CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: How a lawyer with deep connections to Democratic politicians in New Jersey helped to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax credits.

CRY ME A RIVER: Nations using oil ‘as a weapon’ causing damage to OPEC -Iran oil minister.

HMM: When Loretta Met Bill on the Tarmac. Sorry, this doesn’t add up.

STEPHEN KRUISER: Barr Hearing a Cheap Stunt to Revive Flagging Harris, Booker, and Klobuchar Campaigns.

Sure, he’s cynical — but is he cynical enough?

CNN POLL: Overwhelming Majority Want Investigation into Obama DOJ Spying of Trump.

Flashback, March 2017: “Hypothesis: The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction.”

THERE’S NO IQ TEST FOR CONGRESS, SOMETHING THE WOKE DEMOCRAT DELEGATION CONTINUES TO DEMONSTRATE:

AND BENNETT MAKES 22 IDENTICAL DEMS RUNNING FOR PREZ: Thirteen of the 22 are either in Congress now or recently were, so the American Conservative Union (ACU) and Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) ratings are of great relevance.

And guess what? You need a powerful microscope to detect any differences on major issues among these people. They are all on the far left of the Democratic Party. The ACU and ADA data are mirror images of each other. And these people talk incessantly about “diversity?”

THE POWAY SYNAGOGUE MURDERER ALSO MADE CRAZY CLAIMS OF JEWS ENGAGING IN GENOCIDE: Williams College Students: Why we opposed WIFI [Williams Initiative For Israel]: Challenging WIFI’s complicity in state violence.

There are few nuttier claims out there than the allegation that Israel, with one of the strongest militaries in a world, that could easily wipe out tens of thousands a in few hours, is engaging in genocide against an ever growing Palestinian population that has never suffered anything like tens of thousands of deaths, even over the course of a decades-long conflict with Israel. In the bloodiest years of Palestinian-Israeli conflict since the 1948 partition, 2000-2014, which included the Second Intifada and two wars in Gaza, a grand total of around seven thousand Palestinians were killed (and over 1,000 Israelis), mostly terrorists on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians on the Israeli side.

Nevertheless, the Williams students in question–Yousef Al-Amassi, Joseph Moore, Omar Kawam, Jesus Payan, Soban Mehmood, Kai Soto-Dessen, Mohazzab Abdullah, Ted McNally, Max Wu, Eliza Klein, and Seynabou Diop, for the record–double and triple down on the allegation of genocide, putting them in the intellectual company of the Poway murderer, who complained of Jews’ alleged propensity for “genocidal” behavior.

I’m guessing, perhaps charitably, that these students have no idea that are mimicking centuries of antisemitic blood libels against Jews, including among those from contemporary violent white nationalists. But with Yom HaShoah just ending, someone ought to let them know.

GREAT AGAIN: U.S. Steel Announces $1.2 Billion Investment to Upgrade Pennsylvania Facilities.

AT AMAZON, save on Musical Instruments and Recording Gear.

Plus, deals on Icemakers.

FOREIGN COLLUSION TO INFLUENCE AN ELECTION: Ukrainian embassy confirms DNC contractor solicited Trump dirt in 2016.

NEWS FROM WAPO: Facebook has banned “far-right” Louis Farrakhan.

What’s ironic about Farrakhan landing on Facebook’s hit list is that he’s likely there *because* he’s in the left’s tribe. Tech companies know that right-wingers believe that liberal Silicon Valley is biased against them in its choice of whom to bar from its platforms. Employees at both Facebook and Twitter have complained that they don’t feel comfortable sharing political views that break from the left-wing consensus. The more antagonism there is between tech giants and the right, the more willing Republicans will be to regulate them. At the same time, tech platforms are under heavy pressure from the left to deplatform fringe right-wing populists. How do you dump Alex Jones, then, without being accused of ideological favoritism? Simple: You toss Farrakhan onto the garbage dump with him, Milo, Nehlen, etc, to show you’re being evenhanded in purging yourself of “dangerous” material. I don’t think Farrakhan was the target of their purge, I think he was collateral damage added as an afterthought because of his alignment with Democrats.

And yet here’s WaPo and the Atlantic trying to pin his continued salience in American politics on the right anyway.

That theory from Allahpundit dovetails well with this thread from Ted Frank of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute: “why is everyone calling Farrakhan ‘far right’? I have no inside information, but what happened is pretty obvious and easy to reverse-engineer if you’ve seen sausage being made in crisis communications.”

WELL, MAYBE THIS WON’T HURT JOE THAT BADLY. AFTER ALL, DICK CHENEY WAS IN FAVOR OF GAY RIGHTS LONG BEFORE BARACK OBAMA OR HILLARY CLINTON. Joe Biden faces backlash over resurfaced 2015 video of him praising Dick Cheney: ‘He is a decent man.’

HOLLYWOOD ENDING: Woody Allen Pitched a Memoir. Publishers Weren’t Interested.

In December of 2017, Mark Hemingway explored  “Why Liberals Have Such A Hard Time With ‘Monstrous Men’ And Their Art:”

Frankly acknowledging this might suggest that the liberals have endorsed ideas — e.g. oxymoronic notions of “sexual liberation” — that have been deeply harmful to women, all for the sake of knocking down obstacles to political power. I wonder how much betrayal [Woody] Allen must feel now. He did his part to push a liberal sexual and political agenda, was celebrated for it, and now he’s being drummed out of polite society for enjoying the fruits of these efforts?

As Steve wrote linking to Hemingway’s piece, “I’d just add that perhaps the saddest part about Woody Allen et al. is that they never understood they’d become disposable once they were no longer useful to the cause.”

OPEN THREAD: Do what you must.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Where Was All of This Skepticism about Beto Last Year?

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

WORST. NAZI. PRESIDENT. EVER. Video: Wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein Speaks To President Trump At White House.

A LOVELY STORY OF A USED TIE.

I MENTIONED THIS CASE YESTERDAY, BUT EUGENE VOLOKH HAS MUCH MORE: Armslist Not Liable for Allowing Searches for Private-Seller Gun Ads. “Sounds right to me.”

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Journalist: Biden campaign physically blocking press.

Flashbacks:

● Reporter imprisoned in closet by Biden staffers at Florida Dem fundraiser.

● Vengeance: Biden’s Office Seeks Investigation Into Unfriendly Journalist.

● And then there was Joe’s former boss: Trump’s war on press no match for Obama’s.

AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: U.S. military stops tracking key metric on Afghan war as situation deteriorates. “The U.S. military has stopped tracking the amount of territory controlled or influenced by the Afghan government and militants, a U.S. watchdog said on Tuesday, one of the last remaining public metrics that tracked the worsening security situation in the war-torn country.”

“To what end?” is a question we need to be asking about a lot of things in Afghanistan.

Related (From Ed): Speaking of “To what end?”, Afghan pilot training ends after almost half went AWOL in America, the Air Force Times reports.

(Bumped.)

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why are boringly straight women claiming to be lesbians?

SEXISM IS EVERYWHERE: Facial moisturizers more expensive for women than for men.

RIP: Peter Mayhew dead at 74 after decades-long run playing Chewbacca in Star Wars films. ”Family members said in a statement posted to Mayhew’s Twitter account that the actor died the evening of April 30, 2019, in his North Texas home.”

IT’S SATIRE, BUT IS IT REALLY? Progressive Parents Devastated After Son Comes Out As Straight.