Wednesday, January 15, 2025

January 15, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Democrats fail to land decisive blow against Hegseth . . . Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee failed to land a decisive blow against Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominee to serve as secretary of Defense, after several hours of tense questioning about his qualifications, views on women in combat, infidelity and drinking. Democrats need to flip just one Republican on the Armed Services panel to block Hegseth, but no Republican senator on Tuesday appeared willing to sink Hegseth's nomination. The Hill

Barring any October Surprise-style revelations, Hegseth will become Secretary of Defense.

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst backs Pete Hegseth for DOD after initial uncertainty . . . Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, officially endorsed Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense on Tuesday night, despite expressing some initial uncertainty following their first meeting. "After four years of weakness in the White House, Americans deserve a strong Secretary of Defense," Ernst told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. During the hearing, Ernst pressed Trump's DOD choice on women in combat, sexual assault in the military and auditing the department. Fox News

Trump attorney general nominee Pam Bondi to testify before Judiciary Committee

Politics

House passes bill to keep biological males out of female scholastic sports . . . House Republicans voted Tuesday to prohibit biological males from participating in girls' and women's scholastic sports. The House voted 218-206 to approve H.R. 28, which would amend Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments to ban institutions that receive federal funding from allowing "a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls." Two Democrats voted with the Republican majority, while one voted "present." Washington Times

AOC Fumes Over Bill Protecting Girls From Men

Trump Team Sidelines RFK Jr.'s Antivaccine Aides . . . Two vaccine skeptics who had been advising Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as he prepares to become health secretary have been sidelined by Trump transition officials, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring a split over immunizations in the "Make America Healthy Again" movement. Adviser Stefanie Spear and lawyer Aaron Siri had asked prospective administration hires about their beliefs around vaccines even if they were interviewing for posts that had little to do with immunizations. Wall Street Journal

How Biden Tried to 'Trump-Proof' Government With Federal Telework . . . The House Oversight and Accountability Committee released a report Wednesday morning ahead of a hearing titled, "The Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Legacy." "Biden-Harris administration officials worked with federal labor union allies not only to lock in high telework levels, but to undermine the ability of the incoming Trump administration to unlock them, and to manage its own workforce," the report says. Daily Signal

Biden to deliver farewell address from the Oval Office tonight

Rubio to Shred Globalists in Confirmation Hearing . . . Rubio's remarks, provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of their public release, show him viciously criticizing the globalist elites who have dominated the American foreign policy worldview for the last several decades since the end of the Cold War. Once the U.S. won the Cold War and the Berlin Wall came down, Rubio will say, a "dangerous delusion" of grandeur settled into the globalist elites' mindset: They thought they reached "the end of history" and that a "liberal world order" would overtake national identity.

Speaker Mike Johnson orders flags at full-staff for Trump inauguration . . . House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) ordered that U.S. flags be flown at full-staff on Inauguration Day, issuing a brief pause to President Joe Biden's order to display flags at half-staff in commemoration of the late President Jimmy Carter. Flags will then be returned to the Carter mourning period order on the following day, according to Johnson's order. Washington Examiner

That's how Jimmy would have wanted it. Well, maybe not, but . . .

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace challenged Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett to a fight . . . An enraged Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) asked Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) if she wanted to "take it outside" Tuesday after the Democratic congresswoman called her a "child" during a House Oversight Committee meeting. The meeting, intended to approve the rules for the House panel and introduce new members, descended into chaos as Crockett charged that Mace's efforts to ban transgender women from using female facilities at the US Capitol were aimed at raising money for her campaign. New York Post

Bernie Sanders delivers scathing verdict on longtime ally Joe Biden . . . Bernie Sanders said that Joe Biden's biggest failure as president was not being 'strong enough' or able to communicate his economic policies to ordinary working-class Americans. The Vermont Senator steadfastly stood by his former presidential rival after Biden's Georgia debate disaster in June but admitted in a new interview that Biden's messaging was weak and incoherent. Daily Mail

Et tu, Berné?

Culture

Megyn Kelly blasts 'overweight, out-of-shape' women battling LA fires . . . Kelly, a former Fox News host, took special aim at Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, Training and Support Bureau Commander Jaime Brown and Deputy Chief in Equity and Human Resources Bureau Kristine Larson amid criticism that the city focused too much on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to properly prepare forces to battle the fires. 'These three women who are at the top there are all, I mean honestly, I'm not trying to be mean, but they're obese,' Kelly said. 'And the last thing I want to see if I am in a burning building is A) a woman and B) an obese woman,' she continued. Daily Mail

National Security

NATO warplanes are scrambled as Putin launches huge attack near Poland border . . . NATO scrambled its warplanes early today in response to a fierce Russian bombardment of Ukraine close to its border with Poland. The Russian strikes - hitting vital energy facilities in the coldest weeks of winter - were led by Vladimir Putin's Tu-22 and Tu-95 strategic bombers. The onslaught was seen as instant revenge for Tuesday's Ukrainian aerial strikes on Russia, the heaviest of the almost three year war. Daily Mail

Biden to say Cuba is no longer a 'state sponsor of terrorism' . . . President Joe Biden is moving to lift Cuba's designation as a "state sponsor of terrorism" in the final days of his administration. The decision, announced Tuesday, will overturn the designation that was implemented at the end of President-elect Donald Trump's former administration via National Security Presidential Memorandum 5. Washington Examiner

International

South Korea's impeached president arrested after investigators scale walls . . . Yoon Suk Yeol has become South Korea's first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody. Yoon, 64, is being investigated on charges of insurrection for a failed martial law order on 3 December that plunged the country into turmoil. Yoon's dramatic arrest on Wednesday brings to an end a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his presidential security team. BBC

Money

Trump announces new External Revenue Service to collect foreign money . . . President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday plans to establish a new agency called the "External Revenue Service" to collect money from foreign countries owed to the United States. "For far too long, we have relied on taxing our Great People using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)," Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. "Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves," the president-elect continued. Fox Business

Capital One sued by US watchdog alleging bank cheated customers out of $2 billion . . . A U.S. watchdog is suing Capital One for allegedly misleading consumers about its offerings for high-interest savings accounts — and "cheating" customers out of more than $2 billion in lost interest payments as a result. In a complaint filed Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charged that despite promoting 360 Savings as an account that provides one of nation's highest interest rates, the CFPB alleges that Capital One froze its rate at a low level for at least several years, even as rates rose nationally. Associated Press

SEC hits Elon Musk with lawsuit in final salvo . . . The SEC took a parting shot at Elon Musk on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit over the billionaire's alleged failure to properly disclose his purchases of Twitter stock in 2022. For 11 days, Musk allegedly failed to properly disclose that he had acquired a major stake in Twitter. The lawsuit lands just days before SEC Chair Gary Gensler — a progressive icon who has ratcheted up enforcement during his time atop the Wall Street regulator — is due to depart the agency as President Joe Biden's administration draws to a close. Politico

You should also know

Rashida Jones is stepping down as MSNBC president on the eve of Trump inauguration . . . MSNBC President Rashida Jones says she is stepping down after four years leading the liberal news network, her move coming on the eve of a second Trump administration and after changes in corporate ownership. In Jones' tenure, MSNBC has generally displaced CNN as the second-rated cable news-focused network behind Fox News Channel. Its ratings are sharply down since Donald Trump's election. Associated Press

Guilty Pleasures

Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro Threatens to Invade Puerto Rico . . . Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro threatened to use Brazilian troops to "liberate" Puerto Rico from the United States' "colonization" in remarks this weekend. Maduro, fresh from being sworn in for his third fraudulently obtained six-year presidential term, issued his warning on Saturday during the closure of the "International Anti-Fascist World Festival," an anti-U.S., far-left gathering conveniently hosted by the ruling Venezuelan socialists in Caracas. Breitbart

Now we definitely need to invade Greenland so we can trade it to get Puerto Rico back.

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