly Accurate Transcript:
OPEN
Today is Tuesday, December 29th; welcome once again. Today, we have some stories that I wanted to get to yesterday, but the show was already running a bit over 20 minutes, so I figured I'd just save them until today. So, we'll be talking about the Brexit deal from last week, a pretty crappy move by GoDaddy.com, and some news on the fiasco with the stimulus deal in Congress. Let's keep right on rolling this week and get caught up.
GO DADDY
Let's start by talking about this horrible, tone-deaf initiative that happened to employees of GoDaddy.
About two weeks ago, GoDaddy employees got an email from the email address "happyholiday@godaddy.com". The email read:
"2020 has been a record year for GoDaddy, thanks to you! Though we cannot celebrate together during our annual Holiday Party, we want to show our appreciation and share a $650 one-time Holiday bonus! To ensure that you receive your one-time bonus in time for the Holidays, please select your location and fill in the details by Friday, December 18th.”
So, about 500 GoDaddy employees filled in their information and sent it back. A ton of folks are struggling through this pandemic, so this $650 would really mean a lot to them. Well, sadly, this wasn't real. A couple of days later, they got another email from GoDaddy's chief security officer, Demetrius Comes, that said:
“You’re getting this email because you failed our recent phishing test. You will need to retake the Security Awareness Social Engineering training.”
As I mention quite frequently, I'm in school for IT, so I've learned quite a bit about how to keep information safe on the internet and phishing scams and all of that. Honestly, unless there was some type of warning a couple of weeks before this, I think I probably would have filled this out too. I think the only things that would be suspicious would be that they're asking you for your information, and that the email was from "happy holiday @godaddy.com", not "happy holidays". I haven't learned this yet in school, but frankly, if they have "@godaddy.com" in their email address, that would probably mean that the hackers already got into the GoDaddy system. At that point, they'd already have almost everything that they wanted, and the company would have a lot bigger worries than employees giving information.
The emails were brought to the world's attention because three employees decided to forward them to The Copper Courier, who first broke the story.
That story also says, "Despite the company surpassing 20 million customers this year and reporting 'record customer growth', the company laid off or reassigned hundreds of employees during the coronavirus pandemic, including in Arizona, Iowa, and Texas." That always drives me up the wall when companies say that they're having such a great year, but as an employee, you look around and half your department is gone, or your benefits are getting cut, or something like that. As we learn more and more about Ronald Reagan, there are many things to hate about his presidency, but this stupid idea of "trickle down economics" is maybe the most dangerous. When wealthy people get more wealth, they don't pass jack down to regular people.
One of the dumber things about this is that GoDaddy wasn't even the first company to try this. In September, Tribune Publishing, which owns several major newspapers around the country, sent a similar email to its employees that promised $5,000-10,000 bonuses. That company eventually ended up apologizing, and GoDaddy should too. Again, so many people are struggling this year, especially the workers at GoDaddy since they're getting laid off left and right, so this is the worst kind of email you can send. Yes, hackers can be very good and send convincing emails like this one, but there were almost no warning signs in this email. There was one typo where they put "submittals" instead of "submissions", one grammar issue with a missing comma, and then they also put the standard "free money, claim it now!" saying in there, which are all a bit suspicious. At the same time, people do not spell as well or have as good of grammar as they used to, even HR people. Spellcheck is really a crutch, and people use it as such, so besides that "free money" thing, I wouldn't think this email was suspicious at all.
Not only does GoDaddy need to apologize for this, but more importantly, they need to cough up those bonuses as part of that apology. If you can't afford that, then don't send out the email.
BREXIT
Some other big international news that broke towards the middle of last week was a sort of Brexit deal that the UK and European Union designed. Officially, it's called the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Member countries of the EU and British Parliament are both expected to approve the agreement within the next week, but the European Parliament still has to approve it, which might not happen until later in January or February. It technically takes effect on January 1st, but it doesn't become permanent until the European Parliament approves.
To put it mildly, British citizens were not happy about it. Apparently, it's worse than the deal that Theresa May originally made, and that deal caused Boris Johnson to have a fit and resign his cabinet position in disgust. A lot of people are pointing out the hypocrisy of him coming out and trying to sell this deal, which is worse than the old one. On the one hand, it's important because it makes sure that the UK can still trade with the EU without facing tariffs or quotas.
However, the UK loses a lot of privileges. Everything from access to fishing waters and energy markets, as well as uncertainties about traveling between the two, education exchanges. There are also worries about whether the UK will still get real-time info from EU law enforcement databases and whether they'll have access to the EU markets since the financial services sector is so important for Britain.
Stay tuned everyone, this is going to keep devloping over the next couple of months.
DEFENSE BILL VETO AND STIMULUS
Yesterday, we found out that the House voted to overturn Trump's veto of the annual defense authorization bill. I believe the final tally was about 322-87. The article from NPR that I was reading about it mentioned that it's super unusual for the House to have to override a veto on the defense spending bill, but that's because it's even more unusual for the president to veto it in the first place.
NPR said, "The political popularity of the military typically means the National Defense Authorization Act has a high likelihood of passage and becomes one of the last vehicles of the year for compromise and enactment." I'm just going to pause right here and say that I hate the stigma that if you even question the enormous amount of spending on the military, you're somehow "disrespecting the troops". No, you can respect the troops and wonder why so much of the military budget is for these blacked-out parts of the budget that means that we can't see how the money is being spent, or why regular supplies cost so much more than fair market value. Respecting the troops means making sure that they're fighting for freedoms, not to help private defense companies get rich.
But back to the story here, Trump opposed the bill because it would rename military bases named for Confederate figures like Robert E. Lee, and he also was angry that Democrats in Congress didn't agree to a bargain in which they'd lift some legal protections for tech companies, which is the famous Section 230 that he's been ranting about for weeks now.
Again, it's important to set the record straight on what this Section 230 actually is, because I guarantee you that a ton of people in Congress who say they oppose it don't even know what it is. Section 230 is supposed to help protect free speech on the internet, so it says that tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. are not liable for what users post on there. This is why Facebook doesn't get in any legal trouble for having all of those right-wing groups who use it to post death threats or plot to kidnap governors, or why Twitter isn't liable for a toddler tweeting "STOP THE STEAL" or "when the looting starts, the shooting starts". Really, it's for any website with user-generated content, because the website owner technically isn't responsible for what other people post, and places like YouTube have so much content that they'd never be able to go through every single thing. Sure, that's a bit of an excuse, but it's the truth. The internet as we know it would change without this.
That's the irony here: Trump hates Section 230, but if he takes it away, he'll be the first one who's banned. He tweets false stuff, and even threats, nearly every day of the week. Usually, it's multiple times a day.
As for the COVID stimulus bill, that also finally passed after Trump originally said he wouldn't be signing it. It includes a lot of what I went over last week on Monday, which was the first time that it looked like it was going to pass, before Trump went off the rails and said he wouldn't sign it. It has funding or changes for about 9 categories of things, so they jammed a ton of stuff in here just because they could. Anyways, let's go through those.
Individual Benefits ⦁ $600 direct payment checks for every adult and child earning up to $75,000. Individuals earning between $75,000 and $99,000 would get smaller checks, and the benefit cuts out entirely for individuals earning over $99,000. ⦁ Unemployment benefits: they agreed to extend enhanced unemployment benefits for jobless workers, who will receive up to $300 per week through mid-March. Self-employed people and gig workers will also receive extended assistance. ⦁ Rental assistance: $25 billion to help families pay their rent, and it extends the eviction moratorium now in effect until Jan. 31. ⦁ SNAP assistance: The measure includes an additional $13 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Small-Business Help
PPP loans: The agreement includes some $284 billion for Paycheck Protection Program loans. Democrats say they expanded eligibility for the loans to include nonprofits and local newspapers, along with TV and radio stations. Also, $15 billion would be reserved for live venues, independent movie theaters and cultural institutions, which have been struggling due to pandemic-forced closures.
Vaccines
$68 billion to purchase and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and help states conduct testing — $20 billion of that funding will make the vaccine available at no cost for anybody needing it.
Broadband Access
$7 billion to increase access to broadband Internet, including a new Emergency Broadband Benefit that Democrats say will help millions of students' families and unemployed workers afford the broadband they need during the pandemic.
Transportation Aid
$45 billion in transportation-related assistance, including:
⦁ $16 billion for airlines to pay the salaries of workers and contractors. ⦁ $14 billion for mass transit agencies. ⦁ $10 billion for highways. ⦁ $1 billion for Amtrak.
Education
$82 billion in funding for schools and universities to assist with reopening, including $2.75 billion for private K-12 education.
Agriculture
$13 billion in the measure for farmers and agriculture, including money under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program for growers and livestock, dairy and poultry producers.
Medical Bills
The measure also includes a provision ending surprise medical billing. Republicans say patients would be required to receive a "true and honest cost estimate" three days before any scheduled procedure and that billing disputes would be subject to arbitration.
Tax-Deductible Meals Lawmakers also included a provision sought by Trump, making the cost of meals a deductible business expense.
NEW YEAR'S EVE GUIDANCE FROM CDC
The CDC has guidance for how to celebrate New Year's Eve "safely", but that's kind of misleading. There's really no way to safely celebrate New Year's Eve like we would any other year; it's essentially about reducing risk.
I know that I'm probably preaching to the choir here because if you're listening, you're probably taking COVID fairly seriously. However, it's good to keep hearing these things to remind ourselves, or maybe you're just tuning in and you're not as familiar with all the ways to stay safe. I want this show to be useful to as many people as possible.
So, if you do celebrate: ⦁ Wear a mask ⦁ Social distance = 6ft = 2 arms lengths ⦁ Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated indoor spaces ⦁ Wash your hands ⦁ Stay home if you're sick ⦁ Get your flu shot ASAP ⦁ Get your COVID vaccine
If you host: ⦁ Talk with guests ahead of time to set expectations for celebrating together. ⦁ Limit the number of guests. ⦁ Keep celebrations outdoors, if possible. ⦁ If indoors, open windows and doors. Use a window fan to blow air out, which will pull fresh air in through the open windows. ⦁ Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces and items between use. ⦁ Have guests bring their own food, drinks, plates, cups, and utensils. ⦁ Have extra unused masks available for your guests and encourage everyone to wear them inside and outside. ⦁ Keep background music volume low so guests don’t need to shout ⦁ It’s okay if you decide to postpone or cancel your gathering. Do what’s best for you.
If you're an attendee: ⦁ It’s okay if you decide to stay home and remain apart from others. Do what’s best for you. ⦁ If traveling for a celebration, know what to do before, during, and after travel. ⦁ Bring your own food, drinks, and disposable plates, cups, and utensils. ⦁ Wear a mask indoors and outdoors and safely store your mask while eating and drinking. ⦁ Avoid alcohol and drugs that can alter judgement and make it difficult to practice COVID-19 safety measures. ⦁ Avoid shouting and singing. ⦁ Avoid areas where food is prepared, such as the kitchen. ⦁ Use single-use options, like condiment packets.
Alternatives to traditional celebrations: ⦁ Virtual celebrations (concerts, performances, countdowns to midnight, dinner or dessert with friends/family) ⦁ Plan your party for the people you live with ⦁ Reach out to family, friends, and neighbors ⦁ Call, text, or leave a voicemail for family, friends, and neighbors wishing them a happy new year. ⦁ Call friends and family to count down to the new year together. ⦁ Plan a neighborhood countdown to midnight. People who live with each other can stand in front of their house and cheer together at midnight.
Other ideas: ⦁ Watch a livestreamed firework display, concert, First Night event, or other New Year’s programming from your home, such as the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop. Virtual events are happening across the United States. ⦁ Take care of yourself and do something you enjoy, such as reading a book or taking a walk. ⦁ Pick up a special meal from a local restaurant to share with your household. ⦁ Plan an outdoor activity with people you live with such as a hike or sledding. ⦁ Set new year resolutions. Find out if your hometown is sponsoring a special social media event and share your resolutions.
I have to be honest though, it's pretty depressing to think about where we were 1 year ago versus New Year's Eve this year. There was so much hype about the new decade and the roaring 20s and the Great Gatsby and all of that, but it seems like we got what the actual roaring 20s were like. I don't know what else to say, frankly. Just hang in there, and think of the massive, massive celebrations that'll be happening when this is all over. I don't even think we can imagine what it'll be like when every band you've wanted to see is on tour at the same time, all of the sports are back, theater and movies are back, etc.
On today's jam-packed episode of the Quick News Daily Podcast, we catch up on all the biggest news from the holiday weekend, including the bombing in Nashville, the psychological effect of COVID stress, an allergic reaction to the Moderna COVID vaccine, and more!
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast player: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
- Your brain on cortisol: Why overstressed gray matter is leading us astray in lockdown
- FBI at home of possible person of interest in Nashville bomb
- Women bear disproportionate share of Covid-19 burden, U.N. official warns
- BMC doctor doing well after allergic reaction to Moderna vaccine
- EU, UK unveil vast trade pact set to enter force on Jan 1
- Fact check: Georgia Republicans run more misleading attack ads against Warnock and Ossoff
- Police searching home of ‘person of interest’ in mystery Christmas explosion in Nashville
- Suicide bombing suspected in Nashville explosion as investigators search home south of the city
- A tip, a hat and a pair of gloves led to ID of Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner; motive remains a mystery
Note: I do not own the rights to the song "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Please visit petulaclark.com for more info about her and for links to buy this song and more.
(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
OPEN
Today is Monday, December 28th, and welcome back after the long holiday weekend. I'm hoping you were all able to have a safe holiday, but that you were also able to connect somehow with family or friends, because this COVID fatigue and loneliness is real, make no mistake about it. But wow, we have a ton of stuff to catch up on. Obviously, we'll take on the big stories of the bombing in Nashville and COVID updates, as well as some stories that may have gotten lost in the shuffle but are still important. We don't have a second to waste, so let's get caught up!
NASHVILLE
Now, if you know the show, you know that I hate how the traditional news follows their unwritten rule of putting all of the crime and disasters first; the "if it bleeds, it leads" rule. I still hate that rule, but at the same time, I can't always just ignore those stories in favor of something else because that's my own rule. So, while I am starting with the Nashville story right away, I want to do that because I want to set the record straight. If these things just sit out there, then that's when conspiracy theories start to creep in. Or, maybe those theories are right and the official story is wrong. Whatever the case may be, I want you to have the facts as we understand them today.
The official story, according to the Nashville chief of police, is that police officers responded on Friday to a report of shots fired when they encountered the RV that was projecting a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. The RV exploded shortly afterward, creating a massive fireball and explosion. This took place on 2nd Avenue and Broadway. Upwards of 40 buildings were affected. Also, we have reporting from police that the bomber was playing this song before the explosion. DOWNTOWN BY PETULA CLARK Now, maybe it's my age, but that's just a song that the DJ plays at roller rinks. It sounds fun and upbeat, and it is, but when you actually listen to the lyrics, it's basically saying you should go downtown if you're lonely because it'll make you happy, which I think shows this guy's mental state, but we'll get into that in just a bit.
Some of the more unofficial eyewitness testimony and amateur experts online help to color in some of the gaps, but I really want to emphasize that most of this has not been said by officials.
The real question to me is whether this guy was a professional or an amateur. The weird thing about the whole thing for me is the gunshots beforehand, and why there were multiple. I'm thinking it was one of three things: 1) the bombers trying to commit suicide and shooting each other somehow, 2) one bomber who was bad at committing suicide, or 3) a bad bomber that accidentally started a fire, igniting the ammo and eventually the bomb. I have that third one in there because there were also reports of the police letting some ammo "cook off" after the explosion, meaning they had to let the ammo all ignite before they could move in and put out the fires. That would be the explanation that says the bomber was an amateur.
I say it might be a suicide for several reasons. First, there was that countdown timer telling everyone about the bomb, with a pretty good amount of time left on it for people to evacuate. Also, it sounds like the timing was pretty much correct, meaning that the accidental fire theory is no good. However, there's also the possiblity that the countdown was to draw people into the street so that the bomb could kill more people.
Going with the theory that the bomber did legitimately want people to leave, this also happened in a business district (specifically bars and restaurants) with a small number of apartments. The bomber would probably know that, being Christmas, this place would be mostly deserted since all the stores are closed.
Because there was a huge fireball but a large amount of soot, some folks online were saying that those results would indicate that the bomber probably had a bad mixture or detonator for his bomb. He probably used fuel oil to increase the yield, but that leads to incomplete combustion, which causes the soot and fireball but only a small amount of explosive damage. This means he could have been bad with the making of the bomb, but still good with the detonator, meaning he purposefully detonated it after he heard about the bomb squad on the police scanner, which some people think he was probably listening to.
It was also right outside a couple of AT&T buildings, so if he really did want people gone, I'm guessing he was a disgruntled AT&T employee who wanted a very memorable suicide, but didn't actually want to kill bystanders, and that he was bad at shooting himself to commit suicide.
Luckliy for AT&T, their buildings were built during the Cold War. Since they're a communications company, they thought they would be a prime target for a Soviet bombing, so they build these places like bunkers. According to people online who were familiar with that area, AT&T used extra concrete and re-bar during the construction.
Even though the AT&T building was built to withstand a bombing, it didn't work out perfectly, so they still had some major outages since one of their buildings contained a telephone exchange with network equipment in it. Police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, as well as Nashville’s COVID community hotline and a handful of hospital systems were still out of service as of Saturday, although they had 2 portable cell sites in the downtown area, as well as "numerous additional portable sites being deployed in the Nashville area and in the region". The T-Mobile president of techology, Ray Neville, said they saw service disruptions all the way to Louisville, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Atlanta.
The company was having a tough time cleaning up and getting things back online because they said that a fire reignited in the building overnight on Friday, and they had to evacuate it again. This also forced safety and structural engineers to be called in, and eventually led to them drilling access holes into the building so they could reconnect the power.
FEMA released a report on Saturday that related to some tissue that was found on the scene. Honestly, I had no idea that FEMA did that sort of thing, but we'll just roll with it. Anyways, the samples they collected did turn out to be human remains, but at the time, they did not know who the remains belonged to.
By Saturday, the FBI was already searching the home of a "person of interest". Officially, the house is located in Antioch, a suburb of Nashville, and was found with the help of information they received that was "relevant to the investigation". Some media outlets have already given out the name of the homeowner, but I'm going to skip doing that because that's what freaks like this are after. They're narcissists, they're the victims in their own minds, and they desperately want someone to notice them. Sure, this guy is probably dead, but if the news didn't make them so famous, I don't think as many people would be committing these crimes. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said they started looking into this guy based on a tip from the public about a car of his, which contained a hat and gloves with DNA on them, so they matched that up with the remains found at the scene of the bombing.
What I will say is about the bomber is that he is (or was) 63 years old, and police said that they were not looking for any other person in connection to this, so he operated alone. There was a copycat that was arrested yesterday, but he didn't have a bomb or anything, he was just playing a countdown message like the one the real bomber was playing.
The bomber's dad worked for AT&T at one point, so that might have something to do with this. The bomber himself was an IT guy with experience in electronics and alarm systems. One of the neighbors described him as "kind of low key to the point of, I don’t know, I guess some people would say he’s a little odd.” Honestly, to me, that description sounds like this guy was normal and kept to himself. The way that neighbor said "I guess some would say he's odd" sounds like this reporter was asking leading questions and trying to get the answer they wanted. They want things to be neat and tidy and for this guy to fit the mold of the Unabomber or someone like that, so be careful when you hear things like that.
The team at the Associated Press found that satellite images from May 2019 showed that a vehicle similar to the RV that exploded was in the backyard of this house. The AP also said that their reporter on the scene didn't see the vehicle anywhere on the property during the search.
The last thing that points to this guy being the bomber is that court records show that he transferred the ownership of his property to someone with a Los Angeles address on November 25th, so it sounds like he was definitely planning on this for a while.
COVID
Let's get a quick COVID update. Specifically, it's an update on the vaccine, and the headline you may have seen about a Boston doctor who had an allergic reaction after taking the Moderna COVID vaccine. However, it's important to know the context of the situation and what led to this.
They didn't say how old he was, but they did describe him as "geriatric", which is a description you don't hear very often in these news articles. But in addition to his age, the doctor also had a history of allergic reactions.
His reaction started about 6-7 minutes after he had taken the vaccine, when his heart rate jumped all the way up to 150 (he mentioned his usual heart rate is around 75). Then he felt a tingling or numbness in both his throat and his tongue before using his EpiPen. The staff then rushed him over to the ER. He was then treated and released.
The doctor was actually the one who talked to the press, so I'm even more confused why they didn't get his age. It's not like they had to worry about HIPAA or something if he's the one giving out the info. In any case, he said "If (people) know they have the severe allergy, take the vaccine in the right setting, in a hospital setting, so at least there is appropriate care as needed".
Officially, this is the first case of an allergic reaction to the Moderna version of the COVID vaccine, althought the company says that they're still investigating the case through their internal safety reporting system. Again, I'm no doctor or scientist, but the fact that it's happening to people for both vaccines makes me think it's an ingredient in the vaccine, not the COVID part itself. I don't know the specifics, but from what I understand, they have to bond the virus to some protein in order for your body to take it as a threat and fight it, and that protein is what's found in eggs; that's why folks with an egg allergy can't usually take the flu shot, although now they've come out with non-egg based flu shots. My guess is that because it's so new, they don't have that option here, so people who usually take the special flu shot are still getting the COVID vaccine, which is why these are flaring up.
FACT CHECK IN GEORGIA
I still haven't talked that much about the special Senate election in Georgia, but I do want to highlight some things from a CNN article. They ran a fact check on some highly misleading ads that were run by the Republicans, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
The first is about an ad from Loeffler that attacks her opponent, Reverand Raphael Warnock. The ad takes clips out of context to suggest that Warnock wants to release people from prison, no matter what they're in prison for. In reality, the full quote is "Marijuana is seen as an illegal substance. It's a terrible irony, and we feel it, that right now in America, there are some folk who are becoming billionaires for selling the same stuff that's got our children locked up all across America. Where is the justice? It's not enough to decriminalize marijuana. Somebody's gotta open up the jails and let our children go."
So, no, he's not advocating for releasing everyone. He's simply suggesting that marijuana offenses should not be keeping people in prison.
As for David Perdue, he's running an ad about Jon Ossoff that makes it sound like Ossoff could be federally investigated the minute he's elected to the Senate. They say that because he didn't include payments from a Hong Kong media company and from Al Jazeera in his Senate financial disclosure forms.
First of all, Ossoff is the CEO of a company that makes investigative films, so it's not hard to figure out why foreign media companies are giving money to another media company. Second, Ossoff filed an amendment to his original forms this past July that disclosed 11 more payments from media companies, and Perdue has filed his own amendments in the past (they're common among Seantors in general). Third, it was the Georgia Republican Party that asked for a Senate Ethics Commitee investigation, but anybody can send a letter to that committee. I could send a letter and ask for Barack Obama to run for a third term; it's just not a serious challenge. There is no evidence that any investigation has started. And finally, attacking him specifically over the payments from Hong Kong and Al Jazeera? Come on Republicans, you have to try harder than that. It's just so predictable that they'd attack Asians and a company with a name from the Middle East. I guess you have to meet your quota to be a racist somehow.
COVID STRESS
Back to the topic of COVID, I read this article on NBC News about some of the psychological effects of this extended period of social distancing and not going out. Dr. Robert Lustig from UC-San Francisco says that prolonged traumatic stress, also called toxic stress, which is what I'm sure we've all had at some point during this pandemic (if not throughout the pandemic). Dr. Lustig says that this type of stress releases the stress hormone cortisol into our brains for a long period of time, which sort of tranquilizes our prefrontal cortex.
In English, this long-term, chronic stress makes the part of our brain, that controls our impulses to reward ourselves, weaker.
Going back to more technical terms, Dopamine is the hormone that makes us feel rewarded; it makes us feel good. The prefrontal cortex keeps this hormone in check, so when that part of our brain is weakened, that dopamine basically turns into an out-of-control drug addict who just needs more and more and more.
So what does this look like during this quarantine period? Dr. Lustig says it causes us to turn to chemical rewards (cocaine, heroin, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, etc.), or behavioral rewards (shopping, gambling, internet gaming, social media, etc.). Maybe it's just because I'm trying to rationalize myself, but isn't it just a bit extreme to be mentioning sugar in the same sentence as cocaine, heroin, and alcohol? I'm sure that chemically, they're just as addictive and all that, but if you overdose on sugar one time, you might just feel sick, whereas you can overdose any time when you take heroin, no matter the amount you take. Also, you can have sugar everyday of your life and probably be okay; let me know how it goes if you take cocaine everyday of your life, but I digress.
There were some pretty notable stats in this article. First, total cookbook sales increased by 15% through the first 9 months of the year, but bread-based cookbook sales grew by 145% (bread contains carbohydrates, which are a sugar; I'm not trying to talk down to anyone, I just probably wouldn't have made that connection myself if they didn't say it). At the same time, vegetarian and other "healthy" cookbooks saw their sales decrease in March and April.
When it came to shopping, this year's Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history, not just the history of Cyber Mondays. This year, people bought $10.7 billion worth of stuff. Just as a side note here, the article uses this as proof that we're searching harder for gratification this year, but in reality, I'm sure Black Friday numbers were way down this year. It's not like people spent a ton on Black Friday and Cyber Monday just because they liked clicking "Place Order", they just didn't feel safe going into stores, so I kind of call BS on this one.
One of the sets of stats that was most surprising to me was the section on alcohol. In April, online alcohol sales were more than 500% higher than last April's online sales (although, again, a large reason for this is probably just that people didn't want to go to stores and more places offered alcohol online). One stat that seems very real to me is the tendency for women to be the most vulnerable to stress drinking during quarantine. The article says that this is mainly due to insecurity in their jobs and increased social isolation. Women's jobs were 1.8 times more vulnerable during the COVID crisis than men's jobs, and a study from July showed that women made up 39% of the worldwide workforce, but they were also responsible for 54% of the global job losses. Worldwide, 743 million, with an "m", girls have been forced out of school. When you combine all that with the facts that moms were also disproportionately asked to be homeschool teachers for their kids and violence against women increased since everyone is confined with each other, it's easy to see why alcohol is a cheap way to escape these awful circumstances.
The last group of stats I want to go over relates to smoking. In recent years in the U.S., tobacco sales have been decreasing. However, these numbers started to stabilize from March through October. These companies think this is due to the stress, sure, but also the fact that some Americans actually had a lot more disposable income from doing fewer social activities and getting those stimulus checks. At first, I thought this was a really dumb way to cope with a pandemic that mainly attacks your lungs, but then I realized it's just more sad because people are so desperate to deal with the stress that they'll actually do something that they know will hurt them if they get the virus (well, it just hurts them in general, but even more so with COVID).
So, when it comes down to it, the real question is: "Why do we do these things that are unhealthy if we know that they won't make us happy for very long?"
Professor Laurie Santos of Yale University says that our brains are wired to make a difference between "wanting" things and "liking" things. She says "Wanting is a motivational process. Liking is how you're going to feel when you get it."
Basically, the best analogy is actually part of this article. Santos is saying that "wanting" is like eating vegetables, but "liking' is like a really good cheeseburger and fries. We all would like to be healthy, but we want the food that actually tastes good. She says that "we don't have 'wanting' for the things that are going to work", and that we also don't realize that these social interactions, no matter how small they are, are what is missing in our lives.
She closes out the article with two important quotes. First, she says that "buying new material possessions just simply doesn't make us as happy as we think. In fact, we'd be better off spending money on other people. Doing nice things for others seems to be actually a thing that makes us happy over time". Then, she goes into why we should all be looking forward to the end of the pandemic on a psychological level. She says "After lockdown, we're going to get these amazing fresh starts on the routines we have, how we interact, who we interact with. It really will give us opportunities to build in more positive habits and use what we learned during this time to create a more nutritious life for ourselves."
So, that was an extended dive that I haven't done in a while on this show, if ever, but I thought it was important. Maybe you're feeling these things or noticing these things about yourself and you feel guilty. I think the big thing to take away is that so many other people are going through this exact same thing, especially if you listen to this show, because you're more likely to be taking all of these safety precautions seriously. Everyone has to do it their own way, but I think we should be doing pretty much whatever we need to get through this, and focus on setting goals or something for when we're vaccinated and can get on with our lives.
On today's final show before the long Christmas weekend, Quick News Daily is back to talk about Joe Biden getting his first COVID vaccine shot, as well as Eric Coomer's lawsuit against various Trump associates and right-wing media. We also talk about California Governor Gavin Newsom's appointment of current California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to take Kamala Harris' place as U.S. Senator, and finally, the disappointing news of John Mulaney checking into rehab.
Listen to Quick News on your favorite podcast player: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Addiction Resources:
USA - The Lifeline: 1-800-273-8265 (TALK)
Canada - Crisis Services Canada: 1-833-456-4566
UK and Ireland - The Samaritans: 116-123
Australia - The Lifeline: 0800-543-345
India - Vandrevala Foundation: 1860-266-2345 / 1800-233-3330
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Find Quick News on social media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Facebook Group (more interactive)
Sources: * Trump goes on a rampage with pardons, veto threats and Covid denial * Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Trump Campaign And Allies, Alleging Defamation * President-elect Joe Biden receives first dose of COVID-19 vaccine * John Mulaney, former 'Saturday Night Live' writer, checks into rehab for alcohol, cocaine relapse: report * Pick of Alex Padilla for California senator cheered as a 'milestone' for Latinos
On this episode of Quick News Daily, I go on a very deep dive into the possibility of this new strain of COVID in the UK, what it could mean for the vaccines, and how it's different from the regular coronavirus. Also, I talk about the stimulus deal and the approval and rollout of the Moderna COVID vaccine.
Make sure to check out my new article: https://teespring.com/loser- in-chief
And check out the new merchandise: https://medium.com/quick-news-daily-podcast/trumps-covid-response-reagan-hiv-aids-8cd2e265aadc
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast player: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
- Hill leaders reach $900 billion Covid relief deal in breakthrough following partisan disputes
- Several countries ban travel to the U.K. due to new coronavirus strain
- US asked to prioritize frontline essential workers as distribution of Moderna shots begins
- FDA authorizes a second vaccine as average daily cases and deaths hit records
(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
OPEN Today is Monday, December 21st, and we are just 4 days away from Christmas, if you celebrate that sort of thing. Personally, I celebrate the commercial version of Christmas, which is pretty much just the food and gifts, not the religious part on my end. But Christmas, or whatever, might come early for you because I finally designed that new merchandise! I also wrote another article that’s available on Medium, so stick around to the end and I’ll have more info on those items. Otherwise, it seems to have been a relatively normal weekend (at least normal for 2020). Let’s get caught up with the stimulus news, COVID news, and more!
STIMULUS Well, much later than pretty much everybody thought, Congress has apparently reached a new deal on a COVID relief stimulus package. They’re trying to brand this as relief for small businesses, unemployed Americans and health care workers, as well as more help distributing the COVID vaccine.
The actual text of the bill wasn’t available yet at the time of this recording, but Democratic House and Senate members released what help was going to be in the deal eventually. So, here’s what we know so far:
- The deal is worth $900B total, which was way less than the 3 trillion that Democrats were trying to push for.
- Direct payment checks will be sent out again, which will be about $600 for each child and adult.
- There is $284B for forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program and $15B for “live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions”.
- In addition to the usual unemployment benefit, if you qualify for that, you’ll get an extra $300 per week over what is usually available.
- $25B for rental assistance and to extend the moratorium on evictions.
- $82B for schools and colleges, mostly to help them reopen safely.
- $7B to increase broadband access, which will help those in rural areas. That has to be tough when everyone is doing virtual work and you barely get reception.
- Lastly, there’s a tax credit “to support employers offering paid sick leave”, because of course there is. Apparently, there’s nothing more American than giving companies free money for doing the right thing (coming from the same people who will rant for 20 minutes about “kids these days and their participation trophies”).
The bill itself hasn’t passed yet. There are still a lot of procedures that need to happen, but Trump’s reaction on Twitter could speed things up or slow them down dramatically. I’ll make sure to keep you updated.
COVID So, we are slowly learning more about the possible new strain of COVID that’s spreading through the UK at the moment. One early number that’s being thrown around by experts is that this new strain could be up to 70% more transmissible than regular COVID. They’re also saying that this could explain why London and Southern England are seeing such a crazy amount of spread. However, these experts are also saying that even if this is the case, there is still no evidence that the new strain is deadlier or that the vaccine wouldn’t work with it, which is good news.
With that being said, some European countries have started travel bans to Britain. At least six countries have banned air travel to Britain, and France and Belgium have banned traveling there by train. France’s ban is for 48 hours, and it’s to buy them time to find a “common doctrine” to stop the spread of the new form of the virus, although I’m not necessarily sure how helpful a 2 day ban is when you’re studying a new virus, but I’m obviously no scientist. There was a special crisis meeting for the European Council today, so I’m sure we’ll be getting more details about that later today.
But, to play Debbie Downer for a second, I think it was Sherlock Holmes (or some other old-timey person or character) who said that “an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. That means that just because there’s no proof yet doesn’t mean that there will never be any proof. For example, Einstein was decades ahead of his time with his Theory of Relativity; he had to wait like 10-15 years for the technology to catch up since the tech he needed wasn’t available yet. So, like the saying goes, there was no evidence, but that didn’t mean that the evidence wasn’t out there. We should keep an open mind and prepare ourselves for the possibility that it is more deadly or that it may react differently with the vaccine.
Let’s back up just a bit and get technical for a minute here to take a deep dive on this new variant and what that actually means.
This strain was detected back in September, and it grew so that by November, it made up a quarter of the cases in London. By the middle of December, this increased again, meaning the new strain was responsible for ⅔ of the cases.
The experts are saying that there are 3 important things about the virus:
- It’s rapidly replacing the other version of the virus, so it’s becoming the virus
- It’s unusually highly mutated, and the mutations are probably affecting an important part of the virus (probably the spike protein that I mentioned).
- When it’s been studied in the lab, it has shown that they can increase the virus’ ability to infect other cells.
As for why it’s so extremely mutated, the current best guess is that it came from a patient with a weakened immune system who was unable to beat the virus. I guess that makes sense because the person’s immune system would have tried to fight it a bit, and the virus would know how to beat those attacks the next time. It’s like you’re racing someone and they get a 10 yard head start. The only question I have is how that virus would spread to someone else then? Probably the nurses and/or doctors who took care of them, I would imagine. I know we have some real deal science listeners, so they can feel free to reach out and explain it to me.
And here’s an article I just found this morning, and it interviews even more doctors from around the world. Their thinking is that the vaccine will still protect against the new strain. If you watch MSNBC, you might recognize the name Dr. Vin Gupta, who’s a really smart guy. He said “I do think that this might impact our future facing work, but it’s not going to impact the near term. It will not impact the current vaccines’ effectiveness in ending the pandemic. The effectiveness of these vaccines in producing antibodies that can really attack and kill Covid-19 is extraordinary.”
Joe Biden’s pick to become Surgeon General said something similar yesterday, and he added that hand washing, social distancing, and masks will still be precautions against this new strain.
One professor of immunology from London said he’s more concerned since this was a significant mutation (there were actually 17 mutations in this one), but he also added that the vaccine helps your body produce a ton of different antibodies, so the new strain should still be caught by one of those. Another researcher from Cardiff University said “It’s quite likely, given that the vaccine provides immunity to different regions of the spike protein, not just the one where the mutations are, it is quite likely that the vaccine will work against this thing.”
Essentially, we just have to stay cautious about this. Honestly, it sounds too early to tell what this actually means for the vaccine, but I would say it probably still covers it. A while ago, I talked about how these COVID vaccines have insanely high efficacy rates compared to other vaccines, and it might be like one of four “super vaccines” where it actually teams up with your body to produce a response that’s superhuman; it’s way more than your body could do on it’s own.
Either way, let’s keep our eyes and ears open for any new updates.
MODERNA Some good news for everyone is that on Friday night, the Moderna vaccine got the final approval it needed from the FDA (this time, the vote was unanimous; 20-0). Then, on Sunday, the CDC approved it as well, meaning that it’s already shipping out to the various states.
The CDC panel that recommends who should get the vaccine voted that frontline essential workers and people 75 and older should get the next priority for the vaccine, and after that, it should expand to more frontline essential workers, so this includes about 30 million first responders, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, postal service, public transit, and grocery store workers.
Between Pfizer and Moderna, about 7.9 million shots are going to be delivered to states this week. Already, 2.84 million doses have been delivered, and half a million shots have been given. The one Yahoo article I used in this story kept saying that the Moderna vaccine will “significantly” increase the availability of COVID vaccines; they kept using that word “significantly”, so that’s a good sign. It will be more helpful for rural areas because, again, it doesn’t need to be kept as cold as the Pfizer one.
I’m going to be honest here for a second, and maybe this is just me being petty and vengeful, but it doesn’t sit right with me that people who talked about how COVID wasn’t that bad, and people who were just flat out reckless, are some of the first ones in line for the vaccine. I know it’d be discrimination to not give it to them, but just on a moral level, it feels like they’re someone who was on the Titanic and shouting “that wasn’t an iceberg you snowflake, everything’s fine!”, and then a little bit later, they’re shoving you out of the way and taking your seat on a lifeboat. Maybe it’s just the narcissism sneaking out, but it’s kind of like all the Trump people getting vaccinated. It just doesn’t make sense that there are no consequences for these people’s actions.
I do want to end this on a more positive note though and give a special shout out to the Dean of Morehouse Medical School, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice. Dr. Rice is a Black physician, and she wanted to be an example for minority communities and others who are still skeptical of the vaccine, so she got vaccinated on Friday. I think it was last week that I mentioned Barack Obama talking about how these minority communities are getting hit the hardest by the virus, but that they’re also the most concerned about its safety, so this is really an important example being set by Dr. Rice. She even went so far as to say “Really, this is a life and death message for Black people about the coronavirus”.
END Alright everybody, I think that’s all for today. I still haven’t made up my mind about shows for the rest of the week, so at this point, I guess I’d just say to assume that there won’t be any more. That way, it can be a fun little surprise when one pops up. But I am working on doing my first review show in months, and for any superhero fans out there, I’m deciding to revisit Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I figured that would be a good one since, pretty soon, it’ll be 2021 and Zack Snyder’s version of the Justice League will be on HBO Max. Plus, I really just love that movie and wanted to have a discussion about it. As for what’s out right now, I did finally make a new design for merchandise, so that’s on a T-shirt and long sleeve shirts. The link is in the description, and I thought it was kind of a fun design that makes fun of Trump. Also, I wrote an article in Medium that compares Trump’s response to COVID to Reagan’s response to AIDS, so if you don’t like either of those people, check that out; that link is also in the description. If you don’t want to worry about running out of free articles on Medium every month, you can become a contributor to Quick News Daily for $3 a month, and then I send you the free “friends and family” link. In fact, I sent it out to our awesome contributors yesterday, and it’s time to thank them as well. Thank you to our Producer, Kathy, and our Executive Producer, Gwen.
Catch up on all the week's biggest news with this weekly recap from Quick News Daily. Click on the timestamp to jump to a specific day:
Monday: 00:00
Tuesday: 17:55
Wednesday: 31:16
Thursday: 44:08
One day late, here’s Joe Biden’s speech after winning the Electoral College back on Monday. Thanks for your patience these past two weeks as the semester ended; I hope to be back to creating top-notch content on Monday. Watch out for Quick News To Go later today!
https://vurbl.com/station/9D0SK1SgpG3/
Today, we have a lot to get through on the last episode of Quick News Daily for the week. We discuss another allergic reaction to the COVID vaccine, the extra doses found in the vials for the vaccine, and French President Emmanuel Macron testing positive for the coronavirus. We also discuss Biden's latest nominee, why you shouldn't be worried about Republicans objecting Electoral College votes in the House, MacKenzie Scott, and more!
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast player: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
- Alaskan has allergic reaction after getting Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine
- FDA says Pfizer vaccine vials hold extra doses, expanding supply
- McConnell warns GOP off Electoral College brawl in Congress
- Sales top 3 million for Barack Obama's "A Promised Land'
- MacKenzie Scott Has Donated More Than $4 Billion In Last 4 Months
- French President Emmanuel Macron tests positive for Covid-19
- Biden expected to nominate North Carolina environmental official to run EPA
(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
OPEN
Today is Thursday, December 17th, thanks for listening once again. There were actually a ton of really interesting stories out there today, so it was tough to narrow them down. I tried to choose the ones that would be most relevant to our lives, just like the mission of this show is supposed to be, so you’ll have to let me know how I do with that. WILLY WONKA EFFECT There are some pretty hot takes in here, so it’s going to be a fun one. To amend those words of Willy Wonka, let’s get caught up right away.
COVID REACTION AND EXTRA DOSES
So, here’s the deal: I’m going to talk about this first story because we all need to be informed and aware of the risks. That said, we should keep this in perspective. I’ll explain more about what I mean in just a second.
The story I’m talking about is the news from Alaska yesterday that a health worker who received the COVID vaccine had a severe allergic reaction. It happened within minutes of getting the shot, they had to give him a shot of epinephrine, and then he was fine after that. The health officials there said that this reaction was similar to the ones in the UK last week. The only problem is that this patient did not have a history of allergic reactions, whereas the two from last week did. In that way, those made sense, and it’s why this one is scarier. It’s human nature to fear the unknown. It’s why we’re afraid of the dark.
So the caution and perspective that I want to give is that I feel like all of these reactions wouldn’t be big stories if this was a typical disease instead of COVID. If we only heard about 3 severe reactions to even something like the regular flu vaccine, I’m sure doctors would be thrilled. The data isn’t real easy to find, but a study from 2009 showed thousands of really serious side effects from the flu vaccine, so I just want to emphasize that the actual news story here is that there are only 3 news-making allergic reactions.
The other side of that coin is that millions of flu vaccines go out every year, whereas, realistically, there have maybe been a couple hundred thousand COVID vaccines that have been given to the regular public. That same argument I just made about “only 3” is the same one that the idiots used this spring to justify why we shouldn’t be in lockdowns. They always said “the flu kills more people per year” after like 2 weeks of knowing about the coronavirus. It’s comparing apples to oranges. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that we should acknowledge these cases, we should study them, we should be cautious, but don’t let this scare you out of getting the vaccine altogether. Talk to an actual doctor, don’t just take my word for it.
But hey, let’s hear some good news about the vaccine, which is actually more of a story about how our pharmacists are pretty smart people. As early as Monday, and for sure by Tuesday, pharmacists nationwide began noticing that there was still quite a bit of vaccine left over in the vials that were shipped out. Originally, I talked about how there were 5 doses per vial of vaccine, and we went through all of that math. Well, to prevent against spills and other waste, the vials are always filled more than is needed. For example, if 5 doses is 5 ounces, then they probably fill the vials up to like 5.5 or something like that. In this case, the pharmacists are finding that there are 1-2 extra doses per vial, which experts say is unusual. I’m not sure what could make them overshoot the target so much, but it’s a lucky break for us.
If we do some more quick math, 1 extra dose is 20% more, and 2 is 40% more. This means our expected vaccine totals could be as much as 40%, which would help tremendously with our supply problems. It could mean that shortage that’s coming in the spring might not be as bad. Not everyone will be at 40%, and temporarily, some places still have to strictly follow protocols, so they can only use 5 no matter what. Realistically, maybe we’ll be in the 25-30% range, which is phenomenal.
I was just trying to figure out why they could have miscalculated so much, and the biggest things I thought of were: they didn’t know how much would be lost to spilling or the environment because no vaccine has ever had to be kept this cold, or they didn’t want their shortage problem to be even worse than they were already projecting, so they wanted to be damn sure there were 5 doses in there, or maybe because these are being so closely monitored in terms of their climate and having the GPS sensors and all that, maybe there’s a lot less waste because everyone’s watching them like hawks. Whatever it is, we’re lucky for it.
Alright, last point here since it’s just my own hearsay at this point, but I guess I can sort of see why Trump supporters would think there’s some conspiracy against him these days. First, the vaccine effectiveness results get released the weekend after the election, all of these vaccines are super effective, they can be distributed in less than a month’s time, and then we find out that we can get up to 40% more and maybe our shortage problem won’t be as bad? Man, that is a very good stretch of luck, I have to say.
I don’t believe in these conspiracies, but since my whole ending theme song is inspired by a movie where a guy takes down a fascist government that rose to power using a virus they created and a secret cure that they had the whole time, I’d be remiss not to mention it at all. In reality, humans are always looking to make these everyday events have special meaning. For some reason, we have this sense that there’s something bigger at play out there. Maybe it’s because we think we’re the only intelligent life that exists in our universe. Whatever it is, we try to make things make sense, and random luck just doesn’t add up for us like a good, old-fashioned conspiracy does. I’ll leave you with the best example: the JFK assassination. Nobody believes that a nobody, dumb guy like Lee Harvey Oswald could kill the beacon of hope for an entire generation and change the course of world history, but he probably did. Oh boy, I have to stop before we get too far into that, because even I believe something funny happened there.
BIDEN EPA
Another day, another nomination for the Biden Administration. Today, the lucky nominee is Michael Regan, and he has been chosen to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Currently, he’s the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and in the past he’s worked at the Environmental Defense Fund, as well as the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Apparently, Regan is only 44 years old, which is insane. He must have started working for Clinton right out of high school or something. Also, he looks like he’s in his late 30s, tops, which is impossible. I don’t know what his skin care regimen is, but it’s working.
I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot, which is a good thing, but if he’s confirmed by the Senate, Regan will become the first Black American to lead the EPA.
MACRON
Sort of coming back around to another story from last week, French president Emannuel Macron has tested positive for the coronavirus. He did it with style, which I respect. His motto was “go big or go home”, because in just the past few days, he’s met with a ton of other European leaders, so now they have to quarantine as well.
Let me tell you what I mean. Here’s his schedule:
- Last Thursday and Friday, the European Council met in Brussels, and 25 of 27 leaders of EU nations were there.
- On Monday, he helped mark the 60th anniversary of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where he met the Spanish prime minister, as well as the leader of the OECD.
- Tuesday, he met with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- Then, just yesterday, he had lunch with the prime minister of Portugal, and he met with his own cabinet.
The Spanish prime minister tested negative today, but he said he’s still quarantining until Christmas Eve, December 24th (honestly, if you didn’t get the coronavirus but were exposed, what better reason is there for taking the week off before Christmas? That’s a power move right there).
European Council president Charles Michel said he was quarantining as a precaution. France’s prime minister also tested negative today but is still quarantining as a precaution, as is the President of France’s National Assembly, which sounds like their version of Speaker of the House to me. The prime ministers for Portugal and Spain also said they’d be self-isolating as precautions.
Lastly, Macron’s wife, Brigitte, has proactively started her quarantine, but she has not had any symptoms so far. Since they say “proactively”, I’m guessing she’s still waiting for her test results. She has a little more to worry about than Macron since she’s 67 years old compared to his 42. That’s an interesting story between them, by the way. Look up their history together if you’re bored and have some spare time.
Obviously, I wish President Macron well. Like I said last week, I have a soft spot for the guy, but I wasn’t thrilled with that police law he backed down from. Again, I’m hoping he can turn a corner and salvage his legacy. And all kidding aside, it was pretty crazy how he met with pretty much anyone who’s powerful in Europe while he was potentially contagious. It’s great that everyone so far is testing negative, and it gives me some confidence in basic COVID precautions like masks, social distancing, and hand washing. It’s a good thing they didn’t invite any Republicans, I’ll say that much.
MCCONNELL WARNING
There has been some talk recently, at least in the media, that some Republicans are going to try to object to certifying at least some Electoral Votes, which the House is going to certify on January 6th. I went over this shortly after Biden was actually declared the winner in November, but to object, you need one Representative and one Senator to formally request it. I can’t remember exactly, but I think that the whole House then votes on whether to accept the votes, and if a majority does, they certify them anyway. Since the Democrats still have a majority in the House, the votes are all going to be certified.
In a private teleconference with GOP Senators, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the leadership team warned Republicans against doing this because of the reason I just said: the House is never going to throw out these votes. Now, do I think that some representative and some senator are going to team up to do this? Of course I do; you can definitely find two clowns in a circus, and Mitch McConnell is basically PT Barnum. Not to mention the fact that the Republicans are all about the show and don’t actually care about results. It’s all theater for Fox News or OANN or Newsmax or whatever propaganda network is going to be the new leader.
So, my guidance to you is to not stress out about this, even if there are objections on January 6th. Nancy Pelosi is still Speaker, and she’ll shut that stuff down right away.
OBAMA BOOK SALES
Just because Donald Trump is an avid listener of Quick News Daily (maybe...I really have no idea), I want to mention that former President Barack Obama’s first presidential memoir has already sold 3.3 million copies in the US and Canada in just one month. That’s already 3rd best for presidents, and that’s total. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are basically tied since they each have sold between 3.5 and 4 million total, so Barack basically caught them in a month.
For history nerds, Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs are most likely the best-seller of all time for presidents, but the records just aren’t good enough to know for sure. We can make a pretty good guess though since those have been in publication for like 130 years, and when they were originally sold, there were hundreds of thousands of verified sales (and there were a heck of a lot fewer people on Earth back then).
But you just know that this really makes Trump mad, don’t you? He knows he’ll never have a book that successful. Even his claim to fame, The Art of the Deal, has only sold about a million copies.
Honestly, I’d be surprised if he lives long enough to get a memoir out. With his legal troubles, all of that debt, and I think it’s clear that he’s pretty far into cognitive decline, so when he doesn’t have the presidency to protect him, I think he’ll go downhill quickly. If you gave me the option of betting on if he’d be running again in 2024 or that he won’t even make it to 2022, I’d take that second option in a heartbeat.
MACKENZIE SCOTT
I want to end on what I think is a good, positive note. It’s the news that billionaire MacKenzie Scott has given away more than $4B in the last 4 months alone. First of all, if you’re not quite familiar with who Mackenzie Scott is, she’s the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. As part of their divorce, which went final last year, she got 4% ownership of Amazon, which was worth $37B at the time. That was in Amazon stock, which has taken off even more this year, meaning she could be worth a lot more than that. That same 4% is worth $62B these days.
She explained part of her reasoning for this in an op-ed on Medium, saying "Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires."
She and her team chose 384 organizations to give this money to, and she even designated these funds as unrestricted gifts, meaning the organizations who got them didn’t even have to agree to any conditions, which is where they can get you sometimes.
By July of this year, she had already given away about $1.7B to a bunch of different causes, but focused mainly on historically black colleges and universities, and women’s and LGBTQ equity organizations.
For these last few months, she asked her advisers to figure out ways to give away more money faster so that she could help with the COVID fallout. She says “They took a data-driven approach to identifying organizations with strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital.”
By the way, can you imagine having a whole team who’s entire job is to vet these organizations that you’re going to give billions too? That is a goal.
The CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, told Bloomberg that Scott's nearly $6 billion in donations this year "has to be one of the biggest annual distributions by a living individual", and the director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies wrote that "She still has a long way to go in her stated intention of giving away all the wealth. But she's now made two bold moves, putting to shame the other 650 U.S. billionaires who haven't figured out comparable ways to boldly share”. He’s referring to the Giving Pledge that she signed last year, which is a promise that she’ll give the majority of her wealth to charity. Oddly enough, Jeff Bezos didn’t sign the pledge, although he did commit $10B to fighting climate change earlier this year.
I’ll admit, it feels a bit strange to be praising these billionaires so much for giving the rest of us some help, when regular people helped build those fortunes. At the same time, when you have one person giving away $6B in just one year, and the experts on the subject are saying that’s a record and puts other billionaires to shame, I think it’s newsworthy and shows that some people can handle that much wealth fairly responsibly.
I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that she is a she. Maybe we don’t keep track of every billionaire’s donations to charity, but I think it’s definitely notable that she’s new to being a billionaire and is giving away her wealth at this rate. Here comes another opinion, but it seems like the people who suddenly gain such an insane amount of wealth are the ones who realize how fortunate they are and how lucky they had to be to get to that point, whereas the people who built their wealth by starting a business or something are more likely to keep it.
END
Alright everybody, and that’s the way it is. Like I mentioned yesterday, there won’t be a new show tomorrow. I realized that I never played you Joe Biden’s victory speech after being certified by the Electoral College on Monday, so I think I’m going to send that out as the show tomorrow, so you’ll be able to hear that wherever you’re listening right now. It’ll just be like when I played their victory speeches when the race was called by the media back in November.
As for next week, I plan on having at least one show on Monday or Wednesday. I have a sneaky suspicion that folks might be taking a break from listening to podcasts next week, but I’m not sure. All the big podcasts seem to take the week off, which I’m always hesitant about. I’m thinking about putting together a mini “best of” show, but now I’m thinking maybe I should save that for the week after and make it like a “year in review” show. Who knows, it’s just an idea I’m playing around with.
I’d mention I’m still designing new merchandise, but I’ve been saying that for the last couple weeks, so I’ll just let you know when it’s actually available at this point.
Anyways, that’s the lay of the land. Stay safe, and I’ll see you on the next episode.
Today, I go through several stories that will save you from having to look at those clickbait articles with all the pop-up ads, including FDA-approved at-home COVID testing, Trump's legal troubles in the state of New York, and a possible COVID mutation in the UK. Also, I go over the latest nominees and appointees to the Biden Administration.
Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast player: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions? Email the show at quicknewsdaily@gmail.com or message us on social media:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
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Sources:
- Biden poised to nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead Department of Energy
- Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary nominee
- Biden to name Gina McCarthy to top domestic climate job
- UK finds new mutation of COVID-19 behind rapid spread across London
- FDA approves first over-the-counter home test for COVID-19
- Trump Org must turn over documents to NY AG, judge rules
On this episode of Quick News Daily, we wrap up our story on the Electoral College vote from Monday, the lengths that some of the electors had to go to just to vote, and why the Seditious 126 are so dangerous. We also cover the bizarre shooting at a New York City cathedral, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Bill Barr's resignation.
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Find Quick News on your favorite podcast platform: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
- 'Democracy prevailed,' Biden says after U.S. Electoral College confirms his win
- GOP Rep removed from committees after saying he can't guarantee safety in Lansing on Monday
- A gunman is dead after a shooting at a New York City cathedral
- Attorney General William Barr resigns
To start the new week, we have a lot to get through, including the COVID vaccine deployment, the Electoral College vote, the protests in DC this weekend (thanks to the Seditious 126), and the Russians hacking major government departments and agencies.
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Find Quick News Daily on other podcast platforms: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Sources:
- COVID-19 vaccines head to California; Western states' medical experts confirm safety
- US coronavirus: CDC officially allows vaccine to be administered as shipments begin
- White House staff members will be among the first to be vaccinated.
- Electoral college vote may be knockout blow to Trump's ploy to subvert election | US elections 2020 | The Guardian
- https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1337815329158950913?s=20
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/historic-black-churches-attacked-during-pro-trump-rallies-saturday/2020/12/13/d897bfb0-3d54-11eb-8bc0-ae155bee4aff_story.html?itid=pr_hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_2_na-ans_2
- Russian government spies are behind a broad hacking campaign that has breached U.S. agencies and a top cyber firm
- Michigan House punishes GOP Rep. Gary Eisen for hinting at Electoral College disruption
- Live: Here Are the Electoral College Results, By State
(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
OPEN
Today is December 14th, welcome to another Monday edition of Quick News Daily. I’d say it’s a pretty exciting and historic day in US history: the COVID vaccine is being distributed as we speak; maybe some of you listening have already been lucky enough to have gotten it. I’d say you’re both brave for trusting this, as well as lucky to be one step closer to beating this virus. We’ll talk more about that in just a bit, as well as the Electoral College, as well as the protests from this weekend. It’s some important stuff, so let’s get caught up right away.
COVID VACCINES
We’ll start right there with the deployment of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine to all 50 states. The first shipments of the vaccine left Portage, Michigan early Sunday. States will get vaccines based on their adult population, and more shipments are coming later this week. About 189,000 vials of vaccine departed the plant and are expected to arrive in all 50 states Monday. 400 boxes packed with about 390,000 vials will ship on Monday, meaning they’ll arrive Tuesday. There are five doses of vaccine per vial, according to Pfizer, so doing the rough math, that adds up to 2,895,000 doses that have gone out on Sunday and Monday.
The vaccine is heading to sites across the country (mainly hospitals) that can store it at the 94 degrees below zero that it requires, which is colder than Antarctica. Pfizer is using containers with dry ice and GPS-enabled sensors to ensure each shipment stays cold enough to be useful.
As for where we’re heading with this and what it could mean, the head of US coronavirus vaccine efforts told Fox News Sunday that "all in all, we hope to have immunized 100 million people" by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
Honestly, the sooner the better, because we are breaking records across the country right now. The Public Health Director for Los Angeles County summed up what we’re seeing right now by saying "the issue right now is what we call the Thanksgiving surge. We had a surge, and now we have a surge on top of a surge, and it's really hard for us to calculate exactly what we're going to see in the next week or two." She’s specifically talking about Christmas and people traveling for the holidays, which could be a real problem because there’s always a 2-3 week period in between the superspreader events and the surge at hospitals.
In the country's 10 largest cities, the number of hospital patients who had the virus ranged from about 9% in New York to 23% in Chicago. In El Paso, Texas, more than 50% of patients in city hospitals had COVID between November 27 and December 3, which was nearly double the national average for that period.
HYPOCRISY
Yes, we’re all starting to get used to that sound by now, and it means we’re going to be talking about the soon-to-be former president, Donald Trump. I want to talk a little bit about the hypocrisy of his administration, and Republicans in general.
The New York Times is reporting that White House staff members who work in close quarters with Trump have been told that they’re scheduled to receive the COVID vaccine soon, you know, when the vaccine is in short supply and only being distributed to high-risk health care workers. Yes, the people who made the decision to let us all die to try and save Trump’s political career are going to be the first ones who are saved.
The goal of distributing the vaccine inside the West Wing is to prevent additional government officials from falling ill. Well here’s a crazy idea: wear masks! Social distance! Do everything we’ve been forced to do for 9 months because of their idiotic decisions.
The Times goes on to say that “while many Trump officials said they were eager to receive the vaccine and would take it if it were offered, others said they were concerned it would send the wrong message by making it appear as if Trump staff members were hopping the line to protect a president who has already recovered from the virus and bragged that he is now “immune.”’
Honestly, I’m hoping that there aren’t many people left to be vaccinated since The White House has already gone through multiple waves on its own. First it was Trump, his family, Kayleigh McEnany, and some others in mid-October. A few weeks later, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, and a handful of other Pence staff members and advisers got sick. By the way, you’re trying to tell me Pence never got it when literally everyone around him was getting it? They just didn’t want to look completely incompetent by saying that both the president and vice president got coronavirus.
Then, a third wave hit the West Wing after Trump's election night party at the White House. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Ben Carson were the notable ones from that round of the virus.
This is just great. I mean, Trump really is the president of the forgotten man in the Midwest. You just know there’s some overweight white dude in Nowhere-town, Kansas who’s fist-pumping, hooting, and hollering at this news. My guy, how many times does Trump have to get preferential treatment before you realize he doesn’t give a damn about you? He does not care if you live or die.
RUSSIAN HACKING
Getting back to some serious news, it was announced over the weekend that Russian government hackers breached the Treasury and Commerce Departments, as well as other U.S. government agencies, during a global espionage campaign that stretches back months, according to reporting from the Washington Post.
They say officials were scrambling over the weekend to see how far the Russians got into the systems, and to implement effective countermeasures, but the initial signs suggested the breach was long-running and significant.
In some cases, email systems were breached (but her emails…). Some of these attacks were performed by the same group that hacked the State Dept. and White House email servers during the Obama Administration.
All of the organizations were breached through the update server of a network management system called SolarWinds. The SolarWinds company said in a statement that monitoring products it released in March and June of this year may have been tampered with in a “highly-sophisticated, targeted . . . attack.”
The scale of the Russian espionage operation is looking pretty large at the moment. My favorite quote was just this one unnamed source who said “this is looking very, very bad.” You don’t say?
SolarWinds is used by more than 300,000 organizations across the world. They include all five branches of the U.S. military, the Pentagon, State Department, Justice Department, NASA, the Executive Office of the President and the National Security Agency, the world’s top electronic spy agency, according to the firm’s website, so that’s good news…
Russia also compromised a leading cybersecurity firm, FireEye, which came out last week and reported it was breached.
It’s not clear yet what info the Russians got to, but FireEye disclosed it has lost hacking tools that the company uses to test clients’ computer defenses.
So far there is no sign that the hack was for purposes of leaking information, or for disruption of critical infrastructure, such as electric grids (that actually is good news). The SolarWinds tool monitors a client’s network for performance, identifying problems like failing switches. It has extremely deep “administrative” access to a network’s core functions, which means that gaining access to the SolarWinds tool would allow the Russians to freely play around in the victim's computer systems.
The hacking group “APT29” compromised the SolarWinds server that sends updates, meaning that when a client of SolarWinds checked in to update their software, the Russians could latch onto that request and “ride it back into” that company’s computer system. The best way I can describe it is like this: picture it’s 1985, and you’re driving your pickup truck through Hill Valley, California. You’re just driving through downtown, minding your own business when you check your mirror and see Michael J. Fox on his skateboard, hanging on the back of your pickup truck, catching a free ride! I’ll tell you what: I can never pass up a good Back to the Future reference.
I’m not really sure how much more we’ll hear about this for now. I think it could be a while since the hacking is a national security issue. Not to mention that the government probably doesn’t want people to start panicking.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Uh oh, there’s that transition again! It’s actually extra-appropriate for this story though, because today, electors are gathering in state capitols all across the country to place their votes for the presidential election. Who knows, by the time this comes out, Joe Biden might already be the winner of the Electoral College! As of the time of this recording, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia have all voted for Biden, and those are the states that Trump has been trying his hardest to overturn. What that really means is...Joe Biden has won the presidency for like the 100th time in the past two months.
I am excited to finally just get this over with, and I’m also super excited for the history being made by our future Madame Vice President. However, I am also worried that this will drive Trump even crazier, if that’s possible. On Sunday morning he was still tweeting in all caps that this was the “most corrupt election in US history!”
He also did an interview with Fox & Friends that aired on Sunday, where he said that he’s going to keep fighting no matter what. Side note: the Fox News interviewer, Brian Kilmeade, of course did not push back. I mean, I knew he was always going to be a suck up, but come on man, have some dignity for one second.
There was also news made on Friday when the US supreme courtvoted not to hear a lawsuit led by Texas to block Biden’s victory in four other states (not even in Texas, which makes sense extreme sarcasm). In a different case, a Wisconsin supreme court judge decried Trump’s lawsuit aiming to nullify the votes of 200,000 Americans, saying it “smacked of racism”. Man, there it is again: someone saying something “smacks” of something. That’s just the weirdest phrase to me.
Either way, even when the vote is over today, most Republicans are still going to try and live with their heads in the sand, as evidenced by a recent Quinnipiac University poll that found that 77% of Republicans believe that there was widespread voter fraud in the election. I’m not exactly sure, but I’d wager a bet that if you asked this same group if the moon was made of cheese, about 80% would say yes.
But honestly, that’s what worries me most about next time: that this many people believe in something that’s as real as Harry Potter. Maybe it’s time to start shopping around for houses in Canada.
PROTESTS
Ouch. It’s an unlucky day today when we have to hear that music 3 times, but alas, here we are. Speaking of those idiots who believe the election was rigged, there were “Stop the Steal” protests in Washington, DC this weekend. Considering that the Proud Boys showed up, it went about exactly how you would expect.
By the end of Saturday, DC Police said that there had been 33 people arrested, as well as 4 people who got stabbed. The arrests went something like this: six people were arrested for assault on police officers, 10 were arrested for simple assault, four for riotous acts, two for crossing a police line and one for possession of a prohibited weapon -- a Taser. Oh, also, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Eight police officers were hurt while they were trying to stop the violence. And maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it kind of strange how it’s all about “backing the blue” until the blue actually tries to enforce the law and you don’t like it? Weird how that happens.
A man named Philip Johnson was arrested in the incident and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. He was “allegedly” in a knife fight, which was caught on video, that shows a black man being surrounded and beaten by a crowd of Proud Boys. Stand back and stand by, am I right?
The group chased the man — again, alleged to be Johnson — who pulls out a blade to fend off the crowd. A separate video shows a man with a stab wound to the stomach.
Several historic black churches were also vandalized, but of course, there’s nothing about that on Fox News. I mean, can you imagine how unbearable they’d be if a bunch of Black Lives Matter protesters vandalized just one church? The hypocrisy is maddening.
This article from CNN says that there are videos circulating on social media that show small fights, but that the large gatherings were mostly peaceful, which I am not buying. It seems like the media is already trying to normalize this. I’m sorry, the only violence I remember happening during the George Floyd protests was when police started beating the crap out of protesters because it was 8pm and past curfew. The only violence is coming from the right, like when a 17-year-old crossed state lines to “defend a business”, except defending a business is actually just code for murdering 2 people who were protesting for equal rights, or guy who had to fend off a mob with a knife, and he’s the one getting arrested! The violence is coming from the right; they’re purposely trying to start it, because it’s exactly what they want. Maybe the protesters in Portland were the worst when they were throwing fireworks at the cops protecting the federal building there, but I’d still argue that was a response to the unmarked agents who were kidnapping people off the street under the orders of Bill Barr and Donald Trump.
This is the direct result of Trump not conceding, and more importantly, the Republicans who are letting Trump keep going on with these fantasies of fraud. I’m going to start referring to these Republicans as the “Seditious 126”, which is something that started on Twitter. The Seditious 126 are the 126 Republican members of the House (actual United States congressmen and women) who signed onto that Texas lawsuit that tried to throw out the votes of everyone in those 4 swing states. I’m going to get into that more later in the week, but they must be held lawfully accountable for their actions.
Just to end this segment on something of a light-hearted note, disgraced former General Mike Flynn was leading a rally during these protests, and his sister tried leading a horrible rendition of America the Beautiful, because nothing is more American than protesting to throw out votes. Anyways, listen to how this went…
I’m sorry, what was that? “Land where I sail”? It’s literally the second line of the song, and she still messed it up that badly. Also, who thinks of sailing like that? Is she The Captain from How I Met Your Mother?
BIDEN NOMINATIONS CONTINUE
One last quick story here: Joe Biden made some more appointments and nominations at the end of last week, which I missed. He named Susan Rice as his domestic policy adviser and Denis McDonough to serve as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rice served as the national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama. In a smart move on Biden’s part, the domestic policy adviser is not a Senate-confirmed position, meaning she won’t have to go through a confirmation battle where the Republicans can just rant and rave about Benghazi again, like they actually care.
McDonough served as White House chief of staff for Obama’s second term. He will need to be confirmed by the Senate next year since VA Secretary is a Cabinet position. Under Obama, McDonough also served as deputy national security adviser and chief of staff of the National Security Council, so they’re both certainly qualified for their roles.
END
I don’t think I have any news on my end here, but it is Monday, meaning it’s time to thank our contributors. Thank you to our producer, Kathy, and our executive producer, Gwen!
Catch up on this week's top headlines on our weekly recap show. This week's top stories include the suspicious raid on data analyst Rebekah Jones' house in Florida, the eventual pre-approval of the Pfizer COVID vaccine by the U.S. (and it's deployment in the UK), more appointees and nominees for the Biden/Harris Administration, and more!
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Have any thoughts on possible YouTube/Facebook/Instagram live, interactive videos (that would later become podcasts)? Let me know on social media (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter), or by emailing quicknewsdaily@gmail.com.
On today's Quick News Daily, we discuss the latest news about the FDA pre-approving the Pfizer COVID vaccine, as well as the news from the UK about 2 people who had serious allergic reactions to it. Then, I talk about the potentially game-changing antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, as well as an update on the Rebekah Jones raid in Florida.
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Sources:
- Lawyers' group calls for disciplining Trump legal team over 'dangerous' fraud allegations
- Facebook antitrust case: FTC and several states launch lawsuits
- The antitrust case against Facebook: Here's what you need to know
- Florida state police release body cam video of raid on ex-Covid data's scientist home
- Evidence to justify raid on home of Rebekah Jones weak, experts say
- Pfizer Faces Enormous Task Of Covid Vaccine Distribution After FDA Panel Recommends Urgent Use
- FDA advisers recommend authorization of Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/health/covid-vaccine-allergies-health-workers-uk-intl-gbr/index.html
(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
COVID
The big news from yesterday (that I think we all expected) was that vaccine advisers to the FDA voted to recommend emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine. On this panel, the vote was 17-4-1.
I thought that this was like the final say, but now the FDA has to decide whether to accept the recommendation, but has signaled that it will issue the EUA for the vaccine.
Then, after that, there’s still another step where the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices must meet to decide whether it recommends that the vaccine be deployed for use. That group has a meeting scheduled for today, and expects to vote during a meeting scheduled for Sunday.
Operation Warp Speed officials say they will start shipping the vaccine within 24 hours of FDA authorization.
The FDA group is scheduled to meet again December 17 to discuss Moderna's EUA application.
This is all good news, and I think when you weigh the amount of testing that has happened with this, I think it’s safe. At the same time, there is some unsettling news about a couple of allergic reactions that happened in the UK.
The UK regulators issued new advice to healthcare professionals stating that any person with a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food -- such as previous history of anaphylactoid reaction, or those who have been advised to carry an adrenaline autoinjector -- should not receive the Pfizer vaccine. The two staff members who had that reaction both carried an Epipen and had a history of allergic reactions, and they developed symptoms of anaphylactoid reaction after receiving the vaccine on Tuesday.
I think the scariest wording was that this advice also states that vaccines "should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available."
Finally, this advice recommends that people who carry an EpiPen to delay having a vaccination until the reason for the allergic reaction has been clarified.
Again, I want to be careful on this because I think the benefits greatly outweigh the alternatives, and I don’t want to start any unnecessary vaccine panic because these were just two people, and the study alone was 44,000, but it’s definitely something to know. I also read that Pfizer’s trial protocols said that to be in that study, you couldn’t have a history of severe allergic reaction “to any component of the study intervention”. That might explain why this didn’t happen in the trial. Another expert in this CNN article said that until we know what part of the vaccine actually caused these reactions, the general public shouldn’t be worried, which makes sense; maybe it was something that was very rare. Just something to keep in mind though as we get closer and closer to this.
Some other news that I was happy to hear is that both the government and regulators want Facebook to be broken up because they’re a monopoly.
Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, Ian Conner, said "Facebook's actions to entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook's anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive."
The government and regulators are saying Facebook should have to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp.
Facebook’s latest argument is that people choose its services not because they have to, but because they want to, which is pretty much a flat out lie. I wouldn’t be on there for this show unless it was absolutely necessary to build a community. For millions of small businesses, Facebook advertising is pretty much their main marketing strategy. You can’t go over to Twitter and get the same visibility. Facebook’s PR narrative is that they welcome regulation, but that cracking down too hard could risk giving other countries like China a competitive edge in the fast-moving technology sector. I’m glad that years and years of having to defend themselves for being a monopoly let them try out a bunch of defenses, and good for them for settling on the one that sounds like it hints at racism. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that Trump brainwashed his followers into thinking that Biden loves China and calls the coronavirus the “China Plague” and all that, and then suddenly, Facebook uses this to defend itself when they know full well that they survive by letting white supremacist groups thrive on their platform.
This all got started when New York Attorney General Letitia James announced in September 2019 that she was leading an investigation into Facebook for anticompetitive practices, which 47 state attorneys general signed on a month later.
These types of lawsuits understandably usually take a lot of time to play out. One of the most high-profile cases, a landmark lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998, took almost two years to come to a conclusion (actually, that seems pretty quick to me. When you take on a huge company who likes money and doesn’t like you stepping on their toes, 2 years seems pretty quick). I guess we should temper our expectations a bit, but the fact that this happened while Trump is in office is encouraging, because it’s usually Republicans who are all for business rights and that sort of thing. You know, the crooked capitalism that’s more of an oligopoly.
REBEKAH JONES In our third update of the week on this story, two videos of the raid on Rebekah Jones’ house were released by the FDLE. The videos show that Jones didn't exit her home until about 23 minutes after officers first rang the doorbell, and 15 minutes after they first announced themselves as police. Jones has claimed authorities waited 13 minutes while she got dressed.
"Police search warrant, open the door!" officers yell several times. "Make sure the whole block hears us," one agent tells his colleagues.
Jones has said that officers in the house pointed guns at her 2- and 11-year-old children and her husband, which the department has denied. She released her own video of the raid showing officers inside with guns drawn, but it’s unclear whether those officers were also wearing body cameras. I’m just going to go out on a limb here, but we all know how these stories go: they’re going to find that these super reliable cameras mysteriously turned off on their own or malfunctioned or something, but just on the officers that went inside the home and allegedly pointed guns at her kids.
The authorities also said that they seized three computers, two phones, and several memory cards and thumb drives.
I hate to say I told you so, but I was kind of right: she wasn’t totally honest, but that doesn’t mean that ol’ Ronny DeSantis is in the clear either. There’s also some crazy stuff in her past with getting arrested 3 times in relation to an affair she was having where she was stalking the guy she was having it with. It’s all true, it’s in court documents she filed. These documents included 342 pages, so basically a full novel, about their affair, which is like the nerd version of 50 Shades. So yeah, maybe she’s not the perfect messenger, but there is some controversy over the actual affidavit that they used to get the search warrant.
The FDLE claims to have traced "through the use of investigative resources" the origin of the message to an Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with Jones' Comcast account for her Tallahassee home.
"It is well known that IP addresses can be spoofed. In other words, I can make an IP or I can make it look as though Internet traffic is coming from somewhere else," said Kevin Butler, associate director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research and a professor of computer science at the University of Florida.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the country's leading internet civil liberties and data privacy advocacy group, in 2016 published a 22-page white paper laying out why IP addresses on their own are unreliable personal identifiers, and are commonly misused or misunderstood by police and the courts. A key reason is that information can often relay through multiple IP addresses. "It's a thin read to just use the IP address, and it's one that we really, really discourage," said Cindy Cohn, the EFF's executive director. "An IP address is nothing, is not even remotely like a fingerprint... the reason that we worry about IP addresses is the cops will often pretend like they're a fingerprint."
Jason Lewis, an assistant professor of computer science who heads the cyber security program at Florida Southern College and a former law enforcement agent who served as an investigator for the United States Secret Service's Colorado Electronic Crimes Task Force, said the affidavit to his eyes did not sufficiently establish probable cause.
Lewis Another professor in this field says that "the use of investigative resources: now, I've used that phrase before, but never like this, that is a jump”, referring to the language in the affidavit that ties the IP address to Jones. "To say that I have an IP address, and then through use of investigative resources, it belongs to Rebekah I would dare say that to me doesn't scream probable cause. I really don't see how, that they're showing to a reasonable person, that the facts support a crime and tying it to her." "It would be like saying 'I found a bullet and through investigative resources Jason shot it'," he said.
Lewis said there's no reason for records that would link the IP address to Jones' Comcast account to be confidential. Furthermore, IP addresses change over time and the affidavit does not demonstrate that FDLE proved that it corresponded to Jones at the time the message was sent, Lewis said. "There's no technique or source you need to protect when you say you're tying an IP address to a subscriber, so why not tell me that? To me that's really fishy."
Cybersecurity and digital rights experts also said the fact that the emergency system in question relied on a shared username and password further complicates the case.
The username and password was shared among "multiple" users, past and present, according to the FDLE affidavit which did not specify the number of users with access. That’s just like rule number one: never share your password. That’s rule 1, and rule 2 is don’t make your password “password”.
It was also revealed Wednesday that the username and password for the system are on a document that was publicly available on a Department of Health site, as first reported by Ars Technica. As of Thursday morning that document was still online. That’s wild! How can they claim only she could have hacked in when they had this stuff on the open internet? What’s up with that?
"Normally you don't see prosecutors prosecuting for computer crimes something that didn't cause any harm... it seems to be a very sketchy use of discretion to try to use this very serious statute against somebody who didn't cause any harm to your systems." - Cohn
The prosecutor that I mentioned a couple of days ago who resigned over this said "I have handled a lot of these kinds of cases in my career, and generally, the way that this statute is used, is to prosecute people who are hacking into other people's systems to steal their identity, to steal their money, to crash their servers, to cause some sort of harm to that person or entity, which is not present here,.”
Filipkowski, in his resignation letter, said he reviewed the warrant, and said the raid was "unconscionable." "It's broadened out to allow them to basically seize any of her devices including zip drives, including things that really are wholly unrelated to that criminal statute," he said. "There's no minimization." "I think they intentionally worded it that broadly because they are on a fishing expedition, because they're not just looking at violations of that statute. They're looking for communications that are between state employees and Rebekah," he said.
Lewis, the former cybercrimes investigator, also questioned why authorities seized thumb drives and memory cards to investigate accessing an online messaging system. "The only things I think that you would have had probable causes to seize would be the router and the computers" as well as the modem. Jones' router and modem weren't seized.
Cohn said the FDLE's actions and the information in the affidavit don't help dispel that perception the raid was politically motivated. "This is way out of proportion, and I think it feeds the argument that this is political and not about law enforcement."
Something is very fishy here, and of course it got found out this quickly: if something malicious did happen, Ron DeSantis is no genius. I will keep following this story and updating you. For this info today, it was from a great story in the Florida Today newspaper, which is like the Florida division of USA Today, so go check out that link and give them some traffic; this article was fantastic.
On this episode of Quick News Daily, I go over President-elect Biden's latest nominees and appointees, including his surprising (to me) pick of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary, as well as the great news that Dr. Fauci will be his COVID expert. Also, we talk about Chris Krebs' lawsuit, a follow up to the raid on Rebekah Jones' home, and that useless executive order from Trump.
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Have any thoughts on possible YouTube/Facebook/Instagram live, interactive videos (that would later become podcasts)? Let me know on social media (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter), or by emailing quicknewsdaily@gmail.com.
Find how to listen on your favorite podcast platform: www.rebrand.ly/QuickNews
Transcript:
BIDEN NOMINEES Flipping over to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wackjob Dr. Ben Carson is currently leading, Biden has selected Rep. Marcia Fudge as his nominee. She has been lobbying to be the first Black female Agriculture Secretary, but the rumor is that Biden is planning on choosing former Obama agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, so here she is.
This is kind of interesting because as early as last month, Fudge had an interview with POLITICO where she said “As this country becomes more and more diverse, we're going to have to stop looking at only certain agencies as those that people like me fit in. You know, it's always ‘we want to put the Black person in Labor or HUD.’” I’m not exactly sure what changed in that time period, but I suppose you never know how you’re going to react until you get the call.
She will have an important job since a lot of folks are going to be facing eviction and back-rent bills, as well as the existing homelessness problems. She will also be reinstating the rule from the Obama era that aims to help fair housing. That rule required local governments to track patterns of segregation with a checklist of 92 questions in order to gain access to federal housing funds. Lastly, she’ll be stopping a Ben Carson rule that required plaintiffs to meet a higher threshold to prove unintentional discrimination, known as disparate impact, and gave defendants more leeway to rebut the claims.
Honestly, the one downside to Marcia Fudge being nominated here: it’s not Cory Booker! Remember how Trump was campaigning at the end and kept telling “suburban women” that big, scary Cory Booker was going to come in and destroy their neighborhoods? What a shame.
BIDEN COVID PLAN AND NOMINEES Sticking with Biden just a bit more, he also unveiled a three-point plan to fight the coronavirus in his first 100 days in office. Point one is to get at least 100 million Americans vaccinated in his initial 100 days, point two is his pledge to sign a face mask mandate on his first day in office, and point three is getting kids back to school safely. I was actually surprised about the mask mandate because I thought he said he wasn’t going to do that, but actually it seems like it’s a little more targeted and specific than just saying everyone has to wear one. His mandate would require masks in places like federal buildings and on planes, trains and buses for interstate travel. Biden also said that he would work with governors and mayors to pass masking mandates in communities across the country.
In terms of getting kids back to school, which helps kids’ learning as well as opening up the economy since parents don’t have to be home with them, Biden says Congress will need to provide the necessary funding to protect students, educators and staff.
This plan came on the same day that he announced a lot of his nominees for key public health positions. He announced that his chief medical adviser on the pandemic will be Dr. Fauci. Xavier Becerra, California's current attorney general, will be his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (I’m sure Kamala Harris had some say in that, seeing as that was her old position). Dr. Vivek Murthy, who was US surgeon general for President Obama, will be his nominee for surgeon general.
Biden transition co-chair and former Obama administration official Jeff Zients will serve as coordinator of the Covid-19 response and counselor to the President. Natalie Quillian, who is also a former Obama person, will be the deputy coordinator of the COVID response.
This list goes on: Dr. Rochelle Walensky will be his CDC Director (she’s currently Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital). And, finally, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith will serve as the chairwoman of Biden’s COVID Equity Task Force (she’s currently serving as a co-chair of Biden’s transition team).
Guys, I don’t know if I like this: there are waaaay too many qualified people on this list. I thought we were supposed to have people who were loyal to our president, not these experts! I’m just kidding, this is a super refreshing list of appointees and nominees. I think I’m most happy for Dr. Fauci for getting that new title, and hopefully being treated as the expert he is and with appreciation by the President of the United States.
The one thing I will say for all my history nerds out there, is that with all of these former Obama people coming back in, it sort of feels like when John Adams took over for George Washington. Since nobody knew how to transfer power because no leader had given up power until George Washington, and because Adams was a short, uncharismatic guy (there we go again with the bias against us short people), Adams wanted to make sure he’d win and not spook any of the important people who would endorse him. As a result, he ended up keeping pretty much all of George Washington’s cabinet. That would end up being a bad move for him because Alexander Hamilton had resigned towards the end of Washington’s presidency, but in many ways, he was more of George Washington’s vice president than Adams, meaning that all of the cabinet was basically taking orders from him and ignoring Adams. I don’t think that’s going to happen to Joe by any means, but it seems a bit odd to be bringing so much of the band back together. At the same time, if you know people have done a good job in the past and that they’re qualified, why not?
KREBS LAWSUIT I mentioned Chris Krebs in the beginning, so here he is. Yesterday, Krebs filed a lawsuit against the Trump campaign, attorney Joseph diGenova and the cable channel Newsmax. He’s seeking an injunction ordering Newsmax to remove the diGenova interview from its website, as well as monetary damages, for defamation.
He said diGenova defamed him in that interview by saying that Krebs "should be drawn and quartered" or "shot at dawn" because he said the election was the most secure in our history. Krebs claims that he’s received death threats after this interview.
Let’s just clearly put in perspective why this is such a big deal: diGenova is a lawyer for the President of the United States. More accurately, he’s a lawyer for his re-election campaign, but nonetheless, it is insane that someone that close to the president is saying people should be shot or drawn and quartered. This is why I said Biden’s choices so far for nominees and appointees have been so refreshing. I wish the best to Chris Krebs.
FLORIDA Another follow up story is a callback to yesterday when we talked about Rebekah Jones and that raid on her house.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, “Ron Filipkowski, a lifelong Republican who was appointed to the 12th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission by DeSantis, resigned Tuesday morning after reviewing the search warrant affidavit the state used to seize computers and phones from Rebekah Jones.”
He said that he resigned from this commission to bring attention to the way DeSantis has handled “public access to truthful data” and the raiding of a data analyst’s home.
Filipkowski is no joke: he’s a former Marine, as well as a former state and federal prosecutor.
In his resignation letter, he said “recent events regarding public access to truthful data on the pandemic, and the specific treatment of Rebekah Jones has made the issue a legal one rather than just medical. I no longer wish to serve the current government of Florida in any capacity.”
Also, according to a friend of his, he privately said he was alarmed by the raid, telling the friend “What’s the crime? The crime is hacking into an email server to tell people to tell the truth? That’s not a horrible crime, if it’s a crime at all.” He compared her situation to the legal doctrine called necessity, which allows someone to break the law to prevent a more serious harm.
Interestingly enough, Filipkowski also helped both the Lincoln Project and Center for American Progress Action Fund during the presidential campaign. Thank you, Ron Filipkowski.
EXECUTIVE ORDER I just want to briefly rant about that executive order that Trump signed yesterday, because it’s total BS. Also, I just love that new transition I made, and I want to use every opportunity I can to play it.
That executive order that Trump signed is called something super-MAGA like “The America First Vaccine Priority” or something like that. I’m not exaggerating, I swear it had “America First” in there somewhere. He signed it because it helps Fox News pretend he’s actually doing something, but the bill just prioritizes the shipment of vaccines to the U.S. before it can go to other countries.
First of all, that doesn’t necessarily seem equitable or fair if we passed on a deal, no matter how much I’d rather have those vaccines. Second, you can’t just sign a piece of paper and we magically get more vaccines. The company had to agree to a deal, and unless you’re embracing socialism and seizing the means of production, this doesn’t mean anything! Also, last time I checked, an insane amount of insane Americans are scared out of their minds when they even have to read the word socialism. This executive order is meaningless, and not worth the paper it’s printed on. It might as well have been one of those blank pieces of paper he signed his name on when he was at Walter Reed, pretending like he was a workaholic.
Also, I almost forgot. The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear one of Trump’s election fraud lawsuits that started in Pennsylvania. I guess I wasn’t too surprised because I don’t think John Roberts or Gorsuch or even Kavanaugh wanted to touch this because they know it’s not even a real argument. At the same time, I suppose you can’t ever underestimate how low these Republicans are willing to go. Either way, the cable news channels were freaking out about it. I swear I thought that Wolf Blitzer was going to have a heart attack the way he was talking about it. They just kept playing that breaking news sound effect and graphic. Again, maybe this is just a me thing, but I wish they would have just chilled out a bit.
END Okay everyone, that’s all I got for ya. Once more: I decided I’ll be taking tomorrow off, but expect a new episode on Friday. On these days where I’m more busy and don’t necessarily have a ton of time to write a script and everything, I’m toying of doing Instagram/Facebook live chats where I’ll just go over news and articles in real-time, and then you guys would get to ask questions or suggest what news you want to go over. Then I’d post that as a podcast as well, eventually. The only downside is that it clearly wouldn’t be as organized as this, but maybe it would still help you get the news and help me save some time. So, let me know if you have strong feelings one way or the other about that. You can reach out on any social media platform; I’m on those as @QuickNewsDaily, or you can email me directly at quicknewsdaily@gmail.com.
SOURCES * GOP lawyer resigns over treatment of Florida data analyst * Former Cybersecurity Chief Sues Trump Campaign and Others, Charging Defamation * Biden names retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense nominee * Biden to tap Marcia Fudge to lead housing agency * Biden details plan to combat coronavirus pandemic in first 100 days
For your quick news today, we cover the possible intimidation of a Florida whistleblower by Governor Ron DeSantis and his goons, new possibilities for the Biden/Harris inauguration, and all things related to the COVID vaccines. We also take a quick break for humor and talk about Trump floating the idea of holding a rally in Florida on inauguration day instead of attending.
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(Mostly Accurate) Transcript:
OPEN Today is Tuesday, December 8th, thanks for choosing Quick News Daily. For our stories today, they may seem like they’re all local stories, or stories that only affect a certain community or city, but what I try to do with this show is explain how everything is connected. We really do have an impact on people everywhere around the world. The world is so interconnected now because of the internet and transportation being easier (well, in a non-COVID world), so I think it’s crucial to try and cover stories from almost anywhere. I’ll try to show you what I mean today. Let’s get caught up!
FLORIDA Let’s start with a scary situation that went down in Florida yesterday that was all because of a small, weak, pathetic governor. For all of you Florida listeners, I’m sure it’s no secret down there that Governor Ron DeSantis, whose face just says “my wife doesn’t love me”, has handled the coronavirus absolutely terribly. He tried to deny it and keep everything open for as long as he could, and because he went full Trump, many people died that didn’t need to die. I mean, he did this knowing that he’s the governor of the retirement capital of the United States.
Based on that, I’m sure it won’t surprise you if I tell you that he hasn’t exactly been transparent with reporting the COVID stats in his state. In fact, he was so misleading that, thankfully, the geographic information system manager for the Florida Department of Health spoke out and got fired for it. Since that time, this employee, named Rebekah Jones, decided to create her own website that reports information about Florida’s COVID numbers, including the numbers for hospital bed availability for specific facilities and nationwide COVID cases by school, which DeSantis did not allow to be released publicly.
Well, yesterday morning, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement raided her house at 8:30 am, with guns drawn, because they said that she hacked into the state email system and sent a message to other government employees, which isn’t allowed because that system is supposed to be for emergencies only. They say that they entered the home so forcefully because Jones wasn’t opening the door and hung up on an agent, but Jones says she was taking her time opening the door because she was getting dressed since she thought she was being arrested.
It’s not confirmed that this raid was ordered by DeSantis himself, but it does seem pretty suspicious that the officers on this raid were so heavily armed for a “data breach” that was really just an email telling other employees to not be afraid to speak out. Jones denies that she even wrote the email, and I think she’s hinting at this email being part of a plot to frame her and silence her for reporting these numbers. I think the most unforgivable part of this is these thugs came in and pointed guns at her and her kids, including her 2-year-old. What does that accomplish? Is the baby really a threat?
Jones thinks that this wasn’t really about the email, and that it was more to scare her into silence and stopping her work on her COVID website. I think that certainly makes sense. She also thinks it’s funny that she’s being accused of being a hacker because “DeSantis publicly said I’m not a data scientist, I’m not a computer scientist and I wouldn’t even know what to do if I saw a database”. He said that back in May after she was first fired. That’s the sort of two-faced attack that Trump uses. It’s like when he said that John Bolton’s book was nothing but a bunch of lies, but at the exact same time, he was suing Bolton for revealing classified national security information in the book. How can it be lies, but also contain this super secret national security info? The “bunch of lies” attack is just for Fox News to play clips of on their shows, and the national security accusation is for the courts.
I think my favorite quote of hers is when she said “I’m not a hacker. I don’t hack. I don’t know s--- about computers. I know how to do statistics.” I think I’m going to put that on my resume. She also said “I’m going to buy another computer tomorrow and go back to work.” So good for her for still being that determined. Let’s actually listen to a bit of her on Cuomo Primetime last night…
I’m not quite sure what to think on this one. I think maybe two things could be true at once: this raid could be a show of force by DeSantis to silence her and/or frame her, and that she’s not being completely truthful either. I think it’s too early to judge, but her story of not coming to the door seems a little weak. The email also sounds like it would have been written by her, but she says the stats in the email are wrong and still lower than they actually were, which could point to the framing theory. I just can’t get over the gun in the 2-year-olds face; that says to me that they were really trying to intimidate her. I think it’s too early to tell on this one, but Ron DeSantis is on thin ice here.
INAUGURATION As we get closer to inauguration day, we’re starting to get more of an idea what that might actually look like. It doesn’t sound like anything is set in stone yet by any means, but there are some sources that are starting to give hints at what they’re thinking.
First off, like I think we all could have guessed, a source says that they’re considering a COVID test for anyone on the platform in front of the Capitol where Joe and Kamala will be sworn in. That VIP platform usually holds 1,600 people, but there will probably be far fewer people this time around. One thing that could help cut down on the number of people is the fact that congressional planners have already invited lawmakers to record video messages for the president-elect and vice president-elect that can be played on Jumbotrons before the swearing-in.
No decisions have been made on whether the official inaugural balls are going to still go on like usual. I’m not exactly sure if those are super necessary and worth jeopardizing the 78 year-old president’s life for. Some advocacy groups already are going virtual with their galas. One group, the Human Rights Campaign, said “Our goal is to democratize the inauguration party experience by holding a virtual event integrating our 3 million-plus members and supporters into the day’s events and breaking the traditional bubble of a Washington insider experience”, which could actually be pretty cool and give a sneak peek to a lot of us who might not get the chance to ever go.
There haven’t been any updates on what celebrities will be performing, if they do at all, but one source close to the inauguration suggested looking for hints in the lineup of celebrities who campaigned for Biden, including Lady Gaga, John Legend and Jon Bon Jovi.
You can also plan on seeing some protests during the course of the day. The Answer Coalition is planning a demonstration demanding “urgent action to save the environment, end war and prioritize money to meet people’s needs.” Let America Hear Us Roar For Trump is seeking a permit to “support our President.” Boy, I’m glad the Trump group chose a name that just rolls off the tongue. They have to apply for permits to protest in these parks.
As for whether Trump himself will actually show up, Biden said “it is totally his decision, and it’s of no personal consequence to me. But I do think it is for the country”. Personally, I think there’s about a 0% chance that Trump actually shows up that day, especially if he can hold a rally, but we’ll talk about that in just a bit.
Overall, I think we can expect Biden to trust the medical advice available, and that he’ll choose the safest option; that was the theme of his campaign.
COVID Ahead of Thursday’s meeting about whether to officially approve the vaccine, the FDA released data confirming Pfizer's vaccine efficacy against Covid-19. The document goes on to detail the safety profile of the vaccine as "favorable" and notes that the most common adverse reactions to the vaccine have been reactions at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain and fever.
The document describes the efficacy of Pfizer's vaccine in the time between the first and second dose as 52.4%, but the document notes that "the efficacy observed after Dose 1 and before Dose 2, from a post-hoc analysis, cannot support a conclusion on the efficacy of a single dose of the vaccine, because the time of observation is limited by the fact that most of the participants received a second dose after three weeks." That basically means they don’t have enough data to definitively say how protected you are between the first and second doses. That did answer one of my questions though, because I was wondering how long there is between the doses. I’m glad it’s not like a shingles vaccine or something where it’s months between. Overall, this FDA news makes it pretty clear that we should expect them to approve this Pfizer vaccine on Thursday.
Sticking with vaccine side effects, there was some wild news about the AstraZeneca vaccine. In that trial, there were three events classified as possibly related to a vaccine. Those included a case of haemolytic anaemia (which is when destruction of red blood cells outpaces your bone marrow’s production of these cells), transverse myelitis (which is when the messages that the spinal cord nerves send throughout the body get interrupted. This can cause pain, muscle weakness, paralysis, sensory problems, or bladder and bowel dysfunction), and regular high fever.
Besides those nasty side effects, the other insane part of this study found that there were four deaths during the course of the trials, but all were unrelated to the vaccine, caused by a road traffic accident, blunt force trauma, homicide and fungal pneumonia. Like, what the hell was going on there?
Early this morning for us in the U.S., the United Kingdom began administering the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine outside clinical trials. Margaret "Maggie" Keenan, who turns 91 next week, became the first person in the world to receive an authorized, fully-vetted coronavirus vaccine. And listen to this: an 81-year-old man named William Shakespere has become the second person to get the Pfizer vaccine. I’m not even kidding. The UK is a wild place, man.
There was also this news that Trump administration officials gave up a chance to purchase more than the 100 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine it agreed to earlier this summer. The administration says the decision was made as part of a plan to "diversify" the nation's vaccine arsenal, and an anonymous official said that members of the administration's "Operation Warp Speed" effort to mass produce a coronavirus vaccine were trying "not put all their eggs in one basket."
Of course, that has led to concerns that the company would be unable to fulfill any additional US order until June because of their commitments to other countries, which would really suck if these other vaccines don’t end up being as good. Hopefully these manufacturers are able to ramp up their production quickly, and that all of us can get our vaccines early.
TRUMP Going back to the plans for inauguration day, people familiar with the discussions told NBC News that Trump plans to skip the ceremony in DC, and that he has floated the idea of a Florida rally to announce that he’s running again in 2024, which would honestly just be an attempt to keep himself relevant and make more money off of these people that keep donating to “stop the Dumbocrats from stealing the election!”
Since we all know how much Trump loves polls, I was pretty happy to see that in a new Gallup poll, Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating. The same poll gives Trump a 42% favorable rating and a 57% unfavorable rating. Pretty much all of the polls throughout Trump’s entire presidency have shown his favorable rating has usually been in the 30s or 40s, such as in the Gallup poll. Biden’s current rating is the highest it has been since February 2019, two months before he declared his candidacy for president when it was 56%.
In general, it seems like a lot of the talk shows I listen in on are still saying how crazy things are and how all of this news from Trump world is substantial, but I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but it seems like all of the print media like the Associated Press, New York Times, etc. always say how his claims of fraud are fake, and basically that he’s delusional, before they even start talking about the latest thing he said or did. Everyone else around the world is watching him like they watch someone having an episode of dementia, because that’s basically what it is. The man is a sociopath whose brain cannot, not will not, cannot process the idea that he’s a loser. But he is.
END Well, that’s it for today ladies and gents. Again, I just want to remind everyone that I may not be releasing an episode tomorrow; I’m still not sure if I’ll be skipping tomorrow or Thursday, but remember not to be too surprised if you don’t see anything out there. I also just want to point out something you might have been noticing in the episode descriptions lately: usually sometime after the episode is published, I’ll add basically my whole script in there. Apparently, it’s supposed to help your content get found if you make your transcripts into blog posts, so I decided to go ahead and do that since I’m always trying to get more listeners. It’s also supposed to help the deaf, hard of hearing, listening impaired, and language learning audiences follow along, and I really hope it does. In any case, just know that that’s usually there, and that it might not match the actual podcast audio 100%; sometimes I recognize a typo that I just mentally correct as I’m recording, or I’ll think of something else I want to say on the topic, so that stuff won’t typically make it in there. Otherwise, I think that’s all I have for you. While we’re talking about growing the audience, I guess my one ask of you guys is to tell your friends about the show, introduce them to podcasts if they’re not too familiar. This is supposed to be news for anyone who cares about actual facts and also doesn’t want to sit through all of the pointless stories that are usually shown on the evening news. So, hopefully, you can tell a friend or three and get them hooked as well. Alright folks, stay safe, and I’ll see you on the next episode.
Sources:
- Trump plans to outshine Biden on Inauguration Day with opposing rally: report with information from Alayna Treene of Axios, as well as NBC News
- Gallup: Biden's approval rating is already higher than Trump's has ever been by the staff at the Florida TV station WFLA
- Florida police seize computer of COVID data whistleblower by Mary Ellen Klas and Ana Ceballos from the Miami Herald
- Rebekah Jones Thread
-
https://twitter.com/firenzemike/status/1336147080428052484?s=21
-
Inauguration planners rethink how to party in age of virus by Kevin Freking in the Associated Press
- Oxford/AstraZeneca Publish Coronavirus Vaccine Results by Peter Aldhous from Buzzfeed
- Coronavirus update: The latest on the pandemic as vaccine rolls out in the UK from CNN
- US 'shouldn't have closed the door' to more Pfizer Covid vaccine doses this past summer, official says by Jim Acosta and Maegan Vazquez from CNN
On this Monday episode of Quick News Daily, we have a strong international theme going since I take a deep dive into the protests across France and South Korea's response to a large (for them) COVID infection spike. Then, I talk about Trump's relationship with Twitter going forward, as well as Rudy Giuliani's COVID diagnosis.
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Here's the link to my story https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/hitler-failed-first-too-gop-election-2020/
Find where to listen to Quick News for free: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest
Mostly accurate transcript:
OPEN
Hello again everyone, once again coming off the long weekend. Today is Monday, December 7th, and this wouldn’t be a news show unless I played the most cliche soundbite that every show plays on this date...Yes, it has been 79 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and I actually forget how many people died: 2,335 servicemen, plus 68 civilians. There were also 1,143 service members and 35 civilians wounded, with 3 civilian aircraft being shot down. I honestly don’t know which one would be worse: the people caught on the sinking battleships, or trapped inside for hours as they slowly sunk, or to be some random dude out for a Sunday morning flight with my new plane and then out of nowhere, here comes the Japanese army shooting at me! I choose neither. Certainly, our thoughts go out to any families still affected by this.
As for the rest of our show, it’s certainly a more internationally-focused show than usual, with stops in France and South Korea. Let’s get right to it and get caught up.
FRANCE
In fact, we’ll start in France, where they’ve had some pretty substantial protests these past two weeks. This article says “hooded anarchists launched projectiles at riot police, smashed up shop fronts, torched cars and burned barricades during a demonstration in the French capital on Saturday against police violence and a draft security law.”
The police then took those as invitations to launch back tear gas and charge at the protesters, I’m sure with clubs and riot shields or something of that sort. Other protests took place in Marseille and other French cities, but they’re not Paris, so our American news services don’t really ask for details on those.
The official story for the Paris demonstrations are that they started peacefully with folks waving banners that said things like “France, land of police rights” and “Withdrawal of the security law”. Then, police said 500 hoodlums or rioters, depending on the translation, joined in on the protests, which is when the “violence” started happening. In the end, 30 people had been arrested.
So what’s the reason for these protests? One reason is that President Emmanuel Macron is advocating a new bill that wants to increase surveillance tools and restrict sharing images of police officers in the media and online. Boy, doesn’t that sound like a fun little mix: the police can watch you and do who knows what with your personal information, maybe even your picture, but you can’t share pictures of the police. Awww, are the widdle police officers scared of consequences for their actions?
And it’s not like the protesters are just protesting something theoretical. As recently as the end of November, video footage came out of police beating up music producer Michael Zecler, who is black.
I’m honestly pretty disappointed by Macron here. I was really hopeful for him since he won with 66% of the vote, but I guess maybe it’s because he was going against a right-wing crazy. Although, if that happened in America, the right-wing crazy would have been elected. I also read this really interesting article from a journalist who followed him throughout the campaign and in the early days of his presidency, and there was that awesome behind-the-scenes documentary about his campaign, and Macron really seemed like a great new leader. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see him make this turn. There was one thing that I never understood: just a few weeks after Macron took office, his approval rating was in the high 20s or mid-30s. And they’re not like us, they’re smart, they only have a week or two from the election until they take office. So he just immediately went down like 40 points? What’s up with that?
Back to this bill though, apparently, he’s already gearing up for the 2022 elections, so this bill is part of his pitch to seem like a tough “law and order” guy (thanks Richard Nixon).
He’s not totally oblivious though, because after Macron saw these protests ramping up, he said on Friday that of course people of color are more likely to be stopped by police for ID checks than whites, and he promised the creation of an online platform for people to log unwarranted searches. However, the police saw this for what it probably was: a political flip flop. So, the police unions got all up in a huff about that and said Macron’s comments were shameful, and they also denied that they are racist. One of the police unions also threatened to halt random checks at the border that are designed to stop people from going to Swiss and Spanish ski resorts, which are hot spots for COVID infections. Maybe a French listener can explain this better, but this seems like a weird threat to me. Like “we beat up people that we stop on the streets, and of course we’re going to randomly stop all the minorities and none of the white people, so of course these are going to end badly. So you know what, we won’t do them!” Honestly, it sounds like they’re accidentally stumbling into the right answer.
Honestly, making both the people and the police mad is pretty dangerous, and I would be nervous if I were him. I hope he treads carefully and redeems himself.
SOUTH KOREA
Let’s stick with the international theme and check in with South Korea, where they’re seeing their COVID infections reaching a 9-month high. To me, this story is actually less about South Korea and more about how bad our country’s response has been.
In their country, they’re imposing restrictions for three weeks. These restrictions include a curfew for businesses, cutting down public transportation (which is mainly how people get around), banning gatherings of more than 50 people, closing gyms and karaoke bars, requiring religious services to be online, and stricter attendance rules for schools. Dining in at restaurants will still be allowed, but the government is urging people to avoid it if possible.
I think the craziest thing is that these new rules are because they had 631 new cases on Saturday, which was their highest since the early days, like February and March. Their total numbers for the entire pandemic are 37,546 cases and 545 deaths. That’s incredible. And the thing about these restrictions is that they mean they were allowed to do those things until now! Like, they were living normally. Just to be clear: yes, they are a smaller country. But check this out: their population is about 51 million people, so 631 new cases means that about .001% of the population tested positive for the day, and that’s what spooked them. The U.S., on the other hand, averages about 100,000 cases a day, and we have a population of about 330 million. That means that each day, .03% of our population tests positive. If you’re following along at home with your calculator, that means that our positive test percentage per day is more about 30 times their positive percentage. And here, like half the country or more is just living life like they normally would, without a care in the world. I guess that’s why South Korea has lost 545 citizens and we’ve just crossed 282,000 deaths in the U.S.
TRUMP
I decided over the weekend that Trump is not really relevant anymore, so that music will be my transition music to let you know we’ve entered the segment about Trump. He is still the president for a little over a month, meaning he’s still technically important (and don’t get me wrong, he can mess a lot of stuff up), but at this point, this is just going to be for comedy.
Over the weekend, Forbes had some good reporting about Trump’s relationship with Twitter. First, there was a story pointing out that Trump’s Twitter has been losing followers at a pretty decent pace. He reached his peak number of followers on November 17th, with follower count at almost 89 million. Every day since then, he’s had a net loss of followers. Before this, he never had a net loss for more than 2 consecutive days. In total, he’s down about 220,000 followers from that peak. That’s still way more than he should have, but it’s progress. Maybe that’s just the first wave of Russian bots to shut down their accounts?
Forbes also pointed out that in the past two weeks, Trump hasn’t tweeted anything about the coronavirus, but he has tweeted about election fraud 97 times. 97 times! What a narcissistic psychopath. They also calculated that in the two days after Election Day, Twitter labeled 50% of his tweets with all sorts of warnings about the tweet containing misinformation. He’s literally just like your regular crazy family member on Facebook, except he’s in the most powerful job in the world.
However, after noon on January 20th, he won’t be in that job, meaning that he won’t qualify for Twitter’s dumbass “World Leaders policy”, which is just a stupid policy that they have where they’ve said they won’t take down a tweet that breaks their rules if a world leader is the one that posts it because most people want to see what their leader is saying. That’s maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m sure that several Democratic politicians or celebrities have been super close to being hurt somehow by one of his crazy followers because he attacked them on Twitter. That guy who mailed the bombs back in 2018 mailed them to pretty much everyone Trump attacked on Twitter. I truly believe that back when Trump and Kim Jong Un were tweeting back and forth about the size of their peni-...I mean, their nuclear launch buttons, Twitter would have let a nuclear war happen just because they didn’t want to delete a tweet that would get pretty much any one of us arrested.
But anyways, since Trump won’t be world leader after January 20th, Twitter confirmed that he’ll have to follow the same rules as all of us. There aren’t any set rules for punishment, but it usually goes: Twitter blocking your account until you delete the tweet for your first offense, temporarily freezing your account, and then eventually they’d delete your account. I don’t think it’s much of a secret that they don’t like Trump at Twitter, but the cynical part of me says that they’ve probably never had more free advertising than they have since he started his campaign in 2015. I’ll believe it when I see it, but the sweet, sweet prospect of Trump getting banned is something I’ll be fantasizing about.
Twitter wouldn’t discuss if they’ve had internal discussions about what they’d do if they reach the point where they have to ban him, which means that they’ve definitely had internal discussions about what they’d do if they have to ban him. We’ll just have to see if they rise to the occasion. What we can’t let the media do is follow Trump to whatever platform he goes to next. I doubt Mark Zuckerberg will ever ban him from Facebook, and god knows QAnon crazytown Parler never will, so the media really has to calm itself down and refuse to follow his accounts there if he gets banned from Twitter.
The last bit of Trump news here is, speaking of Twitter, Trump announced in a tweet that Rudy Giuliani has COVID, and sources say that he was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital on Sunday. The worst part of the news is that he spent all week zig zagging the country, trying to get states to ignore the Constitution and declare Trump the winner in their state “just because”, meaning he was probably COVID positive at some point and spreading it everywhere he went during that time.
END
Alright folks, that’ll do it for this Monday episode. Thank you to everyone who read and/or shared my latest story from Medium comparing the current GOP to the rise of the Nazi party. I am making that available on the website, with no paywall, so if you haven’t had a chance to read that story yet, you can visit quicknewsdaily.com to do so right now. I do want to give a heads up that I will most likely be skipping a show on Wednesday or Thursday of this week because Thursday is looking pretty busy, so I don’t know yet if I want to get a show out on Wednesday and then do my work after, or if I want to do everything on Wednesday and only do a show on Thursday. Just don’t be surprised if you don’t see a new episode on one of those days, and in general, I hope you’ll be patient with me over these next two weeks because it’s the end of the semester up here.
Also, it is Monday, so let’s take some time to acknowledge our contributors: Producer Kathy and Executive Producer Gwen; thank you so much for your support. With that in mind, I also want to thank our sources for today’s show: the stories about France and South Korea came from Reuters, and the Twitter stories came from Jack Brewster and Tommy Beer from Forbes.
On this week of Quick News Daily shows, there's plenty to discuss, and not much of it is Donald Trump! Early in the week, we discuss the assassination of an Iranian scientist, Biden's bad foot, the loss of Darth Vader actor David Prowse, and the certification of results in Wisconsin and Ohio. Then, we discuss the formation of the Biden/Harris Inaugural Committee, the Utah monolith mystery, and a BUNCH of COVID news later in the week.
Here's my article: Hitler Failed First Too: Why the GOP’s Attack on the Election Spells Trouble
Here's Artur's article: How To Cope And Move Forward After Losing Your Job To Covid-19
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast platform: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest
The ending song today was "Beautiful People" by Ed Sheeran feat. Khalid, and belongs to them and/or their respective record labels. You can see the official lyric video on YouTube here, and stream or download the song here.
On this Thursday, we cover the latest news headlines like the UK becoming the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, when that'll start getting distributed, and who will get it first. Also in COVID news, three former presidents pledge to get the vaccine to prove it's safe, and Dr. Fauci meets with President-elect Biden's COVID response team for the first time.
Then, we talk about the meteor over New York yesterday, Ivanka Trump getting deposed in D.C., new details on the runtime for Wonder Woman 1984, and John Mulaney becoming a national security threat?
Programming note: no new show tomorrow, but still tune in for Quick News To Go on Saturday!
Here's my article: Hitler Failed First Too: Why the GOP’s Attack on the Election Spells Trouble
Here's Artur's article: How To Cope And Move Forward After Losing Your Job To Covid-19
The ending song today was "Beautiful People" by Ed Sheeran feat. Khalid, and belongs to them and/or their respective record labels. You can see the official lyric video on YouTube here, and stream or download the song here.
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast platform: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest
On today's show, we discuss the catchy headlines from late yesterday, including a criminal investigation that involves the White House, Bill Barr's admission of no widespread fraud in the election (and why I think this is a distraction). Also, I go over the finalizing of who will get the COVID vaccine first, the new quarantine guidelines, and news that COVID could have been in the U.S. earlier than we thought.
Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast platform: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest
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Here's my article: Hitler Failed First Too: Why the GOP’s Attack on the Election Spells Trouble
Become a contributor to get the friends and family link at: patreon.com/quicknews
Here's Artur's article: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/how-to-cope-move-forward-after-losing-job-covid/
Mostly Accurate Transcript:
OPEN Today is Wednesday, December 2nd, thanks again for joining me. I’m going to describe the show today as “deceptively interesting” because if you just hear the headlines of the stories, you’d think that a lot has happened since the last episode. But, because our government is just corrupt and used only for Trump’s profit, nothing is going to come from these stories. Maybe that’s just me being cynical; I honestly hope that I’m wrong, but only time will tell, which is the frustrating thing.
I do want to mention quickly that there has been some great content on our website lately, if I do say so myself, so stick around until the end for more details on that. But first, let’s get caught
PARDON BRIBERY Let’s start with one of the flashy headlines that the news was interested in last night, which is that the DOJ is investigating the potential crime of someone close to the White House offering to give money to the White House or associated Super PACs in exchange for a pardon.
We learned this from a release of 20 pages of a court document, and those pages were partially redacted, meaning the document does not give out names or dates of any events. However, it does reveal that this document was a request from prosecutors to get access to documents that were seized in a raid at the end of this summer. Law enforcement apparently seized over 50 digital devices, including iPhones, iPads, laptops, flash drives, and computer drives, so when we say “documents”, it doesn’t necessarily mean actual physical documents.
The prosecutors want this access because in these cases, the seized material is looked over by a “filter team” who goes through the files to make sure there isn’t any privileged information that the prosecutors shouldn’t be seeing. However, the judge in this case granted this request because attorney-client privilege does not apply when they discuss crimes. Prosecutors argued that this seized material included evidence of a “secret lobbying scheme” and bribery conspiracy that offered "a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence" for a convicted defendant whose name is redacted. The Justice Department has clarified and said that "no government official was or is currently a subject or target of the investigation disclosed in this filing." The actual court document says "The political strategy to obtain a presidential pardon was 'parallel' to and distinct from [redacted]'s role as an attorney-advocate for [redacted name]," so I’m guessing Rudy Giuliani at this point. He fits the bill as an attorney-advocate, and I’m sure that all of his funny business in Ukraine and peddling of Russian conspiracy theories is making him rethink whether all that was legal. The Justice Department wanted to keep filings related to the matter confidential in court, because "individuals and conduct" hadn't yet been charged, which also narrows down the possibilities and probably eliminates Michael Cohen.
Ultimately, the prosecutors say they still intend to “confront” 3 people who had communications about this scheme, whatever that means. Again, my best guess is Rudy at this point, but if it centers around contributions, I’m not sure if Rudy had money to give. Either way, whoever it is, I really don’t think anything will come of this. Nothing ever seems to stick since Trump has Bill Barr for his attorney general, which is like the fox guarding the hen house.
BARR FRAUD / SPECIAL COUNSEL Speaking of Bill Barr, let’s go over the story that all the news led with last night: Barr said in an interview with AP that the DOJ had not found any widespread fraud that would change the results of the election. The FBI has been following up on complaints, but so far, they’ve found nothing. This story broke after Barr had spent about 3 hours at the White House yesterday, which I’m sure we’re not pleasant for him. Or maybe they were if this was just put out as a diversion so they could talk about whatever other scummy plans they have.
Needless to say, this was a big story because Barr has sacrificed his entire legacy to do Trump’s bidding. However, I think the news was missing the point, and that this was released to cover up one or more other things. The one I’m thinking of specifically is the revelation that Barr had appointed a Special Counsel to look into how the FBI opened its investigation into Trump’s campaign in 2016 (this is why Trump is always whining about Obama spying on his campaign).
An order from Barr was leaked, and in that order, Barr gave the special counsel, John Durham, his instructions. The order said Durham’s investigation should be “including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III” (I should just mention that Crossfire Hurricane is the name of the investigation that the FBI was doing during the campaign).
If the name John Durham sounds familiar, it’s because he was already investigating this exact stuff months ago, but he wasn’t a special counsel at that time. By getting this title, it just means he’s more protected and can’t be fired as easily by whoever becomes Joe Biden’s attorney general. Special counsel’s are only supposed to be fired for misconduct, dereliction of duty, or conflicts of interest, but the key word is “supposed to”. Trump never did end up firing Bob Mueller, although there were several reports of him ordering people to and those people telling him he was an idiot for trying to. In any case, this move by Barr wasn’t made because he wants justice, it’s just to make it harder for Joe Biden because if Biden’s people fire Durham while Durham is investigating things that happened during the time of the Obama Administration, that obviously won’t look too good.
VACCINE DISTRIBUTION Some news on the COVID vaccine front: members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices that is advising the CDC voted 13-1 to approve the people who will get the vaccine first (this is the group that makes up Phase 1a that I talked about a couple of Friday’s ago). So, the official word is that healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities will be first, as the group chairman called them “exceptionally high risk”. As for who exactly counts as long-term care facility residents, the CDC defines them as “adults who reside in facilities that provide a variety of services, including medical and personal care, to persons who are unable to live independently”. This group has undoubtedly been one of the hardest hit groups, accounting for 40% of COVID deaths in the United States, which translates to about 100,000 people. To go along with this, they said they’d be efficient in vaccinating the staff members of these facilities as well.
For their part, 240,000 healthcare workers have gotten COVID in this country, and 858 have died. And for the purposes of the vaccine, this group will also include anyone at these facilities who could come into contact with residents who have COVID, meaning the folks delivering food, housekeeping workers who are trying to get the rooms cleaned up and ready for the next patient, etc., so it’s not just saying nurses and doctors and that sort of thing.
After the vote passed, the president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living said “Given the asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread of this virus combined with the explosion of community spread across the U.S., we are extremely hopeful this vaccine will literally be a lifesaver for thousands of residents and expedite the reopening of our facilities to family members and loved ones”.
Circling back to the actual vote, the one vote against approving this recommendation wasn’t made out of spite or hate or anything, the doctor was just concerned that the vaccine hasn’t been studied enough in the residents of these facilities, saying “we hope it works and we hope it’s safe. That concerns me on many levels”, but she also said she doesn’t have any concerns about healthcare workers taking it.
This group will meet again if the FDA’s group of advisers approves the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, and that meeting is already coming up next Thursday, December 10th.
Just as a side note, the members of this group expect that 5-10 million doses are going to be made each week in the early months after the vaccine is approved.
MISCELLANEOUS COVID NEWS https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/health/cdc-changing-quarantine-guidelines/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/health/covid-antibody-blood-december-study/index.html
There are a couple of miscellaneous COVID stories I still want to get to, the first of which is that two senior White House officials have told CNN that the current director of the CDC informed the Coronavirus Task Force that shortly, the CDC will be officially reducing the number of days that people should be quarantining after they come into contact with someone who has COVID. Like I mentioned just a couple of days ago, the new guidelines will say 7-10 days depending on if you test negative, instead of the original 14 days. If you test negative after being exposed, you can stop quarantining after 7 days. If you don’t get tested, then you should wait the full 10 days.
The other news doesn’t matter much right now, but it’ll be interesting to investigate once this thing is over. This news comes from researchers for the CDC and the Red Cross, and it states that they’ve found evidence that the coronavirus was here in the U.S. as early as December, not January 15th like the story is now. These researchers found this after screening blood donations from this time period, where they found evidence of COVID antibodies. The part that seals it for me is that this wasn’t just one sample or something like that, this was 84 samples from 9 different states. The thing about these antibodies is that they don’t tell you specifically when you were infected, just that you were sometime before you got tested. According to a doctor at Columbia University, “you cannot distinguish between somebody being infected in December or being infected in March or April”. The one caveat here is that other coronaviruses like the common cold could mistakenly “fool” the test into thinking there are COVID antibodies, so that’s why it’ll be more interesting once this is over and we know what specifically to look for.
On this episode, we go over what preventative steps for COVID you can take if you or someone you know ended up traveling for Thanksgiving. Also, we talk about Biden’s inaugural committee (bideninaugural.org) and nominations for his economic advisers. Then, we discuss Mark Kelly’s swearing in and our pet project: the Utah monolith.
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For more, visit our website: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/
Mostly accurate transcript:
IF YOU TRAVELED I want to start out the show by sharing recommendations from experts about what steps to take if you or someone you know actually did end up traveling for Thanksgiving. I also want to make it clear, there’s no judging if you did, or if a close family member did; just make sure you or they take the proper precautions going forward.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who’s sort of the head of the White House COVID task force since she’s a little kookier than Dr. Fauci, has several pieces of advice. First, if you traveled, assume you were exposed to the virus and that you’re infected. Second, make sure that if you develop any symptoms at all, you should get tested so that doctors can count it as a confirmed case. This isn’t some conspiracy theory to make the positive test numbers higher, it’s just so doctors can start treating you as a COVID patient; remember, the treatments we have now work best early in the disease, not when you’re about to go on oxygen.
Admiral Brett Giroir is leading the federal government’s testing response, and he said that you need to be extra careful when you get home, but that you may not need to do a strict quarantine. He does say you should decrease unnecessary activities for a week, and get tested about 3-5 days after you get home. I’m going to step in here and say that if you can, just do the 10-14 day quarantine. We want to prevent as many infections as we possibly can.
Dr. Abraar Karan from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical school pretty much agrees. He said if you traveled but don’t have known exposure (so exposure confirmed by someone testing positive), you should quarantine for 10 days automatically. If you have known exposure, then quarantine for two weeks. He also recommends getting tested when you get back from traveling, as well as 3-5 days later. This is because it might take the virus a little while to incubate and actually create enough of itself to show up on a test.
Dr. Karan stresses that quarantining correctly is also important. You should stay in your room as much as humanly possible, and wear a mask and avoid other people when you have to leave it.
Just some more general information about what we can expect: the incubation period for the virus in your body ranges from 2-14 days, and people usually start feeling symptoms around day 5 or 6. This means that we’ll start seeing the effects sometime between the first and third weeks of December, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, who used to be the director of the CDC.
And, obviously, if you test positive for COVID, make sure to tell everyone you saw at a gathering, or make sure whoever tests positive tells you.
By the way, the CDC is actually studying if they should shorten the quarantine period from 14 days down to maybe something closer to 7-10. Surprisingly, this is supported by a lot of the leading doctors, including that Dr. Frieden (he’s the one I trust most because he was Obama’s CDC pick). He says that the most risky time for asymptomatic people is in the 4-7 days after being exposed. They’re looking at this change because it’s easier for people to swallow one week away from their normal lives, as opposed to two, so in theory they’ll follow the rules. Dr. Fauci even said that this two week period discourages people from getting tested because if they come back positive, they have to miss work, and people are pretty concerned about losing that pay.
BIDEN/HARRIS UPDATES Let’s do a quick check in on the Biden/Harris Administration and what they’re working on. They announced yesterday that they formed the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which is a group that’s responsible for organizing inauguration-related activities. Delaware State University president Tony Allen was named the CEO, and Biden campaign chief operating officer Maju Varghese was named the executive director. Yvanna Cancela, a state senator from Nevada, and Erin Wilson, the Biden campaign’s national political director, will be the deputy executive directors for the committee.
This group also announced the launch of their website, which is bideninaugural.org. They have a store with some cool merchandise in there (t-shirts, hats, water bottles, coasters, that sort of thing), and almost everything seems to be in the $20-$30 range, so it’s worth checking out. The website link is in this episode’s description. I’m actually pretty interested how this inaugural is going to be with COVID. It’s such an iconic moment to be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol, and there’s just Reagan’s second inaugural that looks different, in terms of the ones we have on video, since that had to be moved indoors because it was like 0 degrees outside. I would guess that everyone up there could be tested and cleared, but would you want to take that chance? And would that just be inviting crowds to gather? It’ll be interesting to see.
As for their actual administration, I forgot to mention yesterday that Janet Yellen was officially announced as Biden’s nominee to be the Treasury Secretary, which was fun to see being made official. Wally Adeyemo was nominated to be her deputy after previously serving as the chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as the deputy director of the National Economic Council and deputy national security adviser. If he’s confirmed by the Senate, he’ll become the first black deputy secretary of the Treasury. Just in general, it’s amazing how diverse President Biden’s administration will be. Especially since we just had four years of a cabinet that could have been from 1960. Every picture of meetings of the top leaders of government is like 96% old white guys with various stages of male pattern baldness.
Speaking of inclusion, Cecilia Rose was nominated as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She would be the 1st black CEA chair, as well as the 4th woman to do so. She’s currently the dean at Princeton. Other members of the CEA that were announced were Jared Bernstein, Biden’s top economic adviser during the Obama administration, as well as Heather Boushey, who’s the co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
As for what this Council of Economic Advisers does, they’re like a think tank; basically, they’re experts who will give Biden guidance on economic policy.
MARK KELLY Something cool to watch for tomorrow is Mark Kelly getting sworn in as a senator in Arizona. Since his race was technically a special election for John McCain’s old senate seat, not a regular election, he can get sworn in before January. If we look just a bit down the road, that’s sort of unfortunate because it means he has to run again in 2022, which could be tricky. Midterms are almost always best for the party that doesn’t control the White House, and in a state that usually votes Republican, it could get tough for him. However, he’s a really strong candidate (I mean, obviously he’s got great thoughts and ideas on the real issues, but he’s an astronaut for crying out loud), so maybe it’ll be easy for him. Let’s hope so.
That swearing in ceremony is at noon eastern tomorrow, and I’m sure his team will stream it live on social media, but somebody out there will definitely have it live if you want to watch.
MONOLITH So, full disclosure, this story sort of breaks my rule of telling you only what you absolutely need to know, but I just can’t resist; it’s sort of a pet project for the show at this point. Of course, I’m talking about the monolith from the Utah desert. That one is still gone, but another one popped up in Romania of all places. This one might be a copycat because it’s located near one of the most famous mountains in Romania, it just got put up recently, it’s got swirling patterns on the sides, and it’s about 2 feet higher than the one from Utah. The ground around it also looks like someone was digging there recently, whereas the one from Utah was undisturbed, which is part of what made it so strange. My guess at this point is either someone in Romania saw this story online and wanted to make their own for some reason, or it’s part of some really bizarre marketing campaign by an indie movie, or something like that. It’s obviously getting a lot of free publicity, and I feel like some other movie did something like this where people found something that was strange, but then the director had to come out and fess up to it. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I’ll have to look that up later and see if I find anything, but email me at quicknewsdaily@gmail.com if you can actually decipher what I’m talking about.
Oh, by the way, the monolith was actually in the Utah desert since 2016, but nobody actually cared much about it until just recently.
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Sources:
- So You Traveled Over Thanksgiving. Now What? : Coronavirus Updates
- Former astronaut Mark Kelly to be sworn in as a US senator Wednesday
- Biden, Harris form inaugural committee - POLITICO
- Biden announces economic team, confirms Janet Yellen as Treasury nominee
- Utah monolith disappears but mystery remains as copy pops up in Romania
- The CDC is expected to shorten Covid quarantine time, something most everyone seems to agree on
After our extended weekend after Thanksgiving, we dive right back in by discussing the assassination in Iran, as well as Biden's bad foot and his new staff announcements. We also discuss the recount and certification in Wisconsin and Arizona, plus the death of Darth Vader actor David Prowse and the disappearance of the Utah monolith.
Find other platforms to listen to Quick News for free: https://www.podpage.com/quick-news/latest
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SOURCES: * Iran scientist linked to military nuclear program killed * Dave Prowse, actor who played Darth Vader, dies at 85 * Mysterious silver monolith disappears from Utah desert * Iran newspaper: Strike Haifa if Israel killed scientist * Completed Wisconsin recount confirms Biden's win over Trump * Which States Have Certified Presidential Vote Totals * The mysterious silver monolith in the Utah desert has disappeared * Biden's doctor says he has hairline fractures in his foot after slipping while playing with his dog * Biden names Neera Tanden, Cecilia Rouse to economic team * Biden chooses an all-female senior White House press team
On the Quick News Daily Podcast, we focused on the future and what a Biden-Harris Administration will look like, specifically in terms of their staffing. President-elect Biden officially announced his nominees for the roles of Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (doesn't require Senate confirmation), and there is also a credible rumor that former Fed chair Janet Yellen will rejoin the stage as the first woman to be Treasury Secretary.
Other topics that we discussed were the certification of the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, GM flipping sides in a case against the state of California, a mysterious shiny object found in a remote part of the desert in Utah, and more!
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On today's episode, we hear from many of President-elect Biden's cabinet nominees and future staff during their introductory press conference yesterday. We also cover Scottish Parliament passing a historic bill, as well as the mysterious object found in the Utah desert.
Find Tangent Avenue on their website or their Apple Podcasts page. Special thanks to Podcast Pump for connecting us.
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Find Quick News Daily on your favorite podcast platform: https://www.podpage.com/site/quick-news/latest
Sources:
- Scotland Feminine Product Law
- Scotland becomes first country to make tampons and pads available for free
- Tangent Avenue’s Website
- Mysterious Shiny Monolith Found in Utah
- https://apnews.com/article/9ea76ecc9a8dbac52fddc56fe48f7f7d
- Response to Rubio
- Tony Blinken Speaking
- Media Tweets by Biden-Harris Presidential Transition (@Transition46) / Twitter
- Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) / Twitter
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) / Twitter
On today's show, we discuss the three states that have certified their election results since yesterday: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. This finally forced GSA Admin Emily Murphy to do what she should have done 2 weeks ago, but I digress.
We also talk about GM helping California go green, Janet Yellen's impending nomination to be Biden's Treasury Secretary, and the announcement of the first interim Jeopardy host.
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Listen to Quick News on your favorite podcast app: https://kite.link/QuickNews
Sources:
- https://apnews.com/article/4ee6fbfd69f9a2a4daf9be449c6fe31d
- https://apnews.com/article/766942ae61bd6ab6f7e5550821087354
- https://apnews.com/article/f30458eb13b6ff967d05b12c178621e8
- https://apnews.com/article/2019389a2de0d269588160862cfcc43f
- https://apnews.com/article/0d20768baf08db5bcfceea673ebddff6
UPDATE: Michigan has voted to certify their results!
On this episode of Quick News Daily, we cover the breaking news about Biden's official announcement of the members of his cabinet. The positions he announced nominees for are Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (doesn't require Senate confirmation).
I also check in with our neighbors to the north, Canada, regarding the lockdown for the city of Toronto, as well as a moose problem in Alberta. I close out the show by recapping the trip to DC to visit Trump by the Michigan legislature leaders on Friday, what Trump is trying to push them to do, and what would happen if a state refuses to certify their election results (spoiler: almost every outcome is either President Biden or Acting President Pelosi).
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Sources:
- https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-michigan-elections-299ba84bba356c8d4773a42d742ab2cb
- https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-cabinets-inaugurations-coronavirus-pandemic-ron-klain-11c3df0ec442854db8bb1e5da948f74e
- https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-wisconsin-coronavirus-pandemic-6f5b29d61b95754b0b5f311640136149
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/americas/canada-warns-moose-lick-cars-trnd/index.html
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/21/americas/toronto-lockdown-covid-intl/index.html
- https://news.yahoo.com/biden-harris-meet-mayors-covid-121127096.html?ref=mail-ios-notif-breaking&guccounter=1
On a busy week filled with plenty of Trump shenanigans making it seem like he's stealing the election when, really, this whole sideshow is as fake as Rudy Giuliani's spray on hair.
Over the course of the week, I talked about why GSA Administrator Emily Murphy is playing with fire by not accepting the reality that Joe Biden is going to be president. I also explain why her actions and the actions of Monica Palmer and Bill Hartmann of the Wayne County Elections Canvassing Board are so dangerous.
I also discuss topics like the Georgia recount, a wrongful death lawsuit against Tyson Foods, vaccine trial results, scheduling, and their distribution, and so much more!
Remember to contact Emily Murphy and tell her to do her job at emily.murphy@gsa.gov or 1-844-472-4111.
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On the final show of the week, we discuss new information about the Pfizer vaccine and when it'll apply for the Emergency Use Authorization. Then, we'll go over a 3-phase framework for how the vaccine will be distributed (and to who), before announcing the final results after Georgia's hand recount.
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Sources:
- https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-11-19/cdc-warns-americans-not-to-travel-for-thanksgiving
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/gop-michigan-results-trump/index.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/health/pfizer-covid-vaccine.html
- https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-2020-election-results/2020/11/19/936647882/georgia-releases-hand-recount-results-affirming-bidens-lead
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/us/mike-shirkey-a-michigan-republican-who-will-meet-with-trump-said-this-week-he-would-not-override-bidens-victory.html
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/19/covid-19-vaccines-who-gets-coronavirus-immunization-first/3778098001/
On this episode, I go over why we might only need to get vaccinated once for COVID, according to a new study from the La Jolla Institute of Immunology. I also go over the COVID-related wrongful death lawsuit against Tyson Foods in Iowa, as well as the reason people like Monica Palmer and Bill Hartmann from Wayne County and Emily Murphy are so dangerous.
Lastly, I cover President Obama's memoir release and the pitiful Charlie Brown-style Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.
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Sources:
- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michigan-gop-election-checkers-rescind-certify-vote-claim-dems-bullied-them
- https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-targets-vote-certification-29da6aac9cc41e47f3095855e7af7031
- https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dominion-employees-latest-face-threats-harassment-wake-trump/story?id=74288442&cid=social_twitter_abcnp
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/health/coronavirus-immunity.html
- https://www.theloop.ca/the-annual-christmas-tree-at-rockefeller-center-just-went-up-and-its-peak-2020/
- https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/18/lawsuit-tyson-managers-bet-money-on-how-many-workers-would-contract-covid-19/
Today, we didn't get delayed, so we come right at you with talking about yesterday's shenanigans with certifying elections results in Wayne County, Michigan, the Trump campaign paying for a partial recount in Wisconsin (only where a majority of voters are people of color, surprise surprise).
In addition, I talk about this article that tries (and fails) to make GSA Admin Emily Murphy look like a victim. Remember to contact her and tell her to do her job at emily.murphy@gsa.gov or 1-844-472-4111. Lastly, I talk about the unsurprising firing of Chris Krebs.
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SOURCES:
- https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/17/wayne-county-canvassers-deadlock-certifying-november-3-election-results/6324274002/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/18/trump-campaign-filing-for-partial-wisconsin-recount-challenging-biden-victory.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/17/chris-krebs-trump-fired-cybersecurity-voter-fraud-claims
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/biden-transition-trump-delay/index.html
On this edition of Quick News Daily where it sounds like I recorded in a convertible with the top down (my apologies, I'll get that fixed for tomorrow), we start getting used to a post-Trump news show.
Joe Biden is continuing the transition (as much as he can) by naming several key members of his campaign to his White House staff, including Jen O'Malley Dillon, Mike Donilon, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Dana Remus, and Rep. Cedric Richmond. We also cover some strange things happening with Georgia's recount and audit (no need for alarm, however), and Trump's advisers talking him down from ordering a strike on Iran.
Stay tuned later in the week for updates on Hurricane Iota. Programming note: Wednesday's show will be coming out a little later in the day than usual.
GSA Admin Emily Murphy's contact info:
Phone #: 1-844-472-4111
Email: emily.murphy@gsa.gov
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Listen to the episode: https://www.podpage.com/site/quick-news-daily-podcast/latest
Sources:
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/politics/biden-white-house-senior-staff/index.html
- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2600-uncounted-ballots-found-recount-efforts-georgia
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/politics/georgia-secretary-of-state-lindsey-graham-ballots-cnntv/index.html
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/17/president-donald-trump-explored-military-strike-iran-reports-say/6322218002/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53345885
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Avengers Game Reviews:
https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/avengers-game-full-review-2020/
https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/marvel-avengers-video-game-new-2020/
Sources:
- https://cosmicbook.news/marvels-avengers-loses-96-percent-players
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-rules-acting-dhs-head-chad-wolf-unlawfully-appointed-n1247848
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/14/joe-biden-administration-cabinet-susan-rice-michele-flournoy
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/politics/trump-biden-election/index.html
- https://apnews.com/2c0fc4d264b46278aab40cff11178959
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/health/moderna-vaccine-results-coronavirus/index.html
On this shortened week of Quick News Daily, there was still a lot to cover since Donald Trump is, predictably, a sore loser. He started a purge at the Pentagon, brought William Barr back into the mix, and there were talks of states replacing their Biden electors with Trump electors, so I try to calm us all down and reassure everyone that Joe Biden will still be the 46th (or 47th if Trump quits before January) president.
For extra reassurance, I added Joe Biden's press conference from earlier in the week (courtesy of NBC News).
After a day off, I discuss Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers' prime time address and guidance to Wisconsinites, the handy new COVID tracker tool to help you visualize the risk in your county (COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool), and an update on Donald Trump's purge at the Pentagon. Plus, I go over miscellaneous stories like Trump's late appearance at Arlington where he looked wobbly, Biden's new Chief of Staff Ron Klain, and Karl Rove and Geraldo Rivera giving uncharacteristically good advice.
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On this edition of Quick News Daily, I attempt to bring down the temperature and calm the fears that have grown (rightfully so) over the past 24 hours, partly for my own sanity. I walk through the troubling sequence of events yesterday that, when added up, seem to point to Trump and Bill Barr stealing the election. However, I walk through the facts of the case and the legal possibilities, as well as taking the President-Elect's cue in expressing calm.
Then, I revisit the news about Pfizer's COVID vaccine, how significant the 90% efficacy number is, what herd immunity actually is, and the timeline for when this could all be achieved. I then close with what events I'm keeping an eye on both today and in a Biden Administration, before playing Joe Biden's extremely presidential speech on masks yesterday (the type of speech we've been waiting 8 months for).
PROGRAMMING NOTE: As of now, I don’t plan on releasing a show on Wednesday, November 11th.
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Find where to listen to Quick News Daily: https://kite.link/QuickNews
GSA Administrator Emily Murphy's Number: 1-844-472-4111
Sources:
- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-executive-orders-day-one
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/william-barr-voting-irregularities/index.html
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1325801062876516355
Today, we continue to bask in the glory of a Biden/Harris win that was final called by other news outlets on Saturday. We also send a special thanks to Rep. Jim Clyburn for endorsing Biden and making history, talk about the bizarre loyalty to Trump in counties hit hardest by COVID, and say farewell to Jeopardy host Alex Trebek.
Oh, and we can't forget to talk about Rudy Giuliani and the Four Seasons fiasco, as well as Trump and Trump supporters acting like toddlers after they lost.
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I'll be talking about these on the show later today, and I want to make sure you have the opportunity too hear them in full.
They're both historic and exactly what the country needs to hear in this moment. It's incredibly refreshing to know that we'll have a competent, no-drama duo leading the country again starting January 20th, 2021!
And oh by the way, how exciting to have Doug Ehmoff as the Second Gentleman and Dr. Jill Biden as the First Lady?!
Thanks to ABC News for being the source for President-elect Biden's speech, and to the Guardian for Vice President-elect Harris' speech.
On this week's recap of the #1 quick news podcast, we cover last minute news before the election, the results as they come in over several days, and end the week following Decision Desk HQ's lead in calling the race for Joe Biden, who will be the 46th President of the United States
We have a new President! With his win in Pennsylvania, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will become the 46th President of the United States. Just as important: Kamala Harris will become the 49th Vice President of the United States!
FDT Part 2 is the property of its respective owners. Listen to it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/mowauY-41uk
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Today, we still do not have a definitive winner in the presidential race just yet. However, the numbers keep getting better and better for Biden. I talk about the results, the protests by Trump supporters to both stop counting and keeping counting (???), a COVID update, and the history behind the UK's holiday Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night.
Sources for the history of Bonfire Night:
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https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/601336/
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https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/retro/why-do-we-celebrate-bonfire-night-guy-fawkes-and-gunpowder-plot-blow-parliament-explained-and-why-we-set-fireworks-3023822
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If you're worried about Trump winning again: don't worry, I'm here to talk you down from that ledge. However, maybe you're feeling dejected since the Senate and House races turned out surprisingly bad for Democrats. In that case, I'm here to sort through those emotions in an episode that probably sounds more like a therapy session for me. No matter what you're feeling, get the latest news on the election results and what they mean with Quick News Daily!
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In the last show before election day, I go through what state and county results to watch on election night to get an early idea of who might win, and how the results will come in timing-wise. I also talk about the disgusting scenes from Y'all Qaeda in Texas, as well as Biden, Trump, and Obama campaigning this weekend, and some last minute polling.
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Guide to when votes should be counted, state by state: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-results-timing/
Counties to watch: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/opinion/biden-trump-bellwether-counties-.html
On this 4-episode week of the #1 quick news podcast, it's all about the upcoming election. We start the week by looking at Trump's reckless actions from last weekend, more endorsements for Joe Biden, early and mail-in voting numbers, and the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. Then, I go over Trump's repeated "appeals" to his favorite new voting group: "suburban women", Supreme Court rulings, Tucker Carlson, and more!
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Today is kind of light on current events, just to warn you. I take a look at Mark Hamill's video for the Joe Biden campaign, some really effective ads, Keith Olbermann's great summary of the Trump presidency, and my bold prediction that probably won't come true.
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Make sure to get out and vote, and help someone else get out to vote too!
Keith Olbermann's video on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1321281784085127168?s=20s:/https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1321281784085127168
https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1321281784085127168?s=2/twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1321281784085127168?s=20Check out our new Joe Biden and Kamala Harris-inspired merchandise at https://rebrand.ly/QuickStore
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After a midterm, the #1 quick news podcast is back! In our return, I talk about the fiasco Trump left behind in Omaha, some decisions by the Supreme Court about voting (VOTE EARLY), Tucker Carlson's completely made-up claims about criminal mastermind/ANTIFA General Hunter Biden, Miles Taylor being revealed as "Anonymous", and more!
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Mostly-correct transcript:
Well hey there everyone; my apologies for the unscheduled change of plans yesterday. It’s that time of the year again for us college students: time for midterms. So I’m not exaggerating, the bulk of my day yesterday from 10am to 10pm was this programming midterm, and that obviously took much longer than I anticipated. Luckily, there wasn’t too much happening in terms of huge world events, and the news dump didn’t happen until this morning, so we’ve got a busy show ahead, but we didn’t miss too much yesterday. But first, I should mention I’ll have a bit of an explanation at the end for you in case you’ve been listening to the show and hearing some weird advertisements, and I apologize for that as well. But hey, let’s get caught up!
OMAHA
So, on Monday night, Donald Trump held a rally in Omaha, Nebraska after bringing his petri dish through my neck of the woods, which we’ll get to in a second. But, as it turns out, that Omaha event and its aftermath became a pretty good metaphor the whole Trump presidency, especially his handling of the coronavirus. So for this rally, they decided to hold it at a remote location that didn’t have enough parking, so their idea was to send people to other parking lots about 3 miles away and then have busses running to bring them to the rally location. Well, because this is Nebraska, so it was only a two-lane road that went between the two locations, and the security of everything always causes congestion anyway, so these busses were not making the rounds very quickly after the event. On a night when it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, waiting for hours to get back to their cars, and having a significant number of elderly supporters in attendance, I’m sure you can see how this was a problem. And the best part: Trump booked out of there right away, of course, and it was reported that Air Force One was wheels up and leaving Nebraska at about 9:30pm. The event site was not fully cleared out until 12:30am. In the end, medics had to treat 30 people, and 7 were hospitalized. So, of course, Trump came in for a short event, spread his virus to his supporters, got out of dodge quickly, and left the mess up to local officials. If that isn’t symbolic, I don’t know what is. To sum it up even better, here’s Mayor Pete on Fox News...
SUPREME COURT
There have been a few developments in the US Supreme Court the past couple of days, so let’s take a look at that. In a couple of big decisions for democracy, the Court decided not to hear an appeal by Pennsylvania Republicans that were challenging their state’s decision to accept ballots up to 3 days after the election, even if there’s no legible postmark. Then, the Court ruled in favor of the North Carolina rule to accept ballots up to 9 days after election day, as long as they’re postmarked by election day. Obviously, considering that they made that decision not to allow Wisconsin to accept ballots received after the deadline, you could say I was a little bit miffed that on the very next day, TWO cases went that way. But overall, good for democracy.
However, I would still say to make sure it gets there by election day, if at all possible. At this point, I would hand-deliver it if that’s a possibility for you, just so you don’t leave anything to chance, but also because of these two small notes. First, in Pennsylvania, state officials notified the Supreme Court that the state has told country boards to “securely segregate” ballots received after election day, in case of future legal action. Second, Trump campaign filed a suit against the secretary of state in Minnesota, trying to force him to segregate ballots as well. I don’t know about you, but that sounds suspicious as hell to me. I hate hate hate that language about “in case of future legal action”. We were lucky in these cases that Amy Coney Barrett sat out these rulings, which is maybe the first principled thing she’s done in her life, but I don’t know if she’ll do the same if Republicans try to sue to stop these ballots from being counted if it’s clear that Trump is losing on election night, so make sure your ballot is there by election day, just as a rule of thumb.
Another thing I want to stress about voting before election day is that if we all get our votes in before then, there’s a real chance that the margin of votes will be too large for Trump to overcome with election day turnout. For example, in Michigan, a recent poll found that of voters who were voting early in person or by mail, 75% were voting for Biden, while 21% were voting for Trump. For people who were planning on voting on election day, like 58% said they were voting for Trump, and 31ish percent said they were voting for Biden. If you just look at those numbers, you realize that Trump cannot make up that difference. A 75-25 split is incredible, and just based on the amount of voters left in Michigan, they wouldn’t be enough to give Trump the lead. So, if this is the case everywhere, we can all have an election night that keeps our blood pressure within reasonable levels, and not like it would be if this is a nail-biter.
TUCKER
Hey, let’s take a timeout from regular news for some comedic relief. Take a listen to this clip of Tucker Carlson from last night and see if you also see some problems with this…
I mean, wow, his writer really outdid themselves with that one. I mean, he went to all of the trouble of adding in fake times to when his documents were “stolen”, and this is a podcast so you can’t see me, but I’m making the biggest air quotes of my life around the word “stolen”. Why do I know this is all a sham? Because it’s 2020, not 1950! You’re telling me that Tucker’s producer couldn’t have sent them in an email? Or that they sent the original documents through the mail, without making any copies? I mean, for the love of god, even if you didn’t want to use email, how long have fax machines been around? What a joke.
And by the way, Tucker’s not that dumb, and Fox lawyers aren’t that dumb, so they know that if they show fake documents about a former Vice President and presidential candidate, they’re going to get sued. It’s much better for themselves and their viewers if they just make up this story about documents getting stolen, and not just any documents, documents about the evil criminal mastermind and commander of the Antifa army, Hunter Biden, that definitely would have sunk Joe Biden’s campaign and gave Trump a landslide victory. Give me a BREAK, people. This is such a crock of BS.
ANONYMOUS
Well, even though I spent all day yesterday programming for a midterm, I still had a better day than Miles Taylor. I’ve mentioned Miles before; he’s the former chief of staff for the Secretary of Homeland Security who has since come out and strongly opposed Donald Trump in a helpful way, at least I think. Well, he revealed yesterday that he was the “senior Trump administration official” who wrote that op-ed in the New York Times who was only known as “Anonymous” (and I had forgotten that Anonymous had also written a book). For a refresher, that op-ed talked about how this official was part of a “resistance” inside the Trump administration that consisted of people acting as the adults in the room; he basically said that they were actively trying to prevent Trump from doing the craziest stuff that he wanted to. This reveal got everyone talking, and it wasn’t long before he started taking fire from both sides after the announcement.
He said he wrote it anonymously because he wanted to force Trump to respond specifically to the allegations he made in the op-ed and book, instead of doing what Trump always does, which is attack the person who is talking badly about him. Miles is certainly right about that, Trump does that all the time, but he also attacks the media for using anonymous sources and says it’s just fake news, so it wasn’t going to work great either way. At the same time, there’s been discussion about whether the New York Times was right to call him a “senior Trump administration official” since he was just a chief of staff to a cabinet secretary. That said, he was in all of the important meetings, especially the ones about border policy and child separation, and chief of staff is actually an important position, so I think it’s probably okay, but considering that people were thinking it was James Mattis or John Kelly, I can see why people feel cheated. Usually, when someone says something anonymously in this public of a fashion, it means their name is bigger than the title of anonymous, and in this case, this mystery actually made the story more important than it would have been if it was written by some guy named Miles Taylor.
So that was the criticism from both the left and the right, and then Trump’s crowd piled on even more by saying that this was treason and that he should be arrested immediately, which is just ridiculous. Overall, as someone who still defends his old boss Kirstjen Nielsen and kind of defends the child separation policy, it’s hard to feel to badly for him. That said, I do believe the fact that he’s spoken out publicly is admirable and came with a lot of risk for him and his family, and it has helped create permission for Republicans to vote for Biden, I think I’ll take a page out of Nelson Mandela’s playbook and skip tearing this guy to pieces; we have bigger fish to fry right now.
TRUMP CLIPS
Let’s circle back to that Trump campaign stop here in Wisconsin. We’ll start with Trump reminding us about Canada’s national anthem…
I just don’t understand how anyone can watch this stuff and think “wow, this guy is really the smartest guy in the room. He’s such a good businessman.” Like I’ve said before, he’s like that one family member at Thanksgiving that you have to watch what you say when you’re around them. Literally one phrase set him off: national anthem. And god knows how he got onto O’Canada in the first place. But that one phrase completely distracted him from his original point, which was NAFTA and trade deals, and probably how he made the best deals. He’s the definition of scatterbrained.
For this next one, if you follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, he’s the guy who tweets video clips of everything that’s important politics-wise (he works for the media company Vox), then you’ll know that he has this personal pet peeve when it comes to Trump…
It’s easy to miss, but Trump always talks about “hydrosonic” missiles at his rallies these days. Literally like every one, and that might sound normal, until you realize that hydrosonic missiles don’t exist. They’re hypersonic missiles; hydrosonic is a type of toothbrush, but of course the stable genius president can’t tell the two apart. And he wants us to believe Joe Biden is the senile one. And speaking of senile…
Vanquish the vaccine? No, I think we want to make the vaccine and vanquish the virus. If you listen to that again, you can tell he realizes he really messed up, because he tries to cover it up by saying “All of it. We’ll get rid of all of this and go back to normal”. Okay, gramps. Well, he also made another appeal to all you “suburban women” out there; I bet you’re glad you’re Donald Trump’s favorite voting group. Trump wants you to know that he really wants your vote…
Is that like, a threat? But hey, if he can’t threaten you into voting for him, then maybe this will change your mind…
I’m sure that’s what strong-willed, successful women want to be told: it’s all about your husbands getting back to work. But hey, if he still doesn’t have your vote, I’m sure the way he introduced Senator Martha McSally of Arizona yesterday at his rally will really win you over…
And that’s how he talks to someone who sold her soul and supports Trump endlessly. The truth is, this is just like Joe Biden said the other day, Trump has this 1950s view of the suburbs, and he believes women should be doing all the stereotypical cooking and cleaning. Remember how he kept using “suburban housewives” for a while? I mean, come on.
But if you’re not sold yet on how dumb Trump is, let’s end this segment with another example of how he always, always, always projects his own insecurities onto other people, take a listen to this claim that he’s the pro-science candidate…
KUSHNER
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who had some outrage towards Jared Kushner’s comments from the other day. President Obama was campaigning in Florida on Monday, and he had this to say about Kushner’s comments about Black Americans...
END
Well, I think that’s where I’ll cut us off for today. Again, thanks for your understanding about yesterday’s unscheduled cancellation and all of that, but it got me thinking: I know the show is called Quick News Daily, but would you guys prefer to have the show like 2-3 times a week instead? The weekly recap show is almost always the most popular and downloaded episode, so I’m just thinking, maybe when the news is more “boring” the election, you might want it every other day or something like that. To let me know, I created this survey, so here’s your chance to really influence the show! Also, I wanted to mention that I joined an advertising platform that automatically inserts ads based on your location, your audience size, that sort of thing, so if you’re like me and got an ad about opening up schools at all costs and “Democrats want to shut us down” and all that, I definitely apologize. I went back on the platform and immediately turned off all of the ads from the government and politics category. On the one hand, I would love for that group to waste their money advertising to you guys, who obviously don’t believe that nonsense, but on the other hand, I didn’t want it to seem like I was endorsing that, so here we are. Anyways, stay safe, make that plan to vote, there’s only a few days left until the election, so push through to the end, and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
Today, with just 7 days until the biggest election of our lives, we cover an important last-minute voting ruling from the Supreme Court, so listen up Wisconsin voters! I also discuss Trump's repeated attacks on women in power, as well as his and Jared Kushner's racist language towards people of color, the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and Jonathan Swan appreciation.
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In this episode of the #1 quick news podcast, we have the longest segment of the show thus far as I give the facts on early in-person and mail-in voting numbers so far, including in the crucial state of Florida. I also talk about what the demographic turnout so far means for the race, more endorsements for Joe Biden, more campaigning from President Obama, and the reckless actions of Trump world this past weekend.
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Full transcript and sources: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/transcript-quick-news-podcast-state-of-the-race/
This week started slow and then REALLY took off once it got to Wednesday. On the #1 quick news podcast's weekly recap show, we talk about Trump's secret Chinese bank account, Obama's return to the campaign trail in Philadelphia, the announcement by DNI John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Joe Biden's phenomenal day of digital campaign material, the incredible endorsements that Biden received this week, and so much more!
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After popping in briefly to start, I play all of the most important clips from this week. Clips included in this episode are:
(00:17 - 05:26) Debate highlights
(05:27 - 06:44) Trump suggesting Biden is a criminal
(06;45 - 06:59) Trump bizarrely claiming Obama stole part of the ocean???
(07 :00 - 07:22) Trump acting completely presidential...not
(07:23 - 00:47) Trump repeatedly referring to Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as "Rick Gates"
(07:49 - 08:08) Trump attacks Fauci
(08:09 - 08:30) Trump on what he'll do if he loses
(08:31 - 08:46) Trump saying he'll kiss the crowd again
(08:47 - 12:02) President Obama campaigns in Philadelphia
(12:03 - 14:11) FBI Director Christopher Wray on election interference
(14:12 - 19:47) "Highlights" of Trump's 60 Minutes interview
(19:48 - 20:40) Mel Brooks endorses Joe Biden
(20:42 - 22:24) 43 Alumni for Biden's ad
(22:35 - 24:28) Biden's ad, narrated by Sam Elliott, and Biden reading tweets
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On this episode of the #1 quick news podcast, I start off by replaying the best parts of Obama's speech yesterday in Philadelphia, PA, that Trump tried to distract us from (but we don't fall for that here at Quick News Daily). Then, amazingly, Trump leaked the entire unedited interview he did with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl, including when he storms out. Obviously, we go over those highlights as well, and end with touching on Iran's interference with our election and why DNI John Ratcliffe is a partisan hack.
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Make sure to send any incidents or obstacles you have to voting to https://seesay2020.com/ to anonymously report to election lawyers.
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On this episode of the #1 quick news podcast in the land, we cover Joe Biden's great day on social media, the revelation of Trump's secret bank account in China and what that means, Trump's childish "I'm taking the ball and going home" move by walking out of a 60 Minutes interview, and our favorite beggar.
To see the Biden campaign's newest ad, visit the post about it on our website: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/joe-biden-commercial-sam-elliott/
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On this episode of Quick News Daily, I discuss Trump's new fight with Dr. Fauci, new information about voting laws and early voting, and Johnson & Johnson's secretive behavior around why they paused their COVID vaccine trial. Plus, news about the Senate working through the weekend to confirm Amy Cony Barrett (while not moving half as fast on stimulus relief for the American people), Admiral William McRaven's endorsement of Joe Biden, and the absurdity of the Russian propaganda story about Hunter Biden that Rudy Giuliani tried to push.
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For the transcript and sources for this episode, visit https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/quick-news-daily-podcast-trump-fights-fauci/
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Today, I cover all of Trump's unhinged behavior from his rallies over the weekend, including his calls to lock up his political opponents. I also cover a story from Bloomberg about something that's becoming known as "long COVID".
Again, apologies for the shortened show due to more schoolwork than I planned. We'll be back and better than ever tomorrow!
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A recap of all our shows from this past week, including all of Trump's craziness and the spectacles that were Amy Coney Barrett's nomination hearings. Also, the return of Michael C. Hall as Dexter, bad news in the COVID trial front, and Barron Trump revealed to have tested positive for COVID.
Plus a special offer from Restaurant.com!
As promised, I go over there during town halls between Trump and Biden, the differences in tone of their closing arguments, and news that Biden’s free public tuition plan will post for itself (and then some) in just 10 years.
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Breaking News: Trump appears to have OK'd the U.S. Marshals' killing of an American citizen in Portland, Oregon. After covering this major headline, I move on to cover the controversy over NBC giving Trump a town hall at the same time as Biden's on ABC (tune in at 8pm ET to make Biden's rating higher and induce a Trump freakout). In addition, I talk about Melania Trump disclosing that Barron did test positive for the coronavirus, the return of Dexter with Michael C. Hall, and Lindsey Graham once again begging for money on Fox News.
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Headlines we go over today include a decision on the census, another COVID trial pause, Bill Barr’s failed attempt to create Obamagate, and John Cornyn’s fascination with Amy Coney Barrett’s lack of notes.
You can find the sources used today in the transcript for the show here: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/notebooks-notes-books-transcript/, and you can find where to listen at: https://www.podpage.com/site/quick-news-daily-podcast/latest
On this edition, I cover the issues with Johnson & Johnson's COVID vaccine (spoiler: it's very typical for trials to be paused), actual good news about Wisconsin in regards to Governor Evers' powers to declare a state of emergency, and the voter suppression in Georgia during early voting.
I also cover Mitch McConnell's despicable debate performance against Amy McGrath, Fox News doing another Lindsey Graham pity telethon, and a recap from yesterday's confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett.
Listen to the episode here: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews or access the lightly-edited transcript here: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/voter-suppression-hard-at-work-transcript
Today, I cover the further desecration of the presidency by Trump since he had Dr. Conley lie to the American people again, and he held a campaign event at the White House. For some reason though, the media still had to make up this "court packing" controversy. I also cover how Jamie Harrison raked in $57 million in the 3rd quarter for his battle against Lindsey Graham, as well as the suspicious fact that Lindsey refused to get tested for coronavirus before starting Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings, and much more!
Listen to the episode here: https://rebrand.ly/QuickNews or access the lightly-edited transcript here: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/lindsey-graham-is-scared-transcript/
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Miss one of the shows this week? No problem! Quick News To Go combines all of the shows from the week in one convenient spot.
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Just because I felt like switching it u,p and I think it's underappreciated, the ending song is "You Know My Name" by the late, great Chris Cornell. It was the theme for the James Bond movie "Casino Royale", and was produced by Cornell and David Arnold. I do not own the song in any way, I just enjoy it.
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Sources
HELP WANTED: if you have the time, would you head over to https://awards.discoverpods.com/nominate/ and nominate "Quick News Daily Podcast" for Best News Podcast, Best New Podcast of 2020, Most Innovative Podcast, and Best Overall Podcast? Thank you!!
In this episode, we've got the biggest statements and clips of the week, straight from the people who said it. The clips included this week are:
(00:16) Dr. Conley saying he didn't want to be negative in case the virus heard him???
(01:15) Brent Terhune's satirical rant about Trump "beating" COVID (03:05) Steve Schmidt talking about Benito Trumpolini (03:55) Trump's dangerous video where he lies about the coronavirus after he gets back to the White House (05:21) J-L Cauvin doing Trump's inner monologue after he got back to the White House from Walter Reed (06:19 Joe Biden talking about how things can change
(08:01) Biden's message to young voters at a town hall with Lester Holt (09:37) Biden talking about bringing people together (10:55) Ad from a former military member in support of Joe Biden (11:55) The open to Biden's Gettysburg speech (12:19) Carly Fiorina endorsing Joe Biden on Fox News (12:54) Biden contrasts himself with Trump (13:37) Biden speaking about how much Black Americans love this country, and how much it must take for them to do so
(14:38 to 17:04) Kamala Harris' best moments from the debate
(17:05) Mayor Pete dismantling Fox News talking points
(18:04) Trump calling in to Sean Hannity's show, saying that Biden will build buildings with "tiny little windows"??????
(18:17) Trump trying to make some kind of point with senior voters, but his brain is mush
(18:25 to 19:12) Another part of Trump's call to Hannity where Trump has to loudly clear his throat and eventually mute his mic because he has such a severe cough. Definitely not COVID though. Definitely totally normal...
(19:13) The end of Trump's call to Maria Bartiromo's show on Fox Business where he is saying goodbye normally one second and then, for no apparent reason, launches into an attack on Hillary Clinton's emails?????
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Sources
Here is the link to a lightly-edited transcript: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/lies-and-flies-transcript/
Today, I cover the vice presidential debate (and let you in on my secret to watching them), including the real stars of the debate: Mike Pence's bleeding eye, and "The Fly", as well as Pete Buttigieg murdering Fox News on live TV, and the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
I also cover all the Trump strangeness, including his bizarre call-in to Maria Bartiromo's show this morning, his weird infomercial for the cocktail of antibodies he received at Walter Reed, and the New England Journal of Medicine's unprecedented rebuke of his administration.
Find where to listen to the show on all your favorite podcast platforms right here: https://pod.link/1505169685/listen
Today's headlines include coverage of Biden's speech in Gettysburg, PA, Trump's bizarre announcement ending talks on a COVID relief stimulus (and then quickly walking that back), and the general disorder in the Trump White House these days. Then we go over the good news, like Carly Fiorina again endorsing Joe Biden (live on Fox News) and the McCloskey's being indicted for going full-racist.
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Sources
On today's show, I talk about the pathetic display that was Donald Trump trying to appear like a dictator but actually just looking like an old man wheezing for air. I also talk about Hurricane Delta, the vice presidential debate tomorrow night between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, and the latest on Amy Coney Barrett's scheduled confirmation hearings.
A rough transcript of the episode can be found here: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/benito-trumpolini-quick-news-transcript/
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Today, we focus mainly on what happened with Trump over the weekend during his fight with COVID. We talk about the enigma of Dr. Conley, the horrible optics of that drive-by photo op that would make Kim Jong-Un proud, and why he shouldn't be in charge while he's on dexamethasone (a steroid). I also briefly touch on Tropical Storm (and possible hurricane) Delta that is heading for Louisiana.
But hey, this morning he tweeted that we shouldn't let COVID dominate our lives, so what's everybody stressing out about?
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Since it was such an amazing opportunity to have J-L Cauvin on the show, I thought he deserved better audio quality than I originally gave when I forgot to plug in my mic. So, I decided to partially remaster the episode through the magic of editing.
Honestly, I just re-recorded my parts for the portion of the show that J-L was doing his Trump impression (I figured that if you stuck around after that, you were there for the content of the conversation and not just the quality). I also cleaned up a few mistakes on my end, but the questions themselves did not materially change.
Another thank you to J-L for giving my show a chance. Help me thank him by checking out his podcast, “Making Podcasts Great Again”, his YouTube channel, his latest comedy album “Fireside Craps: The Deuce”, and his Twitter.
Get even more of his content at his website, https://jlcomedy.com/.
To get in touch with me, just email quicknewsdaily@gmail.com
On this week's Quick News To Go, the top news stories include: the official nomination of Amy Cony Barrett for the Supreme Court (which we know now was a super-spreader event), the New York Times story showing Trump's personal tax returns from the past 15 years, the first presidential debate, and my interview with comedian (and best Trump impressionist) J-L Cauvin to go over "Trump's" thoughts on the debate. Plus, the huge news from late Thursday night that Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, what that means for the election, and Governor Greg Abbott's blatant voter suppression tactics in Texas.
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Today, we take on the big news that Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, what that means in terms of the campaign, and who else could be exposed. Then we talk about he heinous voter suppression in Texas, and Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
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On this episode, we go over more thoughts on the first presidential debate, the stock market, new coronavirus outbreaks, information from patients on the side effects of the COVID vaccine, John Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, and more!
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In perhaps the biggest episode in our history, comedian J-L Cauvin brings his world-renowned impression of Donald Trump to the show to give “his” thoughts on his first debate with Joe Biden. Did he think he was: strong, tough, powerful, tremendous, or all of the above? Tune in to find out!
Apologies for my bad audio; I was so excited to record with J-L that I forgot to plug in my microphone...
Of course, a very special thank you to J-L for giving my show a chance. Help me thank him by checking out his podcast, “Making Podcasts Great Again”, his YouTube channel, his latest comedy album “Fireside Craps: The Deuce”, and his Twitter.
The real takeaway: J-L is an amazing comedian, Trump impression or not. To see what I mean, check out this post by J-L with suggested videos to watch that aren't Trump related. Get even more of his content at his website, https://jlcauvin.com/.
To get in touch with me, just email quicknewsdaily@gmail.com
Today's topics include the big news about Trump's taxes, the official nomination about Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, and more big endorsements for Joe Biden.
Here's Rep. Elissa Slotkin's official donation page: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/esw2001dd?refcode=D
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It's a really slow news day so far, so I discuss Lindsey Graham constantly begging for money on Fox News, Fox arguing that Tucker isn't trustworthy in court, Kelly Loeffler trying to buy her way to the Senate again, and Zack Snyder's Justice League.
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Sources
Today, we spend a while talking about Trump refusing to a peaceful transfer of power. Then we discuss the media falling for the trap while covering the aftermath of the Breonna Taylor news, an update on the Pennsylvania secrecy envelope ruling, Amy Coney Barrett, and Trump getting booed and jeered while visiting Justice Ginsburg lying in repose.
Comedian Brent Terhune's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/0QZOQ9jx_OI
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Today, I debut a new, relaxed format and let you know that the 20 minute guarantee might not always apply for the next couple of months. But as for actual news, I cover some big voting news from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, the latest Supreme Court speculation, and Cindy McCain endorsing Joe Biden. I also talk about the Trump superspreader rally last night and the Breonna Taylor news.
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On this episode, I explain the latest on the race for the White House, including why I think Biden is getting stronger with white voters while 2/3 of the country thinks the protests and counter-protests are overtaking cities. Then, I cover more fallout of the death of RBG, including the surprising statement by Mitt Romney, Joni Ernst's super lame excuse for why this time it's "different" than 2016, and the stink of desperation from Lindsey Graham as South Carolina polls show he's tied with Jamie Harrison.
Other topics include Tropical Storm Beta, the CDC changing its mind on COVID having airborne transmission, and signs that the Breonna Taylor verdict from the grand jury may not be what many have hoped for.
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As you can imagine, the main story today is the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I talk about every aspect of the situation: her start on the Supreme Court, her reputation, what this means politically, etc. Then, I shift into discussing the crazy things Trump said over the weekend, including new audio from Bob Woodward. Lastly, I discuss Oracle and Walmart stepping in to buy a stake in TikTok (Trump's okay with it because his buddy, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, is involved, just like Ellison was involved when he suggested hydroxychloroquine to Trump in February allegedly).
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Two weeks ago, I gave my "way too early" review of the new Avengers game, but now that I've finished the campaign, I'm back with a complete review! By the way, Yusuf "Abu" Khan is voice by Brian George.
Rough Transcript:
Now that I’ve completed the campaign for Marvel’s Avengers, as well as quite a few missions for the Avengers Initiative, I feel ready to give a complete review of the game.
My non-spoiler review: the ending is very strong, and the game really opens up.
SPOILERS below!
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While I was mostly positive in my review for the early stages of the game, I was still a little unsure about some key points, namely the heavy focus on Kamala Khan (aka Ms. Marvel). However, after finishing the campaign, I can say that nearly every concern either went away or turned into a strength.
Let’s start out with Kamala. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt because she wasn’t a character I knew, they focused on her early in the game after teasing us with the “classic” Avengers, and because I think they made her a bit too naïve. All that being said, she has two huge moments in the last half of the campaign that really sold me.
The first is when she finds the clue from Monica’s interrogation, then has J.A.R.V.I.S. accidentally call her father, Yusuf. This scene has to work, and it does. First off, Brian George (the voice of Yusuf) gives an incredible performance here with only his voice. He conveys so much emotion on that call (not an easy thing to do when it’s only you talking), and it’s all believable. Then, the other important part is Kamala, a video game character, having to show just as much emotion while only using her animated face. The developers really outdid themselves with this scene, and I basically forgot it was a video game. Sandra Saad, the actress and breakout star who portrays Kamala, also deserves praise for the motion capture work and heartbreaking “love you more” just after the call ends.
Kamala’s second big moment comes immediately after, and it’s the speech she gives to the Avengers about how they still inspire people, and that the world still needs them. Usually, I find these types of speeches/moments cheesy, but this felt earned and like it really fit the moment. And, of course, it helps lead to the emotional moment where all of the Avengers (minus Captain America) reunite.
That clue that Kamala finds is a lead to finding Steve Rogers (aka Captain America), though they don’t know it yet, and that’s where the entire tone and momentum of the story shift.
When Tony finds Cap, his emotion feels very real, and it’s shared by the entire team when he and Cap return to Earth (after a sequence that was incredibly similar to the opening scene of Avengers: Endgame, with Tony being saved from suffocation in space, except this time it’s Thor who saves him instead of Captain Marvel). When Cap is finally back, he takes control and steals the show, much like Chris Evans’ version. He’s a constant source of encouragement, defiance, and resolve. As expected, he makes a couple of signature “Cap speeches” that I would, again, normally find cheesy. However, the Avengers are pretty down on their luck at this point, so the speeches feel relevant, timely, and earned. I have to give it to the team/developers a lot of credit again since I could literally feel the energy and vibe shift when Steve Rogers rejoins the fight, which isn’t something that happens a lot in video games.
In terms of big picture stuff, the frame rate drop issues happens quite frequently still. It’s not very often, but just a couple of times of going from frames per second to frames per minute will make you cringe. Story-wise, I think the campaign is just about the right length. It’s not too short that it only feels like a tacked-on tutorial, but it’s nowhere near Red Dead length, for example. Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to go back and play it in like a New Game+ scenario. That's where the Avengers Initiative comes in nicely, which is the post-campaign prologue/online elemental of the game. This is where I actually really have to give credit to Square Enix because there are some games where they’re just clearly a money grab, but this doesn't feel like that. I really like the touch that you can play with CPU characters; you don't have to online matchmake or anything like that, and that's for a couple of reasons. Number one, you don't have to play online with other people if you don't want to, and I'm one that usually tends not to, but it's also good for just the longevity of the game. When the servers stop and you can't matchmake with anyone online anymore, you'll still be able to play the game because they'll just be CPU players. Speaking of that, I am super impressed that the CPU characters feel so real in. They’re decision making is smart and does feel real; pretty much just as good as having a real person there.
One other thing I forgot to mention: in my first review, I said that I didn't know how I felt about fighting robots a lot of the time. Playing more, I realized that there's actually more humans than I remembered. By the same token, there's a lot of different types of robots and it's really no different than Batman fighting a ton of the same thugs in like Arkham Knight or something like that. In that game, there are like four or five player models in that one, tops, for the thugs, so that's really no different than robots.
The one last thing that I'm not sure how to feel about is that I saw this joke and I can’t unsee it: the character models in this game for the Avengers like Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and Natasha Romanoff are basically the stunt double versions of the MCU versions. They're a little bit different, a little bit tweaked… but still. Granted, it's tough because you have to choose: do you want to copy them exactly, or do you want to make it your own? However, it seems like they settled on this weird in-between where they didn't quite know what they wanted to do. It's not distracting or anything, and If I hadn't heard the talk about it at the time of the trailer release, I wouldn't thought anything about it, but now that I heard that and saw that, I can't unsee it.
My final thoughts: like I said, it’s a very strong finish to the game. The game opens up a lot because you have more players to choose from, obviously, so you don't have to just play as Kamala or the Hulk. I still can't believe how the game turns around when Steve re-enters the fight, like you can just feel it; it's just incredible for a video game. Definitely go out and buy this one. It's a lot of fun, you can play for hours, there's a lot of post-campaign content, and there's going to be even more with DLC's and stuff like that. So yeah, go out and get this one. It's a good one. This is Marvel's Avengers and I'd say it gets an “A” rating for sure.
This is a review of Marvel's Avengers (2020) from Marvel Entertainment and Square Enix. Clips are used for review purposes, as is Alan Silvestri's "Avengers Theme". I do not own any of those pieces of content.
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On a shortened week (I took a break on Friday and made a clip show instead: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/e/trump-biden-town-hall-quick-news/), we discuss everything from Mike Bloomberg's investment for Joe Biden in Florida, Michael Caputo's tampering with the CDC and Facebook Live rant, Trump saying the U.S. COVID stats would look better if it weren't for "blue states", several updates on Alexei Navalny's poisoning, the surge of COVID in Europe, the Trump Administration asking about using a "heat ray" on peaceful protesters, and much more!
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Though I myself took a break from speaking to you, I couldn't leave you guys hanging. There are still so man clips I want you to hear, and what's better than first-hand news? The clips I used are the following (with timestamps):
- (0:14) Trump talking with Bob Woodward on April 13th, saying he knew how contagious it was.
- (0:40) Trump talking with Bob Woodward on August 14th, clearly showing he doesn't understand that the virus and economy are related.
- (1:22) Interior Minister/Attorney General Bill Barr saying lockdown orders are like slavery.
- (1:35) Andy Slavitt, , talking on LPTV (from the Lincoln Project) on Wednesday.
- (2:23) Trump slurring his way through his rally last night in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
- (2:44) Another Trump rally clip, this time saying that he likes to be around less successful people because it makes him feel smart (I wonder what his crowd realized what that meant about them?)
- (4:11) In contrast, almost telepathically, Biden talks about his connection to working people and being the first member in his family to go to college. Clip from his CNN Town Hall with Anderson Cooper.
- (5:27) Trump blaming "blue states" at his rally.
- (5:54) Trump blaming "blue states" at a White House press conference.
- (6:17) White House Press Liar Kayleigh Mcenany saying that you have to work at the White House to get information (???)
- (6:42) Biden explaining that people complaining about losing their "freedom" should be mad at Donald Trump for managing COVID so poorly.
- (7:14) The Daily Show pointing out that everything Trump says about Biden's mental acuity is actually true about himself.
- (9:10) At the town hall, Biden points out that during Obama's presidency, violent crime went down (without using the military to tear gas peaceful protesters).
- (10:46) An ad from Republican Voters Against Trump featuring Olivia Troye, former Homeland Security & Counterterrorism advisor to Mike Pence, as well as his chief staff member for the COVID task force, saying she's voting for Biden.
On today's episode, we cover Trump's off-the-rails press conference from yesterday, where he said if it weren't for "blue states", the U.S. would be doing much better with the coronavirus (still not true) and consistently ripped his CDC director to shreds for telling the truth. Then, I talk about the new details of Alexei Navalny's poisoning, as well as Trump wanting to use a "heat ray" to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square for his walk to hold a Bible upside down, and the new surge of COVID cases in Europe.
Thanks to Podcast Guru for featuring me in an interview: https://podcastguru.io/podcast-guru-presents/5-questions-with-brett/
Heads up: there probably won't be a show tomorrow as I take the day off for school.
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On this edition, I give some updates on stories we've been following, including Alexei Navalny, Breonna Taylor, reinforcements coming to Biden's aid in Florida, and Michael Caputo. Then, I go over the new, disturbing allegations about hysterectomies at a Georgia ICE detention center, and Trump's dismal performance at the ABC town hall.
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Today, we cover both Mike Bloomberg's contribution to the Democratic cause, as well as reporting from Bloomberg on Oracle knocking Microsoft out of the running for Tik Tok and their investigative reporting making the discovery that one of QAnon's "leaders" is allegedly none other than Jason Gelinas, a senior executive at Citigroup. Yes, that Citigroup.
There's also news about the side effects from the AstraZeneca-Oxford University COVID vaccine trial and the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision on keeping the Green Party off the ballot.
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On today's show, I catch up on all the stuff I somehow missed for Friday's show, including the decision on a Census question and a question for you about the Woodward revelations. Then, I talk about the NFL return, CDC tampering, and Trump's dictator-style rhetoric before ending with a review for today's sponsor, The Time Turner: Harry Potter In-Depth. Find them on Instagram or Twitter as @TimeTurnerPod as well!
Because it's a Packers victory Monday, my ending song is "Bang on the Drum All Day" by Todd Rundgren.
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On a shortened week, I discuss everything from last week's Atlantic article about Trump insulting the troops, the new Trump audio from Bob Woodward, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's attempt to mess with absentee ballots, Mike Holmgren, the Chiefs-Texans game, and so much more!
Apologies for the late posting, but thank you so much for your patience and loyalty to the show!
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To close out the week, I lead with the disappointing start to the NFL season (fan-wise) and the Trump campaign’s money troubles before moving onto the Wisconsin Supreme Court once again showing their true colors and a Wisconsin great reappearing unexpectedly. Sadly, I forgot to mention a ruling on a census question, so we'll have to cover that Monday.
For the record, I wanted the title to be “Wisconsin is ground zero”, but thankfully I realized that today might not be the best day for that.
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On this episode, I discuss the fallout from the Trump-Woodward tapes in detail, complete with montages where Trump says one thing in private, and another to the public. I also discuss the new DHS whistleblower, the California wildfires turning the sky red, and the announcement of Trump's potential Supreme Court appointees if he gets another shot.
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On this show, we go over the biggest headline of the day, the Bob Woodward tapes where Trump admits to knowing how serious the virus was in February and March, that young people could get it, that it was deadlier than the flu, and on and on. We also cover his rally in North Carolina last night, more of Interior Minister Bill Barr's antics, the poll from Florida that everyone is worried about, and Trump maybe extending the ban on offshore drilling near Florida.
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In the first show back since the Labor Day weekend, I cover Trump's advertising strategy, Trump playing golf while our cities are allegedly on fire and under attack by Cory Booker, the video of him looking lost, and Louis DeJoy being implicated in an alleged campaign finance violation (or several). We also quickly cover the latest on Brexit, Alexei Navalny's condition, and Joe Biden's response to QAnon.
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In a special holiday edition of Quick News Reviews, I go over my way too early thoughts about Marvel's Avengers (2020), the new video game from Marvel Entertainment and Square Enix. The short version: go buy it!
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Trailer at the end: https://youtu.be/LDBojdBAjXU
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Once I realized my intro was outdated, I knew my trailer must be outdated as well, so here's a brand new one. Whether you're a new or returning listener, I think it's worthwhile to hear what my vision for the show is.
I hope you'll either join us, or keep right on listening! Thanks for a great almost 6 months!
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In a week that started fast and ended faster, we talk about a lot, including: the passing of Chadwick Boseman, The Batman, Nancy Pelosi visiting a salon and the owner going on Tucker's White Power Hour, mail-in voting in Montana, Trump and ramps, Trump telling people to vote twice, and who could forget Trump calling dead soldiers "losers" and "suckers"?
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At 19:52, this episode is a squeaker when it comes to keeping my 20 minutes or less promise (don't tell Tchaikovsky I messed with his music). In this jam-packed show, I go over Trump insulting soldiers of any kind (fallen, wounded, or alive), the fake outrage over Nancy Pelosi's salon trip, The Batman having to shut down production :(, and the lasting impact coronavirus can have on your body, according to Penn State football's team doctor.
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The daily headlines that I cover today include: attacks on mail-in voting in Montana, Trump telling people to vote twice (illegal), a theory about Trump and ramps, Kirk Cousins, and more on Chadwick Boseman.
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The daily headlines that I try to get through quickly (no pun intended) today include: Joe Biden's fundraising numbers, his planned trip to Kenosha, updates on the Trump Stroke Saga™, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, not joining the WHO's quest to find a COVID vaccine, and more!
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The daily headlines for today: I catch up on some stories I didn't get to yesterday (groups that the FBI says are responsible for violence, Biden advertisement buys), as well as updates on the Trump stroke situation and his ridiculous "dark shadows" comment about who's controlling Biden.
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Today, we have to start out by recognizing the passing of a great: Chadwick Boseman. Then, we shift to talking about the events of Portland and the sham of the Republicans' "law and order" message.
Police/EMT: https://twitter.com/eortner/status/1300292767634006017
Trump falling: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1299522424036372486?s=20ttps://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1299543079414722561?s=20
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Chadwick Boseman Video: https://twitter.com/Jron_Erby/status/1299540482696114183
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In the week of the Republican National Convention, you know there's a more-than-fair share of insanity. In addition to those recaps, we also cover the events in Kenosha, Hurricane Laura, plasma to treat COVID (and more updates on coronavirus), the Postal Service crisis, and The Batman trailer review.
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I just want to warn you: this episode is a bit different. Instead of segmenting the news stories, I tie them all back to Donald Trump and the events at the White House last night. From protests to racial justice to white supremacy to abuses of power to the coronavirus crisis, the only constant is Donald Trump. I speak as a white guy from the Midwest to warn you not to underestimate what other people like me think about everything that's happening. I hope you'll stick around.
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The daily headlines for today include 3 updates on COVID, setting the record straight on the situation in Kenosha, and the latest on the California wildfires. We also get crazy and go over Trump challenging Biden to a drug test, as well as Night 3 of the Land of Make Believe Republican National Convention.
Components of the coronavirus cocktail (though I'm no doctor and this isn't official medical advice): the antiviral drug remdesivir, a steroid (like dexmethasone) for inflammation, blood thinners, and plasma from recovered COVID patients.
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Today, we talk about the Kenosha protest murders after an out-of-state white supremacist opens fire. I also try to make an analogy between seeing spiders as "the other" and how we act out violently against them. In addition, I go over CNN's fan fiction writing about Night 2 of the RNC, Hurricane Laura, and Facebook potentially losing more ad revenue.
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Matt McDermott: "Folks: the RNC isn’t using Black speakers to engage Black voters. They’re using Black speakers to engage white people who want to vote Trump and not feel racist."
On today's episode, we cover the predictable craziness that was Night 1 of the Republican National Convention, including hype woman Kimberly Guilfoyle, glassy-eyed Donald Trump Jr., Nikki Haley ending racism in America, plus more falsehoods. I also give updates on Jacob Blake, the FDA Commissioner and the emergency use authorization of plasma for COVID, and finally, Louis DeJoy showing the absence of expertise in the Trump Administration.
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Today, we lead with the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in my own state. We also cover updates on the Postal Service, the House's $25 billion bill for it, DeJoy's testimony, Trumpworld's desperation, and a mini review of the trailer for The Batman (2021).
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First off: THANK YOU! We're over 6,000 downloads in less than 5 months! You guys are setting records faster than writing these thank you's, and I couldn't be more grateful.
In the week of the Democratic Convention, I'm sure you can guess what dominates the discussion. I cover almost every big moment, from Michelle Obama to Barack Obama to Kamala Harris to Joe Biden. Other stories include the poisoning of Alexey Navalny, the California wildfires, updates on the Postal Service, the Supreme Court, Iran, criminal referrals of Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner by a REPUBLICAN-LED Senate committee, and more!
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To close out the week, I have a lot to say about Joe Biden's spectacular speech and the rest of the last night of the Democratic convention in our last segment, but first we’ll cover Steve Bannon being the latest of Trump’s inner circle to be criminally indicted, the poisoning of a Russian opposition leader, the California wildfires, and the postal service.
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Other important reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/us/politics/qanon-trump-republicans.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/512925-cuomo-signs-bill-to-expand-absentee-voting-in-new-york
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dozens-former-gop-national-security-officials-to-back-biden
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/08/20/trump-blames-california-for-wildfires-tells-state-you-gotta-clean-your-floors-1311059
Sometimes you have to take a minute to soak in the history, and that’s what last night was with the nomination of Kamala Harris for Vice President. But when we get through that and the rest of night 3 of the Democratic convention, we’ll also talk about the economy, the Supreme Court, Trump trying to restore sanctions on Iran, and a judge denying yet another request by Trump to hide his taxes.
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Photos of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by CNN and the New York Times, respectively.
Today, we cover headlines like what worked and what didn't at Night 2 of the Democratic convention, the struggle for what the Democratic party should be, and the situation in Belarus. In addition, I cover Trump Jr. and Kushner, among other Trump associates, being referred for criminal charges by the Republican-led Senate Intel Committee.
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In a day with a lot of news headlines, we go over the Senate Intel committee’s report on Russia, California’s recent blackout troubles, another personal conspiracy theory of mine, updates on the Postal Service, and, of course, the first night of the Democratic convention, amongst other stories.
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Mr. Worldwide (Intro) by Pitbull feat. Vein, available here: https://youtu.be/TDrs-t60gHQ. ℗ 2011 J Records, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment.
On this show, we don't cover a huge number of stories, but that's because there are a few stories that really need to be examined. These news headlines include the death of Trump's brother, why I don't buy that Trump misses him, the response to the mail/election crisis by congressional Democrats, and the curious case of the new COVID outbreak in New Zealand.
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In a busy week, we cover a lot of news headlines, including: Trump admitting he wants to wreck mail-in voting (while also requesting a mail-in ballot), the deal between Israel and the UAE, Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic candidate for Vice President (and the corresponding return of birther-ism/racism), Russia's COVID vaccine, the Secret Service taking Trump out of a briefing, and so much more! Plus, you helped Quick News Daily reach 5,000 downloads!
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On the final new show of the week, I go over news headlines like the situation with voting in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump requesting an absentee ballot (and possibly committing voter fraud), and increasing tensions with Iran. Plus, I try to simplify the Israel-United Arab Emirates agreement, Trump playing his favorite hit: birther-ism, and an update on coronavirus in America.
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(Update: I'm sorry that the audio is messed up for the second day in a row. I'll fix it tomorrow even if it's the death of me.) I realized that yesterday was more of my reaction to the VP announcement, so today, I spend a lot of time going over Kamala's backstory. I also talk about a horrible Florida sheriff, Trump's admission of mail- in voting obstruction, dinosaur news, environmental news, and an analysis of the stock market under the last 6 presidents.
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For today's news headlines, I cover Joe Biden's decision to select Senator Kamala Harris as a running mate, Russia's rushed COVID vaccine, the UK's economic struggle, and Facebook's fostering of QAnon. Also, I apologize for some of the sound having an echo or being quietI . really don't know what's up with that; I used the same setup and everything!
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On a slower news day, the news headlines that we cover include New Zealand (who I think I might have jinxed), Donald Trump's bad medical advice, the Secret Service taking down a shooter, Kodak's rise and fall, and more! Also, THANK YOU for 5,000 downloads! You, as an audience, are truly impressive.
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The news headlines today: Trump's use of executive orders, his further gutting of the Postal Service, a state-by-state guide from the Lincoln Project (see link) on how to vote, Biden riding a bike, Trump asking to be on Mount Rushmore, Beirut, and more!
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It was definitely a full week, and certainly one you'll want to hear about! Topics covered include: Trump battling to say Yosemite, reimposing tariffs against Canada, Sally Yates' testimony, and Jonathan Swan's interview with Trump for Axios. Plus New York's lawsuit against the NRA, Jared Kushner, the explosion in Beirut. and so many more!
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On the last new show of the week, we cover Trump's bizarre comments on Biden, his fake vaccine claims, and getting suspended from Twitter. We also talk about Sally Yates, the July jobs report and Canada tariffs, the military trying to keep Trump in the dark, and what to expect in workplaces when employees go back. (I just realized I said I was going to talk about Beirut but didn't, so I guess we'll do that on Monday)
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Today’s news topics include: New York Attorney General Letitia James’ announcement of a lawsuit against the NRA, catching up on Kris Kobach’s defeat in the Kansas senate primary, and Biden canceling his planned trip to Milwaukee due to COVID concerns (he’s right, it’s not great here).
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Merch shop issues: I think that if the shipping that gets taken off with FREESHIP is more than my profit (as seller), then the site cancels the code. I'm going to mess around with it this weekend and see if I can get something working for you guys!
Fox News is onto something here... he is NOT okay pic.twitter.com/PgFpVchkdR
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 4, 2020
I was pleasantly surprised that Trump had nothing to do with a mushroom cloud in a foreign country (just what 2020 needed). We cover that explosion in Beirut, the shortage of Clorox wipes and when you can expect them full-stocked, and an update on Hurricane Isaias. Plus, some Trump news I missed yesterday, and more (if you can believe it)!
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It truly is astounding when you think of how badly this day has been already for Trump. But first, we talk about the stimulus bill negotiations, a Gwinnett County, Georgia’s attempt at re-opening (just for teachers), and the latest on Biden’s upcoming VP selection. Then, we get our hands dirty and try to tackle the newest portions of Trump’s interview with Jonathan Swan (who deserves a month off after having to do that) before reassuring Trump that reading is hard. We finish with our newest segment, “Proud to be an American”. Disclaimer: We do not own “God Bless the U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood, and you can find all his works at http://www.leegreenwood.com/.
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The rest of the Jonathan Swan/Trump interview: https://t.co/j3mmhyTVP0?amp=1
It’s a new week, so we catch up on the developing stories with Tik Tok, the Department of Homeland Security, and Trump’s assault on mail-in voting. We also take a look at the latest news around Jared Kushner’s role in the government’s coronavirus response (or lack thereof) and Lord & Taylor’s bankruptcy.
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The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
Again, there's never a slow week with a crazy person as president, including your favorites like: tweeting about postponing an election, an unhinged interview with Jonathan Swan/Axios, and support for a doctor who believes in demon sex, alien sperm, and vaccines that make you anti-religious. We also have William Barr's testimony, volunteers helping with election cybersecurity, warnings about vaccines becoming an October Surprise, and much more!
It's more political than usual, but I think that it's almost impossible to separate the two these days. Thank you so much for the continued support; this was easily the best week of downloads for the show yet!
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Here’s the links to The Dollop podcast and the Axios interview I mentioned yesterday since I forgot to add them to the description early enough:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dollop-with-dave-anthony-and-gareth-reynolds/id643055307?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HzB2tAUd64
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Today is one of those days where it’s tough to separate the politics and the news, and I want you to be aware of that right up front. Topics include: that tweet from Trump about postponing the election, more context for those historically bad GDP numbers, ethical hackers working to protect our election, and so much more. It’s a busy way to end the week, so come along for the ride!
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Here are the links to The Dollop podcast and the Axios interview I mentioned yesterday since I forgot to add them to the description early enough:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dollop-with-dave-anthony-and-gareth-reynolds/id643055307?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HzB2tAUd64
Get links to the most important Quick News Daily resources here: https://linktr.ee/quicknews
Wow, where to start? Trump's interview with Axios, Chinese "seeds of destruction", RBG, Trump wanting to postpone the election...so much to talk about.
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First of all...THANK YOU for putting us over 4,000 downloads! I was barely even prepared for it since we were at like 3,850 yesterday, so truly impressive by you guys! For news, we talk about the 4th and final pillar of Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, news about his VP pick timing, and Tik Tok. We also go over Donald Trump Jr.'s temporary Twitter suspension, Russian interference happening again, Trump's crazy support of a crazy doctor, and William Barr's testimony that completely disregards the Constitution.
Get your mail-in ballot, and/or make sure you're registered to vote: https://votesaveamerica.com/be-a-voter/
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Our stories for today include a look at October Surprises and the possible connection to vaccines, the MLB COVID problem, Ivanka's trip to Minnesota, Chinese retaliation, and more! Plus, I want your feedback!
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Matthew Whitaker, Piano Genius: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matthew-whitaker-blind-jazz-pianist-18-years-old-60-minutes-2020-07-26/
We're back with a lot of news, including revisiting the vision for the show. We also check in on Trump's new tone, Tom Cotton's blatant racism, Regis Philbin's passing, John Lewis, and so much more!
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Well, when Donald Trump restarts daily coronavirus briefings and sics his secret police on America, you know it's a full episode. Besides those two huge topics, we also go over the Obama-Biden reunion, Bill Gates' vaccine update, George Floyd's murderer getting more charges thrown at him, an earthquake near Alaska, and tensions with China. And, of course, we couldn't forget person, man, woman, camera...TV!
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Link to the Obama-Biden chat: https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1286300138239979527?s=20
Link to Scott Hoying's video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC4DcpmhDjQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Get links to the most important Quick News Daily resources here: https://linktr.ee/quicknews
To close out the week, we look at Trump's "new tone", what we can expect if he doesn't accept the election results, the AOC-Ted Yoho feud, investigations into Portland and Lafayette Square, Yankees-Nationals, and much more!
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The rights for the original picture used in the cover art belong to the Richmond-Times Dispatch
Today we get started fast with an amazing remix from Scott Hoying and the Biden and Obama reunion. Then, we get to Bill Gates' interview with CBS, exclusive analysis on why federal agents are being sent to New Mexico, George Floyd's murderer, and much more!
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Link to the Obama-Biden chat: https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1286300138239979527?s=20
Link to Scott Hoying's video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC4DcpmhDjQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Get Quick News merchandise! --> https://rebrand.ly/quick-news-merch
Get links to the most important Quick News Daily resources here: https://linktr.ee/quicknews
The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
Today, we thank Donald Trump for making our job easier by restarting the daily coronavirus briefings. We also revisit his interview with Chris Wallace and make the connection to the Portland troops' national tour, as well as news on the Friends reboot special, an earthquake and tsunami near Alaska, and the new special "44 + 46", featuring Joe Biden sitting down with Barack Obama (chills to follow).
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The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
There's never a slow day in news anymore, so today we cover a lot, including: Trump wearing a mask and projecting desperation, the administration taking the Portland secret police on tour (coming soon to a large city near you), tensions with China (mainly over their concentration camps), a crazy story from Missouri, and John Kasich speaking at the Democratic convention (!!!).
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The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
After a busy weekend, we catch up on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health, the death of John Lewis, the city Liam Neeson would love right now, new coronavirus data, Peacock, and Trump's interview with Chris Wallace.
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The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
If you’ve had the chance to finally see Hamilton on Disney Plus, it might have changed how you feel about the musical. Sort though whatever your feelings are by revisiting my review of the Hamilton soundtrack!
This was a busy week in news, including the usual shenanigans of the Trump administration and his particularly wacky speech in the Rose Garden, commuting Roger Stone's sentence, backing down on the awful rule for international students, the inexplicable war on Dr. Fauci, the Twitter hack, the Trump campaign replacing Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien, the Washington football scandal, and so much more.
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The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
In today's headlines: teachers making wills before going back to school, the evolving Washington football scandal, possible executions in Iran, a scary situation in Colombia, Trump letting it slip that he took a cognitive test, and an update on the migrant family separation situation.
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Link to listen to Pod Save America's recap of the Rose Garden rally (hyperlink, start at 7:30)
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Today, we take a look at the Twitter hack, Trump campaign staff shake-ups, Lt. Col. Vindman retirement fallout, a potential Washington football scandal, and more!
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Photos for the cover art from Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Brad Parscale, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75602187 and Twitter.
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Do you like the new announcer? Today, we talk about a shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, sanctions on China, Biden's "Build Back Better" economic plan, and much more!
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Today, we cover the emerging child migrant separation crisis, the faults of capitalism, Polish presidential elections, Josh Hawley vs. Woj, and so much more!
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Today, we discuss the wave of news from over the weekend, including Trump commuting Roger Stone's sentence, Trump wearing a mask, Trump trying to sell Puerto Rico, his canceled event in New Hampshire, and the possible first federal execution in 17 years. It seems like there's a theme.... Don't forget to use the promo code FSQUICKNEWS for free shipping if you plan on buying from thousandfell.com.
overcast://x-callback-url/add?https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/feed.xml&https://overcast.fm/itunes1505169685/quick-news-daily-podcast
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Catch up on all the biggest stories of the week (a week where the show passed 3,000 downloads, but who's bragging?)
Thanks to Thousand Fell for sponsoring the show today (hear about their product at about 15:35 of this episode)! To get sneakers that make your conscience feel as clean as your footwear, go to thousandfell.com and use promo code FSQUICKNEWS to get free shipping! You can even do it while you're listening to the show (don't worry, I won't be offended).
Feedback, suggestions, or anything else? Find us on social media or quicknewsdaily@gmail.com!
Songs used: "Location" by Khalid, who owns the song, along with his label and producers, etc. You can find all his links at the the official music video for this song right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by3yRdlQvzs, Celebration by Kool and the Gang, and The Reynolds Pamphlet by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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On this Friday edition, we talk about Joe Biden's economic plan and compassion, the ongoing school opening debate, the horrible treatment of Lt. Colonel Vindman, and tragedy for South Korea. Thank you for 3,000 downloads and counting! Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the special surprise!
Check out The World at Large here: https://anchor.fm/politics1001
The full interview between Joe Biden and Ady Barkan is worth watching right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4CLoiA3vfQ
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It's time to celebrate! Today, we cover that historic ruling by the Supreme Court, the debate over schools, the death of formal wear, and the Biden-Bernie team-up. Songs used: Celebration by Kool and the Gang and The Reynolds Pamphlet by Lin-Manuel Miranda (pictured on the episode art as well).
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The show gets off to a hot start when I accidentally say it's July 11th, and it only gets better from there. On this show, we’ll cover the blatant abuse of the small business loan program, a senator in a tough re-election campaign clearly making voter suppression her primary strategy, Trump’s idiotic decision to isolate the U.S. even further, and so much more.
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In a semi-unscheduled review, I'm here to give my thoughts on the good and the bad in the Hamilton film on Disney Plus! Honestly, I think my pun at the very end of my farewell is worth the listen in itself. Find where else to listen to this episode here: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen.
It goes without saying that I don't own any of the rights to the music or film, and the clips are used for the purposes of a review.
Today, we discuss ICE trying to kick out international students, the RNC arguing that Joe Biden is a socialist because he believes everyone is equal, questions about your privacy when using Tik Tok, and interesting new COVID information. Listen here: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen
Feedback, suggestions, or anything else? Find us on social media or quicknewsdaily@gmail.com!
After the holiday weekend, we talk about Trump's two super-spreader events, why you shouldn't go back to the gym, the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Supreme Court decision on the Electoral College, China dealing with the literal plague now, and more hand sanitizer warnings. More links to listen to this episode: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen
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The closing song is "Location" by Khalid, who owns the song, along with his label and producers, etc. You can find all his links at the the official music video for this song right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by3yRdlQvzs
Here's a recap of all the latest news and headlines from this past week. Listen to this episode here: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2yWlDMM
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To celebrate Hamilton's release, the closing song is Wait For It, performed by Leslie Odom Jr. and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who owns all rights to the song, as well as Disney for the episode art.
On the same day that Hamilton is finally released(!!!) on Disney Plus, we cover the Washington Redskins exploring a name change, the Packers' contingency plans for when, and if, the season begins, and my hunch that these University of Alabama COVID parties are an off ramp for officials who didn't take COVID seriously. Plus, listen to me drift in and out of sanity as I explain my frustration about the push to get kids back to school, even by people who have taken stay-at-home orders and social distancing seriously, and concluding with parting shots at Ben Carson, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz. Links to listen to this episode and more: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen
To celebrate today, the closing song is Wait For It, performed by Leslie Odom Jr. and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who owns all rights to the song, as well as Disney for the episode art.
Today, we cover the arrest of one of Jeffrey Epstein's accomplices, the "good jobs report" to be suspicious of, and how the coronavirus seems to have mutated. More ways to listen to this episode: https://rebrand.ly/LinksToListen.
4th of July got you feeling like a contributor? Support the show here: https://rebrand.ly/supportquicknews
The credits song is "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles. His official audio on Youtube is here: https://youtu.be/7-x3uD5z1bQ, his Spotify is here: https://HarryStyles.lnk.to/followSI, and his website is here: https://HarryStyles.lnk.to/followWI
Today, one day before the movie drops on Disney Plus, I give my thoughts on the soundtrack alone, including the performances that I think stand out, unique things about the show, the plot itself, and much more!
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All songs belong to their original creators and are used for review purposes. Outro Song: "One Last Time" performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Today, in a slower news day, we get the latest in the slow drip of information on the Russian bounty scandal, the Hong Kong situation, the warm day in Siberia, a new Super Pac endorsing Biden, and so much more! Stay tuned for my review of the soundtrack for the musical Hamilton tomorrow before the movie version comes to Disney Plus on Friday!
Have feedback or suggestions? Find us anywhere using my Linktree (https://linktr.ee/quicknews), or quicknewsdaily@gmail.com!
On today's can't-miss episode, I talk about new developments in the Russian bounty saga, the latest Supreme Court decision, the results of the Kentucky Senate primary, two states making good changes, and Trump trying to get rid of Obamacare during a pandemic, basically confirming he made a bet with someone that he can get his poll numbers to zero.
Have feedback? Reach out on social media or quicknewsdaily@gmail.com!.
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Today we cover the typical, totally not unusual stories of Donald Trump allowing Russia to place bounties on American military forces' heads, as well as him retweeting and praising a supporter shouting "white power", all while he is still the President of the United States. Then we get into the Supreme Court decision that was a slap in the face for Trump voters who cared about conservative justices and has me concerned, troubled, and furrowing my brow for Susan Collins' re-election chances.
Have feedback? Reach out on social media or quicknewsdaily@gmail.com!
Since the show has a ton of new listeners (and I appreciate that very much), once again I've decided to open up the Quick News vault. In this classic, I discuss the remastered versions of Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 (and notice I talk about how I want the Rust map remastered. Nobody told me it's in the reboot!). Even though this is one of my better reviews, I still think the show has come a long way. I hope you enjoy!
A week's worth of news, all in one show! It must have been an important week because we didn't quite make the usual one hour maximum.
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For information on the owners of images used in the episode art, reach out to quicknewsdaily@gmail.com.
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On this last new show of the week, we discuss new coronavirus guidelines from the CDC, Bubba Wallace, police reform bills, Verizon pulling advertising from Facebook, the Trump-Hannity interview, the (no longer) Dixie Chicks, and the Kentucky Derby.
Link to Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quick-news-daily-podcast/id1505169685
Today, we’ll circle back to the testimony from Capitol Hill yesterday, then we’ll get the latest news about the Democratic convention, some strange data about the protests, and the great Dust Cloud of Death, and like Billy Mays said, but wait, there’s more!
Ending song is "Silence by Marshmello feat. Khalid, which you can download here: http://apple.co/2vZOmO4 or stream here: http://spoti.fi/2hPu4k0, and is obviously totally owned by them and their label(s). The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
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In a huge news day, we catch up on the results of the primaries in New York, Virginia, and Kentucky. We also discuss the Republican group endorsing Biden, Trump's full-on racism and his crowd eagerly waiting to hear it, the U.S. maybe getting banned from the EU, and the vote on the GOP (just Tim Scott) police reform bill.
Warning: marked explicit for clip of Trump again using the racist term for COVID (but just listen to his crowd begging for it and then going wild when he says it. Despicable.)
On this episode, we go over the medical experts testifying on Capitol Hill, the fallout from Tulsa, the NYPD and a Phoenix church being clowns, statues, the earthquake near Mexico, and terror in Afghanistan. Check out Brent's videos at brentcomedy.com. Thanks to the NY Daily News for the cover photo.
Disclaimer for new listeners: I come at the news from a liberal point of view, but I always guarantee that the underlying facts are 100% accurate; it is my interpretation that gets into opinion territory. I also argue that it's less about parties at this point, it's about right vs. wrong.
Today, we review Trump's rally in Tulsa (aka the "Emptysburg Address"), the campaigns awful attempts to explain what happened, and Trump's racist language. Plus, we get into the failed Friday Night Massacre, a terrorist attack in the UK, hand sanitizer issues, and a thought about Juneteenth. Thanks to Steve Schmidt for the episode title.
Hand sanitizer to look out for: All-Clean Hand Sanitizer, Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer, CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol, Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer, The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer, CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol, CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol, CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol, Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hand-sanitizer-warning-fda-toxic/)
Disclaimer for new listeners: I come at the news from a liberal point of view, but I always guarantee that the underlying facts are 100% accurate; it is my interpretation that gets into opinion territory. I also argue that it's less about parties at this point, it's about right vs. wrong.
It's that time of the week again to get caught up on every single news story of the week!
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On this Juneteenth episode, we talk about the improbability of Facebook taking down a Trump post and the Supreme Court ruling in favor of DREAMers on the same day, an update on the Breonna Taylor situation, the disbanding of a conversion therapy group, unexpected coronavirus news, a Johnny Cash reference, and Matt Gaetz has a son?
To apply for PODGO, visit https://podgo.co/apply. If you're feeling generous, put Quick News Daily in the field where it asks "Where did you hear about PODGO?"
Disclaimer for new listeners: I come at the news from a liberal point of view, but I always guarantee that the underlying facts are 100% accurate; it is my interpretation that gets into opinion territory. I also argue that it's less about parties at this point, it's about right vs. wrong.
Episode art courtesy of the user kind of enough to post their own picture on Wikimedia Commons
Justice is under way for Rayshard Brooks as his murderer, former Officer Garrett Rolfe, is charged with felony murder. Also happening today, the Supreme Court shockingly blocks Trump's attacks on DACA, giving DREAMers peace of mind. Plus, Kaepernick news and Nancy Pelosi calling for more Confederate portrait removals.
Disclaimer for new listeners: I come at the news from a liberal point of view, but I always guarantee that the underlying facts are 100% accurate; it is my interpretation that gets into opinion territory.
As Trump says he's done more for the black community than Abraham Lincoln, we also look at his attempts to stop John Bolton's book, his lies about Obama and Biden, new information on the coronavirus, the Republicans' police reform bill, and a vote on DC statehood.
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Today we look at Trump's executive order on policing which notably bans chokeholds unless the officer thinks he/she needs to use it, and we know how well police officers hold each other accountable, right? We also cover the stock market rising on hope of a treatment for COVID, Harvard's new acceptance policy, and Obama joining Biden on the fundraising trail. By the way, there is no AIDS vaccine as Trump claims.
Cover art via TheBL.com and WHDH.com
On this Monday, we cover the WaterGait scandal that happened to Trump over the weekend, the murder of Rayshard Brooks, the resurgence of the coronavirus, and a shocking Supreme Court decision. Come for the news, stay for the comedy of hearing me try to describe the simple acts of drinking water and going down stairs.
Since we've gained quite a few new listeners, and I know we're all having the usual Sunday Quick News withdrawals, so I wanted to take us back to where it all began! I think I've come a ways, but I'll leave it up for you to decide! Thank you to all of you tuning in out there, and enjoy.
Introducing Quick News Daily, a podcast where, every weekday evening, we recap the biggest news that'll get you caught up and informed. The best part: we do it in less than 20 minutes and it sounds like a conversation. Plus, we occasionally try our hand at movie, TV show, and video game reviews.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, follow us on social media, and check out our website: https://www.quicknewsdaily.com/
CORRECTION: around the 4:08 mark I say “imagine saying racism goes against everything you stand for”, and I definitely meant to say “standing up to racism”. I got a little fired up about our friend Officer Cattani and was speaking slower than my mind was going (or is it the other way around?).
Today, Trump says he won't allow military bases and assets to be renamed, Starbucks reverses a horrible policy, the NFL continues its clean-up act, sad news on the Buffalo protester, and the Trump campaign makes rally attendees sign a predictable liability waiver. Episode art made from a picture via DetroitNews.com.
Today's episode title comes partly from Steve Schmidt, who appeared on the MSNBC show Deadline: White House yesterday, and said that Donald Trump isn't the president of the U.S., he's the second president of the Confederacy. We talk about that, Trump's rallies returning, an apology from General Milley, a coronavirus return, and NASCAR's new policy. Check out the hilarious Brent Terhune at at brentcomedy.com or his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClpzKyVFujAevCELqapPXqA?view_as=subscriber. Thank you to our sponsor, PODGO.
To become a member of PODGO, apply at https://podgo.co/apply. If you're feeling generous, put in Quick News Daily in the field where it asks "Where did you hear about PODGO"?
Today's latest news headlines: Biden helps heal, Trump accuses a 75-year-old man of being a secret agent, Georgia should worry us, Minneapolis almost eff'd up the situation even worse, a coronavirus second wave, and Breonna Taylor's murderers still walk free. Special thanks to PODGO!
Latest news headlines: The clowns are out again, Republicans revert back to making fun of safe spaces, worldwide change is brought about by George Floyd, North Korea is trying to be relevant, and the stock market is somehow up even after we learn about a recession. Check out our website quicknewsdaily.com, or find us anywhere on social media @QuickNewsDaily. Visit https://rebrand.ly/donatetoquicknews to help contribute to the show!
Also, Batman v. Superman gets a lot of hate, but I just love the thing. Go check it out again, especially the director's cut!
A swath of former Republican leaders announce that they won't support Trump, bad polls make Trump's weekend worse. Both of those incite over 200 rage tweets from Trump on Saturday. The Democrats introduce the "Justice in Policing Act" while other groups try to distract with a debate over "defund the police". Find us on all social media @QuickNewsDaily. Find me on Medium https://medium.com/@quicknewsdaily. Welcome new Overcast subscribers!
Introducing Quick News to Go, a show that combines every episode from that week! Whether you want to get all your news at once or refresh yourself on what happened, Quick News to Go is for you!
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Today's latest news headlines: The police are the only ones still rioting; Trump is completely tone deaf, and Biden obliterates him; Twitter blocks a Trump ad, the New York Times gets what they deserve; we have a racist Wolverine running around New York.
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Today's latest news headlines: Jim Mattis finally speaks out as part of a parade of military officials criticizing Trump; Barr orders surveillance of Americans; AG Keith Ellison charges remaining officers and increases Chauvin's charge; my fellow Midwesterners need better news covering the police brutality.
Watch today's Morning Joe and yesterday's All In with Chris Hayes for more details on these stories.
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Latest news headlines for today: George Bush has our hopes up; police continue to prove protesters right; Justin Trudeau makes us jealous again; Republicans act like they didn't see or hear Trump's speech and tear gassing, so their defense is that they're not doing their jobs.
The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
Latest news headlines for today: Trump pushes the U.S. ever-closer to becoming a dictatorship with his gross abuse of power to teargas peaceful protesters just to hold a bible upside down; why Joe Biden is the perfect anti-Trump; how to stay focused on keeping systemic racism as the main point, not riots; the coronavirus is potentially a virus spread in the blood, so take Tylenol (it's a long story). V for Vendetta is a fantastic movie from Warner Bros. Check out Chris Stuckmann's review of it on his YouTube channel.
The rights for the original pictures used in the cover art belong to their respective owners.
Latest news headlines for today: We cover the disturbing police behavior towards everyone, including journalists; I discuss my difficulty processing it all; we hear from George Floyd's brother, Terrance; we revisit a Chris Rock sketch; we finish with Abe Lincoln's Top Hat's reading of Donald Trump's tweets in the style of adult fanfiction. Find the Chris Rock skit as part of his Netflix special, Tambourine. Listen to all podcasts from the Last Podcast Network, including Abe Lincoln's Top Hat, exclusively on Spotify. Support the show on PayPal or Patreon.
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In our final episode reviewing and discussing the HBO series Chernobyl, we discuss episodes four and five, as well as why it's relevant to today's news cycle. To listen to the official Chernobyl Podcast with creator and writer Craig Mazin, here's the link. The times to watch that are "safe" from the animal stuff in episode four are: 00:00 to 24:22, 33:36 to 41:37, and 48:00 to the end. The General is General Tarakanov, played by Ralph Ineson.
Introducing Quick News to Go, a show that combines every episode from that week! Whether you want to get all your news at once or refresh yourself on what happened, Quick News to Go is for you!
Today's latest news headlines: Trump is a disgrace as he calls for troops to shoot citizens; authorities finally arrest Derek Chauvin, but people have to brace for the worst after the autopsy wording; Mark Zuckerberg is spineless; and can anybody say they want 8 full years of this madness? Support the show on PayPal or Patreon.
Today's latest news headlines: Trump takes on Twitter, and it gets personal; Hong Kong explained; Cuomo's executive order; Wisconsin and Texas duke it out to see who's dumbest on a statewide level. All credit for the cover art and its ownership belong to the original artist. Sign up to advertise with us at https://rebrand.ly/quick-news-fiverr. Become a sponsor of the show via PayPal at https://rebrand.ly/quick-news-paypal.
Today's latest news headlines: astronauts launch from U.S. soil for first time in 9 years, New Zealand is still amazing, hidden coronavirus dangers, protests in Minneapolis over George Floyd, and Grandpa Trump's meltdown over Twitter finally fact-checking him.
Today, our latest news headlines have a theme: Trump's influence on America. Whether it be the Minneapolis police killing, Kentucky effigy lynching, a study on hydroxychloroquine determining its danger, or his mental decline, this IS Trump's America. Our outro song is the most fitting: This Is America by Childish Gambino, which is completely owned by him and his associated labels and has over 650 million views on Youtube.
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In this special episode of Quick News Daily, we continue our review of the HBO series Chernobyl, taking a look at episodes two and three. Here's a link to the official Chernobyl podcast with creator and writer Craig Mazin that I keep talking about: https://open.spotify.com/show/5SSYyVWm0FaY8as96gE3EM?si=fXifWJ04Sfe47Cx61UELww
Today's latest news headlines: Saudi Arabia reminds us to be careful, is it mosques or mosks?, Weekend at Biden's, and the CDC shows that history is written by the victor.
Today's latest news headlines: Operation Warp Speed pledges $1.2 Billion toward a coronavirus vaccine, Trump withdraws the U.S. from the Open Skies Treaty, John Ratcliffe is confirmed as DNI, the Snyder Cut is confirmed, and Empire Strikes Back turns 40! Bigger news than all that though: Quick News Daily has 1,000 downloads! Thank you all so much!
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In this episode, we give an overview of the series, a spoiler-free review, and then get into Episode 1. In the beginning I say it's going to be episode 1 and 2, but it just got to be too long, so this may actually end up being three parts. Thanks for listening, and enjoy!
Today's latest news headlines: Trump tries doing exactly what he was impeached for again (00:30), Mike Pompeo thinks we're idiots (03:07), China takes a good step toward pandemic prevention (05:00), and New Zealand has a rockstar prime minister (05:55). Sign up for our email list at quicknews.podbean.com and get early access to review shows, including our critically-acclaimed (by me) Chernobyl series.
Today's latest news headlines: Trump reveals he's been taking hydroxychloroquine (01:00) for no apparent reason and Nancy Pelosi has something to say about it, Dr. David Nabarro uses a similar analogy to ours (03:35), and China's pollution is back (04:40).
Today's latest news headlines: Trump fires the person investigating Mike Pompeo (00:38), over 100 countries want an investigation of the WHO and China (02:50), the stock market is up after vaccine news from Moderna (05:00), and Tropical Storm Arthur awaits (07:12).
To get special early access of our review of Chernobyl, sign up for the email list at quicknews.podbean.com. It’s a form on the right hand side.
Today, we review the latest House coronavirus bill, break down more Trump lies, Space Force, a shooting in Aghanistan, and a reminder of what's at stake.
The latest news headlines: Wisconsin leading in idiocy again (00:43), Senator Richard Burr's phone is seized (04:08), 3 million more jobless claims (04:58), and pet coronavirus (05:35). Visit our website: quicknews.podbean.com.
Latest news headlines: Second wave of coronavirus hits Asia (00:40), Chinese hacking (03:18), and life after COVID/working from home (05:30)
Full Transcript (edited for clarity):
Our first story of the day is one to keep in the back of your mind as these cries to reopen get louder. All across Asia, new hotspots are starting pop up, including in Wuhan, China once again, as well as Seoul, South Korea. In South Korea, they’ve deployed 8,000 troops there to contact trace each of the 11,000 people who were near the area where this second wave started. I know I’ve been talking a lot about it recently and making a lot of analogies about it, but after watching that Chernobyl series this past week, it’s incredible how relevant it is to right now. Before watching, I had always thought that the Soviet Union was awful for covering it up, and that was bad and they did have to answer for it, but I think they were also one of three countries who could have fixed it that fast. They had to send a lot of people in to clean up the plant and the surrounding area, and many of the people who did knew they were, at best, going to have shortened lives because of cancers and other diseases caused by radiation, or in the worst case they’d be dead in several days. But, despite all that, they still went in to prevent the situation from getting worse because they knew it was bigger than themselves; the whole Soviet mindset (communist has the same root word as community) was that the country’s success was more important than them. With the coronavirus, the South Koreans and the Chinese know that they have to sacrifice some freedoms in order to help stop it. In South Korea, they make you download an app on your phone, and in some cases you have to wear an ankle bracelet. Not to mention the fact that these 11,000 people are going to be contacted because the government tracked their phones to see who was near the hotspot (side note: I was about to explode at the author of this story because there’s this sentence “A gay man in his 20's, who later tested positive for the virus, is believed to have visited several clubs there.” The sentence is so out of place, and there’s absolutely no reason to put that he’s gay in the article. That literally doesn’t matter at all with the virus, so I was about to basically call the author homophobic, but then I looked him up and he’s gay, so I really have no idea what’s going on here. Very bizarre). Back to the point: obviously the Chinese people have far less of a choice, but both of these countries have willingly sacrificed some freedoms for the greater good. It doesn’t seem like we’ll have that here in America, and to wrap up that Chernobyl story, I don’t think we could have handled it as fast as they did, and it might have been worse here (as hard as that is to imagine). Last point: it’s going to be incredibly embarrassing when these countries stop the second wave before we even stop our first wave.
Now one of those other countries that I think could have handled it is China, but our second story today reminds us all that they’re still not the good guys. The U.S. and UK governments issued a rare joint statement warning companies to reinforce their cybersecurity measures since Chinese hackers are apparently trying to steal information about our coronavirus vaccine research. With more people working at home than ever, there are also more opportunities than ever for hackers. Now I’m assuming most big companies have secure servers that employees connect to remotely, but even then it’s not 100% safe. At first I was wondering why they’d be stealing this info, but the article made me feel dumb because this is like the second most important information in the world right now after the nuclear codes (rant about W. making everyone say nuke-u-lar). Now I’m sure there’s a valid reason, but my first thought after seeing that is “why don’t we just share with them voluntarily?” Couldn’t we just collaborate? I read so many stories about this amazing worldwide collaboration happening to find a vaccine, so I guess I’m not sure why China would be excluded. But here’s a rarity: Trump’s racism actually probably saved us a little bit with this security. He’s hated them from the beginning, taking our jerbs and all that, but the intelligence agencies and Trump himself have been warning about the Chinese trying to steal our intellectual property, so I guess racism won this time. Still not right though. Here’s what Trump said recently about it: "What else is new with China? I'm not happy with China, could have stopped it at the source, should have," Mr. Trump said. "Now you're telling me they're hacking. What else is new? We're watching very closely." What’s amazing is how much he projects. He could have stopped it at the source by not calling it a hoax by the Democrats, but here we are.
Unfortunately, the way the news unfolded today, it’s pretty much all about the coronavirus today, but this last story is about how your world might look when it’s done. This article talked about the fact that the stigma around working from home is gone now, and we found out we can actually do it effectively. It’s like when they take the training wheels off your bike when you’re a kid, and you think there’s no way you can ride, but it’s honestly no different and you’re fine. As an introvert, I am super excited by this prospect. I think it’s mostly unnecessary since more offices are just cubicle farms where people work alone anyway unless it’s to goof off and make awkward small talk that nobody knows how to end except by saying “well, I’m going go to the bathroom/get some more coffee”. Also, I think anybody who had a long commute to work is going to think it’s pretty dumb to go back to that when you can literally do the same stuff from home. Imagine how much gas we’d save, how much better that could be for our planet. Lastly, I wanted to take this opportunity to rant about the 40 hours work week, which is a joke and a scam. Nobody beyond maybe the executive level has to work a full 40 hours. I’m not sure if this is just a Midwest thing, but when you’re at work there’s this peer pressure effect that basically guilts you into looking busy in case the boss comes by and never taking time off. It’s a joke. All these entrepreneurs, like the annoying people on LinkedIn, are out here saying “You have to hustle. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe your job” (looking at you, Mark Cuban). But the truth is that many of us aren’t going to be billionaires, or CEO, or even Vice President. Some of us are just here to do the taxes or recruit employees or something. And I’m also willing to bet that that same peer pressure exists among CEOs, so everyone is just fooling themselves into overworking. There’s a direct link between average work week and life expectancy, so we really need to take a look at ourselves and ask what it’s all for. Now there are busy seasons, I get that, but I really think you should only work until you get your stuff done.
Anyways, that’s it for today folks. Make sure to follow us on social media, subscribe and rate us wherever you're listening, and consider becoming a Producer, Executive Producer, or News Director over on Patreon. Stay safe out there!
We're back and better than ever to talk about Dr. Fauci's testimony, the new coronavirus relief bill, Mitch McConnell, and the Supreme Court.
Full Transcript (edited for clarity):
Our first story of the day is Dr. Anthony Fauci’s testimony before Congress today to give an update on the coronavirus and how we’ve handled it. He warned against states and regions opening up too soon, and said that it could lead to an outbreak that would be uncontrollable, which would actually set us back because people would be even more scared and there would be more deaths. He also tried to lower expectations for the start of the school year in fall. Fauci said that it was obviously unlikely we’d have a vaccine, or enough of them I’m assuming, by that time, but that increased testing by that time could give people more peace of mind. Now, I’m glad that he’s still at least saying he’s optimistic about increased testing, but come on man, we’ve been promised more tests this entire time. Honestly, I don’t think anything he said should be a surprise or even newsworthy, but we still spend millions of dollars a year on ads telling morons not to drive drunk, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that we’re where we are.
In terms of what’s next for you and your family in terms of financial help from the government, the Democrats in the House of Representatives just debuted their next spending bill, and it says here that it’s 1800 PAGES long! You can tell this was written by the Democrats because it includes help for state and local governments, includes hazard pay for some workers, forgiveness of student debt, funding for Medicare and Medicaid, help for farmers, protecting renters from landlords, and extending family and medical leave, among even more things I didn’t mention. However, of course, Mitch McConnell has said that he thinks it's unnecessary to start working on another relief package. He said he’s worried because we now have a debt the size of our economy. Are you kidding me? That’s like someone saying there’s no immediate need for toilet paper after they just used everything except the last square. You don’t get to pass tax cuts that create a trillion dollar deficit, try to suppress information on the coronavirus because you think it’ll hurt the economy, which actually hurts the economy more than it would have, and now you’re telling us you’re worried? He has to be doing this on purpose, because there’s no way anyone has this little self-awareness.
Now, if you thought Mitch McConnell was done being a clown: no, no, no, no. Apparently, he was determined to become the world's biggest clown and out-moron Trump because today he said that Barack Obama was, and this is an actual quote, “classless” for criticizing Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Classless. Yes, classless and Trump were used in the same sentence. and it was not Trump who was being accused of being classless. I cannot even believe this. I mean there's a video put out by The Daily Show today of the entire right-wing beast (Fox News, etc.) criticizing Obama for using a selfie stick. It is absolutely amazing. I'm going to get the video for you because it is incredible what they said about Obama using a selfie stick. And now they're calling him classless because he told the truth; because he said that Trump is incompetent. Those aren’t his actual words, but he said something like Trump’s response made the outbreak much worse than it needed to be. It's times like these that I really, really wish Michelle Obama would be Joe Biden's vice president. Can you imagine that triple threat? Trump would not be able to contain himself. She is a woman, black, and her last name is Obama. Can you imagine? It would be the “Mexicans are rapists” plus making fun of the disabled reporter plus all the other racist stuff combined (it's weird that there's such a long list). I kind of hope for her sake though that she doesn’t take it. Why does she need to, first of all? Why does she need to bring that on herself? But, if she would, it'll be a pretty good chance that she would be the first female president and that would be pretty momentous.
Alright, our final story of today is probably the reason that you've seen Trump rage tweeting throughout the day, and it is the Supreme Court arguments by both the president's team and the House of Representatives team. It’s about whether or not the House gets to enforce their subpoenas to call witnesses and documents and that sort of thing, and also whether he can hide his tax returns. So, the lawyer who is arguing on behalf of Trump said that all these subpoenas and enforcing them would serve as a “dragnet” (a really dated term) to uncover alleged wrongdoing of the president. I'm sorry, so we're not supposed to find out about the president’s crimes? Do you think that they would throw up their hands if, good time for this example here again, Obama had committed a crime before he became president? Would they just let it go? I think they would probably want to know. And Trump's team is also saying that they don't want to be harassed, and that a president shouldn’t be harassed, which is absolutely comical because I've heard so many times where people are like “why are you afraid of the NSA spying on your phone if you got nothing to hide? You know, you should be okay with that”, and now they're saying “wait we didn't actually mean that”. This is literally just subpoenas. every other person, even as low and scummy as Nixon, abided by this. Literally every other president. For people who love to wave the flag on July 4th, who like to tell people like me how they're so patriotic compared to me, they sure want to make the president a king. Last time I checked, not wanting an all-powerful king was part of the reason we exist, so maybe hold off on putting the flag t-shirt on next time guy? In any case, I saw some legal experts, former prosecutors and such, on Twitter saying that they think that one of the decisions here (there's a couple of these similar cases against Trump) could be like 9-0 against. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not getting my hopes up. I have gotten burned so many times, the last of which was when they appointed William Barr to be Attorney General. From that point forward I promised myself to stop. They aren't here to do the right thing or look at what's right and wrong. Honestly, it's dumb move on their end because they're acting like there's never going to be a Democratic president ever again. One day there will be a Democrat who is president, and then if they make Trump a king, then they also have to accept the fact that they will make the Democrat a king as well. So again, very little intelligence, and don't get your hopes up that they're going to do the right thing.
Anyways, that's it for the soapbox here. Again, I am just in my basement renting to the microphone and it feels great. Honestly, I have to say I missed this, and you can tell I've been away for a day. Make sure to follow us on social media, subscribe and rate us wherever you’re listening, and consider becoming a Producer, Executive Producer, or News Director over on Patreon. Stay safe out there!
Today's latest news headlines: Unemployment is at 14.7 percent, Pence's Press Secretary test positive for coronavirus (putting Stephen Miler in an unfamiliar situation), justice for Ahmaud Arbery, and taking care of your emotional and mental health.
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Today's latest news headlines: the news on the economy is going to be rough, someone close to Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, his campaign manager says they're the Death Star, and corruption. So much Corruption.
Summary: Today's latest news headlines: the coronavirus task task force is back on! Plus Trump doesn't know where he's going, but he's a super genius, and more!
Full transcript (edited for clarity):
Hello and welcome to this Wednesday edition of Quick News Daily, where we give you the news. no fluff, no filler, just news made for the 21st century. My name is Brett Spangler and thank you for joining me here today for a couple of quick-hitting news stories. We’ll just get right into it…
I think the biggest news is that Donald Trump has changed course completely just a couple days after saying that the coronavirus White House task force will be winding down. He signaled that he heard all the backlash about the possibility of the shutdown of the team. In a direct quote he was even like “I didn't know how popular they were until I announced that they were going to be shutting down and then everyone started to get angry”. So obviously it's just proof that he just does whatever he thinks will play best in the media. His plan for the day are he just goes wherever the wind will take him I guess. Originally he has announce that they may be shutting down for some reason (probably because if there’s still a task force people would be questioning why all these businesses are opening back up), but now he says they're going to continue and probably meet less. They're not even meeting everyday anymore and the briefings have been getting shorter. So it’ll still be there functionally, but who knows how much work they’ll actually be doing or if they're just going to be focusing on the economic side of things and trying to get the economy back while also coming up with the loosest restrictions possible for social distancing. We’ll have wait and see on that one. He was also making friends once again in the briefing that he did have. He started calling out members of the press for questioning him too tough for when he thought was unfair (or at least what he says is unfair but know is actually just a real question and not a softball) and surprise surprise: two of the three reporters he named were women. Again, Paula Reid who you'll remember from the when she kept questioning why he didn't do anything in February, and it was that intense but great exchange that they had, she's from CBS. Also, Weija Jiang was the second female reporter he targeted, and I apologize to her if she's listening and I butchered her name. Anyway, Donald Trump said they were “no Donna Reed”, and first of all, have any of you even heard of Donna Reed? I certainly hadn't. One reason that that might be is that she died in 1986. Over 34 years ago. For context, she died before Chernobyl even happened, so what's up with that reference to someone who has been dead so long? He also used to call Jeff sessions. I can't remember the exact cartoon character, but it was from like 60s or something? Mr. Magoo maybe? Where is the guy's head at? I would wager that it's like sometimes in dementia, your long-term memory stays intact pretty well, but your short-term doesn't. Maybe it’s something like that and he’s just taking what he remembers, but who knows? Paula Reid quoted a tweet about it and said “Fact check: true” and then Weija Jiang had another great response as well, so I'll try to find those on Twitter and retweet those. Why this matters is that the big reason that the Democrats won so big and had the Blue Wave in 2018 was they took over the suburbs, and more specifically Suburban women. So when you know that's who you need to win, and just enough of that group voted for you in the 2016 election, kind of a strange strategy to keep bashing women relentlessly every chance you get. But hey, he’s a misogynist. They can't help themselves.
Another thing here From The Washington Post that makes me question his mental state is he was talking about how when he visited a mask facility a couple of days ago, he said if it said that you need to wear masks, he said something like oh yeah, I'll probably wear one (and obviously he didn't because he's got to be Mr. Tough Guy there) but he said this to reporters just before he was leaving “I think it's a mask facility, right? If it's a mask facility, I will yeah.” He doesn't even know where he's going. He's getting on the plane and he doesn't even know what he's doing; he's just along for the ride and someone else is planning all the stuff out. Maybe it’s Kushner? Stephen Miller? He is just not right though.
This is also crazy from a website called Cover POTUS (it's a news and media website apparently), but it says that “President Trump has long said that he and his uncle, famous scientist John G Trump, … represent a rare breed of super-genius, benefiting from the same genes”, and it goes on to say “It is not widely known whether the president, in his widely condemned recent suggestion that disinfectant be injected into the body to kill the novel Coronavirus, was somehow vaguely channeling his uncle's theories.” It's unknown?! Of course he wasn't! You think he actually thinks about that except when you ask? Why are you even trying to give him a benefit of the doubt for thinking that through beforehand or having any sort of plot? I guarantee you he just heard something about disinfectant, started daydreaming in the middle of what they're talking about, and then came back in and then had to go to a briefing. I'm going to guess that's how it went down. So no, he did not think about his uncle's theories. Good Lord.
I’m leaning heavily on the Washington Post here today, but they have a new poll out, and I think this explains why I haven't heard much from the protesters lately. It says that 56% of Americans would say they're comfortable making trips to grocery stores. 67% say they are uncomfortable shopping at a retail clothing store, and 78% would be uncomfortable eating at a sit-down restaurant. So this whole reopening thing, you know, they may put that label on it, but the people actually can decide when we’re open again. When we start going out again, that's when the economy is actually back. And it might be fast, but this poll seems to indicate otherwise.
I think that's about it as far as news today. I mentioned Chernobyl a little earlier and I'm actually debating on starting that miniseries, and I was wanting have any of you seen it? Is it worth it? It sounds pretty good. I listened to the podcast about it with the creator/writer. I think I'll probably get int it eventually. Give me a shout out and let me know what you thought of it if you’ve seen it. Anyways, thank you so much for listening today. Please be sure to rate us 5-stars wherever you listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. You can find us almost anywhere on social media as well as Patreon to unlock exclusive benefits. So there's a lot of options out there for you. I would really appreciate any support at all. Whatever you can do means so very much to me here at Quick News Daily.
Summary: Today's latest news headlines are Trump, the United States, and Russia sit out the virtual coronavirus vaccine summit, a new whistleblower is out there, Barack Obama and Andrew Cuomo demonstrate leadership, and an interesting news headline.
Full transcript (edited for clarity):
Hello and welcome to this Tuesday, May 5th edition Cinco de Mayo/Taco Tuesday edition of Quick News Daily where we bring you the news, no fluff. no filler, just news made for the 21st century. My name is Brett Spangler, and today we have a full slate of news, so we have to get to that quickly but, first I just want to apologize for the late upload last night. I was running into some technical difficulties with my recording program (I think it's actually just my laptop in general), but I do apologize for that. I also just want to give another quick shout-out to our executive producer Gwen! Hopefully this will get released earlier today so maybe more of you have a chance to listen, and I feel an obligation to give our patrons the shout-outs they deserve. Alright, let's get into today’s show.
First up, we have a story about a virtual vaccine summit to raise money for a coronavirus vaccine. A lot of countries participated in this; it wasn't just the G7 (it actually wasn't even a G7, but we'll get to that in a second here). Notable headliners include: Japan, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Canada, Jordan, South Africa, Germany, Turkey, China, and Bill and Melinda Gates. What are two notable names I didn't mention? The U.S. and Russia. Go figure; together again, long lost brothers: Putin and Trump. I hope I live to see the day where we find out what was actually going on between the two of them and people aren't scared to talk about all the bad stuff Trump did. I really want to hear. What does Putin have on him? It's got to be something good. It's got to be something crazy because they're always in lockstep. So yeah, something is up there. What impacts does it have for us since the U.S. isn't being represented there? We’re relying on countries with fewer financial resources and expecting them to be able to do enough with the money that they have. Even though the U.S. has just always been a leader since World War II (even since World War I even, but we can argue about if we led during the Great Depression), sometimes I wonder if it isn't better that other countries are getting together and leading since we're clearly just going to treat these issues as a joke. You have people who follow Fox News (who would have you believe that every person who's a little too tan is part of MS13) and live in fear that they’re going to “take our job” or something like that. Not everyone obviously, but Trump’s polling is so consistent that his floor is like 38 to 40%. So that many people out there just buy his stuff, and by he I mean Donald Trump, wholesale. They just listen to Fox News and that is all they believe. So when we need to solve these big issues like Coronavirus and climate change, we're obviously going to always treat these as a joke until...I mean that's why this election is so important: we can begin to go on the right track with Joe Biden. If we get four more years of Trump, I hope these guys (other countries) are ready to step up. And yeah, Bill Melinda Gates overall are pretty good representatives, kind of like a proxy a stand-in for the U.S. as a whole, but it's not going to be enough. But at least all these countries raised billions. Here's a quote from the article from CBS News about the summit, and let me just read it here: “President Trump has said the U.S. should have millions of doses of a vaccine available by the end of this year. He's made that the mission of a White House effort officially dubbed Operation Warp Speed.” I just want to let that sit for a moment. Can you just imagine if you read that sentence to someone from 2007? Imagine the look on their face and the sheer confusion. That is just a crazy headline. They’re getting real creative with “Operation Warp Speed”. And another thing: saying that the vaccine is going to be ready by the end of this year? I've heard Dr. Fauci say the earliest is like January next year, but Trump, you know he's always got to be a little bit better than the science people. He's like when you try to get someone to run on a treadmill by dangling something in front of them, like something tied to a string tied to a stick, and the stick is actually attached to them so they can never catch it. He just keeps dangling this hope out there so that it plays well on Fox News and they just repeat the lie. And then, like I mentioned from that Sherlock episode, you don't have to prove it, you just have to print it. That is what Trump lives by.
Moving on to our second story here, there is now a whistleblower complaint about the response to the Coronavirus. Whistleblowers Dr. Rick Bright, who may sound familiar since we mentioned him earlier when we first reported on the fact that Trump only started mentioning hydroxychloroquine after a billionaire donor told him about it. Remember that story? He had a fundraiser with him in February and then all of a sudden Trump's out there pushing hydroxychloroquine like he's got to meet his monthly sales numbers and it’s the last day of the month. So now there's a whistleblower complaint, and it asserts that they awarded contracts based on “cronyism and political connections”. These Investments were in drugs and vaccines (companies studying them) without looking at the scientific merit of the organization and the way they're conducting this research. You know, I really hope that this whole coronavirus thing is over with quickly. Maybe it will just us go away for a bit in the summer. I mean don't bet on that, but I just want there to be enough time for the House to investigate Trump again because it seems very clear to me that this is another set of impeachable offenses. Corruption at the highest level in the most corrupt presidency. Except this time I think the impeachment might be a little more successful because the resultIs are not a held up deal with Ukraine. This time, the result is 70,000 dead Americans. How many people do we know who are going to die from this because Trump tried to ignore it? Hear no evil. see no evil, speak no evil. He tried to act like it was just going to go away. The thought that no one would even notice is just crazy.
If you want to look to a real leader, these next two stories are for you. First up, we have what I think is the quote of the year from Governor Andrew Cuomo. This from CBS News as well. He said in his briefing today, “It's (the coronavirus) not red or blue. It's red white and blue. It doesn't kill Democrats or Republicans. It kills all Americans.” Not only is that 100% true, he had to say because Trump is trying to push this thing now where it's like “oh, only California, Washington, Chicago, New York, and LA are getting sick. It’s all these Democratic states.” Obviously, it knows no borders. It doesn't know who you voted for; it's just looking for the weakest immune system. Now I do want to be the first to report on an upcoming Category 5 storm next Saturday, May 16th, and it is a Trump tweetstorm that will be incoming because CNN reports that “Former President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he and former First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver several virtual commencement addresses in the coming weeks as high schools and universities across the nation are forced to hold their ceremonies online due to the coronavirus pandemic.” You know that Obama's going to go out there and be Obama and remind everyone what a real president looks like. If Trump freaked out that much about George Bush's video from over the weekend, imagine what he's going to do when Obama steals the show. So get out your poncho's, get out your umbrellas, and get ready.
Our last story today is just a headline I saw. I read the story too, but the headline is that “Coronavirus can become very severe in kids, mom says.” Now, that may be true, but I think that headline is a little irresponsible. It reminds me of when your older uncle or grandma or someone is posting an article on Facebook, and articles from like 247news.net or something like that. A totally phony bologna website where they're just clearly in it to make money from the one million ads on their page. Like all those pop-up ads that they design so that they go right where you want to scroll. I don't know; this mom isn’t a doctor. No offense, but of course it can be bad for kids. There are always going to be these exceptions to rules. Of course kids aren't immune completely, but I just think we should leave those kinds of statements to doctors. But a little part of me says maybe we need a bit of a scare since everyone is clearly sick of quarantine. We had someone murder a police officer when the police officer told them to put on a mask. It's like Ma'am, you don't need to go to Dollar Tree that bad. Just put on a mask before you go to Dollar Tree, please .It's not asking a lot. Sadly, that's where we are.
Today's latest news headlines: antibody tests can't escape con-men, J.Crew files for bankruptcy, Carnival Cruise does its best Titanic impression, and Trump shifts the coronavirus goalposts once more. Thank you to our Executive Producer Gwen! Find us on quicknews.podbean.com.
Full Transcript:
Hello and welcome to this Monday, May 4th edition of Quick News Daily where we give you the news, no fluff, no filler, just news made for the 21st century. My name is Brett, and let me be the first, or at least let me start off by saying May the 4th Be With You! Yes, it is Star Wars day, and that’s special to us here at Quick News Daily because our first episode was a review of Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, and we have special news for new Star Wars content: we have just released our review of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. So if you have the time, check that out; it’s the longest episode I’ve done so far, and it was so much fun to make. But we have a lot of news headlines to get through right now, so let’s get moving.
Starting off, the FDA has announced that they are tightening the rules on antibody tests, which test your blood for the antibodies that are produced in the days and weeks after fighting off a virus. Now initially they had relaxed these rules in order to get enough production to meet the demand, but con-men are going to con and snake oil salesmen are going to snake oil. There are a bunch of people putting these tests out on the market that have super low accuracy; basically you couldn’t trust them at all. As a result, the FDA declared that they wanted “flexibility, not fraud”, which I think is a smart move for them because it would be super dangerous to have all these people walking around, thinking that they have antibodies against the coronavirus when they really don’t. Not only is it dangerous because they could actually get sick, but they could also get other people sick if they’re a silent carrier. It’s definitely a good idea to get these faulty tests off the market, and I’m glad the FDA actually stepped in. It’s hard to blame them for initially relaxing the rules because you really do want to get a lot of production out there. We were having a tough enough time getting regular tests out there. They did the right thing here, and there are actually still 11 FDA-approved antibody tests, so it’s not like the whole concept of antibody testing won’t work.
Next up, we have some news on some big companies. First, J. Crew filed for bankruptcy. This means that the creditors are going to be taking control of the company, but they are not closing. J. Crew is actually getting $400 million dollars from the creditors so they can be comfortable with their finances while they navigate bankruptcy. This is a retailer that actually was a casualty of the coronavirus lockdowns, but they did have glaring financial problems before this. The former CEO and chairman admitted that he misjudged the impact that technology would have on the retail industry. That’s never a good sign, and that’s a pretty important thing to miss on, so it’s not like this is all happening because of the coronavirus. Another big company, Carnival Cruise lines, announced that it is starting cruises on August 1st. They’ll launch from three cities, with eight boats total. Carnival has said that they are working with experts and government officials to come up with procedures to keep guests safe. And in other news, the Titanic announced that they’re working with experts to make their ship unsinkable. It’d be hard to get me to go on a cruise, even before all this. It’s just a carrier for diseases; you’re stuck together, confined, for like three weeks, the air gets recirculated, there are buffets, you just can’t escape. It’s basically a petri dish on the open ocean, so I think it’s hard to justify what they’re doing here since it’s pretty much inevitable that another cruise will get coronavirus.
I just saw this come across on ESPN: legendary Colts and Dolphins head coach Don Shula has passed away at age 90. This isn’t related to coronavirus; from what Hank Goldberg said on ESPN, it didn’t sound like it was unexpected. Shula is most known for coaching Johnny Unitas, Bob Griese, and Dan Marino, so he has quite the track record. He also won the 1972 Super Bowl with the Dolphins in the only undefeated season in NFL history, so definitely a legend there. Our thoughts go out to the family.
Ending the show here today with some coronavirus news, at this time, cases in the United States are over 1.1 million, and at the same time Donald Trump is moving the goalposts once again for deaths. First he said it would be 0, then 60,000, and now he’s saying it’ll be 100,000. It’s never good when Trump shifts it up, because he only shifts it up a little, meaning that the experts have shifted it up a ton. So while it seems like it’s getting better, we can’t give up yet. He also said we’ve tested more people than the rest of the world combined, which is obviously false. The most generous stats say we’ve tested around 6.8 million people, and Russia, Canada, and Italy combined have 7 million just between them. That’s not even counting all of South Korea’s testing, so obviously not even close.
That’s it for news today folks. Thank you to our first patron, brand new Executive Producer Gwen! Be like Gwen and check out our Patreon account, or just check out the rest of our website here!
On the longest show of this podcast's history (so far), I dive deep into the Star Wars universe with this review of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. I touch on the prequels overall, George Lucas as a director, some critiques I can't get past, my respect for the actors/actresses, the plot/memorable scenes of this movie, and the legend: John Williams. Thank you so much for listening, it was incredibly fun to record!
Summary: Today we cover Justin Amash's voting record, Canada shows America up again, Joe Biden responds to allegations, and coronavirus news. Follow us or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else you can think of! Sources on the Articles page.
Hello and welcome to this Friday, May Day edition of Quick News Daily where we give you the news, no fluff, no filler, just news made for 21st century. Today, we have a whole North American show, well 2/3 of North America anyway. We have a news story from our superior neighbors to the north: Canada.
But first, we’ll start with something that came up as a result of I think it was yesterday’s show? Maybe two days ago? In any case, I had my first experience with a troll on a YouTube video, which I would say means I’m doing something right because someone actually found my YouTube video. I hadn’t actually promoted it at all, so I suppose that’s good news on a personal front. But it’s also just an accomplishment to have a troll come after you. They were saying that only an idiot would say that they respect Justin Amash for his respect for the rule of law and then not vote for him, or something about Biden and Trump both being sexual predators, so that’s the type of troll we’re dealing with here. But then I came back with what I thought was a pretty good argument, so I’ll address it here. So for someone who thinks that they actually have a good candidate that they can vote for in Justin Amash instead of Biden or Trump, let’s just take a quick look at his voting record. Let’s see, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act: he was a no vote. That was a 410 to 4 vote. He was one for people who said no to a bill that would help stop lyching. Protecting America‘s Wilderness Act: no. Smithsonian Women’s History Museum Act: no, and that one was 374 to 37, so again another bipartisan one there. Lower Drug Costs Now Act: no. Voting Rights Advancement Act: no. Workplace Violence Prevention For Healthcare And Social Service Workers: no. Deborah Sampson Act (a bill that increases healthcare access for women veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs), and guess what? You’re right: he was a no on that too. And last but not least, the Corporate Transparency Act: no. Folks, he has 30 pages of voting records and that was just through page 2. Everything I just listed was through the end of page 2 of 30, so that should give you a pretty good snapshot into what Justin Amash believes deep down. He’s Republican hiding as a Libertarian; he’s voted with them for almost everything except for when he grew a conscience on one issue: impeachment. The troll also said they want to see real change and that Biden wouldn’t do it, and I snapped back and said I won’t change for the 2020s; I don’t wanna go changing back to the 1920s when you can lynch people, when drug costs are high, workplace violence is high, women and veterans don’t have as good of access to healthcare, there is less corporate transparency, voting rights again set back. That’s actual stuff that the bills would have helped to prevent, and he voted no on all of them. Basically, Justin Amash: not really a great guy when you dig deep down. Make no mistake about it, I’m not an Amash supporter.
Alright, moving on here, I mentioned our neighbors to the north, and here they are: Canada has banned military grade assault weapons, and this is coming as a reaction to a shooting spree that killed 22 in April. That was like two weeks ago, maybe last week? Look how little time it took them to change their laws. Obviously, they probably don’t have a Second Amendment (which makes things very difficult to change for us), but at the same time you have some kid that shot up an elementary school and that still was not enough for us to change anything, so we should’ve known then (that no changes would be coming). But congratulations to Canada; again showing us up, doing what’s right.
One of the bigger stories of the day was that Joe Biden had an interview with Mika on Morning Joe talking about Tara Reade allegations against him. The consensus that I was seeing seemed to be that it was a very powerful interview; must-see material, so I posted a couple links: one from CBS one and from NBC. The one from NBC I know for sure has the actual video of the full interview, so go check that out. One thing that I thought was interesting was yesterday when Donald Trump was asked about it, he said he was unaware of it but that Biden should respond. He also said “It could be false allegations. I know all about false accusations. I’ve been falsely charged numerous times. There is such a thing.” So I found it weird that the right-wingers were pushing this when Donald Trump has not much willingness to engage. I mean, why would he? You take one look at his past and yikes. He knows it’s smart not to engage, so it’s kind of strange to me that the right-wingers were talking about this so much since they usually take their marching orders from him. We’ll have to see how that plays out. As both a white guy and because I do feel pressure to not be hypocritical (since I went against Brett Kavanaugh so hard), I’m going to wait to jump into this one. But I will say, this is different than Kavanaugh because his situation was so obvious. The thing that put it over the top for me was those dang calendars.Like are you kidding me? Somehow these calendars miraculously appear after he was accused? Even if they were authentic, what was it supposed to say, “Rape Christine on Thursday”? Good lord. But anyway, I’m glad it’s getting covered now so we can sort this out by November.
For our last story today, we end on some coronavirus news. Going back to a story from earlier this week, today the FDA granted the emergency approval of the drug the Dr. Fauci was talking up so much earlier this week, so that’s good. In another face palm moment, those idiots yesterday in Michigan protesting and looking like they are a knock off army. And the sad thing is that that is the highest point in their lives. That’s the coolest they’ve ever felt. Ugh. Sickening, disgusting. But hey, at least they wouldn’t be able to do that anymore if they were in Canada because some of those weapons definitely looked military-grade.
That’s all for today folks. Thanks for listening/reading! Check out our website while you’re here!
On today's show, we discuss the intel community's conclusion that the Coronavirus wasn't "genetically modified or man made", the impending rent strike, unemployment numbers, and a stronger-than-usual hurricane season.
Coronavirus Intel: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-us-intelligence-community-china-odni/
Rent Strike: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/survival-tenants-landlords-brace-largest-rent-strike-decades-n1195751
Unemployment: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/jobless-claims-top-30-million-coronavirus-continues-devastate-economy-n1196276
Hurricanes: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-season-2020-active-strain-emergency-response-coronavirus-pandemic/
Today's daily news: Dr. Fauci is excited about a new drug to help treat coronavirus, Jared Kushner thinks everyone is a moron, Justin Amash has a bottomless ego, Don Lemon is fantastic, and we ask for feedback! Find us on every social media platform, or our website quicknews.podbean.com. Meteorite article: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/death-above-scientists-find-earliest-evidence-person-killed-meteorite-n1195341 More info on the new drug: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-drug-remdesivir-shows-promise-large-trial-n1195171
Quick News turns one month old today! In a very unfortunate coincidence, the number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases passed 1 million today, which we discuss, along with Who Would Have Thought, Mike Pence in a morph suit, and contradicting stories about a meat shortage. Thank you for all the support so far! We hope you'll stick with us in the future.
Coming off a Lysol high, we talk about the media's coverage of those remarks, Ford and GM being leaders during a crisis, the Pentagon confirming aliens(?), and balcony singing. Follow us anywhere you want! Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Full 60 Minutes story: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ford-general-motors-coronavirus-ventilators-medical-supplies/
Today we raise our Lysol glasses high and toast to the weekend while talking about the MAGA cult, Amazon, Ford, and the reappearance of the segement "Who Would Have Thought?". Thanks to freesfx.co.uk for the sound effects. Rate us on iTunes, find us on patreon.com/quicknews, or sign-up for emails at quicknews.podbean.com!
Today we cover the origin of Trump's fascination with hydroxychloroquine, vote-by-mail concerns, Canada, and we say goodbye to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's dignity. Thank you for 500 downloads! To find ways to continue to support the show, go to quicknews.podbean.com.
Today, on a relatively slow news day, we tell you how we know it's slow, Mitch McConnell suddenly caring about debt again, some sensationalist headlines, and famine. Plus, we're introducing our Patreon program! Become a patron at www.patreon.com/quicknews
or quicknews.podbean.com.
Today, we cover the Senate deal on the Payment Protection Program, a new FDA-approved, at-home Coronavirus test kit that reminds us of Ancient Egypt, the disappearing act of Kim Jong-Un, parades, and a thank you. Sign up for our email list at quicknews.podbean.com. Full stories available at cbsnews.com
Today, we cover the Payment Protection Program, crude oil prices, and the "freedom fighters" who appear to be fixated on killing us all.
A review of the 2020 film starring Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter. Directed by Ben Fowler. Chris Stuckmann's Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScegqfgH5TY. Intro Song: Sonic Theme owned and published by Sega. Outro Song: Speed Me Up by Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty, and Sueco the Child (plays over the Sonic credits). All rights belong to their respective creators and/or publishers.
Today we catch up on the protests against quarantines, some interesting ideas brought up by The Bulwark Podcast, debut a new segment, check in on Joe Biden, and do a mini-review of the Phantom of the Opera. Link to The Show Must Go On/Phantom of the Opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nINQjT7Zr9w. The Bulwark w/ Tom Nichols and Charlie Sykes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1EqelIy5H48hynvAwtS6Ta?si=MzTsB1eqTDqK2iTbGmoZzQ
Today, we talk about the small business loans running out, the stimulus check tracker problems, how we couldn't have made coronavirus any more of a natural selector, and much more!
On today's show, we cover Trump cutting off funding to the WHO, declaring that states could re-open when they want to (which they could already), another Republican politician saying we have to send people back to work no matter what, and a follow-up from yesterday.
Today, we're riding a sugar high of karma after Wisconsin Republicans' voter suppression effort during a pandemic MASSIVELY backfires. We discuss the implications and fallout from that, as well as Trump's Mad King press conference, Trump re-opening the economy, and anti-vaxxers are missing no longer! Today, we bask in the glory of karma and the GOP losing the election they forced. Plus Michigan controversy, King Trump, re-opening the economy, and anti-vaxxers strike back!
"We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister and "We Are the Champions" by Queen are owned by their respective labels, artists, and/or trusts, etc. and not by Quick News Daily. Full Paula Reid - Donald Trump exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHF_7Idvkyc
Today we talk all things coronavirus: Trump vs. Fauci, a decreasing death and infection rate in the Unites States, Boris Johnson, Bernie Sanders endorsing Biden, and mythbusting internet theories. See Boris' full message here:
On this edition of Quick News Reviews from Quick News Daily, we review the latest remaster, Modern Warfare 2, and the previously-remastered Modern Warfare. Just a note: Modern Warfare 2 is a PS4 exclusive until April 30.
Today we talk the stock market, coronavirus, the roaring 20s, unemployment, a year in review, and Billy Joel.
On today's show, we have a lot of quick hitters, including Boris Johnson, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the coronavirus, New York, and an open letter to Bernie supporters (who shouldn't listen to it for 7-10 days, skip to 14:06). Enter for the contest at quicknews.podbean.com.
On another late-night edition of Quick News Daily (it’s midterms week, so thank you for your patience with the late uploads), we cover Donald Trump acting like he invented the term “Voter ID”, the aftermath of the Wisconsin primary fiasco, New Zealand’s awesome response to the coronavirus situation, Bernie Sanders dropping out, and the new White House Press Secretary.
On today's late night edition, the gloves come off as we take on elected Republicans at all levels of government, Trump and Fox News' weird obsession over hydroxychloroquine, our second straight day of Rubio Rampage, and coronavirus updates from around the world. Enter our contest and check out our featured artist, Keag, here: quicknews.podbean.com
On today's show, we talk about the latest on the coronavirus (COVID-19), the breaking news of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers suspending the in-person voting portion of Wisconsin's primary, Ted Cruz, and Bill Mitchell. Plus we remind everyone to enter our Grand Opening contest by giving us a 5-star review on iTunes and getting an extra entry by subscribing to the email list on our website. Finally, we have special outro music this week from local rapper Keag! Politico article: https://t.co/nZz9D4IsA3?amp=1
Overall, by 2020 standards, it wasn't a big news day. We briefly touched on the Jared Kushner briefing on coronavirus, the economy, Donald Trump's fight with 3M, and vending machines. Don't forget to enter the grand opening contest, which ends April 11th!
Today, we talk about the stock market going up despite record unemployment claims, the three amigos (Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Mohammed bin Salman), the media once again having egg on their face after claiming Trump sounds presidential now, and how you may have actually survived an electrical fire on an airline without even knowing it.
For the contest: quicknews.podbean.com. For the Unexplained Mysteries episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yENA21F3P35GjOChbOMCz?si=Zg6Na50aT1CJtSoCAFlEyA. For the NBC news article: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/wall-street-struggles-digest-massive-unemployment-numbers-n1174876.
Today we talk Donald Trump and his poll numbers, Zantac, and election postponement. Don't forget to enter our Grand Opening Contest!
We apologize for the late edition, so hopefully you can listen on your commute tomorrow morning. On today's show, we cover the idea that the world will have a new normal after the coronavirus, the NFL on Nickelodeon, and the Trump Administration and EPA rolling back regulations that help slow climate change. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/quick-news-daily-podcast/id1505169685
On this special episode, we get a formal introduction to Brett "The Tiger King" Spangler and the future of the Quick News Daily family of shows. Better late than never, right?
On today's show, we cover the coronavirus, Modern Warfare 2 making a comeback, Marco Rubio, and give an update on our Grand Opening contest.
To subscribe to the email list for the contest: quicknews.podbean.com
The Marco Rubio clip belongs to the Wall Street Journal.
Today, we cover New York's fight with the coronavirus, the finalized stimulus bill, and Donald Trump taking Gretchen Whitmer. Also, a reminder about the Quick News Daily contest announcement (we're not on iTunes yet, but the contest will still happen). Technical note: we're still fixing the kinks in our audio, so please excuse the echo for the time being; we'll have it fixed soon.
Website: quicknews.podbean.com to sign up for the email list (if you sign up now, you're still eligible for the Grand Opening contest).
Quick News Reviews takes on Disney and Lucasfilm's "The Rise of Skywalker". We highlight what worked and what didn't, and we opened up the discussion to our listeners as well. Plus, learn about the Quick News Grand Opening contest.
All clips are owned by Lucasfilm/Disney and were used for the purpose of review and commentary. Thanks to soundbible.com for the projector sound to start us off.