Happy Monday!

Hope you had a great weekend, and your cups is a’liftin’ for us to pour in a fresh Morning Brew.

How Bad Was Justice Sotomayor’s Claim About Children Hospitalized With COVID? Even the Washington Post is Calling Her Out.

During oral arguments Friday, Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor made up some shocking COVID numbers in an effort to defend Biden’s COVID mandates. Sotomayor claimed that over 100,000 children were currently in “serious condition,” many on ventilators because of COVID. How bad was Sotomayor’s fib? Even the Washington Post is giving her “Four Pinocchios.” (Four out of four, a score given to “whoppers.”)

As of January 8, only 5,000 children were hospitalized, either with COVID or suspected of having COVID. “So Sotomayor’s number is at least 20 times higher than reality, even before you determine how many are in ‘serious condition,’” the WaPo’s fact checkers reported. On Sunday, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky put the number at only 3,500.

Sen. Rand Paul merely had a question or two.

Sotomayor: “over 100,000 children…in serious condition, many on ventilators" Is Fauci advising Justice Sotomayor? Will YouTube censor her?https://t.co/TQM49LQRbw https://t.co/TQM49LQRbw

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 7, 2022

Sotomayor also raised eyebrows when she sought to equate machines and humans. She wondered what the difference was between a machine at a factory throwing off dangerous sparks and a human “spewing bloodborne virus.”

Conservative talk show host Stacy Washington spotted the problem. “Sotomayor sees us as machines with no freedom. Explains a lot as she’s a command and control leftist.”

Sotomayor sees us as machines with no freedom. Explains a lot as she’s a command and control leftist. https://t.co/R16bQJq5dq

— Stacy Washington (@StacyOnTheRight) January 7, 2022

Said National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty, “I love the idea that an Executive branch agency meant to protect worker’s rights is now adopting the argument that workers should be regulated like toxic chemicals.”

CDC Director Stumped by Simple … Crucial Question

Fox News’ Brett Bair asked CDC Director Rochelle Walensky a simple question on Sunday: “How many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to Covid are from Covid or how many are with Covid?” Walensky’s answer qualified her for the sequel to Dodgeball. Walensky dodged the issue of the 836K deaths, and spoke only of Omicron. And then closed with “those data are forthcoming.”

Asked "how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to Covid are FROM Covid or how many are WITH Covid," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says "those data will be forthcoming." pic.twitter.com/JVcFk3aunc

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 9, 2022

For all of 2020, the media and Big Health couldn’t care less about the obvious question of how many deaths are from COVID and how many are with COVID. As long as CNN could run its death toll 24/7 to paint Trump as a mass killer, failing the nation with his COVID policy … as long as panic was politically advantageous … there was no need for an answer.

But now that COVID cases are at historic levels, and it’s clear Biden’s promise to stamp out COVID has proven false, funny how getting that data is not crucial.

Oops. Kamala Harris Uses Word “Malaise” to Describe American Mood

Kamala Harris told PBS last week she knows America has reached a “level of malaise” after two years of COVID. This immediately brought comparisons to Jimmy Carter’s infamous “malaise speech” of 1979.

Stream Executive Editor Jay Richards tweeted an interesting thought:

I honestly wonder if a media trainer hasn't told her, "Whatever you do, don't say 'malaise,'" and when she was casting about for something–anything–to say, the neuronal pathway just lit up, and out it came… https://t.co/BKqsKtv9Cr

— Jay W. Richards (@DrJayRichards) January 8, 2022

That wasn’t the end of Harris’ Carter comparison. She also told Judy Woodruff of her plans to become a peanut farmer. Okay, we made that up.

800,000 “Non-Citizens” Now Allowed to Vote in New York

The Bad News: 800,000 “non-citizens” will now be allowed to vote in local elections in New York City, thanks to a new measure that brand new mayor Eric Adams has allowed to become law. Allowing non-citizens to vote means disenfranchising American citizens.

But there is a bit of good news: These non-citizens can’t possibly do any worse than the voters of New York City have done in recent years.

Confessing to Fraud: Georgia Man Cops to Personally Illegally Harvesting 4,500 Votes for Biden

Last week we reported that Georgia has launched an investigation into illegal ballot harvesting during the 2020 General Election. True the Vote handed over the confession of a man who claims he was paid $45,000 for his ballot harvesting efforts, at ten bucks a vote. That’s 4,500 votes.

True the Vote says it has tracked 242 people in Georgia involved in the harvesting effort. True the Vote puts the illegally harvested ballots in the tens of thousands. In a state Biden won by about 12,000 votes.

Just the News founder John Solomon also pointed out in an interview that video shows most of the ballot harvesting drops occurred between 12 am and 5 am. Yeah, but there’s no evidence of election fraud.

Psaki: Biden Grumbles About Not Getting Enough “Free Time” or “Time to Think”

Joe Biden complains about not getting enough “free time or time to think,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki remarked last week. That the White House Press Corp didn’t burst out laughing is testament to how much they are in the tank for the administration. Biden has the lightest schedule of any president since Woodrow Wilson was down for the count after his stroke.

What’s Biden been doing on his 31 vacations to Delaware? Or after those 11 a.m. lids after he’s done his one appointment for the day? Keeping surveillance on Corn Pop?

Admittedly, there’s a temptation to laugh it off. Or say this is Biden again suggesting “People are making me do things I don’t want to do.”

However, The Stream yesterday published a thought-provoking article called “Descending from the Kingdom of Noise.” Jordan Raynor argues “To redeem our time, we must fight to block out noise and create room for silence, stillness, and reflection.”

This is true for us, this is true for presidents. Especially one whose brain is already more jumbled than a box of Scrabble letters.

Penn State’s Transgender Swimmer Finally Loses … to Another Transgender

What do you call female swimmers in races against transgenders? Spectators.

UPenn’s biological male swimmer competing as a woman was having another whopper of a meet over the weekend. Competing in a tri-meet against Yale and Dartmouth, Lia Thomas easily won two races against girls.

But then in his third race, Thomas lost. Yes, it is possible for a biological male competing as a biological female to lose. Thomas got narrowly beat in the 100 by Yale’s Iszac Henig. But there’s one catch: Henig is currently transitioning from female (“a self I no longer feel attached to”) to male. Although Henig claims not have taken any hormones yet, Henig’s breasts have been removed.

Along The Stream

Hear about that Texas school teacher who locked her COVID-positive child in her truck to avoid catching the ‘Rona from him? John Zmirak has envisioned a bright future for her in “I Know Who Will Replace Kamala Harris as VP.”

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Morning Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at Gab, Parler, MeWe and now GETTR.