The Stream

The Brew: Stocks Take Massive Dive, WaPo Thinks Harris VP Pick the Best Choice … Before Knowing Who the Choice Is

By Al Perrotta Published on August 6, 2024 •

Al Perrotta

Happy Tuesday!

Today’s Brew can be dubbed “Turmoil.” The stock market is tumbling like an Olympic gymnast, a match is set to be lit on the Middle East, and Hurricane Debby is doing a number on the Southeast.

Kamala Crash … or Just a Correction

The U.S. stock market took a dive Monday, with the Dow closing down 1033 points, or 2.6%. Nasdaq closed down 578 points or 3.43%, rallying back from an historic drop in the morning. Nasdaq had never been down 1000 points before.

World markets have plummeted as well over fears the United States might be heading into a recession. For example, Japan’s Nikkie 225 had its worst day since the 1987 Black Monday crash.

During the day, numerous brokers including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and E-Trade, went dark, blocking retail traders from joining the sell-off. The recession fears were triggered largely by Friday’s disappointing July jobs report, where unemployment rose to 4.3% and job growth was far less than expected.

Just six days ago, Joe Biden declared he had “cured the economy.” Yesterday, amid the downturn, Biden’s senior economic aide, Gene Sperling, resigned from the White House — not to bear responsibility for the latest economic mess, but to join Kamala Harris’s campaign. A bit like hiring the designer of the Titanic to build your new luxury liner.

Naturally, in an election year, you can’t stub your toe without it being turned into a partisan issue. And sure enough, the market downturn has already been dubbed “Kamala’s Crash.” Trump led the charge.

By noon, #KamalaCrash was trending #1 on X.

By 1 p.m., the Trump campaign had an ad out.

Who’s She Going to Pick?

Who is Kamala Harris going to select as her running mate? Her choice is set to be announced this morning. According to Reuters, Harris has narrowed it down to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

With pro-Hamas demonstrators set to descend on the Democratic National Convention, with the Muslim vote in Michigan and Minnesota so vital, is the woman who is too afraid to do interviews going to tick off the mobs and pick Shapiro, the Jewish guy? We’ll see.

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Meanwhile, Walz is the progressive who was happy to let the George Floyd rioters burn down Minneapolis. It took him three days to agree to bring in the National Guard, admitting the initial response was an “abject failure.” He’s also the one who first popularized the idea that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are “weird.”

Tuesday evening, a tantalizing clue the pick may be Walz.

If you recall, a similar fleet accompanied J.D. Vance in the hours before he was named Trump’s running mate.

WaPo Already Dubbing Whoever Harris Picks as Her Best Possible Pick

The gaslighting and faux enthusiasm for Harris is becoming the stuff of satire. Yesterday, the Washington Post accidentally posted a placeholder article already declaring Harris’s running mate the best possible choice.

Once again, The Babylon Bee was ahead of the story. Remember their post before Trump named Vance? “12 Women Come Forward to Claim They Were Sexually Assaulted by Whoever Trump’s VP Pick Is.”

Another example: the Harris campaign is reportedly paying influencers and celebrities to come to the Democratic National Convention.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Remember when the White House paid child actors to appear with Kamala in a video plugging NASA? Sometimes popularity is genuine. Other times it’s bought and paid for.

Administration Let Loose at Least 99 Illegal Immigrants on Terror Watch List? Accidentally Gave Taliban $239 Million?

The Biden-Harris administration encountered 250 illegal immigrants who were on the FBI terror watch list over the last three and a half years, and let at least 99 of them loose in the country, according to Department of Homeland Security data, a new report from the House Judiciary Committee reveals.

At least they didn’t hand out millions of taxpayer dollars to terrorists. Oh, wait. They did. At least $239 million to the Taliban, in fact. You know, the same people who harbored the 9/11 terrorists and against whom we warred for 20 years? The State Department is blaming poor vetting for having forked over the $239 million to a fake NGO, according to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

Someone in that White House is snorting something. Which gets to …

Disgraced Former Secret Service Director Ordered Cocaine Found at White House Destroyed, But Got Pushback from the Apolitical Pros … Even When Lab Got a “Partial Hit” Dramatically Narrowing Down the Suspect List

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle wanted the cocaine found at the White House destroyed, Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics reported. However, the Secret Services Forensics Services Division and Uniformed Division stood firm.

Crabtree also reports the lone Uniformed Division officer originally assigned to investigate wanted to, in Crabtree’s words, “follow a certain crime-scene investigation protocol.” Instead, he was booted from the case.

So 13 months later, whose cocaine was it? The Secret Service wrapped up its investigation in a matter of days, claiming they couldn’t find a suspect. But is that a lie?

Crabtree says the FBI’s crime lab got a “partial hit,” which “in forensic lingo, usually means law enforcement found DNA matching a blood relative of a finite pool of people.” As a source told RCP, “the FBI needs to explain who the partial hit was against, then determine what blood family member has ties to the White House or what person matching the partial hit was present at the White House that weekend.” Dan Bongino said on his radio show yesterday this would leave you with only a few possible suspects at the most.

Why wasn’t that done? Why weren’t additional searches for DNA evidence or interviews conducted with those in the White House that weekend?

Said a Crabtree source, “That’s because they didn’t want to know, or even narrow down the field of who it could be.”

Finally, a Prayer for Israel and Our Forces in the Region

The Middle East is on edge, expecting Iran to launch a revenge strike on Israel for the killing of a top Hamas leader last week in Tehran. The regime’s attack may have already begun by the time you read this. The question of the hour is how severe a response we’ll see from the Islamic regime.

Yesterday, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met with their national security team, and the president spoke with the Jordanian king to find a way to de-escalate tensions in the region.

U.S. forces in the region are set to assist in Israel’s defense, with additional ships and fighter planes deploying over the weekend. We pray for their safety and all those in Israel.

We have our military writer Tom Sileo and our Middle East expert contributors on standby.

Along The Stream

As we mentioned yesterday, the email system for The Stream is currently kaput. If you’ve been trying to contact us, we haven’t gotten your messages. If you do need to reach us, right now the best way is through our Facebook page. Facebook.com/TheStream.org/

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.

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