Kamala Harris: Joe Biden’s Impeachment Insurance . . . A recent poll reveals a critically important truth, because it concerns the future of the republic, and the future of the politician who many believed would one day soon be running it: Kamala Harris.
A survey by the Trafalgar Group — whom RealClearPolitics called “the most accurate pollster of the cycle among those firms that polled multiple Senate and governor races” — found that 58.6% of respondents were “not confident at all” that Harris is ready to be president “based on her performance as vice president. political analyst Daniel Greenfield writes: "After a long wasted life in politics, Kamala has no religion, no family, and has become the embodiment of the Peter Principle, promoted vastly above her competence, looking at a job that she can almost touch with her manicured hands, but will never be allowed to possess. The most powerful woman in Washington D.C. is actually the weakest.” Patriot Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RNC sets fundraising records as it aims to regain congressional majorities . . . The Republican National Committee says it hauled in $16.3 million in fundraising in June and $40.5 million during the April-June second quarter, records for a post-presidential election year.  The RNC, sharing its fundraising figures first with Fox News on Tuesday ahead of their filing with the Federal Election Commission, also spotlighted that the national party committee has raked in $85 million during the first half of this year, has $81.7 million cash on hand, and no debt. June’s haul is an increase from the $11.1 million the RNC raised in May, with the second quarter total slightly behind the $44.4 million the committee brought in during the January-March first quarter of fundraising. Fox Business

 

Suspected FBI Leaker Could Evade Consequences . . . A senior FBI official found guilty of misconduct for accepting unauthorized gifts from journalists, including tickets to pricy black-tie dinners, in 2016 could evade consequences because the official resigned before the investigation was completed, the Department of Justice inspector general said Tuesday. The misconduct finding is part of a years-long Justice Department inspector general investigation into FBI media leaks during the 2016 election. In 2018, the inspector general's office said it was probing "numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters."

 

 

Biden Administration Won’t Sanction China for Hacking U.S. Servers . . . The Biden administration blamed China on Monday for a cyberattack that compromised more than a million Microsoft customers, but stopped short of sanctioning Beijing for contracting with hackers. The United Kingdom, European Union, and NATO joined the United States in condemning China for facilitating the March attack on Microsoft Exchange email servers. But President Joe Biden and State Department spokesman Ned Price dismissed the need for retaliation, causing some lawmakers to question the Biden administration’s ability to combat hostile foreign actors. Washington Free Beacon

 

Military Institutions Dodge Questions on Critical Race Theory . . . U.S. military institutions dodged questions about the role of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a topic that recently triggered heated exchanges between conservative legislators and defense leaders. The Epoch Times reached out to military bases regarding CRT cases reported via a whistleblower program launched at the end of May by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Academies were also contacted for more curriculum details to support defense leaders’ argument that teaching CRT fosters an open-minded military. In response, the U.S. Naval Academy commented without addressing the CRT question, and West Point confirmed receiving and working on the request but didn’t comment. In addition, the Office of the Secretary of Defense press operations and local military base deferred to each other in response to a CRT case inquiry. Epoch Times

 

Iranian Terrorists Claim 150 Attacks Against U.S. Troops This Year . . . A video posted on the social media site Telegram by the Kawthariyoun Electronic Team, a channel associated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, indicates the United States faces immediate danger amid Biden administration efforts to pull forces from Afghanistan and decrease the U.S. footprint across the region. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a jihadi watchdog group that monitors these communications, translated the terrorist group's latest propaganda film. A one-minute video posted on Telegram, which is preferred by terrorist groups due to its anonymity, showed a militant "pointing to a map of Iraq to show the geographical distribution of military housing U.S. forces."  "The battle with the American forces is a battle over who will control the border strip between Iraq and Syria," the militant was quoted as saying as he described a number of attacks directly aimed at American positions. Washington Free Beacon

Israeli PM warns Ben & Jerry parent Unilever of ‘severe consequences’ over sales ban . . . Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told the head of Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, Tuesday that the ice cream maker’s move to halt sales in “the Occupied Palestinian Territory” could carry “severe consequences.” “Prime Minister Bennett spoke with Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever which owns Ben & Jerry’s and made it clear that he views with utmost gravity the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to boycott Israel and added that this is a subsidiary of Unilever, which has taken a clearly anti-Israel step,” the prime minister’s office said on Twitter. “Prime Minister Bennett emphasized that from the perspective of the State of Israel, this is an action that has severe consequences, including legal, and it will take strong action against any boycott directed against its citizens.” NY Post

 

U.S.-German Deal on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Expected Soon . . . The U.S. and Germany have reached an agreement allowing the completion of a controversial Russian natural-gas pipeline, according to officials from Berlin and Washington, who expect to announce the deal as soon as Wednesday, bringing an end to years of tension between the two allies. The Biden administration will effectively waive Washington’s longstanding opposition to the pipeline, Nord Stream 2, a change in the U.S. stance, ending years of speculation over the fate of the project, which has come to dominate European energy-sector forecasts. Germany under the agreement will agree to assist Ukraine in energy-related projects and diplomacy. The pipeline would allow the Kremlin to increase European dependence on its natural gas, then use it to blackmail U.S. allies, critics have said, charges Russia has dismissed. WSJ

 

Bezos roasted for thanking Amazon employees, customers for paying for spaceflight: 'I'd like a refund' . . . Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, thanked his employees and customers on Tuesday for subsidizing his Blue Origin spaceflight, during which he and three others spent 11 minutes inside the "New Shepard" capsule after lifting off from the desert in Van Horn County, Texas. "[I] want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this . . . ," said a cowboy hat-sporting Bezos upon returning to Earth with his fellow passengers, younger brother Mark Bezos; aviation pioneer Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk, 82, and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen. Upon his return to terra firma, Bezos was roasted by critics for his comments thanking customers for the reported $5.5 billion cost of the Blue Origin endeavor.' Stars & Stripes journalist David Choi also retweeted video of Bezos' comments, remarking "I'd like a refund." Fox News

 

Netflix bleeds subscribers in US and Canada with no sign of recovery . . . Netflix lost 430,000 subscribers in the US and Canada in the second quarter and issued weaker than expected forecasts for later in the year, rekindling investor doubts over how the streaming group will fare after the economic reopening. The California-based company predicted it would add 3.5m subscribers in the third quarter, disappointing investors who were looking for a stronger rebound in the second half of the year. Analysts had forecast that Netflix would add 5.9m subscribers during the third quarter. Financial Times

 

 

The 2021 Olympics are turning into a $20 billion bust for Japan . . . When Toyota Motor Corp. said this week it wouldn’t run any ads in Japan tied to the Olympics, it sent a message louder than any TV commercial about the host nation’s grim mood. Toyota is Japan’s most valuable company and a global Olympics sponsor, the top rank shared by only 13 others world-wide. The Olympics open on Friday a year late and during a Covid-19 state of emergency in Tokyo. Anticipation and expectations for an economic windfall have largely evaporated. Stadiums and arenas that cost over $7 billion to build or renovate for the Games will be mostly empty after spectators were banned. Fox Business

 

U.S. Life Expectancy Fell by 1.5 Years in 2020, the Biggest Decline in Generations . . . Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic killed hundreds of thousands and exacerbated crises in drug overdoses, homicides and some chronic diseases. Provisional data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that American life expectancy dropped to 77.3 years in 2020, roughly the same level as in 2003, erasing years of hard-won gains in the nation’s public health. It was the largest single-year decline recorded since 1943. It isn’t entirely clear what caused the drop that year, when the U.S. was fighting World War II. WSJ

 

J.K. Rowling responds to Twitter pipe bomb death threat . . . J.K. Rowling shot back at a Twitter user who threatened her with a “pipebomb,” noting that she has come out on top since being inducted into the cancel club. The Harry Potter author, 55, shared a screenshot of the now-deleted tweet as evidence of the hate mail she received since expressing her controversial opinions about gender last year. “I wish you a very nice pipebomb in mailbox,” the message from Twitter user @queerqegaard, who has since deleted their account, said. “To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go,” Rowling tweeted in response. Rowling explained why she received the threatening tweet in a reply, noting it stems from comments she made last year that were deemed transphobic by critics and advocacy groups. “Hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realized that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever,” she tweeted. NY Post

 

 

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