PrairiePundit

Red States: Joe Biden gave a rare public speech in his home state of Delaware today and afterwards took questions from reporters in what ended up proving to be a disastrous press conference. Various video clips from the presser showed Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, at times appearing out of sorts and unsure of himself. In one clip, Biden awkwardly admits he was given a list of reporters to call on by his campaign staffers: In another, Biden forgets the name of his hometown paper: ... Then there was this, which simply has to be seen to be believed: ... There is more. The Babylon Bee a few days ago joked that Biden had someone to interpret his ramblings in English.  This poor woman had that job for this event and it looks like a difficult job.

This is a good interview.  Powell talks about the evidence uncovered of prosecution misconduct and the weird reaction of Judge Sullivan to the information.  Sullivan's conduct appears to be as bad as that of the Muller prosecution team.  It is a long interview, but I found it fascinating.

Victor Davis Hanson: Joe Biden is tragically suffering a mental eclipse and sliding away at a geometric rate. Understandably, his handlers have kept him out of sight. He stays off the campaign trail on the pretext of the virus and his age-related susceptibility to COVID-19 morbidity. I say “pretext” without apology. Quarantine should not have otherwise stopped Biden over the past three months from doing daily interviews, speeches, and meetings. But each occasion, however scripted, rehearsed, and canned, would only have offered further daily proof that Biden is cognitively unable to be president or indeed to hold any office. Often Biden cannot finish a sentence. Names are vague eddies in his mind’s river of forgetfulness. He is in a far more dire mental state than a physically failing FDR was in his 1944 campaign for a fourth term. The earlier career of a healthy Biden illustrates that he was not especially sharp even when in control of most of his faculties. We recall the forme

Thomas Lifson: Flynn targeted for destruction because he wanted to investigate Brennan's 'off the books' billions of dollars at CIA? This is as plausible as some of the other speculation for why Obama et.al. tried to railroad Flynn.  It could have been a combination of several of these reasons.  The Obama administration had much to hide when it came to corruption they pretended did not exist.

Fletch Daniels: Cultural tyranny reigns in America, the last step before full-fledged political tyranny.  Lurking beneath the surface of virtue signaling leftists are tyrants seeking to exert their will over those they despise.  The defining leftist culture enables them to ruthlessly use all the power at their disposal, both real and imagined, to enforce a single acceptable viewpoint on society.  In some geographic areas, this is more obvious than in others, but no area will ultimately be spared. This week, my wife volunteered during the Virginia Republican primary.  As people came by the booth to get information on the candidates, she offered these Republican voters an opportunity to sign up for yard signs.  Most whispered that they could never put something like that up in their neighborhood.  That’s understandable.  Unless a family is willing to stand guard 24/7 over their property, a Trump bumper sticker or sign here is a risky proposition at best. And so the Northern Virg

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The exchange was surreal, a sign that the wheels may be falling off public safety in Atlanta. Fittingly, it happened Monday during the City Council’s Public Safety Committee hearing as council members and interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant were grappling with the unrest plaguing the city. Councilman Antonio Brown, who represents the district just west of downtown, was getting ready to speak in the virtual meeting when he told the chief: “I was just notified there was a young man who was just shot and killed at 377 Westchester Boulevard. Can you get a unit out there? He’s been on the ground and there’s no police who have come. He’s dead already, he’s on the ground and the residents have put a sheet over him and the police still haven’t arrived.”It sounds like Afghanistan: Can you please come and pick up the body? But there’s more.On June 13, as angry protesters milled around the south Atlanta Wendy’s the day after Rayshard Brooks was shot in the par

This is excerpted from his statement to Power Line : ... My opponent’s virtue signaling insults me, and it should insult you too. Dean Phillips got his degree in Urban Studies from an Ivy League School in the Northeast. I got my degree in Urban Studies from the streets of Harlem in New York City. Yet, unlike him, I’m not going to lecture you on the evils of white people, or guilt you into believing that “white privilege” makes you personally responsible for slavery and the struggles Black people face today. I’m not going to lecture you like he did by telling you “racism is deeply ingrained in our history, in our institutions, and in our everyday lives, and white people [like you] have benefited from it.” I’m not going to lecture you from a place of privilege as the third wealthiest member of the House of Representatives and tell you racial justice will only be achieved if you “forgo” your comfort and take the blame as a white person. I’m also not going to sit idly by as statu

Matt Margolis: ... What the data is clearly telling us is that the lockdowns were  not  implemented correctly. While there is a significant risk for the older, at-risk population, for those under 65 years of age, the economy could have been kept open. Schools didn’t have to close down, and “non-essential” businesses could have continued to serve the public, many of whom had as much a chance of dying from the coronavirus as they did dying on their daily commute, but the lockdowns kept everyone, including the young and healthy, at home. We could have worn masks out in public to help slow the spread and flatten the curve to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. Life could have remained relatively normal, and the economy didn’t have to suffer the way it did.  “We knew early on that younger cohorts managed very well,” Hart explained to PJ Media. “We should have let that group thrive to keep the economy going while protecting the vulnerable.”  Protecting the vulnerable is where m

Walter Williams: Dr. Thomas Sowell has been both a friend and a colleague of mine for over a half-century. On June 30, he will have completed his 90th year of life, and I want to highlight some important features of that life. Sowell was born in Gastonia, North Carolina, in 1930. As part of the great black migration northward during the 1930s and ‘40s, he and his family moved to Harlem, New York. Sowell attended the prestigious Stuyvesant High School but dropped out. In 1951, he was drafted into the military and assigned to the U.S. Marine Corps where he became a photographer. Photography remains his hobby today. After his military tour of duty, Sowell took night classes at Howard University where he was encouraged to apply to Harvard University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and graduated magna cum laude in 1958. The next year, he earned a master’s degree from Columbia University. Ten years later, Sowell earned a Ph.D. in economics, from the prestigious economics depart

Washington Post: Biden rises with a less-is-more campaign An election that President Trump needs to be seen as a binary choice is, at this point, looking more like a referendum on a man who is viewed negatively by a majority of the county. How many headlines in the Post have talked about Biden's obvious dementia and loss of cognitive ability?  I don't recall seeing any.  This is the same paper that pushed among other things the 25th Amendment allegations against Trump because they thought his policies and style were crazy. Joe Biden has trouble stringing two sentences together in a coherent fashion,  He has trouble reading prepared statements.  He is obviously impaired, but Democrats and their media cohorts are trying to push him over the finish line like an incapacities marathon man.  They have good reason to keep him in the basement because it furthers their unfair operations against Trump.

Washington Post Editorial: The outcome of the Louisiana abortion case was a victory for the rule of law This is laughable.  There is nothing in the Constitution that even implies a right to an abortion.  Nothing.  The authors of the original opinion made up a right to reach a conclusion they wanted.  It was one of the worst decision since Dred Scott.   It is as though someone decides to change a contract by scribbling in the margins and then holding everyone to a made-up provision that was never approved as an amendment to the Constitution.  It is the product of bad faith legal writing that reaches a conclusion that should only be reached by a real constitutional amendment. It is laughable to suggest that this case has anything to do with the rule of law.

NY Times: In Court, Derek Chauvin’s Lawyers Say Officials Have Biased the Case The Minneapolis police chief recently described George Floyd’s death as murder. Lawyers for the four officers charged in the case say that may have biased potential jurors. I am not sure where they are going to find a jury that has not been tainted by the statements of public officials and their own viewing of the video.   On top of that, the riots and tantrums that followed Floyd's death will also potentially intimidate a jury and create fear that they will be attacked if they do not convict.  Add to that the fact that Ellison overcharged for the alleged crime and you have a toxic mix of politics and criminal law that will be hard to deal with.

NY Times: Iranian Missile Facility Blows Up, and Conspiracy Theories Abound in Tehran Satellite photographs show the explosion happened at a missile production facility. Iran said the episode was a gas explosion at a different military base. Iran should be aware that US satellites are constantly monitoring what is taking place in that country, yet they still lie about what happened.  That may be to hide the facts from their own people and not admit that they have a problem with some of their weapon systems they are trying to develop.  There is also the possibility that US or Israeli hackers have made their operations of these munitions unstable to the point of explosion.

This is one of the more well-financed political operations in the country right now.  Some have suggested that the movement has become a stalking horse for funding the Democrat party.  The irony of the close ties to Democrats is that it is the party of slavery and segregation.  Many of the monuments being attacked by Black Lives Matter or of former Democrats. Several leaders of Black Lives Matter have made terrorist threats against the US including "if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn the system down.”  Funding such people could lead to litigation against the donors.

Washington Examiner: T he nation’s top spy chiefs condemned the classified leaks about an  alleged plot  by Russia to offer bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. forces, warning the selective leaking jeopardized the intelligence community’s ability to ascertain the veracity of the claims. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and CIA Director Gina Haspel released separate statements within minutes of each other late Monday night. Ratcliffe, who, last month, was  sworn in  as the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he oversees the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies, said, “U.S. and coalition force protection is a critical priority for both the President and the Intelligence Community” and “the selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk.” He added: “It is also, simply put, a crime.” “We are still investigating the alleged intel

Newsbusters: ... Here is the headline from this New York Times editorial on May 23rd. "Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy? It is time to rename bases for American heroes — not racist traitors." ... Tell me again, what is the name of this newspaper? If you said The New York Times you would be blindingly correct. Now move over to this Daily Caller story from 2017 after the first statue-removing skirmish erupted in Charlottesville. The headline: "New York Is Named After A Horrendous Slave Trader." The DC reported this of the man for whom “New York” was named: “The Duke of York, who later became King James II of England (and James VII of Scotland), created Britain’s greatest slave empire known as the Royal African Company, which transported between 90,000 and 100,000 African slaves to the Caribbean and American colonies between 1672 and 1689.” In other words, The New York Times - and everything bearing the name “New York” - from the state to

Jeb Babbin: The publication of a set of notes taken by now-disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok related to the prosecution of former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn provides the first specific evidence that former President Obama was behind the wrongful prosecution of Flynn and, almost certainly, the investigation of Donald Trump’s campaign and presidential transition. Strzok took the notes at a January 5, 2017, White House meeting at which he, Obama, Joe Biden, then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, then-FBI Director James Comey, and Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, all were present. The notes recount part of the conversation as follows: Rice-Comey-Yates: [Flynn cuts] Other countries … (Note: this probably means they listened to partial recordings of the Flynn–Kislyak conversations) Comey-Yates: lean forward on [unclass?] Biden: “Logan Act” Obama: These are unusual times Biden: I’ve been on the intel cmte for ten years and I never O

Jack Hellner: AG Barr is under attack by most of the media and other Democrats because they believe Obama admin criminals are above the law. ... There was no outrage and there were no resignations when the FBI railroaded General Michael Flynn. In fact, the media and Democrats are angry that this innocent man, who was financially destroyed by the vengeful, corrupt FBI and Justice Department officials, is finally receiving justice.  Why dismiss the Flynn case? Because the FBI can't prove it This should be a big story, but most of the media and other Democrats won’t care that Obama and Biden were deeply involved in the targeted attack on Flynn. It is clear that Obama was deeply involved with the Justice Department during his entire term, as the media pretended that it was independent. There was little concern about the rule of law.    Explosive New FBI Notes Confirm Obama Directed Anti-Flynn Operation The media is too busy campaigning for Biden and seeking to destroy

Thomas Lifson: It turns out that putting homeless people in luxury hotels in San Francisco isn’t such a good idea Lighting the meth pipe in the hotel lobby while officials pretend they are "front line workers."

Washington Free Beacon: The record-breaking gun sales during the coronavirus pandemic could bolster candidates that support the Second Amendment in 2020 and alter the course of American gun politics for the foreseeable future. Several of the country's leading gun-rights groups are working to convert many more first-time owners into new gun-rights voters in the run-up to the 2020 election. Amy Hunter, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, said that the group's success could change the political landscape at the local, state, and national level. "The NRA believes voters who recently purchased guns for self-defense will join other Second Amendment voters and be an even more formidable voting bloc," Hunter told the Washington Free Beacon. "They're educated, passionate, and they know anti-gun politicians are the biggest threat to their fundamental right to self-defense." New buyers are learning for the first time how public policy shapes t

Alex Berenson: With coronavirus infections rising again across the nation , the question of just how lethal the ­virus is has become more crucial than ever. Early in the epidemic, public-health experts feared the virus might kill up to 2 percent of those infected, potentially causing millions of deaths in the United States and tens of millions worldwide. Those terrifying estimates prompted the lockdowns that have done incalculable harm to the economy, shattered small businesses and left children traumatized and untold numbers suffering from brutal isolation. But we now know much more about the virus. And we know its lethality is lower than we originally feared — and highly concentrated in the very elderly and people with serious health problems. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ­esti­mated in May that the coronavirus kills about 0.26 percent of the people it infects, about 1 in 400 people. New estimates from Sweden suggest that only 1 in 10,000 people under 50

Glenn Harlen Reynolds: When Black lives matter to Democrats, and when they don't Democrats say Black lives matter but it's becoming clear they only matter sometimes, which explains why Democrats blocked Tim Scott's justice reform bill. Do Black lives matter to Democrats? As Tim Alberta recently reported, a lot of Black voters think the answer is no. That may explain why the Democrats are blocking the GOP justice reform bill in the Senate: With Black voters already discouraged, Democrats don’t want them to get the idea that Republicans may have something to offer. Alberta’s reporting, in Politico, is striking. At the invitation of a local African-American politico, he spent an afternoon with a bunch of middle-class Black voters outside Detroit. He found they were disappointed in the Democrats, thought nothing much had changed for them during the Obama presidency, and expected Trump to win even though they planned to vote for Biden themselves. As a woman named Ursur

Washington Examiner: A district attorney in Oklahoma hit several  protesters with charges of assault, rioting, and terrorism  in connection to recent violent protests that took place in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said on Friday that he chose to pursue the toughest charges against the rioters because he does not support the lawlessness that has taken place in some parts of the country, including the "police-free" region of  Seattle known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protests, or CHOP . "This is not Seattle," he told the  Oklahoman . "We're not putting up with this lawlessness here." Prater leveled strict charges against many of those who were arrested during the protests. Isael Antonio Ortiz, 21, Eric Christopher Ruffin, 26, and Malachai Davis, 18, were hit with terrorism charges after police alleged that Ortiz burned an Oklahoma County sheriff's van during protests on May 30. Ruffin is accused of enco

Washington Post: Water from Addicks Reservoir flows into neighborhoods from floodwaters brought on by Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston on Aug. 29, 2017. (AP) Millions of homeowners face flood risks without realizing it, and climate change is making it worse At least 6 million households are unaware that they’re living in homes that have a 1 percent chance of flooding in each year — putting them within a “100-year” flood zone, according to a new report. By 2050, 16.2 million properties will be at “substantial risk” of flooding in a given year. Harvey was a 1,000-year flood event.  It had the highest rainfall accumulation ever recorded in the US.  BTW, the link is to a Washington Post story about the flood that was published in the Denver Post. Homebuilders in the Houston, Harris Country area are required to make sure the houses constructed are above the 100-year flood plain.  I am skeptical that climate change had anything to do with making things worse.  It would be

Washington Post: Covid-19 is erasing decades of economic gains achieved through globalization The way we travel, work, consume, invest, interact, migrate, cooperate on global problems and pursue prosperity has likely been changed for years to come. Trump's policies of bringing jobs back to the US look like a smart move at this point. We need to speed up some of these moves, particularly the manufacture of drugs.  Democrats and past administration exported many of these jobs and put the country at the mercy of a hostile power that failed to warn the world about a pandemic.

Matt Vespa: A Lefty Mob Trespassed on Their Property, But a St. Louis Couple Knew What to Use to Deter Them ... ... There is more.  Downtown areas of major cities have been the victims of these mobs, but people in the suburbs are not having any of it.

Washington Examiner: P resident Trump said late Sunday night that he had just been briefed by intelligence officials about reports of an alleged Russian plot offering bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers, and "intel" told him they did not assess the intelligence to be "credible." “Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP,” Trump  tweeted , adding that it was “possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News”  New York Times  "wanting to make Republicans look bad.” The  New York Times   reported  on Friday  that a U.S intelligence assessment  concluded that a Russian spy unit paid Taliban-connected militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. and other coalition troops, even as the Trump administration sought to reach a peace deal involving the Taliban and the Afghan government. The  New York Times  further reported Trump was  briefed about the bounties  during an

NY Times: Republicans Play Hardball on Judges. Can Democrats Give It a Shot Too? President Trump’s promises to evangelicals on judges were a key part of shoring up support in 2016. Some Biden backers want to see him run on the courts this time, too. Democrats use judges to enact policies that are unpopular politically.  They see the courts as a backdoor way to get policies they know they can't sell to voters.  That is why Biden is reluctant to run on judges, to the extent that he still has enough coherent thoughts on any subject. You saw how Democrat judges tried to keep the Democrats unpopular immigration policy alive with unsustainable judgments against the enforcement of current law.  Democrats use illegal immigration as a means to steal House seats they do not deserve.  That is also why they oppose a census question on citizenship.  It is just another way Democrats cheat to get power.

Daily Wire: Speaking on Newsmax’s “Saturday Report ,” Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX), ripped into the mainstream media that has been focusing on the spike in coronavirus cases in Texas and Florida, saying of the numbers in the last month, “If you look at the deaths, the precious lives that have been lost, New York deaths are up over 8,000 in that period; Texas is up a little over 700.” Gohmert followed with a swipe at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, adding, “Every life is precious, but we don’t have a governor sending people with COVID to our nursing homes. We don’t have them killing and spreading the virus to people who are most vulnerable like Gov. Cuomo did.” Responding to a Washington Post article titled, “ New research explores how conservative media misinformation may have intensified the severity of the pandemic ,” Gohmert told host Grant Stinchfield, “That’s what they do: They lie; they misrepresent, and they’ve taken their lead – well, I’m not sure if they’ve taken their l

Biden's energy policy would kill millions of Texas jobs in the energy business and defund public schools and universities.  They would also impose a doubling of fuel costs on Texas drivers and Californie the state.  His energy policies would also increase the cost of food production and transport to the market.  It would lead to shortages of many commodities. He would empower Beto O'Rourke and his gun-grabbing schemes. For some reason, this is attractive to some voters, but I do not think they realize how devastating it would be for them.  The killing of energy jobs could lead to a housing debacle as people without jobs could no longer afford their mortgages.  This would depress the value of houses of even people who still had jobs.  It could also lead to the failure of retail businesses that provide and goods and services for energy workers. This is all on top of his dementia which makes him ill-suited to deal with national security issues.  The guy has trouble reading s