CRISIS AFTER CRISIS BY DESIGN: Biden Hollows Out Trump-Era COVID Protections at the Border.

While the Trump administration took a hardline approach to turning away immigrants to avoid “a serious danger of introduction of [a communicable] disease,” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Customs and Border Protection is now quietly walking much of that guidance back. A May memo, reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, highlighted a potential work-around of the safety measures. The memo, authored by senior staff at CBP, emphasizes the ability of “customs officers [to] determine [who] should be allowed into the United States.”

Customs and Border Protection officials say the Biden administration is looking to liberally interpret that provision, which was initially meant for migrants with extenuating circumstances related to humanitarian concerns or political repression. Broadening the humanitarian exemption would constitute a de facto reversal of the Trump administration’s guidance on limiting migration into the country. The shift in policy would come as border patrol agents encountered 178,622 migrants in April, among the highest-trafficked months on record.

“They’re keeping in place Trump’s order while broadening it enough to please left-wing activists,” a senior Customs and Border Protection official told the Free Beacon. “If they rescind Title 42, they can’t deport single men.”

This Administration is all of four months old.

LIVE AT 3:30PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ Live Chat with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.

GOODER AND HARDER: ‘Out of Control’ Shoplifting in Democrat-Run San Francisco Closes 17 Walgreens. “By a margin of 60 to 40 percent, the idiots of California basically legalized shoplifting. Proposition 47, which passed in 2014, no longer made it a felony to steal if the value of what you steal doesn’t exceed $950. It’s also no longer a felony to receive stolen property valued at less than $950. And so…Instead of being punished as a felon, you are hit with a misdemeanor, and in many cases not even that. As you can imagine, this has turned into a free-for-all for shoplifters and a stone cold nightmare for retailers.”

KUDLOW: Changing on Israel, Democrats Turn Toward Iran.

On Tuesday, the Democratic-run House blocked a bill that would have imposed sanctions on foreign entities known to have provided financial assistance to the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas.

A chap named Brian Mast, a Republican member of the House from Florida, sponsored the measure. “Under my bill, the United States will sanction these groups that are supporting terrorism,” Mr. Mast said in a floor speech. “Or if we do not pass this bill, we will not stand together to sanction these groups that are enabling this terrorism.”

Democrats then blocked the bill, and on party lines, by a vote of 217 to 209. Tragic. Tragic that the Democratic majority is moving against Israel and in favor of Iranian-backed terrorists. Tragic that there isn’t total bipartisan support for backing Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East. And certainly America’s greatest ally in that region.

And maybe our best friend in the world. Yet you’ve got Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, who publicly denounced Israel as promoting racism under an apartheid system.

The Left is rife with antisemitism.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE:

● The Squad Is Rooting for Hamas.

● Black Lives Matter Sides With Hamas.

● Obama Bros Tell Supporters to Donate to Charity that Funded Hamas.

● Police Investigate Possible Jewish Hate Crime Attack At Beverly Grove Restaurant.

HMM: Body chemistry can predict severity of depression after death of spouse. Systemic inflammation strikes again? As I’ve noted before, it seems that a lot more diseases have an inflammatory component than was previously thought.

WHERE’S HUNTER, FAT? Former FBI director Louis Freeh gave $100,000 to a private trust for Joe Biden’s grandchildren and spoke with the then vice president in 2016 ‘to explore lucrative future work options’ with Hunter as the middle man.

IN A FEW PLACES IT ARRIVED YEARS AGO: 5 Reasons to Believe Communism Might Be Coming to America.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Low vitamin D levels don’t seem to increase COVID-19 risk, study finds. That’s inconsistent with earlier research, but whatever.

WELL, GOOD: Texas Senate Committee Passes Ban On Teaching Critical Race Theory.

A MINISERIES from S.M. Stirling’s Draka novels?

That reminds me, his latest book, Daggers in Darkness, is out. I finished it the other day and it’s enjoyable.

AND JUST LIKE THAT, RUSSIANS AREN’T THE BAD GUYS ANYMORE: Can’t make this up: Sec. of State Blinken “calls for cooperation with Russia to make world ‘safer.’”

Similarly, Ted Cruz notes, “[B]asically what Joe Biden has decided is pipelines in America, bad. Jobs in America, bad. Pipelines in Russia, good. Jobs in Russia, good. And this is exactly backward. It is asinine. And four months into it, Joe Biden is crawling in bed with Putin and Russia and the enemies of America. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Flashback: So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:

If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:

Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.

“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”

Related: Peddlers of Russiagate Won’t Take Truth for an Answer.

* Yes, I know I spelled President Ron Klain incorrectly.

MATT MARGOLIS: Did a House GOP Report Prove Dr. Fauci Lied to Congress?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Prepare for the Post-Pandemic Summer of Sex. Of course, some of us never stopped.

OLD AND BUSTED: Asian Murder Hornets.

The New Hotness? A Fungus Is Pushing Cicada Sex Into Hyperdrive And Leaving Them Dismembered:

“This is stranger than fiction,” Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University, tells NPR’s All Things Considered. “To have something that’s being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy.”

Kasson, who has been studying Massospora for about five years, says just before the cicadas rise from the ground, the spores of the fungus start to infect the bug. Once it’s above ground and starts to shed its skin to become an adult, its butt falls off.

Then a “white plug of fungus” starts to grow in its place.

A “white plug of fungus” seen in cicadas infected by Massospora.

“It looks as if the backside of the cicada is being replaced either by chalk or by like one of those nubby middle school erasers,” Kasson says.

The insects have no idea what’s happening. The fungus, however, is “pulling the strings” and making the cicadas want to mate with everyone.

Males that are infected will continue to mate with females, but they’ll also pretend to be females so they can spread the fungus to even more partners.

Hey wait — I thought it was wrong to assume someone’s gender in the 21^st century.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Woke Corporate CEOs Get Slammed In Million-Dollar Attack Ads.

OUT ON A LIMB:

Perhaps though, there’s a simpler method:

FIGHT THE POWER: Legal Insurrection Foundation Files Opposition to Education Dept. Proposal To Inject 1619 Project and Kendiism Into Schools.

TEXAS MESSING WITH TEXAS: When the Alamo Gets Its Own Civil Rights History Wrong.

LOST IN A GALLUP: Survey experts have yet to figure out what caused the most significant polling error in 40 years in Trump-Biden race.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University Of Colorado President Pushed Out For Insufficient Leftism.

AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME: Testing out of college. “Page suggests another way to help bright, competent people get a shot at good jobs, even if they don’t have the time and money to complete a bachelor’s degree. Develop a ‘collegiate version of the GED (General Educational Development tests) long used by high school dropouts to earn a high school equivalency diploma.'”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Bay Area Surgeon Offers to Remove All External Traces of Genitalia.

Biden promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400k, but what if it takes that much to fill the tank?

In which Jen Psaki tells the truth (it’s only a meme)

Taking the CDC seriously is now a punishable offense… wait, NOW?

Bonus Sanity: A cranky Democrat wonders if cranky Democrats will cost them the next election.

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

WHAT A SHAME THEY DIDN’T HAVE THEIR SECOND THOUGHTS FIRST: University That Hired Founder of the Discredited 1619 Project Suddenly Has Second Thoughts.

GOODER AND HARDER: ’’Nearly 20 Percent Of Seattle Police Force Quits Following Defunding And Black Lives Matter Riots.

Jason Rantz, a Seattle-based talk show host on KTTH Radio and a frequent guest on Fox News, told The Federalist that “the numbers you’re getting only tell a small part of the picture.”

“You have dozens of officers who are burning their sick and vacation time and will exit the force afterward,” Rantz said. “You have officers who are applying elsewhere and booked to turn in their equipment and uniform, which means they will be gone but haven’t yet been reported as part of the separations yet.”

Diaz was asked by CBS whether the number of officers leaving the force is concerning, to which he said, “It does because we saw our shootings go up. We saw our homicides go up.”

Unexpectedly.