Biden claims he has ‘executive privilege’ against anyone finding out just how addled he is

 By James Bovard

The Biden White House is proclaiming a new prerogative for presidents: They may suppress any evidence of their unfitness for office.

The battle over five hours of audio tapes could settle President Biden’s fate or pave the way for perpetual presidential secrecy in coming years.

In August 2022, Biden’s FBI launched a massive, heavily-publicized raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headquarters to seize classified documents that the former president allegedly illegally possessed.

After classified documents were also discovered in several of President Biden’s homes and offices, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur to investigate.

Hur interviewed Biden last October and released a report in January stating that the president had knowingly violated federal law.

But Hur recommended no prosecution because jurors would see Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

The White House vehemently attacked Hur for that statement yet refused to disclose the audio files that could settle the controversy.

Three months ago, the official White House spokesman for oversight and obstruction — Ian “Baghdad Bob” Sams — boasted that Biden never asserted executive privilege during the Hur investigation because he “was transparent and he had nothing to hide.” Except for his mumbling and maundering?

Last month, the Justice Department claimed that disclosing those audio tapes would be a “clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

But Biden was not conscripted into the presidency and no one forced him to illegally retain classified documents scattered over sites in multiple states.

Congressional Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to disclose the audio tapes.

The White House on Thursday formally invoked executive privilege to block access to the tapes.

Biden is playing a “Get Out of Democracy Free” card.

Bad motives by Republicans justify the coverup, White House counsel Ed Siskel claims.

Siskel says that the GOP had “no legitimate need for the audio recordings” — as if everyone is obliged to take the White House’s word that Biden is the smartest man in Washington.

Siskel asserted that if Republicans received the audio files, they would “chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes” and “manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.”

“Chopped?!?” Will Biden’s Brain Trust propose revising the First Amendment to prohibit any editing of politicians’ statements?

Does Siskel believe that the Biden re-election campaign deserves veto power over any outtake from the president?

The controversy is exposing Washingtonians’ self-worship. When a reporter asked Garland on Thursday morning why he asked Biden to declare executive privilege, Garland pompously responded, “The Justice Department is a fundamental institution of our democracy . . . I will protect this building and its people.”

Did Garland forget that his oath of office touted the Constitution, not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

For the White House, the issue is not whether Biden is capable of fulfilling the heavy duties of his job.

Instead, the issue is that the American people are unfit to judge the president’s verbal pratfalls and incoherence.

Instead of a bizarre executive privilege claim, the White House should have invoked the Americans with Disabilities Act and threatened to sue any voter for illegal prejudice against the mentally handicapped.

Are Americans heading for another “Alice in Wonderland” election — votes first, evidence later?

Will the Biden-Hur tapes become the 2024 equivalent of the coverup of Hunter Biden’s laptop in the 2020 election?

Will there be any number on Cynics Bingo Card that won’t be covered by Election Day?

https://nypost.com/2024/05/16/opinion/joe-biden-claims-he-has-executive-privilege-against-anyone-finding-out-just-how-addled-he-is/

‘West Point’ for Dem operatives hired director who called terrorism the ‘dream of politics’

 The “West Point for Democratic operatives,” which credits itself for aiding President Biden’s victory, hired a digital director, who previously shared that “terrorism is the dream of politics.”

Johannah King-Slutzky landed the digital director gig at the Democratic-aligned The Arena during the Fall in 2019, a few years after she had made a post discussing “terrorism” on her personal blog.

“Terrorism is the dream of politics — ultimate togetherness, ultimate realness — in a way that neuters criticism,” the post on JKS’s personal blog said prior to her hire. “The point is this: Terrorism (and American anti-terrorism) are compelling because they assert themselves as real (unlike iconoclastic art). And that realism is compelling (1) because it halts criticism, and (2) my point- it fulfills the dream of the political.”

King-Slutzky describes herself as a “full-service digital comms expert for progressive and leftist causes” on her LinkedIn. She recently made headlines for her leadership at the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University, telling members of the media that protesters who took over a building were at risk of dying or becoming severely ill if authorities did not allow “humanitarian aid” to flow.

“At Arena, she is spearheading member growth through digital ads, email, and social media, which have already contributed to over 5,000 new members of our community,” Arena co-founder and former Obama staffer, Ravi Gupta, announced in a press release about her hiring.

King-Slutzky was involved with The Arena’s operations for at least a year and a half. The last point of her public involvement was in April 2021, when she posted information on tips for hosting virtual trainings on The Arena’s website.

Johannah King-Slutzky went viral online after telling members of the media that protesters were at risk of dying or becoming severely ill if authorities did not deliver food and water to them.Seth Harrison/The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK

On her professional website, which has since been deleted, King-Slutzky bragged about purportedly training thousands of Democrats during the time period of the 2020 elections. This claim is currently unsubstantiated, as is whether it had any affiliation to her work at The Arena and its operations.

King-Slutzky did not respond to a request for comment and documentation for her claims.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is listed as one of The Arena’s partners. Arena has, in the past, hosted a training session at the 2020 DNC Convention in Wisconsin in conjunction with Team Biden.

The Arena and the DNC similarly did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Arena’s influence in the Democratic Party is quite expansive, according to the organization. The Arena credits itself for landing President Biden his victory in 2020. An ad on its YouTube channel described itself as “the West Point for Democratic operatives.” 

Hillary Clinton has similarly praised The Arena for its influence in changing the power game for Democrats. Onward Together, a political organization Clinton founded, has funded Arena from 2018-present. 

“The work that the Arena has done is exactly what I hoped would come… And as I watched what The Arena has done… I’m even more encouraged and optimistic,” Clinton said at an Arena event in August 2019. “[The Arena’s] focus on down-ballot races is exactly what we have to do.”

The Arena is focused on training “women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community” as part of its mission to bring DEI to the Democratic Party’s operations on the national and local levels.

“Every cycle, Arena-trained staff hold thousands of roles in campaigns and movement organizations,” The Arena said about its impact. “Arena has helped build the campaign teams that won Democratic majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives… and the White House in 2020.”

The Arena credits itself for aiding President Biden’s 2020 victory.Bonnie Cash / Pool via CNP / SplashNews.com

In addition to calling terrorism “the dream of politics,” King-Slutzky’s post on terrorism shared an academic article which argued that terrorists are the ultimate modern artists because their videos of torture and murder are staged and get replayed in the media. 

“By pushing the button that let a bomb to explode a contemporary warrior or terrorist pushes a button that starts the media machine,” the article by Boris Groys titled, “The Fate of Art in the Age of Terror” said. 

The Groys article shared by King-Slutzky went on to call radical Islamic terrorist Osama Bin-Laden a “video artist.”

“Especially video art became the medium of choice for the contemporary warriors. Bin Laden is communicating with the outer world primarily by the means of this medium: We all know him as a video artist in the first place. The same can be said about the videos representing beheadings, confessions of the terrorists etc. In all these cases we have to do with the consciously and artistically staged events that have their own easily recognizable aesthetics,” the Groys article said. 

Her blog also said that it was her dream to tell a White man off for purported sexist behavior. The particular offense triggering the outrage was that she was given “un-asked for advice.” 

“My dream has finally happened: I called an upper middle class straight White man out on his ~sexist behavior… This particular man happens to be into giving un-asked for advice. I told him that typically repressed groups can be sensitive to receiving advice because the basic assumption is that we can’t assess the terrain or problem solve on our own,” she wrote. 

Another post by King-Slutzky claimed that the diaries of people suffering from anorexia, discussing their drastic and dangerous steps to reduce their food intake through tracking everything they consume, was “literature” and “could definitely be Art.”

“There is definitely an argument to be made that any portrayal of anorexia will inspire more anorexics, just as the number of suicides rises when newspapers publish data about suicides. Tabling our morals, anorexia-literature could definitely be Art,” she said.

In addition to its Clinton connection, from the start, Arena has been filled to the brim with former President Obama’s staffers. Two out of three of its co-founders are alumni of Obama’s orbit, as are numerous board members and its most senior administrative staff.

Arena’s co-founder Kate Catherall is an alum of Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, “and credits this experience as formative to her approach today.” 

Another co-founder, Ravi Gupta, held a number of roles in Obama’s first campaign and first term, including as assistant to David Axelrod and Susan Rice.

Three of Arena’s most senior administrators are also Obama alumni. 

The most senior administrator, Managing Partner Lauren Baer, “served for six years as an official in the Obama administration, acting as a senior advisor to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.”

At the next level of seniority, Santiago Martinez, worked on “President Obama’s re-election campaign.” 

Another partner at Arena, Debra Cohen, worked on Obama’s campaign as well as his non-profit, Organizing for Action.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/16/us-news/west-point-for-democratic-operatives-hired-director-who-called-terrorism-the-dream-of-politics/

Lilly’s Weekly Insulin Scores Late-Stage Win as Race With Novo Heats Up

 The insulin race between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk is heating up. The Indiana-based pharma announced positive Phase III results Thursday for its weekly insulin injection, efsitora alfa (efsitora), against Novo’s daily insulin product in adults with type 2 diabetes. 

The Qwint-2 trial investigated the efficacy and safety of the once-weekly insulin against Novo Nordisk’s once-a-day degludec, marketed as Tresiba, for 52 weeks. The late-stage study reached the primary endpoint of non-inferior A1C reduction, with the results showing that efsitora reduced A1C by 1.34% compared to 1.26% for degludec. Results also showed an A1C level of 6.87% in efsitora patients, while those on degludec had an A1C of 6.95%. 

Lilly’s efsitora results come as Novo is looking to get across the finish line with its own weekly insulin Icodec. Novo’s weekly insulin is slated to go in front of an FDA advisory committee on May 24 and has already demonstrated a non-inferior result versus Sanofi’s insulin glargine, marketed as Lantus, and degludec.

In 2022, Novo showed that when put up against glargine, Icodec had a reduction in HbA1c levels and had more time in the target blood sugar range. When compared to Novo’s insulin, Icodec reduced HbA1c by -0.47% compared to -0.51% for degludec.

On Thursday, Lilly also released data for the Qwint-4 trial which compared efsitora to glargine, hitting the primary endpoint of non-inferior A1C reduction. At week 26, the study showed efsitora and glargine reduced A1C by 1.07% resulting in an A1C of 7.12% and 7.11%, respectively.

“The results of Qwint-2 and Qwint-4 are a significant milestone for the diabetes community and demonstrate that efsitora as a weekly insulin provides blood sugar control equivalent to daily basal insulins,” Jeff Emmick, senior vice president of product development at Lilly, said in a statement.

Lilly reported that efsitora was safe and well tolerated in both trials. However, there were higher rates of severe or clinically significant hypoglycemic events per year: 0.58 in efsitora patients versus 0.45 in those taking degludec and 6.6 in those on efsitora compared to 5.9 in glargine patients.  

The company said it will provide more details about the Qwint-2 trial at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting in September 2024, and expects topline results from the Qwint-1, Qwint-3, and Qwint-5 trials later this year.

https://www.biospace.com/article/lilly-s-weekly-insulin-scores-late-stage-win-as-race-with-novo-heats-up/

EV charging stations become prime target for copper thieves

 California should have known better than to compel a transition to electric vehicles while encouraging rampant drug use and crime, because everyone knows that copper wire is a go-to for addicts and thieves.

From a report by John Nolte at Breitbart News today:

‘Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside,’ reports San Francisco’s NBC affiliate. ‘In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.’

‘I think this is the second time or third that these have been cut,’ a local EV driver added. ‘So they need to put some gates up or something. I don’t know what they can do, but this is pretty inconvenient.’

“Pretty inconvenient” basically sums up the entire E.V. experience.

They don’t work when it’s too “cold,” and in fact you can’t even charge them if the temperatures get low enough, like they did in Chicago this past winter; they don’t work when it gets too hot, and become a “thermal runaway” spontaneous combustion risk; optimal performance only occurs in a limited temperature range, outside of which means “precipitous decline” in the vehicle’s performance; they’re not intuitive designs, which leads to more wrecks (proportionally) than gas cars; repairs costs are higher, and given the higher rate of collision (again, proportionally), insurance costs are increased; if the stars align, charging takes around a half-hour, which is far longer than the 5-minute-fill-up of an gas car; charging stations are few and far between, and far too often they’re out of order; and now, you might pull in for a charge and the cables could just be… gone?

As someone in the comments noted, there is a silver lining:

On the bright side… this decreased electrical usage in California!

Well done.

Ironically, stealing copper wire is increasingly lucrative as copper prices are “surging” because… the government-manufactured demand for charging stations and other “renewable” energy scams. From CarbonCredits.com:

The surge in copper demand is driven by its pivotal role in renewable energy generation, electric vehicles, and grid infrastructure crucial for achieving net zero emissions. Market dynamics and global supply concerns have propelled copper prices upward, with top companies witnessing significant growth.

And, this story from California isn’t unique; from Houston, Texas last week:

Thieves hit four Tesla Supercharger stations in Houston area this week

Monday, KPRC 2’s Gage Goulding reported on the theft of 18 cables from a Tesla charging station in Montrose.

Since his report, more charging stations across the Houston area have been ransacked, leaving electric vehicle owners without a spark.

On Wednesday, the cables from all charging stations at the Glenbrook Square shopping center were stolen. Every single connector in the lot had been slashed.

Then last night, more charging stations were clipped in northwest Harris County.

I wonder if this is enough of a wake-up call for the E.V.-driving crowd, who are probably Democrats, but somehow, I’m not convinced.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/ev_charging_stations_become_prime_target_for_copper_thieves.html

Is Biden’s Final Rule the final straw?

 By Deane Waldman, M.D.

CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) recently reported that, “Biden-Harris Administration Takes Historic Action to Increase Access to Quality Care.” Their latest Final Rule defines quality in health care and establishes what the feds will pay for and what they won’t. From a care provider’s perspective, the new rules are so unrealistic as to be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

The new Final Rule has four major elements.

• Wait times to see primary care physicians or mental health specialists;

• Acceptable MLRs (medical loss ratios);

• Defining quality across the spectrum of CMS activities;

• Staffing ratios in nursing homes.

CMS establishes a maximum allowable wait time for an appointment with a primary care provider of 15 business days, and 10 business days to see a mental health provider. Services rendered after the maximum allowable wait time will not be paid. 

In 2017, average maximum wait time for a primary care appointment in a medium-sized city was 122 days. By 2024, wait times had increased another eight percent, to 132 days. The Final Rule requires an 89% reduction in maximum wait time or no payment. 

Meeting Biden’s standards is impossible. My personal primary care provider had a list of 900 patients. If she sees one patient every 15 minutes and works for fifteen hours non-stop (no food or bathroom breaks), she can see 60 patients per day. Working 15 days straight, she can see all 900 patients on her list within the maximum allowable. Of course, she would have to keep doing this indefinitely as Patient #1 would be due for another visit on day 16. Errors would be inevitable with only 15 minutes for each patient; there is no time to study or even think. What if a patient is late? And what about physician starvation or simple exhaustion?

The standard cannot be met, especially not with a shrinking number of care providers and an ever-increasing number of patients covered by CMS programs, now including illegal residents. Failure to meet the (impossible) standard means providers will not be paid. They can either quit or, more likely, stop seeing CMS-covered patients. 

Medical loss ratio (MLR) is defined as the “share of total health care [insurance] premiums spent on medical claims and efforts to improve the quality of care.” Ironically, what is called “loss” — the amount they spend on patients — is the reason to have health insurance.

The new Final Rule allows CMS bureaucrats to determine, case-by-case, what “acceptable” MLRs are for different insurance companies. In theory, an acceptable MLR for a company with a high-risk population is different from one that covers a low-risk group. In the real world, this rule allows the federal government to pick winners and losers based on who is in favor with Washington and who is not. Solyndra anyone?

One-size-fits-all doesn’t work. Everyone knows this except Washington. Their Final Rule creates definitions of high and low quality across the great differences between states, individual patients, and locally resources. Compare an “allowable” trauma response time for an automobile accident victim in Providence, RI with one in Helena, MT. There are three world-class trauma centers within a 45-minute drive of Providence. The nearest Level I trauma center to Helena is in Salt Lake City, UT, an eight-hour drive, assuming the roads are passable.

Staffing ratios in nursing homes — patients per nurse — are another unrealistic mandate.  The CMS rule requires 5.93 hours of direct care nursing per patient per day. Add the hours of mandatory regulatory compliance and insurance administrative requirements, and a nursing home needs at least one nurse per patient. Considering vacations and illness, a 40-bed nursing home would need at least fifty nurses on staff. 

With a shortage of nurses that rivals doctors, nursing homes cannot possibly find, much less afford one-nurse-per-patient ratios “acceptable for [CMS] payment.”  Nursing homes that do not meet the standard won’t be paid — that’s what the rule says. So, the result of the new standard will be closure of nursing homes. The ones that stay open will either falsify their reports to CMS or acquire special friends in Washington.

Unrealistic mandatory healthcare standards written by Washington will make medical care even less accessible than it is now. Where will CMS patients go when there are no primary care physicians and when all the nursing homes are shuttered?

Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Decision Science; former Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; former Director, New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange; and author of the multi-award winning book Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/is_biden_s_final_rule_the_final_straw.html

GSK aims to sell remaining stake in consumer health spinoff Haleon through 385M share offer

 Right on the heels of a similar move by Johnson & Johnson, GSK is offloading the rest of its stake in the consumer healthcare business it spun out back in 2022.

GSK plans to sell (PDF) its remaining 4.2% holding in Haleon, representing around 385 million shares, the company said in a Thursday filing.

The shares will be offered to institutional investors by Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Securities, the company said. The sale is expected to raise about 1 billion pounds sterling ($1.26 billion), according to the Financial Times. 

GSK completed the spinoff of its consumer health division—formerly a joint venture between the British pharma and Pfizer—in July 2022. At the time, GSK held a roughly 13% stake in Haleon, which is responsible for household brands like Advil, Sensodyne, Tums and Theraflu.

From the outset, GSK said it planned to sell down most of its stake in Haleon. The company sold share tranches twice last year and again in January, when the company picked up around 978 million pounds ($1.24 billion) in a 300 million share trade.

For its part, Pfizer—which came out of the 2022 demerger holding 32% of Haleon’s shares—said in March that it would whittle down its stake to 24% by selling 630 million shares in a public offering.

Large pharmas separating their consumer health ventures has become a notable industry trend in recent years, with companies such as J&J and Merck charting similar moves.

In J&J’s case, the drugmaker Monday said it planned to exit ownership of its spinoff—Kenvue—completely through a 182.33 million share “debt-for-equity” exchange. As the successor to J&J’s consumer health business, Kenvue markets popular products like Tylenol, Neutrogena, Listerine and Zyrtec.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gsk-plans-offload-remaining-stake-consumer-health-spinoff-haleon-through-385m-share-offer