Monday, August 26, 2024

August 26, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump steps up campaigning to counter Harris's rise . . . Donald Trump heralded an aggressive new phase of his campaign to combat Kamala Harris's sustained momentum, with a busier schedule in battleground states and amped-up outreach to younger men and women, voters he sees as crucial to victory. Advisers to Trump, who are bracing for Harris to enjoy a postconvention boost in polls, say he will be more active on the campaign trail after setting a modest pace when President Biden was still in the race. On Monday, Trump will address a National Guard conference in Detroit. He then has events Thursday elsewhere in Michigan and Wisconsin followed by a rally Friday in Pennsylvania. He is planning a number of interviews and after a long absence, has returned to regular posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he has nearly 90 million followers. Wall Street Journal

Politics

Walz was corrected after claiming award from Nebraska Chamber of Commerce . . . Gov. Tim Walz's pattern of misrepresenting his record continues to come under scrutiny as he steps onto the national stage as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate. In early 2006, when Walz ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, his campaign website stated that he had received an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce for his contributions to the business community. This claim was refuted by Barry L. Kennedy, then-president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, who confirmed in a letter that Walz had never been the recipient of any such award. Alpha News

In other news, Walz was also forced to withdraw his claim to have made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

Trump raises questions about doing ABC debate . . . Former President Trump on Sunday raised questions about his participation in next month's debate with Vice President Harris hosted by ABC News. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, complained about the network's panel and an interview host Jonathan Karl conducted with Sen. Tom Cotton. "I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl's(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?" Trump wrote. The Hill

RFK Jr responds to Kennedy family, wife's discomfort after Trump endorsement . . . "I think we all need to be able to disagree with each other and still love each other," he concluded. Kennedy had previously noted that his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, has not been totally on board. Hines posted on social media about the decision to withdraw, and Kennedy acknowledged that she was "very uncomfortable" with his decision. Kennedy's siblings reiterated their support for Vice President Kamala Harris in a public letter released shortly after Kennedy endorsed Trump, arguing he had "betrayed" their family's values. Fox News

RFK Jr. sister Kerry says brother is "setting first to my father's memory"

That is, it's okay to have your own opinion, as long as it's the same as ours.

Secret Service ends RFK Jr. protection

Trump is expected to tie Harris to chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal . . . Former President Donald Trump on Monday is expected to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 service members. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is expected to visit Arlington National Cemetery to pay his respects to the service members killed in the bombing outside the Kabul airport. Trump will then go to Michigan to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference. Associated Press

Trump says he knew immediately it was a bullet that grazed his ear, describes the moment

Key swing state to use ballot drop boxes . . . Voters will use ballot drop boxes again this fall in Wisconsin, among a few battleground states that could decide the Nov. 5 presidential election, prompting concern among election integrity advocates. The dissenting opinion in the state Supreme Court ruling reinstating the drop boxes argued that insufficient standards could allow "unattended cardboard box" or an "unsecured sack" to be used as a ballot box. Daily Signal

Citizens will be organized to watch them.

Michelle Obama said to be feuding with the Bidens . . . While Barack lauded his former Vice President with praise, referring to him as his 'brother' and thanking him for his service, Michelle notably did not name Biden a single time during her rousing, 23-minute speech. Was it a snub? Insiders say it was — adding that the former First Lady allegedly refused to speak at the convention while Biden was still in the 2024 race. Michelle is said to remain angry with the Bidens over their treatment of her close friend Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden's ex-wife. Buhle has been exiled by the family during a lengthy separation from Hunter dating back to 2017. Daily Mail

Democrat pollster warns Harris to stay away from the press

Culture

Court rules in favor of teacher forced to use trans pronouns . . . A federal court ruled last week that an Ohio school district violated the First Amendment rights of a Christian teacher, which experts are hailing as a victory for free speech and religious liberty. Hired as a full-time English teacher at the end of the 2021 academic school year, Vivian Geraghty had resigned from her position in 2022 after being told to use a student's "preferred pronouns." The argument she gave in her lawsuit was that the use of pronouns that didn't reflect the child's biological sex "would force her to embrace the concept of gender identity against her religious belief that God created two unchanging sexes, male and female." Daily Signal

Biden-Harris admin warns kids climate change will leave cities underwater . . . NASA's "Climate Kids" webpage offers fun environment-related educational activities, films, and video games for children in kindergarten. It also warns children that the world is undergoing cataclysmic warming, sea levels are rising, global ice coverage is diminishing, and their future may very well be doomed. The website separately shows an image of what it says may soon occur to the United States' Eastern Seaboard: a calamitous sea level rise covering entire cities, including New Orleans and Miami. The website fails to include a timeline for such an event. Washington Free Beacon

National Security

DHS eyes restart of fraud-filled 'parole' program for migrants . . . The Homeland Security Department's citizenship agency has put out a call for volunteers to help process applications for a fraud-plagued program that allows unauthorized migrants from some Latin American nations to skip the border and fly directly into the U.S. The program has welcomed more than a half-million migrants who lack legal visas to enter the U.S. It was abruptly paused several weeks ago after an internal review found massive fraud, but the call for volunteers suggests U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is looking for a quick restart. Washington Times

Brutal Venezuelan gang violence spills into quiet suburb from the sanctuary city next door . . . Denver's decision to welcome migrants with open arms is bringing bloodshed to the suburbs next door. A notorious Venezuelan prison gang has set up shop in Aurora, Colorado — even though the town wanted no part of the influx of asylum seekers in the first place. Aurora — a quiet bedroom community with a population of 390,000 directly east of the Mile-High City — has become a base of operations for the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, which has seized multiple apartment complexes and set off a wave of violent crime. New York Post

International

Australians given the "right to disconnect" after working hours . . . A "right to disconnect" rule has come into effect in Australia, offering relief to people who feel forced to take calls or read messages from employers after they finish their day's work. The new law allows employees to ignore communications after hours if they choose to, without fear of being punished by their bosses. A survey published last year estimated that Australians worked on average 281 hours of unpaid overtime annually. More than 20 countries, mainly in Europe and Latin America, have similar rules. The law does not ban employers from contacting workers after hours. Instead, it gives staff the right not to reply unless their refusal is deemed unreasonable. BBC

Presumably, employees also have the right to change jobs if they are contacted after hours too much. But let's just regulate it.

African warlords hid in plain sight in America: 'That's where they go' . . . The United States provided a safe harbor for decades for warlords who tortured, raped and cannibalized their countrymen in West Africa before settling in America alongside their victims' relatives. After ransacking Liberia in civil wars that killed about 250,000 people in the 1990s and 2000s, the war criminals sought shelter in the U.S. and lived among refugees. The warlords took advantage of Americans' generosity and the federal government's immigration policies and procedures to pursue the American dream without, in many cases, even concealing their identities. Washington Times

You should also know

Supreme Court may decide "assault weapons" ban showdown . . . The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld Maryland's ban on so-called assault weapons earlier this month, likely setting the stage for the next major Second Amendment showdown at the Supreme Court. The case, Bianchi v. Brown, features Maryland residents who challenge the constitutionality of a 2013 state law that generally prohibits them from buying or possessing any firearm deemed an "assault weapon."While semiautomatic rifles aren't outright prohibited, Maryland residents are required to buy heavily modified "featureless" versions of those guns. Daily Signal

AI output a threat to AI itself . . . A.I.-generated text may show up as a restaurant review, a dating profile or a social media post. And it may show up as a news article, too: NewsGuard, a group that tracks online misinformation, recently identified over a thousand websites that churn out error-prone A.I.-generated news articles. As they trawl the web for new data to train their next models on — an increasingly challenging task — they're likely to ingest some of their own A.I.-generated content, creating an unintentional feedback loop in which what was once the output from one A.I. becomes the input for another. In the long run, this cycle may pose a threat to A.I. itself. Research has shown that when generative A.I. is trained on a lot of its own output, it can get a lot worse. New York Times

Babe Ruth's legendary New York Yankees jersey sells for $24 million at auction . . . The jersey worn by legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth when he called his shot during the 1932 World Series before slamming a home run to center field fetched more than $24 million at auction. Heritage Auctions offered up the jersey Saturday night in Dallas and it sold for $24,120,000. "In the realm of sports collectibles, this is the greatest sports collectible of all time," Chris Ivy from Heritage Auctions told CBS Mornings ahead of the auction. CBS News

Guilty Pleasures

Democrat woman convention-goer prefers Republicans . . . A woman who attended the Democratic National Convention last week was filmed revealing that she prefers Republican men to their Democratic counterparts. Oh I don't know. Talk to anyone who lives in DC - it's hard to find a cute Democrat.' The woman hinted at why she found Republican men more alluring as she started laughing and said: 'Republican guys are hotter but they're evil.'

It's from this video, which you may find hilarious. Click on the replies button at the bottom to see it.