SALENA ZITO: There Are Deep Roots in These Mountains.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Biden failing with blacks, military, seen as weak and ineffective.

It’s already been a big week for President Joe Biden to show off his commander in chief and race relations credentials, but two separate polls show that the public finds his actions weak and ineffective.

In one timed for Memorial Day, voters by a margin of 43%-32% said that Biden was a weaker chief compared to recent presidents.

Worse, it found that most feel Biden is “less aggressive” with foreign leaders in pushing American interests first.

And in another timed for Biden’s trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, today for ceremonies on the 100th anniversary of the so-called Tulsa massacre, voters 39%-28% said race relations have turned worse since Biden took office.

Well, that’s because they have. Biden replaced a president whose opening statement was “When you open your heart to patriotism there is no room for prejudice,” with one of the most racially-divisive administrations since Woodrow Wilson’s.

Related: Biden’s Divisive and False Tulsa Speech. To be fair, Biden has already forgotten what he said.

IT’S JOE BIDEN, WHO’S BEEN IN DC SINCE THE SEVENTIES. WHAT DID VOTERS EXPECT? Rasmussen Says Joe Biden May Be Only A Shadow Of The President People Wanted.

Or, in terms of spending, so, so much more: Joe Biden’s Trojan horse presidency. “Biden’s early approach to spending makes the New Deal pale in comparison. He has utterly discarded any semblance of fiscal restraint he ever had as a senator, throwing caution to the wind to push through a $1.9 trillion partisan COVID-19 “stimulus” package that, adjusted for inflation and population, is twice the size of the Obama-era bailout and slightly larger than former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.”

WELL, SO SAYS MAGGIE HABERMAN OF THE NYT: Trump Reportedly Thinks He’ll Be ‘Reinstated’ By August… Can He Be?

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY: Biden Administration Embraces Democrats’ Least Favorite Legal Defense. Perhaps they have reason to think they’ll need it.

CONRAD BLACK: Guilt for January 6 Belongs With Those Most Eager to Condemn It.

When I first knew George Will, he was a champion of the Reagan Revolution. I accept that Trump is much harder to warm to than Reagan, but in policy terms, he is Reagan’s continuator, after seven terms of indifferent or inept government. Trump’s revolution is just as necessary and just as worthy of support as Reagan’s, though his public persona is much less amiable. George Will, Peggy Noonan, and other estimable friends who are normally sensible bear heavy responsibility in the disaster that has now been riveted on the backs of the American people and the world. As Bill Clinton might say, I feel your guilt. As the ghastly current jargon goes, you own this debacle. Donald Trump isn’t the problem, you are.

Read the whole thing.

THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY RIDES AGAIN:  This time, they’re in Tulsa commemorating the Tulsa Riot of 1921.  (The last time I dealt with them was when they were involved in voter intimidation in Philadelphia.  They’re not exactly your average civic organization.)

BY DESIGN: The Proliferation Of Critical Race Theory Is Killing American Schools With Politics.

AMERICA THE OUTLIER: Photo IDs for Voting Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere.

NOT SO BIONIC:  The Six-Trillion Dollar President.

GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING: AP ‘Fact Check’ Tries to Protect Biden from Rising Gas Prices.

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines who are terrified of being locked in their boss’s closet, and it all makes sense.

I REMEMBER WHEN ACADEMIA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE VALUABLE BECAUSE IT FOSTERED MEASURED, CRITICAL THOUGHT: “As non-native speakers of English we are grateful to Steven Dean for pointing out to us that the initial title of this article (Breaking the Shackles of Tax Competition) could be understood as invoking the imagery of slavery.”

Though perhaps as non-native speakers of English, what they’re really saying is “the Anglosphere’s academic sector is so batshit crazy now that we aren’t taking any chances with a mass hysteria we don’t understand” — in which case I’d say “hit the nail on the head with that one.”

ANTIFA IS JUST AN IDEA: Vandals Target GOP Congresswoman’s House With ‘Antifa Markings.’

DEFUNDING/DEMORALIZING POLICE LEADING TO SECESSION? Amid rising crime, wealthy Atlanta neighborhood considers forming its own city.

It’s not just homicides that are up. Rape and assault have also gone up about 30 percent this year compared to last year. And that has residents of Buckhead, a well-off, mostly white Atlanta neighborhood, thinking about splitting off and forming their own city. The move is largely seen as a way to deal with the increased crime.

If you ruin it, they will go. Look for more of this.

OPEN THREAD: Insert obscure musical reference here.

NOBODY IS SAFE: Bethany Mandel on the Twitter mob descending on actress Elie Kemper:

For the last two days, actress Elie Kemper has been trending on Twitter, with the following explanation:

In 1999, actor Ellie Kemper was named the Queen of Love and Beauty at the Veiled Prophet Ball, a debutante ball held in St. Louis, Missouri, which was founded by wealthy White elites in 1878 and ’emphasized the existing power structure’, according to The Atlantic’s Scott Beauchamp

For this, she’s basically been crowned the KKK Queen by the social media site’s users:

Read the whole thing.

More here:

Following a series of protests about its exclusivity, the organization is said to have eventually diversified, allowing African-Americans to join in 1979.

Changes were also made to the name, with organizers doing away with the Veiled Prophet Ball in 1992, choosing the less mystifying Fair Saint Louis.

The ball continues to be held in December of each year, while the associated parade now takes place over the Fourth of July weekend.

Far removed from its beginnings, said to have included floats featuring racist caricatures of different ethnic groups, the fair now looks like any other celebration of all things Americana, including fireworks, abundant food and music.

But frame the story in the right way, and the feedback loop between the legacy media and the social media outrage mob finds another person to destroy.

Speaking of which: ‘Enjoy the libel suit:’ The AV Club reports that Ellie Kemper is ‘yet another rich white celebrity with a racist past.’

UPDATE: “Wait till Twitter finds out Ellie Kemper attended Princeton University, which didn’t have a black graduate until 1948,” Iowahawk tweets.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China is gaining ground in space. Should the US be concerned?

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Abbott Will Play Hardball With Texas Legislature After Democratic Walkout.

AUSTIN BAY: China’s Bio-Economic War on the World Has Begun to Backfire.

NOT THE BABYLON BEE: Democratic Congresswoman Calls For ‘Gender Equality’ In Crash Test Dummies.

JIM TREACHER GOES OUT ON A LIMB: Trump Lost.

I SPOKE ON THE PHONE THE OTHER NIGHT TO MICHAEL YON, about his trip to the Darien Gap to see the tide of illegal immigrants heading for the United States with two members of Congress, Tom Tiffany and another. You can read about it here.

FASTER, PLEASE: Drug acts as Trojan horse to kill cancer cells.

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH A JUDGE ON THE NINTH CIRCUIT COURT IS A VOICE OF SANITY: Ninth Circuit Court Judge Kenneth K. Lee Calls The Last Jedi And The Rise of Skywalker “Mediocre and Schlocky” In ConAgra Ruling.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: BLM Cofounder Patrisse Cullors Called for End to Israel in Newly-Unearthed Video.