BREAKING NEWS
New York’s Top Court Declines to Hear Trump’s Gag Order Appeal
The top court in New York state on Tuesday declined to hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a gag order relating to his falsification of business records case.
In a decision list, the New York Court of Appeals wrote that former President Trump’s appeal of Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order was “dismissed without costs” and added that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” The court’s chief judge, Rowan D. Wilson, and Judge Caitlin J. Halligan did not partake in the decision.
It means that the gag order will remain in effect for former President Trump, meaning he still cannot make public comments on certain individuals connected to the case. Judge Merchan has not signaled when he will lift it.
WORLD NEWS
WW3 WATCH: NATO Chief tells Biden more than 20 allies have committed to defense spending pledge!
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that more than 20 of the 32 member NATO nations have committed to their spending goal, previously agreeing to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. Stoltenberg also confirmed that spending among Canada and European member nations has increased by 18%, the largest in decades.
Mr. Stoltenberg said the NATO Summit next month would mark the 75th anniversary of “the most successful alliance in history” and make decisions on increasing defense spending and taking a lead role in providing security assistance and military training for Ukraine.
Mr. Stoltenberg said he expects more funding for Ukraine to come from Canada and European allies at the summit and shared his expectations for security and training measures.
It will most likely be at a U.S. facility located in Germany and have several hundred personnel organizing and facilitating the security assistance for Ukraine, he said.
India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and South Africa withhold support for Ukraine peace statement!
Dozens of countries are now claiming that respect for “territorial integrity and sovereignty” is the basis for any peace agreement to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, some key regional powers declined to sign a communique issued after the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland. More than 90 countries—including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan— participated in the two-day summit. Russia wasn’t invited, and China declined to attend.
The peace summit ended with the issuance of a joint communique signed by nearly 80 countries, focusing on nuclear safety, food security, and the release of prisoners of war.
India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates were among the participants who didn’t sign the communique, according to the list of signatories. Brazil joined as an observer but didn’t sign the statement.
Zelensky, Western leaders reject Putin proposals before at Swiss Peace summit!
Western leaders rejected Vladimir Putin’s framework for a ceasefire while backing Ukraine’s demands that Russia return all occupied territories as the basis for any potential peace agreement. The “first annual Global Peace Summit” held in the luxury Swiss resort of Burgenstock, which did not include any representatives from Moscow, concluded with the status quo essentially remaining the same, with Ukraine continuing to demand that Russia cede territory in the East and Crimea as a prerequisite for actual peace talks to begin, a likely non-starter for Vladimir Putin.
Following the conclusion of the meeting, which saw around 100 delegates from 92 countries and eight international organizations attend, President Zelensky claimed that all participants agreed that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” must be kept intact, Ukrinform reports.
Despite Ukraine failing to recapture the occupied regions in the Donbas during last year’s counteroffensive, Zelenksy’s chief-of-staff Andriy Yermak said that there would be “no compromise on independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” in any peace negotiations with Russia.
Report: China building nuclear weapons faster than any other country!
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an arms control group partly funded by the Swedish government, published a report on Monday that found China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other nation on Earth.
SIPRI’s annual report monitors the stockpiles of nine nuclear-armed states: the U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. The 2024 edition said all of these states “continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear- capable weapon systems in 2023.”
China’s development was particularly troubling because not only has it dramatically increased the size of its nuclear inventory but, in 2023, it placed some of its warheads on “high operational alert” for the first time.
Russia and the United States still control nearly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, with China now in third place, although the UK and France are believed to have more nuclear weapons currently “deployed” than China. China’s inventory reportedly jumped from 410 warheads to 500 over the past year.
“Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade, although its stockpile of nuclear warheads is still expected to remain much smaller than the stockpiles of either of those two countries,” the report cautioned.
The size of the U.S. and Russian inventories was relatively stable during 2023, although SIPRI noted Russia “deployed around 36 more warheads with operational forces” than the previous year because of the war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin expected to make whirlwind North Korean trip!
The communist regime of North Korea confirmed on Monday that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is expected to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday for a brief but intensive two- day stop.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) described Putin’s stop as a “state visit” and said Putin would be visiting after accepting an invitation from dictator Kim Jong-un. Kim invited Putin to his national capital during a visit to Vladivostok, eastern Russia, in September.
“Putin accepted the invitation with pleasure and reaffirmed his will to invariably carry forward the history and tradition of the Russia-DPRK [North Korea] friendship,” North Korean state media reported at the time.
Yury Ushakov, one of Putin’s top foreign policy aides, told reporters on Monday that the leader’s itinerary in North Korea will be “very intensive,” as Putin will likely arrive late on Tuesday, so most of the diplomatic engagements on his calendar will take place only on Wednesday.
Conversations with Kim, Ushakov said, will touch “various areas of the economy, energy, transport, agriculture, interregional relations, security issues, issues of cooperation in the international arena, and so on,” according to the Russian news outlet Tass.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Weather agency warning: Excessive heat wave to impact tens of millions of Americans!
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued heat advisories and excessive heat warnings for a swath of the U.S. East Coast and Midwest for Monday and Tuesday, while the weather agency separately warned that the temperatures will only increase as the week progresses.
“Record-breaking heat is forecast to expand from the Midwest and Great Lakes to the Northeast this week, potentially lingering through early next week,” the NWS wrote in a statement posted on social media.
A map posted by the NWS and other weather services suggest that tens of millions of Americans across more than a dozen states will see high temperatures. Major cities including Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York City, Boston, and Albany in New York could see “extreme” temperatures, it stated.
The federal weather agency also estimated more than 72 million people were under “heat alerts“ on Monday. A day prior, more than 60 million were under similar weather advisories, according to a NWS website.
From now until Saturday, the high heat will move east from the Ohio River Valley area to the Northeast United States, the agency said. Some places will see 105-degree F temperatures in the day, while they will only drop to the mid-70s F at night.
Biden announces protection against deportation for some illegal immigrants!
President Joe Biden on June 18 announced that his administration will not deport many illegal immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.
Approximately 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens, as well as about 50,000 children, will be shielded from deportation and given the ability to gain legal status without leaving the United States, the White House said.
The new process requires illegal immigrant adults to have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17 and to be married to a U.S. citizen. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is managing the program.
The president also said that his administration is making it easier for illegal immigrants who received protection under DACA, earned a college degree, and received an offer of employment from a U.S. business to obtain work visas.
The announcement quickly drew praise from some, who said the program would be welcome news to those affected.
“An estimated 55,000 immigrants in the Houston area are married to U.S. citizens and many of them will now be able to live, work, and raise a family without the fear of deportation,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said in a statement.
Others decried the move.
Stephen Miller, who was a top adviser on immigration during the Trump administration, described it on the social media platform X as an “unconstitutional amnesty to illegal aliens.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that the program would incentivize more illegal immigration, and be subject to legal challenges.
Texas man who threatened to kill Cong. Maxine Waters gets 33 months in Club Fed!
A Texas man who made a series of death threats to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was
sentenced to nearly three years in prison yesterday.
Brian Michael Gaherty of Houston was sentenced to serve 33 months in federal prison after he made several phone calls in 2022, threatening to kill Waters, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Gaherty was also given a $10,000 fine. In April 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Gaherty over the threatening phone calls he had made to Waters the year before.
Gaherty was charged with “four counts of making threats in interstate communications and four counts of threatening a United States official,” according to a press release from April 2023. Gaherty pleaded guilty in January to “one count of threatening a United States official,” according to the press release.
Report: 7.4-million known migrants are living across the U.S. while awaiting deportation …
Roughly 7.4 million known migrants — whom ICE has not detained — are living across the United States while awaiting deportation hearings, Fox News’s Bill Melugin reports. According to the report, President Joe Biden has more than doubled ICE’s non-detained docket compared to when former President Donald Trump was in office. The docket includes migrants living in American towns and cities whom ICE has not detained but who are awaiting deportation from the U.S. Melugin reported that multiple federal sources told him that ICE’s
non-detained docket has exploded to 7.4 million cases, more than doubling the Trump years, and it’s on pace to hit 8 million by [the] end of year.
The number of migrants living throughout the U.S. while awaiting deportation hearings is larger than two years of American births.
Voter fraud is real: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott slams overturned Houston judicial election!
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called out voter fraud, “especially in Houston,” after a judge ruled that more than 1,400 votes in a 2022 district court race were invalid, forcing the results to be thrown out.
“Voter fraud is real. Especially in Houston,” the governor posted on X on Saturday. “The court has found that 1,430 illegal votes were cast in the race for the 180th District Court.”
Judge David Peeples ordered Harris County to hold another election for the 180th District Court judge in May after it was found that 1,430 illegal votes were cast in the race, the Texas Tribune reported.
The ruling came after Republican candidate Tami Pierce filed a legal challenge against the results after narrowly losing to Judge DaSean Jones (D). Jones won by only 449 votes.
According to Judge Peeples, an investigation found that 983 votes were invalid because they were from people who lived outside Harris County or had other residency-related issues, 445 were invalid because voters did not show a valid ID, and 48 mail-in ballots lacked required signatures or were delivered after the deadline.
It is unclear which candidate received the majority of the invalid votes.
“The Judge hearing the case ordered a redo of the election. We must end voter fraud,” Abbott
concluded his post, along with a report on the topic from the Houston Chronicle.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys file motion for a new trial on all of Hunter’s gun charges, withdraws!
Attorneys for Hunter Biden reportedly filed a motion on Monday requesting a “new trial
on all counts,” then withdrew the motion.
NBC reported that attorneys for the son of President Joe Biden had filed a motion asking Judge Maryellen Noreika, who oversaw Hunter’s gun trial, for a “new trial on all counts for lack of jurisdiction.”
“The Third Circuit [appeals court], however, did not then and has not yet issued its mandate as to the orders dismissing either appeal,” Abbe Lowell, the attorney for Hunter wrote in the filing, according to the New York Post. “Thus, when this Court empaneled the jury on June 3, 2024 and proceeded to trial, it was without jurisdiction to do so.”
The motion was then reportedly “deleted at the request of the counsel,” according to the website Court Listener:
On June 11, a Delaware jury found Hunter guilty on all three gun charges.
Hunter Biden was charged with one count of making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm, one count of possessing a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, along with one count of making a false statement concerning information that is required for a licensed federal firearms dealer to keep.
The younger Biden is facing up to 25 years in prison and roughly $750,000 in fines, according to court documents.
Governor Wes Moore today signed a historic executive order pardoning 175,000 Maryland convictions related to the possession of cannabis, including convictions for misdemeanor possession of cannabis and certain convictions for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. The order represents the largest pardon for misdemeanor cannabis possession charges for any state in the country and the inclusion of paraphernalia makes Maryland the first state to take such action.
The Governor’s pardon follows the constitutional amendment passed during Maryland’s 2022 legislative session that legalized adult use and possession of cannabis and was overwhelmingly approved by popular referendum. Of the 175,000 pardons issued, more than 150,000 represent misdemeanor convictions for simple cannabis possession and more than 18,000 represent misdemeanor convictions for use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia.
Supreme Court rejects Alabama death row prisoner’s request for resentencing!
The Supreme Court recently overturned a lower court ruling that had vacated the sentence of an Alabama death row inmate after finding that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing process. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant the right to effective assistance of counsel.
The June 10th ruling in the case of Marcus Bernard Williams came as a follow-up to the Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision on May 30 in Thornell v. Jones. At issue in that case was whether a federal appellate court properly weighed the mitigating and aggravating evidence regarding the inmate before ruling that Arizona death row inmate Danny Lee Jones was prejudiced by ineffective counsel during sentencing.
In the case at hand, the Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari, or review, in State of Alabama v. Williams, in an unsigned order. The court didn’t explain its decision. At the same time, the court vacated the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit without holding oral arguments. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the 11th Circuit “for further consideration in light of Thornell v. Jones[.]”
The case goes back to 1996, when Mr. Williams murdered and posthumously raped his neighbor, Melanie Rowell, a 20-year-old single mother of two, according to Alabama’s petition. He later confessed. To a jury in 1999, those crimes justified the death penalty.
In 2023, the 11th Circuit held that Mr. Williams’s behavior reflected “hypersexuality,” for which he should be morally excused. The divided appellate court majority found that if the jury had been made aware that Mr. Williams was a victim of sexual abuse who had become “very driven to be sexually active,” he wouldn’t have received the death penalty.
The 11th Circuit vacated his sentence in two steps.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, lauded the Supreme Court for its new decision. He had argued that even if Mr. Williams had presented evidence of his “compulsive sexuality” at trial, the jury would not have changed its mind.
Trio pleads guilty to violent threats against pro-life pregnancy centers …
Three Floridians pleaded guilty last week to targeting employees of crisis pregnancy centers for providing alternatives to abortion, the Justice Department announced.
Between May and July 2022, Caleb Freestone, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarela Rivera carried out a series of attacks against pregnancy resource centers, vandalizing the buildings, according to a DOJ press release. The trio admitted to attacking the buildings at night while wearing masks and dark clothing. They also spray painted the buildings with threats.
“These defendants vandalized pregnancy resource centers with threatening messages meant to terrify the employees of those centers,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
The Justice Department has been criticized for bias in how its approach to cases such as these, and has focused heavily on targeting pro-life activists for protesting at abortion clinics. Indeed, the agency has convicted multiple people for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking entrances to abortion facilities. One of their targets included a 75-year-old woman who was sentenced to two years in prison, despite her apparent health problems.
Texas Democrat candidate arrested for posting fake racist messages and blaming opponent!
A former Biden appointee and current Democratic candidate in Texas was arrested last week for allegedly posting fake racist social media comments about himself.
Taral Patel was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve in the Office of White House Liaison, as well as on the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. He is now running as the Democrat candidate for county commissioner in Fort Bend County Precinct 3.
Shortly after launching his campaign last year, Patel claimed that he and his family had been victims of a vicious, race-based smear campaign perpetrated by his Republican opponent, Andy Meyers, and Meyers’s supporters.
Patel alleged he had received dozens of racist messages, including ones in which he was called a “monkey” and “subhuman,” as well as others directly attacking his Hindu faith.
“These hateful images are from a place of deep and misguided fear—incited by people like former President Donald Trump, and today’s extremist Republican party fear that immigrants are ‘taking their jobs’ and setting out to hurt our own communities,” Patel wrote at the time.
Meyers, the Republican running against him, denied the accusations and requested an investigation by the Fort Bend County district attorney’s office into Patel’s claims.
Investigators then subpoenaed Facebook and Google to obtain account information about the accounts allegedly posting hateful comments about Patel, only to discover that the accounts had been created by Patel and were linked to his address, phone number, bank card number, and more.
Texas law enforcement arrested Patel last week for online impersonation in the third degree, which is a felony, and for a misrepresentation of identity, which is a misdemeanor.
Fort Bend County GOP chair Bobby Eberle slammed Patel as another Jussie Smollett, the disgraced actor who was also charged for fabricating a racial hate crime against himself.
“Patel garnered widespread news coverage (like his former boss) for claiming that racist social media posts were made against him,” Eberle said in a statement. “Whether Republican or Democrat, such tactics should be unequivocally condemned by all who value integrity and accountability in politics.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Left-wing workers at Philly coffee shops decide to unionize; owner gave them a big surprise!
Just one week after left-wing employees of a Philadelphia coffee shop decided to unionize, all three of the shop’s locations closed down — and then the employees actually staged a protest against the closures. More than 30 former employees of the OCF Coffee House shops were out in force Tuesday outside one of the shuttered locations, WPVI-TV reported.
Some told the station the abrupt closures were due to the former employees’ announcement a week prior that they intended to unionize and join Workers United Local 80.
“We wanted better pay and stability and part-time health benefits, not only full-time,” former employee Stephanie Slaughter told WPVI.
Video showed the out-of-work folks holding signs and shouting chants on the sidewalk; the object of their displeasure was owner Ori Feibush, the station said.
Last Monday afternoon, employees got an email stating that all three shops were closed effective immediately, WPVI reported.
Feibush in a letter to employees and patrons said increasing costs and decreasing sales sparked the decision to close down after 13 years in business, the station reported.
He also pointed to administrative and legal costs in connection with the staff’s desire to organize, WPVI added.
“Very, very disheartening. We didn’t even get to start the bargaining process,” former employee Ava Alabiso told the station. “Didn’t even know what we were asking for before he decided to shut down all three stores, leaving us completely in the lurch through an email.”
OCF Coffee House told WPVI it will continue to provide health, vision, and dental benefits to employees for the next three months, but former employees are pushing for severance pay as well.
A number of observers on X aren’t exhibiting a lot of sympathy for the former employees:
“Instead of protesting the closure, they should be job searching,” one commenter said.
“Unionizing a job you can train high school students to do in a week is always a bad idea,” another user noted.
“I don’t understand … protesting a store closure? What are they expecting to accomplish with this? Hoping for the owners to change their minds and go broke paying your new wages?” another commenter asked.
EV start-up Fisker files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; aims to sell assets!
Fisker filed for bankruptcy protection late on Monday, as the U.S. electric-vehicle maker looks to salvage its operations by selling assets and restructuring its debt after burning through cash in an attempt to ramp up production of its Ocean SUVs.
The hyper-competitive EV market has seen several companies, including Proterra, Lordstown and Electric Last Mile Solutions, file for bankruptcy in the past two years as they grappled with weakening demand, fundraising hurdles and operational challenges from global supply chain issues.
The company, founded by automotive designer Henrik Fisker, flagged doubts about its ability to remain in business in February and later failed to secure an investment from a big automaker, forcing it to rein in operations.
The collapse of its talks with the automaker – which Reuters had reported to be Nissan – meant that it was denied $350 million in funding from an unnamed investor that was contingent on the automaker’s investment and forced Fisker to explore options.
“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently,” Fisker said.
In the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Delaware, its operating unit, Fisker Group Inc, estimated assets of $500 million to $1 billion and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.
The Supreme Court will hear a shareholder lawsuit alleging Nvidia deceived investors!
The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case from Silicon Valley tech giant Nvidia that could make it more difficult for shareholders to pursue securities fraud lawsuits.
The case comes after Nvidia agreed in May 2022 to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $5.5 million to resolve civil charges that the company failed to properly disclose the effect of cryptocurrency mining on its gaming operations. In two quarters in fiscal 2018, the company did not disclose that crypto mining was a “significant element” of its revenue growth from sales of chips made for gaming, the SEC stated.
Based in Santa Clara, California, Nvidia is a high-tech company known for its graphics processors commonly used in artificial intelligence development. E. Ohman J:or Fonder AB is an investment management firm in Stockholm, Sweden.
Investors sued Nvidia claiming that the company misrepresented its dependency on revenue from volatile cryptocurrency mining before a market setback in 2018. The company argues that the legal complaint filed against it lacks sufficient specificity to move forward.
A lower court resurrected the proposed class action lawsuit brought by shareholders in California and the Swedish firm against the company. Those suing alleged that Nvidia and senior company officials violated the federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making statements that downplayed how much of the company’s revenue growth came from crypto-related transactions.
Those omissions misled market participants who wanted to understand the effect of crypto mining on the company’s business, the plaintiffs argued.
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr., an appointee of President Barack Obama, threw out the lawsuit in 2021, but a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated it. That court determined that the plaintiffs had adequately alleged the company’s CEO made “false or misleading statements and did so knowingly or recklessly,” and it permitted the case to go ahead.
If the Ninth Circuit’s ruling is not reversed, it “threatens to turn the Nation’s largest circuit into a haven for abusive securities litigation,” Nvidia states in its petition.
Joe Biden’s migrants grab white collar jobs from U.S. graduates! So much for your student loans, eh?
American college graduates are losing jobs and opportunities in President Joe Biden’s
high-migration economy, admits the Washington Post. The Post article — which was posted a few days before Biden is expected to amnesty another 1 million migrants — offers sympathetic profiles of two young American graduates who remain unemployed — and a profile of an Indian graduate who landed a U.S. job at a banking-related firm in Texas.
The winning foreign graduate is just one of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who are being imported by Biden and his deputies to take white-collar jobs via little-known work permit programs. In this case, the Indian enrolled in a U.S. university to get up to four years of work permits via the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program:
Priyank Saxena applied for more than 500 jobs before he finally landed one, at a financial technology firm in San Antonio. Newly armed with an [May 2024] MBA from Rice University, he’d hoped to break into Big Tech or project management. But Saxena kept striking out: Even an internship at Dell Technologies wasn’t enough to get him in the door. He ended up going back to fintech, where he’d worked for six years before business school.
Since 2019, roughly 75 percent of all additional jobs have gone to Biden’s flood of roughly 10 million new migrants, including inexperienced OPT contract workers, blue-collar illegal aliens, and legal immigrants. The inflow delivers roughly one migrant for each American birth. The inflated supply of workers ensures lower salaries, less corporate investment in productivity-raising, high-tech workplaces, higher housing costs — and higher stock values on Wall Street. Worse, many U.S. information technology jobs are sent to India once the Indian workers are fully trained in U.S. jobs.
“As bad as things are right now for college graduates, for Americans who’ve been recently laid off and are looking to find another job … it’s only going to get worse,” said Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, which advocates for U.S. professionals.
The vast, million-plus population of foreign white-collar workers — including roughly 600,000 mid- skill H-1B workers — is largely ignored by the national media, whose reporters prefer to focus on the interests of migrants.
Also, the media’s selected reporters and editors are eagerly distracted from the white-collar outsourcing programs by staged drama, such as President Barack Obama’s DACA amnesty, and Biden’s expected “Parole in Place” amnesty for the spouses of U.S. citizens.
That “Parole in Place” amnesty includes many white-collar migrants and is reportedly going to be announced today by Biden at the White House.
The Post article noted that American graduates may be forced to move back in with their parents.
HEALTH
Herbal remedy lowers diabetes risk by 41%; faces challenges for U.S. approval!
A new study from China suggests that Jinlida granules, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, could significantly reduce the risk of diabetes. However, regulatory hurdles make it difficult for such treatments to gain approval and become widely available in the United States.
The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine shows that Jinlida, a treatment approved for Type 2 diabetes in China composed of 17 herbal ingredients, reduces the risk of developing diabetes in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). This condition involves elevated blood sugar levels that have not yet reached the threshold for a diabetes diagnosis. Participants taking Jinlida experienced a 41 percent lower risk of developing diabetes compared to those receiving a placebo.
The study involved 885 participants aged 18 to 70, monitored over two years. All participants engaged in a comprehensive lifestyle intervention program, including monthly physical activity sessions, dietary adjustments, and other lifestyle modifications. They also received a booklet with recommendations for daily habits, such as regular physical activity, regulating protein and carbohydrate intake, increasing dietary fiber, and reducing sodium consumption.
Results showed that individuals in the Jinlida group had a lower incidence of diabetes and demonstrated improvements in waist size, body mass index, and cholesterol levels. Significant decreases were noted in both after-meal and fasting blood sugar levels and HbA1c, a measure of long-term blood glucose control. Jinlida was also linked to better cholesterol profiles, with reductions in bad cholesterol and triglycerides and an increase in good cholesterol.
A half-teaspoon of olive oil a day may protect brain health!
In a recent study investigating the relationship between diet and dementia-related death, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers analyzed the diets and health outcomes of more than 92,000 U.S. adults.
The participants reported their food habits, including olive oil intake, every four years for 28 years. Researchers then categorized participants based on their daily olive oil consumption: never or less than once per month, up to 4.5 grams, between 4.6 and 7 grams, or more than 7 grams. Over the study period, 4,751 dementia-related deaths were recorded.
The findings suggest that regardless of genetic predisposition and overall diet quality, those who included at least seven grams (half a teaspoon) of olive oil per day lowered their risk of dementia-related death by 28 percent compared to participants who reported never or rarely including olive oil in their diet.
Related article: How to choose the best olive oil
FDA proposes new warning for Tylenol and other brands!
U.S. drug regulators have proposed adding a new warning to Tylenol and other brands of acetaminophen, an analgesic that relieves pain. If the proposal from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is finalized, companies that produce the medicines will be required to add a warning that states using acetaminophen may cause severe skin reactions.
A scientific review found that Tylenol and other acetaminophen brands, all available over-the-counter (OTC), can cause severe skin problems like Stevens-Johnson syndrome, according to the FDA’s proposed order.
To continue to be generally recognized as safe and effective, or include relevant information for consumers, FDA experts say the products “must include a warning about serious skin reactions.”
The warning, if finalized, would tell consumers that acetaminophen “may cause severe skin reactions” with symptoms including skin reddening, blisters, and rash.
“If a skin reaction occurs, stop use and seek medical help right away,” the proposed warning states.
The proposal follows a 2013 FDA alert that informed people acetaminophen was “associated with” serious skin reactions. The FDA in 2017 also issued guidance for manufacturers recommending they add warnings about the reaction. The new step would require the labels to be updated.
People desiring to comment on the proposed order can submit comments via an FDA portal through the end of July 29.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Maladaptive traits: AI systems are learning to lie and deceive …
A new study has found that AI systems known as large language models (LLMs) can exhibit “Machiavellianism,” or intentional and amoral manipulativeness, which can then lead to deceptive behavior.
The study authored by German AI ethicist Thilo Hagendorff of the University of Stuttgart, and published in PNAS, notes that OpenAI’s GPT-4 demonstrated deceptive behavior in 99.2% of simple test scenarios. Hagendorff qualified various “maladaptive” traits in 10 different LLMs, most of which are within the GPT family, according to Futurism.
In another study published in Patterns found that Meta’s LLM had no problem lying to get ahead of its human competitors.
While Hagendorff suggests that LLM deception and lying is confounded by an AI’s inability to have human “intention,” the Patterns study calls out the LLM for breaking its promise never to “intentionally backstab” its allies – as it “engages in premeditated deception, breaks the deals to which it had agreed, and tells outright falsehoods.”
As Park explained in a press release, “We found that Meta’s AI had learned to be a master of deception.”
“While Meta succeeded in training its AI to win in the game of Diplomacy, Meta failed to train its AI to win honestly.”
Meta replied to a statement by the NY Post, saying that “the models our researchers built are trained solely to play the game Diplomacy.”
DOJ sues Adobe for hiding termination fees and making it harder to cancel subscriptions!
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Adobe alleging that the company deceives consumers by hiding the early-termination fee and making it difficult for people to cancel their subscriptions.
In the complaint filed on Monday, the DOJ wrote that “Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.”
The government says Adobe pushed consumers toward the “annual paid monthly” subscription without informing them that canceling the plan in the first year would cost hundreds of dollars.
Adobe only discloses the early-termination fees when subscribers attempt to cancel, and turns the early-termination fee into a “powerful retention tool” by trapping consumers in subscriptions that they no longer want, the complaint says.
“During enrollment, Adobe hides material terms of its APM plan in fine print and behind option text boxes and hyperlinks, providing disclosures that are designed to go unnoticed and that most consumers never see,” according to the complaint. “Adobe then deters cancellations by employing an onerous and complicated cancellation process.”
Adobe says it plans to refute the claims in court.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
When things go wrong … a digital sharing warning for couples!
In new research that Malwarebytes will release this month, romantic partners revealed that the degree to which they share passwords, locations, and devices with one another can invite mild annoyances—like having an ex mooch off a shared NetWix account—serious invasions of privacy—like being spied on through a smart doorbell—and even stalking and abuse.
Importantly, this isn’t just about jilted exes. This is also about people in active, committed relationships who have been pressured or forced into digital sharing beyond their limit.
The proof is in the data.
When Malwarebytes surveyed 500 people in committed relationships, 30% said they regretted sharing location tracking with their partner, 27% worried about their partners tracking them through location-based apps and services, and 23% worried that their current partner had accessed their accounts without their permission.
Plenty of healthy, happy relationships share digital access through trust and consent. For those couples, mapping out how to digitally separate and insulate their accounts from one another “when things go wrong” could seem misguided.
But for the many spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends, and partners who do not fully trust their significant other—or who are still figuring out how much to trust someone new—this exercise should serve as an act of security.
But there’s one type of shared account that should raise more caution than those listed above: A shared online shopping account, like Amazon.
With access to a shared online shopping account, a spiteful ex could purchase goods using your saved credit card. They could also keep updates on your location should you ever move and change addresses in the app. This isn’t the same threat as an ex having your real-time location, but for some individuals—particularly survivors of domestic abuse who have escaped their partner—any leak of a new address presents a major risk.
The most serious concerns regarding digital access are the potential for stalking and abuse.
For partners that share devices and device passcodes, the notorious threat of stalkerware makes it easy for an abusive partner to pry into a person’s photos, videos, phone calls, text messages, locations, and more. Stalkerware can be installed on a person’s device in a matter of minutes—a low barrier of entry for couples that live with one another and who share each other’s device passcodes.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
U.S. appeals court allows gas pipeline expansion in the Northeast U.S.!
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that a gas pipeline expansion to deliver more gas to customers in New York can move forward, arguing that a federal regulatory agency properly evaluated the effects it would have when the line was approved.
In a decision handed down last week, a panel of three judges unanimously rejected arguments made by left-leaning environmental group Food & Water Watch after it filed a petition of appeal in 2022 arguing that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not adequately quantify emissions from upstream drilling for the gas that would be transported through the pipeline expansion.
The project would place new gas compressor stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York meant to pump more fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales.
FOOD, PREPPING, GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Staying Cool Without Power: 18 Things That Work
It is difficult to overstate just how critical air conditioning is to Western civilization at this point. Don’t believe me? Just try going without it during summer in Arkansas or Texas!
Oppressive heat will not only make you miserable, but it can actually be dangerous too! Each year, countless people are affected by heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and many of them die.
But life must go on, and it must still go on without air conditioning. Whether you’re dealing with a blackout or living on an off-grid property where air conditioning just isn’t in your energy budget, there are still ways to keep cool during the hottest parts of the year.
Keep reading and I’ll tell you about 18 tried, true and tested tricks to keep your cool…
Seal Up Your Home
This is critical to maximizing whatever cool air you can keep in your home if you don’t have AC. You want to make sure that all of the cracks, gaps and drafts in your home are absolutely dealt with by any means necessary.
As the day starts to heat up, the air temperature outside should rise much quicker than the air in your home.
But, if that hot air can get in at every window and door, your home will be nearly as hot as the outdoors. Grab your weather strips, caulking gun, tape, and anything else you need to shut down those drafts!
Close Windows and Blinds
This one should be obvious, but it bears repeating. You want to keep direct sunlight from warming up the interior of your home. Make sure your windows are shut when the day starts to get hot, and close the blinds or pull the drapes as needed to keep that light out.
Pay particular attention to any windows that are south facing (in the northern hemisphere) or large windows that have a higher value when it concerns how much sunlight they are letting in. If you do need to leave windows uncovered, make sure they are ones that aren’t getting direct sunlight.
Close Off the Hottest Rooms
This tip handily dovetails with the previous one: if you have any room in your house that is notoriously hot, for any reason, you want to seal it up tightly inside your home so that the heat in there does not leak out into the rest of the cooler interior.
Generally, all you’ll need to do is close the door and, if needed, fit a draft stopper to the bottom of the door itself. If the door is not snug in its frame, consider using blankets to block those drafts. You’ll notice a difference, trust me!
Apply Reflective Window Films
One of the single best things you can do if you live in a hot locale or any place that gets a ton of UV is to apply reflective film to the outside of your windows. This is a bit of a project, concerning the prep of the windows and the actual application, but totally doable for even an amateur DIYer.
These reflective films will bounce sunlight off of the windows, preventing it from heating up the interior of your house.
Note that this makes a difference even if you have blinds or drapes because that heat will still heat up the blinds and drapes themselves, slowly radiating that to the interior. These window films are worth their weight in gold if you have little shade and don’t have AC!
Make the Most of Shade
Maximize any shade that you can around your home. Let your trees grow a little fuller. Let bushes get a little taller to help block windows. Position plants inside and outside of your home to provide shade for people and rooms.
Anything you can do on this front, no matter how seemingly minor, will make a difference, and planting trees around your home strategically can pay dividends in the future as they eventually grow tall enough to provide significant shade to your entire house.
Adjust Fans as Needed
Basic floor fans, and other fans, are some of your best weapons for keeping cool when you don’t have AC. But you need to make sure you set them properly to maximize their efficacy during hot weather.
For floor fans, make sure you have them set up to blow cooler air into your home when temperatures are low early in the morning and late in the evening or at night. Adjust your ceiling fans to pull hot air up and away from the floor.
If you’re lucky enough to have a whole house fan, sometimes called a garage fan, turn it on occasionally to purge stifling hot air from the inside of your home.
Remember that when you can pull or blow cool air into your home, you should. When it’s hot outside, close up your house and use your fans to keep air moving over occupants to help cool them.
Maximize Cool Flooring Materials
Remember that cool air sinks, while hot air rises, and also keep in mind that materials with higher thermal density will stay much cooler if they are protected from direct sunlight.
If you have stone, tile, concrete or brick floors they should be noticeably cool compared to other surfaces in your house even as things start to heat up.
Protect these surfaces from sunlight coming in through the windows by any means, and once the sun is passed, remove rugs or any other coverings so that their coolness will help offset heat in the room.
Hang Out in the Coolest Room of Your House
Remember when I mentioned up above that the hottest rooms in your house should be closed off and sealed up? You should do the opposite with the coolest room in your house…
If you have any room that’s noticeably cool, make that the area where you hang out most of the time and you will stay much cooler!
This might be a shaded room on the northern side of a house, or could just be your basement. Whatever it takes, set up the space to make it a little more livable for whatever it is that you do.
This little bit of extra work can make your waking hours in your home a heck of a lot more comfortable.
Shutoff Unneeded Electronics and Appliances
I know a lot of folks that are guilty of this one, and I am certainly the chief offender! Any electronics, no matter what they are should be shut off, unplugged if necessary, if they aren’t being used.
Typical incandescent light bulbs are one of the worst offenders, so turn those lights off when you don’t need them to see.
This is because even on standby power many of our modern devices generate considerable heat:, monitors and TVs, computer towers, power supplies for game consoles, and a lot more. Deprived of power, they won’t radiate any heat into the room at all.
Having several high-consumption devices in the same room can dramatically raise the temperature; unplug these devices and you’ll see!
Hang Damp Sheets or Moisten Curtains
If you’re desperate to cool down a room, or at least for you to feel a little bit colder, consider hanging up a thin sheet that you’ve wetted down and then wrung out so it is still just damp to the touch. You can do the same thing with curtains if you need to.
As air moves over and through the damp cloth, it will be cooled by the water. In conjunction with the moving air from a fan or a cool late evening breeze, this could produce sweet relief for the occupants of your home!
This trick has been used since antiquity by various cultures around the world living in the hottest climates.
Dress Appropriately
Another obvious tip, but one that bears repeating. You want to dress appropriately for the conditions, whether you are in your home or not.
Wear light, breezy, gauzy fabrics made of cotton or linen, and if you aren’t in direct sunlight wear shorts and short sleeves. Light colors are, as always, best because they absorb less heat, especially from direct sunlight.
If you are outdoors, wear a hat to protect your head and neck from direct sunlight and consider wearing longer clothing that is still light in order to spare your skin.
Wear Damp Headbands or Neckerchiefs
A great way to help yourself keep cool whether you are indoors or out during a serious heat wave is to tie a dampened headband around your forehead or around your neck as a neckerchief.
Especially if it can be done with cool water, this will help you feel dramatically better, and will help to rapidly cool your body safely even if you are on the go. It doesn’t need to be dripping wet, but you want it to be noticeably damp and moist.
Wring it out and re-wet it to recharge occasionally and you’ll stay nice and cool.
Stay Hydrated
Another elementary tip and one that is all too easily forgotten under the circumstances: Make sure you are staying hydrated! Most people simply don’t in conditions of high heat, even when they’re hanging out in their own home.
2ND AMENDMENT
Gun control fail: Secret Service agent robbed at gunpoint in California!
A Secret Service agent was reportedly robbed at gunpoint in Tustin, California, while off- duty during President Joe Biden’s campaign stop with former President Barack Obama and some celebrities.
CBS News reported that the off-duty agent’s bag was stolen “Saturday night at about 9:30 p.m.”
The agent was able to draw his own gun and fire at the alleged robber, but it is unknown if the suspect was hit. The alleged robber managed to escape.
USA Today noted that the suspect is believed to have fled the scene in “a 2004-2006 silver Infiniti FX35 or similar vehicle.”
California has more gun control than any state in the Union. Those controls include universal background checks, a red flag law, a ten-day waiting period on gun purchases, firearm registration requirements, an “assault weapons” ban, a ban on carrying concealed for self-defense on college campuses, a ban on teachers being armed in K-12 schools for self-defense, a limit on the number of guns law-abiding citizens can buy in a given month, and controls on ammunition as well.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Kansas sues Pfizer: Company misled public on COVID-19 vaccine!
Yesterday, the State of Kansas sued Pfizer, alleging the pharmaceutical giant “misled” members of the public with various claims about its COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer, for instance, said on April 1, 2021, that there were “no serious safety concerns through up to six months following the second dose” of the vaccine it makes with Germany’s BioNTech, the lawsuit notes.
But documents made public through a lawsuit showed that Pfizer’s adverse events database, which includes reported issues following vaccination from around the world, already contained 158,893 adverse events as of Feb. 28, 2021.
“Pfizer’s representations that its COVID-19 vaccine did not have any safety concerns was inconsistent with the adverse events data it possessed,” the suit, filed by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach states. “Pfizer concealed, suppressed, or omitted material facts it possessed showing significant safety concerns associated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.”
The suit also highlights how Pfizer in the same press release said that vaccinated trial participants enjoyed 91.3 percent protection against COVID-19 up to six months after a second dose. Its press release that day mentioned positive findings from a different study but omitted mention of the preprint paper or how it had found signs of waning protection.
“Pfizer’s concealment, suppression, and omission of the waning effectiveness of its COVID- 19 vaccine allowed Pfizer to profit from vaccinations of Kansans who may have been deterred from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine had they known about its waning effectiveness,” the suit states.
How ivermectin trials were designed to fail … (Health Viewpoints by Yuhong Dong, MD)
The use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 is an ongoing debate. The central conflict is that although many doctors have reported success in using ivermectin, some studies published in major journals suggest it is in fact ineffective.
Even as the FDA recently has been removing misinformation it posted about ivermectin, the agency has maintained its original position regarding its effectiveness, namely that there isn’t evidence.
Numerous preclinical studies have found that ivermectin has a broad range of effects on COVID-19, spanning from its initial effect on viral infection to its effect on the pathological changes the virus causes in our bodies.
Ivermectin inhibits the entire life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 in our cells, including attachment, spreading, and replication (1, 2, 3).
Moreover, ivermectin is anti-inflammatory and organ-protective, which can potentially protect against severe COVID-related lung damage and acute respiratory distress syndrome, heart-related complications, and blood clots.
Moreover, ivermectin should be given with food, as it has a 2.6-fold higher bioavailability when taken with food than when taken on an empty stomach. The Merck package insert (revised May 2022) also supports this and states, “Administration of 30 mg ivermectin following a high-fat meal resulted in an approximate 2.5-fold increase in bioavailability relative to administration of 30 mg ivermectin in the fasted state.”
Long COVID risk factors revealed in new study of 4700 people!
An analysis provides more insight into who may be most at risk of developing “long COVID,” a lingering chronic set of symptoms have been associated after an acute COVID-19 infection.
While much about long COVID is unknown, some medical researchers say it has symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, and shortness of breath that can last months after patients first contract a bout of COVID-19. Some people can recover after a lengthy period of time, while some claim that their symptoms have not fully resolved since early 2020 when the pandemic first emerged.
The peer-reviewed research paper from Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, published in the JAMA Network, involved over 4,700 participants who partook in the Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research, who were asked to disclose their recovery time after being infected with COVID-19, according to the university news release that was published yesterday.
Individuals with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, depressive symptoms, and a history of smoking also were associated with longer COVID-19 recovery times. However, “these associations were no longer significant after accounting for sex, cardiovascular disease, vaccination, and variant exposure,” the researchers said.
“No significant multivariable-adjusted associations were observed for age, educational attainment, smoking history, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or elevated depressive symptoms. Results were similar for reinfections,” they said.
REVIEW: Early treatment with fluvoxamine may reduce severe COVID-19 outcomes!
An antidepressant commonly used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may significantly reduce the risk of clinical deterioration in COVID-19 patients, according to new research published in Scientific Reports.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 clinical studies involving 7,153 patients found that early treatment with fluvoxamine, especially at doses of 200 milligrams or more, notably reduced COVID-19 clinical deterioration, mortality, and long-COVID complications.
The authors defined clinical deterioration as needing hospitalization after testing positive for COVID. About 7 percent of patients who took fluvoxamine needed hospitalization after testing positive for COVID- 19, whereas about 19 percent of those who did not take fluvoxamine required hospitalization, the authors found.
CANCEL CULTURE
Federal Title IX Transgender rule blocked in 6 more States!
A federal judge issued an order yesterday temporarily blocking the Biden administration’s new Title IX transgender rule in an additional six states. The rule has sparked controversy for changing the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity” and giving female-identifying male students access to girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.
“There are two sexes: male and female,” begins the memorandum and opinion written by U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves, filed on June 17 at the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky, Covington Division.
The judge’s order grants a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the new rule in six states: Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The rule has also been blocked in at least five other states. The judge found that the Department of Education (DOE) exceeded its statutory authority in setting the new rules and acted in a way that was “arbitrary and capricious.”
A DOE spokesperson said the judge’s ruling is under review.
Officials: Illegal alien deported 16 times killed 64-year-old man in trucking accident!
An illegal alien from Mexico, deported 16 times from the United States, is accused of
killing a 64-year-old man from Bailey, Colorado, in a vehicle crash.
Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza, a 47-year-old illegal alien, has been arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, reckless driving, and driving without a commercial driver’s license in connection to the death of 64-year-old Scott Miller.
According to the Colorado State Patrol, Cruz-Mendoza was driving a semi-truck for the Indio, California-based Monique Trucking company on Highway 285 near Conifer, Colorado, when the vehicle veered off the road, causing the pipe and angle iron he was carrying to spill on top of five vehicles in his path.
In one of those vehicles was Miller, who was killed at the scene. Another driver in a separate vehicle suffered serious injuries as a result and is recovering at a nearby hospital.
Officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency have since confirmed to KUSA- TV Denver that Cruz-Mendoza is an illegal alien who has been deported from the U.S. to Mexico a total of 16 times over the last two decades.
Cruz-Mendoza was first deported in May 2002 after he was arrested on local charges in Oregon the month before. Since then, he has been deported and has repeatedly returned to the U.S., likely through the nation’s porous southern border.
ICE officials have placed a detainer on Cruz-Mendoza, requesting custody of him if he is released from police custody in Jefferson County, Colorado, at any time.
PET NEWS
Dog Behaviors: No, dogs do not feel guilt. Then what’s that look on their face?
Alexandra Horowitz, director of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, published a study in 2009 which observed canine behavior after being scolded. In the study, human participants were instructed to tell their dogs not to eat a particular treat. Then, the humans left the room and the dogs were either given the treat, or the treat was taken away.
The humans returned and were told, despite what had actually happened, that their dogs either did or did not eat the treat. The humans who thought their dogs had eaten the treat scolded them, prompting guilty behavior. The trouble is, the guilty behavior that came after a scolding was more prevalent in dogs who had not actually eaten the treat. This shows a lack of connection between knowledge of a misdeed and guilty behavior, and a greater connection between that behavior and human cues (which can be far more subtle than scolding).
After giving dogs the opportunity to break a rule by eating “human” food from a table in their human’s absence, they found that dogs who did eat the food were not more likely to look guilty upon their human’s return than dogs who didn’t. Additionally, they found humans did not have a greater-than-chance ability to determine, based on their dog’s behavior (in the absence of scolding), whether or not they had committed the infraction.
This doesn’t rule out the idea that guilty behavior can precede scolding, but it does suggest that, when it does, the guilty behavior may simply be a result of a dog connecting past punishment with present environmental cues.
Believing your dog can feel guilt can be helpful to a species (human) that often feels most comfortable having someone to blame when something goes wrong. If your dog knew they were doing something they shouldn’t, and that idea is reinforced by guilty behavior, then they are at fault and the resulting punishment is deserved and well-taken. On the other side, believing that they feel guilt can also feel a bit like giving your dog love and empathy, and treating their feelings with respect.
But it isn’t in a dog’s best interest to misunderstand them. In assuming guilt and knowledge of a misdeed, the human excuses themselves from looking into and addressing the root cause of a certain behaviors — be it nervousness, fear, pain, or something else altogether.
ICYMI
President Joe Biden was downtown Los Angeles Saturday evening raising money, but once again, he managed to raise concern about his cognitive decline.
A Quinnipiac University poll found earlier this year that the super-majority of likely voters think Biden is too old to effectively serve another term as president. If re-elected, he would conclude his term at the age of 86 — roughly twelve years higher than the average life expectancy for the American man. According to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted late last month, concerns over the 81-year-old Democrat’s decrepitude have not gone away, with 57% of likely voters indicating that Biden’s mental decline was worsening.
Biden has, after all, provided his critics with plenty of fodder in recent weeks and years, evidencing difficulty completing sentences despite leaning into his heavy reliance on cue cards; struggling to stay upright; repeating himself and telling the same debunked anecdote twice over, nearly word for word and in short succession; mistaking the living for the dead and his sister for his wife; confusing the names of disparate nations; spending roughly 40% of his presidency out of office; and showcasing difficulties controlling his temper.
On Saturday, Biden was joined by former President Barack Obama and a handful of professional script readers, including George Clooney, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Bateman, and Julia Roberts, at the Peacock Theater, where they raised over $30 million for his re-election campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Democratic mega donor Jeffrey Katzenberg, a cochair of Biden’s re-election campaign, hyped the event in advance, noting, “The enthusiasm and commitment for Biden-Harris couldn’t be stronger. We all understand this is the most important election of our lifetime.”
With Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (Calif.) and other leftist lawmakers looking on, Biden, fresh off visiting his criminally convicted son, once again recycled the false claim that former President Donald Trump advised people to inject bleach during the pandemic as well as the false flag narrative concerning Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. He also likened Trump to Julius Caesar, a politician assassinated by a cabal of other politicians.
After Biden and Obama finished their seated interview with Kimmel, the two stood for applause. Footage shared by Chris Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter shows Biden frozen in place with his hand raised in what appears to be a halted wave. After a pregnant moment, he pivots slightly into another static pose, at which point his predecessor grabs his wrist and gently escorts him offstage.
Gardner noted in his caption, “Barack Obama and President Joe Biden offer final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden’s hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute conversation with Jimmy Kimmel.”
Multitudes of users on X expressed pity and concern over the president’s apparent decline. Piers Morgan, among them, wrote, “So embarrassing. The Democrats can’t let this go on, surely?”
Biden boosters desperately attempted to spin this latest apparent signal of decrepitude caught on video as a hoax.
What a way to go … on Father’s Day! Nikki Haley’s father passes away last Sunday!
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced on Sunday that her ailing father had passed away earlier in the day. Her tribute was accompanied by a photo of her embracing her late father, Ajit Singh Randhawa. She did not disclose his age.
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