Editor Daily Rundown: Panicked White House Looking To Redefine ‘Recession’ Ahead Of Upcoming Data
PANICKED WHITE HOUSE LOOKING TO REDEFINE ‘RECESSION’ AHEAD OF THURSDAY DATA… JACQUI HEINRICH: Bracing for impact: Even if Thursday’s GDP report shows a second consecutive quarter of negative growth, you won’t hear the Biden admin using the R-word. The Council of Economic Advisers is redefining what a recession is… (SCREENGRAB, LINK)
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Left Should Be Happy With Biden
Strangely, leftists do not grasp that Biden’s current record and unpopularity are due not just to his unmistakable cognitive decline. The problem is not just his often-toxic personality, or his creepy habits of trying to shake the hands of invisible people or violating the private space of younger women.
Instead, the Biden administration has become an utter failure because voters detest its agendas. They recoil at $5-a-gallon gas. They feel their lives are being destroyed by 9.1% annual inflation and supply chain shortages. […]
Now the Left is looking for a younger, more charismatic, and more glib replacement president to advance their stale unpopular agendas.
But since when has changing an inept messenger ever changed a disastrous message?
MONKEY BUSINESS… W.H.O. DECLARES ANOTHER GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY… NYT: W.H.O. Declares Monkeypox Spread a Global Health Emergency (VIDEO)
For the second time in two years, the World Health Organization has taken the extraordinary step of declaring a global emergency. This time the cause is monkeypox, which has spread in just a few weeks to dozens of countries and infected tens of thousands of people.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, on Saturday overruled a panel of advisers, who could not come to a consensus, and declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” a designation the W.H.O. currently uses to describe only two other diseases, Covid-19 and polio.
“We have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little, and which meets the criteria” for a public health emergency, Dr. Tedros told reporters. It was apparently the first time that the director general had sidestepped his advisers to declare an emergency.
DNA WARFARE WARNINGS… AXIOS: Biological weapons could target DNA, food supply, two U.S. lawmakers say
“There are now weapons under development, and developed, that are designed to target specific people,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a member of the House Committee on Armed Services and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told the audience.
“That’s what this is, where you can actually take someone’s DNA, you know, their medical profile, and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable,” Crow said.
“You can’t have a discussion about this without talking about privacy in commercial data, and the protection of commercial data, because expectations of privacy have degraded over the last 20 years.”
“People will very rapidly spit into a cup and send it to 23andMe and get really interesting data about their background — and guess what? Their DNA is now owned by a private company. It can be sold off … with very little intellectual property protection or privacy protection, and we don’t have legal and regulatory regimes that deal with that.”
“That data is actually going to be procured and collected by our adversaries for the development of these systems,” Crow warned.
DEBBIE BIRX SAYS SHE DIDN’T TELL PUBLIC WHAT SHE ‘KNEW’ ABOUT COVID VACCINES … ‘I Knew These Vaccines Were Not Going To Protect Against Infection’: Dr. Birx Admits Vaccines Were ‘Overplayed’ (VIDEO)
Former COVID-19 response coordinator for President Donald Trump, Dr. Deborah Birx said [Friday] that she “knew these vaccines were not going to protect against” the coronavirus infection.
Though she did tell viewers to get vaccinated amidst an apparent wave of COVID infections, Birx told “Your World” host Neil Cavuto that she “knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection, and I think we overplayed the vaccines, and it made people then worry that it’s not going to protect against severe disease and hospitalization.”
FLASHBACK… BIRX SAID WE WOULD VACCINATE OURSELVES TO ‘HERD IMMUNITY’… DEC 30, 2021… WDRB:Dr. Deborah Birx applauds Beshear’s ‘proactive’ handling of the coronavirus (VIDEO)
Birx applauded the rollout of the vaccine but said people should not let their guard down just yet.
“Don’t relax now, because we all want to get to spring together,” she said. “And we can get to spring together by being vigilant now and being vaccinated when it’s our turn.”
Birx said it will be several months before life returns to normal.
“To truly achieve herd immunity, it’s going to take through the summer and potentially even into the fall,” she said. “That’s getting 70-80% of Americans immunized.”
HERE’S FAUCI IN MAY OF 2021… HILL: Fauci: Vaccinated people become ‘dead ends’ for the coronavirus
“So even though there are breakthrough infections with vaccinated people, almost always the people are asymptomatic and the level of virus is so low it makes it extremely unlikely — not impossible but very, very low likelihood — that they’re going to transmit it,” Fauci said.
Fauci added that vaccinated people essentially become “dead ends” for the virus to spread within their communities.
“When you get vaccinated, you not only protect your own health and that of the family but also you contribute to the community health by preventing the spread of the virus throughout the community,” Fauci said. “In other words, you become a dead end to the virus. And when there are a lot of dead ends around, the virus is not going to go anywhere. And that’s when you get a point that you have a markedly diminished rate of infection in the community.”
FAUCI DANCES AROUND LAB LEAK QUESTIONS… FOX: Fauci keeping an ‘open mind’ on COVID lab leak theory
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci says he still believes that the coronavirus originated in nature but acknowledged he is keeping an “open mind.”
“We have an open mind but it looks very much like this was a natural occurrence, but you keep an open mind,” Fauci told Fox News Special Report host Bret Baier.
Baier pressed Fauci on emails showing that Fauci has previously dismissed the lab leak theory as a “shiny object” that will “go away” when discussing the origin with top scientists.
“Bret, I know you’re a good person,” Fauci responded. “I’ve known you a long time. If you take a group of emails where people are considering and thinking out and you stop there and don’t look at the weeks of careful examination by those same people that wrote the emails and then you say now that we’ve looked at it in the published peer review literature they explain very clearly why they think it’s a natural occurrence.”
Fauci added in the interview that “more people saying” that the virus originated in a lab “doesn’t mean there’s more evidence of it.”
CALIFORNIA LOOKS FOR NEW WAYS TO MAKE GUN OWNERS MISERABLE… Newsom Signs California Gun Control Bill Modeled After Texas Abortion Law
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday that allows private citizens to sue people who manufacture, sell, transport, or distribute illegal “assault weapons and ghost guns.”
The bill was developed in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Texas Heartbeat Act, wherein private citizens would be able to sue people who illegally sell firearms to individuals under 21 years old for up to $10,000, Fox reported. The Texas law provides private citizens in and outside the state with the power to sue abortion clinics and those who help women obtain abortions.
Newsom signed the bill at Santa Monica College, the location of a 2013 mass shooting, the outlet noted. “Our message to the criminals spreading illegal weapons in California is simple: you have no safe harbor here in the Golden State,” Newsom wrote in a press release on Friday. “While the Supreme Court rolls back reasonable gun safety measures, California continues adding new ways to protect the lives of our kids. California will use every tool at its disposal to save lives, especially in the face of an increasingly extreme Supreme Court,” the statement continued.
AL GORE SAYS CLIMATE ‘SHOULDN’T BE A PARTISAN ISSUE’ AS HE COMPARES OPPONENTS TO UVALDE COPS… Al Gore Compares ‘Climate Deniers’ To Uvalde Cops in Bizarre Interview (VIDEO)
Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday that “climate deniers” were comparable to the 400 law enforcement officers on the scene of the Uvalde school shooting.
Gore made the comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday with host Chuck Todd, as seen in a clip shared on Twitter. “You know, the climate deniers are really in some ways similar to all of those almost 400 law enforcement officers in Uvalde, Texas, who were waiting outside an unlocked door while the children were being massacred,” Gore said in the interview.
“They heard the screams, they heard the gunshots, and nobody stepped forward.” Gore continued, adding, “And God bless those families who’ve suffered so much. And law enforcement officials tell us that’s not typical of what law enforcement usually does.” His comments come just two months after nineteen students and two teachers were massacred in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“And confronted with this global emergency, what we’re doing with our inaction and failing to walk through the door and stop the killing is not typical of what we are capable of as human beings. We do have the solutions,” Gore continued, comparing global climate inaction to the inaction of police officers at the scene of the school shooting.
GORDON CHANG: XI JINPING’S FUTURE IS IN FLUX… HE COULD USE A NANCY PELOSI TAIWAN VISIT RIGHT NOW… AND IT WILL BE WORSE FOR AMERICA IF SHE *DOESN’T* GO… CHANG:Will Nancy Pelosi Start World War III With China?
This moment has a different, and more ominous, feel to it. There are alarming economic, banking and political developments in China as well as a new disrespect in Beijing for President Joe Biden and the U.S. In short, Washington must be prepared for bad outcomes, whether or not Pelosi visits.
Most worryingly, Xi Jinping, the aggressive Chinese ruler, needs a dust-up with the United States right now.
His China is in distress at the moment. Homeowners in more than 80 cities have stopped paying banks in what is called the “mortgage boycott,” suppliers to property developers have halted loan repayments to banks and banks don’t have cash to meet depositor withdrawals. Large property developers, like Evergrande Group, are defaulting on loans. A province, Guizhou, has just asked for debt relief for its state-owned infrastructure projects, “China Reckons with Its First Overseas Debt Crisis,” the FT reported this week.
Beijing in recent weeks has employed thousands of troops, thugs and apparently tanks to control angry citizens, especially in the central part of the country.
There’s no mystery why the crisis is happening now. The economy, plagued by COVID-19 lockdowns and long-term problems, is probably contracting.
All this could not come at a worse time for Xi, who is seeking an unprecedented third term as the Communist Party’s general secretary. If tradition holds, party leadership will decide whether he gets that term at its 20th National Congress sometime this October or November.
There are shadowy reports that Xi, who once looked like a shoo-in, either will not get another term or, more probably, will get the term but with limitations on his power. In any event, he needs a diversion, something to change the political calculus in senior party circles.
Pelosi’s trip, if it occurs, would come at the perfect moment for him.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLEY SAYS CHICOMS ARE GROWING RESTLESS… AP: Milley: China more aggressive, dangerous to US, allies
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the top U.S. military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop Sunday in Indonesia.
U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.
“The message is the Chinese military, in the air and at sea, have become significantly more and noticeably more aggressive in this particular region,” said Milley, who recently asked his staff to compile details about interactions between China and the U.S. and others in the region.
ARIZONA GREENBACKS… Mark Kelly Raked In Cash From Corporate-Backed PACs Despite Pledging To Refuse ‘Corporate PAC Money’
Sen. Mark Kelly has pledged since unveiling his 2019 senate bid that he would refuse corporate campaign dollars. But since that time, the Arizona Democrat has accepted hundreds of thousands in donations from political action committees (PAC) backed by corporations, according to federal records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Kelly has repeatedly emphasized he does not and will not “take a dime of corporate PAC money.” Despite that pledge, the former astronaut’s campaign has raked in roughly $154,000 from Democratic PACs since March 2019 that have hauled in large sums from PACs for corporations, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.
For instance, Kelly’s campaign has received $20,000 combined from the Green Mountain PAC since June 2019, FEC filings show. Green Mountain PAC, a leadership PAC affiliated with Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, has accepted $247,500 since 2005 from corporate PACs for Google, Pfizer, AT&T, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, filings show.
Nutmeg PAC, a leadership PAC associated with Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has contributed $17,500 to Kelly’s campaign since May 2019. At the same time, the PAC has accepted $231,000 since 2011 from corporate PACs for Microsoft, Comcast, Raytheon Technologies, Pfizer, Honeywell, General Dynamics and UBS, filings show.
TRUMP RALLIES IN ARIZONA… ‘Kneel To God And No One Else’: Trump Slams Biden, J6 Trial At Arizona Rally
Former President Donald Trump held a rally Friday night at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona, where he voiced his support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters. In his speech, Trump criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. economy and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Trump called “the greatest humiliation our country has ever seen.”
Trump then addressed January 6th last night in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Trump said of the recent investigation: “Where does it stop? Where does it end? Never forget: Everything this corrupt establishment is doing to me is all about preserving their power and control over the American people, for whatever reason. They want to damage me in any form so I can no longer represent you,” according to MSN.
In response to being accused of grabbing the steering wheel from a secret service agent on January 6th and throwing food in the White House, Trump stated during Friday’s rally, “And they know that wasn’t true too. But they don’t call back the secret service. You know the secret service wants to testify and say it wasn’t true, but they won’t let them testify because they don’t want to hear the answer. It’s just a horrible thing that’s going on in our country. It’s sick, and the fake news media is totally complicit. These are very dishonest people, many of them.”
PELOSI’S JAN 6 CAST, AG GARLAND FLIRTING WITH CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR TRUMP… AXIOS: Jan. 6 panel believes there is evidence Trump committed crimes related to riot
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) told ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks there is evidence of crimes that go “all the way up to Donald Trump.”
Fellow committee member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he believes that Trump’s efforts to overturn the election “invoke various criminal laws and his conduct ought to be the subject of investigation.” […]
Attorney General Merrick Garland indicated on Wednesday that the Department of Justice may be open to investigating the former president, telling reporters that “No person is above the law in this country,” according to ABC News.
When a reporter asked about the former president, Garland reiterated his last statement. “Maybe I’ll say that again, no person is above the law in this country,” he said.
DEMOCRATS WANT CHENEY TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT… AXIOS: Rep. Elaine Luria on Cheney 2024 run: “Her voice is absolutely needed”
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday she would be open to a 2024 presidential run by fellow Jan. 6 select committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), saying “her voice is absolutely needed.”
CHENEY: WE’RE NOT GOING TO BLAME CAPITOL POLICE — WHO KILLED AN UNARMED WOMAN AND HELD DOORS OPEN FOR PROTESTERS — FOR JAN 6 FAILURES… SAYS TRUMP NEVER REQUESTED NATIONAL GUARD AHEAD OF JAN 6… ‘Donald Trump’s Armed Mob’: Liz Cheney Blames Trump For Jan 6 Protests (VIDEO)
Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney told Fox News host Bret Baier during an interview Sunday that the January 6 committee has a team focused on security at the Capitol but that law enforcement should not be blamed for “Donald Trump’s armed mob.”
The Capitol police and law enforcement will not be blamed for the events of January 6, 2021, Cheney told Baier on Fox News Sunday. “What we aren’t going to do, Bret, is blame the Capitol police, blame those in law enforcement for Donald Trump’s armed mob that he sent to the Capitol,” Cheney stated, “I believe there were intelligence failures, clearly there were intelligence failures. Clearly, the security should have operated better than it did.” […]
Baier asked if it was true that Donald Trump had requested 20,000 National Guard members be present to protect the Capitol prior to the event.
“Well, his own acting secretary of defense says that’s not true,” Cheney responded. “Chris Miller has testified publicly that Donald Trump never issued any order to deploy the guard to protect the capital. And so I would point people to his own secretary of defense’s public testimony.”
THAT’S NOT TRUE… FLASHBACK… MAY 2021… HERE’S CHRIS MILLER, DESCRIBING HOW TRUMP ASKED IF MURIEL BOWSER HAD REQUESTED NATIONAL GUARD, AND THEN ORDERED HIM TO ‘FILL IT AND DO WHATEVER WAS NECESSARY’…(VIDEO, STARTS AT 1:16)
MORE… JOHN SOLOMON: Trump gave order to ‘make sure’ Jan. 6 rally was ‘safe event,’ Pentagon memo shows
But the most compelling piece of evidence that Trump wanted to thwart — rather than incite —violence is contained in a lengthy memo written by the Pentagon inspector general that chronicled the assistance the Defense Department offered Congress both ahead of and during the riot.
In it, the IG recounts a fateful meeting on Jan. 3, 2021 in the White House when then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Trump on national security matters.
The complete passage — hardly mentioned by Democrats at the hearings or the news media covering them — is worth absorbing in its entirety.
“Mr. Miller and GEN Milley met with the President at the White House at 5:30 p.m.,” the IG reported. “The primary topic they discussed was unrelated to the scheduled rally. GEN Milley told us that at the end of the meeting, the President told Mr. Miller that there would be a large number of protestors on January 6, 2021, and Mr. Miller should ensure sufficient National Guard or Soldiers would be there to make sure it was a safe event. Gen Milley told us that Mr. Miller responded, ‘We’ve got a plan and we’ve got it covered.’”
MURDOCH PAPERS — WSJ & NY POST — SIMULTANEOUSLY RELEASE EDITORIALS CONDEMNING TRUMP…
FRIDAY, 5:39 PM ET… NYP: Trump’s silence on Jan. 6 is damning
To his eternal shame, as appalled aides implored him to publicly call on his followers to go home, he instead further fanned the flames by tweeting: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
His only focus was to find any means — damn the consequences — to block the peaceful transfer of power.
There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence.
It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.
FRIDAY, 6:52 PM ET… WSJ: The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6
Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out.
In the 18 months since, Mr. Trump has shown not an iota of regret. On Thursday he claimed to be vindicated by a bill to clarify the Electoral Count Act. “Mike Pence told me, and everybody else, there was nothing he could do,” Mr. Trump wrote. “If so, how come the Democrats and RINOs are working so hard to make sure there is nothing a VP can do.”
Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.
LOTTERY REACHES ANOTHER MASSIVE JACKPOT… Mega Millions Jackpot Skyrockets To 790 Million Dollars
The Mega Millions jackpot continues to grow after no ticket matched the 6 winning numbers drawn on Friday.
The jackpot is estimated to soar to over $790 million before the next drawing on Tuesday, according to a Mega Millions news release. This will be the fourth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history.
Although the jackpot was not claimed, there were 3,428,412 winning tickets at lower prize levels, according to Mega Millions.
BEGUN, THE CHICKEN NUGGET WARS HAVE… AXIOS: The new fast-food battleground? Chicken nuggets
Giant restaurant chains like KFC and Boston Market are making big-splash introductions of chicken nuggets on their menus this month, setting up a potential rematch of the epic chicken sandwich wars of 2019. […]
KFC began testing new chicken nuggets last week for a limited time in Charlotte, North Carolina, aiming to lure in Gen Z and millennial customers.
If it goes well, “the nuggets will replace the popcorn chicken currently on menus,” Yahoo! Finance reported.
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