Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee are MIA (UPDATED)

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the White House says that Biden is "closely monitoring" the situation.

Biden flies from one vacation to another after vowing to end Gaza war, with Middle East on the brink

  • Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday, July 21. Since then, he has gone on two vacations and has spent every weekend either at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, or the presidential retreat at Camp David, according to White House pool reports dating back to July 21.

Following Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last Monday, he and his family spent the week vacationing at the California estate of billionaire Democratic donor Joe Kiani.

He will be vacationing again this week, but this time at his own home in Delaware. He has no public events scheduled for the week. In a preview of the week given to members of the press, White House staff wrote, "The President and the First Lady will remain in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware."

The weeks of vacationing and long weekends come after Biden himself declared that ending the war in Gaza and securing the return of hostages held by Hamas would be the top priority for his final months in office. He made the declaration on July 22, just one day after dropping out of the race.

Neither Biden nor his stand-in, “Last Person in the Room” Kampallawalla were present at today’s memorial service for the 13 soldiers they got killed, but that’s understandable: the last time the old man bothered to do something like that was a disaster of his own making, just like the precipitous withdrawal itself.

“After this clip went viral, two family members of these fallen soldiers appeared on the Fox News program "Hannity" and alleged that Biden checked his watch after every casket was transferred. Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, and Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, told Hannity (via the NY Post)”

“They would release the salute and he looked down at his watch on every last one,” Hoover said. “All 13, he looked down at his watch.”

Mark Schmitz — whose 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, died in the attack — corroborated Hoover’s story.

“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and I said, ‘I swear to God, if he checks his watch one more time …’,” Schmitz recalled, “and that was only probably four times in. I couldn’t look at him anymore after that, just considering, especially, the time and why we were there. I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Snopes:

UPDATE:

Wondering why we have astronauts lost in space? Wonder no more.

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Related: WHAT A MONSTER. Pitt cardiologist Norman Wang was demoted, had an article retracted, and was told he was “unsafe” for students because of maniac statements like “Ultimately, all who aspire to a profession in medicine and cardiology must be assessed as individuals on the basis of their personal merits, not their race and ethnic identities.” He’s suing. (In the meantime, if you need a cardiologist, I suspect he’s a safe bet.)

Posted at 2:35 pm by Robert Shibley

The Know-Nothings

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Over on InstaPundit, Ed Driscoll has posted a lengthy excerpt of an article by John Kass, and it’s worth reading in its entirety, but here’s the short(er) version:

JOHN KASS: Kamala’s Soviet Nightmare.

In the almost 40 years when I was a reporter, columnist, and editorial board member at a faded (but once great) Chicago metropolitan newspaper, I’d periodically conduct an unpopular experiment on colleagues:

I’d ask them if they’d ever made a payroll while dealing with other bills for electricity, taxes and other operating costs.

In other words: Had they ever run a business?

It seemed reasonable to ask, since journalists were so eager and willing to weigh in on economic matters, from unaffordable teacher contracts to property tax “swaps” and  waxing on profoundly about the importance of “community investment.”  Sometimes I’d ask for a show of hands when I’d run the experiment.

“Have you ever run a business?”

But nobody ever raised their hands.

Nobody.

… [A]merican journalists really didn’t want to be burdened by business issues, by “expenses” and “cost of production” and “profits and loss.”  And they often avoid the most nagging issue of all:

Reality.

And there was a secret to success in American journalism.

Feelings. It was all about expressing feelings. And emotion.

* * * * * * * *

Kamala Harris, now the Democrat presidential candidate desperate to distance herself from the disaster of Joe Biden, has feelings.

…. To separate herself from old Joe, she recently announced a drastic plan: If elected she would use her powers to order the federal authority to control rising inflationary costs.

In other words, government price controls just like the Stalin era, before farmers gave up and famine swept Ukraine. Stalin argued that to make an omelet you had to break some eggs. And his de facto but unofficial publicity agent, the Pulitzer Prize winning Walter Duranty of the New York Times agreed. Some eggs had to be broken, and if millions died of starvation…well, you can’t cry over broken eggs, can you?

“On Day One,” she promised, perhaps forgetting she had been at the top of the Biden administration for more than a thousand days, “I will take on price gouging and bring down costs. We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.

“We will take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases,” she continued. “And we will take on Big Pharma to cap prescription drug costs for all Americans. Our plan will lower costs and save many middle-class families thousands of dollars a year.”

She’s talking about price controls.

Yes.

Price controls didn’t work for the Soviet Union and Stalin, and the Soviets, like today’s Democrats, had the media eating out of their hands. And then came the famine.

Most of America’s inflation since 2020 has resulted from Kamala Harris, as Vice President, twice breaking Senate ties to approve the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. These didn’t reduce inflation; they caused it, they were the match to the dumpster fire. Dumping trillions of dollars in cash on the the economy and the inevitable happened, and every American who took basic economics knew what would come:

Too much cash chasing too few goods happened. Gas was under $2 a gallon. And then everything started to rise as the inflation tax of too much government spending took hold, and milk and eggs and coffee, beef and bread, everything rising and many Americans were forced to make choices.

There were moms and dads who skipped meals so their kids could eat. We never thought this would happen again in America, but it did. And some senior citizens had to select from medicine or food. It was the Democrats and their selling their “feelings” that got us here.

…..

Eventually, the people who do the work break down, like overworked mules or donkeys or rusty tractors. And those who make the pencils, and the farmers who grow the beef and vegetables, the chickens and the lentils and the wheat just can’t do it anymore, with or without Walter Duranty of the New York Times.

By then the shelves are empty. ….

Driscoll: “Speaking of Kass’s question to his fellow journalists, back in the early 1990s, far left Democrat George McGovern wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender…

[M]y business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: “Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.” It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.

“As Steve Hayward added earlier this month, ‘Well, just how much private sector experience do Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have between them? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.  Not even with a non-profit organization (which maybe doesn’t count).’ “

The coming battle

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Two days ago I posted on a small example of Deep State perfidy: how Kamalla Harris’ brother-in-law is using an obscure branch of the Treasury Department to funnel millions of dollars to the administration’s favored left wing advocacy groups. Similarly, and going back to Clinton’s reign, the DOJ has been engaging in “friendly suits”: a liberal group is encouraged by the government lawyers to bring suit over some position: immigration, for instance, or environmental, and the DOJ immediately settles by entering into a consent decree granting the group’s demands. This will only accelerate in the next four years should Democrat rule be extended.

D.C. Swamp-Dwellers Say It Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the Presidency, They’ll Do What They Want

Robert Spencer:

In his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017, Trump announced:

“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another—but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American People. For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished — but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered — but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.... That all changes — starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.”

…. Trump’s promise that power would be transferred back to the people remains unfulfilled. Trump has been criticized for failing to follow through on his promise, but at that time, no one knew just how entrenched and determined the swamp dwellers were.

In fact, before Trump was elected and the Washington bureaucracy rose against him, few people, if any, knew that there was a swamp at all. One of the most important results of the Trump presidency was not one anyone intended: it revealed the deep corruption and politicization of the civil service. Now, a more experienced Trump is again vowing to destroy the swamp, but the swamp-dwellers are insisting that they’re not going anywhere and will continue to run things. The gauntlet has been thrown down. 

The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that the will of the people just doesn’t matter to Beltway bureaucrats: “Washington’s bureaucracy, expanded and emboldened by the Biden-Harris administration, feels so secure that most managers would impose new regulations even if voters ‘overwhelmingly’ rejected their plans.” 

According to a new survey, fully 54% of “federal government managers would defy voters to do what they want.” The Napolitan Institute, which states that “we recognize that the only legitimate authority for government comes from the consent of the governed,” and that “our mission is to amplify and magnify the voice of the American people so clearly and powerfully that it becomes the driving, framing and shaping force for the crucial conversations of our nation,” conducted a survey of 500 swamp denizens, aka federal bureaucrats.

One of the questions these arrogant usurpers were asked was this: “Imagine that you work for a government agency and have the ability to draft new regulations. After carefully researching an important issue, you determine that a new regulation is needed. If voters overwhelmingly oppose that regulation, what should you do?” The Examiner notes that “just 35% would follow the wishes of voters and trash their regulation while 54% would ‘follow your research and issue the regulation.’ The rest were unsure.”

Our precious bodily fluids, or, “Trust the Experts”

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Instapundit:

OUT: ONLY WEIRD, ANTI-SCIENCE CONSPIRACY NUTS WORRY ABOUT FLUORIDE IN WATER.

IN: US government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids.

… The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined — “with moderate confidence” — that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.

The long-awaited report released Wednesday comes from the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It summarizes a review of studies, conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico, that concludes that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter is consistently associated with lower IQs in kids.

….

The report said that about 0.6% of the U.S. population — about 1.9 million people — are on water systems with naturally occurring fluoride levels of 1.5 milligrams or higher.

“The findings from this report raise the questions about how these people can be protected and what makes the most sense,” Malin said.

The 324-page report did not reach a conclusion about the risks of lower levels of fluoride, saying more study is needed. It also did not answer what high levels of fluoride might do to adults.

The American Dental Association, which champions water fluoridation, had been critical of earlier versions of the new analysis and Malin’s research. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman late Wednesday afternoon emailed that the organization’s experts were still reviewing the report.

Fluoride is a mineral that exists naturally in water and soil. About 80 years ago, scientists discovered that people whose water supplies naturally had more fluoride also had fewer cavities, triggering a push to get more Americans to use fluoride for better dental health.

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first U.S. city to start adding fluoride to tap water. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

Separately, the Environmental Protection Agency has maintained a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter. That standard is designed to prevent skeletal fluorosis, a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.

But more and more studies have increasingly pointed to a different problem, suggesting a link between higher levels of fluoride and brain development. Researchers wondered about the impact on developing fetuses and very young children who might ingest water with baby formula. Studies in animals showed fluoride could impact neurochemistry cell function in brain regions responsible for learning, memory, executive function and behavior.

In 2006, the National Research Council, a private nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., said limited evidence from China pointed to neurological effects in people exposed to high levels of fluoride. It called for more research into the effect of fluoride on intelligence.

After more research continued to raise questions, the National Toxicology Program in 2016 started working on a review of the available studies that could provide guidance on whether new fluoride-limiting measures were needed.

There were earlier drafts but the final document has repeatedly been held up. At one point, a committee of experts said available research did not support an earlier draft’s conclusions.

“Since fluoride is such an important topic to the public and to public health officials, it was imperative that we made every effort to get the science right,” said Rick Woychik, director of the National Toxicology Program, in a statement.

Malin said it makes sense for pregnant women to lower their fluoride intake, not only from water but also from certain types of tea. It might also make sense to have policy discussions about whether to require fluoride-content on beverage labels, she said.

But the CDC, as usual, is here to reassure us:

Rent control

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DOJ rentals lawsuit may be an effort to 'set up national rent control,' conservative warns

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday filed a lawsuit against a rental software company that offers an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for landlords to use in assessing rental market prices as they determine what to charge renters.

The DOJ suit alleges that RealPage violated antitrust law by contracting with "competing landlords who agree to share with RealPage nonpublic, competitively sensitive information about their apartment rental rates and other lease terms to train and run RealPage's algorithmic software," which provides recommendations on apartment pricing and terms. It also accused the company of maintaining a monopoly in the market for commercial revenue management software, and the DOJ seeks to "end RealPage's illegal conduct and restore competition for the benefit of renters."

The suit comes as the Biden-Harris administration last month pressed Congress to force corporate landlords to choose between abiding by a 5% cap on rent increases or losing federal tax credits. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has also called for a ban on the use of algorithms by rental companies, which her campaign said lets them "collude with each other and jack up rents dramatically."

RealPage has denied those allegations, saying that its software merely advises landlords about whether they should set rent for a given unit higher or lower. It added that it does not encourage them to keep units off the market and only uses nonpublic data in anonymized forms to prevent landlords from getting insights into their competitors' pricing, which the company believes complies with antitrust law. 

"RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a history of working constructively with the DOJ to show that," the company told FOX Business in a statement. "In fact, in 2017 when the DOJ granted antitrust clearance for our acquisition of LRO, the DOJ also analyzed extensive information about our revenue management products without objecting to them in any way. We continue to educate the DOJ about our revenue management products, which operate fundamentally the same as they did at the time of that 2017 review."

The company said on its website that its customers "decide their own rent prices, always have 100% discretion to accept or reject software price recommendations, are never punished for declining recommendations, and accept recommendations at widely varying rates that are far lower than has been falsely alleged." 

RealPage also noted that as of May 2023, only 6.7% of rental units nationally used its AI Revenue Management (AIRM) or YieldStar tools, while 3.7% used its Lease Rent Operations.

Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, criticized the DOJ's investigation of AI rental software companies and told FOX Business that the probe "smells of an effort to set up national rent control, which has been discussed by other parts of the Democratic Party."

Norquist added that the software's suggestion is not compelling landlords or renters to offer or sign leases at the suggested rate.

"Everybody can ignore it, and will, if it doesn't make any sense," he said. "Which is why it's so ridiculous for people whose answer is government-imposed, mandated prices to suggest that when somebody says, 'here's what prices look like right now,' that that's somehow collusion and causing a problem."

Stephen Moore, a senior visiting fellow in economics at the Heritage Foundation, told FOX Business that consumers use algorithms to determine the best deals for products they're buying, including airfares and lodging, because they are efficient tools to match supply with demand and have value in the housing sector as well.

"What the Department of Justice is saying is that it should be somehow illegal for landlords to use algorithms and software to figure out how much they can charge for their rental units," Moore said. "If that is the case, then we should also outlaw consumers being able to do the same thing. And there are benefits to these algorithms because it matches, in an efficient way, the consumer who values the product the most with the seller who wants to sell the product. In this case, it's a rental apartment."

"Having a really efficient, real-time pricing management system where prices can change moment by moment, just like the price of a stock does, enhances consumer and business welfare at the same time," he added.

Moore said that addressing inflation and the resulting high interest rates would be a better way to deal with high housing costs.

"The most important thing they could do to lower rental prices is to stop borrowing trillions of dollars a year," Moore said. "Because what's happening is, the reason that rental prices and housing prices are going up is because the mortgage rate has gone way up, it was 3% when Trump left office, and now it's 6.5%, so people are paying twice as high a mortgage payment, and that really significantly deters their ability to afford a new house, or in this case apartment."

#MeToo! — Connecticut’s own idiot AG has, of course, signed up for what he hopes will be a share of the spoils.

And then there’s this related item:

HOME BUILDERS TELL VP HARRIS HER HOUSING PLAN NEEDS TO ADDRESS REGULATORY BARRIERS

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) responded to Vice President Harris' housing plans that were unveiled Friday as part of her economic agenda and found that while some elements of the proposal are positive, it fails to address a key policy area holding the housing sector back.

Harris' plans featured up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, which she said would be provided to more than four million people over four years if she wins the presidency. She also called for building three million new housing units and would provide tax incentives for the construction of new homes for first-time buyers and a $40 billion home construction innovation fund.

Carl Harris, chairman of the NAHB and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas, said in a statement that while the vice president's focus on housing and homeownership is "commendable," her plan doesn't address regulatory barriers that impede the industry from building more inventory.

"Unfortunately, the plan makes no mention of reducing onerous federal regulations that add to the 24% cost burden on single family home construction or the almost 41% increase on the construction of a multifamily unit," he explained.

Stop them before they kill again — power-mad, fear-mongering bureaucrats, that is

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Northeastern towns issue voluntary lockdown to prevent spread of mosquito-borne disease

Eastern equine encephalitis can be deadly, health officials warn, but cases are 'extraordinarily rare'

Four Massachusetts towns — Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster — have enacted a voluntary evening lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease.

The decision comes after the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed the first human case of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) since 2020 in Worcester County. 

On Wednesday, the Oxford Board of Health voted to support the recommendation for people to remain indoors after 6:00 p.m., effective immediately, through Sept. 30, according to a public health advisory shared with Fox News Digital.

"It is the Board of Health’s responsibility to protect the public health, and we take EEE very seriously, and we are strongly encouraging residents to follow these recommendations due to the severity of EEE and the fact that it is in our community," a spokesperson for the town of Oxford said in an email to Fox News Digital. 

"So far this year in Massachusetts, there has only been one human case of EEE, but throughout the state, mosquitoes have tested positive for EEE."

“Voluntary ” — but, remember those COVID cards? They’re back.

The lockdowns are considered recommendations, and there will be no enforcement if residents do not comply, the town spokesperson said.

"However, if they want to use town fields outside these recommendations, they will have to show proof of insurance and sign an indemnification form."

Oxford is working with the other three critical-risk communities, with all four issuing these same recommendations, the spokesperson confirmed.

"Schools are working to reschedule and adjust their sports schedules so practices and games occur before these evening times and on weekends," the email noted.

And mosquito repellant doesn’t work on lightning.

Dr. John Ayers, vice chief of innovation in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, confirmed to Fox News Digital that EEE is "serious but extraordinarily rare."

"Without any overt prevention measures, cases remain substantially rarer than being struck by lightning," he said.

"While evening lockdowns could be protective, other options would be educating the public of the risk, encouraging mosquito repellent usage, and spraying to prevent the prevalence of mosquitoes," he advised.

Ayers added, "I don't think there is anything you can do to meaningfully lower your individual chances of illness, because they're already so low."