Vice-President Harris Picks Her Running Mate

Vice-President Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 Democrat presidential ticket. Conservatives see this as good news for their side. Normally, a Democrat Midwestern governor might be somewhat progressive, but would by and large hold views that resonated with middle-American working people (now swing voters). Not so with Tim Walz, they say.

• As the governor of Minnesota, he faced criticism for his handling of the Black Lives Matter riots in Minneapolis, following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020. Critics argue that Walz was slow to deploy the Minnesota National Guard to quell the civil unrest. It took nearly two days for him to order the entire Minnesota National Guard into Minneapolis after the initial request from the city's mayor. This delay allowed the situation to escalate, leading to significant destruction and violence.
• He has supported anti-Semitic Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and has on at least 5 occasions hosted Muslim Imam Asad Zaman, who later celebrated the October 7 attack on Israel. The cleric’s Islamist group (Muslim American Society of Minnesota) received over $100k in state funding from Walz.
• He said he’d like to build a ladder for illegal immigrants to be able to climb over Trump’s border wall, and he marched in an “Abolish ICE” protest.
• He has claimed to have served in the military in the Middle East. However, he left his National Guard unit shortly before they were to be deployed to Iraq in 2005, choosing instead to run for Congress. At the time he left, critics claim he knew that deployment was likely, and this accords with his own press release at the time the deployment was announced as a possibility: “Walz Still Planning to Run for Congress Despite Possible Call to Duty in Iraq.” He ran for office (and won) as the “highest-ranking” member of the military to serve in Congress. Yet critics say he has dishonestly represented both his active duty service and also his rank. His rank of Command Master Sergeant was given provisionally, but he did not finish the schooling needed to fully earn it before dropping out, Army Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs officer, told Just the News.
• In April 2023, Tim Walz signed a “Trans Refuge Bill” that allows anyone to receive gender transition procedures at any time in his state. There are no age limits. The bill also allows Minnesota to make custody determinations if a parent denies their child access to so-called “gender-affirming” procedures. The law further provides a loophole for out-of-state individuals to receive transgender treatments in Minnesota (thus “trans refuge”).
• During the COVID pandemic, Walz set up a hotline for residents to report violations of his lockdown orders. This hotline, often referred to as a “snitch line,” allowed people to anonymously report their neighbors or others they saw violating the governor’s orders, which included restrictions on gatherings and business operations.

“Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” — Tim Walz

Harris Avoids Press

Since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee over two weeks ago, she still has not sat for an interview or held a press conference. Trump has proposed three debates (Fox, ABC, CBS), and so far Harris has only agreed to the ABC debate.

VP’s Husband’s Affair

Earlier this week, Doug Emhoff, Vice-President Harris’s husband, acknowledged that his affair years ago with a teacher at his daughter’s private school had resulted in a pregnancy. Reports state that to cover it up, Emhoff pressured the teacher out of the school and out of California to New York, while his kids remained at the elite Los Angeles private school.

Other News

• Across the Pond: In England, protests began on July 30, 2024, following a mass stabbing incident in Southport, where three children were killed. The protests were originally against the illegal immigration of Muslims to England. Since then, the protests have spiraled into chaos, with a range of issues being protested (including protests about the protests), and they have spread across various towns and cities in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The situation escalated with violent riots, arson attacks and clashes between protesters and counter-protesters. The unrest has been marked by significant violence, with hundreds of arrests and numerous injuries reported. The U.K. authorities have also come under fire for what many see as a draconian response, jailing their citizens for reposting and commenting on social media content that the government deems to be “misinformation.”
• The Middle East: Iran continues to saber rattle, and Israel has continued targeting key Hamas weapons depots, military commanders, military structures and weapons manufacturing plants. So far, Iran has not launched its promised retaliatory strike on Israel, and in response to calls from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, Israel has agreed to attend ceasefire talks next week.
• Black Swan Monday: The most recent job report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday indicates that the U.S. economy added 114,000 jobs in July, which was much lower than the predicted 176,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 4.3%. Two-thirds of the jobs added were government and social welfare. In other words, the economy isn’t generating most of the jobs, Washington is sponsoring them. This report intersected with the turmoil in the Middle East, fears of a global recession, and the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise the interest rate of the Japanese yen. This negatively affected U.S. securities that investors had financed by the yen. Sunday night (Monday in Japan), the Nikkei fell by 12.4%, which was the biggest one-day loss in the history of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The net result is that on Monday in the U.S., the DOW and then S&P 500 experienced their largest single-day drops since the 2008 financial crisis. The Federal Reserve responded to the crisis by calling an emergency meeting, leading to speculation that the central bank might implement interest rate cuts to revive the economy.