The Hell Democrats Would Put America Through In 2024

 Sometimes coincidences happen in American politics, but what’s happening right now with the Democratic Party — the repeated loud and public doubting about Joe Biden’s future by prominent party figures — is not a coincidence.

This is coordinated, and as the 2024 election draws nearer, anything is possible.

In an interview with Patrick Bet-David this week, Robert Kennedy Jr. said something about the eventual Democrat presidential nominee I hadn’t considered. “If he were going to drop out,” Kennedy said, referring to Biden, “the time to drop out would be during the convention because then he would control the delegates, because they’re all Biden delegates, and he would then be able to pick his successor.”

The idea being that Biden, with the full Democrat apparatus behind him, would lock up the nomination by formally “running” but then direct all of his secured delegates to fall behind someone else, either because he knows he can’t endure a general election campaign, or because he’s been told he better not try.

I can’t think of a more bloodcurdling scenario, and it’s not at all out of the realm of high possibilities. “If Trump wasn’t running,” Biden said at a fundraiser on Tuesday, “I’m not sure I’d be running.”

Democrats are, of course, in a problem of their own making. They nominated a cadaver who was twice rejected for the spot in the past. But it turned out that with a little pandemic hyping, race riot stoking, and mail-in ballot rigging, they were able to pull things off and foist him into the White House, defeating (temporarily) Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the country collapsed into ruin under Biden, and the next election was fast approaching. They knew he shouldn’t run again, but his natural successor was an inept and undeniably unqualified Kamala Harris, Biden’s black woman of color female vice president.

They were stuck with the only person who could say he had beaten Trump before and was the best option to do it again. It just so happened that that person was now past the age of 80, in obvious and rapid decline, and had overseen a presidential term marked by global war and economic catastrophe.

The only other option was to have a brutal open primary, something that the party’s power structure would never allow. And that’s why Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s scenario is a potential likelihood. But that leads to the next problem — it’s unthinkable that the party’s voters would accept that national leadership would unilaterally determine who gets to be the nominee. I don’t know if you’ve seen Democrat voters lately, but they’re not exactly moving along with the rest of the herd.

There would be rioting and, almost certainly, violence. For weeks, maybe months. What would Democrat leaders do to quell it? What wouldn’t they do? Nonetheless, it’s a price they’d be willing to pay if it increased their chances of defeating Trump a second time.

Democrats cornered themselves. But there is absolutely no way in hell they will quietly plod their way to likely defeat. It’s going to get very, very messy, and it’s destined to be dangerous.

And you thought 2020 was wild.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/07/we-arent-prepared-for-the-hell-democrats-will-put-america-through-in-2024/

Jordan To CIA: How Many Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Signatories Were On Your Payroll?

 House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is investigating whether the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter were paid by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

After Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop surfaced during the 2020 election, more than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter in Politico saying the computer “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” In a letter to CIA Director William Burns on Monday, Jordan, who leads the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, demanded the CIA chief come clean about the agency’s alleged involvement in branding the laptop as Russian disinformation, which plainly amounted to election interference.

“We understand that former intelligence officials often return to the intelligence community under private contract for their previous agencies,” Jordan wrote. “It is vital to the Committees’ oversight to understand whether any of the signatories of the public statement were actively employed by CIA as contractors or consultants at the time they signed the public statement.”

“If so,” Jordan added, “this information would raise fundamental concerns about the role of the CIA as it pertains to the October 19, 2020, ‘Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails’ signed and published by 51 former intelligence community officials in the weeks preceding the 2020 presidential election.”

A report from the Weaponization Committee in May revealed the CIA’s covert involvement in orchestrating the letter. Evidence that surfaced from Hunter Biden’s laptop unveiled blockbuster details about the Biden family’s influence-peddling operations now at the center of a Republican impeachment inquiry.

In his Monday letter to the CIA chief, Jordan demanded a list of all signatories to the letter “who were on active contract or consulting for the CIA at any time from January 1, 2020, to the present,” as well as whether any of those potential contracts “pertained to Hunter Biden’s business dealings, Biden family influence-peddling, Ukraine, or the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.”

Several of the intelligence letters’ signatories have since doubled down on the debunked claims of Russian interference despite the laptop having been verified even by news outlets that first dismissed the computer’s legitimacy. Charges that the laptop stemmed from a Kremlin campaign were even debunked by rare on-the-record statements from the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Department of National Intelligence, and the State Department before Election Day. However, the laptop was suppressed by major online platforms, at least in part over the allegations that it was Russian propaganda.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper defended signing the letter in an interview with New York Magazine last fall, with the magazine noting that “Clapper was not pleased to be asked about the letter two years after its release.”

“What are you trying to get me to say, that I screwed up and I shouldn’t have signed the letter? I’m not going to say that,” Clapper told the paper. “As far as I was concerned, we were waving the yellow flag. At the time, it was fishy to me. It had the characteristics of a Russian disinformation campaign.”

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who led the agency under President Barack Obama, likewise told Fox News in October, “No, I don’t have any regrets” about signing the letter.

Last week, Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., became the latest to peddle the fake Russia narrative at a hearing on censorship with the House Weaponization Committee.

“The problem,” Goldman said about the laptop, “is that hard drives can be manipulated by Rudy Giuliani or Russia.”

In April, House Republicans expanded oversight inquiries surrounding the Politico letter to include Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In a letter to Blinken, lawmakers wrote, “[W]e have learned that you played a role in the inception of this statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor, and we therefore request your assistance with our oversight.”

Jordan gave CIA Director Burns until Dec. 15 to comply with the congressional request for records.

Read the full letter from Jordan to the CIA below:

https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/08/jim-jordan-to-cia-how-many-hunter-biden-laptop-letter-signatories-were-on-the-cias-payroll/

Charlamagne Tha God calls on Biden to drop out of presidential race

 Charlamagne Tha God says President Biden can give voters the “ultimate Christmas gift” by not running for reelection.

“I know he thinks he’s got this in the bag, but the polls say otherwise,” the “Breakfast Club” radio personality, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, said of Biden while guest hosting “The Daily Show” on Wednesday.

Biden in recent months has largely brushed off low poll numbers that some experts say could serve as warning signs for his 2024 reelection bid.

“I want Biden stepping into beat [former President Trump] the way I want him stepping in to defend me at a bar fight. I appreciate you caring, but I don’t like our chances,” Charlamagne told the Comedy Central show’s audience to laughs.

“The point is, we don’t need Biden to beat Donald Trump just like we didn’t need [late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg] to stay on the court,” he said.

“Maybe if RBG had retired during the Obama years, we’d still have Roe v. Wade,” he continued.

“But people said, ‘No, she needs to be here to protect Roe.’ And now look, both of them are gone.”

Ginsburg died in 2020 at 87. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion, last year.

“The facts are: Biden is not getting any younger, he’s not gonna get any more popular and he’s not getting a new running mate,” Charlamagne said.

“So please, Mr. President, give America the ultimate Christmas gift and step aside.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4349420-charlamagne-tha-god-calls-on-biden-to-drop-out-of-presidential-race/

Voters are right to complain about inflation

 Against the odds, the Federal Reserve’s effort to guide the U.S. economy to a soft landing — reducing inflation without causing a recession — seems to be working. Recent data show a still-growing economy, a gently cooling jobs market and a slower pace of price increases in services. Investors are growing more confident that the Fed won’t need to raise its policy rate any higher — and might start cutting in another few months.

President Joe Biden’s administration seems baffled that voters aren’t celebrating this accomplishment. Opinion polls show they’re persistently unhappy with the economy. It shouldn’t be a mystery why.

Given the surge in inflation following the pandemic — the headline rate of consumer-price inflation peaked at more than 9% in June 2022 — a relatively painless return to price stability would in fact be a notable achievement. But both the Fed and the administration should be cautious about celebrating too soon. A soft landing still isn’t guaranteed, and even if it’s accomplished, much of the damage caused by the earlier spike in prices will persist.

Up to now, the Fed has shown that it grasps both these points. After next week’s meeting of the central bank’s policymaking committee, Chair Jerome Powell will doubtless repeat his now-familiar refrain: Demand and supply are coming back into balance, but there’s a ways to go before inflation is securely on track to the committee’s target of 2%. And throughout, the Fed has recognized the pain caused by higher prices, partly to underline its unflinching commitment to meeting its goal.

The Biden administration has been less adept. Officials have been eager to declare victory over inflation for months. They’ve argued that a hot labor market has boosted wages more than prices, leaving workers on average better off, so what’s the problem? Maybe voters don’t understand economics.

When it comes to managing their budgets, they understand it just fine. Since 2020, prices overall have risen by roughly 20%. Average wages have indeed risen a fraction more. But for many families, the cost of living depends especially on the prices of groceries, utilities, housing and credit. As reporting by Bloomberg Economics and Businessweek shows, groceries are up 25% since 2020; the food budget for a four-person household is up more than 30%. Housing is less affordable than it has been for years, thanks to higher rents, home prices and (especially) mortgage rates. The share of wages spent on interest payments, including credit card bills and auto loans, is at its highest since just before the crash of 2008 — and close to a record. Unsurprisingly, debt delinquencies are rising fast.

In short, many households don’t just feel worse off; they are worse off. An abruptly higher cost of living is most painful for those who are on fixed incomes, have lagging wages, or are struggling for whatever reason with financial insecurity. Telling them the economy is in excellent shape only adds insult to injury.

The lesson for policymakers is not just that people are the best judges of their own financial circumstances, which no politician should need to be told. It’s also that financially stressed households detest inflation for good reason. Above all, a surge in prices is deeply unsettling for the vulnerable. It’s good that the Fed needs no reminding of this: Its commitment to price stability is commendably clear. But if progress on inflation should falter and the costs of disinflation start to loom larger, expect the central bank’s critics to take up the theme of “inflation doesn’t hurt” with renewed vigor. Their position is bad economics and worse politics.

https://www.arcamax.com/politics/opeds/s-3010147

Blame US kids’ learning loss on Randi Weingarten & Tony Fauci

 Fresh confirmation of pandemic learning loss dropped Tuesday with the release of 2022 US scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, which showed a dramatic drop in 15-year-olds’ math scores since the last, pre-COVID exams.

It proves once and for all that shutting down schools and pushing “remote learning” — for more than a year in some places — was a horrible mistake that devastated a generation of children.

And who’s to blame?

Pandemic scientist Anthony Fauci and school-union boss Randi Weingarten.

They said “follow the science,” yet ignored it.

In Weingarten’s case, she would pay lip service to school openings, and then set impossible conditions, like the complete eradication of the virus.

She pushed the CDC to include all kinds of exceptions to keep teachers home — even though studies showed schools were not super-spreaders.

Weingarten knows she was wrong.

That’s why she’s desperately rewriting history, trying to claim that she was an advocate for return to classroom.

No, Randi: Well into 2021, long after it was obvious that school reopenings were safe, you worked your connections to keep them shut.

Meanwhile, the 31 nations that maintained or improved upon their 2018 PISA math scores in 2022 shared some common characteristics, including shorter COVID school closures.

Here in America, schools stayed closed the longest wherever teachers unions were strongest: There’s no stronger proof that those unions don’t really care about the kids at all.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/05/opinion/blame-us-kids-learning-loss-on-randi-weingarten-amp-tony-fauci/

Genentech Kadcyla 1st Targeted Therapy to Show Significant Overall Survival Benefit in HER2+ EarlyBreast Cancer

 Phase III KATHERINE results reinforce Kadcyla as the standard of care for this population, with more than 82,000 people treated to date –

– Long-term data also showed continued benefit in invasive disease-free survival for adjuvant Kadcyla compared to Herceptin in this study –

– These data will be presented as an oral presentation at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and included in the official press program –

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/genentech-s-kadcyla-is-the-first-targeted-therapy-to-show-significant-overall-survival-benefit-in-people-with-her2-positive-early-stage-breast-cancer-with-residual-invasive-disease-after-neoadjuvant-treatment/

Kura in Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pediatric Acute Leukemia (PedAL) Master Clinical Trial

 Kura Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: KURA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to realizing the promise of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the largest private funder of blood cancer research, today announced a clinical collaboration to evaluate Kura’s menin inhibitor, ziftomenib, in combination with chemotherapy in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory KMT2A-rearranged, NUP98-rearranged or NPM1-mutant acute leukemia.

In partnership with the PedAL Initiative, LLS will serve as the coordinating sponsor in North America and the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in Utrecht, the Netherlands, will serve as the coordinating sponsor in Europe. PedAL is a pioneering global master clinical trial for Pediatric Acute Leukemia, founded and led by LLS, which aims to advance more effective, safer treatments with fewer long-term side effects, for children with blood cancer.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/kura-oncology-s-menin-inhibitor-ziftomenib-selected-for-the-leukemia-and-lymphoma-society-s-pediatric-acute-leukemia-pedal-master-clinical-trial/