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Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Wake-Up Call: Trump Was 'Detached From Reality'


Donald Trump’s attorney general says the former president was “detached from reality” in the days following his 2020 election loss and had no interest in hearing the facts about his allegations of election fraud. In videotaped testimony aired yesterday by the House January 6th investigative committee, former Attorney General William Barr said he had found no evidence to support the allegations, and told the president so in a meeting in the Oval Office.

Bill Barr: “He went off on a monologue saying that there was now definitive evidence involving fraud through the Dominion machines, and a report had been prepared by a very reputable cybersecurity firm, which he identified as Allied Security Operations Group. And he held up the report, and he asked that a copy of it be made for me, and while a copy was being made, he said ‘this is absolute proof that the Dominion machines were rigged. The report means that I’m going to have a second term.’

Barr was dismayed by the content of the report, which he said looked amateurish and lacked any supporting information.

Bill Barr: "I sat there flipping through the report and looking through it, and to be frank, it looked very amateurish to me. It didn’t have the credentials of the people involved but I didn’t see any real qualifications and the statements were made very conclusory, like ‘these machines were designed to engage in fraud,’ or something to that effect. But I didn’t see any supporting information for it.

Barr concluded that the president had "become detached from reality" if he believed the "crazy" allegations about election fraud.


The second day of the televised hearings sought to prove that Trump and some of his campaign staff used baseless claims of election fraud to raise millions of dollars for a so-called Election Defense Fund. 

There was no such fund, the committee said. The money went straight into a Super PAC set up by Trump two days after the election. The campaign took in $100 million in the week after the election.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, concluded: “So, not only was there that big lie, there was the big rip-off. Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did.”

The committee attempted to establish that Trump’s “big lie” culminated in a call to action to his supporters to come to Washington to force the U.S. Congress to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.

In other testimony, a number of witnesses testified in no uncertain terms that Trump lost the election. 


BEARS ROAR ON WALL STREET: Stocks took a dive again yesterday, officially entering “bear” territory. Investors are worrying over the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates even more than expected this summer in order to cool inflation. The Dow Jones Average dropped 876 points to close at 30,517. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 20% since its January high point, indicating a bear market.

NY Post Graphic 6/14/22


➤THE 51st STATE? Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is ready for her city to become the 51st state. She ordered a 51st star to be added to the American flags that will be displayed along Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday for Flag Day. The House of Representatives has passed legislation to make Washington a state, but it has no chance of Senate passage at this time. Mayor Bowser calls D.C.’s lack of statehood “a 220-year-old wrong that demands to be righted.”




AMERICANS ARE FLEEING TO MEXICO:  You think it’s bad at the border? Now thousands of Americans are fleeing to Mexico. According to CNBC, they’re mostly Californians driven south by the high cost of living on the West Coast. “We were able to cut our budget in half, which allowed us to really focus on our careers and the things we wanted to do artistically without having to just hustle, and hustle, and hustle, every day, every week to just meet the bare minimum,” one former Hollywood resident told CNBC. The population of California has been declining for 30 years, but the pandemic accelerated the trend.

➤PILOTS GET A PAY RAISE: Regional airlines owned by American Airlines are giving their pilots big raises for at least the next two years. The pay for first-year captains at Piedmont will be $146 per hour, up from $78. A shortage of pilots and other crew has forced airlines to cut back their flight schedules.

➤STUDY..BRAIN IMAGING SHOWS ANOREXIA'S CHANGES TO THE BRAIN: A brain-imaging study from the Enigma Eating Disorders group analyzed MRI scans of over 1600 women, some with and some without anorexia. Researchers found drastic differences in brain structure which could impact intelligence in those with anorexia. However, gaining weight appears to reverse these effects. Underweight women had reduced cortical thickness and cortical surface area. Undernutrition can also lead to shrinkage of the brain.

➤STUDY..PFAS CHEMICALS LINKED TO HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE IN WOMEN: Middle-aged women with PFAS chemicals in their blood have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure. PFAS chemicals are found in nonstick pans, waterproof apparel, and cosmetics. Scientists have also found a link between PFAS chemicals and high cholesterol, colitis, and thyroid disease. "Women seem to be particularly vulnerable when exposed to these chemicals," lead author Ning Ding said. The study included more than 1,000 women aged 45 to 56
 
➤‘HOW TO MURDER YOUR HUSBAND’ AUTHOR GETS LIFE: The author of an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband” has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband. Nancy Crampton Murphy was convicted of shooting her husband dead in order to collect on his life insurance.

🏀WARRIORS TRIUMPH: The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 104-94 last night to win Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Andrew Wiggins got 26 points and 13 rebounds and, according to ESPN, "delivered the best game yet of his eight-year career." The Warriors now have a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals.


🏀NOW THE NBA COMMISSIONER IS QUARANTINED: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wasn’t at Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Francisco. His absence is blamed on the NBA’s health and safety protocols, meaning he either has COVID or has been in contact with someone who has it.

⚾ORIOLES AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE: The Orioles may be staying in Baltimore no matter what happens in the spat between the battling Angelos brothers. Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos released a statement yesterday declaring that the Orioles will be in Baltimore “as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor.” His brother, Luis Angelos, has filed a suit claiming that John is plotting to move the team to Nashville, where he lives. The team is owned by a trust set up by their father, Peter Angelos.

🎾MEDVEDEV BACK ON TOP: Daniil Medvedev has returned to the top of the Association of Tennis Players rankings. We still won’t see him at Wimbledon later this month. Russian and Belarussian athletes are banned from the championship match due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The new rankings, released by the ATV yesterday, show Alexander Zverev in second place and Novak Djokovic in third.

But where are Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer? Nadal stayed at number 4 in the rankings. Federer is still recovering from knee surgery and has dropped to 68th.

🏀WORK FOR GRINER’S RELEASE CONTINUES: State Department officials assured Phoenix Mercury women’s basketball team members that they are “relentlessly” working to obtain the release of player Brittney Griner. She has been detained in Russia since February 7th, when airport security allegedly found vape cartridges containing a cannabis derivative in her luggage.


➤FLOODING CLOSES YELLOWSTONE: A torrential rainstorm has forced the closure of Yellowstone National Park at least through Wednesday. Visitors and staff in the worst-hit northern end of the vast park were evacuated while workers dealt with road and bridge failures and mudslides. The park span parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.



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