NEWS AND OPINION:

President Biden has gone off to Lithuania to attend the 2023 NATO Summit, which formally will get underway Tuesday. Let us recall that NATO is a corporation which counts “environment, climate change and security” as one in all its major focal factors of concern — noting in a mission assertion that “environmental security issues can lead to humanitarian disasters, regional tensions and violence.”

That’s some critical stuff.

All of this isn't misplaced on the Republican National Committee, which is following Mr. Biden’s journey and making a couple of feedback because the journey continues.

The group famous that earlier than arriving in Lithuania, the president stopped off in London to go to with King Charles, plus some influential philanthropists and enterprise leaders. A major focus of the gathering was to handle local weather change.

Yes, nicely. Things modified, maybe, upon arrival in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

“President Biden — only hours after discussing ‘accelerating climate engagement’ — departed the Vilnius airport in a motorcade spanning 30-plus vehicles,” the group stated in a tweet on Monday.

The entry was titled “Biden is a climate hypocrite” and included a video of these many autos racing off the runway and in direction of their vacation spot within the metropolis.

VIVEK’S LATEST

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has begun, maybe, an entrepreneur’s model of political fundraising.

His marketing campaign, Vivek 2024, has launched one thing known as “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet,” described as a grassroots program meant to “democratize political fundraising,” in keeping with the marketing campaign.

The effort permits individuals to obtain a person fundraising hyperlink after which get a ten% fee on the entire quantity they elevate for Vivek 2024.

Got that?

“As a political outsider and first-time candidate, I was stunned to discover the degree to which the political class cashes in on the electoral process. I found out that most professional political fundraisers get a cut of the money they raise. Why should they monopolize political fundraising? They shouldn’t,” Mr. Ramaswamy stated in a written assertion shared with Inside the Beltway.

“That’s why I started ‘Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet,’ so everyone can get in on this. Go-getters can make 10% of the money they raise for our campaign. This isn’t just a grassroots campaign; this is a revolution,” he stated.

SAVE THE DATE

Drum roll, please. As the presidential election attracts ever nearer, the Republican Party has scheduled the 2024 Iowa presidential caucuses for Jan. 15. The transfer will ignite a flurry of exercise.

“The GOP primary calendar is sticking by the historical precedent of letting Iowa vote first followed by New Hampshire, Nevada, and then South Carolina before breaking open the dam on Super Tuesday,” stories Nate Ashworth, founder and editor in chief of ElectionCentral.com, a political information web site.

All-important Super Tuesday is March 5.

Why concentrate? Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are seemingly circling the date in purple on their calendars.

“For Republican candidates, the first-in-the-nation caucus status of Iowa once again means the state will have a tremendous impact on the race, especially this year. Candidates have already been spending a lot of time in the state, crisscrossing the 99 counties and making face-to-face personal connections,” Mr. Ashworth stated.

“Iowa is one state where a Trump challenger, such as DeSantis, is hoping to upend the process and the assumed dominance of the former president. Remember, Trump lost the Iowa caucus in 2016 so he’s perceived to be more vulnerable there than somewhere like New Hampshire or South Carolina,” the analyst defined.

“Trump and DeSantis begin eyeing Super Tuesday states as they prepare for 2024 long game,” summarized an Associated Press evaluation of the schedule on Monday.

HELPFUL NUMBERS

“As the 2024 election year approaches, voters continue to trust the Republican Party more on the key issue of taxes,” advises a Rasmussen Reports ballot evaluation launched Monday.

Here are the numbers:

“The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 48% of likely U.S. voters trust Republicans more to handle taxes, while 41% trust Democrats more and 12% are not sure,” the evaluation stated.

The survey of 1,054 seemingly voters was carried out from June 28 to July 2.

A MOMENT IN FLORIDA

Democrats within the Sunshine State not too long ago provided just a little leisure, devoted to none apart from the Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“In jab at DeSantis, Florida Democrats cap fundraising dinner with raucous drag show,” was the headline over an article by Anthony Man, who covers politics for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The occasion was hosted Saturday by get together chair Nikki Fried at Miami’s famed Fountainbleau Hotel.

“For the finale of the Florida Democratic Party’s annual Leadership Blue conference and fundraiser in Miami Beach, Fried arranged for an appearance by drag queen Velvet LeNore, who performed several numbers along with her backup dancers,” Mr. Man wrote.

“The audience, Democratic activists and elected officials from throughout the state, erupted in applause. Drag, LeNore’s full-time profession, has become a flashpoint in the escalation of culture war issues emphasized by Republican lawmakers and DeSantis, whose administration has sought to punish liquor license holders that hold drag shows with children in attendance,” the journalist stated.

POLL DU JOUR

• 62% of U.S. adults say they personal at the very least one pet.

• 38% say they don't personal a pet.

• 51% of the pet house owners say they think about the animals “to be part of their family.”

• 46% say the pets are a part of their household, “but not as much as a human member.”

• 26% of pet house owners say there's an excessive amount of emphasis within the U.S. on the well-being of pets.

• 48% say there's about the correct amount of emphasis on pets’ well-being.

• 26% say there's not sufficient emphasis on their well-being.

SOURCE: A Pew Research Center survey of 5,073 U.S, adults carried out April 10-16 and launched July 7.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com