SUSTAINABILITY: Deficit Tops $1 Trillion in First Six Months of FY2023.

The federal deficit topped $1 trillion in the first six months of fiscal 2023 (October through March), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

This was despite the fact that federal tax revenues in the first six months of this fiscal year were $2,048,196,000,000, which was the second-highest in the nation’s history (when compared to the inflation-adjusted numbers for the tax revenues collected in the first six months of previous fiscal years).

Left unsaid: Not even near-record tax collections can cover Washington’s insatiable appetite for spending.

DON SURBER ON CHICAGO: Shockingly high crime, shockingly low arrest rates. Call it Blue City Disease.

CRIME: Retail Theft Often Preplanned By Complex Criminal Networks, New Report Asserts.

EXCUSE ME? Losing His Head: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Co-Creator On ‘Mission’ to Take the Show to Iran.

HAHA: Head of U.S. Government News Agency Rejects Twitter’s ‘Government-Funded’ Label: U.S. Agency for Global Media is funded entirely by the United States government.

HARDBALL: Republicans want to make it difficult for Senate to replace Feinstein on key panel.

In response to some Democrats calling on her to resign, Feinstein, 89, asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to find a substitute for her on the powerful committee until she can come back.

With Feinstein’s absence, the committee, split 11-10, has delayed advancing more than a dozen of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees for full Senate confirmation.

Replacing Feinstein on the panel, even on a short-term basis, would require approval from the full Senate. Schumer could ask for unanimous consent on a resolution to make that happen, but any one Republican member could object and block it.

In that case, Democrats would have to go through a lengthy process to garner the 60 votes required to break a filibuster — meaning 10 Republicans would have to join the other 50 Democratic members to allow Feinstein’s replacement.

This would be a more exciting story if there was some indication that the GOP had any inclination to really make the Democrats bleed to get their committee change.

DEAL OF THE DAY: HOTO Flashlight Lite, Zoomable LED Flashlight. #CommissionEarned

SEGREGATION IN THE 21st CENTURY:  For days, Syracuse University students have been conducting a sit-in, demanding, among other things, that “students of color” be permitted to select same-race roommate.  According to the article in Campus Reform, Chancellor Kent Syverud “responded, saying he spoke with students and learned that they had ‘good reason to fear’ roommates who ‘harbor views of racism.’ He stopped short of agreeing to the demand, however, saying that he is having housing experts look into it.”

I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN BIDEN WAS GOING TO BRING STRENGTH BACK TO OUR HISTORICAL ALLIANCES: Is Biden’s Hatred of the English Showing on His Ireland Trip?

TRANSPARENCY FOR THEE, NOT FOR ME: This is rich: Two U.S. non-profits linked with the Global Disinformation Index, a UK-based group pushing for advertisers to avoid selling their wares on conservative media outlets with “opaque” funding, are refusing to disclose such information about themselves, according to the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky.

THE KNIVES ARE OUT: Feinstein situation getting ugly among Dems.

NEWS YOU CAN USE:  Museum offers $25k for recovery of meteorite that landed in Maine April 8th.

I WANT THEM TO DO OLD-STYLE JAMES BOND AS A MALE FANTASY:  Young actors don’t have the ‘experience’ to play James Bond: casting director.

SHE’S GONE HIGHER:  Mary Quant, ’60s designer who invented the miniskirt, dead at 93.

JUST ANOTHER WAY TO AVOID BEING A GROWN UP MAN:  The false promise of “alpha males”.

FORTUNATELY NOT LITERALLY. WHO WANTS FRAUDSTER SOUP?  FSU professor in hot water after faking data for racism studies.

INTERESTING:  Blacklist followup: Rhode Island school district fails to respond to lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against Christians.

SO THAT’S WHAT THEY’RE DISTRACTING FROM:  Letitia James Deposes Donald Trump.

MY SHOCKED FACE IS GOING TO GET A WORK OUT:  Reuters: Iran Used Earthquake Relief Flights to Deliver Advanced Weapon Systems to Syria.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE:  Ex-Obama Staffer: Joe Biden Conducted ‘Malfeasance in Office to Enrich His Family’.

DO YOU THINK SUSAN RICE MEANS THIS KIND OF RACISM? Equal Protection Project Calls On SUNY To Cease Supporting Blacks-Only Albany Public Library Fellowship.

I mean, having fellowships and positions reserved for certain races instead of competent people is detrimental economically — though still hard to quantify — but I very much doubt that’s what she means.

OH, SUSAN RICE, PLEASE! FIRST, DEFINE RACISM, THEN EXPLAIN THE MATH: Senior Biden Admin Official Claims Racism Cost US Economy $16 Trillion.

I say bad science fiction has cost the economy a hundred trillion. It’s just as valid. Change my mind.

LEFTIST PRIVILEGE:  Biden’s DOJ recommends no jail time for abortion activist who vandalized church, assaulted worker.

THE LEFT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE DOING TO CITIES:  Nearly third of New Yorkers want to move out, fed up with crime, housing costs, poor schools and more: poll.

They don’t realize technology currently means the old “come back” scam cycle won’t work.

GOOD … BUT:  It shows what a messed up world we’re in that this is considered reason for optimism:  “Cornell rejects student government resolution for mandating trigger warnings.”