OLD AND BUSTED: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

The New Hotness? Washington Post Tells on Itself in Hit Piece on Conservatives Allegedly ‘Exploiting’ Nashville Mass Shooting.

Sooo… three days ago it was okay for the Washington Post to exploit the victims of the shooting by portraying the area’s Congressional representative as tacitly complicit in their deaths, but now it’s wrong for the right to allegedly be “exploiting” the trans identify of the Nashville shooter (even though it was the media who made the biggest fuss about Hale’s pronoun status early on while fretting over “misgendering” her)?

Apparently so:

Remember, when they do it, it’s always (D)ifferent. Always.

The Journolist was certainly hopping last week: USA Today Victim Switcharoo: ‘Far-Right Rhetoric Against Trans Community.’

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS: New York Times Loses Twitter Verification Badge.

TABLET: The Hoax of the Century.

Tablet’s Jacob Siegel has written a lengthy and fascinating account of what he calls the hoax of the century. Matt Taibbi, whose work on the Twitter Files is mentioned near to opening of Siegel’s story calls it the “Grand Opus on the Anti-Disinformation Complex.”

It’s impossible to summarize an article of over 10,000 words but think of this as a kind of grand unifying theory of roughly the last decade of our domestic politics. It attempts to tie together everything from the 2016 election to the Russia collusion story to the push against internet so-called disinformation by government entities with the cooperation of giant social media companies. This is big government as big influencer.

Read the whole thing.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot: [Mayor London] Breed’s New Budget Defunds Police by $120 Million to Cut $1.5 Billion Deficit.

—SFist, July 31^st, 2021.

Chaser: San Francisco Throws in Towel, Asks Federal Government for Help Cleaning Up City amid ‘Unprecedented Police Shortage.’

—Slay News, yesterday.

BILLIONAIRES SUBPOENAED IN EPSTEIN LAWSUIT AGAINST JPMORGAN:

The co-founder of Google and the chairman of Hyatt Hotels Group were subpoenaed along with two other US business leaders as part of a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the case.

Sergey Brin, Thomas Pritzker, Michael Ovitz, and Mortimer Zuckerman were served with information requests by lawyers for the US Virgin Islands, the person said. The territory claims JPMorgan knowingly benefited financially from Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme.

Flashback: The media protected Jeffrey Epstein and crucified Brett Kavanaugh.

OKAY, GROOMERS: Popular kids toy company ‘Build-A-Bear’ turns heads with new ‘RuPaul’ drag queen bear.

THANKS, ALVIN! Hunter Biden is going to be indicted.

Thanks to New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg, a former president Joe Biden is likely to live out his remaining years watching his only living son go to federal prison. He might even find himself charged as a co-conspirator in one of Hunter Biden’s several financial entanglements for which he currently finds himself under DoJ investigation.

Sure, when that day comes, the media will scream about political prosecutions and the authoritarian streak of President Ron DeSantis and his attorney general. They will write headlines about the United States becoming a banana republic and MSNBC will have to clean graphite off its roof.

None of that will matter, thanks to Alvin Bragg. Nancy Pelosi might be 137 years old, but that probably won’t stop a Republican AG or DA from indicting her for possible insider trading. Martha Stewart went to prison for less. Perhaps a prosecutor will start combing through the financials of the Clinton family. Hillary and Bill might be getting a bit too long in the tooth to be tried for any crimes, but their daughter isn’t. Several members of the Squad have faced financial ethics complaints about campaign funds, including Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Are they next?

Pelosi can attempt to prove her innocence during the trial.

Related: House Dems who ripped Trump for jailing opponents threat support indictment.

QUESTION ASKED: If That Was the Vegas Shooter’s Motive, What Were Local Police/FBI Doing All This Time?

In the aftermath, the Trump administration signed off on a bump-stock ban that went into effect in 2018. It’s been challenged in the courts. We never got a solid motive for Paddock’s rampage, only a lot of conjecture. Every avenue regarding this investigation wound up being a dead end. For years, we knew nothing about Paddock’s motivations for committing mass murder until now, but skepticism abounds as the new theory is that the casinos were mistreating him. After nearly a decade of investigating, Paddock committed the worst mass shooting by a single person in US history because he felt disrespected at the gambling tables. For lack of a better term, this is quite anti-climactic. Authorities still maintain their official position that no motive could be determined to satisfy why Paddock committed this crime. Yet, if this is one step closer to the truth, what were the FBI and local law enforcement doing all this time? This was the big reveal: casino mistreatment[.]

Exit quote: “Will we ever know what pushed Paddock to mayhem? Maybe not. And, of course, this development drops when the nation is reeling over the mass shooting at Covenant School, a private Christian academy, in Nashville, Tennessee, where a transgender killer, Audrey Hale, murdered six people, including three children. Hale left a manifesto behind. When we can peruse that is also unknown.”

I’m sure it’s only the limited resources of the FBI that have stopped them from definitively laying out Paddock’s motives. Maybe when they move into their new digs, they’ll have the manpower to crack the case: Planned New FBI HQ Is Twice the Size of the Pentagon.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Biden calls devastated Mississippi town Rolling Fork ‘Rolling Stone.’

Rolling Fork was hit by an EF4 tornado last Saturday. The devastating whirlwinds killed at least 25 people in the region at the time, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The tornado began near Rolling Fork and moved 30 miles northeast through Silver City. According to radar analysis, the tornado had the ability to lift debris over 20,000 feet in the air and was on the ground for 80 miles.

“We’re not just here for today, I’m determined that we’re going to leave nothing behind. We’re going to get it done for you,” Biden said during the speech. “I’m making sure you got a place to sleep, food to eat, helping you rebuild your lives in Rolling Stone.”

Also in Trunalimunumaprzure! news: Joe Biden to turn down Coronation invitation. US president will not join world leaders but may send Jill Biden, the first lady, in show of support for King Charles III.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Book ‘Em Edition.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: University of Maryland Now Offering Minor in ‘Protest Art.’

Students can now minor in “Creative Placemaking” starting this next semester at the University of Maryland.

“Students in this interdisciplinary minor learn how artists and designers can play a vital role in advancing public dialogue,” and will “[explore] our shared humanity and [while] addressing some of our major challenges,” according to the art department’s website. The new minor will help enrollees spark “conversations about racial injustice, inequitable development, climate change or celebrating the diverse communities and cultures around us.”

No word if they’ll also be given “space to destroy” in Baltimore.

VDH: Left-Wing Violence Chic.

A transgender Tennessee mass shooter this week executed three adults and three nine-year-old children at a Nashville private Christian school.

Supposedly she left behind her a manifesto justifying her mass murdering. As of this writing, law enforcement officials have declined to make the document public.

Yet in about a nano-second after the news was disclosed, the left-wing activist machine kicked in, led by politicians, entertainers, and the media.

Three predictable themes surfaced.

Read the whole thing.

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS: My Last Hours as a Twitter Legacy Verified Checkmark.

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: Biden EPA Gives California Special Authority To Phase Out Heavy Duty Gas Trucks.

WHAT IS A WOMAN? Watch: Riley Gaines and crowd laugh after anthropologist can’t admit bones show sex differences.

.⁦@Riley_Gaines_⁩ to anthropologist: "If you were to dig up… 2 humans… 100 years from now, both man and woman, could you tell the difference, strictly off of bones?"

"No."

*CHAOS*

"I'm not sure why I'm being laughed at if I'm the expert in the room. … I have a PhD!" pic.twitter.com/YYW76ISevI

— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) March 30, 2023

HOW’S THAT WELCOME WAGON PROGRAM COMING ALONG? L.A., Chicago, Other Major “Blue Cities” Suffer the Biggest Population Loss in the U.S.A. in 2022.

MARK JUDGE: American Psycho: The Hatred for Women That Lurks in Gay and Trans Culture.

In 2018, the videographer Monica Rodman published a remarkable article in The Advocate, a gay magazine. Rodman recalled being verbally abused while working on the set of a film. The director of the film, a gay man named George, was “acting unnecessarily hostile toward women, and women only. He treated the men on set as his equals and the women as subsidiaries.”

Rodman had brought up the hate that dare not speak its name: the hatred too many gay men have for women. That enmity has been noted by cultural observers going back at least as far as the gay writer Gore Vidal. It also fuels the modern trans and drag show movements.

The main reason’s obvious: to gay men, women are competition. Gore Vidal wrote about this back in the 1950s. To a gay man, the ideal mate is strong, handsome, athletic, loaded with testosterone, muscular and brave … not effeminate. In short, an idealized straight man. As Vidal saw it, this accounted for a lot of the unhappiness in the male gay community. Their goal is always out of reach.

Read the whole thing.

RAND PAUL: “‘If you don’t like TikTok or Facebook or YouTube, don’t use them. But don’t think any interpretation of the Constitution gives you the right to ban them,’ Sen. Paul said, breaking from his GOP colleagues on a measure that would prohibit use of the app.”

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Executive Director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association charged with importing fentanyl. “The executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association (SJPOA) has been charged with attempting to illegally import a controlled substance, according to the United States Department of Justice. Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, is accused of ordering thousands of opioids to her home and agreeing to distribute them in the United States. A federal criminal complaint states that Segovia used her personal and office computers to order the drugs between October 2015 and January 2023, including fentanyl. At least 61 shipments were mailed to her home from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, and India, the DOJ said.”

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: FBI, CIA Relieved They No Longer Have To Travel Abroad To Turn Countries Into Banana Republics.

DESANTIS FIRES BACK AT MANHATTAN D.A. OVER TRUMP INDICTMENT:

“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” DeSantis said in a statement. “It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”

“Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis added.

Flashback: Are Democrats Deliberately Making Trump a Martyr to Boost Him With GOP Voters?

Many predict that this move will backfire dramatically on the Democrats.

“If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to a report about Trump’s potential pending arrest.

He’s not alone in thinking this way. “If they handcuff Trump, he is your next president,” Scott Adams predicts.

Trump Defense Lawyer Joe Tacopina agrees. “I believe this will catapult him into the White House.”

Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire has another theory. “They want Trump to be the Republican nominee,” Walsh tweeted Saturday, referring to the Democrats. “That’s obviously the play here. There is no other conceivable reason to arrest and perp walk him on a bulls—t misdemeanor charge. I might be overestimating the tactical intelligence of the idiot power-hungry hacks behind this. But if there is any political strategy then that has to be it.”

It’s a fascinating theory, for sure, but I think it gives Democrats too much credit and ignores some key facts. As I previously pointed out, Democrats, including the thugs in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, have been desperately trying to pin something on Trump for years. The party base believes Trump is guilty of something, even if they don’t know what that is, so there’s enormous pressure to give the base what they want.

Matt Margolis’ article is for is just for our VIP members; please use the discount code LOYALTY if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.

CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS HARD AT WORK: Watch Teens Attempt to Carjack Maryland Man, But Can’t Drive Manual Transmission to Get Away.

Two teens who carjacked a man at a gas station in Germantown, Maryland were unable to drive away because they didn’t know how to operate the car’s manual transmission, police say.

A 16-year-old from Rockville and a 17-year-old from Washington, D.C. were arrested after the carjacking on Saturday at the Sunoco gas station on Frederick Road, Montgomery County police said.

A man had just finished pumping gas and was getting into his car when he saw the two teens running toward him, police said. The teens then forced his door open, grabbed him and demanded his keys, which he handed over to them.

When the teens got into the car, they didn’t know how to operate the car’s manual transmission, police said, so they got out of the car and ran off.

Congrats fellas — you’re living the meme!

BIDEN ADDS ISRAEL TO THE LIST OF ALLIES HE HAS ALIENATED:

US President Joe Biden issued his gravest warning yet over the judicial overhaul being advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, saying Tuesday that Israel “cannot continue down this road.”

“Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned. And I’m concerned that they get this straight,” Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One at the Raleigh-Durham airport. “They cannot continue down this road. And I’ve sort of made that clear.”

He also said emphatically that Netanyahu that would not be invited to the White House in the “near term.”

An Obama administration retread trashing Netanyahu? I don’t think I need to borrow Sarah’s shocked face for this one.

And speaking of Joe’s former(?) boss:

JOY BEHAR SAYS THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD: Joy Behar: ‘Trump Is The One Who Needs To Get The Nomination Because Then Democrats Will Win.’

Joy Behar, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” said on Wednesday that she hopes that former President Donald Trump beats Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary because Trump is the candidate that Democrats can beat.

Behar made the remarks after other co-hosts on the leftist show took shots at DeSantis, who has not announced whether or not he will seek the White House in 2024.

Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin said that she believes that DeSantis “is the most over-hyped politician in America.”

“I want to see him sit down with a neutral interviewer like George Stephanopoulos and actually answer tough questions,” Griffin said. Stephanopoulos served as White House press secretary for former President Bill Clinton.

“DeSantis is what they call a dweeb,” Behar exclaimed. “And Trump is the one who needs to get the nomination because then the Democrats will win.”

That’s some serious grifting when Farah Griffin is paid to be the token faux-conservative in the cast, and yet still describes Stephanopoulos as “a neutral interviewer.”

OUT ON A LIMB: There Are No Banned Books. Books are ‘banned’ in Tennessee in much the same way a person can’t say the word ‘gay’ in Florida. It’s a myth.

For the left, the banned book claim is a political racket, allowing them to feign indignation over the alleged “authoritarianism” of Republicans who don’t want kids reading identitarian pseudohistories or books depicting oral sex, rape, violence, or gender dysphoria in their schools.

Yet, major media now regularly contend, as indisputable fact, that “book bans” are in place. The claim is embedded in the Democrat’s daily rhetoric. After the mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, we were not plunged into another inane discussion about “stochastic terrorism” or political violence, but rather a preposterous comparison of Tennessee’s “book bans” and lax gun control. As Liz Cheney noted, “if we really want to keep our children safe, we need to spend less time banning books and more time stopping the horrific gun violence in our schools.”

Books are banned in Tennessee in the same way a person can’t say the word “gay” in Florida. It’s a myth. Yet, here is a recent headline from NPR: “Plot twist: Activists skirt book bans with guerrilla giveaways and pop-up libraries.” In the piece, the reader learns that with “a record number of book bans” on the horizon, “some activists are finding creative ways to make banned books available to young readers anyway.”

“Activists” buying books at a local Barnes & Noble, where an endless supply exists, and handing them to other people’s children against the wishes of parents isn’t so much “creative” as it is creepy. NPR makes it sound as if these people were risking their lives trading Samizdat one step ahead of the Secret Police. Any dope with a car, a bus pass, a bicycle, legs, or an internet connection can hand some impressionable kid softcore porn. Because there are no banned books.

Why is NPR pro-grooming? Flashback: NPR Goes Full Groomer, Promotes ‘Queer’ Sex Education.