PrairiePundit

 Frontpage: With the 2022 midterm elections less than four months away, a  New York Times /Siena College  poll  revealed that just 1 percent of registered voters viewed climate change as a “top priority , ” let alone the most important issue facing the nation. The poll placed climate change far behind concerns about inflation, the economy, record crime rates, and the humanitarian crisis on America’s southern border. Even among voters younger than 30 -- the demographic that is typically most energized by debates about environmental policy -- the corresponding figure was a mere 3 percent. The same poll showed that public concern about climate change has actually declined significantly from the already-low levels of concern documented by previous surveys. In the summer of 2020, climate change ranked a lowly eleventh in a  Pew Research Center poll . In September 2020, a  Gallup poll  likewise found that climate change ranked eleventh in a list of...

 Breitbart: Republicans are preparing to investigate Hunter, James, and President Joe Biden’s history of shady business deals after the GOP likely reclaims the House in the midterm elections. Plans have already begun to  investigate  the Biden family business. Demand letters are being  written  and strategies  developed  to ensure Hunter, Joe, and James Biden are held accountable for the misdeeds and falsehoods perpetrated on American citizens, which includes the establishment media’s suppression of the “Laptop From Hell” leading up to the 2020 presidential election. The investigation will undoubtedly focus on Hunter and James’s business deals, which Joe Biden and his staff have  claimed  at least seven times that the president has not been involved in. Yet 17 pieces of evidence  show  Joe Biden has played an influential role in his son Hunter and brother James’s activities. According to a Harris poll, 58 percent of voters...

 John Sexton: Germany darkens cities, turn down thermostats and considers shutting down breweries to deal with energy shortage The Russians are reducing the supply of energy while lying about pipelines.  They should have taken Trump's advice.

 AP: Facing a growing threat from China, the Navy envisions drone ships keeping an electronic eye on enemy forces across the vast Pacific Ocean, extending the reach of firepower, and keeping sailors out of harm's way. The Navy is speeding development of those robotic ships as an affordable way to keep pace with China's growing fleet while vowing not to repeat costly shipbuilding blunders from recent years. The four largest drone ships are being used together this summer during a multination naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean. Other smaller waterborne drones are already being deployed by the Navy’s 5th Fleet in the waters off the Middle East. The goal in coming years is to see how these research vessels’ radar and sensors can be combined with artificial intelligence, and integrated with traditional cruisers, destroyers, submarine and aircraft carriers, to create a networked fleet that’s resilient because it’s spread over greater distances and more difficult for enemies to destr...

 Reuters: The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has canceled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday. The capital, home to a fifth of the population of 11.2 million and center of economic activity in Cuba, had been spared the daily power outages of four or more hours that the rest of the island has endured for months. Blackouts have sparked a few small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled a day of unprecedented unrest across the country as discontent boiled over. For now, a schedule of power outages will mean each of Havana's six municipalities will have its electricity cut every three days during peak mid-day hours, according to the local Communist Party daily, Tribuna de la Habana, which reported on a meeting of local authorities. The blackouts reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with harsh new U.S. sanctions on the island in 2019 and worsened wi...

 Daily Caller: Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly, who’s facing a tough re-election bid, touted his role in getting the Biden administration to fill gaps in the border wall despite having voted against legislation aiding the barrier in the past. Kelly applauded the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to close the gaps after “months of coordination” between it, his office and the White House, according to a Thursday statement . But the former astronaut voted against border wall initiatives at least three times in 2021, including an amendment to prohibit the federal government’s cancellation of border wall contracts and two other amendments seeking to stop the cancellation of border wall contracts that had already received appropriated funding. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Absurd Practice’: GOP Rep Demands ICE Scrap Plan To Give Illegal Aliens IDs) The Arizona Democrat has also changed his stance on other immigration-related issues, including Title 42, the public health polic...

 Jacob Isaac: It’s no secret that President Joe Biden has a bone to pick with the fossil fuel industry. Unfortunately, many Americans — including those who supported Biden’s candidacy — are now learning the hard way just how much their lives depend on the oil and gas they love to hate. Gas prices are still averaging well over $4, and the recent news that America’s emergency oil reserves ended up in China , rather than on our shores where it’s most needed, is causing voters to question whether they made the right decision. (RELATED: SHEFFIELD: Fed Scrambles To Get A Grip On Inflation While Manchin Hands Schumer A Green Spending Spree) But it should be no surprise that Biden’s anti-energy policies are bad not just for the industry, but for the entire nation. Since his inauguration, Biden has scarcely gone a month without announcing new restrictions on oil and gas producers. From draconian environmental rules to financial regulations forcing companies to “greenwash” at their shareho...

 Just the News: Bidenomics: Inflation hurting rural residents more than those in urban areas Price of gas and diesel has negatively affected the farming community, but also people who have to drive long distances to work, school or the grocery store This is true.  I have been living in the country for about 25 years now and it had never been more expensive than it has been under the Biden administration.  It is easy to burn $10 worth of gas just to go to some stores.  Biden has spent most of his life riding the train before becoming President.

 Steve Scalise: In 100 days, the American people will be able to cast their first vote against Joe Biden’s failed presidency. Biden is asleep at the wheel and, coupled with Democrats’ disastrous leadership of the House and Senate, gas prices have reached record highs, the cost of food and everyday household goods has skyrocketed, illegal immigrants and deadly drugs are pouring across our open southern border, and crime is surging across the country. All economic indicators point to our nation being in a recession. However, you won’t hear this from Biden or his spin doctors in the White House because they have no plan to fix these crises that they created. Ahead of the second quarter GDP numbers being announced, the White House attempted to redefine what a "recession" means. Here’s the truth: Crippling inflation is reducing wages and erasing families’ savings. American households faced nearly $500 in additional expenses in June due to inflation reaching a 41-year...

 Washington Post: Corporations on the front lines of the economy say cracks are forming The biggest companies in America — including Apple and Walmart — are beginning to see changes in the habits of consumers and their willingness to spend. Well, many Walmarts sell both food and fuel and their gas prices are lower than most traditional gas stations.  Apple does not have that to fall back on and its phones and other products are durable enough to put off new purchases.  Durable goods are not a priority when you are trying to servive the mistakes of the Democrats and Biden.

  NY Times: Nancy Pelosi Heads for Singapore, but Is Silent on Taiwan Speculation about a stop in Taiwan, where the House speaker would be the highest-ranking U.S. visitor in decades, has jangled nerves in both Beijing and Washington. There have been reports that China has threatened to shut down the place carrying Pelosi to Taiwan.  I do not see her as a threat to China or its unjustified claim to Taiwan. 

 Washington Examiner: T here are few things more divisive in America right now than a  college education.  Among every demographic, a person’s level of educational attainment strongly correlates with what party they support — stronger than income, sex, and often even race. It is unfortunately not surprising, therefore, that  President Joe Biden  is planning the largest government bailout since the 2008 financial crisis, the vast majority of which will go to wealthy college graduates who overwhelmingly support the  Democratic Party. The federal government has already suspended payments on student loans six times since COVID-19 shut down the economy in March 2020. Now the Education Department has told student loan servicers not to send out billing notices for payment resumption in September, implying a seventh extension that will most likely extend at least through the midterm election. The only remaining drama left before Election Day is whether Biden will t...

 Matthew Boose: A revolt is underway in King Biden’s court. The facade of the Capable Unifier has come undone. As if by magic, a moratorium on noticing Old Joe’s feeble condition has been lifted, and the ruthless machine that pushed the freakish spectacle of his presidency on the country is feigning surprise to find that the Oval Office is occupied by a dementia patient. Joe Biden has yet to face a midterm referendum, but he is already one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history. His own party is abandoning him. A recent New York Times poll found that more than 60 percent of Democrats want Biden to bow out in 2024. Across the board, Biden approval ratings are floating in the 30s. This day was always going to come, sooner or later. Democrats used every dirty trick in the book to push Biden past the finish line and remove the Bad Orange Man from power, but they never had a plan for what would come after the election. Everything about Biden’s campaign was a cynical sham. T...

 Washington Examiner: The prospect of new legislative victories may not be enough to overcome the heat the  White House  is facing as voters level the brunt of their economic dissatisfaction on President  Joe Biden  in the lead-up to the  November elections . Emerging from coronavirus isolation this week, Biden cheered the Senate’s passage of a $280 billion legislation to boost the production of semiconductors in the United States, a top priority for his administration, and was greeted by a surprise reconciliation bill to address climate change, healthcare costs, and deficit reduction. The Biden administration argues that the new reconciliation bill will help fight  inflation . But a gloomy economic report Thursday that showed a second consecutive quarter of economic decline has become a blinking-red indicator of where voters fear the country is heading. The Biden administration has sought to reframe  what is and isn’t considered a recession , arg...

 PJ Media: Don't Carry Guns, Don't Run From the Cops, and if You Do, Expect to Be Treated Roughly   So here we are again. An armed suspect runs from the police only to be pursued, subdued, disarmed, and arrested. In a sane world, the officers would be lauded for their efforts. Alas, the world is far from sane, and few portions of it are farther from sanity than Chicago and its surrounding communities. So, instead of being praised for removing an armed criminal from the streets, the officers find themselves villainized for using what the uninformed or willfully blind perceive as excessive force. The incident was captured on police and bystander cameras, and when the footage hit social media and the television news, it inspired indignation among those predisposed to or professionally reliant on outrage. ... Chicago needs to support its police or it will wind up with fewer of them and more crime. 

 Washington Examiner: Biden retests positive for COVID-19 in 'rebound' infection Apparently, he achieved no natural immunity from his recent bout with Covid. 

 Washington Examiner: A new poll from the  Washington Post   s hows what journalists at that newspaper seem to think is a counterintuitive result. They, like Democratic politicians and most other liberals, thought the overturn of  Roe v. Wade  would energize fans of legal abortion to come out and vote this fall. Instead, it looks like those voters are now less likely to turn out than they were previously — and significantly less likely to turn out than pro-lifers. Among those who believe the  Dobbs  abortion decision "is not a major loss for women's rights," 70% say that are "likely to vote" in November. Among those who think it is a "major loss for women's rights," only 52% say they are likely to vote. Likewise, 66% of those who believe abortion should be illegal say they are "likely to vote," compared to just 55% who say abortion "should be legal." Mind you, these groups are not of equal size. For the moment, the idea that abo...

 AP: A Russian operative under the supervision of one of the Kremlin's main intelligence services has been charged with recruiting political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine, the Justice Department said Friday. The indictment of Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov reflects what U.S. officials say are ongoing Russian government efforts to meddle in the American political process, to shape public opinion and to sow discord and dissent on hot-button social issues. In this case, the authorities say, Ionov for roughly the last decade recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and directed them to spread pro-Russia talking points. He also paid for group members to attend government-funded conferences in Russia, as well as a protest in the U.S. against social media efforts to suppress online support for Moscow's Ukraine invasion, the indictment says. “As court documents show, Ionov allegedly orchestrate...

 Michael Anton: The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again. In fact, they made this clear in 2020, in a series of public statements. Simply for quoting their words in an essay for The American Mind , I was mercilessly mocked and attacked. But they were quite clear. Trump won’t be president at noon, Jan. 20, 2021, even if we have to use the military to drag him out of there . “Anti-Trump hysteria is in the final analysis not about Trump.” If the regime felt that strongly back then, imagine how they feel now. But you don’t have to imagine. They tell you every day. Liz Cheney, Trump’s personal Javert, has said that the 45th president is literally the greatest threat facing America today —greater than China, than our crashing economy, than our unraveling civil society. That’s rhetoric, of course, but it isn’t merely that. It’s safer, and generally more accurate, to a...

  Monica Showalter: Biden 'quietly' filling holes in the border wall in Arizona ... but not in Texas I suspect this is more about trying to save a Democrat senator who is in a tough reelection battle in Arizona than any genuine concern about illegals coming in.

 Reuters: The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had killed scores of Russian soldiers and destroyed two ammunition dumps in fighting in the Kherson region, the focus of Kyiv's counter-offensive in the south and a key link in Moscow's supply lines. Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military's southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east. Defence and intelligence officials from Britain, which has been one of Ukraine's staunchest allies in the West since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, portrayed Russian forces as struggling to maintain momentum. Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and - in the assessment of British defence officials - leaving Russia's 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river highly vulnerable. Ukraine's sout...

 The National Pulse: A producer working for the Congressional January 6th Committee posted violent threats towards President Trump supporters and Republican politicians, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal. The unearthed posts from Twitter are the latest piece of evidence  undercutting  the alleged independent, nonpartisan efforts of the committee, as well as the hypocrisy of those now claiming to be working to expose violence towards elected officials or law enforcement. The news comes after the committee’s own chairman, Bennie Thompson, was  exposed for his links to violent, secessionist movements in the 1960s and 70s . But producer Dan Przygoda’s threats aren’t 50 or 60 years old. In fact, they appear to have been posted on the day of President Trump’s inauguration, on January 20th, 2017. On the same day, violent left-wing activists descended on Washington, D.C., burning cars, assaulting people, and smashing windows. On that day, at least 217 people were arr...

 Fox News: ... One recent example that captured Greenwald's disdain for the corporate press was its coddling of Nina Jankowicz , the Biden administration's handpicked executive director of the so-called "Disinformation Governance Board," which the DHS ultimately shelved following intense public backlash. Greenwald described Jankowicz as a "resistance activist" after critics highlighted her pro-Democrat tweets, as well as her documented history of peddling misinformation, from elevating the Trump-Russia collusion narrative to dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop as a "Trump campaign product." Except not one journalist had pressed her about the falsehoods she elevated during her media tour in the weeks following the collapse of the "Disinfo Board." Instead, they portrayed her as being the victim of right-wing attacks. "The reality is that the people who most aggressively and destructively peddle and disseminate fake news and disinformat...

 Just the News: Texas added the greatest number of jobs in the oil and natural gas industry in June in recorded state history. More than 6,100 jobs were added in the upstream oil and natural gas sector from May to June, the highest monthly increase in recorded state history. The Texas Workforce Commission has been recording job data since 1990. The last monthly industry jobs report record was broken in June 2011 when it added 5,600 jobs. “The Texas oil and natural gas industry continues to respond to meet the energy needs of Americans and allies across the globe,” Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, said. “Demand for oil is forecasted to continue growing in 2022 and into 2023, so our nation must support certainty and consistent opportunities for domestic production, pipelines and processing of the products our nation and world depend upon.” There are currently 194,900 people working in the upstream sector in Texas. Since the low point in employment in Se...

 Washington Examiner: Top  House Republicans  debuted a comprehensive plan to regain control of the southern border that they would seek to implement if conservatives retake the House or Senate  this November. The American Security Task Force on Friday pledged to take action on a plethora of  immigration  and border policies they said would alleviate the record-high illegal immigrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border that has unfolded under the  Biden administration . "I think we're going to be very aggressive, and I think the administration will have some choices to make," Rep. John Katko (R-NY), who led the task force,  told  Fox News. "Do they want to spin their wheels for two years and get nothing done, or do they want to work with Republicans if the Republicans are in the majority and start doing some of the things that Republicans want? " The Republican plan pulls from previous initiatives used by the Trump administration and is m...

 ISW: A kinetic event killed and wounded scores of Ukrainian POWs in Russian-occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, on July 28.[1] Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for the attack and available visual evidence appears to support the Ukrainian claim more than the Russian, but ISW cannot independently assess the nature of the attack or the party responsible for it at this time. The Russian Defense Ministry asserted that Ukrainian forces deliberately struck the Olenivka pre-trial detention center holding Ukrainian POWs including Azov Regiment servicemen using Western-provided HIMARS, killing at least 40 and wounding 75 POWs.[2] Kremlin-sponsored news outlet “RIA Novosti” published videos of the detention center, which showed fire damage but not the sort of damage that a HIMARS strike would likely have caused.[3] RIA Novosti also released footage of HIMARS missile fragments but provided no evidence that the fragments were recovered at Olenivka.[4] Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) Am...

 Conservative Brief: White House Visitor Logs, Emails Reveal Joe Biden Met Repeatedly With Hunter Biden Business Associates It looks like the FBI and the media are studiously avoiding evidence of the Biden family scheme.  They would rather push the Democrats' Russian collusion hoax.

 Red States: ... KJP’s reply was just silly, “It’s very different because we’re not doing it — using migrants as a political pawn.” Talk about a hypocritical response. No, the Republicans are doing it to make the point that Biden is hurting the country with his policies, and you Democrats don’t care until the problem drops in your backyard. They proved that very effectively with this. But the illegal aliens are all only here because of the Democrats’ craven “political ploy” to leave the doors to the country open, so people can flood in. But how can Biden, KJP, or Bowser object? They wanted this–and isn’t D.C. still a sanctuary city? So, according to their ethos, this should be a great thing. How can they be upset? But notice a couple of things. KJP didn’t deny flying the illegal aliens into New York in the middle of the night. Moreover, Bowser still hasn’t gotten any real help from Biden, and I don’t think they got the National Guard yet. If Biden provided it, he might then face th...