NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.
BBQ Running Haiti
The man running Haiti goes by his nickname “Barbecue,” which is reassuring considering his gang released 4,000 of the country’s worst criminals into the lawless nation, and he will likely gain control of the military and its weapons.
Why it matters:
- Haitians coming by boat and across the southern border have strong claims for asylum, but there is no way to vet them.
- Stand by for a literal flood of Haitians. Many will be escaping violence; many will be coming to America to commit violence.
- Millions of Americans vacation every year in the Dominican Republic, the other half of the island.
- Despite billions upon billions poured into Haiti, it remains a completely failed state only a 90-minute flight from Miami, Florida.
But nobody cares:
- Like Gaza:
- A violent gang of terrorists runs the country
- Millions face starvation
- The world won’t let anybody leave Haiti
- Unlike Gaza:
- You can’t blame Israel. Thus, nobody cares.
Newsweek reports the U.S. Navy is looking to send ships to deter the mass flotilla of Haitians.
Watch tonight: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has long warned about a failed state in Haiti, says the United States and its military are horribly unprepared for the influx of immigrants.
Still on the Payroll
Yikes! Savings.com reports nearly 50% of parents support their adult children financially.
- The data itself is stunning. It’s worth a read and speaks to the 20% or so increase in cost of essentials (food, shelter, energy, transportation, insurance, etc.) since the pandemic.
- But it also speaks to a generation obsessed with social media and unwilling to live within their means.
- There is a ticking time bomb.
- Savings.com reports the average contribution to kids of “$1,384 per month, or nearly $17,000 per year, is no small sum. This is money that parents could be spending on their own expenses, vacations, and contributing to retirement. In fact, it appears that helping their kids is visibly harming their retirement savings. Non-retired parents still in the workforce contributed even more to their adult children, at an average of $1,476 monthly.”
Thought bubble: If parents can afford to give their kids all this money, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump must have had good economies in their presidencies.
Double crisis: Not only will adult children never learn to budget, but their parents are one job loss or recession away from not having enough retirement savings.
Honest question: How soft can successive generations of Americans become before an unstoppable weakening begins?
What’s Happening in Missouri?
Police in St. Louis say they don’t have a suspect in the stabbing and murder of a 14-year-old boy outside of school.
According to residents, fights outside school are normal, like the fight that left a 15-year-old girl severely brain-damaged a few miles away in Hazelwood. As we reported last night, the school wrote that off as “bullying.”
- The New York Post gives heartbreaking details on the condition of Kaylee’s fight for her life.
Zoom out: Somehow, our schools turned into fight clubs.
- Yes, social media contributed to it.
- BUT there are some much darker forces at work, including the Black Lives Matter and defund the police movements that vilified law enforcement and scared schools into NOT enforcing basic rules.
- Suddenly, school resource officers are racist
- Meritocracy is racist
- Bullies can’t be punished
- Violent kids can’t be suspended
- Jennings, Missouri, for example, is 90% Black and not far from Ferguson, which was ground zero of the movement to defund the police and Black Lives Matter.
- Simple question: In the ten years since Ferguson, are young black men more or less likely to die violently?
Watch tonight: Tim Fitch, former St. Louis County police chief and now member of the county council on how to protect the most vulnerable among us, namely young Black men.
There Is Hope
Part of the problem of victim culture is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
- Low expectations should have applied to Rob Henderson…
George Will’s recent Washington Post columns introduced us to Henderson:
- Will writes, “Having lived as a baby in his drug-addicted mother’s car, and having been shuttled between nine families before his eighth birthday, Rob Henderson, now 34, was a troubled boy who could have become a troubled adult. Instead, he became a Yale graduate earning a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.”
Henderson found discipline, hope, the military and so much more. He joins us tonight with the way out and why those who say they care so much about America’s youth won’t talk about it.
The Missing Princess
Princess of Wales Kate Middleton’s Photoshop failure is only about a fourth of the story — the real failure is that it only increased questions about where Kate has been.
- The proof-of-life plan backfired, and suddenly, the world wants to know where Kate Middleton is. And how could the palace, for all its power, screw things up so badly?
Watch The Daily Show explain how nobody cared about Kate’s absence until they released the photo. They claimed she did it herself?
- Thought bubble: The royals’ arrogance got them again. They honestly believe the press will never question them — welcome to the big leagues.
What we know:
- Three months ago, she underwent a medical procedure and still can’t be seen publicly — what happened?
Zoom out:
- This is so unroyal and so much more like the Kardashians.
- Once you become defined by SNL, memes or The Daily Show, it’s impossible to get it back.
It’s Not a TikTok Ban
The House passed a bill demanding China sell its interest in TikTok or face a ban on the app that over a third of Americans use.
- China calls it “bullying.” It takes one to know one.
- TikTok calls it a “ban,” which it’s not, but China and TikTok are good at marketing and want to scare people who love TikTok.
- China bans many foreign social media. Why is America banning Chinese-owned social media so offensive?
Zoom out: There are a LOT of bad things China does in America that Congress either can’t or won’t deal with:
- Buying U.S. farmland
- Buying U.S. companies and food producers
- The vast theft of not only defense secrets like plans for the F-22 and F-35 but massive theft of American intellectual property that they recreate
- Confucius Institutes on college campuses to peddle the “Chinese” story
- Honeytrap operations like the Fang Fang scandal that entrapped Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. He denies wrongdoing
- The Chinese “police stations” operating in America to surveil, threaten and harass the Chinese in America
- The list is literally endless
TikTok and its owners have spent millions in political contributions, lobbying and advertising to tell the story of small businesses and others that rely on the app.
- Spare me. Jeff Yass is one of the biggest donors to Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who we had on “On Balance” last night. During the segment, Paul equated America’s demand for American control of TikTok with China’s ban on foreign social media.
- Bottom line: It’s not just China’s data access and theft; control of TikTok gives China control of one of the primary news sources for a third of America.
- They already use that control to foment discord in America, and it will continue.
Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.