Tuesday, July 9, 2024

July 9, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

White House admits Parkison's specialist has examined Biden . . . The White House admitted Monday that a Parkinson's expert who's visited the executive mansion eight times in as many months has evaluated President Biden — but said the exams only took place during the president's annual physicals. The revelation was disclosed in a letter from Biden's personal physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor hours after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to explain the flurry of recent visits from the Parkinson's specialist, Dr. Kevin Cannard. "Dr. Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals," O'Connor wrote in the letter. "President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical," O'Connor said. He also reiterated that Biden's last physical in February revealed no indications that the president had Parkinson's or other neurological disorders. New York Post

Politics

How Biden's inner circle worked to keep signs of aging under wraps . . . Senior White House advisers for more than a year have aggressively stage-managed President Biden's schedule, movements and personal interactions, as they sought to minimize signs of how age has taken a toll on the oldest president in U.S. history. The White House has limited Biden's daily itinerary and shielded him from impromptu exchanges. Advisers have restricted news conferences and media appearances, twice declining Super Bowl halftime interviews—an easy way to reach millions of voters—and sought to make sure meetings with donors stuck to scripted pleasantries. Senior aides dismissed travel suggestions over worries the president didn't have the stamina for them, including an idea for Biden to make weekly cross-country trips in 2022 to tout the benefits of his infrastructure law. Wall Street Journal

Jill Biden scolds reporters asking about Dem calls for Joe to drop out: 'Don't scream at me' . . . Irked first lady Jill Biden told reporters, "Don't scream at me," when asked Monday about the mounting number of House Democrats calling for 81-year-old hubby President Biden to give up his reelection bid. "What is your message for House Democrats who are calling for your husband to drop out of the race?" a journalist asked as the first lady exited a coffee shop in Tampa, Fla. — with another reporter adding, "How are you feeling about the state of the race?" The first lady broke her stride as she walked past the press, demanding to know, "Why are you screaming at me?" New York Post

Harris defends anti-Israel protestors . . . Vice President Kamala Harris defended anti-Israel campus agitators, telling the Nation in an exclusive interview she "understands the emotion behind it." "They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza," the vice president said. "There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don't mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it." Those protesters have wreaked havoc on college campuses for months, calling for the elimination of Israel, defending Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and assaulting Jewish students. Washington Free Beacon

Democratic leaders rally around Biden as discontent grows within ranks . . . Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are rallying around President Biden as scores of lawmakers in the party privately — and publicly — question his viability at the top of the ticket after his disastrous debate performance in Atlanta last month. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday both amplified previous statements of support for Biden, the party's presumptive nominee, despite the backlash from the debate. The Hill

Even CNN's Jake Tapper thinks it's time for Biden to go . . . Tapper played a soundbite from the Monday "Morning Joe" segment where Biden was incomprehensible, with the CNN host repeating what the president said. "The fact of the matter is how can you assure you're going to be out on, you know, on your way to go, you know, work tomorrow age age wasn't, you know, the idea that I'm too old," the host read, adding, "Keep in mind that soundbite is supposed to be reassuring to those Democratic supporters who have gone wobbly." Daily Caller

Poll finds Biden damaged by debate; Harris and Clinton best positioned to win . . . The national poll, conducted and commissioned by the Democratic firm Bendixen & Amandi after Biden's politically disastrous debate, found Biden trailing Trump, 42 percent to 43 percent. Vice President Kamala Harris is now running ahead of Trump, 42 percent to 41 percent, the survey found. And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 nominee who is not being seriously discussed as a candidate by voters anxious about Biden's chances, is slightly ahead of Harris. Clinton leads Trump 43 percent to 41 percent. Politico

'Squad' members throw Biden lifeline as prominent progressives back president . . . Progressive Democrats, such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have thrown their support behind President Joe Biden to remain at the top of their party's ticket, while others have stayed silent. "I have spoken to the president over the weekend. I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race," Ocasio-Cortez said. "The matter is closed." Washington Examiner

Rep. Tenney calls for DOJ investigation of Hunter Biden laptop signers for election interference . . . Conservative New York Rep. Claudia Tenney is sending a letter to the Justice Department that requests an investigation into the 51 signers of a letter that labeled reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop as a potential "Russian information operation." Dozens of former intelligence officials warned in the letter, which was published one month before the 2020 presidential election, that the emails from the laptop bore the markings of a Russian-influenced operation. Just the News

RNC adopts Trump-inspired platform that rolls back anti-abortion positions . . . "We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process, and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights," the platform states. "We will oppose late-term abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control, and IVF," it says. The previous platform endorsed a human life amendment to the Constitution and a federal Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that bars abortions beginning at 20 weeks of pregnancy. Washington Times

Culture

Three Columbia deans put on leave for text messages evoking antisemitic tropes . . . The university said the administrators from Columbia College, the undergraduate liberal arts college, sent troubling text messages in May during a reunion weekend event forum called "Jewish Life on Campus: Past, Present, and Future." Columbia didn't detail what the messages said. The text messages referenced antisemitic tropes about Jewish wealth and said Jewish students came from a place of privilege. Wall Street Journal

Duke Medical School claims 'timeliness,' 'individualism' is part of 'White supremacy culture' . . . Duke Medical School claims it is "White supremacy culture" to expect people of color to be on time in a strategic plan for creating an "Anti-Racist Workforce." The medical school said its goal is to "catalyze anti-racist practice through education," in a 2021 plan titled "Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine." The guide – praised by the school's dean – called out what it deemed "White supremacy culture," with its purported nitpicking of being on time, dress code, speech and work style. Fox News

Many universities are abandoning race-conscious scholarships worth millions . . . Duke University recently discontinued a 45-year-old scholarship that covered tuition, currently about $66,000 a year, and housing costs of some Black undergraduate students. The University of Iowa has changed the selection criteria for its Advantage Iowa Award, which dispenses more than $9 million a year in financial help to first-year students from historically underrepresented groups. White students, who previously weren't eligible, can now apply. Across the four-campus University of Missouri system, officials are changing the eligibility rules for $17.2 million in institutional and donor-funded scholarships earmarked for students from certain racial or ethnic groups. Race will no longer be considered in scholarship applications. Washington Post

National Security

Biden opposes bill requiring voters to prove citizenship . . . President Joe Biden formally rejected on Monday a bill in Congress that would require individuals to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in elections for federal office. A policy statement from the Biden administration said it "strongly opposes" the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) earlier this year and is expected to get a vote in the Republican-led House as early as this week, but did not mention the prospect of a veto. Daily Wire

Why bring in all those new voters if they can't vote?

Kidnapping, rape, murder, sex trafficking, child labor: How cartels treat the youngest migrants . . . Nearly every single migrant from Central America or South America is robbed in some way, said Jarrod Sadulski, an expert on smuggling. Some are killed if they can't pay. Others are kidnapped and taken to Western Union to collect money from family members. Children are stolen from families south of the border and become unaccompanied alien children in the U.S. The government sends them to communities across the country, where a grim fate often awaits: occasionally sex trafficking, but usually forced labor. Washington Times

This is supposed to be more humane than Trump's policy of ending illegal border crossings . . .

International

Modi bear hugs Putin in Moscow, marking deep ties between Russia and India . . . As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes his first visit to Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the images emerging from Moscow of Modi wrapping the Russian president in a bear hug send a clear signal that the South Asian giant will maintain deep ties with Russia despite the Biden administration's efforts to woo its prime minister. It also shows that Putin is not as isolated as the White House has hoped. Washington Post

You should also know

Trade school enrollments boom as high school grads shun costly four-year degrees . . . Vince Gregg, principal of Blue Ridge Technical Center in Front Royal, Virginia, says he learned the hard way about the costs of accumulating four years of college debt. Mr. Gregg graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in government, but he couldn't repay his $60,000 in student loan debt until he obtained a master's degree in education and a teaching license. Now, he trains 600 students from two public high schools in Warren County to become cooks, auto mechanics, electricians, biomedical technicians and police officers instead of pursuing four-year college programs. Washington Times

The next pandemic will be worse than Covid . . . Former CDC Director Robert Redfield predicted the next pandemic would be the bird flu, also known as H5N1. Its mortality rate is significantly higher than COVID: 52% of the 888 infected patients with H5N1 have died since 2003. "COVID's mortality was about 0.6%," Redfield said. "Bird flu's mortality is going to be north of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%. It's going to be catastrophic." With more than 100 million chickens and turkeys already infected in the United States, Redfield said bird flu has also been found in 27 different mammals. And while there remains a low risk of infecting humans right now, another mishap like the COVID lab leak could quickly expedite bird flu's transmission. Daily Signal

Study finds Mounjaro 'significantly more' effective than Ozempic for weight loss . . . Overweight and obese adults using popular diabetes medications to suppress their appetites are "significantly more likely" to shed pounds with Eli Lilly's Mounjaro than with Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, a new study has found. While most patients lost at least 5% of their body weight within a year, the study found that those receiving Mounjaro were over two times more likely than Ozempic patients to experience 10% weight loss and three times more likely to trim 15%. Washington Times

Guilty Pleasures

Have you committed a crime? Were there witnesses? There's hope for you . . . Clandestine hospitals in the Philippines have been offering plastic surgery services to fugitives and scam centre workers to help them evade arrest, authorities say. Two such illegal hospitals could be shut down "in the coming weeks" after police raided the first one in Manila's southern suburbs in May, a police spokesman told the BBC. Hair transplant tools, dental implants and skin whitening IV drips were seized from the hospital in Pasay City two months ago. "You can create an entirely new person out of those." said Winston John Casio, a spokesman for the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission. BBC

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