PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: Fact check: Fauci warned Trump administration in 2017 of surprise infectious disease outbreak.

A Google search of the headline revealed that the screenshot of the article is authentic and came from Healio News, a specialty clinical information website and was, in fact, published on Jan. 11, 2017.

The article, “Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak,” states Fauci’s remarks came during a forum on pandemic preparedness at Georgetown University.

* * * * * * * *

Healio News reported that, according to experts who spoke at the forum, “preparing the U.S. for pandemics requires proper funding and starts by battling disease outbreaks overseas.”

Fauci said during his remarks that a lesson learned from emerging diseases over the years is that “you have to commit substantial financial and human resources.”

Fact check: US government did not engineer COVID-19

Our ruling: True

The claim that Dr. Anthony Fauci, in 2017, warned the Trump administration of the likelihood of an infectious disease outbreak is TRUE based on our research. Fauci did not warn about the coronavirus specifically, as some posts claim, but rather, that a more general “surprise infectious disease outbreak” would take place.

Earlier: COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab.

NARRATIVE BUSTED: Man Throwing Bricks At NYC Gay Bar Was Actually A Gay Man Enacting ‘Revenge,’ Police Say.

Would you be surprised if a recent string of “hate crimes” against a popular New York City gay bar were actually carried out by a gay man?

Of course not, you’re a reader of The Daily Wire and well-educated on hate crime hoaxes. Nonetheless, let’s talk about a recent story out of the Big Apple.

Over the last month, VERS, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen has experienced four separate incidents of an individual throwing bricks through its windows.

Immediately, New York leftists declared it was evidence of something sinister.

“The epidemic of anti-LGBTQ+ violence is national,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine tweeted. “A well-known gay bar on Manhattan’s west side has been attacked repeatedly in recent weeks. We can not stand for this.”

As Roger Kimball wrote when Jussie Smollett’s story broke in 2019, “The less hate there is in the United States, the more hate crimes must be manufactured in order to keep the Fraternal Order of Victims afloat.”

YE GADS: Kanye West Canceled Himself.

That brings us to this week’s outrage: On Tuesday, Kanye dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and brought along as his guest the notorious Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who showered Trump with flattery. Trump now says that he didn’t know who Fuentes was, which is entirely plausible but (if true) suggests the complete breakdown of competent staffing around the former president as he ramps up a 2024 campaign. In fact, during his presidency and prior campaigns, Trump often seemed to prefer not to know who his supporters were, so long as they supported him. Fuentes is not exactly a household name and mostly known only to people who are Too Online, but it would not take a very long Google search to figure out what he is. Even Breitbart News published an appalled item by Jerome Hudson and Matthew Boyle on the dinner under the headline “Trump Dined at Mar-a-Lago with White Nationalist, Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes Alongside Kanye West,” in which Hudson and Boyle observed that Trump “seems to have met with an open white nationalist, antisemite, and Holocaust denier in Fuentes. Fuentes’ now-shut-down YouTube page is shot-through with racist and antisemitic rants that date as far back as 2014.”

Trump aside, however, Kanye clearly knew who he was there with; indeed, it is entirely possible that listening to Fuentes has fed a lot of West’s current enthusiasm for antisemitism. This is a dark place, from which there is no returning.

Fuentes, and possibly another: Kanye West’s antisemitism inspired by Louis Farrakhan. “Unbeknownst to many, West and Farrakhan have been publicly connected for years. In July 2005, West accepted the ‘Million Man March Image Award’ at the NOI headquarters in Chicago. In 2013, when West first drew attention for antisemitism when he lamented that ‘Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people,’ Farrakhan defended him and told him not to ‘bow to pressure to apologize.’ Two years later, West took his family to meet Farrakhan, and his song All Day, released that same year, boasted: ‘Just talked to Farrakhan, that’s sensei.’”

ALL QUIET ON THE NETFLIX FRONT: My review of the new German remake of the 1930 Lewis Milestone movie adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic anti-war novel.

“CREEPY JOE STRIKES AGAIN:” President Biden peers through Nantucket restaurant window for kids’ selfies during Thanksgiving break at billionaire friend’s house. “But some on social media were not so amused by the president’s child-centric antics. ‘This is not normal. Stop trying to normalize this. If this was any other old man, you would all be freaking out, too,’ wrote one user on Instagram, responding to a post from the Nantucket Current.”

HOW IT STARTED: Presumed President-elect Joe Biden lays out Main Street recovery plan for small businesses.

How it’s going: Bidenomics: 41% of small businesses can’t pay rent this month, report warns.

TECH’S REALITY CHECK: How the industry lost $7.4 trillion in one year.

For many investors, it was just a matter of time.

“It is a poorly kept secret in Silicon Valley that companies ranging from Google to Meta to Twitter to Uber could achieve similar levels of revenue with far fewer people,” Brad Gerstner, a tech investor at Altimeter Capital, wrote last month.

Gerstner’s letter was specifically targeted at Zuckerberg, urging him to slash spending, but he was perfectly willing to apply the criticism more broadly.

“I would take it a step further and argue that these incredible companies would run even better and more efficiently without the layers and lethargy that comes with this extreme rate of employee expansion,” Gerstner wrote.

Fortunately, someone in Silicon Valley gets it:

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Jesus could have been transgender, claims Cambridge dean.

CASABLANCA AT 80: a golden age classic that remains impossible to resist.

Many of the greatest films of all time have some triumph-over-adversity story to buffer their mythology: a chaotic production, weak box office, critics that didn’t get it at the time, a loss to some forgettable film during awards season. Their greatness has to be elusive and mysterious, in other words, something that couldn’t be comprehended until later, when they finally got the full appreciation they always deserved. The path to canonization tends to have its own, often formulaic narrative.

Casablanca reviewed: ‘a lively film, bulging with acting talent’ – archive, 1943

That’s not what happened with Casablanca, which now celebrates 80 years of being widely beloved. Perhaps it wasn’t loved at the level that it is now – it was merely warmly received and successful, but not a sensation – but it won best picture, along with awards for its peerless screenplay and elegant direction, and is the rare film whose “classic” status is practically axiomatic. Who doesn’t love Casablanca? Or, put another way, where can you find any weaknesses in this production?

It was enough of a sensation, that Hollywood kept trying repeat the casting formula, with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film, Notorious, and Paul Henreid and Rains alongside Bette Davis in 1946’s Deception.

 But accept no substitutes. There is only one Rick Blaine, and that man’s name is David Soul:   

ALYSSA MILANO THROWS A VIRTUE SIGNALING FIT AT ELON MUSK, AND HE HAS THOUGHTS:

“Giving her Tesla back” (whatever that means) wouldn’t do a darn thing to affect Elon Musk. If she means that she traded it in for a Volkswagen, then she still paid the money to Tesla.

But does she even know the origin of Volkswagen? She attacks a guy who wants free speech, so that she can embrace a company that was originally founded by the Nazis? The Volkswagen plant under the Nazis contained four concentration camps and eight forced-labor camps. The company was later taken over by others after the war, but it still has that history. Milano is not the sharpest tool in the drawer. She flees someone who wants free speech at their company, while she buys a vehicle from a company started by real white supremacists.

Many people also pointed out the VW emissions scandal, where they programmed their cars to pass inspection tests, but the same cars puts out more emissions in real-world driving. That didn’t seem to affect her decision either, or perhaps she was as ignorant of that as of the connection to the Nazis.

Not the finest choice of car to virtue signal with:

QUESTION ASKED: SBF, FTX: What in the Actual F— Is Wrong With These People?

You can’t make this up. Earlier this month, some dough-faced dork named Sam Bankman-Fried—an MIT grad and son of Stanford law professors—vaporized the GDP of a small country after successfully conning the entire world of so-called educated elites.

All of them. The freaks in Silicon Valley, the freaks on Wall Street, the freaks in Hollywood, and the freaks in Washington. Even (or especially) the journalists who are supposed to be holding everyone accountable. The smartest, most enlightened professional experts and self-appointed moral referees.

Bill Clinton. Tony Blair. The Democratic Party. Larry David. Tom Brady. Fortune magazine. Andrew Ross Sorkin. CNBC. The bald guy from Shark Tank. BlackRock, the $10 trillion investment firm where former Obama aides go to get rich and serve as “Global Head of Sustainable Investing.”

They all vouched for Bankrupt-Fraud and his blockchain stonk machine. Like they vouched for Elizabeth Holmes and her magic blood box. Like they vouched for Michael Avenatti and his bullshit litigation racket. The Lincoln Project. OZY Media. Stacey Abrams.

Exit quote: “And they wonder why no one takes them seriously anymore. To hell with these people.”

THE MOST SOCCER THING EVER! U.S., England tie World Cup match in Qatar, 0-0.

The highlight reel from the game is really something:

UPDATE: From America’s Newspaper of Record: Soccer Team Apologizes For Running Up The Score In 2-0 Blowout.

(Updated and bumped.)

JOHN NOLTE: Disney’s Big Gay, Green ‘Strange World’ Crashes at Box Office.

The predators at Disney are coming for your kids, and everyone knows it.

The Disney brand is now the equivalent of a non-descript van and a guy behind the wheel offering your kids candy.

And now, to once again point out what lying hacks the entertainment media are and just how far these hacks are willing to bend over and sell out their integrity, I give you Deadline’s anti-science excuse for Strange World’s box office disaster:

One former Disney exec once told me, “They’re very good at making the best worst case decision” and in the scenario of Strange World, that’s sending it to Disney+ by the holidays.

Ohhhhhh…. So that’s why Strange World tanked. It’s not the enviro-propaganda or the teenage homosexuality… No, no, no… Strange World tanked because it will be on Disney+ in 30 days. After all, why go to the movies when you can watch it at home in 30 days, right?

Except.

Disney did the exact same thing with Encanto last year. And I do mean the exact same thing. In 2021, Encanto was released in theaters for the Thanksgiving weekend and dropped on Disney+ in time for the Christmas holidays. Nevertheless, it opened to $41 million.

So, under the exact same conditions, why would Encanto open to $41 million and Strange World do about half that?

What we got here is a real head-scratcher.

Earlier: Disney Fired Their Woke CEO But Will Anything Change? “It was returning Bob Iger who sent Disney down its current path to Total Wokeness. Chapek was merely the guy in charge when the stuff inevitably hit the fan.”

SKYNET SMILES: Dystopia Arrives in San Francisco: Authorities Introduce Policy Granting Robots a License to Kill.

UNREAL: New Images Emerge From Chinese ‘Zero COVID’ Techno-Hell.

RIP: Irene Cara dead at 63: ‘Fame’ and ‘Flashdance’ singer was Grammy, Oscar winner.

FASTER, PLEASE: Arthur C. Clarke’s Prelude to Space (Written in 1947) Envisioned We’d Be on Mars by Now.

DEMOCRACY DIES IN THINLY-SOURCED SMEAR ARTICLES: WaPo Drops Hit Piece on Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Over 65-Year Old Photo, Says He’s Part of a ‘Confederacy.’

The Washington Post thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the holiday weekend with a hit piece on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones featuring a photo of him aged 14 years old standing in the crowd at a 1957 racial confrontation in North Little Rock, AR. There is no indication that Jones did anything wrong or actively participated in the event, where white people were trying to stop black students from attending the local high school.

A few weeks after the above photo was taken, the higher profile “Little Rock Nine” integration effort took place at Little Rock Central High, resulting in President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatching federal troops to escort the black students past the protesters in what is regarded as a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. The Post seems to imply that the fact that Jones lived in the area and appeared at a less-famous event means that he’s guilty by association with the racist agitators who harassed black students and used the N-word:

In a photograph taken at the scene, Jones could be seen standing a few yards from where the six Black students were being jostled and repelled with snarling racial slurs by ringleaders of the mob. At one point, a Black student named Richard Lindsey recalled, someone in the crowd put a hand on the back of his neck. A voice behind him said, “I want to see how a… [N-word] feels.” The ruffian hostility succeeded in turning away the would-be new enrollees.

Was it Jones who grabbed the black student? No. Did he jostle the black students or yell racial slurs? No. But in the Post’s world, a 14-year-old boy should have shut down the mob and put those racists in their places.

It’s from the same playbook the Post used to attack Eric Clapton last year, for disagreeing with the lockdown and get quintuple vaxxed mindset of the leftist elites; both sound a bit too close to the rhetoric of Monty Python’s resident Mafioso characters Dino and Luigi Vercotti: “Nice career you have. Shame if something were to happen to it.”

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! A public speaking coach should be on Biden’s wish list.

The reason Biden is not tracking higher in the polls is in large measure due to his ineffective public speaking skills which strengthens the image that he is an old man who is not as sharp as he once was. Perception is reality.

I say this as a communications professional who has helped organizational leaders deliver effective and important speeches and presentations before friendly and unfriendly audiences. The ability to communicate with polished verbal and non-verbal public speaking skills is paramount to how an audience perceives you and if you are ineffective at delivering a message, the perception is more negative than positive.

While delivering remarks before a live audience or press conference, Biden is an ineffective communicator, often exhibiting garbled and mumbled words and malaprops, nonsensical utterances and grandpa-like colloquialisms. He has delivered confusing statements on the COVID pandemic, Taiwan and even seeking re-election, forcing his staff to issue statements of clarification. Reminiscences about his days as a child and his father saying, “Joey…” only reinforces his age. He recently asked an audience whether a member of Congress, who was killed in a tragic car accident, was actually in the audience: “Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie, ” Biden asked the stunned crowd.

Related: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Cryptophan Edition.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Biden Education Official Says Democracy—And Everything Else—Is White Supremacy.

“WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…:” Kanye’s Thanksgiving feast with Trump, Milo and Nick Fuentes.

While you were carving the turkey with your family last night, Kanye West was on Twitter, unveiling his 2024 masterplan.

On Thanksgiving night, the rapper posted a video titled “Mar-a-Lago debrief,” in which he said Donald Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” That would be the same Nick Fuentes who heads up the far-right incel-adjacent “groyper” movement, attended both the Charlottesville and January 6 protests (he was on the steps of the Capitol) and has spoken critically about the notion that America is a “Judeo-Christian” nation.

Also, like Milo Yiannopoulos, he’s now working on the Kanye 2024 campaign. With friends like these…

As Ed Morrissey writes, linking to Breitbart.com’s take on Trump’s Thanksgiving dinner with the toxic trio, “Here’s the big question: Will Republicans want to spend the next couple of years attempting to explain this away, or will they just prefer to opt for a candidate with better judgment? Breitbart is asking that question now, at least implicitly.”

THE MASK IS OFF: WEF’s Klaus Schwab declares China a ‘role model.’

SBF DROPS THE MASK: FTX CEO Mocked Gullible Media for Hyping His ‘Effective Altruism’ Shtick.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY, YOU KNOW: NASA scientist: humans will live and work on the moon by 2030.