Monday, July 8, 2024

July 8, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

French right won the most votes but will have the fewest seats . . . Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) won the most votes of any party during Sunday's second round of the snap legislative elections at over 8.7 million, good for 32.05 per cent of the vote. In comparison, the far-left New Popular Front alliance of communists, socialists, and environmentalists led by radical leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon only received around seven million votes or around 25.7 per cent and Emmanuel Macron's neo-liberal centrist coalition received 6.3 million votes or 23.15 percent of the vote. However, despite receiving 1.7 million fewer votes than RN, the New Popular Front was awarded the most seats of any party. This is a result of the backroom deal struck between President Macron and the New Popular Front, in which each side agreed to drop out in favor of the candidate with the best chance of beating out the populist party in over 200 legislative districts. Breitbart

This is not quite the rejection of the right it's being portrayed to be. France has a Deep State too, it seems.

French Jews fearful as left takes charge . . . Prominent French Jews lament the electoral success of a political bloc that features a far-left party widely regarded as antisemitic in the country's parliamentary elections. Moshe Sebbag, a rabbi for the Synagogue de la Victoire, tells The Times of Israel that "it seems France has no future for Jews." He advises young French Jews to leave for Israel. "But people my age, who are 50, 60, we've made our life here and we fear for the future of our children," he says. His assessment is not due solely to the left-wing bloc's success, but to the mainstreaming of antisemitism in general in France, he says. Times of Israel

Politics

4 senior House Dems join calls for Biden to drop out of 2024 race . . . President Biden on Sunday faced his biggest challenge yet from inside the Democratic Party when four senior House leaders told colleagues he should withdraw from the race. The new Biden skeptics are: Nadler, 77, the leading Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; Mark Takano (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Veterans Affairs panel; and Joseph D. Morelle (D-NY), the highest-ranking Democrat on the Administration Committee. New York Times

Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream says no Dems will come on to defend Biden

Biden strategy to make race about Trump boomerangs . . . From the outset of President Biden's re-election campaign, the plan for winning was to make former President Donald J. Trump so unpalatable that voters uneasy with the incumbent would vote for him anyway. But now Mr. Biden is stuck in a political tailspin, with an abysmal debate performance highlighting his inability to make a case against Mr. Trump and prompting a collective national hand-wringing about his ability to do his job while an increasing number of House Democrats say he should leave the race. New York Times

White House doctor who gave Biden glowing health report helped him cash in on business deal . . . President Biden's White House physician helped the Biden family secure a big payout from a failed hospital venture in 2018, and lawmakers are now questioning whether his doctor's involvement in family business marred his objectivity in diagnosing Mr. Biden's cognitive abilities. The new questions about White House physician Kevin O'Connor's medical judgment arose amid rapidly growing concerns among voters and Democratic Party leaders about Mr. Biden's fitness for duty and whether he should run for reelection. Washington Times

Biden instructed on every movement at events . . . For his events, President Biden's staffers prepare a short document with large print and photos that include his precise path to a podium, according to an event template the White House sends to staffers. "I staffed a simple fundraiser at a private residence, but they treated it like it was a NATO summit with his movements," according to a person who staffed a Biden event in the past 18 months. In the five-page document, two pages are separate pictures of, "Walk to podium." Axios

He wanders off anyway.

Media toed White House line that Biden cognitive decline was "misinformation" . . . Last month, CNN's Oliver Darcy attacked the "glaring problems" of a well-sourced Wall Street Journal piece detailing a litany of Biden's slips. Not long before the first presidential debate, CNN ran another piece headlined "Right-wing media outlets use deceptively cropped video to misleadingly claim Biden wandered off at G7 summit." Before the debate, NBC News senior politics reporter Alex Seitz-Wald ran an article headlined "Misleading GOP videos of Biden are going viral. On the same day, David Ingram of NBC News published a piece headlined "The deceptive Biden G7 video was quickly debunked, but it kept going viral anyway." Daily Signal

Haven't seen any retractions yet nor an apology from the White House for suggesting videos of Biden appearing batty were fakes.

Biden's survival plan: Decree "elite" critics, appeal to his base . . . As the president fights for his political life this week, and calls grow from party leaders that he withdraw his candidacy, he's counting on the support of African American Democrats and his union allies as his last line of defense. It's a playbook Biden has turned to in the past, portraying his detractors as mostly elite white liberals who are out of step with the more diverse and working-class grassroots of the party. That's what propelled his nomination after a string of setbacks in 2020. It's his only path to survival now. Politico

All eyes on Jeffries as Democrats weigh Biden's future . . . House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has found himself at the center of the storm as Democrats weigh the wisdom of keeping President Biden at the top of the ticket following his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta last month. The Democratic leader is being squeezed between two powerful but opposing forces. On one side is the predilection to rally behind his White House ally for the sake of party unity. On the other is the growing panic within his caucus that the president would be a drag on Democrats up and down the ballot, sinking the party's chances of flipping control of the House in this year's elections. The Hill

You may remember, it was when leading congressional Republicans went to see Nixon and told him it was over that he finally threw in the towel.

Biden officials endangered immigrant children to avoid Trump "kids in cages" problem . . . In 2021, when the new Biden administration was struggling to cope with a sudden influx of unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border, the government repeatedly overrode the concerns of lower-level workers who warned about placing them in certain households, documents and interviews show. "It does not appear safe for the minor to be released to a home environment that was not fully assessed," a case worker wrote about a child slated to live in a hostel-like home in Florida with at least three adults. A few days later, an official dismissed the recommendation to reject the proposed guardians. Wall Street Journal

Tom Daschle, ex-Senate majority leader, worked with terror-tied Qatar to drive 'investments in Gaza' . . . Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader who now heads his own lobbying shop, sought the Biden administration's help to pour massive amounts of infrastructure resources into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, internal State Department emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. The effort would occur in collaboration with both Qatar's Hamas-friendly government and Israel's then left-leaning government, the former leader said. Washington Free Beacon

Culture

Read Rebekah's new piece for Fox News . . .

An immigrant's perspective: Americans must persevere to regain our independence in 2024 . . . Alarmingly, in recent years, I've observed that independence – which is engrained in the American psyche and culture – has been eroding. Big Government, Big Tech and Big Media have been eating away at our independence. Like in Soviet Russia, the ruling elites now tell us what cars to drive – electric, even if you can't afford it; what size soda drinks to consume, what type of meat to eat – lab-grown preferred. Meanwhile, Big Tech and Big Media – too often colluding with the Big Government – are shaping what Americans think by censoring free speech. Conservative, and especially religious voices are silenced, while leftist voices that are down with the party line are amplified. Rebekah Koffler in Fox News

National Security

NATO done with Canada's free ride . . . Canada has been dodging its commitment to NATO for a decade. It may not be able to hold out for much longer. Over the past several years, Ottawa has become an outlier among the 32-member alliance. It has failed to hit domestic military spending goals, has fallen short on benchmarks to fund new equipment and has no plans to get there. It's a stance that has frustrated allies far and wide — from the White House to the halls of Congress to capitals all over Europe. And it'll be on members' minds when they gather this week in Washington for the NATO Summit, where they are expected to press Ottawa to come up with the cash. Politico

Trump will take care of this.

International

Faith in Zelensky drops as war drags on . . . From Europe to Asia, and even at home, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's stock is plummeting. New survey data made public Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows that Mr. Zelenskyy, the comedian-turned-politician who has forged a profile as the public face of Ukraine's defiance in the face of Russia's 2022 invasion, is rapidly losing trust around the world, including in neighboring European nations. A separate poll released earlier this year found that his approval rating has fallen significantly among the Ukrainian people. Washington Times

Video | Ryanair 'flight from hell' turns round after just 36 minutes as 'mass brawl' breaks out . . . A Ryanair "flight from hell" had to be diverted just 36 minutes into its journey after a "mass brawl" broke out between passengers midair. Shocking footage shows holidaymakers screaming at each other across the plane while flustered airline staff try to calm them down about 30,000ft up. A passenger on board the evening flight from Agadir to London Stansted on Wednesday said a row broke out between two families during boarding. The Sun

Money

Boeing to plead guilty in 77 MAX criminal fraud case . . . Boeing will formally acknowledge guilt and accept fresh punishment over its dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration before two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people, according to a late Sunday court filing. As part of a plea to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., prosecutors have asked the company to pay a second $244 million criminal fine and spend $455 million over the next three years to improve its compliance and safety programs. Boeing also must hire an independent monitor for three years to oversee those improvements. Wall Street Journal

'I had to downgrade my life' - US workers in debt to buy groceries . . . Stacey Ellis, a lifelong Democrat from Pennsylvania, should be the kind of voter that US President Joe Biden can count on. But after four years of rising prices, her support has worn thin – and every time she shops at the supermarket, she is reminded how things have changed for the worse. She has switched stores, cut out brand-name items like Dove soap and Stroehmann bread, and all but said goodbye to her favourite Chick-fil-A sandwich. Still, Ms Ellis has sometimes turned to risky payday loans as she grapples with grocery prices that have surged 25% since Mr Biden entered office in January 2021. BBC

You should also know

Concerns grow on the right about Amy Coney Barrett . . . She broke from other Republican appointees last month on the government's prosecution of Jan. 6 defendants and refused to go as far on granting immunity to presidents. "I think she was never that conservative to begin with," said Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law. She often sides with the other Republican appointees but writes her own opinions. Sometimes, she vehemently disagrees with conservative giants such as Justice Clarence Thomas. Adam Feldman, a Supreme Court scholar who tracks trends at his "Empirical SCOTUS" blog, said Justice Barrett was more on the right in her early days as a justice when she joined the 2022 opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. Washington Times

Guilty Pleasures

First-time plane passenger sparks chaos after opening emergency door instead of bathroom . . . A first-time plane passenger sparked chaos after mistakenly opening up the plane's emergency exit door while on the hunt for the toilet. The mix-up unfolded when Air China flight 2754 was waiting on the tarmac at Quzhou Airport in China's eastern Zhejiang Province last Thursday night, the South China Morning Post reported. The rookie flier had gone to the back of the plane and tore open the door without anyone noticing — causing the evacuation slide to deploy. New York Post

Peeing out the window is a time-honored tradition, but generally not on airplanes.

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