BUT DOES BIDEN ACTUALLY WANT THIS CRISIS SOLVED? Rand Paul Introduces Bill That Would (Actually) Help End the Baby Formula Shortage. “Don’t hold your breath waiting on President Biden or congressional Democrats to get on board with this common-sense legislation, though. For too many of them, it seems like simply allowing the market to work is anathema to their very DNA.”

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS WINS ARKANSAS GOVERNOR GOP PRIMARY.

THE PJM MOTHERSHIP HAS LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: Primaries in Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Minnesota.

NBC: Ken Paxton defeats George P. Bush in Texas AG Republican primary.

SPACE LASERS AND GAZPACHO POLICE HARDEST HIT: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cruises to GOP primary win in Georgia.

HAPPY TENTH ANNIVERSARY TO DOUG ROSS’S BADBLUE NEWS AGGREGATION BLOG!

BRIAN KEMP WINS GEORGIA GOP GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY; WILL FACE UNITED EARTH PRESIDENT* STACEY ABRAMS IN GENERAL.

Earlier: Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams’ Pitch To Voters: “Georgia Is The Worst State In The Country.”

* Classical reference:

RUN TO DAYLIGHT: Herschel Walker clinches GOP Senate nomination in Georgia. “Former NFL star Herschel Walker is projected to easily clinch the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia, securing his spot on the ballot to face off against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in November.”

SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Someone Stole Seth Green’s Bored Ape, Which Was Supposed To Star In His New Show. “Actor and producer Seth Green was robbed of several NFTs this month after succumbing to a phishing scam that inadvertently threw a monkey wrench into the plan for his new animated series. The forthcoming show was developed from characters in Green’s expansive NFT collection, but in light of the recent hack, the project’s blatant crypto optimism has become a tragically ironic reminder of the industry’s shadier side.”

CRISES BY DESIGN: This Is The Worst Possible Time For The FHFA To Mess With Lending Standards.

From the placement of keys or strings on musical instruments to the shape, colors, and lettering of road signs, standards surround us, protect us, and ease our lives. They provide practicality, accessibility, and stability.

Yet at a time when our economy is facing countless challenges and continues to send loud signals of instability not seen since the financial crisis of 2008, a federal agency charged with the specific mission of ensuring stability and policing risk in the housing industry is considering a proposal that would abolish the proven standard upon which the mortgage industry relies to determine creditworthiness.

If you are befuddled as to why the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is contemplating whether to tinker with lending standards during a time of elevated financial insecurity and housing market volatility, then you are not alone. It is further astonishing to wonder how the lessons of the ’08 crash have seemingly been so easily forgotten. As everyone is well aware, the underlying cause of that disastrous economic meltdown was the collapse of the housing and mortgage industries brought about by a previous “innovation:” subprime lending.

Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t end badly, this time around.

Earlier: The Economic Doom Loop Has Begun.

GOT WOKE, WENT BROKE: Old Navy Takes Massive Loss, Angers Customers After Going All-In On ‘Inclusivity’ Sizing.

JUST MAKE SURE NONE OF THEIR BRIDGES ARE RACIST: Buttigieg calls for a Marshall Plan-style rebuilding of Ukraine.

Shouldn’t we wait until the war is actually over to implement the next Marshall Plan? And why are we calling for Marshall Plans to other countries, when we’re importing baby formula from Germany to the US?

Earlier: Berlin Airlift in Reverse: U.S. Flying Baby Formula From Germany. “There’s some irony in the news today about U.S. military planes flying baby formula from Germany to Indiana. Only this time, the threat isn’t from a foreign power. The threat is from the criminal incompetence of the Biden administration, which ignored the baby formula crisis for months until the media began to report on it.”

(Classical allusion in headline.)

JONATHAN TURLEY: How the Sussmann trial revealed Hillary Clinton’s role in the Alfa Bank scandal. “Clinton was not supposed to be the object of the Sussmann trial, because Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, issued a series of orders limiting the scope of the trial and its evidence. The orders were viewed as ‘spar[ing] the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee … potential embarrassment.’ Yet, even after winning such limiting orders, it was the defense that called Mook to the stand — out of order, in the midst of the prosecution’s case, because he was scheduled to leave on vacation — and he proceeded to confirm that Clinton herself approved of the tactic. It was Washington’s worst-kept but least-acknowledged secret.”

Related: FBI Leadership Was ‘Fired Up’ over Trump-Russia Evidence, Demanded Investigation Despite Rank-and-File Agents’ Doubts.

EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF “AND.” Modern Journalism: Prostitutes Or Partisan Hacks?

CLARK KENT IS SO SCREWED: New York City removes last public pay phone in an end of an era.

WAIT, I WAS JUST WARMING UP TO THE MONKEYPOX! Experts: Syphilis surge is ‘next’ public health emergency.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: These Are the Only Five Bourbon Bottles You Need.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PROJECTION: Who’s Afraid of Elise Stefanik?

We thought the Washington Post hit some kind of bottom last week when it tried to blame the third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), for a madman’s shooting spree at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

We were wrong. They followed up on Monday with a thinly veiled political attack aimed at pressuring corporate donors to sever ties with the Republican conference chairwoman. Democracy dies when opinionated young women hold leadership positions, or something.

The first article, by Marianna Sotomayor, dredged up a Facebook ad Stefanik’s campaign ran last year, arguing that she is guilty of having “echoed” a version of the so-called great replacement theory espoused by the Buffalo shooter, which holds that the Left is engaged in an electoral ploy to replace white Republican voters with Democrat-voting immigrants.

Earlier: The Left Created the ‘Great Replacement Theory:’ Great Replacement Theory is fueled by woke progressives gloating about America becoming non-white.

WELCOME BACK, CARTER: The Economic Doom Loop Has Begun.

If interest rates are less than inflation, it makes holding cash a losing proposition.

But in this environment, raising interest rates will cause a cascade of problems. The higher interest rates will slow the economy and cause unemployment. It will also swallow up tax revenue as the government has to pay interest on its massive debt. But more critically, it will increase the rate of default on home mortgages. Those defaults will make mortgage-backed securities less valuable and more unpredictable. That’s how the 2008 housing market seized up.

Thus, the doom loop.

The more the Fed props up the mortgage industry, the more it encourages inflation. The more inflation increases, the more urgent it becomes to stop printing money. When the printing press stops and interest rates rise, those MBSs likely will turn toxic again, freezing the market at the exact moment the Fed needs buyers for its bonds.

Related: Is The Housing Crash Starting?

More: Jim Geraghty asks, “We must wonder if, on the horizon, the U.S. is facing runaway inflation, unprecedentedly high energy prices, a recession, a labor shortage, a crashing stock market, lingering supply-chain problems, and the bursting of a housing bubble simultaneously.”

“ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE:” Ricky Gervais released a Netflix special today slamming the trans cultists and hoo boy grab your popcorn. “Remember how Netflix sent a memo to all its woke staff telling them to cowboy up and stop being so offended at everything? Yeah, I think this Netflix special from Gervais was the reason!”

THREAD: “A very long, careful, artful analysis that nonetheless seems to imply a significant number of ‘long covid’ patients are actually suffering from some form of mental illness.”

THE LIMITS OF THE DEMOCRATS’ ABORTION MAXIMALISM:

As poll after poll indicates that Democrats are shedding support among Hispanic voters, a campaign that devotes itself to leftwing abortion politics over more tangible concerns (such as rising crime rates, a ballooning migrant population, and the rising cost of daily life) risks hobbling itself. That strategy would provide the illusion of efficacy, as Democrats enjoy a surge of interest, support, and donations on the national level while alienating voters in battleground districts.

Pro-choice progressives seem honest insofar as they’re willing to sacrifice winnable races to promote their opposition to restrictions on abortion. Democrats with an instinct for self-preservation are, however, picking their battles more judiciously.

QED: Whoopi Goldberg to San Fran archbishop: It’s not up to you to tell Pelosi not to take communion, dude. “Add ‘Catholicism’ below ‘The Holocaust’ on the long list of stuff Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t know a lot about.”

‘SOMEBODY SAVED ME:’ Is Pete Townshend’s New Audio Book Worth a Listen?

My latest, over at Ed Driscoll.com.

LIKE A GOOD GROOMER, STATE FARM IS THERE: State Farm has partnered with transgender advocacy group to indoctrinate 5-year-olds, group says.

UPDATE: State Farm Terminates Partnership With ‘Gendercool’ According to Internal Memo. Sunlight is the best disinfectant:

Related: The Day of Reckoning For Woke CEOs is at Hand.

(Updated and bumped.)

HILLARY DID IT, WSJ EDITION. “I would like to enlarge the context for assessing what we have learned to date. Putin ‘never came close to doing as much disinformation damage’ and, I would add, Nixon never came close to doing as much harm to the objects of his criminal misconduct. However, Hillary Clinton will never face the consequences. That much I can tell you.”