PrairiePundit

 Fox News: Google's Gmail cost Republican candidates over $2 billion in donations since 2019 by flagging most fundraising emails as spam, according to research shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senate Committee. The Republicans based their conclusions on a North Carolina State University study that found Gmail allows the vast majority of emails from Democratic to land in the user's inbox while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates are marked as spam . Gmail "retained the majority of left-wing candidate emails in inbox (< 10.12% marked as spam) while sent the majority of right-wing candidate emails to the spam folder (up to 77.2% marked as spam)," the study found . "Big Tech has been silencing conservative voices and actively working against Republicans for multiple cycles. Google’s e-mail suppression – which affects the GOP’s f...

 PJ Media: The U.S. Army has not had a great year finding new recruits. Things have gotten so bad that they’ve actually dropped the requirement for a high school diploma or GED. According to  Military.com , the Army is a full  60% below its recruiting goal for this fiscal year : The Army is tossing its mandate for potential recruits to have a high school diploma or GED certificate to enlist in the service, in one of the most dramatic moves yet in the escalating recruiting crisis hitting the entire Defense Department. On Thursday, the service announced that individuals may enlist without those previously required education certifications if they ship to basic training this fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1. Recruits must also be at least 18 years old and otherwise qualify for a job in the active-duty Army. They also must score at least a 50 on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, an SAT-style quiz to measure a potential recruit’s academic ability. A 50 on...

 Washington Examiner: S enate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday slammed President Joe Biden’s remarks supporting breaking the  filibuster  to codify  Roe v. Wade,  calling it an inappropriate attack against the  Supreme Court. Earlier Thursday, during a press conference at a NATO summit in Spain, the president called for the Senate to make an exception to the chamber's rule requiring 60 votes to proceed with legislation. In the 50-50 Senate, that effectively means no legislation to protect  abortion rights  can be brought to a vote. Biden's comment drew praise from liberal lawmakers who have been highly critical of the high court’s decision to overturn the landmark abortion decision. ... This is more evidence that Democrats are wedded to infant sacrifice in the name of liberalism. 

 Power Line: Each summer, whenever there is a heat wave, we are likely to see headlines touting the weather as evidence of global warming. But what do the data actually look like if you take a historical perspective? This  Watts Up With That  post provides a good overview of U.S. heat wave data. Here are some of the charts. This is from the EPA, the U.S. Annual Heat Wave Index from 1895-2020: ... The spike was during the "Dust Bowl" era.  The climate change crowd has their agenda and exaggerating hot weather appears to be part of it. 

 Hot Air: NPR/Marist's post-Dobbs poll: Only 34% support expanding SCOTUS This gives you an idea of how weak the support is for Democrats' attack on the Roe decision. 

 Reuters: U.S. farmers have cut back on using common weedkillers, hunted for substitutes to popular fungicides and changed planting plans over persistent shortages of agricultural chemicals that threaten to trim harvests. Spraying smaller volumes of herbicides and turning to less-effective fungicides increase the risk for weeds and diseases to dent crop production at a time when global grain supplies are already tight because the Ukraine war is reducing the country's exports. Interviews with more than a dozen chemical dealers, manufacturers, farmers and weed specialists showed shortages disrupted U.S. growers' production strategies and raised their costs. ...  Agrichemical companies blame the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation delays, a lack of workers and extreme weather for shortages. Fertilizer and some seeds are also in short supply globally.... ...  This will likely lead to food shortages and higher prices.  The Biden administration appears to have no plan to inc...

 AP: President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. will significantly expand its military presence in Europe, the latest example of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped plans for the continent’s security and prompted a reinvestment in NATO. Among the changes will be a permanent U.S. garrison in Poland, for the first time creating an enduring American foothold on the alliance’s eastern flank. Biden also said the U.S. would send two additional squadrons of F-35 fighter jets to the United Kingdom and more air defenses and other capabilities to Germany and Italy. “The United States will enhance our force posture in Europe and respond to the changing security environment as well as strengthening our collective security,” he said during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the alliance’s annual leaders summit in Madrid. The dry language belied the dramatic shift under way as the U.S. prepares to keep 100,000 troops in Europe for the “foreseeable future,” up fr...

 DailyWire: Texas is adding a host of new checkpoints to inspect vehicles after dozens of migrants were found dead in a tractor-trailer abandoned near San Antonio. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced the new security measures in a news conference on Wednesday. Authorities found 46 people dead in the tractor-trailer Monday evening, and the number of dead has since risen to 51. The discovery is believed to be the deadliest smuggling event in American history. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) “will create and implement a checkpoint strategy beginning immediately where they will begin targeting trucks like the one that was used where these people perished,” Abbott said, according to The Texas Tribune . Texas officials declined to give exact locations of where the new checkpoints will be located. Abbott said he wanted to “surprise the cartels and the smugglers.” DPS Director Steve McCraw told reporters that the new stations would be located along “smuggling corridors...

  Fox News: States with higher rate of gun ownership do not correlate with more gun murders, data show Lawmakers and gun control advocates are calling for stricter gun laws following a series of mass shootings In fact, the restrictions could lead to more murders because many crooks do not register their gun purchases. 

  Fox News: Biden says he won't ask Saudi leaders to increase oil production, blames 'Russia, Russia, Russia' for prices Biden says he will not ask Saudi Arabia for increased oil production during his trip despite rising prices He won't ask the Saudis because he already knows they are pumping at capacity.  In fact, the US is about the only major producer that is not doing so and that is because Biden blocked new drilling in offshore wells and in Alaska's huge ANWR field.  He is also threatening to block a significant percentage of Texas's Permian Basin.  Russia is not the blame for higher prices in the US.  That is all Biden.  The US would be importing no significant amount of oil if he were not blocking production. See, also: Oil industry agrees. Refineries likely not coming back online under current conditions

 NY Times: After Stock Market’s Worst Start in 50 Years, Some See More Pain Ahead The stock market is on track for its worst first six months of the year since at least 1970. Bonds, which are seen as more stable, are in bad shape, too. The Biden economy sucks at this point of his administration.  It is another negative for an administration that is unpopular on several fronts.  Inflation which many believe was caused by the Democrats' big spending packages father the new administration came in is likely a factor in these results.  Bonds in particular are adjusted to reflect the yield after inflation.

  NY Times: Deals Blow to White House Efforts to Address Climate Change The decision appeared to rule out approaches to regulation like a cap-and-trade system at a time when experts are issuing dire warnings on climate change. The ruling further signals that the court’s conservative majority is deeply skeptical of the power of administrative agencies to address major issues. Follow updates. I think the court is saying that some decisions must be made by Congress.  That is where the Constitution requires it.  This ruling will likely apply to other federal agencies. 

  PJ Media: Wow, They Really Want to Do This? Delusional Democrats Advance 'Transgender Bill of Rights' The Democrats are pandering to one of the smaller demographics in this country which is less than one percent of the population,  although, the Dems are trying to grow it by pushing the agenda in public schools. There are numerous stories of people who regret their transition to the opposite sex later in life.

 ISW: ... Ukrainian sources warned on June 29 that Russian forces may be planning a false flag provocation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to accuse Ukrainian authorities of mishandling nuclear facilities.[6] Ukrainian nuclear operating enterprise Energoatom stated that Russian occupation authorities are planning to throw unsafe objects into the cooling system at the NPP in order to compromise the plant’s cooling mechanisms.[7] Mayor of Enerhodar Dmytro Orlov added that Russian troops have been kidnapping and torturing employees of the NPP to coerce confessions that employees dropped weapons into the cooling systems to sabotage the plant and blame Ukrainian authorities for paying inadequate attention to the management of the NPP.[8] Russian troops have previously demonstrated irresponsible and dangerous behavior in and around nuclear power plants, firing on nuclear facilities at the Zaporizhzhia NPP in early March and digging into radioactive soil in the Chornobyl Exc...

 Tom Rogan: The United States will send a significant number and type of additional military forces to Europe. Two of the moves, announced by the White House on Wednesday, are positive. One is the permanent deployment of an Army V Corps command post to Poland. This represents an overdue shift of forces from Germany to Poland. Unlike Berlin, Warsaw is a highly reliable U.S. ally. Also praiseworthy is the deployment of an additional Army brigade to Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden's other pledges are seriously misguided. These include an increase in the number of Navy destroyers stationed in Spain from four to six, the deployment of two additional F-35 squadrons to Britain, and the stationing of additional air defense units in Germany and Italy. To be clear, Biden's motive is pure. He wants to secure treaty allies against future Russian aggression. In equal measure, Biden wants to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin by reminding him that America's comm...

 John Kass: Do you recognize the image at the top of this column? Of course, you do. It is not a mass of cells. It is not an “it.” It is a baby, a human life in a mother’s womb, a life that began at conception. And it is waiting to be born. But idea of that baby allowed to be born and millions of other such babies, has triggered intense rage among the Democratic Socialists for the past several days, since the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reverse Roe V. Wade. I’ve wanted to be charitable to the other side. We have different views on a most contentious issue. And I am a Greek Orthodox. Sen. Dick Durbin might ask me if I am an “Orthodox Christian.” But he already knows. I’m a father who is pro-life. I’ve never hidden it. And I’ve worried about the spiritual cost of abortion on our culture. Readers know this about me. Though I tried being charitable, I’ve failed. All the screaming over Roe the past few days, all their hysterical rage and theatrics, all the threats to the justices of...

 Washington Examiner: T he  Secret Service  said it will provide more information about allegations regarding former President  Donald Trump  on Jan. 6, 2021. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows who testified before the House committee investigating the attack on Tuesday, said she heard that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his vehicle and lunged at the head of his security detail when he was informed he could not join his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6. FORMER WHITE HOUSE LAWYER CLAIMS CASSIDY HUTCHINSON DID NOT WRITE NOTE TO TRUMP ON JAN. 6: REPORT “The Secret Service has been cooperating fully with the select committee since its inception in spring of 2021 and we will continue to do so by responding formally and on the record to the committee regarding new allegations that surfaced in today’s testimony," the Secret Service said in a statement provided to the  Washington Examiner . Hutchinson said she lear...

 Faye Higbee: DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is the additive that must be placed in all newer diesel vehicles in order to reduce the air pollution created by the engine. The problem is that it is becoming harder and harder to find. Big rigs, BMWs, Mercedes, RV owners, all sorts of vehicles run on diesel. If you think store shelves are empty now? Wait until there are fewer trucks to bring in the groceries. The greenies who eat grass and bugs will love it, but the rest of us not so much. The DEF shortage: the importance of di esel Russia and China are the primary exporters of one of the ingredients of DEF: urea. Urea is also an ingredient in fertilizer. China has an energy shortage, which caused them to ration energy to the industry which produces urea, which means less production. Russia has also strangled the urea export due to shortages from the Ukraine war and sanctions, so less production. Europe also exports DEF to the US, but they are in an energy crunch because of the natural gas...

  Washington Examiner: These 30 House races will decide if Democrats or Republicans win the majority ...   The once-in-a-decade redistricting process will likely help House Republicans net a couple of seats in the 435-member chamber since state GOP lawmakers controlled the bulk of the map redrawing processes. That by itself will help the GOP effort to overturn the slim House majority Democrats have held in the 117th Congress. ... Moreover, recent wave election years when the House changed party control — Republicans in 1994 and 2010 and Democrats in 2006 and 2018 — show that many of the top races don't appear competitive until a few weeks before Election Day. Surprises can and will happen. And conversely, races that seem tight at this stage of the campaign can end up being blowouts one way or another. But a bit over four months from Election Day 2022, it’s clear Republicans have the momentum to claim the majority and make current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) the next ...

 Dallas Morning News: Self-driving big rigs will be soon hauling Wayfair furniture down Interstate 45 through a new partnership of Waymo and J.B. Hunt Transport Services. Beginning in July, the pilot will last over six weeks, marking the first in-depth transportation of home furnishings retail freight between J.B. Hunt and Waymo Via, the company’s “Class 8″ trucking unit. Class 8 units are considered “severe-duty,” which include big rigs, cement trucks and dump trucks. Autonomous specialists will be in the cab of each trip between Houston and Dallas to monitor trucking operations. Waymo is the California-based subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. “Real-time testing with customers like Wayfair is critical to making autonomous freight movement a viable solution in the future,” said Craig Harper, chief sustainability officer and executive vice president at J.B. Hunt in a statement. “Every supply chain is unique, so it’s important that customers can work alongside J.B. ...

 Spectator World: “I had a call with MbZ… He told me two things. I’m at a maximum, maximum… This is what he claims… And then he said… Saudis can increase by 150… Maybe a little bit more, but they don’t have huge capacities before six months’ time.” Emmanuel Macron delivered this oil-production update to Joe Biden after a phone call with UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan at yesterday’s G7 meeting in Germany. Whether a genuinely candid moment or a conversation deliberately started by the French president within earshot of the assembled press, mics picked up the exchange. The unspoken implication of Macron’s update is that the administration’s strategy of relying on a boost in foreign oil output to ease soaring energy prices will not work. No wonder national security advisor Jake Sullivan was hovering nervously next to the two heads of state, eager to usher them to a more private location. While Biden is keen to pin blame for rising prices on Vladimir Putin, he is despera...

 Washington Examiner: A top Republican is calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to take the “threat of pro-abortion violent extremism” seriously when investigating the targeting of anti-abortion groups and to brief the Senate on the bureau’s efforts “to combat this wave of abortion-related violence.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised the topic with Wray in a letter this week following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and returning the regulation of abortion laws to the states on Friday. Since the May 2 leak of a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion, there have been heightened threats against Supreme Court Justices and anti-abortion advocates, including a rash of attacks and vandalism targeting anti-abortion activist groups , pregnancy centers, and churches across the country. The GOP senator told Wray: “I want to ensure that these violent attacks are recognized by the FBI and are being properly investigated f...

 Washington Examiner: ... "Today, I want to end this address with one such piece of evidence — so that no one dares to deceive about the missile strike at the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. The Russian missile hit this very object, purposefully. Obviously, that was the order. It is obvious that Russian assassins received such coordinates for this missile. They wanted to kill as many people as possible in a peaceful city, in a regular shopping mall. Here is what happened in Kremenchuk," Zelensky said before the video recording was played. The video was also shared on social media by Zelensky's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, who said in a tweet, "Russian propaganda always lies: there is no coincidence, it is a deliberate deliberate blow to intimidate the population and mass victims." ZELENSKY LABELS RUSSIAN STRIKE ON SHIPPING MALL 'TERRORIST ATTACK' The Russian Defense Ministry rejected Ukraine's account of the missile strike on Tuesday, claiming that the sh...

 The Hill: The Cook Political Report updated its rating on eight House races on Tuesday, moving six of them in the direction of Republicans. The adjustments come as inflation remains at record highs and President Biden’s approval rating hovers just above 40 percent, according to the latest Gallup poll . The six races that Cook updated in favor of Republicans include four in California, one in Pennsylvania and one in Rhode Island . One of the seats that Cook shifted in the GOP’s direction is Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, which Rep. Jim Langevin (D) currently represents. Langevin, who is not running for reelection, has held the seat for 20 years, and a Democrat has held the seat for 30 years. Cook moved the race from lean Democrat to a toss-up race. Cook also shifted two House races in favor of the Democratic candidate, moving Rep. Kevin Calvert’s (R) race in California’s 41st Congressional District from likely Republican to lean Republican and Rep. María Elvira Salazar...

 Eric Utter: Mainstream media bloviators have increasingly begun to state that Republicans do not deserve  equal coverage  alongside their Democrat counterparts.  These figures often falsely claim that Republicans seek to "end our democracy" and that they routinely traffic in falsehoods.  Ergo, there's no need to be fair and balanced. For example, on a recent edition of MSNBC's  The ReidOut , Joy Reid and her guest, political analyst Mathew Dowd (Bush-Cheney 2004 chief strategist turned Democrat), preposterously asserted that media outlets in general were  too neutral  in their reporting on the Republican Party and should instead ramp up the hostility.  Reid also urged reporters to "tell voters" that the GOP is a "threat" to freedom.  Remarkably, Reid queried Dowd on how the media might "get out" of this ill advised "'both sides' trajectory."  Dowd replied that the media should start acting as if they were l...

 Joe Cunningham: On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down its biggest decision in decades when it ruled in Dobbs v. Jacksons Women’s Health that there was no constitutional right to an abortion. The resulting backlash from the media and the Democrats, as well as violent and chaotic protests, was to be expected. But amid all the anger and fervor in the protests, the Democrats have let it slip that this is not just about Roe v. Wade and the right to their most holiest of sacraments, abortion. With Dobbs the Court held that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.” The “right” to an abortion does not exist in the Constitution, in other words, and the matter should be left up to the states and, in particular, the voters. But, when you look at the Democrats’ track record since the Obama years, you realize that the Democratic party has seen a pre...

 Business Insider: NATO's chief announced plans to increase its rapid-response unit from 40,000 to 300,000 troops, in a move that appears to be prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We will transform the NATO Reponse Force and increase the number of our high-readiness forces to well over 300,000," Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference in Madrid on Monday, according to Reuters. The unit was created after Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine , and was activated for its first collective-defense mission a day after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year. Stoltenberg said the expansion marks the "biggest overhaul" of NATO's defense units since the Cold War, Sky News' Deborah Haynes reported . ... This looks like NATO is preparing to deal with a hot war with Russia if things continue to go down hill.  Russian aggression is getting to be a serious problem.  See, also: Is Russia running out of ammo?

 Yahoo News: The newspaper obtained interviews with anonymous fighters participating in these operations, known by their call-signs “Adonis” and “22”. It’s unclear to The Times what are the ultimate goals of Ukrainian military operations on the Russian territory, but evidence suggests that sabotage actions at Russian oil refineries, munition storage facilities, and communication infrastructure are undermining Russia’s offensive capabilities. Read also: Railway bridge collapses in Russia’s Kursk Oblast near Ukrainian border The UK newspaper mentions Ukraine’s Shaman Battalion is involved in these operations and is going deeper into Russia. It’s been known that Shaman Battalion is the name for the 10th special operations division, which is usually assigned to conduct intelligence operations and assist in short-term offensives. The Shaman Battalion accepts only those servicemen who have gone through advanced training, including diving, parachuting, and mountain climbing. Excellent ph...