Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

On the White House South Lawn, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the man she is likely to replace atop the Democratic ticket, telling an assembly of student athletes that “I am firsthand witness that every day our president, Joe Biden, fights for the American people.”

But Harris hasn’t seen Biden in a week. And they haven’t seen much of each other this summer. Their working relationship, and subsequent friendship, has always been complicated by hectic schedules and international travel – including Biden’s trip to France just last month – making it difficult for the president and vice president to sit down in one place together for very long.

The pair have met face-to-face just six times since the beginning of June, according to a RealClearPolitics analysis of the president’s public schedule.

The latest meeting took place one week ago for a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. A political lifetime has passed since then.

Biden announced abruptly Sunday, via a post on X.com, that he would not run for reelection and promptly endorsed Harris for the job. It will now likely be up to her to keep the White House for Democrats and continue the work of Biden, who, in just four years, she said Monday, “has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office.”

More than a month earlier, Biden and Harris were both on the South Lawn for a Juneteenth celebration. On June 10, the vice president could be seen dancing to the music along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff. But the president, he froze.

The cameras caught Biden on tape looking lost. “The president stood there listening to the music and he didn’t dance,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters. “Excuse me, I did not know not dancing was a health issue.”

Biden and Harris met for lunch the next day, the president’s public schedule shows. Shortly after his inauguration, the president promised the vice president lunch “once a week,” an optimistic schedule that Biden often failed to keep, an earlier analysis by RCP found.

Then the debate happened.

The White House and Biden campaign insisted for years that Biden had not lost a step, that he was, as Jean-Pierre told RCP, “as sharp as ever.” But for 90 minutes in Atlanta, the worst fears of Democrats were inescapable. The age and diminished mental acuity of the 81-year-old elder statesman were on full display as he meandered and mumbled through answers.

Democrats started to abandon ship. Fears once whispered about his mental fitness were suddenly being shared on cable news. Harris, for her part, never abandoned Biden. She conceded, as he had to donors during a San Francisco fundraiser in July, that the debate was “not his finest hour.” But she insisted, “the outcome of this election cannot be determined by one day in June.”

Harris next saw Biden on July 3, again for a lunch at the White House. The next day, the vice president joined the president for a Fourth of July celebration, taking in the fireworks from the South Lawn. On July 8, Harris joined Biden for his presidential daily brief.

Harris, until recently, served as the most high-profile surrogate for the Biden campaign, crisscrossing the country on her own to fundraise and rally supporters. She was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, last Wednesday, then Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Saturday, stumping faithfully for a ticket that would soon disintegrate.

Biden and Harris last shared a stage in Philadelphia on May 29. It was hosted by the campaign, and the vice president spoke first, introducing Biden as a president who “not only knows how to fight, he knows how to win.” Biden stepped to the microphone moments later after applause and chants of “Four more years!”

“Thank you, Kamala, for your partnership,” he said. “And it is a partnership. And how about another round of applause for our great vice president,” he continued. “Isn’t she something else?” Fifty-four days later, he would be gone.

Biden announced last week that he had again tested positive for COVID-19. The president retreated to his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he announced that he would not seek reelection. He remains in quarantine, though his physician, Kevin O’Connor, said in a memo released Monday that his symptoms “have resolved almost completely,” and he “continues to perform all of his presidential duties.”

Those duties do not include addressing the nation as of now. Remarks from the outgoing president are expected but not yet scheduled. Neither the White House nor the vice president’s office returned RCP’s request for comment.

On Monday, after Biden gave Harris his blessing, she traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, where their campaign headquarters are located. The president called in remotely before she arrived.

“I know yesterday’s news was surprising and hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,” Biden told assembled staff over the phone.

“The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” he continued.

The outgoing president then asked his campaign to work as hard as they could for Harris in the coming weeks and months. He won’t be going anywhere soon, though. “I won’t be on the ticket, but I’m still going to be fully, fully engaged,” Biden concluded. “I’ve got six months left of my presidency; I’m determined to get as much done as I possibly can. Both foreign policy and domestic policy.”

Harris, during that time, is again expected to be away from the White House and the president.

Taiwan’s military on Monday kicked off the live-fire component of its largest annual exercise, known as the Han Kuang drills. They are slated to run through July 26, and crucially this comes after China’s recent ‘encircling’ exercises wherein dozens of PLA vessels and aircraft breached the Taiwan Strait median line.

But this year’s Han Kuang drills look to be muted, given a massive storm is hampering military movements. “An approaching typhoon prompted the cancellation of air force drills off Taiwan’s east coast on Tuesday, although naval and land exercises were set to continue in other parts of the self-governing island democracy, which China threatens to invade,” Associated Press reports.

The Air Force 5th Tactical Mixed Wing confirmed cancelation of its portion of the exercises, citing the imminent threat of the typhoon.

“According to the Central Weather Bureau, Typhoon Gaemi was heading westward toward the island with sustained winds of 144 kilometers (about 90 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 180 kph (110 mph),” AP continues. The storm has also resulted in the cancelation of a number of domestic flights as well as ferries on Tuesday.

Thus the drills are expected to be very limited at this point. They are reportedly focusing this year on defending against a Chinese attack on critical infrastructure and supply lines, especially in and around the capital.

The typhoon bearing down on the island is named Gaemi…

Taiwan cancelled some drills in its annual war games as Typhoon Gaemi heads towards the islandhttps://t.co/a1JUF8HXzk pic.twitter.com/49Xc8VsQ4V

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 23, 2024

Key to this will also be defending key ports against a potential future Chinese blockade, which analysts have long predicted would be a first step in any military aggression by Beijing.

In May, China initiated its largest encircling and blockade drills aimed at Taiwan to date. In addition to many aircraft groupings, about a dozen PLA naval ships had surrounded the self-ruled island during that two day exercise, and in response Taiwan’s military deployed warships to monitor the situation and mirror the Chinese vessels.

Air raid sirens go off across Taipei as part of yearly drills aimed at readying people to take shelter if #Taiwan comes under attack. Traffic is halted, streets emptied. For 30 minutes the city mostly comes to a stop. pic.twitter.com/Q8uv4zXtbP

— Staś Butler | 貝德旭 (@stasbutler) July 23, 2024

Both sides are watching closely the political situation in the US, especially given a possible Trump second term could return the US to a focus on China, instead of the current Biden administration’s prioritizing of the Ukraine and Gaza flashpoints.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Laser sights for guns are not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, a federal judge ruled on July 22, upholding the city of Chicago’s ban on the sights.

Firearms are effective weapons without laser sights attached “and thus a laser sight ‘is not a weapon protected by the Second Amendment’” but is instead an accessory unnecessary to operate firearms, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras said, quoting a ruling in a separate case.

The organization Second Amendment Arms launched a legal challenge in 2010 against Chicago’s ban, which was imposed in 1999. The group said the laser sight ban violated the Second Amendment rights of its members and other law-abiding citizens.

Judge Kocoras said he analyzed the ban in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that found governments that impose gun regulations must show the regulations are consistent with America’s historical tradition of gun restrictions.

Before looking at the history of restrictions, though, the decision guided courts to first decide whether the Second Amendment covers conduct restricted by a challenged regulation. The conduct must involve items “properly characterized as arms.”

Plaintiffs had argued that the laser sights are covered by the Second Amendment. The sights “are protected by the Second Amendment, as a modern version of something that has been a part of safe firearm usage for hundreds of years, i.e., firearm sights,” they said in a brief.

Chicago officials had told the court that “laser sights are not ‘arms’ within the meaning of the plain text of the Second Amendment, but are, rather, mere firearm accessories.”

Judge Kocoras said the plaintiffs did not meet the burden of showing laser sights are protected by the amendment. That included a failure to differentiate them from silencers, which were previously ruled to fall outside the amendment’s protection.

“Laser sights are neither firearms themselves nor necessary to the operation of a firearm, and are merely unprotected firearm accessories,” the judge said.

The ruling also dismissed attempts from Second Amendment Arms and others to obtain damages from an ordinance that banned many sales of firearms in Chicago until a judge declared it in violation of the Constitution in 2014.

The ruling came on the same day that Chicago announced it was dismissing a lawsuit it had brought against gun manufacturer Glock in March.

The suit had said the company was improperly selling firearms that could easily be converted into machine guns.

The notice of voluntary dismissal, filed with the federal court in northern Illinois, did not explain why the city was dropping the case.

This week a fresh United Nations assessment estimated that the Israeli military (IDF) has placed more than 80% of the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders or designated “no-go zone” – Al Jazeera reports, underscoring this means Palestinians have nowhere to go.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the statement said, “As of July 22, nearly 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as ‘no-go zones’ by the Israeli military.” The latest order has urged some 400,000 Palestinians out of eastern and central Khan Yunis, where the latest IDF offensive is happening. The new order encompasses nearly nine square kilometers of land.

“The area of the ‘humanitarian zone’ as designated by the Israeli military has thus decreased by 14.8 percent, from 58.9 to 50.2 square kilometers,” the OCHA report continued.

The crisis of “where to go” for internally displaced refugees has been exacerbated already as much of the Strip lacks water, food, and electricity.

Meanwhile President Biden has newly pledged to end the fighting in Gaza by the time he leaves office at the end of this year. According to Axios, “President Biden pledged to spend his remaining six months in office trying to end the Israel-Hamas war and bringing home the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.” He has announced this week, “We are on the verge of getting that.”

But this has been claimed many times before, going back months. Just days ago Secretary Blinken declared that efforts to reach a truce deal are “inside the ten yard line.”

“I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” the US top diplomat said Friday at he Aspen Security Forum.

Still, Hamas continues to fundamentally disagree with both Israel and the US on some key points of a potential ceasefire. It should also be noted that Israel and the US also don’t see eye to eye with China’s diplomatic maneuverings of late regarding the conflict either:

Spokesman Matthew Miller has responded to a Beijing-brokered “national unity” agreement signed between Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian groups today.

The agreement lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza and has been seen as a bulwark against any governance plans that sideline Palestinians.

Miller told reporters the United States opposes any post-war plan that includes Hamas.

“As we have made clear for months, Hamas is a terrorist organization. … When it comes to governance of Gaza at the end of the conflict, there can’t be a role for a terrorist organization,” Miller said. He added the US would “like to see the Palestinian Authority governing a unified Gaza and the West Bank, but no, we cannot support a role for Hamas.”

The China-brokered deal is seen as legitimizing Hamas in preparation of the group having some part in a future Palestinian-administered Gaza. Thus Washington has firmly rejected it.

Beijing likely sees its own approach as more realistic, based on a perspective that Hamas cannot ever ultimately be rooted out by military force. Interestingly, some Israeli current and former officials have appeared to admit the same.

Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Global tech giant Google said it plans to reverse an earlier decision to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser and instead focus on a new strategy involving user choice.

In 2020, Google announced a new initiative, Privacy Sandbox, which would phase out third-party cookies, the data stored in web browsers that lets companies track users and help advertisers target ads.

At the time, the tech giant said the goal was to make the “web more private and secure for users while also supporting publishers.”

However, a July 22 blog post from Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, revealed that these plans have shifted after feedback from stakeholders such as regulators, web developers and advertisers.

“This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies,” Mr. Chavez said.

Mr. Chavez says Google is proposing to give users a choice to limit how third-party cookies are used in their browsers instead of outright removing them. Users will have some input into how they are tracked across Google’s search products. There is already a feature to disable cookies in most browsers, and it’s unclear how this latest proposal from Google would differ.

“We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” Mr. Chavez said. “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

According to Mr. Chavez, Google is discussing its new plans with regulators and “will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”

Troubled from the start

In January 2020, Google promised to phase out third-party cookies within two years. The timeline has been extended multiple times in response to concerns from advertisers and regulators.

Google carried out several cookie replacement experiments, but none gained full support. FLoC, Google’s initial cookie replacement, was scrapped in 2022 after two years over concerns it was inadvertently making it easier for advertisers to gather user information.

Over the last few years, the advertising and publishing industry has raised concerns about Privacy Sandbox’s impact on advertising effectiveness, campaign performance, and revenue. In January, the UK’s antitrust enforcer, the CMA, also flagged 39 concerns about Google’s Privacy Sandbox and urged the company to pause plans to implement it.

With Vice President Kamala Harris now expected to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race, the next crucial decision will be selecting a running mate to complete the ticket.

As Emel Akan reports via The Epoch Times, after President Joe Biden endorsed Ms. Harris as the party’s nominee on July 21, several names have been floated as her potential running mate.

As RealClearPolitics notes, her VP pick could make or break her chances at beating Trump.

The choice of a running mate says a lot about the judgment of the presidential nominee and it can increase support for ticket. Political scientists Chris Devine and Kyle Kopko find that a popular pick of a vice-presidential nominee has the most influence on boosting perceptions of the president who chooses them. This would be of particular importance as Kamala Harris has a relatively high number of Americans who have not yet made up their minds about her.

Beyond the electoral effects, running mates matter because vice presidents are just one heartbeat away from the presidency, the most powerful elected position on the planet. For this reason, it is important that a presidential nominee get this choice right.

…

The most important condition is whether the individual is qualified. Sometimes, out of desperation, nominees give short shrift to this criterion, and they pick an individual for electoral reasons, governing be damned. Arizona Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 is a premier example of this. The selection was widely panned, with many believing Palin was not qualified for the position. 

So with that said – here is a list of the leading candidates who are currently in the spotlight.

Gov. Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, 51, has emerged as a top contender for the vice presidential pick. Before assuming office in 2023, he served as the state’s attorney general from 2017 to 2023.

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He is frequently mentioned as a strong candidate for the VP role due to his status as a swing state Democrat and his reputation for being moderate. He is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel.

Mr. Shapiro endorsed Ms. Harris in a statement on Sunday.

“I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States,” he said.

Gov. Andy Beshear

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, 46, rose to prominence with his election as governor in the deep-red state of Kentucky in 2019. He gained reelection to a second term in November 2023. His name is also circulating as a possible VP pick.

Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, told The Epoch Times that although Kentucky is not a swing state, it is an Appalachian state, making him an “interesting counterpoise” to former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), author of “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Mr. Beshear endorsed Ms. Harris on X, stating that “she’s incredibly tough & smart, w/ the compassion and empathy to be a phenomenal president.”

Gov. Roy Cooper

Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, 67, has served as governor since 2017. Before that, he was the state attorney general from 2001 to 2017.

North Carolina is a key battleground state, although former President Donald Trump won the state both in 2016 and 2020.

Mr. Cooper endorsed Ms. Harris for the presidential nomination in a statement posted on X on Sunday.

“Kamala Harris should be the next President. I’ve known @VP going back to our days as AGs, and she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity,” he wrote.

“I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket.”

Sen. Mark Kelly

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), 60, has served in the Senate since 2020. He’s a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot.

Mr. Kelly has national recognition from being married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Ms. Giffords was shot in the head at a constituent event near Tucson, Arizona, while she was serving her third term in Congress. The attack left Ms. Giffords partially paralyzed and led to her becoming a gun control activist.

Mr. Kelly, like Ms. Harris, has advocated for tighter gun control.

“He’s quite articulate, and he is more conservative and has a fairly strong defense and national security grounding,” Ms. Hult said. “So, he could also be a very attractive candidate.”

The Arizona senator, in a statement on X, threw his support behind Ms. Harris, stating, “I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump.”

Other Candidates

Other notable names mentioned include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. However, both have stated that they are not interested in joining the presumptive Harris ticket.

Some other names considered include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“It’s going to be about balancing the ticket,” David Carlucci, a Democrat strategist and former New York state senator, told The Epoch Times.

Mr. Carlucci noted that the Harris campaign will be looking closely at who can propel the campaign in crucial battleground states.

He said he believes Democrats from swing states, such as Mr. Shapiro from Pennsylvania or Mr. Kelly from Arizona, “are going to be eyed very closely.”

While the vetting process is just getting started, a senior administration official told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are the leading candidates to be Harris’ running mate.

According to the latest prediction markets, Kelly is surging ahead of Shapiro…

Source: Bloomberg

The two men come from key 2024 battleground states, and have experience battling Trump-endorsed candidates.

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The other day, I was tooling around at the grocery store and, in line to check out, I noticed a clothes hamper in the shopping cart in front of me. I thought it was pretty nice. I said so to the person pushing the cart.

Yes, I know it is awkward to strike up such conversations but I’m glad I did. I quickly found that the shopper was not buying for himself but for a customer of Instacart, an online ordering service. He was working and shopping as a customer himself.

Intrigued, I asked other questions. He has a university degree, recently earned, another full-time job, and just does this to put money in the bank and pay the rent. Casually digging around further, it turns out that this person is deeply grateful for this second job because otherwise he would be bankrupt and have to move home across the country to live with his parents.

This whole scene struck me as odd, so the next time, I began to wonder about other shoppers and tried the same line of inquiry. As it turns out, several more people there were working for various online shopping companies, Instacart among others. They all had similar stories of hustling as much as possible in the evening hours to pay the bills.

Truly, I had no idea that many people in our grocery stores today are not there buying for their families but for other businesses. They are gig workers. It’s their second and third jobs. I feel silly not to have known this but I’m not among those who have used such services. But plenty of people do. And that results in jobs for which people are deeply grateful because they have to pay their bills.

My friends, this is not normal. It has a Weimar vibe: wild economic activity and opportunity amidst a scramble to maintain one’s standard of living. It’s a hamster wheel with just enough payoff to keep it turning. Young people should not be doing this, particularly not those with high-level college training and expectations of the good life just right around the corner.

A story in the Wall Street Journal has gripped me. It’s about a kid who attended a very fancy school, Loyola University in Chicago. A degree there costs about $280,000 plus four years of lost job experience. You pay it because the credential is great and opens up a world of opportunities. The young person the story chronicled obtained a degree in English literature and imagined a future of working for a major publisher, perhaps advising the next F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Upon graduation, he started sending out resumes. Ten. Then a hundred. Then several hundred. Then a thousand. Months went by. He heard nothing from any of the companies. Despairing, he started writing to local newspapers. Nothing. Then he tried writing and marketing his material. Nothing. After nearly a year and facing utter bankruptcy, he finally landed a job: a part-time cook but mostly dishwasher at a local diner. For that he is grateful.

Indeed. Please understand: this person came from a wealthy family and went to the highest-end school. He got excellent grades throughout school. He graduated with honors. He had a network. But when actually going out there and trying to find gainful employment, he had come up with absolutely nothing. It took him a long time but he finally realized that there is nothing wrong with dishwashing. Any job is a respectable job. And all kudos to him for being willing to tell a reporter his story.

It’s hardly unique. It’s the experience of a whole generation. These days, sending out thousands of applications and hearing nothing is considered normal. A person of my generation cannot imagine this but it is true.

The WSJ says:

“The white-collar labor market is entering a more uncertain phase after cooling for more than a year. Job insecurity is climbing and fewer professionals feel emboldened to change their employment. The lack of turnover is stalling hiring even more as companies rethink their talent needs after pandemic-hiring sprees.”

That much is very obvious.

The hiring boom was always fragile and sketchy.

Now it is ending as the financial squeeze from inflation eats away at corporate profits and payrolls shrink across the entire white-collar world. A whole generation has been caught off guard. They followed all the rules. They went into massive debt. They did what they were supposed to do, on the promise that all will work out in the end.

Sadly, nothing is working out after all. Not even the restaurant and hospitality sector is offering gainful employment. This is a huge change from just one year ago, when at least young people had the option of serving tables. That is no longer true. Those who have such jobs are deeply fortunate. And they know it.

It’s all the more frustrating for people under 30 to realize that the system that has robbed them of opportunity and income—buying a home is out of the question but not even owning a car is possible—is being run by people with massive retirement accounts who are over the age of 70.

This is the old exploiting the young, not intentionally but in effect.

The post-pandemic and actual pandemic economy always had the feeling of unreality about it. It was funded by fake money and debt plus subsidies. Most people had the confidence that all would work out because it always had. But this supposition runs headlong into the reality of accounting. Nothing really added up.

Inflation is simply not going away and it has eaten into living standards. It is far higher than the government is reporting. Everyone knows this now. Quite simply: the government numbers exclude interest, shrinkflation, added fees, and a realistic accounting of housing prices and insurance. It doesn’t matter how many Nobel Laureates say that all is well. American citizens know it is not.

For a while, people believed that the magic of technological innovation would once again save us. Artificial intelligence stocks soared and the companies that seized on this new shiny object seemed to be the darlings of Wall Street. But in the last week, that too has changed as major institutional investors are asking old-fashioned questions about price-earnings (P/E) ratios and underlying values. Wall Street says this is merely “rotation.” Rotation is to stocks as “transitory” is to inflation.

The post-lockdown jobs boom was always artificial, a product of miscounting and misreporting. But whatever strength appeared to be there is now melting away, leaving dislocation and stagnation, even in sectors like hospitality that were reliable only 10 months ago.

(Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

Hard times are coming and most people get this. It’s going to be difficult for the new presidential administration. There is no magic solution, as much as we might want one. All budgets, including government budgets, must be cut severely. We have no choice but austerity. It is going to come whether we want it or not.

The flight to value will continue. The new fashion will be for real jobs, real balance sheets, real assets, and real lives. It’s about time. Nothing in the political theater of our times will change this. These are extremely uncertain days, ripe for all sorts of possibilities. Let us all hope that we will choose freedom and sound money as the only real alternative to stagnation and collapse.

Yellowstone National Park announced on X that a “hydrothermal explosion” occurred earlier today near Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin, just north of Old Faithful.

(Heads Up!) Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park temporarily closed due to hydrothermal explosion. More info: https://t.co/tcDR8oRNSx pic.twitter.com/YP7CkwNrQR

— Yellowstone National Park (@YellowstoneNPS) July 23, 2024

Park rangers provided more color on their website about the incident:  

• Biscuit Basin, including the parking lot and boardwalks, are temporarily closed for safety reasons. The Grand Loop Road remains open. 

• No injuries were reported and the extent of damage is unknown at this time. 

• Park staff and staff from USGS will monitor conditions and reopen the area once deemed safe. 

Dramatic video footage of the rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments captured by tourists has surfaced on X. 

🚨#BREAKING: Onlookers and tourists run for their lives as Biscuit Basin geyser erupts and explodes throwing hot boiling water and debris into the air

📌#Yellowstone | #Wyoming

Watch as wild and frightening footage capturing crowds of tourists and onlookers desperately… pic.twitter.com/WB0ldAGHz8

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 23, 2024

Hydrothermal explosions can reach heights of 1.2 miles high, ejecting mostly breccia (angular rocks cemented by clay). 

Park rangers said, “Today’s explosion does not reflect a change in the volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity.” 

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

For most of us, this election could not become more confusing. However, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Tx.) may have added a whole new level of confusion for many in suggesting that Donald Trump may have been the latest victim of systemic racism among law enforcement in the United States.

Trump previously cited his alleged abuse in the criminal justice system as a point of shared experience with some in the black community.

Crockett, however, seems to be willing to go further in suggesting that he may be the latest victim of a racist law enforcement system.

In the hearing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the failure to stop and hold Thomas Crooks was raised by both parties in an unprecedented failure of security.

Crockett then got her chance and suggested that Trump may have come close to dying at the hands of white privilege.

“I want to talk about training and the fact that there was a little bit of confusion between this suspicious person and this perceived threat situation, and it seems like a different analysis is being done. One of my questions is what training your officers are getting on bias.

I’ve learned over and over again, dealing with law enforcement, that there’s generally no perception of threat when it’s a young white male, even if he’s carrying a long gun. Yet a lot of times, at least in this country, when it comes to law enforcement, there’s a perception of threat simply because a person has a little bit more melanin in their skin.

…Often times, one of the things that we’ve consistently advocated for on my side — and when I say my side, I mean when we’re faced with a tragedy where law enforcement has made a mistake — is bias training and whether or not our officers are getting it. So I’m curious, in some of the training that you’re talking about that’s part of your budget, is bias training part of it?”

Cheatle responded with “Yes, that’s true.” (An apparent response to the training element).

Notably, Crockett began by getting Cheatle to acknowledge that this was not a failure due to DEI, or Diversity Equity and Inclusion, policies. She then suggested that further DEI training may be needed in light of the assassination attempt.

To be clear, there is no evidence that Crooks was allowed to walk away after being spotted with a “long gun.” The current theory is that Crooks hid the gun before the event.

Moreover, he was identified as a possible threat due to being found with a golf range finder. However, that was not considered a barred or threatening device by the Secret Service.

Yet, Trump may find common ground here with Vice President Kamala Harris who has long maintained that “We do have two systems of justice” and has added:

“I don’t think that most reasonable people who are paying attention to the facts would dispute that there are racial disparities and a system that has engaged in racism in terms of how the laws have been enforced. It does us no good to deny that. Let’s just deal with it. Let’s be honest. These might be difficult conversations for some, but they’re not difficult conversations for leaders, not for real leaders.”

Trump may be willing to have the “difficult conversation” as the now purported victim of white privilege in the dismissal of would-be presidential assassins.

Alphabet reported better than expected top- and bottom-lines for the second quarter after the bell tonight.

• Revenue $84.74 billion, estimate $84.37 billion

• Revenue ex-TAC $71.36 billion, estimate $70.7 billion

• EPS $1.89, estimate $1.84

Cloud revenues were particularly strong as the rest of the business segments were basically in line (with Ad revenue solid)…

• Google Services revenue $73.93 billion, estimate $73.58 billion

  • Google advertising revenue $64.62 billion, estimate $64.53 billion

    • YouTube ads revenue $8.66 billion, estimate $8.95 billion

    • Google Search & Other Revenue $48.51 billion, estimate $47.65 billion

    • Google Network Revenue $7.44 billion, estimate $7.87 billion

    

  • Google Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices Revenue $9.31 billion, estimate $9.38 billion

• Google Cloud revenue $10.35 billion, estimate $10.09 billion

• Other Bets revenue $365 million, estimate $389.6 million

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said:

“We delivered revenues of $85 billion, up 14% year-on-year driven by Search as well as Cloud, which for the first time exceeded $10 billion in quarterly revenues and $1 billion in operating profit.

As we invest to support our highest growth opportunities, we remain committed to creating investment capacity with our ongoing work to durably re-engineer our cost base.”

Sundar Pichai, CEO, said:

“Our strong performance this quarter highlights ongoing strength in Search and momentum in Cloud. We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack.

Our longstanding infrastructure leadership and in-house research teams position us well as technology evolves and as we pursue the many opportunities ahead.”

The initial kneejerk reaction was 3-4% lower (perhaps on the lack of big beat), but that has reversed and GOOGL is trading higher in the after-hours…

Let’s see if this can hold…