NEWS AND OPINION:
He once eyed the White House, but now he has a role in the Pentagon. That would be former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who also ran for president in 2020. Things change.
“Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III presided today over the swearing in of Michael R. Bloomberg as chair of the Defense Innovation Board,” the Defense Department said in a news release Wednesday.
“As the chair of the Defense Innovation Board, Bloomberg will lead a group of renowned experts and leaders from across the nation’s innovation base who will provide strategic insights and recommendations on technology and innovation to address the Department’s highest national security priorities,” the Pentagon said.
“The Defense Innovation Board provides the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and other senior leaders independent advice and recommendations on how to accelerate innovation and compete in a technology-and-innovation-driven environment,” the release advised.
Curious? See innovation.defense.gov for some insight.
Mr. Bloomberg, 80, is currently worth $82 billion according to Forbes, and ranks No. 12 on the financial-news organization’s current “World’s Billionaires List” identifying the richest people in the world. He is No. 10 on the publication’s “Richest People in America” list.
He perhaps has a knack the Pentagon seeks.
“Organizations resist innovation and those that do inevitably fail because people are more comfortable with what they know than with what they don’t,” Mr. Bloomberg said in an undated personal quote cited by Forbes.
LAUREN HAS A MESSAGE
Politics is robust in the Centennial State, says one source who knows.
“The Colorado Primary is in full swing. Ballots are being returned right now and will continue pouring back in until June 28th,” advises Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican with her eye on both the upcoming primary in her state, and all the “Republicans in name only” — or RINOs for short.
“The left and the corrupt establishment are colluding together to support my RINO opponent, a local politician who is soft on fentanyl, guns, border security and fighting all the woke B.S. It’s very easy to switch your party affiliation in Colorado, and Democrats are exploiting this to vote in the Republican primary for my opponent,” the lawmaker said in a campaign message released Wednesday.
“By speaking the truth boldly and refusing to compromise my conservative values, I have made a lot of enemies. They know they’d much rather face my RINO opponent in the general election, so they are trying desperately to take me out in the primary. We need to rally the conservative base and make sure they come out to vote in the primary,” Mrs. Boebert continued.
She then cited two fellow Republican lawmakers from neighboring states — Utah and Wyoming.
“We don’t need another Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney in Congress. After a year and half of President Biden, now is not the time for us to get soft,” Mrs. Boebert concluded in her message.
FOX NEWS RULES THE INTERNET
Fox News has much online appeal. The cable news network’s website finished the month of May as the top-performing news organization site for the 15th consecutive month, according to Comscore.
Some 80 million unique visitors perused the Fox News website and ran up 2.9 billion total minutes and 1.5 billion total “multiplatform” views in the process. The site also attracted 80 million unique visitors during the month.
In the social media realm, Fox News drew 33 million interactions, marking the 93rd consecutive month the network emerged as No. 1, according to Emplifi, an industry source. That number includes 4.8 million Twitter interactions, 14 million Instagram interactions and 250 million views on YouTube, according to Shareablee, yet another industry source.
TO RUN OR NOT TO RUN?
Should two very familiar names appear on the next presidential ballot when the time comes? Uh, maybe not. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults — 64% — say President Biden should not run for president in 2024 while 55% say former President Donald Trump should not run in that election either. So says a Yahoo News survey.
Meanwhile, another 21% of the respondents say Mr. Biden should throw his proverbial hat in the ring; 31% say Mr. Trump should do the same. However, 15% are not sure whether Mr. Biden should run; 14% feel the same about Mr. Trump.
If they both jumped in the race, it would be very close: 42% of the respondents would vote for Mr. Trump in 2024, 39% would opt for Mr. Biden while 20% are not sure about the whole thing.
The Yahoo News survey of 1,541 U.S. adults was conducted June 10-13.
AN EYE ON TITLE IX
Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the federal civil-rights law that helped even the playing field for women in education and sports.
But an expected rule from the Biden administration could set women back decades, according to the Heritage Foundation — which will address the issue at a Thursday event in the nation’s capital featuring Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican.
“The Biden administration is poised to eviscerate long-standing protections for women and girls by expanding ‘sex’ to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Schools would be forced to open housing, locker rooms, sports teams, admissions, and other sex-specific offerings to the opposite sex. And this is just one of the changes the Biden administration has proposed with its new rule,” advise program notes for the occasion.
The event is hosted by Sarah Parshall Perry, senior legal fellow at Heritage. She will be joined by Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, student-athlete Chelsea Mitchell and her mother Christy Mitchell.
The gathering will be livestreamed at 2 p.m. ET. Interested? Find information and appropriate links at Heritage.org/events.
POLL DU JOUR
• 38% of U.S. adults say President Biden’s policies are “very responsible” for causing current inflation in the U.S.
• 26% say the policies are “somewhat responsible” for inflation.
• 17% say the policies are “not very responsible” for inflation.
• 8% say the policies are “not at all responsible” for inflation.
• 10% are not sure about the issue.
Source: An Issues & Insights/TIPP poll of 1,310 U.S. adults conducted June 6-10 and released Wednesday.
• Helpful information to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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