Good morning. It's Monday, Jan. 8, and we're covering shutdown rejections over the border, Xi's military corruption, NBA tournaments, and much more. First time reading? Sign up here. | | American Fact of the Day! | In 1872, Yellowstone was designated as the first National Park in the nation. Yellowstone National Park is the first in the nation and the first in the world. |
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| | Breaking Updates | | Speaker Johnson Says No Shutdown Over the Border, and It's Time to Talk About the Elephant in the Room | While speaking on "Face the Nation," Speaker Mike Johnson tells host Margaret Brennan that he will not wield the leverage of a government shutdown to try to force a deal that pushes for stricter enforcement.
That comes as illegal immigration continues to set new records, with over 302,000 encounters happening in the month of December alone. Estimates vary, but somewhere between six and eight million people have illegally crossed the Southern border since Joe Biden took office.
This latest move from Johnson does bring us back to the elephant in the room, which is what exactly was gained by the fight to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker? Has there been a distinct shift in governance? I would say, not really. We still ended up with a continuing resolution, and now we are getting the same strategy regarding avoiding a shutdown at all costs. Those were the two major issues that got McCarthy booted.
This is the problem with consistently underperforming in elections, which the GOP has done in the last four cycles. Perhaps we should all be more focused on fixing that issue at the ballot box rather than expecting Johnson to extract blood from a turnip. That may not be what some want to hear, but it may be the most realistic option. | Read more updates here |
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| | 'Missiles Filled With Water Instead of Fuel': Xi Jinping Furiously Purges Military of Corruption | American foreign policy experts have long argued that China has been laying the groundwork for a permanent rise as a major global power, and U.S. politicians (particularly on the Republican side) have certainly counted the ways in which China is clearly our No. 1 geopolitical foe.
US intelligence indicates that President Xi Jinping's sweeping military purge came after it emerged that widespread corruption undermined his efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about China's ability to fight a war, according to people familiar with the assessments.
The corruption inside China's Rocket Force and throughout the nation's defense industrial base is so extensive that US officials now believe Xi is less likely to contemplate major military action in the coming years than would otherwise have been the case, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing intelligence.
According to U.S. intelligence, "corruption within the People's Liberation Army has led to an erosion of confidence in its overall capabilities, particularly when it comes to the Rocket Force, and also set back some of Xi's top modernization priorities."
U.S. think tanks and defense contractors believe that Xi aims to have a completely modernized military that is capable of taking on any global power by 2027. One such example is the rapid assembly of aircraft carriers and other naval vessels at a rate that far outpaces the U.S. Navy. But just because they can be rapidly assembled doesn't mean they're ready to go right away.
Other reports suggest China could have five aircraft carriers by 2030. However, some experts are skeptical that Beijing will use its aircraft carriers as intended for at least a decade. Instead, they think the vessels are more for propaganda purposes at this point.
There is a lot of reason to believe that China is a global adversary - they've said as much in response to U.S. actions over the years - and the question often seems to be less "if" we'll go to war with China and more "when." | Read more updates here |
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| | American Sports & Culture
|  | MLB sets date for 2024 trade deadline | You can now go ahead and set you your clock for the drop dead time will be for, say, the Mets to decide if they are dealing Pete Alonso before his free agency. |
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|  | NFL schedule today: Everything to know about football games on Jan. 6 | The AFC takes center stage on Saturday with Steelers-Ravens and Texans-Colts facing off and playoff berths on the line. |
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|  | Maybe It Was Good Milwaukee Didn't Win The NBA In-Season Tournament? | Neither the Lakers, nor the Pacers, have looked great since the "big game" in Vegas. Is it good for a team to expend that much energy early? |
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| | American Business & Markets
|  | A Programmer Turned Billionaire Slapped Me in My Face With 51 One-Liner Startup Advice | Read This to Transform Yourself |
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|  | The Survival of Small Businesses at Pop-up Markets | Are local vendor markets wrapping up after the pandemic? |
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|  | From Reddit to Shein - Top US IPOs to look out for in 2024 | Here are the top IPOs that demand your attention in the coming year. |
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|  | 18 Business Ideas for Nurses | If you're a nurse and thinking of starting your own business, this fantastic list of nursing business ideas will inspire you to take the next step. |
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| | American Politics | |  | Supreme Court Shows Its Integrity With New Code of Ethics | Saying that public officials should be "ethical" is like saying that sunshine and puppies are good things. The tougher questions are what "ethical" means, how to tell if public officials meet that standard, and what to do if they don't. |
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|  | Haley Sees Opening With Independent Voters in New Hampshire as DeSantis Pushes for Upset in Iowa | 'With a very sleepy Democratic primary that doesn't even feature Joe Biden on the ballot, it's easy to imagine voters who don't plan to vote Republican… |
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|  | Has California's Independent Registration Boom Ended? | Since 2018, the overall share of independent—or "No Party Preference"—voters has undergone the sharpest reversal in 60 years of registration data. Independent registration has declined most among younger voters. |
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|  | Thousands of fake Facebook accounts shut down by Meta were primed to polarize voters ahead of 2024 | Meta says it has found and disabled thousands of fake Facebook accounts linked to China that were used to spread politically partisan content in the United States before next year's election. |
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