The Democrat National Convention comes to Chicago to (officially) nominate their new and never before voted on (in the 2024 cycle) candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, for President of the United States. And her “stolen valor” but acceptable-to-the-Democrat-antisemitic-base, vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz.

Which makes this another good time to discuss the state of play for the 2024 presidential race.

The Real Clear Politics national average has Harris with a 1.2 percentage point advantage over former President Donald Trump. The average has been going up and down as of late; the irrational exuberance of the Democrats has ended, with the numbers beginning to settle.

Which is really good for me, since I am not sure I could take any more “Harris is surging, we are all doomed” commentary from my hyper online, poll-fixated Republican buddies, three of whom I had to coax down from their window ledges over the past few weeks.

Remember, for Harris to win the electoral college, she must be at least three points up on election day. (Assuming the polls are, this year, not underestimating Trump again, as they did in 2016 and 2020.) Indeed, if you look into the battleground state averages, Trump is up in Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and (most importantly) Pennsylvania. That’s the ball game right there, folks!

And President Joe Biden’s presidential approval is still at 41 percent. Making him, in the eyes of the nation, a failure, who is still very much attached to his vice president, Harris.

Now, in all the attention that has been paid to the bouncing polls, little attention has been paid to the underlying facts/issues of the coming election. As I have said before, these facts are: 1) the economy is bad; 2) the border is porous (with criminals, terrorists, and killers coming in, unvetted); 3) the world is in chaos (resulting in riots in the U.S.); and Harris is an obvious diversity pick of a candidate (based on Joe Biden’s own comments about his selection) who is noted for being disinterested in tackling those tasks handed her and awkwardly insincere, and has a crazy leftwing record to boot.

So, let’s project a little, shall we?

The DNC is projected to have tens of thousands (if not over one hundred thousand) of antisemitic Democrat protesters outside the convention in Chicago to protest U.S. funding for “Israel’s war in Gaza,” Axios’ Monica Eng reported. Violence is expected.

Maybe, just maybe, this coming violent chaos may interfere with the usual convention stage-managed show being planned by the Democrats? Maybe, just maybe, the nutballs running around, exposing themselves on the streets, destroying things, carrying around Hamas and Hezbollah flags, including the “Queers for Palestine” who can’t fathom that Palestine is not for them, the excessively unwashed, pierced, and tattooed violent protestors will not be helpful in appealing to the swing voters of the 2024 election.

Just like their predecessors in rioting weren’t very helpful in the 1968 election.

I am also projecting that the GOP will be focused on exposing Harris’ issues, like they have been doing since she was selected (but not elected). During the Olympics, the GOP cut back on advertising – per conventional wisdom – but now this will pick up steam. There are many excellent attack ads, including this one mentioned by my RedState colleague, that used Harris’ own words against her. (An unforced mistake by Harris.) She will also be tied to the horrendous record of the Biden administration, of which she is the NUMBER 2 (and who does Number 2 work for?), and from which she has made no real effort to separate herself by criticizing Biden publicly on a major issue. (Another mistake.)

I am also projecting that the MSM and the Democrats will keep their focus heavily on Donald Trump. When Trump says something at his free-wheeling rallies, or on social media, the usual process is that the MSM/Democrats edit the video or message/drops context/ignores obvious attempts at humor, or just flat-out lies about what Trump has said, trying to twist it into something to show that DONALD TRUMP IS (STILL) 

during his four-year term, the nation and the world were in a much better place than they are now. The Democrats need something new here because they have cried wolf too often, and no one not already on their team believes their BS anymore. But they won’t change; they believe their own propaganda. (Another mistake.)

I also project that because Harris and Walz are such dedicated leftists, they will continue to promote left-wing solutions to the problems that have arisen as a result of the terrible mismanagement of the Biden-Harris administration. You know, like their decision to promote price controls, a real winner of an idea.

It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for ’em.

Then we will have the debates. The bull in the china shop approach of Donald Trump vs. the cackling lightweight approach of Kamala Harris. Will Harris be able to do well? Maybe, but she will have to prepare for it, and tone down her word salads and laughter, something that she has been notoriously unwilling to do before.

The vice-presidential debate is pretty easy to call. JD Vance is not going to let up on the stolen valor of Tim Walz, an easily understandable criticism that is quite devasting to Walz with a normal, objective swing voter.

Then, there will be, as mentioned by another RedState colleague, the September Surprise – Judge Juan Merchan may well impose a jail sentence on Trump following the former president’s guilty verdicts on 34 counts of business fraud. This reappearance of obvious lawfare will work wonders — for the Trump campaign.

The closer we get to the election, the more the swing voters are forced to focus on the race and decide who wins it. It is then that they will be exposed, in some cases, for the first time, to many of the arguments made by both sides. They will be told that Donald Trump is the Devil and that Kamala Harris is the lefty diversity vice president of Joe Biden.

Adam Turner

Over the weekend, I took my daughter and her best friend on a day trip from Northern Virginia to Hico, West Virginia. In a matter of 120 minutes, you pass from one of the statistically wealthiest areas in the United States to some of the most destitute roadside neighborhoods you’ll see in the region. The friend asked why it’s like this in West Virginia, and all I could think to say in response was, “All your friends back in Northern Virginia, what do their parents do for work?” It didn’t take her long. She responded, “Oh like mostly the Pentagon, Boeing, and I know a few kids whose parents go out to Quantico.” That’s not an answer to why West Virginia is more poor, but it does explain the wealth of Northern Virginia. Connection to the federal government is an economy of its own, and the tentacles of federal money cover 61 square miles and ten counties known as the DMV.

Billions of dollars float through Virginia and Maryland in the form of federal grants for research and development related to technology, medicine, education, and much more. What that means is that there is seldom a microchip, vaccine, weapons system, satellite, or AI tool that hasn’t benefited directly or indirectly from taxpayer dollars somewhere in its development. Government funds have strings attached

While this arrangement between the public and private sectors has historically been a boon to the United States in a global economy, there is a real risk to American innovation if certain norms are busted by lawmakers looking to score political points. The federal government could seize control of most patents in AI, microchip tech, and pharmaceuticals using a legal tool known as “march-in rights.”

As recently as last week, the Biden administration is under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to use march-in rights to lower pharmaceutical drug prices. This authority, granted by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, empowers the government to take over patents on products developed using federal funding if those products are not reasonably available to the public.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine), along with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, urging them to quickly finalize the guidance on federal “march-in rights.”

These Democrats think the use of march-in rights is a straightforward way to lower consumer drug prices and would have observers believe the political upside is a mere coincidence in an election year. The norms around “march-in rights” are essential.

This power exists but has never been used before, despite several petitions for the government to do so in recent decades. Like most powers the federal government acquires, there are good reasons it came to pass. The Bayh-Dole Act was originally designed to encourage the commercialization of technological innovation by allowing universities and small businesses to retain patent rights on products developed with federal funding.

This led to the development of many new technologies and medicines ranging from a chemotherapy drug for cancer patients called Taxol to the common allergy medication Allegra and even next-generation firefighting drones.

A federal agency can theoretically leverage march-in rights and grant licenses for a product funded by taxpayer dollars if these four conditions are met:

The current licensee has failed or is unlikely to achieve the “practical application” of the invention. Action is required to address “health or safety needs.” The product is needed to fulfill “public use requirements” as stipulated by federal regulations. The product is not being predominantly “manufactured” within the United States.

It should come as no surprise that the Biden administration is not keen on letting the market determine drug prices. The Biden administration recently debuted a framework for how it might make use of the Bayh-Dole Act to start setting prices on a narrow subset of drugs. What could go wrong? (Everything.)

Most consumer drugs on the market are the result of multiple patents held by developers rather than researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. The latter scenario is one with the ever-present potential of government intervention and seizure of the patent.

That potential is what spooks innovators across the most vital sectors in the American economy. In ventures where the risk is high, firms are less inclined to make major investments. A fine example of this is when the Federal Communications Commission introduced regulatory uncertainty into the broadband sector, which led to a 10% decline in private-sector investments toward broadband. Consumers nationwide saw reduced network coverage and reliability.

This can happen in the artificial intelligence space, microchips, and cloud computing. Federal dollars are everywhere in these industries. Large companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia receive federal funding for AI or semiconductor research and could be subject to march-in rights once the dam breaks on its use. The government might justify seizing patents if it determines that the public interest or national security is at stake.

Consider the situation if China were to finally invade or blockade Taiwan, a small neighbor that produces 90% of the global supply of advanced chip technology. This would be a real emergency for consumer products and sensitive government tech used for national security. The same goes for the global race to develop AI technology using federal funds for R&D. If AI is produced and isn’t being deployed in a way that benefits the United States during a potential foreign war, the government could step in using march-in rights on products created through the Bayh-Dole Act.

In these scenarios, with all the norms restricting the government’s use of march-in rights to seize patents shattered, you could see a dramatic decline in the vitality of American tech innovation. Even worse, you could see the government attempt to actively control these patented technologies and award them to domestic partners who will be the most cooperative with the government when pushed.

Say what you will about Apple, but it’s a company that frustrates the U.S. federal government with its dogmatic approach to consumer privacy and walled garden systems. We need more of that, not less.

With so much next-generation technology being developed in the D.C. area with government dollars as a subsidy, we must strongly resist calls in Congress to wield march-in rights inappropriately. Drug prices should be lower, but in market economies, there are better paths to take such as streamlining the approval of generics, expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts, and importing prescription drugs from foreign competitors.

Here’s an important segment of the social engineering component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed under the Obama presidency:

The ACA provides a strong emphasis on preventive medicine and primary care through insurance reform, increased reimbursement for primary care providers, funding to educate these providers, and incentives to attract providers into primary care. The Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are especially well prepared to educate providers on the use of evidence-based preventive care and to assist the U.S. healthcare system in its transformation toward this model.

In other words, under the rubric of preventative medicine, millions of people who might not have gone to see a doctor prior to ACA are being encouraged to go.  To meet the cost of those millions of new patients, new institutions like urgent care centers are springing up.  Physicians’ Assistants (P.A.s) and Nurse Practitioners (N.P.s) are being used to treat these people as well as more serious cases.  The medical schools do not turn out enough M.D.s to treat the 30 million people (new “patients”) who are being channeled into the American health care system.  As my primary care doctor (an M.D.) told me, there is increasing pressure on him to have a practice of only very sick people.  He frankly told me that he does not want the stress of treating only the very sick all day, every day.

So, in the post-ACA morass, we have too many people going to see M.D.s who don’t need an M.D.  We have too many very sick people that have to wait a very long time to get an appointment with an M.D.  And…we have increasing numbers of P.A.s and N.P.s supervising the care of very sick people.  With millions of dollars pouring into the health care system from the federal government, it becomes a boon to hospital income to have less qualified personnel who need to be paid less than M.D.s.  It’s a morass depicting itself as “needed reform.”  From the Hippocratic Oath to do the least harm, the health care world has shifted to the “principle” see the most people and diminish the quality of health care.  There is a trade-off between the numbers served, which increases, and the quality of care and professionalism, which decreases.

When this writer had major heart surgery in 2020, instead of a second surgeon being present during the surgery, as had been the case for heart surgeries and all major surgeries for many decades, a P.A. was included.  Even while I waited on my stretcher to be wheeled into the operating room, I asked the nurse in charge why I did not see a second surgeon as part of the assembled team.  This paradigm shift was in the official surgery summary report.

Additionally, the heart surgery wing of the major New York City hospital (where many of the patients had life-or-death issues) was headed up by an N.P. and a P.A.  Only five years before, I was in the gastrointestinal wing of the same hospital for surgery, where the majority of cases were less life-threatening than the cardio wing, but an M.D. was always in charge and sometimes visited my room, once with a team of residents who were learning about the post-surgical progress.  Five years later, other than a one- minute visit by my surgeon and a five-minute visit by my anesthesiologist over a six-day period, only one M.D. appeared in my hospital room along with my assigned P.A., with their sole purpose being to tell me when I would be discharged.

This shift in attentiveness and expertise was, I believe, at least in part because of the shifts in emphasis regarding health care priorities brought on by Obama’s legislation regarding health care.

Governmental statements summarizing the ACA are obscurely written but can be “translated.”  For example, the National Institutes of Health writes, “Accountability for care may be spread across provider types and over a period of time, which incentivizes those providers to work together and integrate services and provides some degree of risk transfer.”  In English, this means that the ACA discourages individual medical practices.  This would of course mean that patients could be scheduled to see more than one doctor in a given visit, and this would cut costs.

A second change noted by the NIH regarding health care delivery under the ACA states, “Groups of providers (e.g., accountable care organizations or ACOs) with access to data and information systems, and the people who can interpret those data and information, can better provide and coordinate care, and manage costs given the risk and accountability.”  The translation: government payouts incentivize greater use of computerization in the health care system.  This writer’s wife at one point had a cardiologist who sat behind his desk and took notes about what she said, and he looked at his computer most of the time.  Sometimes he came out from behind his desk and looked in her mouth using the light from the flashlight in his iPhone.  At no point did he ever listen to her heart or lungs with a stethoscope.

A health care organization advertising in NYC says that elderly people will like their examination centers because doctors will listen to them (notice: the ad does not say “examine them”) while an assistant to the doctor takes notes on his tablet.  Cost-cutting becomes a higher priority under the ACA.

Not only is the practice of medicine being affected clinically, but the wider use of N.P.s under Obamacare is part of the federal government’s attempt to extend the tentacles of its power into the home under a disguise of “caring.”  An article about the increased use of N.P.s under Obamacare states, “Nursing’s emphasis on preventive healthcare can be traced to Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing, first published in 1859.  She recognized that patient care must first be focused on providing a healthy home environment which she described as having pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and light.”

According to the writers, increased involvement of N.P.s beautifully connects medicine with the environmental goals of having a healthy, clean, environmentally safe home.  Do the writers of this pro-N.P. article remember when M.D.s normally would make house calls?  Do they believe that homes became healthier and more environmentally sound during the 1940s?

Are you satisfied?  The ACA is a case of monumental overreach and complexity.  The reorganization of medical practice has been less than satisfying.  Costs have risen.  Service has declined.  Life expectancy in the USA declined 2.6 years from 2019 to 2021.  National government-run health care continues to be a non-starter.

E. Jeffrey Ludwig, American Thinker

The socialists funneling ideas to Harris have put together an economic plan redolent of Venezuela or, indeed, the Soviet Union.

Don’t cry for me, Argentina.

Cry for Kamala the Kamunist.

It took them a while, it’s true, but at least Argentina has someone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics in charge.

Indeed, Javier Milei, one of my favorite leaders on the world stage today (along with Viktor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Georgia Meloni, and Nayib Bukele) is a Trump-like dynamo. If I had a more developed entrepreneurial bent, I would try marketing a line of Milei chainsaws in the United States. Just as he took a chainsaw (sometimes literally) to excessive spending, regulation, and bureaucracy in Argentina, so my Milei Chainsaws could be employed against waste, fraud, and abuse here across the fruited plain. Milei’s robust policies have put Argentina on the runway to economic success. They have slashed inflation—some 200% when he took office—and his abolition of rent control—surprise, surprise—has sparked a 195% rise in available housing stock.

Meanwhile, the socialists funneling ideas to Harris have put together an economic plan redolent of Venezuela or, indeed, the Soviet Union. Its centerpiece revolves around centrally promulgated and enforced wage and price controls—a recipe for shortages and inflation.

The plan itself has been ridiculed across the ideological spectrum, from CNN to The Wall Street Journal. “Harris’ plan to stop price gouging,” quoth CNN in a masterpiece of understatement, “could create more problems than it solves.”

The WSJ was a bit franker. For one thing, there is “no evidence that supermarkets or other food retailers are gouging anyone. Food prices are higher than they were before the Biden Presidency, but that is because of inflation.”

And who caused that inflation, Kemo Sabe? The man with the keys to the money duplicating machine, Joe Biden or his handlers.

Moreover, “fixing prices is a recipe for shortages, as controls would discourage grocery suppliers. Voilà, empty store shelves. Price controls have led to shortages everywhere they’ve been tried, from Moscow to Caracas.”

Some of the propaganda press—The New York Times, MSNBC, etc—have been working overtime to keep up a brave face. The low hum you hear is the hydrogen pumps shooting gas into the leaky balloon of the Democrat consortium. As I have noted ever since Kamala was plucked out of the bin marked “ridiculous” and dusted off as the mannequin’s understudy, the intoxicating paroxysms of glee that convulsed the left-leaning media pundits was but a sugar-high. It induced feelings of giddiness but could not last. I thought it would probably linger through the DNC convention next week, but the manic phase is already passing the stupor consequent on the sudden drop in energy has set in.

The depressive funk is not helped by the Harris campaign’s strategy of “out-of-sight-out-of-mind.” They concluded that it worked with Joe Biden in 2020, and so they thought they would try it again. But there is no COVID emergency to shut the country down this time around and it is pretty clear that the Dems’ basement strategy cannot be successfully dusted off and applied to Kamala. True, she is nearly as inarticulate as Biden, but the public will not put up with the Wizard of Oz gambit a second time.

Besides, Team Trump is wheeling out all sorts of embarrassing things that will destroy Harris if they are not effectively answered. For example, a clip of Harris discussing her support of the government taking over private patents by fiat has surfaced and is being industriously circulated.

I will snatch their patents, so that we [the American government] will take over.

Yes we can do that!

The question is: ‘Do you have the will to do it’!?

I have the will to do it.

Noted.

I almost feel sorry for Harris, emphasis on the adverb. Reports are that 100,000 protestors are set to converge on Chicago next week to torch the city and torment Democrat convention-goers. Will it be a bigger, badder version of what happened in Chicago in 1968? That time, golden boy Eugene McCarthy went in on a cloud of fairy dust and came out of the convention 20 points behind Nixon.

Efforts to paint Trump and JD as “weird” have failed miserably, as have the embarrassing efforts to gild the Harris-Walz socialist platform and history of failure by stealing various Trump ideas like exempting tips from federal income tax.

Even more damaging have been the mounting attacks by conservatives on the whole Harris-Walz concession. Governor Walz has turned out to be a special kind of liability, a sick freak who orders schools to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms while sitting back and watching Minneapolis burn as the BLM rioters rampaged through the city. His patina of plaid, dad-like folksiness is completely belied by his sympathy for Communist China not to mention his personal inclinations.

Why was Walz picked as Harris’s running mate in the first place? One midwestern friend might have hit upon the answer. Tim Walz, he said, was what the coastal elites of this country believe a midwesterner looks and acts like. He has all the “progressive” attitudes of the left, but he articulates them accoutered in a more string-tie, aw-shucks manner

I expected a certain amount of small-caliber fire by now, but it turns out that Trump supporters are already pounding Harris-Walz with heavy artillery. For example, speaking on “The Five” just a few days ago, Greg Gutfeld utterly vaporized Harris’s record on the border, inflation, and other issues.

What’s coming will not be pretty. But I predict that it will be cathartic. It’s hard to know just how much of a hose Trump’s victory will be for the rank Augean stables of Democrat incumbency. Doubtless, many clumps of ordure will remain. Many, however, will be flushed into the impatient, rushing currents of change. I am looking forward to it.

Roger Kimball, American Greatness

Much of human history has been defined by the actions of around 50 to 70 empires that once ruled large swathes of people across vast chunks of the globe. Each of these empires, whether large or small, for ill or for good, has influenced world history. It’s hard to say which has had the greatest impact on society — it is, after all, somewhat subjective and hard to measure — but some have undeniably shaped the course of human history, forever and irrevocably. Here are six such empires, from the mighty Persians to the globe-spanning British.

Persian Empire

Around 550 BCE, Cyrus II of Persia — later to be known as Cyrus the Great — conquered a number of neighboring kingdoms, including Media and Babylon, and brought them together under his control. In so doing, he founded the first Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire. Centered in modern-day Iran, it became one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Egypt and the Balkans to parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. For more than two centuries, the empire was a global center of culture, religion, science, arts, and technology. But then came the Persian ruler Xerxes, whose failed invasion of Greece in 480 BCE brought about a period of decline.

Weakened, the Persian Empire eventually fell in 330 BCE at the hands of the invading armies of Alexander the Great of Macedonia.

Roman Empire

Following a period of unrest and civil wars — including the assassination of Julius Caesar — the Roman Republic came to an end and Augustus Caesar was crowned the first ruler of the new Roman Empire in 27 BCE. At its height in 117 CE, Rome controlled all the land from Western Europe to the Middle East, and was the most powerful political and military entity the world had yet seen. The impact of the Roman Empire on the modern world is hard to overstate. Our art, architecture, laws, technology, and engineering — even the very words we speak — have all been heavily influenced by the ancient Romans.

But even an empire as mighty as Rome was destined to fall. A series of Gothic invasions heralded a general decline, and in 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire fell. The Eastern Roman Empire — also known as the Byzantine Empire — remained until 1453, but the glory days of the Roman Empire had reached their end.

Han Dynasty

Founded in 206 BCE and established by a commoner named Liu Bang, the Han dynasty was the second great imperial dynasty of China. It spanned more than four centuries and is considered a golden age in Chinese history. Despite much political turbulence, the dynasty helped cement Confucianism as the state religion and opened up a world-changing trade route with Europe: the Silk Road.

The Han dynasty is also known for its many innovations that shaped the world as we know it today. Developments in everything from record-keeping to agriculture and health care had a global impact, while inventions such as the rudder, the blast furnace, the wheelbarrow, suspension bridges, and paper forever changed the way we live.

Mongol Empire

At the height of its powers, the Mongol Empire covered around 9 million square miles, making it the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen. The empire was founded by Genghis Khan, a former tribal leader, in 1206. Genghis’ early victories gave him control of the whole of what is now Mongolia. He and his fearsome armies then engaged in a period of aggressive expansion that conquered most of Eurasia, leaving a trail of ruin in its wake. But the Mongol Empire was far more complex than its notorious hordes would suggest.

Under Genghis and his successors, the Mongols reformed his people’s laws, created a military-feudal form of government, and enhanced trade (including along the Silk Road) throughout his conquered territories. His armies, meanwhile, were quick to adopt advanced technologies of the time, such as powerful siege weapons and possibly gunpowder, while perfecting their mounted hit-and-run tactics. The Mongols were also innovators who, through their expansion, helped introduce military technology to new lands, including their famed composite bow and stirrups.

Ottoman Empire

From humble beginnings as a provincial principality in Anatolia (part of modern-day Turkey), the Ottoman Empire rose to become one of the most powerful and long-lasting empires in history, spanning an incredible six centuries from the early 1300s to the aftermath of World War I. The Islamic superpower ruled large swathes of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa, and reached the height of its powers under the appropriately named Suleiman the Magnificent.

Suleiman, who ruled the empire from 1520 to 1566, brought about a golden age of geographic expansion, trade, economic growth, and huge cultural and artistic developments, while forging an empire that embraced ethnic diversity and religious tolerance.

British Empire

The British Empire remains the largest empire the world has ever seen. Beginning with overseas colonies in the Americas in the 16th century, British expansion then accelerated in the 18th century, particularly in Asia. With the aid of the London-based East India Company, the empire established trading posts around the world, which in turn developed into a worldwide system of dependencies, including colonies and protectorates.

At its height in the early 20th century, the British Empire covered around 25% of the world’s land surface, including large parts of North America, Australia, Africa, and Asia. In 1913, it ruled over some 412 million inhabitants in its entirety — about 23% of the world’s population at the time.

Such a vast territory was unsustainable, however, and, as more and more nations fought for their independence, the empire began to crumble. But the influence of the British Empire upon the world was massive — and remains a hugely controversial subject. Once a source of pride in Britain, the nation’s imperial past is now more often seen as a dark and often brutal period of colonialism. Since the decline of the empire, more than 60 countries have gained their independence from the United Kingdom.

Every now and then, politicians allow the truth to seep into their carefully crafted talking points.  That’s exactly what happened when Nancy Pelosi went on the record to confirm that Kamala Harris was not the Democrats’ original choice to be their presidential nominee in 2024 when Joe Biden was ousted in an orchestrated coup back in July.

This is what Pelosi told Ezra Klein of The New York Times, as it appears in the interview transcript:

Yeah, well, I think here’s the thing.  The thought was that if this were to happen, but it happened fast, we … none of us had any idea he would do it that Sunday.  Well, I didn’t have any idea.  Most people didn’t.  So when he did that and endorsed [Kamala Harris], then the thought was everybody wanted an open process.  Let’s see the talent, let’s see the bench of the Democrats and let them come.  And see what they can attract.  But when he endorsed her, then it was, “Are you with me or not?”  And she moved quickly. 

This was a bombshell confession.  On the one hand, we all know that Pelosi had been conspiring with Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama to get rid of Joe Biden on the ticket after recognizing the polling damage that his obvious senility and terrible performance as president had caused.  On the other hand, she admits to being blindsided by the timing of Biden’s withdrawal and also admits to have been blindsided by his simultaneous endorsement of Kamala Harris, suggesting that “everybody wanted an open process” to identify the party’s candidate.

…everybody, that is, except Joe Biden.  Biden’s endorsement of Harris effectively bound the DNC’s hands, as the exhilarating prospect of having an ethnically diverse female president quickly spread through the party ranks and social media on that Sunday afternoon.  There was simply no time to consider the entirely practical idea to initiate an open and democratic process to identify the Democrats’ best and most electable candidate.

As I observed immediately after the announcement, the Kamala Harris endorsement was Biden pulling the pin of a political grenade inside the party tent.  He knew that conspirators were pushing him to resign, and the promise of a cackling and communist-adjacent Kamala Harris candidacy was his parting gift to the conspirators.

Although it’s arguable that Harris had some success with voters in deep blue San Francisco and California, she has always been extremely unpopular at the national level.  In 2019, she was eviscerated in the Democrat primary, withdrawing before a single state primary vote was cast.  The bulk of the credit for this incredible failure must go to the almost incomprehensibly dislikable and phony Kamala Harris, but a certain modicum must be given to Tulsi Gabbard, who landed one of the most devastating debate moments against any candidate in my lifetime.  This might have ended any potential for Harris to get near the presidency in any other sensible moment in American history. 

But we don’t live in sensible times.  Kamala Harris is a woman, you see, and though many Democrats can’t readily define what that word means, they’re steadfastly sure that it’s a good thing and worthy of their votes for some reason.  She’s also not white, and that confers additional merit somehow.  Therefore, her incredible unlikableness was ignored when Joe Biden faced “tremendous pressure” from Democrats to pick a woman “of color” for his running mate in 2020.

Harris did have a bit of a honeymoon with Americans in early 2021.  Though she’s never had more than 50% approval, there were fewer people who disapproved of her at that time.  But her disapproval rate ramped up quickly that summer, when Joe Biden set her up for failure by assigning her the daunting task of addressing the illegal immigration crisis at the border and she had an embarrassing interview with Lester Holt where she appeared entirely inept at her job.

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She never recovered.  Kamala Harris had largely maintained a double-digit negative net approval rating since that time.  But Democrats are emboldened by the pronouncement that she is now their preferred candidate, absent any sort of voter input.  Today, she is suffering only a high-single-digit approval deficit of 7.1%, with roughly 49% of Americans disapproving of her and 42% approving.

That gives a reason for the optimism among Democrats.  Their representative president is a walking corpse, and Donald Trump has been plagued by high disapproval ratings that have also been consistently in double-digits.  Pelosi, who never wanted Kamala Harris as the nominee because Pelosi still has a few brain cells to rub together that aren’t infected by DIE-think, might actually see some path to a presidential victory here.

The problem for Democrats, however, is that Kamala Harris is still Kamala Harris. 

Harris humiliatingly resigned from a presidential campaign in 2019 because she was extremely unlikable and was too much of a radical leftist for the party.  The party had room for only so many outright socialist candidates, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were stealing all the oxygen in that lane.  The Democrat party then conspired to anoint Joe Biden on Super Tuesday in 2020 by orchestrating withdrawals by Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar.

Democrats sabotaged that primary for the simple reason that radical socialist policies, like a federal wealth tax and rent and price controls, were considered a bridge too far for Democrat voters in the swing states.

Here we are in 2024.  Kamala Harris is running on the platform of government price controls in the form of a nationalized price-fixing campaign.  She’s openly suggesting that American taxpayers should subsidize the first $25K of a first-time homebuyer’s purchase, for example, and somehow imagining that this would result in something different from home prices climbing due to increased demand in a market with limited supply.  And by capping rents, we can expect that supply to dwindle further, as there will be far fewer people building homes and apartments when the potential profits for having done so disappear via government price controls.  And what could go wrong with letting politicians in Washington set the prices of food at your local grocery store?

These are the stupid ideas that only an expensive college degree and zero experience in the private sector can buy.  Kamala Harris has both of those things in spades.

She’s not our best and brightest, to say the least.  And the party is so infected by rabid anti-Semitism that Josh Shapiro, who could have been positioned as a moderate to balance the ticket and potentially deliver must-win Pennsylvania, was passed over as the V.P. nominee.  Instead, the party tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who has lied about his military service record, who equates socialism with “neighborliness,” and whose most notable accomplishment is promoting race riots in his state and ensuring that Minnesotan boys in the fourth grade have taxpayer-funded tampons in their school bathrooms.

Democrats have a real problem with this Harris/Walz ticket, though Nancy Pelosi and the old DNC guard may cast unconvincing smiles about the current situation. 

Perhaps first and foremost among those problems is Kamala’s unavoidable proximity to Joe Biden.  Joe Biden is so unpopular with Americans that his own party orchestrated a coup against him, and in large part, this is due to his tremendous failures regarding the economy and illegal immigration.  As a key figure in his administration, and particularly as Biden’s “border czar,” Harris shoulders that blame along with him.

Sure, there is ample poll-bombing to suggest that there’s been huge movement in Kamala’s favor.  Much of this is bunk, as head pollster for Rasmussen Mark Mitchell handily explains here, and we should all be used to this by now.  But there are other massive cracks in that façade.            

On July 1, according to Nate Silver’s 538, Kamala’s approval rating was 39.4%.  As of August 11, her approval rating was 41.9%. 

And as Ben Shapiro observes,

here is the big stat for Kamala Harris: On June 27, only 25% of Americans thought America was moving in the right direction. Today, 25% of Americans still think America is moving in the right direction.  That is the number that should be dispositive for the election.

Those lackluster results are all that was purchased by the Democrats’ fanfare about her historic candidacy and the orchestrated onslaught of positive media gushing.  Add a chaotic convention and more face time with the American people, and we should expect that Americans will become every bit as disapproving of Kamala Harris as Democrats did in 2019 when they sent her packing in the primary.

Image: Mobilus In Mobili via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).

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Is Pezeshkian the Last Hope for Khamenei’s Regime Amid Rising Protests?

With his new cabinet, Pezeshkian has entered a complex political maze, far from the easy days of his candidacy supported by a few reformists. Now, he faces the indifference of old allies and the smiles of new enemies.

The big question is: Can Pezeshkian save Khamenei from a likely downfall, or at least buy him some time? Khamenei only accepted him reluctantly, hoping Pezeshkian could extend the regime’s survival.

But the real issue is: Does Pezeshkian and his team have the strength, power, and determination to tackle the many societal challenges? Can they do anything to delay the expected uprising?

A Closer Look at the Overwhelming Crises

This week, with the introduction of Pezeshkian’s cabinet, protests from various sectors of society have intensified. Over the past week, these protests have been widespread:

Protests in Iran

Read more

Pezeshkian’s election could become a burden for Israel

1. In August 2024, Iran saw widespread protests across various sectors and regions. Farmers in Isfahan protested water shortages, while factory workers at the Wagon Pars plant in Arak and staff at the Pars Oil and Gas Company in Assaluyeh also demonstrated. Truck drivers in Golpayegan, dismissed workers from the Kahnuj titanium mine, and defrauded investors in Tehran joined the protests. Additionally, there were protests in Soughan over forest destruction in Kerman, and Social Security retirees in Shush and Kermanshah voiced their grievances.
2. On Sunday, August 11, 2024, Social Security retirees held demonstrations in several cities. Workers at Pars Tire Company in Saveh, along with medical staff and nurses in Shiraz and other cities, also took to the streets.
3. On Monday, August 12, 2024, telecommunications retirees protested in cities like Isfahan, Kermanshah, Tabriz, Bijar, Urmia, Ahvaz, Rasht, Sanandaj, Shiraz, and Sari. The same day saw protests by workers at the Wagon Pars plant in Arak, buyers of imported Changan cars, vegetable truck drivers in Karaj, contractors in Rasht, and nurses at three hospitals in Yazd. Literacy movement workers in Tehran and farmers in Isfahan also held demonstrations.
   On Tuesday, August 13, 2024, nurses protested in cities such as Yazd, Arak, and Islamabad-e Gharb (Western Iran), Tafresh (Central Iran), and Kangan (Southern Iran), demanding their rights. Protests also continued by the literacy movement workers, and the dismissed workers from Khuzestan Cement Company (Southwestern Iran) resumed their protests.
   Energy Crisis in Iran
4. Iran is facing severe energy, electricity, and water crises. Despite having the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves and fourth-largest oil reserves, the country is struggling with a massive energy shortage. During these hot summer days, electricity and water shortages are particularly severe, causing many government offices to close due to power outages.
5. This year, Iran faces an 18,000-megawatt electricity shortfall. To address this, the regime would need to build 25 power plants the size of Bushehr’s nuclear plant, which is unrealistic.
6. Despite its vast resources, Iran produces only 4,071 kilowatt-hours of electricity per capita, while Bahrain produces over 24,000, Kuwait produces 21,000, and the UAE produces 17,000 kilowatt-hours per capita. Last week, government offices in 13 provinces had to shut down for several hours due to power outages.
7. Additionally, the Oil Minister admitted that Iran is importing 300 million cubic meters of gas daily from Russia. The regime has signed a 30-year contract with Russia, paying 25 cents per cubic meter of gas, totaling $27 billion annually. This is the reality for a country rich in oil and gas, yet its refineries still waste gas through flaring.
8. In 2022, Oil Minister Javad Owji warned that without a $240 billion investment in the oil and energy sectors over the next eight years, Iran could become a net importer of oil and gas. However, it is clear that the regime neither has this budget nor plans to allocate such funds to the industry.
   
   Rising Inflation and Prices
9. While the regime focuses on political games, the cost of basic necessities has soared. Prices for essential goods, like fruits and meat, have risen by up to 200%. Bread prices have increased by 25% in various provinces. The Deputy Governor for Economic Coordination in South Khorasan stated that bread prices are set to rise by up to 25% in over 10 provinces. The value of the Iranian rial has plummeted, and the stock market has become a scene of capital erosion for ordinary citizens. Official statistics show that capital flight reached a record-breaking $20.193 billion in the first nine months of 2023, adding to the country’s crises of unemployment, industrial struggles, and environmental challenges.
   Budget Deficit
10. Despite U.S. President Biden easing sanctions and providing the regime with $100 billion to $150 billion in oil revenues, the money has been squandered on repression, warmongering, and corruption. As Pezeshkian’s cabinet forms, it is clear that the treasury is empty, with the regime struggling to pay employees’ salaries. Pezeshkian has inherited a government with a staggering 556 trillion-toman budget deficit and is currently unable to pay retirees’ pensions. In 2024, the government will need 450 trillion tomans just to pay pensions. Additionally, resolving the banking sector’s imbalances and preventing bankruptcy requires another 1 trillion tomans. In total, the government needs an astronomical 1.756 quadrillion tomans, far beyond the most optimistic dreams of Pezeshkian and his administration. On top of these challenges, the regime faces ongoing regional conflicts and an internal legitimacy crisis, making the prospect of a new uprising likely.

See also

Iranian President Pezeshkian Faces Global Backlash Over Ceremony Guests

What Lies Ahead for the Iranian People?

The truth is, Pezeshkian’s administration, expected to inherit a “well-prepared horse” from Raisi, has instead received a “four-legged donkey” stuck in a crisis.

Neither Pezeshkian nor his team have the courage to claim they can save this troubled situation. All they can do is take the last scraps from the looted table before facing their fate—a fate that will be decided by the uprising of the Iranian people.

An uprising is inevitable for the oppressed and awakened masses, who have no weapon left against this brutal regime but force. Both Khamenei and Pezeshkian know that the next uprising will not be like the protests in 2022. It will aim to end all forms of tyranny and oppression. And that day is not far off.

Iran News

Over the weekend, I took my daughter and her best friend on a day trip from Northern Virginia to Hico, West Virginia. In a matter of 120 minutes, you pass from one of the statistically wealthiest areas in the United States to some of the most destitute roadside neighborhoods you’ll see in the region. The friend asked why it’s like this in West Virginia, and all I could think to say in response was, “All your friends back in Northern Virginia, what do their parents do for work?” It didn’t take her long. She responded, “Oh like mostly the Pentagon, Boeing, and I know a few kids whose parents go out to Quantico.” That’s not an answer to why West Virginia is more poor, but it does explain the wealth of Northern Virginia. Connection to the federal government is an economy of its own, and the tentacles of federal money cover 61 square miles and ten counties known as the DMV.

Billions of dollars float through Virginia and Maryland in the form of federal grants for research and development related to technology, medicine, education, and much more. What that means is that there is seldom a microchip, vaccine, weapons system, satellite, or AI tool that hasn’t benefited directly or indirectly from taxpayer dollars somewhere in its development. Government funds have strings attached

While this arrangement between the public and private sectors has historically been a boon to the United States in a global economy, there is a real risk to American innovation if certain norms are busted by lawmakers looking to score political points. The federal government could seize control of most patents in AI, microchip tech, and pharmaceuticals using a legal tool known as “march-in rights.”

As recently as last week, the Biden administration is under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to use march-in rights to lower pharmaceutical drug prices. This authority, granted by the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, empowers the government to take over patents on products developed using federal funding if those products are not reasonably available to the public.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine), along with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, urging them to quickly finalize the guidance on federal “march-in rights.”

These Democrats think the use of march-in rights is a straightforward way to lower consumer drug prices and would have observers believe the political upside is a mere coincidence in an election year. The norms around “march-in rights” are essential.

This power exists but has never been used before, despite several petitions for the government to do so in recent decades. Like most powers the federal government acquires, there are good reasons it came to pass. The Bayh-Dole Act was originally designed to encourage the commercialization of technological innovation by allowing universities and small businesses to retain patent rights on products developed with federal funding.

This led to the development of many new technologies and medicines ranging from a chemotherapy drug for cancer patients called Taxol to the common allergy medication Allegra and even next-generation firefighting drones.

A federal agency can theoretically leverage march-in rights and grant licenses for a product funded by taxpayer dollars if these four conditions are met:

The current licensee has failed or is unlikely to achieve the “practical application” of the invention. Action is required to address “health or safety needs.” The product is needed to fulfill “public use requirements” as stipulated by federal regulations. The product is not being predominantly “manufactured” within the United States.

It should come as no surprise that the Biden administration is not keen on letting the market determine drug prices. The Biden administration recently debuted a framework for how it might make use of the Bayh-Dole Act to start setting prices on a narrow subset of drugs. What could go wrong? (Everything.)

Most consumer drugs on the market are the result of multiple patents held by developers rather than researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. The latter scenario is one with the ever-present potential of government intervention and seizure of the patent.

That potential is what spooks innovators across the most vital sectors in the American economy. In ventures where the risk is high, firms are less inclined to make major investments. A fine example of this is when the Federal Communications Commission introduced regulatory uncertainty into the broadband sector, which led to a 10% decline in private-sector investments toward broadband. Consumers nationwide saw reduced network coverage and reliability.

This can happen in the artificial intelligence space, microchips, and cloud computing. Federal dollars are everywhere in these industries. Large companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia receive federal funding for AI or semiconductor research and could be subject to march-in rights once the dam breaks on its use. The government might justify seizing patents if it determines that the public interest or national security is at stake.

Consider the situation if China were to finally invade or blockade Taiwan, a small neighbor that produces 90% of the global supply of advanced chip technology. This would be a real emergency for consumer products and sensitive government tech used for national security. The same goes for the global race to develop AI technology using federal funds for R&D. If AI is produced and isn’t being deployed in a way that benefits the United States during a potential foreign war, the government could step in using march-in rights on products created through the Bayh-Dole Act.

In these scenarios, with all the norms restricting the government’s use of march-in rights to seize patents shattered, you could see a dramatic decline in the vitality of American tech innovation. Even worse, you could see the government attempt to actively control these patented technologies and award them to domestic partners who will be the most cooperative with the government when pushed.

Say what you will about Apple, but it’s a company that frustrates the U.S. federal government with its dogmatic approach to consumer privacy and walled garden systems. We need more of that, not less.

With so much next-generation technology being developed in the D.C. area with government dollars as a subsidy, we must strongly resist calls in Congress to wield march-in rights inappropriately. Drug prices should be lower, but in market economies, there are better paths to take such as streamlining the approval of generics, expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts, and importing prescription drugs from foreign competitors.

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., threatened to go public with her concerns about Joe Biden’s candidacy, forcing the president to end his reelection bid, according to a new report.

On July 21, Biden stunningly announced he would end his campaign seeking four more years in the White House. Until then, he had insisted he would remain in the race against former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s surprising withdrawal came after Pelosi sent word that she prepared to go public with her concerns that he could not defeat Trump in November, several sources told DailyMail.com.

Pelosi, 84, actually called the 81-year-old Biden to say she would publish harsh polling figures to support her decision, one source told the outlet.

Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump had turned many Democrats against the president.

Pelosi’s demand was so forceful that it sparked a “come to Jesus moment” for the president, who then ordered the drafting of his withdrawal announcement letter, DailyMail.com reported.

The two Democrat leaders have not spoken since.

Pelosi, who has been promoting her new memoir, has said, “I didn’t call one person” after being asked whether she helped apply pressure on Biden.

However, the former speaker told the New Yorker magazine last week that she had been losing sleep over her rift with the president and was “praying” their friendship could survive.

“He knows I love him,” she told CNN.

Politico reported Wednesday that Biden remains bitter over how he was replaced atop the Democratic Party’s national ticket.

His anger is most directed at Pelosi, Politico reported.

First lady Jill Biden, known to hold a grudge, and first son Hunter Biden reportedly are furious with Pelosi over what they see as a betrayal, DailyMail.com reported.

In his first interview after withdrawing from the race, Biden said fellow Democrats pushed him off the ticket.

“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden told “CBS News Sunday Morning.“

“I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic — you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it’d be a real distraction.”

A government spending boom fueled inflation that has crushed real average incomes.

Kamala Harris plans to roll out her economic priorities in a speech on Friday, though leaks to the press say not to expect much different than the last four years. That’s bad news because the Biden-Harris economic record has left most Americans worse off than they were four years ago. The evidence is indisputable.

Opinion: Potomac Watch

Columbia University’s President Resigns / Vance and Walz Agree to Debate

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President Biden claims that he inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, but this isn’t close to true. The economy in January 2021 was fast recovering from the pandemic as vaccines rolled out and state lockdowns eased. GDP grew 34.8% in the third quarter of 2020, 4.2% in the fourth, and 5.2% in the first quarter of 2021. By the end of that first quarter, real GDP had returned to its pre-pandemic high. All Mr. Biden had to do was let the recovery unfold.

***

Instead, Democrats in March 2021 used Covid relief as a pretext to pass $1.9 trillion in new spending. This was more than double Barack Obama’s 2009 spending bonanza. State and local governments were the biggest beneficiaries, receiving $350 billion in direct aid, $122 billion for K-12 schools and $30 billion for mass transit. Insolvent union pension funds received a $86 billion rescue.

The rest was mostly transfer payments to individuals, including a five-month extension of enhanced unemployment benefits, a $3,600 fully refundable child tax credit, $1,400 stimulus payments per person, sweetened Affordable Care Act subsidies, an increased earned income tax credit including for folks who didn’t work, housing subsidies and so much more.

The handouts discouraged the unemployed from returning to work and fueled consumer spending, which was already primed to surge owing to pent-up savings from the Covid lockdowns and spending under Donald Trump. By mid-2021, Americans had $2.3 trillion in “excess savings” relative to pre-pandemic levels—equivalent to roughly 12.5% of disposable income.

So much money chasing too few goods fueled inflation, which was supercharged by the Federal Reserve’s accommodative policy. Historically low mortgage rates drove up housing prices. The White House blamed “corporate greed” for inflation that peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, even as the spending party in Washington continued.

In November 2021, Congress passed a $1 trillion bill full of green pork and more money for states. Then came the $280 billion Chips Act and Mr. Biden’s Green New Deal—aka the Inflation Reduction Act—which Goldman Sachs estimates will cost $1.2 trillion over a decade. Such heaps of government spending have distorted private investment.Consumer Price Index, Jan. 2017-July 2024Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While investment in new factories has grown, spending on research and development and new equipment has slowed. Overall private fixed investment has grown at roughly half the rate under Mr. Biden as it did under Mr. Trump. Manufacturing output remains lower than before the pandemic.

Magnifying market misallocations, the Administration conditioned subsidies on businesses advancing its priorities such as paying union-level wages and providing child care to workers. It also boosted food stamps, expanded eligibility for ObamaCare subsidies and waved away hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt. The result: $5.8 trillion in deficits during Mr. Biden’s first three years—about twice as much as during Donald Trump’s—and the highest inflation in four decades.

Prices have increased by nearly 20% since January 2021, compared to 7.8% during the Trump Presidency. Inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings are down 3.9% since Mr. Biden entered office, compared to an increase of 2.6% during Mr. Trump’s first three years. (Real wages increased much more in 2020, but partly owing to statistical artifacts.)

Higher interest rates are finally bringing inflation under control, which is allowing real wages to rise again. But the Federal Reserve had to raise rates higher than it otherwise would have to offset the monetary and fiscal gusher. The higher rates have pushed up mortgage costs for new home buyers.

Three years of inflation and higher interest rates are stretching American pocketbooks, especially for lower income workers. Seriously delinquent auto loans and credit cards are higher than any time since the immediate aftermath of the 2008-09 recession.

Ms. Harris boasts that the economy has added nearly 16 million jobs during the Biden Presidency—compared to about 6.4 million during Mr. Trump’s first three years. But most of these “new” jobs are backfilling losses from the pandemic lockdowns. The U.S. has fewer jobs than it was on track to add before the pandemic.Change in Jobs, Jan. 2020-July 2024Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

What’s more, all the Biden-Harris spending has yielded little economic bang for the taxpayer buck. Washington has borrowed more than $400,000 for every additional job added under Mr. Biden compared to Mr. Trump’s first three years. Most new jobs are concentrated in government, healthcare and social assistance—60% of new jobs in the last year.

Administrative agencies are also creating uncertainty by blitzing businesses with costly regulations—for instance, expanding overtime pay, restricting independent contractors, setting stricter emissions limits on power plants and factories, micro-managing broadband buildout and requiring CO2 emissions calculations in environmental reviews.

***

The economy is still expanding, but business investment has slowed. And although the affluent are doing relatively well because of buoyant asset prices, surveys show that most Americans feel financially insecure. Thus another political paradox of the Biden-Harris years: Socioeconomic disparities have increased.

Ms. Harris is promising the same economic policies with a shinier countenance. Don’t expect better results.

Wall Street Journal