Read it.

Elizabeth Warren’s baby has grown into a deformed mutant.

The recent security breach at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows the problems with the administrative state, but the threat that the CFPB and similar bureaucracies pose to consumers runs much deeper.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created under President Barack Obama in 2010 to regulate consumer affairs, reported to lawmakers March 21 that a staffer had forwarded the confidential financial information of 256, 000 consumers to his personal email address.

This astounding data breach also implicated confidential supervisory information from 45 different financial institutions.

No government employee is to be trusted with your confidential information.

Read it.

Yeah, pretty much.

It took a while, but some of the biggest “official narrative” scams and cons of the past few years are finally being exposed.

High-ranking US officials have apparently been lying about public health, election integrity, and (of course) war.

Read it.

Our leaders were able to successfully kick the can down the road for a long time, but now many of our long-term problems are becoming short-term problems, and the economic outlook for the remainder of 2023 is extremely bleak. But none of the economic hardships that we are experiencing at this moment should shock any of us. The truth is that we were warned about all of these things well ahead of time.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

On March 27, nearly a month ago, Audrey Hale murdered six people in a Nashville school before herself being killed by police. Like substantially all mass murderers, Hale was deeply troubled. Among other things, shortly before her rampage she decided that she was, or wanted to be, a man. Her murders came immediately before a national “Trans Day of Vengeance” that was promoted with violent imagery. And the trans movement has, in general, been radical and frequently violent.

After Hale’s death, Nashville authorities announced that she had left behind a number of writings including a “manifesto.” It is reasonable to assume that these writings would shed some light on her motivations. I wrote here about Hale’s manifesto and the reasons why it is likely to be of public interest, notwithstanding the fact that the ravings of mass murderers should normally be given little attention.

Mass shooters’ “manifestos” are normally published, especially when they can be used to put the “right wing” in a bad light. And at the time, Nashville authorities said that Hale’s manifesto would be made public after it had been analyzed by the FBI.

But it has yet to see the light of day.

What does it say that the Crust doesn’t want you to hear?

UPDATE: Nashville Official Says School Shooter’s Manifesto Is ‘Astronomically Dangerous’  To the Narrative, certainly.

ANU Climate Scientists Wargame UN Martial Law and A Global Military Coup

Steve Sailer.

Russian incompetence is such that in an era when every dimwitted black racist was being lauded, they managed to pick out the only ones nobody ever heard of. Of course, if Tim Cook was competing with Jamie Dimon to subsidize your anti-white grift, why take Putin’s money?

NewsMax.

The Supreme Court is deliberating a case that could address operations by local governments that confiscate land — a practice called “home-equity theft.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, the method of seizing the total value of land rather than just the amount the government is owed is currently legal in 12 states and Washington, D.C.

All blue states I expect.

The Register.

Other than the obvious one, incompetence.

I am always amused by the moves that show the CIA or the FBI using the latest and greatest tech in their operations, or military systems that are always cutting-edge and perfectly integrated. When I was in the Navy, we were lucky if the tech we maintained was only 20 years out of date.

Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow accidentally bombs own city of Belgorod (The Guardian)

Group of Senators and House Members Express Concern Over U.S. Aid to Ukraine (Senator Mike Lee)

House China Committee To War-Game A Chinese Invasion Of Taiwan

Ukraine Receives Its First Patriot Missile Defense Systems

NAVAL AIR: Chinese Carrier Task Force At Sea

Germany’s Foreign Minister: Parts of China Trip ‘More Than Shocking’

GOP Lawmakers: Endless Ukraine Aid “Will Only Prolong The Conflict”

United States Fails to Stop Chinese Invasion of Taiwan in Congressional War Simulation  Thank you, Joe Biden.

Manchin grills Granholm over ‘budget busting’ electric vehicle rules (Politico)

Biden’s new electric car rule puts the country on the wrong road (Washington Post)

White House Condemns Violent Response to Dylan Mulvaney’s Bud Light Can

The Useful Veneer of the Aging Democrat  Victor Davis Hanson.

ICE Deputy Director Proposes ‘Virtual’ Arrests As Immigration Backlog Balloons  Let’s tell the truth: ‘pretend’ arrests.

Hidden Hand: Biden Campaign Was Behind Intel Officials’ Letter Characterizing Hunter Biden Laptop as ‘Disinformation’

KJP Mumbles Her Way Through Qs on Hunter Biden, Debt Ceiling Fight

Of course Biden officials are interfering in his son’s case — why else has Hunter skated for five years? (N.Y. Post)

Biden Has Made Mexican Cartels ‘Very Wealthy,’ Border State AG Says  “Ten percent for the Big Guy!”

Ex-CIA chief spills on how he got spies to write false Hunter Biden laptop letter to ‘help Biden’ (N.Y. Post)

Blinken Busted: Played Central Role In Discrediting Hunter Biden Laptop Story As Election Loomed

Sorry, Pete — racism doesn’t cause traffic collisions (Washington Examiner)

Biden Admin Grant of $1.9M for ‘Disinformation’ Courses

WATCH: Karine Jean-Pierre Goes Off the Rails When Asked How Biden’s ‘Environmental Justice’ Order Helps East Palestine

Biden Set to Grade Military On Its ‘Efforts to Advance Environmental Justice’  More Wokery.

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 39)

Buttigieg Calls On DOT To Address Inequity By Using More Gay Crash Test Dummies (Babylon Bee)

Thousands of migrants still flooding over border from banned countries despite US warning (N.Y. Post)

Biden rule will redistribute high-risk loan costs to homeowners with good credit (Fox)

Homebuyers with good credit to pay higher mortgage rates (NewsNation)

Watchdog: US Money Could Flow to Taliban, Biden Stonewalling Probe

Rasmussen Poll: Majority Think Feds Provoked 1/6

State Dept. Violates House Subpoena on Afghanistan

DEA chief faces probe into ‘swampy’ hires, no-bid contracts (Associated Press)

CBS Reports on Hunter Biden Whistleblower Bombshell, ABC & NBC Ignore

Cruz: Yellen Complicit in Biden Cover-up

Opposing Porn in School Makes You Part of New ‘Uptown Klan,’ SPLC Researcher Says

CFPB Employee Sent 256,000 Consumers’ Financial Data To Personal Email

ICYMI: Doocy Exposes KJP, WH With Question About Contact With TN Shooting Victims

Can Biden Not Tell a Boy From a Girl?

ToPentagon Gives Statement On Russian T-90 Tank Left At Truck Stop

Germany Says It Delivered Patriot Missile Battery To Ukraine

Bradley Fighting Vehicles Have Arrived In Ukraine

Ukraine live war updates: ‘U.S. can cheat at any moment,’ Russian foreign minister says, claiming NATO’s expansion proves this (CNBC)

US warns Russia not to touch American nuclear technology at Ukrainian nuclear plant (CNN)

U.S. Urges NATO Vigilance For Signs Russia Could Use Nuclear Weapon In Ukraine (Radio Free Europe)

Taiwan To Buy 400 US Anti-Ship Missiles, Announced As China Conducts “Major” Military Drills

Russian Naval Exercises in Pacific Grate on Tokyo

Report: Moscow’s Starlink Takedown Efforts Advancing

Ukraine war: The Russian ships accused of North Sea sabotage (BBC)

3 Nuclear Superpowers, Rather Than 2, Usher In a New Strategic Era (N.Y. Times) I wouldn’t class Russia as a ‘superpower’, judging by its performance in Ukraine.

WaPo Belatedly Admits ‘Proxy War’ Nature Of Ukraine Conflict In Wake Of Leaks

How the CCP Is Embedding Itself in American Cities

China and Iran Carry Out Repression on US Soil With Growing Brazenness, FBI Says

Biden Admin OKs Additional $325M in Military Aid to Ukraine

Wall Street Journal.

An IRS supervisor has told lawmakers he has information that suggests the Biden administration is improperly handling the criminal investigation into President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and is seeking whistleblower protections, according to people familiar with the matter.

A letter sent to Congress on Tuesday says a career Internal Revenue Service criminal supervisory special agent has information that would contradict sworn testimony by a “senior political appointee.” The supervisor also has information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case,” according to the letter.

The supervisor has details that show “preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected,” according to the letter.

Read it.

According to data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, the federal tax agency), in 2019 the highest-earning 1.1% of American taxpayers—all with a taxable income of $500,000 or more—earned 21% of total taxable income. At the same time, they paid 40.4% of all personal federal income taxes. Since taxes on personal income account for 84% of all federal tax revenue, this very small segment of taxpayers pays 34.5% of all federal taxes in America.

Remember that the next time people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren bitch and moan about rich people not paying ‘their fair share’.

NewsBusters.

The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in Manhattan on April 17, a brief walk from the offices of the local District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who’s prosecuting former president Donald Trump. Chairman Jim Jordan and the Republicans said it was important to hear from violent crime victims in America’s largest city. The Democrats ardently proclaimed it was a pro-Trump stunt.

ABC, CBS, and NBC also showed an opinion. They ignored it, treated it like it didn’t exist. It wasn’t “news” at all.

This wasn’t a field hearing in Albuquerque, where they might claim it’s not worth the expense of sending reporters and crews. This was in their own home town, their own home borough.

“Public broadcasting?” NPR offered no story in its comically mis-titled evening newscast All Things Considered, but they did have time to glory in the defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The PBS NewsHour earned some kind of paper medal for at least offering a report, and both parties were included in the soundbites.’

At least the nation’s most prestigious (translation: liberal) newspapers would have to cover it. Actually, no! The Washington Post let democracy die in darkness, instead doing a big front-page story on the House Republicans on the debt ceiling debate.

Countries helping Russia in Ukraine will pay ‘high price’, vows G7 (EuroNews)

Japan: G7 foreign ministers discuss Ukraine war, Taiwan tension & Sudan (Al Jezeera)

‘No impunity’: G7 vows tough, unified stance on Russia’s war (Associated Press)

Read it.

On Twitter Miranda Devine draws attention to newly accessed financial records showing the Biden family enterprise centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, with six more family members named — and then there were 9. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has posted the related press release.

VOTE DEMOCRAT — THEY NEED THE MONEY

Read it.

The StarChase Guardian-HX uses the lower receiver from an AR-15 rifle and launches adhesive-tipped GPS trackers to allow cops to track a vehicle remotely.

I’m surprised that it took them this long to think of something like this.

Of course, a 40mm grenade launcher would take care of it immediately.

Lifehacker.

The new law, called the FASTER Act, took effect as of Jan. 1, 2023. Shortly before that, an industry publication called Food Manufacturing reported that many manufacturers see the new requirements as “not simple or practical.” If the ingredients of a product don’t include sesame, the maker is required to take steps to make sure that sesame stays away from the product.

Labels that indicate the item is processed in the same facility as sesame-containing foods aren’t enough to protect the company from recalls if some sesame were to find its way into the product.

Quite naturally, rather than undergo the tedious and expensive required process to clean machinery of any possible trace of sesame before using it for food that normally doesn’t contain sesame, they just added trace amounts of sesame to all of their foods, therefore saving themselves a lot of government-mandated trouble and expense. The government, of course, didn’t see this coming.

So now people who are allergic to sesame face an incredibly constricted selection of foods, compared to before. “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.” Thanks a lot, guys.

Read it.

There’s an idea about how children learn to read that’s held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It’s an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn’t true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Steve Sailer speaks sense to senility.

The Biden Administration wants to mandate that 67% of all new cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks sold in the U.S. in 2032 will be electric (only) vehicles.

…

It’s worth remember that we have had for the last 20 years a proven technology for using less gasoline without all the annoyance and anxiety of being dependent on recharging frequently rather than filling up once a week for ten minutes: the hybrid.

Exactly so. I would never buy an all-electric car–the disadvantages are just too great–but I can’t see myself buying a non-hybrid car in the future–the advantages are just too great, and the prices have come down so much that any premium charged over an all-gas car is trivial.

Trust the government to do the wrong thing when the right thing is staring them in the face.

Biden all but admits we’ll see even worse border chaos in May (N.Y. Post)

George Soros’ army of lieutenants get easy access to Biden White House (N.Y. Post)

Trump: It’s Biden ‘Guilty of Obstruction,’ Not Me

Biden Admin on Doc Leak: More Surveillance Needed (NewsMax)  Something’s wrong? We need more fascism!

Fleitz to Newsmax: Leaks Reveal White House ‘Lying to Us’  Who didn’t know that? Biden never opens his mouth but he tells a lie, and usually a stupidly obvious lie.

Biden’s New Muslim Liaison to Fight ‘Institutional Islamophobia’  How about Muslim terrorism? (cricket)…(cricket)…(cricket)….

Annals of senescence

Ukraine live briefing: 11 dead, including toddler, in Russian strike; Blinken calls for ‘immediate release’ of WSJ reporter (Washington P0st)

Pentagon leaks paint gloomy picture of long Ukraine war that can’t be won but must not be lost (CNA)

Germany Approves Poland’s Request To Send 5 Fighter Jets To Ukraine

Finland Unveils 1st Section Of Russian Border Fence After Joining NATO

Ukraine Awaits US Missile System after Latest Russian Strike

ATTRITION: Medical Miracles For the Battlefield and Playground

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 38)

Drunk Irishmen Say They Understood Biden’s Dublin Speech Perfectly (Babylon Bee)

Joe Biden mocked after Hunter has to explain child’s question in Ireland: ‘I am so embarrassed for my country’ (Fox)

Joe Biden snubbed by Irish president’s dog during Dublin visit (Guardian News)

Biden confuses All Blacks rugby team with brutal police force (CNN)

Up to 40,000 migrants amass at border as end of Title 42 looms: sources (N.Y. Post)

Biden’s slimy dodge on mass intel leak ignores huge damage to nation (N.Y. Post)

Biden wants to coax Americans into electric cars. These 3 groups have other ideas. (Politico) No, he wants to FORCE Americans into electric cars. There’s a significant difference.

VP Harris Slams Mifepristone Ruling

Lady Gaga, Shonda Rhimes and More Named to Restored Arts Commission (N.Y. Times) More sinecures for left-wing drones at taxpayer expense.

The Biden 10-Step Plan For Global Chaos

Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan FMs Hold Meeting To Deal With Afghan Economic Collapse

Migrants say Border Patrol is keeping them between the border walls for days without food or shelter (San Diego Union-Tribune) Presumably they could go back to Mexico if they asked.

Ex-Biden official Sam Brinton accepts plea deal in Las Vegas luggage theft (N.Y. Post)

EPA Uses Shaky Science to Snag New Powers to Regulate You More

Biden, the American president, seems awfully at home in Ireland (Washington P0st) Or, indeed, anywhere but America.

“Joe Biden Is A Criminal” Says Ex-Obama Whistleblower Alleging Family “Kickback Scheme”

Gag Me With A Shamrock! Joe Scarborough Gushes Over Biden’s Ireland Trip

Uncle Joe has a car you can’t refuse (Washington Examiner)

HUH? Bloomberg Opinion Writers Blame GREED, Not Massive Spending, for Biden’s Inflation

The Biden 10-step Plan for Global Chaos  (Victor Davis Hanson)

Biden to nominate two Latina judges to appeals courts (NBC News) Key qualification: Latina!

Was Emperor Biden’s Electric Vehicle Decree Concocted by Leprechauns?

Report: Biden Admin Accepting 99 Percent of Illegal Immigrants’ Title 42 Appeals  Their objective is not to keep people out but to let people in.

Washington Post.

Scouring the labels of what their children had eaten, both mothers were horrified to discover that sesame was now listed as an ingredient in the cheeseburger, the bread and other baked products that had previously been sesame-free. “I’d been unknowingly poisoning [Mia] for several weeks,” said McDermott, who lives in Philadelphia.
What happened? On Jan. 1, a law intended to safeguard the more than 1.5 million Americans with a sesame allergy — including the McDermott and Tibbs children (and, full disclosure, my son as well) — took effect. The law mandates, among other things, careful cleaning to prevent cross-contact between food products with and without sesame.
In a twist few would have expected, however, many food companies have chosen to add small amounts of sesame flour to products that were previously sesame-free, instead of conducting the careful cleaning required for foods without sesame.
The result? Foods that sesame-allergic kids and adults have eaten safely for years are now potentially life-threatening.

Proglodyte regulators always believe that people will just comply with their rules and not figure out a way around them. That old Law of Unintended Consequences bites people–other than the regulators, of course–on the butt again.

Washington Free Beacon.

Democrats and liberal pundits want Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) to resign immediately. She’s absurdly old (89), cognitively impaired, and her frequent health problems are preventing the U.S. Senate from confirming President Joe Biden’s extreme left-wing judicial nominees.

Feinstein’s critics already bullied her out of running for reelection in 2024. That’s a good thing. We don’t need a bunch of doddering octogenarians in charge of the world’s most powerful country.

Alas, many of the same people who want Feinstein gone are going to spend the next year and a half insisting that Biden, 80, deserves another term as president.

The American Mind.

Yesterday National Public Radio (NPR) announced that it is leaving Twitter, after the platform “falsely labeled” it as “state-affiliated media.” This is the “the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries,” the indignant NPR huffed. Twitter CEO Elon Musk had the label changed to “government funded,” but this was still too much for NPR, which claims that—while it does receive government funds—such a label would tarnish its “credibility” and could somehow even “endanger journalists.”

Meanwhile the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also throwing a hissy fit over being pasted with the same label, saying it “is, and always has been, independent,” and is merely “funded by the British public.” Also complaining is Voice of America (VOA), which, despite literally being run by an arm of the U.S. federal government, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, claims that, “The label ‘government funded’ is potentially misleading and could be construed as also ‘government-controlled’—which VOA is most certainly not.”

Each outlet claims it maintains “editorial independence” from the state despite receiving government funding, and so doesn’t deserve to be called “state-affiliated.” Regardless of what you think of Musk or Twitter, this is absurd. Let’s leave aside VOA, which was literally founded to conduct information warfare abroad on behalf of the United States, first in WWII and then during the Cold War, and is therefore so obviously state-affiliated that its claims otherwise are not really worth addressing. The BBC and NPR are only marginally less obvious in being state media.

Read it.

The United States, under the leadership of President Joe Biden, has launched a hard diplomatic offensive against Hungary, with the U.S. Embassy in Budapest—headed by Ambassador David Pressman—funding a nationwide billboard campaign that seeks to undermine the Hungarian government’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian war.

News of the Washington-financed billboard campaign comes amid dismally poor—and seemingly ever-deteriorating—relations between the two countries and alongside media reports that U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who is holding a press conference this afternoon, April 12th, is expected to announce the U.S.’ plan to take punitive measures against the Hungarian government.

Citing several independent diplomatic sources, the Hungarian opposition news portal 444 wrote that the Biden administration is planning to take new measures in order to punish the Hungarian government for its position on the Russo-Ukrainian war. The news site suggests the sanctions—similar to those leveled against Hungary in 2014—are likely to be imposed on influential people.

UPDATE: The American Deal With a Hungarian Devil

Read it.

The New York Times reported that the Biden administration will abuse EPA regulations to eliminate most real car sales by 2030. The plan is to force 67% of car sales to be electric by 2032. Most Americans won’t be able to afford them, but they’ll have no other options.

Even the cheapest electric cars, which are still far more expensive than their real car counterparts and are just one battery problem away from turning into mostly unusable junk, are out of the price range of the majority of Americans who need an income of $80,000 to make an EV auto loan work. That’s fine in Washington D.C. where the median income of $83,567 is the highest in the nation, but will entirely price much of the country out of the new car market.

Maine city reopens arena to hundreds of asylum seekers (Associated Press)

Portland once again opens Expo as temporary shelter as asylum seekers flow into city (Portland Press-Herald)

Democrats Push Pete Buttigieg To Address ‘Racist Traffic Enforcement’

FBI Hatched Plan To Surveil Catholics, Weaponization Committee Says

Basement Biden 2.0? White House Courts TikTok Influencers Despite National Security Risk

Three Hunter Biden Paintings On Display At SoHo Gallery For $85,000 Each  Thinly-disguised bribery.

Why Did Alex Soros Visit The Biden White House 14 Times?  Checking up on how his money is being spent?

America First Legal’s Investigation Reveals the Biden White House Was Involved With the Mar-a-Lago Raid and that NARA Misled Congress; AFL Launches Additional Investigation  My, what a surprise.

ICYMI: KJP Flails When Journos Point Out the WH Is Hiding Biden From Press Conferences

Hunter Biden Associates’ 80 White House Visits Evidence ‘Biden Family Enterprise Centered Around Joe Biden’

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

American Experiment’s Bill Glahn has done a detailed analysis of campaign finance in Minnesota’s 2022 election cycle. He provided links to his findings here. In this Twitter thread, he sums up his thoughts about the structural advantages that Democrats enjoy in Minnesota, and, to one degree or another, across much of the United States. If you sometimes wonder how a party whose ideas are so awful can remain electorally competitive, this helps answer the question.

The 800-pound gorilla is, of course, the government-employee unions, starting with the teachers and working your way up.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Terminates Catholic Pastoral Care Contract During Holy Week

GOP: Biden Afghanistan Report ‘Spineless Piece of Fiction’

CNN Admits Less Than One Third Of Voters Want Another Joe Biden Term

Biden Seeks to Back Drugstores, Big Pharma in Promoting Abortion Pills Of course he does.

Biden Invites Expelled Tennessee Democrats To Visit White House  Promoting insurrrection! He ought to be impeached for that.

Health Secretary Says “Everything Is on the Table” to Protect Abortion Pill Access (Mother Jones) Killing unborn children is apparently very important to him.

White House plans support for drugstores, pharma in abortion pill battle (Reuters) Killing unborn children is apparently very important to them.

Read it.

Over a million children left public schools in 2020, a migration that came on the heels of school lockdowns and masking requirements, and was hastened by increased parental dissatisfaction with K-12 education.

Kamala Harris meets with Tennessee lawmakers expelled over mass shooting protest (CBS News) Encouraging insurrection! Shouldn’t she get impeached for that?

CBS reporter rips Biden administration’s Afghanistan report as a ‘whitewash’ of the botched withdrawal

Afghanistan evacuations should have begun sooner, US admits (CNN)

US to test expedited asylum screenings at Mexico border

Biden Appeals Ruling Against Ban on Gun Bump Stocks

Trump Says White House Blame Over Afghanistan Withdrawal A ‘Disinformation Game’

Harris Backs Expelled Tenn. Lawmakers, Chides GOP  (NewsMax) Encouraging insurrection! Shouldn’t she be impeached for that?

Statement from President Joe Biden on Decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA (WhiteHouse.gov)

Federal Housing Administration greenlights 40-year mortgages

Due To Inflation, Easter Bunny Forced To Hide Ramen Noodles In Yard (Babylon Bee)

AOC to Biden: ‘Ignore’ Abortion Pill Ruling  After all, laws don’t apply to Democrats!

Biden’s green war created this billions-dollar tax on all of us (Fox)

How Joe Biden’s oil bet went sideways (Quartz)

Biden at his weakest after Saudi oil power grab (The Telegraph)

Biden’s Ineffectual Energy Play Sticks Americans with the Bill (Newsweek)

Biden Administration Blames Trump for Disastrous 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal (Daily Beast)

Sarah Sanders hits back after Karine Jean-Pierre says ‘a child’ and parents should decide on trans surgeries (Fox)

Probe widens into federal watchdog over missing Jan. 6 Secret Service texts (Washington Post)

White House pulls its punches over GOP judicial nomination blockade (Politico)

‘Disgraceful’: Foreign Affairs Chair Rips WH’s Deflecting Afghan Exit Blame to Trump

White House deflects criticism of Biden’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal (The Hill)

Former Biden Aide’s Testimony ‘Undermines’ White House Narrative On Classified Docs: Comer

Statement from President Joe Biden on Expulsion of Tennessee Lawmakers for Acting on Gun Safety (WhiteHouse.gov) Except that they weren’t expelled for ‘acting on gun safety’, they were expelled for blatantly violating the rules of the house by helping to disrupt proceedings. Lies, lies, lies….

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 37)

Beyond Baghdad Bob (Power Line)

Biden Slams ‘Unprecedented’ Expulsion Of ‘Disorderly’ Democrats From Tennessee House

3 Days After Hunter Biden Joined Burisma Board, VP Biden Pushed for Fracking in Ukraine

Raytheon Unveils New Dylan Mulvaney-Branded Patriot Missile  (Babylon Bee)

Aspen Institute conducted ‘pre-bunk’ of Hunter Biden laptop story in June 2020

Read it.

A front page news article in today’s New York Times refers to “President Biden’s economic agenda, which aims to reduce the nation’s $7 trillion of uncollected tax revenue and use the funds to combat climate change, curb prescription drug prices and pay for other initiatives prized by Democrats.”

The phrase “$7 trillion of uncollected tax revenue” was a new one to me. What you and I think of as “private property,” Biden and the New York Times refer to as “uncollected tax revenue.”

Treasury Secretary Yellen is out talking about this “$7 trillion” number publicly. On April 4, she said, “Absent our new investment in the IRS, the tax gap – the gap between taxes owed and those actually paid – was estimated at around $7 trillion over the next decade.”

…

I thought maybe $7 trillion was a typo or a Times error, but it comes straight from the Biden administration Treasury Department, which claims that “wealthy taxpayers…are often able to avoid a large share of the taxes they owe” via “opaque income sources that accrue disproportionately to higher earners—like partnership income, proprietorship income, and rental income.”

The Biden Treasury attributes the fantastical estimates about vast sums available for extraction (“noncompliance can reach 55 percent”) to “academic researchers.”

Yet the two papers cited by the Treasury are sketchy. Neither one was been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal. The lead author of one paper is an associate professor at the University of South Carolina; the article was published in Tax Notes, a “nonprofit” that is behind a paywall with a subscription pricing structure that could teach high earners something about opacity. If Treasury want to rely on this research for the claim that there is $7 trillion in “uncollected tax revenue” out for the picking, let Treasury make a non-paywalled copy of the research available to the public for inspection.

Biden admin slammed for ‘breathtaking’ proposal slashing dairy access for low-income moms, kids (Fox)

LAME: Journo Asks KJP to Defend NPR After Twitter Labels It ‘State-Affiliated Media’

At least two Republican DAs want to prosecute Bidens: Rep. James Comer (N.Y. Post)

Hola, Homosaurus: Biden Admin Shells Out Six Figures To Translate Gay Dictionary Into Spanish

Why Are Underage Central Americans in US Factories?

Small Businesses File For Bankruptcy At Record Pace, Surpassing COVID Crash

Air Force Loosens Standards To Make Room for Overweight Recruits

Biden review of chaotic Afghan withdrawal blames Trump (Associated Press)

A once reluctant Harris embraces her biracial identity in Africa (L.A. Times) Pandering–it’s not just for race hustlers any more.

Biden Report Blames Trump for Afghanistan Withdrawal Chaos  Of course.

DoD Official Testifies That The Military Must Be A ‘Safe Space’ For The Non-Binary

The Biden connection

Probe widens into federal watchdog over missing Jan. 6 Secret Service texts (Washington Post)

Cartels, Not US Government, Are ‘Choosing Who Enters This County,’ Sen. Sinema Says

Biden Admin Finally Offers Explanation for Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal: It Was Trump’s Fault

Biden Rule Would Bar Full Ban on Trans Athletes, but Allow Exceptions

Biden Admin Unveils New Rules Requiring Inclusion of Transgender Athletes

Read it.

The Usual Suspects, of course, are all up in arms. There is much huffing and puffing about ‘democracy’, as if a vote by the elected representatives of the people is somehow ‘undemocratic’. Apparently proglodytes are so accustomed to not being held accounting for violations of the rules that they consider it an unwarranted imposition to be expected to obey the same rules to whom every one else is subject.

What surprises me is that Republican state legislators in Tennessee actually had the balls to enforce the rules.

Be black, or female, or a foreigner.

Andy McCarthy.

It’s always possible to be surprised. The indictment brought by Manhattan’s elected Democratic district attorney Alvin Bragg against Donald Trump is even worse than I’d imagined.

Bragg’s indictment fails to state a crime. Not once . . . but 34 times. On that ground alone, the case should be dismissed — before one ever gets to the facts that the statute of limitations has lapsed and that Bragg has no jurisdiction to enforce federal law (if that’s what he’s trying to do, which remains murky).

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

You can read Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Donald Trump and a supporting statement of facts here. The indictment is what we expected. It all has to do with paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels for a non-disclosure agreement, which was legal. The payment was made by “Lawyer A,” Michael Cohen. Trump reimbursed Cohen using Trump’s own money, which was legal. The “34 counts” arise out of the fact that by agreement, Cohen got reimbursed by sending monthly invoices to Trump or his revocable trust. So for each monthly bill from Cohen, we get three counts of falsifying documents: one for the invoice, one for the ledger entry, and one for the check stub. Pathetic.

The indictment alleges that all of this was done “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof,” but it never says what that other crime was. The second crime is mandatory because without it, falsifying a business record under New York law is a misdemeanor on which the statute of limitation has run. Presumably the second crime is alleged to be a campaign finance violation. But the payment to Daniels did not violate the campaign finance laws.

Biden accidentally drops, then awkwardly picks up challenge coin (N.Y. Post) Don’t know what a challenge coin is?

U.S. Diplomat to Washington: You’re Becoming Obsolete in One Big Area of Tech Policy (Politico)

Biden’s War on Christian Kids: Potatoes Replace Easter Eggs as Families Hit With Soaring Costs

US Manufacturing Reaches New Low as Biden Tours American Factories

Fact-Checking 4 Biden Claims About Economy and Manufacturing

Jill Biden Goes Full Karen, Demands Affirmative Action for White Basketball Players

Chase CEO: Biden’s Electric Vehicle Push Could Benefit Beijing and Imperil US National Security

Swiss Billionaire Bankrolls Biden Agenda With $63 Million in Dark Money

Read it.

Scandal-scarred Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., has his first primary challenger — war veteran Kellen Curry.

Curry, who went on two tours in Afghanistan and served as a vice president at JPMorgan, vowed to “restore honesty and integrity back to our congressional representation,” alluding to Santos’ sketchy background claims.

All of the complaints about Santos have been in reference to his life before he was elected to Congress; there has been no hint of any allegation that he’s not doing his job just as well as, say, Nancy Pelosi or Adam Schiff do theirs.

Did I live in Santos’ district, I’d be tempted to vote for him just for the entertainment value.

Read it.

Indictment.

Statement of Facts.

Read it.

Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future fraud is astounding. When it comes to Covid fraud, we’re number 1. The fraud is massive and the indictments are still coming.

Biden admin moving forward with light bulb bans in coming weeks

Judge shields Hunter Biden’s finances from public in child-support case (N.Y. Post)

An app launched to make seeking asylum simpler has left migrants even more precarious (NPR)

Has The White House Even Said The Word ‘Christian’ Since The Nashville School Shooting? (Daily Wire)

Insider: Biden Deemed ‘Too Old’ to Attend King Charles’ Coronation

DHS OIG finds millions in American Rescue Plan funds misused by NGOs, given to ‘gotaway’ illegal immigrants

A deadline looms for rules governing deep-sea mining, but a rushed decision may be risky (CNBC)

Biden to Hunter-linked clergyman at Greek independence event: ‘I’m gonna ruin your reputation by talking’ (N.Y. Post)

Conservatives call for charges against Biden after Trump indictment (N.Y. Post)

Biden And Harris Will Not Be On The 2024 Presidential Ticket — Here’s Why (Forbes)

Florida grand jury accuses Biden HHS of ‘complete abdication of responsibility’ for migrant children welfare (Fox)

‘Human trafficking’: Florida grand jury blasts federal immigration policy (Tampa Bay Times)

Pentagon Critics Blame Diversity Policies and Fitness Standards for Recruiting Woes

Mayorkas: ‘Extraordinary’ Number of Migrants

House Republicans Say Homeland Security Chief’s $60 Billion Budget Concedes Border Cannot Be Secured

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

It is hard to single out the most egregious demagogue in the U.S. Senate, but near or at the top of my list is Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He likes to blast “dark money” even though Democrats by far receive more so-called “dark money” than conservatives or Republicans. (I’m updating my periodic Lexicon of Political Terms accordingly, to reflect that “dark money” means “donations from the private sector that supports ideas or causes the left doesn’t like.”) Whitehouse in particular likes to attack the Federalist Society as some kind of “cabal” or conspiracy to transform the federal judiciary, as if there were no issues whatsover that any decent person could possibly argue over. He never deigns to argue about anything. If it were up to Whitehouse, I suspect he’d censor or outlaw the Federalist Society. Fortunately he’s just another Senate blowhard.

Ditto for climate change. Earlier this week Whitehouse chaired a Senate committee hearing on the subject “Left Holding the Bag: The Cost of Oil Dependence in a Low-Carbon World.” It was a set up to denounced fossil fuels, of course, with the witness lineup tilted three to two in favor of the climatista party line. The primary dissenting Republican witness was our pal Ben Zycher of the American Enterprise Institute, who has actually appeared here on Power Line under the pseudonym “Comrade Molotov.” (And now you know. . .)

U.S. Dept. of State

Following recent Russian military actions in Ukraine, U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via limited commercial options still available. Please visit travel.state.gov for the latest information on departure options.

1K migrants surrender to Border Patrol along El Paso Border Highway (KFOX-TV)

White House dodges question on whether ‘assault weapons’ ban will lead to ‘confiscation’ (Fox)

Jean-Pierre: ‘Unacceptable’ for Republicans to say there’s nothing to be done on gun violence (The Hill) Which ‘Republican’s don’t say.

Fentanyl is ‘single greatest challenge’ U.S. faces, DHS secretary says (Washington Post) More than war in Ukraine? More than immigration? More than inflation? More than recession?

US Marshals were told not to arrest protesters at Supreme Court justices’ homes ‘unless absolutely necessary’ (Fox)

US Marshals told ‘not’ to arrest abortion protesters at SCOTUS justices’ homes (N.Y. Post)

More Chinese migrants are coming to the U.S. on foot, officials say (NBC News)

Inside the boom in Chinese migrants at the southern border (Axios)

John Kerry Says New Climate Change Executive Orders Are Coming  Hey, he’s got to do something to justify his no-show government job.

DOJ Memos Dissuaded Marshals From Arresting Protestors At SCOTUS Justices’ Homes: Sen. Britt

Lloyd Austin: No Regrets on Afghanistan Pullout  “It’s not my goddamned planet, monkey boy!”

Northern Border Sees Overwhelming Surge Of Illegal Immigrants

Want To Help Disabled Tajikistanis Fight Climate Change? Biden Could Pay You $1 Million for Your Advice.

NHL Evaluating ‘Pride Night’ as More Players Opt Out

US Revises 4Q GDP Down to 2.6%

Top US Counties See Immigration Rates Triple

TSMC may not expand in US if double taxation rule continues

Biden Would Veto GOP Bill Blocking D.C. Police Reform

How Bidenflation Was Made

Biden’s New Border Crisis: A Surge of Illegal Immigrants From China

Days After Nashville Shooting, Biden Condemns ‘Violence Against Transgender Women’

Immigration Tripled in Top U.S. Counties Even as Many of Them Lost Population (N.Y. Times)

Biden Administration Is Gearing Up to Pay Reparations