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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Biden won’t seek second term His fate was that of Wile E. Coyote over the precipice: Charles Lipson

https://thespectator.com/politics/biden-confirms-second-term-dropping/

President Biden’s announcement that he will not seek a second term — and his endorsement of Kamala Harris — came after weeks of increasing pressure from Democratic Party insiders, alarmed that voters had finally discovered what they had known for months. Joe Biden is a shell of the man he once was. Voters knew it — and they wouldn’t vote for him. Voters also knew they had been lied to by the White House, Biden’s political allies and the mainstream media, not once or twice but for years. Whatever credibility those sources still had is gone and, with it, a major prop in the Democratic coalition. The cumulative result was almost certain to cost Democrats not only the White House but the House and Senate, as well. Biden dropping out is unlikely to help. 

Biden’s inglorious exit evoked the fate of that great cartoon character, Wile E. Coyote. His futile pursuit of the Road Runner usually ended with Wile E. running off a cliff but remaining suspended in mid-air until he looked down. When he finally looked, he began plummeting to the canyon floor, far below. 

That was Joe Biden’s ultimate fate. He was as slow to grasp it as Wile E. Coyote. He ran off the cliff after his catastrophic debate performance against Donald Trump. For weeks he refused to look down. He wouldn’t look when his wife helped him walk down a few stairs after the debate. He wouldn’t look when President Obama had to guide him off the stage at George Clooney’s star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles. He wouldn’t look when major donors reported their shock at his frail appearance and began closing their checkbooks. He wouldn’t look as he stumbled through recent interviews. He wouldn’t look as more elected officials began calling for him to end the race for reelection. The canyon was too far below. It was far better to try and stay suspended in mid-air. 

Kamala Harris Will Be Burdened By What Has Been

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harris-will-be-burdened-by-what-has-been/

On YouTube, there is a four-minute video that is nothing but Vice President Kamala Harris repeating this empty phrase: “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”

But no matter how many times she utters this idiotic mantra, Harris will, in fact, be heavily burdened by the disaster that has been the Biden administration. Burdened by her own dismal record as vice president. And burdened by the fact that she is so uniquely unqualified to be leader of the free world.

To say Harris is an empty pantsuit is an insult to empty pantsuits.

As we put it in an editorial a year ago:

Biden’s reelection campaign recently described Harris as a ‘powerful and effective messenger.’ Sure. Like when she says ‘As the name suggests, community banks are in the community.’ Or, when she says that ‘present culture is the way we express how we’re feeling about the moment, and we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment.’ Or … well, as Harris might put it, there are endless examples of her vapidity that stretch on without limit because there’s no end to them.

As we put it in an editorial we posted last week and updated over the weekend:

It might seem impossible, but she would be an even worse president than he was.

No matter how much Harris tries to distance herself from Joe Biden, she will carry the burden of answering for this failures. Among them:

The border crisis. One of the few jobs Biden gave her to do was stem the flow of illegal immigrants. She blathered on about “root causes,” after which 10 million or so illegals crossed the border and her “leadership role” was quietly memory-holed.

The economy. Harris will have to defend Biden’s economic record – inflation, falling real wages, widespread dissatisfaction.

Trump is dividing America’s oligarchs Ending the Democrats’ total domination among the billionaire class would be good for democracy. Joel Kotkin

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/18/trump-is-dividing-americas-oligarchs/

The shot heard around the world may have been aimed at Donald Trump’s head, but it could also put extra cash in his pocket. In the aftermath of last weekend’s assassination attempt, two prominent billionaires – Elon Musk and investor Bill Ackman – announced their support for the former president. Two other formerly Trump-sceptical billionaires, Paul Singer and Ken Griffin, are also reportedly considering joining them.

The importance of these endorsements, as well as others from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley, reflect America’s increasingly oligarch-dominated political system. Traditionally, populist Democrats would have made much more of the announcements. In 2018, Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse claimed Trump was in the ‘back pocket’ of billionaires, but the attack didn’t quite land – not least because Whitehouse himself and his Democratic allies have become major recipients of oligarchic funds. Democrats received far more ‘dark money’ than the GOP in 2020.

Even recently, a spokesman suggested that Joe Biden was sending the message that ‘America is not for sale’. That is despite the fact that in 2020 Biden easily outraised Trump with a major advantage from donors in Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, just as Hillary Clinton had done in 2016. While some Democrats posture about seeking to reduce oligarchic power, they equally want to ensure that it’s their oligarchs who thrive.

None of this is to say that Trump was previously lacking his own reliable trove of right-wing donors. Investors like Jeff Yass and Timothy Mellon have given tens of millions to his campaigns. Trump donors tend to be rich investors who are in control of their own funds and less beholden to shareholders or a board of directors. In contrast, big corporate elites have, at least until now, favoured the Democrats and Biden. They have done this through contributions not only to Democratic candidates, but also to left-leaning nonprofits.

Donald Trump and Baby Hitler Once you’ve determined that it’s okay to commit a heinous act—all bets are off. By Stephen Soukup

https://amgreatness.com/2024/07/20/donald-trump-and-baby-hitler/

In November 2015, when he was still the presumed frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, Jeb did an impromptu online Q&A while on his campaign bus. Among the questions he was asked was whether he “would go back in time and kill baby Hitler.” “Hell yeah, I would,” he responded immediately. And he would do so, he said, because “you gotta step up.” His only objection—or at least the only one he voiced in front of the cameras—was the butterfly effect, that is to say, the presumption that such a small change in history would have enormous future ramifications, the science for which he said “we all learned” from those “Michael Fox movies…Back to the Future.”

This answer raises two questions. First, why would Jeb answer that way? This is a guy, remember, who was raised in a very WASP-ish patrician home, was educated at the finest prep schools and one of the best public universities in the country, and converted to Catholicism. If he, of all people, thinks that the answer is an immediate “hell yeah,” then we have to ask ourselves why that is the case.

The second question is: why would anyone ask such a stupid thing anyway? Obviously, time travel is not possible, Back to the Future notwithstanding. So why would it even cross anyone’s mind to question a former governor and presidential candidate about the possibility of doing so? Where do people come up with these things?

More Americans apply for jobless benefits as layoffs settle at higher levels U.S. filings for unemployment benefits rose again last week and appear to be settling consistently at a slightly higher though still healthy level

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/americans-apply-jobless-benefits-layoffs-settle-higher-levels-112060209

U.S. filings for unemployment benefits rose again last week and appear to be settling consistently at a slightly higher though still healthy level that the Federal Reserve has been aiming for.

Jobless claims for the week ending July 13 rose by 20,000 to 243,000 from 223,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the eighth straight week claims came in above 220,000. Before that stretch, claims had been below that number in all but three weeks so far in 2024.

Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered as representative of layoffs.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in an attempt to extinguish the four-decade high inflation that shook the economy after it rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed’s intention was to cool off a red-hot labor market and slow wage growth, which it says can fuel inflation.

“The Fed asked to see more evidence of a cooling economy, and for the most part, they’ve gotten it,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade. “Add today’s weekly jobless claims to the list of rate-cut-friendly data points.”

The Stonewall Riot Hoax By Robert Weissberg

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/07/the_stonewall_riot_hoax.html

The left is obsessed with falsifying American history.  For these radicals, the Founding Fathers did not write the Constitution to form a more perfect union; it was merely a ploy by racist white males to protect slavery.  Similarly, those who settled America were not seeking a better life for their families; their aim was genocide against peaceful indigenous people who were careful stewards of the environment.

The latest example of this historical falsification recently occurred in New York City, where President Biden, accompanied by Governor Kathy Hochul and rock star Elton John, assembled for the grand opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, run by the National Park Service.  President Biden lavishly praised the riot, saying, it “marked a turning point for civil rights in America and inspired the hearts of millions of people around the world.”  He added that it “remains a symbol of a legacy and leadership in the LGBTQ+ community.”

According to the Memorial’s website, “the Center will offer an immersive experience featuring a rich tapestry of LGBTQIA+ history and culture through a variety of engaging programs, including in-person and virtual tours, informative lecture series, captivating exhibitions, a dedicated theater space, and inspiring visual arts displays.  Upon entering the visitor center, visitors will be guided through a multifaceted learning experience that speaks to today’s generations, encouraging them to carry forward the Stonewall legacy and the ongoing fight for full LGBTQIA+ equality.”  This dedication marks the 55th anniversary of the riots at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall bar, (June 28, 1969), a popular drinking spot favored by flamboyant homosexuals.

This celebration of the Stonewall riot is an outrageous lie.  It had zero to do with the rights of gays and is hardly comparable to the black civil rights struggle when, for example Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1955 organized a 13-month-long boycott of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregation in public transportation.

First, this characterization that prior to Stonewall, gays were grimly oppressed is wrong.  Yes, homosexual behavior during the pre-Stonewall era was often illegal (though legal prohibition was rarely enforced), and being gay was an occasional occupation liability, but gays were never brutalized second-class citizens.  John Strausbaugh’s The Village carefully describes gay life in the pre-Stonewall era in New York City, and it was hardly oppressive save for those insisting that all constraints on personal behavior are “oppression.”

American Airlines and Delta ground ALL flights as 911 and hospital systems go down across the US after worldwide tech outage

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13650455/American-Airlines-issues-ground-stop-flights-communications-issue.html

Major US carriers American Airlines, United and Delta have grounded all flights as hospitals and 911 services reported systems outages amid what appears to be a global tech outage scuppering computers using Microsoft Windows.

Customers travelling with the carriers said on social media their pilots had told them all systems were down and that all aircraft must remain grounded until they are brought back online.

Many complained they had been left stranded in planes sitting on the tarmac before take-off or after landing at their destination, while images snapped in airports in the UK and Australia showed the departures terminals packed with travellers as flights were cancelled or delayed.

Social media was also awash with reports from medical staff that electronic medical record (EMR) systems had crashed, taking hospitals nationwide offline.

And images shared to social media showed self-checkout tills, ATM machines, television channels and a host of other tech displaying error messages. 

Some of the outages appear linked to US IT company Crowdstrike and an update related to its ‘Falcon sensor’ – an agent that is designed to analyse internet connections to prevent viruses and other malicious software.

Several reports suggested the update caused a crash for computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. 

‘Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows… related to the Falcon sensor,’ a prerecorded message says on the company’s helplines.

The Mother of Big Lies “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” by Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-mother-of-big-lies/

The Democrat press agents known as “the media” are frantically attempting to convince us that until the June 27 presidential debate, they didn’t know the extent and severity of Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical decline. That’s why since 2020 they smeared thousands of columns and videos documenting the decline as “disinformation” or “deep fakes” manufactured by the MAGA Ministry of Information. Essentially, they’ve been relying on the Marxist––of the Chico variety–– question, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”

But for over a century we’ve known that the left is the mother of Big Lies, ones so preposterous that it takes an arrogant and outrageous shamelessness to tell them. That’s what sets them apart from the ordinary lies that pretty much every politician tells.

The Dems’ current fantastical narrative––that they were unaware of Biden’s deterioration–– is itself an obvious Big Lie. The signs were there during the 2020 presidential election, when the Dems went to great lengths to keep Biden hidden away from voters, conducting a campaign––unprecedented for the Modern Age––from Biden’s basement with limited travel. So, if Biden’s decline was “fake news,” why were they keeping him from the voters? You’d think that the media’s shills would want to debunk the “lies” by highlighting Joe’s vigor and mental acuity as much as possible.

Another problem for the current mendacious special pleading in order to explain their dereliction of duty, is that millions of Americans are intimately familiar with the signs of dementia and can judge for themselves. Currently there are about six million people afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease––and millions more with personal experience of cognitive diseases, from living with or tending family members or patients.

As the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Well, the American people knew, since they are not oblivious to evidence they can see. They have said so in every poll for a year. Special counsel Robert Hur knew. His account exposed what many Americans have suspected based on Mr. Biden’s many public misstatements and faltering physical presence. He couldn’t recall which years he was Vice President or even when his son Beau died. He said an ally in the Obama Administration’s debate over Afghanistan was on the opposite side.”

Millions of Americans know the signs: difficulties with speaking, memory, word recall, walking, climbing stairs, and maintaining focus, along with sudden angry outbursts, and a tendency to wander––with a zombie shuffle and a slack-jawed thousand-yard stare, as was obvious in the footage of Biden at the G-7 conclave. Those of us who have witnessed all these signs haven’t needed doctored videos or “deep fakes,” just Occam’s Razor to get what’s going with the president. The regime media’s claim that they were unaware is a Big Lie they’re trying to spin.

The End of Joe Biden—and the Democratic Establishment For both the king and what was once his court, a terrible reckoning has arrived. By Martin Gurri

https://www.thefp.com/p/end-of-joe-biden-democratic-establishment?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Joe Biden entered the Senate in 1973, at the tender age of 30. He looked like a president, he felt like a president, and he fully expected to rise to the top. His formula for success was that of every ambitious politician deprived by nature of directing principles or opinions: find the meandering mainstream of his party’s establishment, where the big fish swim, then wade in and drift. Biden was in turn strongly against and stridently for abortion, a righteous Vietnam dove and then a stern Iraq hawk, a friend of racist Democratic senators before becoming a promoter of compensatory quotas for racial minorities. 

Virtually every time a vacancy arose, Biden, by his own admission, considered running for the presidency. In 1988, at the age of 44, he actually did so—and failed. Biden may look and feel like a president, but he has never sounded like one. Long before old age turned him into a bleary-eyed mutterer, he tended to get lost in his own verbiage. He told fantastic stories about his personal life that could be easily disproved. He plagiarized bits from Bobby Kennedy and parts of a speech by British Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Biden, it seems, was as needy as he was ambitious. His campaign resembled a prolonged pratfall. He dropped out before the first primary.

Thanks to a few very big, very lucky breaks, this human weathervane eventually found himself in the White House. Just a few years later, however, President Biden’s luck looks to be running out. A disastrous performance in last month’s presidential debate pulled back the curtain, in the style of The Wizard of Oz, to reveal the president as the sad, confused old man most of us already knew him to be. Then the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, and the former president’s courageous reaction in the moments following the incident, cast Biden’s shortcomings and infirmities in an even more glaring contrast. Biden is now increasingly alone, abandoned by the very establishment that created him. For both the king and what was once his court, a terrible reckoning has arrived. 

How Biden Became a Magnificent Replica of Himself

Biden spent 36 years in the Senate but never rose to any kind of power or influence there. His hour in the sun came in 1991 when, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, he was charged by Democratic Party grandees with the destruction of Clarence Thomas as a nominee to the Supreme Court. He failed. Thomas’s eloquence and intellectual firepower easily overwhelmed the woodenly partisan Biden.

The shameful treatment of veterans in Canada and America Diane Bederman

https://dianebederman.com/the-shameful-treatment-of-veterans-in-canada-and-america/

You have perished; but, Oh! Not in vain! Through your sacrifice an ideal was maintained, a cause was saved, freedom is still a reality, the dreams of your brothers and sisters, perhaps the child who will not know you, are still possible.

We who have returned and who knew you-we are grateful From the Book “Burma” from the 435 Squadron

Not anymore.

What kind of country devalues their veterans in favour of paying off student loans and housing illegal immigrants? What kind of country provides state delivered death to veterans as a way of taking care of them?

We have devolved.

Veterans, the men and women, who fought for freedom are not even second class in Canada and America.

How did we get to a place where military and political leaders prioritize sexuality over bravery and merit? Why does Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau spend time and money placing tampons and sanitary napkin dispensers in military men’s rooms?

Thirty days to celebrate being gay! Wow. What an accomplishment!

WATCH

One day to celebrate our veterans.

Says it all.

WWII was the greatest exhibit of courage and bravery after the horrific trench wars and devastation of WWI.