Fauci optimistic that major new Covid treatment  is on the way . . . Anthony Fauci told Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg that he expects results for a clinical trial on monoclonal antibodies by late summer or early fall, underscoring the speed at which the government has been working to quickly approve and roll out treatment for the novel coronavirus. A monoclonal antibody is a laboratory-produced protein that can potentially be used to treat sick patients as well as for prophylaxis. Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, described them as “precise bullets” that can be developed from antibodies from other people who’ve been infected and used as a treatment to fight the virus at multiple stages. Bloomberg

 

Georgia Gov. Kemp sues Atlanta mayor over mask mandate . . . Kemp’s administration went to court Thursday seeking to block Atlanta from enacting coronavirus restrictions and requiring residents to wear masks. The state filed a lawsuit challenging Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ July 10 decision to revert to “phase one” guidelines that push restaurants to close dining rooms and urge residents to leave home only for essential trips. “This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times,” Kemp said in a statement. Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Kushner campaign grip solidifies with Bill Stepien as the new manager . . . Jared Kusher has solidified his position as the de facto chief of the Trump reelection effort by replacing Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien as campaign manager, according to multiple strategists familiar with internal discussions. They said it was also possible that a campaign chairman will be appointed to further bolster an operation that has suffered weeks of poor polls and negative headlines. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are among the names being discussed, while former White House strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Jason Miller also have their supporters. But President Trump’s Twitter announcement that he is moving Parscale aside on Wednesday evening shows where the power lies, at least for now. “Brad is a Jared guy. Bill is totally a Jared guy,” said a former administration official and veteran of the 2016 campaign. Washington Examiner

 

 

Senate GOP to ramp up Obama administration probes . . . Senate Republicans are preparing to ramp up their Obama-era probes, pushing the controversial investigations back into the spotlight as the 2020 election heats up. The efforts have sparked high-profile tensions with Senate Democrats and public rebukes from former Vice President Joe Biden’s orbit. They view the efforts as an attempt to meddle in the 2020 election, where Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee. The Hill

 

 

Trump says Biden threatens "our very way of life" . . . A day after his administration finalized a rule speeding up environmental reviews of infrastructure projects, the president said he has been waging “the most dramatic regulatory relief campaign in American history.” “We must never return to the days of soul-crushing regulation that ravaged our cities, devastated our workers, drained our vitality right out of our people and thoroughly crippled our nation’s prized competitive edge,” Mr. Trump said. Washington Times

 

Media seized by bias misquote Kayleigh McEnany on "science" 

 

Video || Maxine Waters says Trump and his supporters want to keep blacks from power . . . How does she get away with this stuff? Calling not just President Trump, but so many people, white supremacists. I mean, they’d definitely like to keep Maxine Waters out of power. But not all black people. Maxine appears on Joy Reid’s new MSNBC show. Among her pearls of wisdom: I think you said it earlier today when you talked about this need for Trump and those who support him to want to … have absolute power and to believe that it is their right and their responsibility to ensure that blacks and people of color and others do not rise to any level of influence and power. White House Dossier

 

Nancy Pelosi compares Trump to "the man who refuses to ask for directions . . . This is a grave insult. Just because Donald Trump was assigned “male” at birth does not mean he would refuse to ask directions. It is sexist stereotyping, and it has GOT. TO. STOP. NOW.

I too was assigned male at birth, and continue to stick with that assignation. Fortunately for me, I never need to ask for directions, because I always know where I am going. My wife may think otherwise, but she is wrong. And it has nothing to do with my gender.

Nancy, please “woke” up – it’s 2020, for goodness sake. White House Dossier

 

Michelle Obama to start a new "candid, human, and personal" podcast . . .  It’s part of a wide-ranging deal for the Obama’s to use Spotify to propagandize their ideas. Like the deal they have with Netflix. I’d ditch Spotify and move to Apple Music, which I like better anyway, but apparently Spotify is the cool channel, and my kids insist on it. According to Spotify: Today, we are excited to announce the first title in the ongoing partnership, The Michelle Obama Podcast. Hosted by Michelle Obama, the show will bring listeners the First Lady’s most candid, human, and personal conversations to show us what is possible when we dare to be vulnerable. White House Dossier

 

Barr blasts Hollywood and Big Tech for being under China's thumb . . . Attorney General William Barr blasted Hollywood and Big Tech for their apparent cooperation with China in a Thursday speech. Barr criticized Disney, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others for kowtowing to Chinese policy demands in exchange for market access. In a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Barr said, "I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day." Hollywood's ties to China have caused filmmakers to block out Taiwanese flags and remove Chinese villains from movies. Washington Free Beacon

 

British Airways cancels its entire 747 fleet . . . British Airways has said it will retire all of its Boeing 747s as it suffers from the sharp travel downturn.

The UK airline is the world's largest operator of the jumbo jets, with 31 in the fleet. "It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleet with immediate effect," a BA spokesman told the BBC. Airlines across the world have been hit hard by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. BBC

Fixed 30-year mortgage below 3% for first time ever . . . The fixed 30-year home mortgage interest rate has dropped below 3 per cent for the first time, leading to an increase in homebuyer demand during the coronavirus outbreak. A weekly report from the federal government's mortgage investor, Freddy Mac, Thursday, showed 30-year fixed mortgage interest rates dropped to 2.98 per cent for the first time since record keeping began in 1971. 'The drop has led to increased homebuyer demand and, these low rates have been capitalized into asset prices in support of the financial markets,' said the report. Homebuilding is viewed as a critical component to an economic rebound after the coronavirus outbreak. Daily Mail

 

University diversity office equates conservatism with racism . . . Students attending George Washington University are being encouraged to read an anti-racism syllabus that casts conservatism as “incompatible” with Black Americans who seek freedom. The university pulled a Google document containing the syllabus this week and its Office of Diversity ignored inquiries when contacted by The Washington Free Beacon. Writer Chrissy Clark detailed the office’s “Solidarity Resource Syllabus,” which includes “Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same,” by San Francisco State University Robert Smith. Washington Times

 

More cops black at Portland Black Lives Matter protest than protestors . . . A black Portland cop has slammed 'hypocritical' crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters which include less minorities than the police force they are coming face-to-face with at demonstrations. Officer Jakhary Jackson made his comments about the movement's 'violent' participants in an audio interview released by the department on YouTube last week. 'It says something when you're at a Black Lives Matter protest, you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd,' he said in the recording. Daily Mail 
 

Princeton professors urge cancelling "Democrat Party" . . . The two then looked at the history of the Democrat Party that up to the 1960s “was the party of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, poll taxes, and literacy tests for voting." They listed other offenses that Democrats committed in the previous decades-- including President Franklin D. Roosevelt's treatment of Japanese-Americans during WWII-- and noted that the party has “been able to redefine itself over the past half-century as the champion of minorities.” Fox News

 

 

Washington Redskins accused of sexual harassment . . . Fifteen female former employees who worked for the Redskins told The Washington Post that they were sexually harassed while working for the organization, the newspaper published in a bombshell report Thursday. According to The Post, the team declined a request to release 15 of the former female employees from non-disclosure agreements so they could speak on the record. The allegations, which reportedly ran from 2006 to 2019, would fall under unwelcome overtures or comments of a sexual nature, and exhortations to wear revealing clothing and flirt with clients to close sales deals, the paper reported. Fox News

 

Mysterious drones flew in formation . . . Investigators in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas have said they are still in the dark about mysterious drone swarms that plagued the night skies earlier this year, flying in formation around a strange 'mother ship'. Administrators with the Federal Aviation Authority even joked about them being UFOs. In a December 31, 2019 email, FAA administrator Steve Dickson told FAA chief of staff Angela Stubblefield: 'not too long ago we would have called these 'UFOs'.' Stubblefield responded 'Yep! Now everything is a drone!' Up to 50 drones would be seen on any given night from December 2019 until early January. Some of the drones were ten feet wide, and had bright lights as they flew silently in formation. Their owners and operators remain a mystery. Senior FAA officials were able, however, to conclude that 'there is high confidence these are not covert military activities.' Daily Mail 

 

My plan to take over the world continues on schedule. 

 

Utah meeting on masks in schools canceled because crowd not wearing masks . . . A public meeting about a school mask policy in Utah was postponed moments after it began because dozens of people not wearing masks filled the room. Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge said Wednesday the gathering in Provo, Utah violated current health recommendations and moved to suspend the meeting until a later date. "This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing," Ainge said at the meeting. "We are supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks." The audience responded with a loud chorus of boos. USA Today

 

Wedding crasher reveal their successful strategies . . . Real-life wedding crashers have revealed their go-to strategies for sneaking into lavish receptions without getting caught, and unlike the movies will lead you to believe, it's all about blending in — not standing out. 'You just show up, eat as much as you want, and leave,' writer Orly Minazad, 36, told Mel Magazine of how she spent months crashing weddings to find inspiration for her own nuptials. Minazad, who is from Iran, explained wedding crashing is commonplace in her country, and she didn't realize it was frowned up in American culture until she moved to Los Angeles in 1991. Daily Mail

 

Kangaroo arrested in Fort Lauderdale . . . A curious 2-year-old kangaroo named Jack decided to roam the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood around his home north of downtown on Thursday, but city police had to jump in and catch him for safety’s sake. Jack went peacefully into the back of a Fort Lauderdale patrol car that took him to the barn where the police department’s horses are kept. “He’s so nice,” said owner Anthony Macias. “He doesn’t mean anyone any harm.” South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

It will have to be tried in a Kangaroo Court. Okay, that one's not my joke. I stole it. I promise to give it back.