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🇺🇸 California Chaos

🇺🇸 California Chaos

Plus, the number one phrase that makes relationships successful.

January 25, 2023

POWERED BY

Good morning, and happy Wednesday! A TikTok food reviewer just helped make $30K for a struggling food truck in 24 hours.

Plus, is space running out of space?

Also, here’s how Mark Cuban and Dana White start their day. Be sure to sign-up.

FLAG POLLS

📉 January 24, 2023: President Biden Job Approval: Approve 44, Disapprove 54 (Rasmussen Reports)

📉 January 23, 2023: Direction of Country: Right Direction 31, Wrong Track 63 (Rasmussen Reports)

🐘 January 20, 2023: 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination: Trump 48, DeSantis 28, Pence 7, Haley 3, Cheney, Cruz 1, Rubio 3, Pompeo 1, T. Scott 1, Hogan (Harvard/Harris)

🐘 January 20, 2023: General Election: Trump vs. Biden: Biden 41, Trump 46 (Harvard/Harris)

POWERED BY MORNING BLITZ

How Mark Cuban & Dana White Start Their Day

These two sports icons both wake up and read the #1 sports newsletter in America, Morning Blitz. And no, it isn’t just for those who own their own team.

Morning Blitz is a quick, 5-minute read every morning stuffed with the biggest headlines, insights, juicy tidbits, and some good old sports humor.

QUICK CLICKS

Housing Forecast, Move Toward Midnight, Google on Defense

US: Former Vice President Mike Pence discovered classified documents in Indiana home (Fox News)

UK: The UK government says more than 200 child asylum-seekers are missing (NPR)

Economy: These 4 cities will suffer a 2008 crash in home values: Goldman Sachs (NY Post)

US: 'Doomsday Clock' moves closest ever to midnight (AFP)

Business: DOJ files second antitrust suit against Google, seeks to break up its ad business (CNBC)

US: Crowd protests Union League of Philadelphia's decision to honor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (6 ABC)

Business: Justin Bieber sells rights to songs for $200m (BBC)

World: In Mexico, smoking on the beach could now cost you $500 (WaPo)

GUNS

California Chaos

This past weekend, a mass shooting unfolded at two dance clubs in Monterey Park, California on the eve of the Lunar New Year. At least 11 people were killed. The alleged shooter took his own life as authorities closed in.

Reporting from the Right: Monterey Park Shooting Latest News: Suspect Was Oldest Mass Shooter in Modern History (Wall Street Journal)

Reporting from the Left: ‘This isn’t the America of our dreams’: shock and sorrow in Monterey Park after deadly shooting (The Guardian)

From The Flag: Monterey Park is a predominantly Asian American community, and home to one of the largest Lunar New Year festivals in Southern California. Here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Is America Truly Powerless To Stop This Scourge?

This latest shooting is a brutal and searing reminder of our failure as a country to stop these mass shootings.
The first three weeks of the year have already recorded three dozen mass shootings, with no end in sight.
This hits the Asian American community especially hard at a time when they’ve faced outsized racism and hatred.

“Monterey Park shooting reminds us of America's most tragic policy failure” Tiffany C. Li, MSNBC Opinion: “This latest mass shooting is a stark reminder of the real consequences of America’s gun crisis, and, even though the motive behind the crime does not so far appear to be racism, the tragedy compounds the trauma Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced during these last few years of rising anti-Asian sentiment, spurred by the previous president’s anti-Asian rhetoric during the early days of the pandemic. A mass shooting, in Monterey Park, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, is a tragedy. But gun violence doesn’t just affect Monterey Park and the Asian American community. A mass shooting anywhere is a tragedy — and a policy failure. … Hundreds of grieving and traumatized families. Communities trapped in a cycle of violence and sorrow. And each of these mass shootings compounds the pain and suffering each community has uniquely endured.”

“America in 2023: Three Weeks and 39 Mass Shootings” Paul LeBlanc, CNN: “A lot remains unknown, but the scenes of agony and horror are increasingly all too familiar in America. In fact, 39 mass shootings have taken place across the country in just the first three weeks of 2023, per the Gun Violence Archive. Communities from Goshen, California, to Baltimore, Maryland, are reeling while others brace for the possibility of such violence in their own backyards. ‘A time of a cultural celebration … and yet another community has been torn apart by senseless gun violence,’ Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd in Tallahassee, Florida, on Sunday. ‘All of us in this room and in our country understand this violence must stop.’ But how that happens with a divided Congress, vastly different policy prescriptions, and a deeply entrenched gun culture remains to be seen.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: CA Shooting Feels Like an Attack on Asian America James Zarsadiaz, Los Angeles Times Op-Ed

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Americans Want Solutions, Media Wants Chaos and Division

The media was uninterested in reporting much about the alleged shooter, because they wanted the racism narrative to fester.
Some outlets continued to suggest this attack could have been motivated by racism, even after the suspect’s profile was known.
In a rare instance, California Governor Gavin Newsom was challenged by a reporter concerning the Second Amendment.

“Asian White Supremacist attacks Asians” David Strom, Hot Air: “For almost a day the police only described the assailant as ‘male,’ and the presumption of most leftists was that of course he must be White. I presumed he wasn’t, because were he it would be all over the internet. Shockingly, nobody seemed to question the fact that he was male… How could they know without asking? Were they just assuming his gender? … Except the perpetrator was not White, and the motive had nothing to do with race hate. The perpetrator was Asian, although we still don’t know his gender since he was eventually found dead. Perhaps we will never know the person’s pronouns the moment he committed the crime, nor whether he had some other fetish that determined his identity. The affair, despite being utterly horrific, was just too good an opportunity to cry “racism” despite the complete lack of evidence.”

“USA Today Pitches 'Anti-Asian Hate' Long After They Knew the Killer Was Asian” Stephen Green, PJ Media: “USA Today reported that the Monterey Park, Calif., shooting that left 10 people dead has ‘revived the fears and trauma’ of ‘anti-Asian hate’ for the Los Angeles Asian community. There are just two tiny little problems with the story: The killer was Vietnamese, and USA Today knew that before it published the story. … (The suspect’s) face had been plastered everywhere as the suspect hours before a SWAT team had surrounded his white van and discovered his dead body around 1 p.m. on Sunday. Nevertheless, USA Today went with the… ‘anti-Asian hate’ story… You can’t blame the reporters for going with what scared victims experienced in the moment, but hours after the shooter had been positively identified as Asian, you can certainly blame the editors for continuing to frame the story with a demonstrably false narrative.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Reporter Hits Gavin Newsom With Reality Check After Dangerous 2A Comments Sister Toldjah, RedState

FLAG THIS

What Will Congress Do? And How Parents Worry

Polling data released this week shows 16% to 17% of adults (across all geographical areas in the U.S.) want Congress to prioritize stopping mass shootings.

The most significant percentages were recorded among Latino (23%), Black (22%), and Asian American (22%) respondents.

Parents were asked how concerned they are about the possibility of their child being victimized by a mass shooting. 81% said they’re either moderately or extremely concerned (Brookings).

Has the nation become overly desensitized to mass shootings?

FLAG FINDS

Smarter Sports Fan, Get the Groceries, Abbreviated with Blinkist

🥊 Sports is competition, so you’re always striving to get better. So take the same mindset, even as a fan. The Morning Blitz is a sports newsletter that will give you everything you need to know in 5 minutes or less, making you a smarter sports fan. Stay up to date on the NFL playoffs ahead of the Conference Championship games – just how is Mahomes’ ankle holding up, anyway?

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WATERCOOLER

First Televised News Conference, Don’t Give Up, Negotiate Over Anything

On January 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy becomes the first U.S. president to hold a live televised news conference. Click here to watch.

Cole Blackburn: 23 questions you should ask yourself before you give up

CNBC: The number one phrase that makes relationships successful

Vox: How to negotiate over practically anything

Today I Learned the video game Oregon Trail was developed by three college students trying to teach history creatively. The first version was coded in just 10 days in 1971 and played by middle schoolers for 5 days. The code was given to an educational nonprofit in 1974, and the creators never profited from the game.

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