WITH THE USUAL CHARITY DISPENSED TO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES: The WaPo Fact Checker fact-checks Stacey Abrams’s denial that she was ever an election denier. “I scrolled immediately to see how many “Pinocchios” this got, but somehow this gets to be one of the statements that eludes the rating. . . . More at the link, but no explanation of why there is no rating. It comes across as very clear that Stacey Abrams was an adamant election denier — for years and in many separate statements. So the question, really, is whether her denying of the denying was clear enough to constitute a lie. . . . What’s subtle about that? Give her the 4 Pinocchios she deserves. The real question is how big a deal it is to challenge elections after the results have been declared. Do we need to pretend there are no problems for the sake of helping people remain calm and accept the outcome or is it perfectly normal to keep investigating and complaining and sowing doubt?”

At the WaPo, and with other “fact checkers,” the answers are different by party. When Republicans ask questions, they’re undermining “our democracy.” When Democrats do it, they’re promoting “our democracy.” Which makes sense when you realize that “our democracy” just means Democratic Party power.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: ‘Armageddon Time’ Director Compares Trump to Nazi Goebbels. “I didn’t make it for Democrats or Republicans. In some ways, I made it for Republicans. When you’re fighting paycheck to paycheck, it’s easy to say, ‘What do you mean, white privilege? I don’t feel any f***ing privilege.’”

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: John Fetterman wipes Black Lives Matter section from campaign site amid attacks over crime. Fetterman’s website previously stated he has ‘championed the idea that Black lives matter’ before the phrase became a ‘hashtag.’

MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH! Kamala in South Korea: “The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea.”

Was it over when the North Koreans bombed Pearl Harbor?! Forget it; she’s rolling.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Bushnell Trophy Xtreme Spotting Scope. #CommissionEarned

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: What Trump Gets Right About Harvard.

Sound like Trump?

Simon’s guest was Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling journalist, podcaster and public intellectual.

For generations, elite colleges have been given a pass in accounting for what they’ve done in exchange for the massive benefits that they have received. The bill has come due. Soon, elite colleges are going to have to answer two simple questions.

Why are they exempt from taxes?

And what has America gotten in return?

What, indeed?

NOW IS IT A RECESSION? Final GDP reading shows US economy shrank 0.6% in the spring, cementing start of recession.

MUST-SEE TV: YouTube May Have Yanked New Italian PM’s Viral Speech, but This One’s Just as Good.

JEFF BEZOS’ EX WIFE DIVORCES HER SECOND HUSBAND, REMOVES HIS NAME FROM EVERYTHING. I assume there’s a prenup, but he’ll probably come out pretty well for a high school chemistry teacher. “Bloomberg’s real-time Billionaires Index ranked her as the 41st richest person in the world on Wednesday, with an estimated fortune of $27.8 billion.”

JUST UNDERSTAND PROGRESSIVISM AS NEUROTICISM AND SELF-LOATHING PROJECTED OUTWARD, AND IT ALL BECOMES CLEAR: Bizarre Documentary Showcases Affluent White Women Paying To Be Called Racists.

OUT: DE-POLICING. IN: Morehouse College students demand security patrols after car burglaries. “We pay thousands of dollars to go and to not have some type of security protocols implemented into our school’s dynamic is kind of concerning.”

The reply: “‘The safety of our students and employees is our top priority, and Morehouse stands in solidarity with our students and neighbors against crime,’ college spokesman Cedric Mobley said in a release reproduced by the news outlet. ‘Our campus police department is working with other local authorities to investigate the cause of these unacceptable break-ins.'”

It’s not 2020 anymore.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Oberlin’s $36 million payment to bakery is ‘just desserts’ for its administration’s misconduct.

ARE ALL ECO-WARRIORS LYING HYPOCRITES? Teen eco-warrior Izzy Cook rips flights to Fiji then admits to recent trip.

A teen eco-warrior is going viral for a live radio interview in which she ripped people flying to vacation hotspots like Fiji — before admitting she’d just got back from that exact trip with her family.

Izzy Cook, 16, left NewstalkZB host Heather du Plessis-Allan laughing hysterically with her admission Friday while discussing the Greta Thunberg-inspired School Strike 4 Climate she is leading in Wellington, New Zealand.

During the chat, the teen environmentalists pushed a plan for people to have to apply to take gas-guzzling flights and only for approved events.

When her interviewer asked if people would be “allowed to go to Fiji” and if such a trip would be deemed “necessary,” the teen replied firmly: “In the current climate crisis I don’t think that that’s necessary.”

After admitting that her own last flight was “maybe a few months ago,” Cook hesitated when asked where she’d flown to.

“Fiji,” she finally replied — leaving du Plessis-Allan bursting into laughter.

“Izzy!” the interviewer said, struggling to contain her laughter.

“Izzy! Don’t you care about the climate, Izzy?” she asked in the clip shared more than a million times by Wednesday.

When the teen replied that “of course” she cared, du Plessis-Allan quipped: “Not enough! You went to Fiji! Izzy, c’mon mate — are you serious?”

After more uproarious laughter, she again asked: “Are you serious, Izzy?”

Can we just say goodbye to “teen eco-warriors” anyway? They all appear to be risible tools.

But scarily risible, with their breezy embrace of requirements that people “apply” to travel, and only be allowed to do so for “approved” events. We know what that means: “Privileges for the nomenklatura, sacrifice for Gaia for you peasants!”

HEH: Woman Who Wrecked Atlanta Has Thoughts on GOP Commitment to America.

ITALIAN ELECTION HERALDS END OF EUROPEAN UNION: It started with Hungary’s Viktor Orban in 2010, picked up with Brexit in 2016 and now is sending Leftists on both sides of the Big Pond into a frenzy as Giorgia Meloni and a national conservative coalition are swept into power by Italian voters.

“Why is this sudden turn to the right happening? Simple. The EU and its member political elites have utterly failed their citizens. Europe is now suffering from absurd ‘net-zero’ green policies that will lead to people literally freezing to death this winter, while their economies and beloved euro currency crash. In Germany, energy prices have shot up by 1,000 percent, leaving people with awful choices — the same ones the rest of Europe and Russia will have to make,” explains Issues & Insights.

Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. Well, the Leftist Loons ruining America deserve it even more but perhaps events in Europe will have a sobering effect here? … Nah!!!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College progressive thinks ‘women-identified’ student center is ‘great step forward in being more inclusive.’

DON’T GET COCKY: “You may have noticed that Democrats don’t want to talk about anything besides abortion. . . . That chart should put the fear of God into every Democrats’ hearts. Especially in light of the fact that every Democrat candidate bloviates about abortion whenever they open their mouth. Except perhaps Fetterman or Biden, but they never know what they are talking about anyway. The changing issue landscape is being reflected in the polling data. As you know polling has been awful in recent years, almost always undercounting Republican support. It’s hard to know if that has been corrected, but if not the polling is really really awful for Democrats, instead of merely really awful.”

Regardless, if you care about this election you should be volunteering and donating.

More here. “A plurality of voters also did not approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, jobs, healthcare, immigration, climate change and a host of other policy areas surveyed in the poll. The economy was the top issue among 44 percent of voters (the highest of any issue in the poll), and 61 percent disapproved of Biden’s handling of the economy. It’s not just the highest issue of any for respondents; it laps anything else, and nearly eclipses anything else. ‘Women’s issues’ gets less than a third of that support as a midterm priority.”

COLD WAR II: ‘Savior of Tehran’: China Props Up Tehran With Major Oil Purchases.

China “has proven to be the savior of Tehran by continuing to import millions of barrels of oil every single day,” according to newly released figures calculated by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that tracks Iran’s illicit oil trade. “Chinese imports have likely even exceeded the purchases made when the trade was not subject to U.S. sanctions.” Iran’s oil trade is heavily sanctioned by the United States as part of measures aimed at curbing the hardline regime’s revenue sources.

“It is widely acknowledged,” according to UANI, “that China is principally responsible for keeping the Iranian regime in business through oil purchases that have totaled $38 billion since President Joe Biden assumed office.” Entities found to be complicit in violating sanctions can face huge fines and be iced out of the U.S. financial system.

While the Biden administration has not nixed U.S. sanctions on Iran’s lucrative oil trade, it has eased its enforcement of these measures, according to experts tracking the situation. This has allowed Iran to export around 1,000,000 barrels of crude per day to Beijing amid a global supply crisis and enriched Tehran’s hardline regime at a time when its grip on power is more threatened than ever.

This really is Obama’s third term.

NONSENSE, THAT ONLY HAPPENS UNDER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS: IG Report: Migrant children held at Fort Bliss under distressing conditions.

I mean, there hasn’t even been a crying parking-lot photo op with AOC.

TRUE:

Related: We must make public health authorities accountable for their COVID lies.

Plus: Team Biden’s plan to ‘ensure scientific integrity’ should start with itself.

So how do you promote scientific integrity? To start with: by not lying. That alone seems like a stretch for Fauci, Collins and much of the rest of the public-health establishment. Treating disagreements about science in a scientific rather than political fashion would also help. And a sizable dose of personal integrity on the part of the people running these institutions is essential, though currently absent.

It’s more than clear that none of these things has marked our COVID response. Last year I called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to rigorously investigate all the wrongs in our response. These new revelations underscore its necessity.

Still true.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Fascist Creep Factor for Biden’s DOJ Gets Worse Every Day. “We’re almost in ‘stick a fork in it, it’s done’ territory when it comes to justice.”

COLORADO: Aurora passes law to send shoplifters to jail.

Larger businesses have lost up to a million dollars according to the Havana Business Improvement District.

Davenport works with 70 small businesses in his Antique Mall.

“It’s just hard there’s no solution. Everybody’s hands are tied so we need to come up with something,” Davenport said.

At-large Council Member Danielle Jurinsky is helping spearhead the campaign to give shoplifters jail time.

“I hope that we send a message that if you come to Aurora and you steal anything you will go to jail,” Jurinsky said.

More like this, please.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Most fear ‘1930s-like Depression’: Rasmussen poll.

Voters see no end to the economic destruction under President Joe Biden, with most now predicting a 1930s-style Great Depression.

In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, 57% said that they believe the United States will enter a “1930s-like Depression” soon, including 21% who think a depression is “very likely.” Just 32% don’t think the downturn will end that badly.

The new survey is the latest warning sign to the White House and the Democrats eyeing a 2024 presidential bid. Most respondents have said in recent polls that they believe the nation is on the wrong track, but a depression is a whole different game.

Just today, noted investor Stanley Druckenmiller said he believes the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening measures will put the U.S. economy into a recession.

“Our central case is a hard landing by the end of ’23,” Druckenmiller said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha Investor Summit in New York City Wednesday. “I will be stunned if we don’t have a recession in ’23. I don’t know the timing but certainly by the end of ’23. I will not be surprised if it’s not larger than the so-called average garden variety.”

In recent months, inflation, gas prices, and mortgage rates have hit or nearly hit two-decade highs, and polls have shown that a worried public is bracing for a hard economic landing.

Related: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

DO WE HAVE A PRESIDENT?

In fact, Biden’s teleprompter was cuing him to speak about Walorski specifically because she is deceased. The man in possession of our nuclear football did not know the woman he was calling out for is dead, did not know he was supposed to be honoring her memory – because she is dead – and likely did not know what was supposed to happen after that moment.

Apparently, a memorial video was supposed to play, but the White House aides shut down the President and never played the video in a desperate attempt to erase his doddering cluelessness.

It would be funny if it weren’t yet another humiliating gaffe in a string of Biden bumbles. Every time we see him out in public we are subjected to images of our President stumbling, walking with the fragility of a man who isn’t quite in control of all of his bodily functions, trying to shake hands with people who aren’t there, looking to handlers to help him find his way off a stage or out of a room…the list goes on and on.

Related: Who’s our real president? Joe Biden — or the staffers who keep walking back his comments?

BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO THINK ABOUT THAT: Why don’t media outlets ask about the origins of Meloni’s opposition? “She established the Fratelli d’Italia in 2012, along with two other much older politicians. In the ensuing decade, her new party has come to dominate the Italian Right and to shunt the centre-Left Partito Democratico into second place—a party which itself evolved, via a series of name changes, from the Italian Communist Party in 1991.”