Exclusive —

Sen. Rick Scott Lays out Battle Plan for GOP Victory in November:

‘My Goal Is to Help All Republicans Win’

DETROIT, Michigan — Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Breitbart News exclusively here at the Turning Point Action People’s Convention he believes the stakes of the 2024 election are extremely high but he is hopeful Republicans, particularly former President Donald Trump, now have the edge.

“Number one, we need to win the White House, the House, and the Senate,” Scott said in an on-camera interview on Friday. “Here’s why. If we don’t win the White House, the border is not going to get secure—that’s number one. Number two is if we don’t have all three, we’re not going to get our spending under control. That means inflation never goes away. It gets worse and worse and worse. Interest rates will never come down. Next, if we don’t want to have a woke military, a weak military, we’ve got to have a president that cares about our military and a House and Senate that cares about our military. So you look at almost every issue we’re dealing with—the wokeness of our military, inflation, interest rates—it’s all going to be tied to winning these elections. So if you think about a poor kid like me, I grew up in public housing and was born to a single mom, I grew up in a country where my mom could legitimately say you can be anything. If you can’t afford to put food on the table, if you can’t afford the rent, if you can’t afford gas for your car, if you can’t afford your car, it’s not a great life. That’s exactly where this country is, so if we want to have opportunity for everybody then we’ve got to win these elections.”

Scott, who was along with most of his Senate GOP colleagues present for a meeting on Thursday last week with Trump at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said the meeting Trump had with Senate Republicans “was unifying.”

“First off it was uplifting and unifying,” Scott said. “President Trump is going to win. We all have to get out and do our part and we need to vote and get all our friends to vote and we need to be poll watchers and do all of those things. But right now I believe President Trump is going to win this election. But he’s got to have a House and Senate that’s going to help him. He came together. He was very gracious to everybody and talked about the things he wants to accomplish. Everybody is unified that we want to help him accomplish those things because it’s a key to success for this country that every family have an opportunity.”

Scott said what Republicans need to do to win is prosecute the case against the wildly unpopular Biden agenda.

“Everybody knows Biden’s policies are bad. Republican, Democrat, or independent, they don’t want an open border,” Scott said. “They don’t want more drugs, they don’t want more criminals, they don’t want more terrorists. That’s number one. We’ve got to make sure everybody understands that Biden is doing it. Biden had the opportunity to keep the border secure like Trump had it and decided not to. Around the country in every state they’re seeing the problems. They’re seeing the fentanyl deaths. They’re seeing the criminals that are coming. So, that’s number one. And everybody in this country is seeing inflation. So I think those two issues by themselves mean Trump’s going to win. Now, there’s all still going to be the key of we’ve got to get out and vote. Right here at Turning Point what they’re talking about is all the grassroots effort because that’s really the key. In my race in 2018, I had to get more votes than Ted Cruz had to get in Texas and Florida is a much smaller state than Texas—big state but not as big as Texas. So, how we did that it was grassroots. People went out and they got the vote out and that’s what we have to do to make sure we win.”

Scott also emphasized that as a three-time winner of statewide races in a big state like Florida—he won two governor’s races and one U.S. Senate race already as he seeks a second term in the Senate now this year—that winning statewide races starts with winning local races. …

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/06/16/exclusive-sen-rick-scott-lays-out-battle-plan-for-gop-victory-in-november-my-goal-is-to-help-all-republicans-win/

Stores are more subdued in observing Pride Month.

Some LGBTQ+ people see a silver lining in that

NEW YORK (AP) — With Pride Month in full gear, U.S. shoppers can find the usual merchandise many stores stock for the June celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights. But analysts and advocates say the marketing is toned down compared to previous years, and at some chains, there’s no trace of Pride at all.

The more subdued atmosphere underscores the struggle of many retailers to cater to different groups of customers at a time of extreme cultural divisions. This year’s Pride Month is unfolding amid a sea of legislation and litigation over LGBTQ+ rights, especially the ability of transgender young people to participate in sports or receive gender-affirming care.

Against this backdrop, Target reduced the number of its stores carrying Pride-themed products this year after getting backlash in 2023. Nike, which like Bud Light became the subject of boycott calls last year over its marketing partnership with a transgender influencer, also has pulled back after offering Pride collections since 1999. The athletic brand said it won’t have one this year; rather, it said it’s focusing on programming and ongoing support for the LGBTQ+community.

Some brands and influencers who work with the community report a noticeable decline in corporate partnerships. Rob Smith, founder and chief executive of The Phluid Project, a brand of gender-neutral clothing, cited a 25% drop compared with last June in the number of stores carrying his collection.

“I guess they just decided this year, especially in an election year, with what’s going on, just to play it safe,” Smith said. He declined to reveal the names of his former retail clients.

But he and other advocates see a silver lining. They think the low-key landscape partially reflects a desire by some companies to move beyond one-month expressions of support toward more enduring acts of allyship, such as regularly featuring LGBTQ+-owned brands and models. …

https://apnews.com/article/pride-target-lgbtq-0d0ade0c3ba9766884a9ed7ad92f31fe

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Adidas, Converse and Levi Strauss & Co., which have brought out Pride Month collections for many years, did so again.

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tyb

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6/16/2024

Former CDC Director Predicts Bird Flu Virus Will Cause Next Pandemic

‘It’s not a question of if, it’s more a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,’ Dr. Robert Redfield said.

Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has issued a grim prediction that the next major pandemic will be caused by the bird flu.

“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time—it’s not a question of if, it’s more a question of when—we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Dr. Redfield told NewsNation in an interview published on June 14.

U.S. officials recently confirmed that the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus had been detected in a cow herd in Wyoming, the 12th state to report an infection.

The former CDC director said the bird flu, when it enters humans, has a “significant” mortality.

“Probably somewhere between 25 and 50 percent mortality, so it’s going to be quite complicated,” Dr. Redfield said.

Since around 2019, there’s been a progressive increase in the number of mammal species to which the bird flu virus has spread, with alpacas becoming the latest species to fall sick after coming into contact with the pathogen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Dr. Redfield said that as the bird flu has spread to more than two dozen mammals in the United States, the virus has been adapting and learning how to change its use of receptors, with the risk of making a jump to humans growing by the day.

“So it’s going through a lot of changes. And as it picks up some of these new receptors, it can get closer and closer to humans,” he said.

“Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor, and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic. And as I said, I think it’s just a matter of time.”

While Dr. Redfield said it’s impossible to predict with accuracy when the bird flu might start going human to human, he said the recent development of dairy cattle contracting the virus is alarming because cows are often in close proximity to pigs, and pigs have tended to be the last stepping stone for viruses before the jump to humans.

Dr. Redfield added that the natural evolution of the virus to where it becomes highly infectious to humans is less of a concern to him than the possibility that it will increase its virulence under lab conditions—through gain-of-function research.

The “recipe” for making bird flu highly infectious to humans is already well established, Dr. Redfield said, recalling that gain-of-function research on the avian influenza virus was carried out in 2012, against his recommendations.Dr. Redfield said that as the bird flu has spread to more than two dozen mammals in the United States, the virus has been adapting and learning how to change its use of receptors, with the risk of making a jump to humans growing by the day.

“So it’s going through a lot of changes. And as it picks up some of these new receptors, it can get closer and closer to humans,” he said.

“Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor, and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic. And as I said, I think it’s just a matter of time.”

While Dr. Redfield said it’s impossible to predict with accuracy when the bird flu might start going human to human, he said the recent development of dairy cattle contracting the virus is alarming because cows are often in close proximity to pigs, and pigs have tended to be the last stepping stone for viruses before the jump to humans.

Dr. Redfield added that the natural evolution of the virus to where it becomes highly infectious to humans is less of a concern to him than the possibility that it will increase its virulence under lab conditions—through gain-of-function research.

The “recipe” for making bird flu highly infectious to humans is already well established, Dr. Redfield said, recalling that gain-of-function research on the avian influenza virus was carried out in 2012, against his recommendations. …

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/ex-cdc-director-predicts-bird-flu-virus-will-cause-next-pandemic-5669397

‘Wake Up,’ by Falun Gong Founder Mr. Li Hongzhi

Wake Up

Compassion is expressed in this world through love and kindness, and these are qualities that those who practice Dafa should always radiate from within. There is something I have recently been thinking about. I’ve called upon you to help rescue lives, but the state of mind that you have when doing things to achieve this, such as when you raise awareness among people on your own or perform with Shen Yun, shouldn’t be limited to just those moments. Rather, you should maintain a state of mind of uplifting people’s souls and hold on to this sense of purpose as you go about things at your workplace, wherever it may be. This is especially true for those of you who are involved in various media platforms. There have been cases where others can’t even sense in you the compassion that someone leading a spiritual life should have. Or your commentaries on situations or events are based on your personal inclinations, which shouldn’t be. You are here to help rescue lives on a spiritual level, and you should be gauging things in light of Zhen, Shan, Ren—being true, kind, and forbearing. What you write and say should, at a minimum, help steer people in a direction that will ultimately elevate their souls.

A rather serious issue is that some of you are often making personal attacks on important figures in government. But we are here to help people elevate spiritually and deliver them from danger, not make enemies. Truth be told, you shouldn’t be launching personal attacks on anyone, no matter how bad the person may be (with the exception being the Chinese Communist Party’s sinister, now-deceased despot, Jiang)—and particularly not on important figures in the United States’ two major political parties. Everyone is here for the Way, and all, on some level, are awaiting deliverance from this world. Yet personal attacks tend to breed strong resentment. And once that kind of intense feeling has formed, it is hard to undo. So how are you going to get through to people, in that case? And what’s more, doing that is likely to cause retaliation. Haven’t there been plenty of lessons along these lines? Most of us are outsiders here, and we aren’t deeply rooted in this society. We came here to escape persecution by the CCP, moreover. So we should be grateful, for the United States has opened its arms to us.

…

I have always taught that you should not be involving yourselves in politics in the role of a Dafa practitioner, nor get involved in rivalries between political parties. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are both just worldly entities. Every individual is someone whom the divine wants to save from this world. You have no business thinking that you will only try to help individuals who belong to one political party, and not the other. They are all my people! I as well as multitudes of divine beings wish to save them! It’s a different story of course if on some level a person doesn’t want to be saved. But as Dafa practitioners you cannot pick and choose. Each and every person is divine by nature, and everyone came to this earth to learn about Dafa and gain deliverance.

…

https://www.theepochtimes.com/falun-gong/wake-up-by-falun-gong-founder-mr-li-hongzhi-5665020

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