IT’S COME TO THIS: Carjacking victims told to pay DC tickets racked up by the criminals who took their car.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: ICE Nominee Worked With BLM to Push False Claim That White Man Murdered 7-Year-Old Black Girl.

STACEY LENNOX: What Voters Are Saying About Critical Theories Should Have Woke Educators Shaking in Their Shoes.

SHOCKER: April Gun Sales Indicate Gun Industry Continues to Thrive.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? In the Middle East, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board.

The alarm in Jerusalem is justified, if the May 1 statement by Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in Vienna, is anything to go by. The American negotiators, he claimed, had already agreed in principle to remove sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, automotive industry, financial services, banking industry, and ports—to eliminate, in other words, all of the most significant economic sanctions ever imposed on Iran. Recent statements from Biden administration officials give us no reason to disbelieve Araghchi, and the smart money is now on a full resurrection of the JCPOA in relatively short order.

But even the Israelis have yet to absorb the full scope and magnitude of Biden’s accommodation of Iran. The problem is not that Sullivan and Blinken are failing to restrain Malley, but that they are marching in lockstep with him. A consensus reigns inside the administration, not just on the JCPOA but on every big question of Middle East strategy: Everyone from the president on down agrees about the need to complete what Obama started—which means that the worst is yet to come.

At this point — and we’re less than four months in — my best hope for the Biden Administration is that they don’t get us into more than one major war.

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Israel’s ‘full scale’ war, US gas crisis take backseat to media’s Cheney obsession.

Related: Journalist Drops an Inconvenient Truth on the Liz Cheney Concern Trolls. “If you think Liz Cheney’s GOP leadership post is an issue voters are going to care about in the midterm elections… prepare to be sorely disappointed.“

OLD AND BUSTED: Gas Rationing.

The New Hotness? Chick-fil-A sauce rationing! Chick-fil-A sets sauce limit as industry-wide shortage hits chain.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Adam Kinzinger’s Low-T Never Trump Shtick Is Just Sad. “Republicans in the House picked up seats last year when NOBODY expected them to. Exactly what does Rep. Kinzinger think his caucus needs to heal from? All the unexpected winning?”

URBAN CAMPING: Denver Fire Removes Hundreds Of Pounds Of Propane From Homeless Encampments, Worries About Large-Scale Disaster. “Firefighters say many camps — in populated areas, along busy streets, and under bridges — have several tanks of propane. It’s a dangerous mix that led to a close call in northeast Denver last month. Explosions rocked the area after 500 pounds of propane erupted in a tractor trailer-turned-homeless encampment.”

WELCOME BACK CARTER: Laws Against Price Gouging Won’t Fix the Long Lines at the Gas Station.

WELL, CERTAINLY IN CHINA: University of Washington study suggests COVID-19 deaths far higher than official reports.

BIDEN’S RETURN TO NORMALCY: Trump Blasts Biden For Middle East Violence. “Because Israel’s adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden’s weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies. America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself.”

AS LONG AS IT CAN TELL THEM APART: Ultrasensitive antigen test detects SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses.

JOHN KERRY HAD ASSURED ME YEARS AGO THESE HAD BEEN DISPOSED OF AND ASSAD COULD BE TRUSTED: UN finds undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in Syria.

I’M SORRY, BUT ACCELERATION FEELS AWESOME: Scientists Just Identified a New Kind of Stress Response Triggered by Driving.

NOT THE BABYLON BEE: Here’s a 97-item “Privilege Checklist” courtesy of the YWCA that is 100% real. You’re welcome.

Wait — considering the omnipresent chance of a cavity search, who isn’t nervous in an airport security line?

WELCOME BACK CARTER: Breaking: U.S. Inflation Soars.

GOODER AND HARDER: Whitmer Can’t Hurt Michigan Enough, Threatens to Close Another Pipeline.

THANKS, PRESIDENT TRUMP! Want a coronavirus vaccine? U.S. pharmacies say walk right in.

THAT ’70S SHOW: Post-COVID, no action from Biden, Dems was required for job market to soar. Now look at the mess they’ve made.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Antisemitic Attacks Spike in NYC as COVID-19 Fades.

SADLY, NOT SATIRE: Biden Continues Rollback Of Trump Policies Like Peace In The Middle East.

Plus, ouch.

WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: Maryland billboard calling Biden, Harris ‘s–theads’ raises stink.

(Classical reference in headline.)

GAIN OF FUNCTION: Its PolitiFact vs. PolitiFact and Dr. Fauci vs. Reality.

Dr. Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul had a contentious exchange at a Senate hearing yesterday. The gist – Se. Paul said the NIH funded ‘gain of function’ research (say, what!) at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and Dr. Fauci emphatically denied it.

PolitiFact then ran a non-fact check interview with Dr. Fauci in which he denied it again.

But – awkward moment – in a Feb 2021 Fact Check, PolitiFact noted as an aside that, per MIT biologist Kevin Esvelt, the NIH had funded gain of function research at the WIV. In that article they exonerated Dr. Fauci of a broader claim, that he had funded research that directly led to the COVID-19 virus.

The Team Fauci spinners will be earning their paychecks today. Let’s dive in. . . . Here is the paper in question, which acknowledges funding from the NIH. The bit on recombining genes and testing the lab creations for infectivity is excerpted below.

Does Team Fauci wants to insist this is not gain of function research?

Plus: “And do note: Nicholas Wade, formerly of the NY Times, Science and Nature points an accusing finger at Dr. Fauci and the NIH funding process. As does Nicholson Baker in NY Magazine.”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Hamas Attacks Israeli Civilians, Left Aghast That Israel Responds.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: Were you aware that if you give more money to terrorists you get more terrorism?

Answer: Everyone knows that, so why doesn’t anyone in the Biden Administration?

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Biden extends Trump EO on cybersecurity, fails to mention Trump by name
• Governor Stacy Abrams still not actually governor of anything except for “Say what?” moments
• One of the cutest adoption stories ever

Bonus Sanity: Stephen Kruiser tells me that Biden is getting plenty of rest, so there’s that.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.