Highlights of the News

July is Patriot Month. John Denver got honorary West Virginia citizenship when he played at the opening of WVU's new Mountaineer Field on September 6, 1980.

ITEM: The lead story for Caturday is Fox reporting, "An Atlanta family said it received a voter registration form this week for their cat Cody Tims – who died 12 years ago.

"'There's a huge push but if they're trying to register cats, I'm not sure who else they're trying to register,' the late feline’s owner, Carol Tims, told Fox5 Atlanta. 'I'm not sure if they're trying to register dogs, mice, snakes.'

"The Tims say they found the form addressed to the cat in their mailbox on Wednesday.

"Carol Tims described Cody as a 'great cat, indoor and outdoor' who 'loved his family, loved his neighborhood' and lived to the age of 18."

Where in the Constitution does it say you must be HOOMAN to vote? Or alive, for that matter.

ITEM: Fox reported, "The White House announced Friday that President Donald John Trump signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the "unjust sentence" of Roger Stone, just days before the longtime political operative was slated to report to prison to serve more than three years for charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

"In a lengthy statement released late Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had made the decision to commute Stone's sentence 'in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial.'"

They arrested him in a pre-dawn raid with CNN cameras rolling.

McEnany said, "Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency.

"There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia.  Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election.  The collusion delusion spawned endless and farcical investigations, conducted at great taxpayer expense, looking for evidence that did not exist."

Fact-check: TRUE.

ITEM: I have said Biden won the nomination, the communists won the party.

President Trump agrees.

The Washington Times reported, "President Trump attacked rival Joseph R. Biden on Friday at a forum on Venezuela, saying 'nobody will be safe in a Biden America' because the Democrat would hand over the country to a 'socialist mob.'

"Saying that many people in Venezuela and central America have fled failed socialist countries for the U.S., the president said 'Joe Biden and the radical left are trying to impose the same system, socialism-plus, in America.'

"'Biden is a puppet of Bernie Sanders, AOC and the militant left,' Mr. Trump said, referring to liberal Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 'The people that want to rip down statues and monuments to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Jesus — they want to rip down statues to Jesus.'

"Accusing Mr. Biden of siding with leftists who want to defund police departments, Mr. Trump said, 'Nobody will be safe in a Biden America, but Biden doesn’t know what a Biden America is.'"

The president does not engage the battle until he has won the war.

Battle engaged.

ITEM: The Wrap reported, "Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s top writer, Blake Neff, has resigned after CNN Business discovered that he had been posting racist and sexist material in an online forum under a pseudonym.

"A Fox News spokesperson confirmed to The Wrap on Friday that Neff had resigned but did not elaborate on the reason why."

Hey, remember this headline from July 3, "Tucker Carlson Is Taking on Cancel Culture....and Winning"?

Yep.

He's hypocritical.

ITEM: CNN reported, "The hashtag #Goyaway was trending on social media Friday after Robert Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, appeared in the White House Rose Garden Thursday afternoon and praised President Donald Trump.

"'We are all truly blessed ... to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder,' Unanue said during the Rose Garden speech. 'We have an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president.'

"The fact that Unanue would associate with Trump was sufficient to anger some of America's most prominent Hispanic leaders. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested in a tweet that she'd boycott Goya."

In an interview with Fox News, Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue said he was “not apologizing” for praising President Trump at the White House. He also called the boycott of his company’s products “suppression of speech.” https://t.co/M1TkXF9m0f

— CNN (@CNN) July 10, 2020

How does the saying go?

Ah yes, in Red China, you cannot criticize the president. In America, you cannot praise the president.

ITEM: The Associated Press reported, "The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed corona virus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

"The church’s haul may have reached -- or even exceeded -- $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.

"Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep Main Street open and Americans employed."

Nonprofits take government money all the time.

In this case, the government unconstitutionally shut churches down. It was a taking. Pay 'em.

Please, enjoy watching the veins in their skulls throb as the people who DEMANDED billions for Planned Parenthood over the years now claim nonprofits deserve no tax money. Those are the rules they chose.

ITEM: RealClear Investigations reported, "The unnamed FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst cited by the Justice Department's watchdog for failing to properly vet the so-called Steele dossier before it was used to justify spying on the Trump campaign teaches a class on the ethics of spying at a small Washington-area college, records show.

"The senior FBI analyst, Brian J. Auten, has taught the course at Patrick Henry College since 2010, including the 11-month period in 2016 and 2017 when he and a counterintelligence team at FBI headquarters electronically monitored an adviser to the Trump campaign based on false rumors from the dossier and forged evidence.

"Auten, identified by congressional sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, never confirmed the most explosive allegations in the dossier compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, cutting a number of corners in the verification process, Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz pointed out in his December report on FBI abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"By January 2017, the lead analyst had ample evidence the dossier was bogus. Auten could not get sources who provided information to Steele to support the dossier’s allegations during interviews. And collections from the wiretaps of Trump aide Carter Page failed to reveal any confirmation of the claims. Auten even came across exculpatory evidence indicating Page was not the Russian asset the dossier alleged, but was in fact a CIA asset helping the U.S. spy on Moscow."

Ethics in Washington means not getting caught.

Defund the FBI.

Better yet, just get rid of it entirely.

ITEM: The Chicago Tribune reported, "A 58-year-old man was found dead Thursday morning in Grant Park with stab wounds to the neck and back, after a woman called police when she saw him on the ground in the same spot for a third day in a row, according to police.

"Around 9 a.m. Thursday, Chicago police responded to a call of a man found unresponsive in the 1100 Block of South Michigan Avenue, near the south end of Grant Park. The man was pronounced dead on the scene around 9:30 am according to officials. Chicago police have since updated the incident to a homicide."

No one else saw him? Just her?

Forget it, Jake. It's Chiraq.

ITEM: Via Jeremy Frankel, CNN's Fredo Cuomo on homicides rising: “But let’s see how ‘Ms. I won’t lie to you’ [White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany] and the rest of ‘Team Trump’ feel after we drop some truth on their roof.  Increases started in June. You say, ‘hey, wasn’t that about the same time as the protests, all those calls to defund the police? That’s gotta be the reason. See, you turn on the cops and the criminals run wild.’ That’s why she wants questions about it, to say that, right?

“But what else started in June? Well, states started lifting stay at home orders, now, didn’t they? Well, you don’t know that that’s what it was. Okay. Why, in April and May, when businesses were closed and we were forced to stay home, were homicides down?”

Because we all know murderers and criminals obey orders to stay home.

ITEM: David Rutz reported, "An NBC medical expert who was brought on air nearly a dozen times to detail his struggle with covid-19 never had the virus, he revealed this week.

"After believing he had the corona virus in spite of getting negative tests, virologist and NBC News science contributor Dr. Joseph Fair tweeted Tuesday that he had tested negative for the antibodies and that the illness that hospitalized him in May 'remains an undiagnosed mystery.'"

The story also said, "Today host Hoda Kotb noted during the interview that Fair had received four negative tests for the virus but said, 'clearly you have it.' Fellow host Craig Melvin called Fair's 'false negative' tests 'scary,' and co-hostess Savannah Guthrie called it a 'cautionary tale.'"

Doctors Kotb, Melvin, and Guthrie should have gotten a second opinion from Alan Alda.

ITEM: Chrissy Clark reported, "A university residential college named after James Madison may change its name in order to promote sustainable racial change.

"The interim dean of Michigan State University's James Madison residential college announced that the internal college is considering a name change in an attempt to advance racial equity. In a letter addressed to James Madison students, alumni, and friends, interim dean Linda Racioppi and assistant dean Jeff Judge presented ways the residential college plans to address policies and practices that disadvantage people of color, including a commitment to consider the removal of the founding father from campus."

It isn't his owning slaves that they object to.

It is his writing the Constitution.

ITEM: CNBC reported, "Gilead Sciences announced new findings Friday that its antiviral drug remdesivir reduced the risk of death for severely sick corona virus patients by 62% compared with standard care alone, saying more research is needed.

"The company said its analysis also found that remdesivir treatment was associated with 'significantly improved clinical recovery.' The findings are being presented at the Virtual Covid-19 Conference as part of the 23rd International AIDS Conference, the company said.

"Shares of Gilead rose more than 2% Friday on the news."

Gilead will charge 30 times the price of an anti-malarial drug treatment.

ITEM: President Trump again took and aced the Montreal Cognitive Assessment used to detect mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. The media mocked him because the test is so easy.

Here is what it is according to Media-ite:

1. Connecting lettered and numbered dots in order
2. Drawing a cube
3. Drawing a clock (These tasks are worth up to five points)
4. Correctly identifying pictures of a lion, a rhinoceros, and a camel (up to 3 points)
5. Recalling a list of five words (no points)
6. Reading a list of numbers (2 points)
7. Reading a list of letters (1 point)
8. Counting backwards from 100 by sevens (3 points)
9. Repeating the phrases “I only know that John is the one to help today” and “The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room. (2 points)
10. Explaining the similarities between objects like “train – bicycle” and “watch – ruler” (2 points)
11. Recalling the five words from earlier in the test, in any order (5 points)
12. Knowing where you are, and what the date, time, and day of the week are. (6 points)

The ease of the tasks is the whole point of the test. If a person struggles with the test, then you know he is having problems.

If they ever debate, President Trump should ask Biden to count backwards from 100 by sevens.

ITEM: Bloomberg News reported, "Facebook Inc. is considering imposing a ban on political ads on its social network in the days leading up to the U.S. election in November, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.

"The potential ban is still only being discussed and hasn’t yet been finalized, said the people, who asked not to be named talking about internal policies. A halt on ads could defend against misleading election-related content spreading as people prepare to vote. Still, there are concerns that an ad blackout may hurt get out the vote campaigns, or limit a candidate’s ability to respond widely to breaking news or new information.

"This would be a big change for Facebook, which has so far stuck to a policy of not fact-checking ads from politicians or their campaigns. That’s prompted criticism from lawmakers and advocates, who say the policy means ads on the platform can be used to spread lies and misinformation. Civil rights groups also argue the company doesn’t do enough to remove efforts to limit voter participation, and a recent audit found Facebook failed to enforce its own voter-suppression policies when it comes to posts from U.S. President Donald Trump."

Bloomberg is owned by anti-Trump billionaire Mini Mike.

If the tale is true, however, then Facebook has my blessing to take the sneaky coward's way out. It takes guts to stand up to bullies. Zuckerberg looks like he had his share of being bullied.