Trump plays the inside game to stave off ’16-like convention chaos (Politico) After years in business, Trump became an experience businessman–apparently, after years in politics, Trump is becoming an experienced politician. Shocking.

Call It Trump’s Coup Attempt, Because It Damned Well Was (Huffington Post) Narrative red in lie and smear.

Jamie Raskin Says Jack Smith Could Conceivably Charge Trump With Seditious Conspiracy (PoliticusUSA) The cloth cap covers the tinfoil.

Eric Adams blasts FEMA for limited asylum-seeker funds, will move migrants out of NYC (N.Y. Post)

NYC sending migrants to upstate county ‘not equipped to handle’ influx (Fox)

Suburbs pushback on mayor’s plans to bus asylum seekers north of NYC (CBS New York)

NYC to get $30.5M in federal migrant crisis funds, far less than $350M Adams admin requested (AMNY)

To protect democracy from machines, Congress must modernize our constitutional right to petition (The Hill)

Tennis Legend Martina Navratilova: “Women’s Sports Is Not The Place For Trans Athletes”

Science? Pro-Trans NPR Flunks Basic Biology, Decries Use of Terms ‘Gametes,’ ‘Ova’

Majority Of Germans Say Migrants Bring More Problems Than Benefits, Want Limit On Refugees Imagine that.

‘Just Brutal’: ABC Stunned by Biden Getting Clobbered by Trump in Poll

Will Democrats Die on the Trans Hill?

Goodbye Climate Alarmism: The Age of AI Alarmism Has Begun

Russian Tank With ‘Cope Cage’ Covered In Explosive Reactive Armor Emerges  Obviously a defense against Javelin and similar ATMs.

Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv Claims Patriot Intercepted Kinzhal Air-Launched Ballistic Missile

Digital Fentanyl: The CCP’s Cyber Campaign To Destroy America

Rebrand of the Rebrand: MAGA Oz Pivots Back to Being Dr. Oz (Daily Beast)

ABC: Tucker Carlson Promoted ‘Racist Views’ as Voice for ‘White Supremacy’  It’s all they’ve got, so it’s what they use, even though it’s obvious nonsense.

Senate Judiciary chair says ‘everything is on the table’ in response to Clarence Thomas revelations (CNN) Presumably including lynching Clarence Thomas from a lamp-post in front of the Capitol.

The Sotomayor exception  Rules are for thee but not for me.

The Gun Industry Wants America’s Malls and Schools to Be War Zones (The New Republic) Obvious nonsense.

A California panel has called for billions in reparations for black residents (NPR) Except that California wasn’t a slave state.

Activists demand higher payments from California reparations task force: ‘$200 million’ per person (Fox)

A reparations task force begins historic vote (CBS Sacramento)

California task force OKs reparations plan that could cost state $800B (N.Y. Post)

America’s First Black President Left A Legacy Of Slavery

California Reparations: O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby to Finally Get Their Just Deserts

Detroit: Bankrupt Black City to Pay Reparations to Itself

8 Killed, 7 Wounded In Mass Shooting At Texas Mall – Cop Kills Gunman Another crazy white supremacist? “Investigators on the scene asked for a translator to assist with their questioning.” (Texas Mall Shooter Identified as Mauricio Garcia, 33)

Elon Musk: Why Does The Media Misrepresent Interracial Crime Stats “To Such An Extreme Degree”?

There is no case for reparations (The Spectator)

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

There is no way Joe Biden can make it to election day next year. His growing incapacity to function is becoming more obvious by the day.

Read it.

On Thursday, May 4th, Belgian police arrested seven individuals suspected of preparing for a terrorist attack. As reported by several Belgian media outlets, the suspects have been described as “fervent” acolytes of the jihadist group, the Islamic State (IS).

Of the seven, four are Chechen by birth while three are Belgian citizens. They were apprehended during a series of raids in Ghent and the West Flanders region.

All are in their 20s and are still being interrogated; they face charges of participating in terrorist group activities and preparing a terrorist attack.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Read it.

During a peak of violent crime in New York City, ordinary guy Bernhard Goetz made international headlines when he defended himself from an attempted mugging in a subway car by shooting his four attackers. He became known as the “Subway Vigilante.”

In 1981, Bernhard Goetz was one of many New Yorkers to fall prey to violent crime. He had been beaten and mugged by three assailants, none of whom were successfully prosecuted, and like many New Yorkers, he was tired of living in fear of being attacked. Unlike most, he was prepared when it came—with a five-shot .38 revolver and plenty of practice using it.

While on his afternoon subway commute in December of 1984, four youths assumed threatening positions around him—isolating him near the back of the car—and he quickly mapped out a rapid pattern of fire. One of the young men, Troy Canty, said, “Give me five dollars.” Some details of what happened next are in dispute, but the following is agreed upon.

Ukraine Situation Report: Russia Rains Incendiaries On Bakhmut

US-Russia On Verge Of “Open Armed Conflict” After Kremlin Drone Attack: Foreign Ministry

Jake Sullivan: Israel Has Freedom to Act on Iran Nuclear Threat

Watch: Fist-Fight Breaks Out Between Russian & Ukrainian Diplomats At Conference

Offshore Wind Anyone? NATO Claims Russia has MINED Undersea Pipes and Cables

ARMOR: Iran Reveals a New Retro-Tech ATGM

Navy’s Growing Shortfalls on Ship Readiness Frustrate the Marine Corps

Ukraine downs Russian hypersonic missile with US Patriot

New York City mayor announces plan to transport willing migrants to locations outside the city ahead of expected surge (CNN)

Suburbs pushback on mayor’s plans to bus asylum seekers north of NYC (CBS New York)

‘Gender-Fluid’ Students Win Prom King & Queen at Ohio HS

DeSantis Signs Bill Allowing Fla. Board to Cancel Disney Deals

Colombia Resumes Migrant Flights After Brief Pause

Elon Musk, Don Jr. Push Back Against Crazy New Anti-Free Speech Bill in Ireland

Soros To Help Save Vice News

Pennsylvania Amish Kept True To Their Traditions – Then The Government Came

Georgia Enacts Law Letting Panel Punish, Oust Prosecutors

Rounding Up the 500 Most Dangerous Psychos in NYC Could Make the Streets and Subways a Lot Less Chaotic

All Your Kids Are Belong to Us

GOP moderates privately panic over debt ceiling deal (Axios) RINOs gotta RINO.

Mainstream Media Doesn’t Care That the CIA May Have Helped Cause 9/11

Ga. Gov. Kemp Signs Law Allowing DA Removals  Soros prosecutors, be warned.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH”: Trans Activist Unleashes Primal Scream At SF Board Meeting

California Insists on Wasting Its Scarce Water Supply

Georgia’s GOP governor signs bill that could remove local prosecutors and DAs from their jobs (CNN) They only mind because it’s a Republican doing it.

On PBS, Amanpour Spreads Book-Ban Hysteria: ‘LGBTQ, Black…Indigenous Stories’ Silenced

The Next Fear on A.I.: Hollywood’s Killer Robots Become the Military’s Tools (N.Y. Times)

Race Hustler Al Sharpton Says He Told Alvin Bragg To Prosecute Subway ‘Vigilante’

PBS’s Amanpour Hails GOP Abortion-Rights Hero Vs. ‘Draconian’ South Carolina Ban

Sen. Tuberville Blasts Rapinoe’s Support for Trans Athletes

ABC Edits Kids’ Show After ‘Fat-Shaming’ Complaints

Top 10: MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace’s Worst GOP-Bashing Moments

GOP ‘Bringing Back the Lynching Vibe,’ Could Spark a ‘Secession’   Doubtful.

Reporters Rage as Free Speech Heroes Bill Maher, Elon Musk Meet

‘Another Attempt To Manufacture A Scandal’: Friend Of Clarence Thomas Hits Back At New Report Targeting The Justice

How Does Leonard Leo Hide All His Right-Wing Dark Money? Here’s One Way (Common Dreams) Let’s see … nope, no mention of George Soros.

It’s Time The Washington Post Comes Clean On Their Thomas Attacks

Did Trump’s anti-glasses vanity doom his E. Jean Carroll defense  (Washington Post)

Key moments from the video of Trump’s deposition in E. Jean Carroll trial released to the public (CNN)

Eric Adams attacked for subway safety approach after killing of Jordan Neely (N.Y. Post)

Jordan Neely killing: lack of arrest highlights racial disparities in charging (The Guardian)

The Squad stands alone on Jordan Neely’s death

New York protesters demand criminal charges in chokehold killing on subway (Reuters)

After the “Palefaces”

Fake Indian Syndrome (The Other McCain)

‘A sea of misinformation’: FTC to address industry greenwashing complaints (The Guardian)

Study: Climate change is pushing the Sonoran Desert toward a weedier, barren future (Desert Sun)

Biden administration green lights nation’s first congestion pricing plan for New York (Politico)

Thousands of Americans Try To Take Advantage of Biden’s Solar Subsidies. They Can’t Connect to a Power Grid.

Electricity Statism and Misdirection: Introducing Doug Lewin’s “Texas Energy and Power Newsletter” (well-funded propaganda)

New York Gas Stove Ban – Beginning of the End or End of the Beginning?

World’s first thermal energy storage “gigafactory” opens

Ocean-surface temperatures are breaking records

The grid isn’t ready for 300M EVs by 2030

The Conversation: “A Single [Climate] Radical Gets More Media Coverage Than Thousands of Marchers”

Unpacking the Claim that Blinken ‘Lied’ to Congress (FactCheck.org) Narrative damage control.

Biden tells reporters he will hold a ‘major press conference’ – but White House says he was referring to an interview (CNN)

Hunter Biden Fought To Exclude Laptop Info From Child Support Case, Filing Shows

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 41)

Biden Bribery Allegation Could Mean Impeachment, Republican Policy Chair Says

“Russian Disinformation” Memo Was a Biden Campaign Op

Bracing for impact: Biden world preps for Hunter Biden fallout (Politico)

Ruhle Defends Biden on Hunter, Mourns Unpopularity ‘Despite All These Wins’

Former Intel Heads Brennan, Clapper To Testify To House Panel Over Role In Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

Election Fraud Made Clear

Rule Will Mean Asylum Denials for Many Migrants

Small study points to possible cause of myocarditis following mRNA vaccination in young men (NBC News)

What explains rare heart condition among young men after Covid vaccines? A new study offers clues (StatNews)

Study reveals insights into post-vaccine heart inflammation cases (MedicalXPress)

Science Reveals Cause of Rare Heart Trouble in Young Men Who Get COVID Vaccines (U.S. News & World Report)

Randi Weingarten Goes Mega-Karen After Twitter Community Notes Expose Lockdown Lies

Teachers Union Won’t Give Records to House COVID Panel

Disease experts warn White House of potential for omicron-like wave of illness (Washington P0st)

Class-Action Suit Launched Against Australian Government Over COVID Vaccine Injuries

Read it.

On May 2, a Texas House committee passed a bill to create 100% reserve gold and silver-backed transactional currencies. Enactment of this legislation would create an option for people to conduct business in sound money, set the stage to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money, and possibly create a viable alternative to a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

“I don’t think there is anything less important than bicycle racing.”  — Scott Adams

The Spectator.

Marooned in London for a day between meetings, I walked for miles in an attempt to find something good to say about the city. This was not a wholly unsuccessful expedition — those Nash terraces have an allure, Regent’s Park has been cutely de-manicured to encourage the wildlife and it was possible to buy a plastic replica of Big Ben almost every fifteen yards, which came in handy. It was the Londoners I found problematic. Smirking rat-faced hipsters and man-bunned bike dweebs, buzz-cut, granite-headed lezzas, the performative callisthenics of middle-class thirty-somethings who believe they will never die, Arabs flogging tat every five paces, lithe, snake-hipped homosexuals having a pleasant lunch of kale with yeast extract at one of a million cafés with the word “plant” somewhere in its name, overconfident, braying gap-year yankees, Afghans driving Uber cars as if they were in the Lashkar Gah Grand Prix, desperate, half-dead, joggers, young white businessmen jabbering to themselves like psychos as they stepped over the sprawled bodies of dozing Romanian beggars. London — all of human life is here. Except the good bits.

Theodore Dalrymple.

Hell, wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, is other people; in which case purgatory must be other people’s taste. Every time I feel my misanthropy flagging, I go down to the local bric-a-brac warehouse, grandly called an antiques center, and remind myself of just how dreadful taste can be. It is not merely the absence of taste that appalls me, it is the positive espousal of all that is cheap, garish, and positively hideous.

Concur.

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

The letter of the Deep State 51 condemning the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop reportage as consistent with a Russian information operation or Russian disinformation, as advertised by Natasha Bertrand and Politico, must be the dirtiest American political dirty trick of all time. At any rate, it is up there with the Steele Dossier.

Read it.

If we are going to judge a way of looking at the world solely by its worst adherents, then we should also remember that the only self-declared atheist nations in history have been the communist dictatorships. Lenin said that atheism was fundamental to communism. Stalin and others outlawed and persecuted the Russian Orthodox Church. The Chinese communists have persecuted Christians and other faiths.

So is atheism responsible for the live organ harvesting of China? Is atheism responsible for the 100 million murders by communist regimes? Should we remember that atheist nations starved, beat, whipped, suffocated, tortured and executed millions of people?

I used to be a fairly militant atheist. I’m still an atheist and find it impossible to believe in a benign Creator in a flawed universe. But I’ve grown up enough to see how much good we lost when we abandoned Christianity, and how many grim things have flourished since.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

In an amazing coincidence of scheduling, the annual White House Correspondence Dinner (WHCD) and the Met Gala occurred within 48 hours of each other. One of Trump’s best moves in office was giving the middle finger to the WHCD, and the less said about the Met Gala the better, except for noting that Alexandria Occasional-Cortex didn’t attend this year since she violated House ethics rules last year by accepting free tickets and sporting her very expensive “Tax the rich” dress.

 

Read it.

Last December, Michael Shellenberger reported in a #TwitterFiles thread that the Aspen Institute hosted a “Hack-and-Dump Working Group” exercise in the summer of 2020 titled, “Burisma Leak,” which predicted with uncanny accuracy an upcoming derogatory story in the New York Post about Hunter Biden’s lost laptop.

The documents Shellenberger published showed how at least five media figures, including David Sanger and David McCraw of the New York Times, Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post, then-Daily Beast and future Rolling Stone editor Noah Schactman, and Rick Baker of CNN worked alongside Twitter and Facebook’s chief moderation officers, Yoel Roth and Nathaniel Gleicher, to plan a response to a hypothetical damaging exposé about Joe Biden’s son.

The “Burisma Leak” exercise predicted many elements of the real response to the New York Post’s coming Hunter Biden story, including complaints from influential Democratic congressman Adam Schiff about its “source and veracity,” and public statements from “former senior intelligence officials” falsely raising the specter of a “Russian operation.”

Read it.

There was something deeply demoralizing about the recent Mayoral election in Chicago, once among America’s greatest cities. The good news is that the catastrophic reign of a deeply corrupt and crazed mayor, who piled egregiously racist policies on top of one of the worst COVID responses in the country, came to an end. The bad news is that a guy who is arguably worse took her place.

As Allysia Finley put it in the Wall Street Journal, “Brandon Johnson’s victory in last week’s Chicago mayoral race is a reminder that no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse.”

The city itself is facing bankruptcy but that economic reality is changing nothing about city policies. Crime is out of control. Poverty and despair are on the rise. And the residents who can leave are fleeing. Businesses are closing up shop and 175,000 people have left the city in the last two years, leaving the place at the mercy of people who only vote for more handouts and union controls.

Read it.

Daniel Henninger, writing in the Wall Street Journal on April 26, properly describes Joe Biden as “the perfect Democratic president.”

According to Henninger, Biden’s “non-compos” condition should give the “left wing of his party free rein” during his second presidential term, which is exactly what his party wants. A cognitively impaired, not particularly principled figurehead fits the needs of his handlers; and Biden obviously has no interest in doing anything to upset them. He will dutifully get behind his party’s latest woke project and ritualistically attack its Republican opponents as white nationalists, sexists, and homophobes.

Equally significant, Biden is the perfect front figure for an administrative state in which the chief executive provides little more than an ornament: “A beside-the-point president is the best thing that has ever happened to the progressive centralization project. That is why Washington’s Democrats would embrace a Kamala Harris succession.”

Read it. And watch the video.

A cellphone video (above) captured the moment when a stolen Kia slammed into the rear of a school bus parked outside a middle school in Milwaukee earlier this week.

Local media outlet WISN said two teenage girls had been arrested in connection with Monday’s stolen Kia. Both girls were passengers and injured while police said the driver was still on the loose.

Before the Kia plowed into the school bus, a 15-year-old passenger was hanging out of the car window. Police said that person was knocked unconscious. It is not yet clear what charges the two teenagers will be facing.

Washington Free Beacon.

There are few things liberals love more than raising taxes. They are particularly fond of regressive taxes that fall primarily on the poor. Tax hikes on alcohol and other “sin” products are designed to control people’s behavior and force them to behave more like elite liberals who shop at Whole Foods and inject themselves with diabetes medicine to lose weight. Cigarettes, soda, gasoline, and so on.

The people living ultra-low-carbon lifestyles (BBC)

Yet Another Problem With Recycling: It Spews Microplastics (WIRED)

EV Deflation Arrives: Ford Slashes Prices On Its Mustang Mach-E, Following Tesla’s Strategy

FLASHBACK: Media Said Gas Stove Bans Were a Right-Wing Conspiracy

Unhumanity Part V: Big Brother is Green

Embattled 1st Black St. Louis Prosecutor Resigns

Report: Sotomayor Didn’t Recuse Self From Cases Involving Publisher

Black Caucus Urges Senate Dems To Demolish Judiciary Nomination Tradition

George Lopez’s NBC Comedy Mocks Whites, Jokes About ‘Bankable White Guilt’

Soros-Backed St. Louis Attorney Kim Gardner Resigns

Soros-Backed Prosecutor in St. Louis Resigns After Disastrous 6 Years

What Is Privilege? I Don’t Know. And It Doesn’t Matter.  ‘Privilege’, as its name suggests, is a benefit that applies to specific people by law. Most people who use the term use it as if it meant advantage, specifically ‘advantage I don’t like’.

Donald Trump Judge ‘Calling His Bluff’ by Offering Chance To Testify—Lawyer (Newsweek)

Donald Trump goes on attack against rape case while on Irish trip (The Guardian)

Trump given three days to decide whether to testify in E. Jean Carroll case (The Hill)

Justice Dept. Intensifying Efforts to Determine if Trump Hid Documents (N.Y. Times) Ought to be ‘whether’, not ‘if’. Used to be you could depend on newspapers for correct grammar, but not any more.

DOJ finds ‘insider witness’ in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents probe: report

Trump, looking to regain 2016 magic, moves away from the Republican brand (NBC News) Since the Republican ‘brand’, to the extent that it has one, is ‘like Democrats only not as much’, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Hungary’s Orban Sees Trump as Key to West’s Comeback

11 witnesses testified in Donald Trump’s rape trial. Here’s what they said. (Politico) According to the Narrative.

Sorry, Nicolle! WaPo Reporter Tells Wallace: No Evidence Linking Trump To Proud Boys Violence

Intel officials that signed Hunter Biden laptop ‘disinfo’ letter will talk to House panel (N.Y. Post)

Since his ouster, embarrassing reports on Carlson pile up (Associated Press)

Tucker Carlson’s ‘C-Word’ Use on Display in Unredacted Dominion Docs (Daily Beast) As if nobody at the Daily Beast uses that word–or worse.

Why Tucker Carlson’s text message about “white men” matters (Vox) Come and get your Narrative.

Tucker Carlson is wrong — this is exactly ‘how white men fight’ (MSNBC)

Media Falsely Accuses Indiana Library of ‘Book Banning’ (The Foundry) Libraries can’t ban books–they can remove books, but they can’t ban books. Only the government can–and does–ban books

Drunk Democrat Was in Government Car at Time of DUI Arrest  (Washington Free Beacon)

Clarence Thomas Has Some Obscenely ‘Generous’ Friends (Daily Beast)

Hostin Condemns CNN/Trump Town Hall, Behar Bashes Female Host

‘Disgraceful’: GOP Senators Accuse Dems of Threatening To Cut SCOTUS Security Funding Amid Ongoing Threats

Producer Tells All: How Tucker Carlson Became the GOP’s MAGA Puppeteer (Rolling Stone)

Sugar Justice: The Clarence Thomas Story (Talking Points Memo) Thomas was also good friends with the late Rush Limbaugh; I’m surprised nobody has mentioned that yet.

MSNBCer’s Solution To Gun Violence: ‘Never Again Elect a Republican’

The Crime Of ‘Talking To Tucker Carlson’

Fox’s Gutfeld Somehow Blames George Floyd for Deadly NYC Subway Chokehold (Daily Beast) No, he didn’t.

Was The Tucker “Take Down” A Deep-State Hit?

Florida lawmakers pass pair of extreme anti-trans bills (Law Dork) Keeping biological males out of women’s restrooms is hardly extreme–except to the extreme.

Jeffrey Toobin Revives the Oklahoma City Smear

Someone needs to tell MTG that Biden can’t be both a criminal mastermind and completely senile (Insider) Somebody needs to tell Cheryl Teh that you don’t need to be of sound mind to accept a bribe.

Northwestern U Blocks Campus GOP Group Funding Over Ad

Instead of Smearing Supreme Court Justices, Democratic Senators Should Be Asking Them for Ethics Lessons

The Smooth-Talking Republican Who Would Rule by Fiat (N.Y. Times) Election coming up–time to smear every available candidate.

The View HATES Republicans Calling Out Racist Attacks on Justice Thomas

CNN, MSNBC Obsess 80x More Over Thomas Ethics Questions Than Sotomayor

Pursued by the trans mob with Liz Wheeler on campus

Destroying a Person’s Character

CNN’s Jim Acosta Lets Lefty Journalist Accuse Fox of Inciting Trigger-Happy Whites  Presumably trigger-happy blacks don’t need any inciting.

CEO distances Anheuser-Busch from Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney controversy: ‘Not a formal campaign’ (Fox)

Video Shows Red Sox Fans Ditching Bud Light Amid Dylan Mulvaney Backlash (Newsweek)

Anheuser-Busch CEO FINALLY disavows Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light partnership and says ‘it was not a campaign’ after firm sent letter to retailers blaming an outside ad agency for approving it ‘without management awareness’ as sales crash 26% (UK Daily Mail)

Big Three Ignore Dem Congresswoman’s Shady Stock Market Controversy

Timely Rebrand: European Socialists to Drop ‘Democrats’ from Party Name

ABC, NBC Rush to Lionize Career Criminal After Death on NYC Subway

Cash-Strapped Millennials Turn To Thrift Stores For Wedding Attire

No Jail for Dem Rep’s Child Who Assaulted Cop  The Crust take care of their own.

California Democrats Push Bill To Mandate ‘Gender Diversity’ Books In Schools

COVID-19 Drops to 4th-leading Cause of US Death in 2022

Restrictions On Ivermectin Dropped In Australia

Infectious Disease Experts Advise Health Care Facilities To Drop Universal Mask Policies

COVID No Longer Global Health Emergency: WHO  Better late than never, I guess.

WHO (Finally) Declares COVID Pandemic “Global Health Emergency” Over

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is a fool. He nevertheless thinks extremely highly of himself. His vanity is only one component of his clown show. To borrow a line from Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind,” it’s a wonder he stills know how to breathe.

Heritage Foundation scholar Diana Furchtgott-Roth contributed the latest episode in Whitehouse’s long-running Looney Tunes saga when she testified on Wednesday before the Senate Budget Committee on “the real price of fossil fuels” (hearing posted here). As Director of Heritage’s Energy and Climate Center, Furchtgott-Roth testified on the real cost of Biden’s energy agenda.

Whitehouse posed a line of questions that sought to discredit Furchtgott-Roth on an ad hominem (or ad feminam) basis. The ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy in the context of public policy arguments. However, Furchtgott-Roth came ready to ramble. In the event, Whitehouse played Elmer Fudd to Furchtgott-Roth’s wascally wabbit. She turned Whitehouse’s shotgun blasts back on Whitehouse himself.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

The war in Ukraine had dropped off the front page starting late last year with the Russians slowly grinding down the Ukrainians. Now that summer is not far away, it looks like things will start heating up. The recent drone attacks on the Kremlin have brought the war back to the front pages. The long promised Ukrainian offensive is due any week now and the Russians seem to be preparing something as well.

The drone attack on the Kremlin is another one of those times where you get a glimpse into the psyche of the people running the war for the regime. They greenlight a caper and then claim that the victim of the caper did it to himself. We saw this with the Nord Stream pipeline attack. At first, they cheered, then they made up a story about how the Russians blew up their own pipelines to make Washington look bad.

In this case, the story is the Russians attacked their own buildings so they can have an excuse to kill Zelensky. Poor Zelensky is traveling around Europe right now thinking he is about to get a polonium cocktail from room service. In his last public appearance, he looked like he was about to cry. There is now talk that he may not return to Ukraine at all and just do his job by zoom.

Quilette.

Like the rest of my generation, I have been anxious and apprehensive for as long as I can recall. The crippling anxieties of Gen-Z and younger millennials are everywhere apparent; we have a mental-health epidemic with a higher generational suicide risk, which have variously been attributed to awareness of worldly chaos, the COVID-19 pandemic, and chronic onlineness. We have grown up comfortable indoors, isolated with the computer, console, or TV, and reliant upon Instagram and disembodied voices in place of social interaction. We accept one or two posts as “news” and information we see online as “facts,” usually without further research. South Park has remodeled Cartman after the image of the doomscrolling, internally distraught Gen-Zer, and I can’t help but see myself and my peers in him. This generational affliction has hindered our ability to communicate and problem-solve, and the technology upon which we are so hopelessly dependent has only enabled an inflation of animosity and alienation, further aggravating a crisis of hyperpolarization and mental-health issues.

 

The American Mind.

Since Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 election, a rash of articles, surveys, and books have claimed that many—maybe even most—Americans in flyover country are “Christian nationalists.” That’s supposed to sound scary. But the term is mostly used as a smear against conservative Christians who defend the role of religion in American public life.

Sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry give the perceived threat a scholarly gloss in their recent book from Oxford University Press, Taking America Back for God. They define Christian nationalism as “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.” What’s more, it “includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.” That’s quite a parade of horribles.

How many such people are there? In a survey conducted between 2007 and 2017, the pair found a whopping 52% support some form of Christian nationalism.

Washington Free Beacon.

Roughly 700,000 migrants are waiting in Mexico to cross the southern border upon the expiration of Title 42 next week, according to Border Patrol officials.

“Border Patrol shared with us their intelligence that there are approximately 700,000, as of three weeks ago, in the shelters in Mexico waiting to come into the United States,” Jonathan Lines, supervisor on Arizona’s Yuma County Board of Supervisors, said this week. He added that border officials said there is a 500 percent increase in migrants crossing the Darién Gap, which connects South and Central America.

Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that allows agents to immediately turn migrants away at the border, expires on May 11. Once it lapses, the Biden administration plans to expand catch and release protocols that will potentially allow hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants into the country.

Read it.

Illegal demonstrations apparently are continuing to take place at the homes of the Supreme Court justices despite federal law forbidding such activities.

Far-left activists with Our Rights DC posted video on Thursday evening showing them demonstrating at Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home, chanting, “We want ethics on the court.” Their remarks come as Democratic lawmakers call for the Supreme Court to adopt new processes for recusals and ethics allegations—essentially making the court answerable to Congress.

This protesting has frequently occurred in spite of 18 U.S. Code 1507, which forbids picketing or parading “in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer” with the intent of intimidating or influencing that person.

The Foundry.

If you search “San Francisco crime spike” on the internet, you will find countless stories—going back years—about how the city’s problems are no big deal or are due to forces beyond the control of its policymakers.

The problem isn’t crime, it’s crime rhetoric, they say.

But rhetoric didn’t cause a cascade of businesses to close and flee the city.

…

It’s better to pay a few extra bucks for shipping than to wait around in a store for a clerk to open a case for shaving cream or to get sucker-punched by a deranged, drug-addled lunatic in Aisle 5.

Read it.

Stretched limos are gone for now, but luxury chauffeur services are still thriving. It’s just the mode of transport has changed. And in a country where progressive policies have sparked a nationwide crime wave in major metro areas, no one in their right mind would dare drive around in a moving target.

One of the virtues (if one can call it that) of high urban crime rates is that it persuades rich people to be less conspicuously consumptive.

Victor Davis Hanson.

How odd that those on the Left who in the past decried “American imperialism” are now proving the greatest imperialists of all.

The Foundry.

The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system. And in its zeal to achieve that goal, pesky things like Congress or the risk of expanding already poorly performing programs pose no obstacles.

President Joe Biden’s administration is continuing the work of President Barack Obama’s team and trying to put as many students as possible on federal school meal programs. The current administration is proposing a significant expansion of school meals, turning a program meant for children from low-income families into an entitlement—akin to welfare—for all students.

Created in 1946 to help poor school-aged children who did not have food to eat at school, the National School Lunch Program has since spawned breakfast and other meal services.

Read it.

According to a report from Chicago’s WGN9, a hidden AirTag led to the arrest of two men who stole $1.1 million from an armored Brink truck. The device was hidden in one of the plastic money bins, likely placed there by the asset owner.

The men removed seven plastic bins containing about $100,000 each and ten deposit bags worth $50,000 each. After transporting the stolen money across town and through a few hiding spots, the money and the AirTag arrived at the suspect’s hideout.

They don’t make hideouts like they used to.

Joe Biden took 2011 White House campus meeting with three Hunter associates, emails show (N.Y. Post)

Mexico will continue to take migrants rejected from US after Title 42 ends as part of landmark agreement (N.Y. Post)

U.S., Mexico announce immigration agreement, but border crisis still expected to worsen (CBS News)

US, Mexico agree on tighter immigration policies at border (Associated Press)

Florida GOP Passes Bill Funding More Migrant Flights

House Oversight Panel Subpoenas FBI for Document Alleging Biden ‘Bribery Scheme’

Watchdog: IRS Has Spent $10M On Weapons, Ammo, & Combat Gear Since 2020

Dem-Controlled Senate Defies Biden in Vote to Restore Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels

Debt Ceiling, No Worries? Biden Offers $500K Grant For ‘Pakistani Transgender Youth’ To Learn English

Nets Ignore BOMBSHELL Report Implicating Biden in Bribery Scheme

US Navy Enlists Drag Queen For ‘Digital Ambassador’ Role To Attract More Recruits

Sen. Sinema: Biden Admin Border Claims ‘Not True’

IRS’s ‘Non-Partisan’ Pick to Study Tax System Isn’t So Non-Partisan

Joe Biden, bad feminist

Biden proposes 30 percent tax on cryptominers’ power bills  If it moves, tax it.

Sinema the Mastermind Behind Biden’s Key Victories

Biden Troop Surge Just ‘Smoke and Mirrors’

‘I can’t believe I fought for this bulls**t’: Navy SEAL who helped kill Osama Bin Laden fumes over Navy’s decision to use drag queen for their recruitment program (UK Daily Mail)

US Fentanyl-Related Deaths More Than Tripled Over 5 Years

Senator Britt: Biden Admin ‘Willfully Chose Not to Enforce’ Law Protecting Supreme Court Justices

Biden’s Latest Dim-Bulb Idea: Military Electric Vehicles

New Footage Shows El Paso Engulfed In ‘Mass Migration Dumpster Fire’ As State Of Emergency Declared

Trade Group Says Biden Aims ‘Death Blow’ at New England Fishing Industry With Sharp Catch Limit, Wind Farms

Irish reporters ask Trump why he’s golfing in Ireland instead of attending NYC civil rape trial (N.Y. Daily News)

Judge Tosses Trump’s Lawsuit Against NY Times, Orders Him to Pay All Legal Fees (Daily Beast)

Exclusive: Special counsel probing Trump Organization’s handling of Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage (CNN)

Donald Trump’s Rape Trial Goes From One Disaster to Another (Daily Beast) Walls are closing in, etc. etc.

How Trump’s Legal Jeopardy Will Test American Democracy (Daily Beast) In the Narrative media, ‘American democracy’ means ‘Democrat vote fraud’.

Behind Trump’s musical tribute to some of the most violent Jan. 6 rioters (Washington Post)

Trump is inviting Dems to make 2024 about Jan. 6. And they’re obliging. (Washington Post)