CREEPY JOE IS BACK: Biden Doesn’t Think Your Children Belong to You.

The idea that the government believes that children belong to them and not their parents is a terrifying thought. It raises fundamental questions about the role of the state, the autonomy of individuals, and the family institution.

The concept of parental rights and responsibilities has been at the heart of Western society for centuries. It is widely accepted that parents are responsible for the upbringing and welfare of their children and that the state’s role is to support and protect families in this endeavor. However, if the government were to assert that children belong to the state, it would imply a drastic shift in the balance of power between the individual and the state.

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DONE DEAL: Aaron Rodgers finally joins Jets in trade with Packers, ends 18-year run in Green Bay.

Related: Nine Best Ayahuasca Retreats in New York, Updated 2023.

ALSO DEVELOPING: Don Lemon says he has been fired from CNN.

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record: Sad: CNN Fires Don Lemon After Realizing He’s Past His Prime.

DEVELOPING: Tucker Carlson and Fox News part ways.

KAROL MARKOWICZ: Trump’s insane lies on DeSantis trash successful conservative policies.

Trump has a clear lane in the primary.

He has a record of accomplishment as president; he led the country to prosperity that has since sharply declined; he exposes the politicization and corruption of our government agencies when he’s personally targeted by leftist activist district attorneys like Alvin Bragg and when he is the subject of a baseless search for documents at his home.

He remains absolutely beloved by a segment of the Republican base.

Boom, boom, boom.

Yet he, and the not-very-smart people around him, have decided that for him to win the primary he needs to not only destroy Florida’s extremely popular Gov. Ron DeSantis (who has not yet even announced a presidential run), but also to demolish all of DeSantis’ conservative policies and practices that have been so wildly successful in the sunshine state.

Compare Trump’s staffers leaking to Rolling Stone…

…with DeSantis’ disciplined handling of the DNC-MSM: Not Good Enough, Andrea: ‘Was a Blatant Lie’: DeSantis Team Rejects Andrea Mitchell Saying She Was ‘Imprecise’ on Gov’s Education Views, Vow to Freeze Out NBC.

JOHN NOLTE: The Gloriously Inappropriate and Problematic Reversal of Fortune (1990).

Beware all frail and fascist woketards: Reversal of Fortune (1990) is 111 minutes of trigger-inducing emotional trauma.

The Trump-defending Alan Dershowitz is portrayed as a righteous hero fighting on behalf of a rich, heterosexual white guy.

The movie itself is determined to question our bigotry against this rich, heterosexual white guy.

Those of a certain age remember what was then (1980) called the Sunny von Bülow Case. The only thing our culture loves more than a beautiful socialite is a depressive and drug-addicted socialite. Now imagine a murder attempt thrown into the mix, and not just a murder attempt — a murder attempt in a palatial Newport estate at the hands of Sunny’s second husband.

Read the whole thing.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Garland, Blinken, and Morell Morass.

Doubtless your mother used to tell you to count your blessings. It was good advice. Your situation may be bad. In the case of the United States, things indisputably are bad, and worsening. You know that. But look on the bright side. Sure Merrick Garland, the first American Gothic attorney general of the United States, is a partisan horror show, withholding real protection from Supreme Court justices who are threatened by violent criminals even as he stigmatizes as “domestic terrorists” parents who criticize their local school boards and orders the FBI to conduct dawn raids on critics of the regime. He is a horrible man and a dangerous partisan hack, the very instantiation of the two-tier application of the law that has made such a mockery of justice during Biden’s tenure.

But again, look on the bright side. Garland will soon be gone. And remember, he almost made it to the Supreme Court. Obama nominated him in the waning days of his administration. But Donald Trump had other ideas and—let’s give credit where credit is due—Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made sure that Garland’s nomination got lost when Republicans held the majority. I am no fan of McConnell’s, but I try to remember to say a little prayer for him whenever I list my intentions. By scotching Garland’s ascension to the Court, McConnell did the country a huge favor.

I say Garland will “soon” be gone. Most of my readers will assume I mean on or about January 20, 2025, when the next Republican president assumes office.

It might take that long. But recent developments have me wondering whether he might make his congé even earlier.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Report: Merrick Garland Identified as Official Misleading Congress in Hunter Biden Tax Probe.

(Updated and bumped.)

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Suddenly, the Media Discover Hunter Biden’s Crimes. Why Now?

We’re told that the FBI really, really — honest! — intended to bring four charges against Hunter but alas were stymied by the Attorney General of the United States of America.

So why do the media tell the story now?

To serve Zee Pahty, it appears.

Joe Biden bumbled his way through another week of early lids, slurred words, desperate pronouncements, and hummana, hummana, hummanas from his “spokes” woman Karine Jean-Pierre and her binder.

He announced he will announce his run for the presidency on Tuesday.

Is this the Left’s last-ditch effort to take him off the board before the 2024 election? Sure looks like it.

The media are geared up for it. Let’s see if it works.

And they are:

● It’s Happening! CBS Questions Dem Senator Coons on Hunter Biden Investigation.

● Done With Biden? ABC Admits Most Uneasy With An 81 Year Old President.

● WSJ editorial: Biden is “an octogenarian in obvious decline” and his reelection would be “an historic mistake.”

And from February at NBC: Politico reporter: Biden’s age prompts whispers from top Democrats ahead of 2024.

(Victoria Taft’s article is just for our VIP members; please use the discount code LOYALTY if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.)

SOCIALIST STILL YEARNING TO GO NATIONAL: AOC Targets Tucker Carlson With Grossly Authoritarian Threat.

Democrats constantly talk about how much they want to protect “democracy.” It’s become parodic at this point, with every single thing the left doesn’t like being described as a threat to democratic governance. When you take a step back, though, it becomes obvious who the real threat is.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez illustrated that perfectly in an interview that aired Sunday. While on MSNBC, the New York congresswoman spoke to Jen Psaki, which just rounds out the absurdity of the entire scene. The former press secretary for Joe Biden, one of the biggest political hacks in existence, is now cosplaying as an unbiased journalist, but I digress.

(Also see: AOC Simped for TikTok, and Walked Right Into an Unbelievable Corruption Scandal)

The conversation moved to the supposed danger that Tucker Carlson poses to the general public, with Ocasio-Cortez accusing the top-rated host of “incitement to violence.” She also called for government regulations that would remove Carlson and others she disagrees with from the air.

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record notes: AOC: ‘The Government Must Shut Down Unapproved News Agencies To Defeat* Fascism.’

* Are you sure on this one? Because AOC had several dalliances with fascism during her early “new socialist ‘it’ girl” phase.

Related: The Authoritarian Left: Democrat Threatens Matt Taibbi with Jail.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Just When Dem Debates Would Have Been Interesting, DNC Says There Will Be No Debates.

Add in Marianne Williamson, and the proceedings would get even more fun. The self-help guru and author of A Return to Love got some attention during her 2020 candidacy for her unforgettable quips, which include “You need not apologize for being brilliant, talented, gorgeous, rich, or smart” and “The reason we’re such fertile ground for the dark forces of such lies and social manipulation is that we’re dissociated from the genuine light of self-awareness.” There is a lot of truth to that, and a Biden-Kennedy-Williamson debate could be a marvelous show, featuring the garrulous old liar rattling on about how he got arrested for trying to visit Nelson Mandela in prison or about how his son Beau was killed in Iraq, Kennedy calling out state and corporate fascism, and Williamson waxing philosophical.

That’s precisely why the debates won’t happen. The Democratic National Committee knows that Williamson is nutty, and it thinks Kennedy is nutty, too, and it’s well aware that the less the public sees the dementia patient who pretends to be president, the better. They’re going with Biden for reelection, and they know that he can only hurt his own chances by standing toe-to-toe against a man who can actually articulate a coherent sentence and defend his positions, as well as against a woman who, however loopy she may be, looks like Madame Curie next to Old Joe.

And so despite the fact that RFK, who has never been a national figure, immediately jumped to 14%, there will be no real Democrat race. There will just be a coronation.

And there could very well be: ‘Years of liberal indoctrination:’ Scott Walker warns Republicans about assuming Biden losing is a ‘sure thing.’

AMAZING WHAT A PAYCHECK FROM THE GRAY LADY CAN DO:

● Gun Idolatry Is Destroying the Case for Guns.

—David French, the New York Times, Today.

● My Family Has Been Threatened by Racists. Why Should They Outgun Me? “The right to effective self-defense has never been more important.”

—David French, National Review, August 6^th, 2019.

Flashback:

● ‘Repeal the Second Amendment.’  “I have never understood the conservative fetish for the Second Amendment.”

—Bret Stephens, the New York Times, October 5, 2017.

And yet, at one point, when Stephens was still employed by the Wall Street Journal, he at least professed to understanding it:

#HIMTOO? NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell Steps Down After Inappropriate Relationship with Staffer.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF JEREMY CORBYN’S PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Diane Abbott Loses Labour Whip For Saying Jewish People Do Not Experience Racism.

BUT WILL LIKELY DIE IN THE SENATE: Nancy Mace’s ‘Riley Gaines Report’ amendment passes House.

MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE: 60 Minutes Steps Up to Defend Ray Epps, Who Is Absolutely Not a Fed, Oh No.

UPDATE: The Central Absurd Inconsistency of the Ray Epps Conundrum Described in Two Sentences.

US EMBASSY PERSONNEL IN SUDAN EVACUATED AMID VIOLENT CONFLICT.

HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO: Flappr’s French Revolution Doc a Conservative Game Changer.

The film shows how our modern-day notions of left vs. right descend from the fact that during assembly French conservatives were seated on the right side of the aisle while the Communist Jacobins occupied the left.

The colorful language and historical anecdotes can’t hide the core message – the entire enterprise gave way to Napoleon and, as Professor Jimbo points out, achieved the opposite of what was intended.

The narrator’s arch voice, EQ-ed to sound like it’s coming out of an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, gets a bit grating after a while, but as guest blogger Greg Jones notes, “Professor Jimbo cares not for political correctness, but his historical knowledge is impeccable.” Click over to watch.

BUT GAVIN NEWSOM ASSURES ME THAT CALIFORNIA IS STILL AWESOME: It’s official: North Texas lands another headquarters move from California.

Irving City Council has given an economic incentives package for Kelly-Moore Paint Co. the green light, spurring forward the independent paint retailer and manufacturer’s headquarters move from California to Dallas-Fort Worth.

As part of the agreement, Kelly-Moore is expected to receive a $75,000 economic development grant.

Kelly-Moore, currently based in San Carlos, California, plans to move its base of operations to 15,000 square feet within 500 E. John Carpenter Freeway. It must do so by year-end 2024 per the agreement with the city.

The company is required to create 30 new, full-time jobs with an average salary of $100,000, as part of the arrangement.

Kelly-Moore previously relocated its manufacturing operations to Hurst [TX] in 2017.

Flashback: Yes, U-Haul Ran Out of Trucks for People Moving Out of California.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: The Unbearable Bud Lightness of Being.

ALL WE KNOW IS THAT HE’S CALLED THE STIG: NBC disinformation reporter is actually a partisan opinion writer.

[Ben Collins’] work doesn’t focus on breaking news stories nearly so much as it does on spreading naive disinformation. Collins’s intent appears to rest with scoring cheap Twitter hits and accruing the associated endorphin release gained when his sympathetic colleagues then praise his hot takes. Take what happened on Thursday when the SpaceX Starship rocket lifted off and shortly thereafter exploded over the Gulf of Mexico. This was a result predicted by SpaceX founder and Twitter owner Elon Musk and by engineers on the massive project. Still, Collins couldn’t help but weigh in on his Twitter feed, saying, “The kid gloves we in the press give this man is unbelievable.”

To be sure, Musk isn’t perfect. His commitment to free speech is flexible, for example. But again, Collins’s rhetoric isn’t exactly reporter-style rhetoric. It’s clearly a statement of loaded opinion. Of course, this isn’t the first time Collins has prioritized scoring cheap points against Elon Musk. Indeed, he was reportedly suspended by NBC News for a brief period for his rabid hyperventilating surrounding Musk’s purchase of Twitter.

Just a day prior to Collins’s foray into rocket science, he reacted after Twitter suspended a journalist from Wired for soliciting hacked information pertaining to conservative commentator Matt Walsh. That solicitation was a violation of Twitter’s terms of service. But Collins instead offered his familiar hyper-partisan glibness, tweeting, “Fun fact: This is the very same rule that was used to block distribution of the New York Post story about Hunter Biden, the greatest First Amendment violation in American history.”

Related: Are the Walter Cronkite journalism awards for real? “Ben Collins, the NBC News reporter who cried on television and demanded reporters do better in the wake of the Club Q nightclub shooting, received special recognition from the Cronkite Awards.”

Other 2023 awardees stand out, like ABC News’s Terry Moran. Moran earned his national program award for a Hulu special about voter fraud, and was at least partially recognized for his incredibly dogged reporting “from a Tudor Dixon rally in Michigan”. Remarkable stuff! Members of VICE News were awarded for “airing death threat voicemails to poll workers — and calling the perpetrators back.” One judge called the hard work of pressing play on another person’s iPhone “compelling and courageous.” Jordan Klepper, a comedian with The Daily Show who, naturally, only pillories the political right, received a “special recognition for using humor to inform and engage audiences.”

Walter Cronkite was not the perfectly objective journalist that some older generations like to romanticize. But he certainly was a lot better than the clowns who are receiving honors under the award named after him!

Or was he? Walter Cronkite: Liberalism in the Guise of Objectivity.

(Classical reference in headline.)

TAMMY BRUCE: The Parasitic Nature of the Left’s Attack on American Children.

Attempts to legitimize the destruction of the nuclear family continue apace. This time the monstrosity of the argument is presented in virtual Technicolor glory by New York Magazine. In a featured opinion piece titled “Children Are Not Property” by Sarah Jones, a senior writer for the magazine’s politics coverage treats readers to an argument that is so predictably absurd some have wondered if it is actual satire or even written by artificial intelligence.

But sadly no, we must presume that Jones actually sat down and wrote the screed declaring parents threaten the well-being of children and somehow a bunch of strangers unrelated to children are a better alternative to raise and influence the most vulnerable among us. After the public school/teacher’s union debacle with our children and the continuing obsession with teaching them to be racist and transgender, you will be forgiven if you laughed out loud spurting that milk you were drinking through your nose. You’re not alone.

Jones writes: “Like any piece of property, a child has value to conservative activists. They are key to a future the conservative wants to win. Parental rights are merely one path to the total capture of state power and the imposition of an authoritarian hierarchy on us all. So it’s no surprise that children have long been a fixation to the right wing.” Moreover, as the New York Post reported, she bleats “’right-wing Christians’ have embraced the parental rights movement in a bid to mold their children how they choose, ‘much like any domesticated animal.’”

Great moments in projection. But it’s one that’s Comcast approved:

And it’s Nation magazine approved as well:

You may not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you (and your kids).

DNC-MSM CONTINUES TO SHOW STRANGE NEW RESPECT FOR ORANGE HITLER: ‘To Trump’s Credit:’ CNN’s Don Lemon, Alyssa Farah Griffin Pounce on Chance to Bash DeSantis With Trump Praise.

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN NEW YORK TIMES STAFFERS MELTED DOWN OVER SENDING THE TROOPS IN: Gov. Gavin Newsom calls in CHP, National Guard to help combat San Francisco’s ongoing fentanyl crisis.

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Reuters photos of young kids at Indiana NRA event slammed as ‘set-up’ by parents who say they never gave consent.