Wednesday, October 9, 2024

October 9, 2024

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Time to evacuate is running out as Hurricane Milton closes in on Florida . . . Hurricane Milton churned Wednesday toward a potentially catastrophic collision along the west coast of Florida, where some residents insisted they would stay after millions were ordered to evacuate and officials warned that stragglers would face grim odds of surviving. The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faced the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century. The National Hurricane Center predicted Milton, a Category 5 hurricane during much of its approach, would likely weaken but remain a major hurricane when it makes landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday. Associated Press

Florida CFO says Hurricane Milton's financial toll could reach $20 billion

Politics

Democrats start to hit the panic button . . . Two months ago — even a month ago — they were feeling bullish about Vice President Harris's prospects of defeating former President Trump. But now, with less than a month to go until Election Day, they're increasingly worried about a number of issues plaguing the Democratic nominee's campaign. On Tuesday, there was grumbling from some Democrats about the vice president's interview on CBS's "60 Minutes." There's also concern on everything from the static poll numbers in the race to the vice president's messaging. The Hill

Kamalamania subsides.

More Americans Identify as Republican Than Democrat . . . Bill McInturff, a GOP pollster who works on NBC News surveys, first noticed in May that more voters were calling themselves Republicans. "Wow, the biggest deal in polling is when lines cross, and for the first time in decades, Republicans now have the national edge on party ID,'' he wrote. He called the development "the underrecognized game-changer for 2024.'' In combined NBC polls this year, Republicans lead by 2 percentage points over Democrats, 42% to 40%, when voters were asked which party they identified with. That compares with Democratic leads of 6 points in 2020, 7 points in 2016 and 9 points in 2012. Wall Street Journal

In some cases, you can change your identity.

Biden throws Kalama under the bus a bit . . . Biden first said on "The View" in late September that he "was able to delegate [Harris] responsibility on everything from foreign policy to domestic policy," undercutting her campaign message — and the media's narrative — that she was only a bystander in his administration and that his failures would've been successes had she been in charge. The president did it again Monday night when he spoke with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about inbound Hurricane Milton, all while Harris was accusing the governor of playing political games by allegedly "refusing" to answer her own phone call. Daily Caller

Probe into whether Dems use ActBlue platform to cheat at fundraising expands to 19 states . . . Asprawling investigation into the online fundraising platform ActBlue has expanded into 19 states, as attorneys general across the country press the company on its security practices and whether Democrats might be using the platform to cheat on election donations. An investigation that began with a few states and a House committee has now spread across nearly half the country as chief state investigators are endeavoring to determine whether Democrats have used the ActBlue to launder foreign money or craft donations in people's names without their permission, a practice known as "straw donations." Just the News

Shamed into 'media blitz', Harris interviews boomerang as viral moments draw flak

Walz says the Electoral College 'needs to go' . . . Gov. Tim Walz made a new push for booting the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote, as Democrats are again wary of a scenario in which Vice President Kamala Harris wins the popular vote but fails to secure the presidency. "I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go," Walz said at a campaign fundraiser with California Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday afternoon. "We need a national popular vote that is something. But that's not the world we live in." Politico

Woodward book reveals Trump's calls with Putin and Biden's remarks on Obama and Netanyahu . . . Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Vladimir Putin since leaving office and secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines during the height of the pandemic, Bob Woodward reported in his new book, "War." The revelations were made in the famed Watergate reporter's latest book, which also details President Joe Biden's frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 's assortment of burner phones. Trump denied the reporting. Associated Press

Culture

U.S. Hospitals Earned Nearly $120 Million in Four Years for Sex-Change Treatments on Minors . . . A report from the medical watchdog group Do No Harm shows that hospitals in the U.S. earned nearly $120 million in four years performing gender transition treatments on nearly 14,000 children under the age of 18. The new watchdog group showed that between 2019 and 2023, as many as 5,747 minors underwent sex-change surgeries, while another 8,579 used puberty blockers or sex hormones. Breitbart

University of Virginia accused of racial discrimination against whites . . . The University of Virginia appears to have changed the website description of a mentoring program for BIPOC students after a civil rights complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education. A federal civil rights complaint filed by the Equal Protection Project on October 1 accused the University of Virginia of "creating, sponsoring and promoting a racially discriminatory program called the BIPOC Alumni-Student Mentoring Program" by excluding White students from the program designed to help classmates who fall into the "Black, Indigenous and People of Color" category. Fox News

National Security

Hundreds of Millions of US Research Dollars Helping China's Military, House Report Finds . . . The American government is pumping hundreds of millions of federal research dollars into research projects that are spurring Chinese advancement in cutting-edge military technologies, including "hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, fourth generation nuclear weapons technology, and semiconductor technology," a new congressional report has found, the House Select Committee on China saod. Washington Free Beacon

International

Canceled Israeli visit highlights tensions ahead of Iran counterstrike . . . A planned visit to Washington by Israel's top defense official was abruptly canceled by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a sign of tensions between the two allies that casts doubt on whether the Biden administration can prevent Israel's multifront conflict from exploding into wider war. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been scheduled to host his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Israeli officials have said that the country is preparing a significant military response to that attack. U.S. officials say that Israel has not briefed them on what it is planning. Washington Post

North Korean soldiers are likely dying for Putin in Ukraine, Seoul says . . . North Korea is likely sending its soldiers to fight and die in Ukraine alongside Russian troops, Seoul's defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, said Tuesday. "As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely," South Korea's defense chief told the country's parliament, adding that more of Pyongyang's soldiers are likely to be deployed. "The relations between Russia and North Korea are evolving to be almost as close as a military alliance," he said. Politico

5 reasons why Zelenskyy's victory plan for Ukraine is a no-win gamble . . . Last month, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the United States in an effort to revitalize U.S. support for his country's defense against Russia's invasion, which is now in its third year. During his trip, in what appears to be the last push, before November's presidential election, the Ukrainian leader presented to the Biden administration his so-called "Victory Plan" intended to compel Russia to end the war. Tragically for the Ukrainian people, Zelenskyy's plan is highly unlikely to restore peace in Ukraine. Here's why. By Rebekah Koffler for Fox News

You should also know

Life expectancy in humans not likely to increase much more, study suggests . . . Human life expectancy has potentially been pushed to the max, new research suggests. The recent increase in people's longevity appears to be slowing down despite new developments in medicine, according to a study published in the journal Nature Aging. During the 20th century, human life expectancy at birth rose by about 30 years in high-income nations, the study noted, driven by advancements in public health. Fox News

Guilty Pleasures

Artwork mistaken for litter rescued from museum's trash bin . . . A Dutch museum has recovered an artwork that looks like two empty beer cans after a staff member accidentally threw it in the rubbish bin thinking it was trash. The work, entitled All The Good Times We Spent Together by French artist Alexandre Lavet, appears on first glance to be two discarded and dented beer tins. However, a closer look shows they are in fact meticulously hand-painted with acrylics and "required a lot of time and effort to create", according to the museum. Guardian