Highlights of the News

BREAKING NEWS: Forget the Bentley. I want a singing hood ornament.

ITEM 1: Conrad Black wrote, "It is time for Americans to contemplate the possibility that the United States may be surpassed as the world’s most influential country. The Chinese have just won the greatest strategic victory in the last 30 years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. However it originated, the novel coronavirus was repressed within China by recourse to draconian measures but was deliberately permitted to infect the rest of the world, enabling China to exploit the blunderbuss Western lockdowns and make a giant leap towards economic preeminence in the world. 

"This push toward Chinese economic preeminence was something widely predicted prior to the Trump era but clearly was not happening in the first three years of the Trump presidency, as unemployment nearly vanished in the United States, illegal immigration was almost completely stopped, and American economic growth soared, generated by an increasing workforce and sharp gains among the lowest 20 percent of income earners. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic almost 16 months ago, however, the United States and the West generally have suffered a severe economic slowdown, vast increases in the money supply, and an epochal spike in unemployment."

Red China got what it wanted.

President Biden.

ITEM 2: The First Amendment's latest advocate is its hottest.

This was my onstage interview for Miss New Jersey. I didn’t win. I didn’t even place. But I wouldn’t have changed a single word.#FreeSpeech #AntiPCPageantQueen pic.twitter.com/zvoJ3CAWRa

— Justine Brooke Murray (@Justine_Brooke) June 21, 2021

The New York Post reported, "A Miss New Jersey contestant on stage at the competition railed against an 'epidemic of censorship and entitlement' taking over school campuses — claiming that the words 'I’m offended' are being used to silence students and fire professors.

"Beauty queen Justine Murray delivered the fiery speech blasting censorship last week during the pageant at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City."

She said, "Our generation is experiencing an epidemic of censorship and entitlement. And it’s because our professors and our celebrities are teaching students to be narcissists, to believe that any of you that differs from their own is an existential threat.

"And this is what I experienced on my own campus with censorship to the point where people believe that speech is violence so that they can threaten other people with violence, simply because they disagree with them."

Succinct and deadly accurate.

This gives me a small sliver of hope for this awful century.

Tim Hawk's story for NJ Advance Media failed to even mention Murray. Once again, a reporter covers an event and misses the most important development.

ITEM 3: Axios reported, "Rich Lowry stepping down as editor of National Review's print magazine."

The changing of the guard story failed to mention Lowry's biggest achievement in 23 years as editor: the Against Trump issue. I wrote at the time, "National Review Hoists White Flag, Defiantly Rows To Outcast Island."

Its circulation was 200,000 in 1992. Now it is roughly one-third that (75,000). When online subscribers are added, it hits 110,000.

I wish the new editor, Ramesh Ponnuru, luck because NR is a fun dead horse to flog.

And in Lowry's defense, at least NR still exists, unlike Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard.

Ahoy!

ITEM 4: Hamas-Shielding AP said, "Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran’s president won’t affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got tougher.

"Optimism that a deal was imminent faded as the latest talks ended Sunday without tangible indications of significant progress. And on Monday, in his first public comments since the vote, incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi rejected a key Biden goal of expanding on the nuclear deal if negotiators are able to salvage the old one.

"At the same time, Raisi is likely to raise Iran’s demands for sanctions relief in return for Iranian compliance with the deal, as he himself is already subject to U.S. human rights penalties."

Poor Josef Biden.

Iran showed its true colors before he could give away the store to them.

Israel has been a loyal ally to America for 75 years.

Democrats hate Israel.

Iran has shouted Death to America for 40-plus years. Democrats support Iran.

ITEM 5: Red State reported, "Senate Republicans torpedoed the For the People Act, a federal takeover of elections, on Tuesday night. The legislation received 50 affirmative votes along party lines, with no Republican support. Democrats were unable to overcome the GOP filibuster to move forward with the legislation."

Good job, Republicans.

Democracy survives another day.

ITEM 6: Yahoo reported, "Police in New Jersey are looking for five people who they say abducted and assaulted a waitress who chased after them over an unpaid $70 bill, authorities said.

"The group ran out on the bill at a restaurant in Gloucester County south of Philadelphia around 11:15 p.m. Saturday, Washington Township police said."

Who does that to a waitress over $70?

I hope the prosecutor treats the case like a kidnapping and seeks life sentences for these people.

ITEM 7: The Western Journal reported, "Waitress Sees Burning Car on Side of Highway, Races to Pull Bleeding Driver Out Before It Explodes."

Oh my goodness.

Amazing.

ITEM 8: Fox reported, "A New Jersey school board has reversed plans to remove all holiday names from their school calendar after parents expressed outrage at an emergency meeting on the decision.

"The Randolph Board of Education voted 8-1 Monday to reinstate the holidays after dozens of members of the community voiced outrage during the public comment portion of the meeting."

The board was miffed that parents protested when the board changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People Day. So the board decided to take all the holiday names away.

Why not change a few of those names. The day after Thanksgiving can be changed to Teachers Wanna Shop Day. 

Pre-Columbian Indians were terrible people who practiced human sacrifice, slavery, and cannibalism.

And the idea of Noble Savages is as colonial as it gets.

ITEM 9: The Associated Press reported, "The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed prospects for an early resumption of diplomacy with the United States, saying Tuesday that U.S. expectations of talks would “plunge them into a greater disappointment.”

"Kim Yo Jong’s blunt statement indicates that the diplomatic impasse over North Korea’s nuclear program is likely to continue unless the North suffers greater pandemic-related economic difficulties and needs urgent outside assistance, some experts said.

"Hope for a restart of nuclear talks flared briefly after Kim Jong Un said last week that his country must be ready for both dialogue and confrontation, though more for confrontation. U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan called Kim’s comments an interesting signal.

"On Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong derided Sullivan’s response." 

Boy howdy.

She said, "It seems that the U.S. may interpret the situation in such a way as to seek a comfort for itself. The expectation, which they chose to harbor the wrong way, would plunge them into a greater disappointment."

The world knows Biden is a joke.

ITEM 10: Zero Hedge reported, "China-Backed Media Highly Critical Of Texas' New Permitless Carry Law."

And the China-backing newspapers in the United States are none too pleased either.

ITEM 11: The Austin American-Statesman ran a fact-check on itself by Politifact, "Fact-check: Did a local report omit a suspect's description 'because he's black'?"

Politifact said it was false.

However, the original AAS story said, "The American-Statesman is not including the description as it is too vague at this time to be useful in identifying the shooter and such publication could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes. If more detailed information is released, we will update our reporting."

Politifact said quoting the newspaper mischaracterizes what it said.

But if the decision not to mention the suspect's race had nothing to do with the color of his skin, what exactly did the editor mean by "perpetuating stereotypes"?

ITEM 12: Kyle Hupfer wrote, "Bad-Faith Democrat Attacks On Election Integrity Are Failing."

He began, "A recent legal proceeding in Florida proves the cheap, theatrical partisanship driving nationwide Democrat attacks on election integrity. Priorities USA, a Democrat super PAC, sued the state of Florida, claiming it made voting-by-mail too difficult.

"One of the plaintiffs, a Yale graduate student, was asked in a deposition to explain why returning his ballot was difficult. ​He explained it was a 30-minute walk to his nearest post office. He was then asked if he knew of Google and if he had used it to look for a closer mailbox. He stated that he had not used Google or done any other research to find closer mailboxes. The student was unaware of the USPS mailbox six blocks away from his apartment or that he could use the mailbox at his apartment complex. This disastrous deposition could have been the reason the Democrats gave up on the case, walking away before the trial even began."

Yale.

Yale graduate student.

ITEM 13: Breitbart reported, "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested how the United States could punish the Communist Chinese government for its role in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic."

He told Fox, "I think there’s a lot of steps we could take that would make China pay for this pandemic,. And they’re steps that, frankly, should have been taken long ago. For instance, we can revoke their permanent most favored nation status. So, the president, the Congress have to decide every year if we’re going to continue giving special trade privileges to China. We could insist that international financial organizations, like the World Bank, treat China like the advanced industrial economy it is, not a Third World economy, as it once was, and stop giving them sweetheart financing deals.

"We can yank visas from Chinese Communist Party officials and their kids, so they can’t benefit from the United States’ free and open system and our world-class higher education institutions.

"There’s a lot that we can do to make China pay for this and make it clear that we’re taking these actions in part because of Chinese malevolence and deceitfulness in unleashing this pandemic on the world."

I am starting to cotton up to Cotton. He speaks my language.

We should not be doing business with genocidal, slave-owning Red China. Period.

ITEM 14: NBC reported, "Black people represented the largest increase in traffic deaths last year than any other racial group, even as Americans drove less overall due to the pandemic, according to recently released data.

"An estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020 — the largest projected number of deaths since 2007, according the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of black people who died in such crashes was up 23% from 2019, the largest increase in traffic deaths among racial groups, according to the administration’s report."

Americans drove fewer miles but deaths were up?

The story said, "Calvin Gladney, president of Smart Growth America, said the pandemic has only exacerbated the longstanding problem. He said there are three major reasons black people bear the brunt of roadway injuries: infrastructure, design and racism."

Maybe it is racism. Maybe police are afraid if they pull over a black driver they will be accused of making a DWB (Driving While Black) traffic stop. Maybe because of this fear, black drivers get away with breaking traffic rules. And breaking traffic rules increases the odds of a traffic fatality.

ITEM 15: AP reported, "More than 150 employees at a Houston hospital system who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine have been fired or resigned after a judge dismissed an employee lawsuit over the vaccine requirement.

"A spokesperson for Houston Methodist hospital system said 153 employees either resigned in the two-week suspension period or were terminated on Tuesday.

"The case over how far health care institutions can go to protect patients and others against the coronavirus has been closely watched. It's believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. But it won’t be the end of the debate."

Hold on there.

We shut down a $20 trillion a year economy so that the hospitals would not be overrun with covid 19 patients, and a year later hospitals are firing workers?

Governor Abbott should get both sides together, lock them in a room, and not let them out until they reach an agreement.

We moved heaven and earth for them and these ingrates are squabbling over a vaccine. Do hospital administrators even know how a vaccine works? Even the NFL is not firing the unvaccinated, and the NFL is run by some pretty stupid people.

ITEM 16: Market Watch reported, "When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it’s used.

"Then they’re selling it to consumers for more than $33,000.

"Welcome to the wacky world of U.S. car and truck sales, where the pandemic and a global shortage of computer chips have pushed prices to record levels.

"In the past year, used vehicle prices on average have climbed 30%, according to Black Book, which tracks car and truck data. That’s created many crazy situations where high-demand vehicles are selling for more than they did when they were new, said Alex Yurchenko, the company’s senior vice president of data science."

Wife should have let me buy that Bentley last year when they were slashing prices.

ITEM 17: MSN reported, "Military officials said Monday that vessels participating in a Russian naval exercise in international waters off Hawaii are beginning to move away from the islands.

"Capt. Mike Kafka, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesman, said the closest Russian ships were confirmed to have come within 20 to 30 nautical miles off Hawaii."

Putin really fears us under Josef Biden, doesn't he?

Remember when Biden bragged about confronting Corn Pop as a lifeguard?

The world is kicking sand in the Corn Pop confronter's face daily.

ITEM 18: The Daily Mail reported, "The mayor of a small town in Colorado has banned his Board of Trustees and guests from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at public meetings because of what he called 'direct threats' in his community.    

"Shane Fuhrman, the mayor of the 550-person mountain town Silverton, made the announcement at a board meeting on June 14, which is Flag Day.  

"But the entire room of attendees, and two board members, stood up and recited the pledge anyway, to which Fuhrman responded by threatening to kick them all out of the meeting. 

"Fuhrman explained that he made the executive decision to ban the pledge 'due to direct and indirect threats and inappropriate comments in and out of public meetings and the general divisiveness of issues created in our community.'"

Fear Führer Fuhrman's fury.

Dear Silverton, Colorado: Stop electing crazy people.

ITEM 19: The Daily Mail also reported, "IKEA in Atlanta is under fire after its management team devised a 'racially insensitive' menu for Juneteenth which featured fried chicken and watermelon."

Well, that was dumb.

But there are black people who ate fried chicken and watermelon on Juneteenth because it is summer!

Don't be so easily offended that you turn down tasty food.

ITEM 20: Newsweek reported, "As temperatures hit triple digits during California's heat wave last week, the state's power grid operators encouraged residents to relieve pressure on the grid by charging their electric vehicles before the peak energy use times of day.

"The California Independent System Operator (ISO), which oversees the grid, called upon Californians to conserve energy twice last week through the use of Flex Alerts, which ask residents to practice energy conservation on a voluntary basis. Charging electric vehicles before the time period covered by the alerts was included on a list of energy conservation tips the California ISO posted on Twitter, as was avoiding use of large appliances and turning off extra lights."

If only there were an alternative to electric cars.

I hear that in Red China they have automobiles that run on gasoline, a fuel that does not require 8 hours of recharging every night.

FINALLY, New York Republicans gave their town hope.

. @CurtisSliwa, the projected winner of the Republican primary for mayor, in part focuses on public safety in his victory speech, promising to “take the handcuffs off the police.” #NY1Politics

LIVE RESULTS: https://t.co/HaTYMyliiJ pic.twitter.com/3XB508qyVU

— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) June 23, 2021

New York, New York, gets a guardian angel.