WARNOCK MISREPRESENTS HALF-BROTHER’S CONVICTION: Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-GA) not infrequently points to his half-brother’s conviction in 1997 on drug-trafficking charges as the product of “systemic racism.”

Alana Goodman of The Washington Free Beacon reached a radically different conclusion after reviewing hundreds of pages of documents in the case:

“But hundreds of pages of court records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon tell a more complicated story: Coleman was a cop with the Savannah Police Department when he was convicted of facilitating a cross-country cocaine trafficking operation in 1996 and 1997 — and once warned that he could send a drug dealer’s ‘black ass’ to prison if the dealer didn’t pay Coleman more money.

“The details conflict with Warnock’s accounts, which omit that Coleman was a police officer and portray him as a victim of law enforcement corruption rather than a participant in it.”

More specifically, Goodman explains that:

“Prosecutors allege Coleman received $46,000 in dirty payments and helped traffic a total of 28.2 kilograms of cocaine between November 1996 and March 1997.

“On Nov. 21, 1997, Coleman was convicted by a jury of conspiring and attempting to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine, and with carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. He was sentenced to life in prison, and two of his co-conspirators were sentenced to 17 years and 19 years, respectively.”

Warnock lobbied President Barack Obama for a presidential pardon for his half-brother and has often compared the emotional toll on his family with that suffered by the families of Black victims of police brutality.

Georgia voters will deliver their own verdict on Warnock in November.

AS THE INSANITY TURNS (DEEPER): Hans Bader describes the consequences of a Washington state court ruling that overturned the conviction of a non-white guy for lying to a police officer. Why? Because the questions posed to the guy by a police officer were more threatening to him because he wasn’t white.

Aside from the obvious inequity of such reasoning, Bader points to the inevitable consequences:

“By making it harder to question people of color about crimes and suspicious activity, the state supreme court’s ruling will make it harder to solve crimes in communities of color, such as predominantly-black areas.

“Murders are much less likely to be solved in predominantly-black areas than predominantly white areas, fueling a much higher crime rate. And the victims of this high crime rate are disproportionately black, because most crime is committed against people of the perpetrator’s own race.”

Why, Bader’s point is almost so obviously true that it makes you wonder if the white liberals pushing this sort of courtroom insanity are doing so because they hate Black Americans, or White Americans, or both.

UPDATE: Link fixed. Apologies to Hans and Instapunditeers.

CRIMINALS DON’T ‘GROW OUT OF CRIME:’ That’s the conclusion of a 10-year study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that found, according to Hans Bader, “over an eight-year period, violent offenders returned to crime at a 63.8% rate. The median time to rearrest was 16 months for these violent offenders. So, most violent offenders released from prison committed more crimes. Even among those offenders over age 60, 25.1% of violent offenders were rearrested.”

Of course, nobody with even minimal common sense needed a federal study to know that criminals typically continue being criminals once they spent time in prison, if only because prison is where they learn new criminal techniques and skills.

DOCS FROM WHISTLEBLOWER EXPOSE MAYORKAS LIE: He told the Senate last month that Disinformation Governance Board “has not yet begun its work.” Documents provided by a whistleblower to senators Grassley and Hawley show the truth.

SHOULD WE MAKE US SMARTER, STRONGER, FASTER: That’s a question that is becoming increasingly relevant as scientific advances clear the path toward bionic brains and muscles becoming an everyday reality. But the Colson Center’s latest “What Would You Say” video on HillFaith suggests there’s more to the issue than creating an actual “Six Million Dollar Man.” Remember him?

BIDEN IS DOING IT ON PURPOSE: Issues & Insights asks an importance question today regarding the Bumbler-in-Chief – is his utter incompetence just the way he is or evidence of specific intent?

“He set off a 40-decade-high inflation spiral with his $2 trillion ‘rescue’ plan. He exacerbated supply-chain problems by paying people not to work. He threw open the borders to millions of illegal immigrants. He needlessly kept COVID mandates and restrictions in place. He worsened shortages of baby formula and spiking gasoline prices. He encouraged foreign adversaries with his disastrous Afghanistan retreat,” I&I notes.

“In every instance, Biden has said he and his top officials were ‘caught off guard.’ In other words, his is pleading incompetence. The public has picked up on this, which is why most Americans now believe that ‘incompetent’ is the word that best describes this president.”

Still, what about this: “But incompetence doesn’t do Biden justice. In every case, Biden knew, or should have known, what would happen if he pushed his policies. Yet he did so anyway.” It’s a highly disturbing train of thought, but …. there it is.

THE BROKEN WINDOWS ELECTION YEAR: Charles Lehman points to the double-digit rejection by ultra-liberal San Francisco voters of Soros-favorite prosecutor Chesa Boudin as evidence 2022 is the year of “broken windows” elections.

Recall that community policing recognizes that prosecutorial tolerance of small-time crimes like loitering, littering and public defecation is typically a bellwether for the coming of much worse. Voters, even those by the Bay, get that connection when they see spiraling rates of more serious crimes. And they go to the polls to hold officials like Boudin responsible.

Earlier this year, San Francisco voters also recalled three far-left loons on the school board. Given these early results, November is beginning to have the look of a genuine grassroots revolution that could set progressives back years. But as Glenn reminds, don’t count those chickens just yet.

HARVARD LAW LESS WOKE THAN YALE LAW: Can that possibly be true? Aaron Sibarium, writing in the Washington Free Beacon this morning, claims that to be the case. It’s an interesting and encouraging look that includes this observation regarding the presence at Harvard Law of actual conservative professors and administrators, and the utter absence of same at Yale Law:

“The contrast illustrates how a school’s seemingly apolitical properties can have profound effects on its political culture. Harvard is the largest law school in the country, with approximately 2,000 students, 10 percent of whom are members of the Federalist Society. That percentage is not unusual, but the absolute numbers are: Harvard’s Federalist Society chapter boasts 200 students—the size of Yale Law School’s graduating class.”

CAREER SUICIDE TO LEAK SUPREME COURT DRAFT? Maybe, maybe not, according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Kevin Daley. He asked six top law firms about this issue and all six declined to respond. But they are hosting Drag Queen Bingo nights, so there’s that.

WHAT IS SHAVUOT ABOUT? Jeff Dunetz of The Lid explains it all for us Gentiles, most of whom may not realize it begins tomorrow. Hint: It has to do with the giving of the Torah, one of the foundational documents of Western civilization.

APOLOGIES FOR THE MIS-SPELLING OF SHAVUOT.

CAN FAITH BE BASED ON CONVICTION: I say yes, if there is experience, evidence and logic as its foundation. You may think differently and that’s fine. Tell me why you agree or disagree (without the snark, please).

For those who may be interested, these thoughts are in great part a result of my increasing interest in Thomas Reid, the 18th Century Scots “Common Sense” philosopher, an important critic of Locke and an essential antidote to Hume. And what a shame it is that in our age these three are not required reading on campus.

UPDATE: As of 4:15 pm, there are a bunch of thoughtful and insightful comments (on both sides of the faith vs. science debate) that I very much appreciate. And then there are comments by jim_m and twb who just Plato the crowd! I am relieved, however, that they didn’t share their dirty Lenin or I would have had to give them both lower Marx.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PRIDE MONTH: His Fraudulency proclaimed June as Pride Month because America is, according to him and those who think as Joe Biden does, a racist, bigoted, homophobic land marked by “relentless attacks” on LGBQT people.

There are relentless attacks in America but not against those Biden lauds. In my latest column over at PJMedia, I provide three specific examples, which is three more than the President put forth in his defamatory proclamation about the vast majority of Americans.

SOUP NAZIS IN THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: His Fraudulency is warning schools participating in the federal Free Lunch program for disadvantaged children, according to Elizabeth Troutman, that either they comply with the administration’s LGBQT policies or they will no longer get the food for the kids.

Puts a new spin on “But it’s for the children,” doesn’t it?

COUGH IT UP, NIH: That’s the message from five GOP senators, led by Rand Paul, to the National Institutes for Health (NIH), about every royalty payment made by an outside source to any agency official, researcher or scientist since 2009. Open the Books, the non-profit government watchdog that first exposed $350 million worth of such payments to NIHers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, has posted $12 Trillion in government spending at all levels of government. Now that’s what I call government transparency!

BLAME WEED FOR MORE MASS MURDERERS: Ron Kessler makes a persuasive case for the proposition that the growing wave of states legalizing marijuana use is having two effects: First, the weed becoming available today is far stronger than what was common only a few years ago, and as a result, second, stronger weed contributes to increased mental illness and thus it’s no surprise to learn that many of the recent mass shooters were frequent smokers.

NO BIG DEAL IN DC THAT POLITICIANS LIE: John Solomon of Just the News on the moral of the Sussman verdict – As the jury forewoman put it: “There are bigger things that affect the nation than a possible lie to the FBI.”

RATS PREPARING TO JUMP THE BIDEN SHIP: The problem is other rats will jump onboard to continue the madness. Ron Klain, His Fraudulency’s current White House Chief of Staff, reportedly has decided to leave the administration after the midterms (given his tenure, that’s the least he can do).

But guess who the insiders are pointing to as a potential Klain successor? Andrew Stiles says it’s Anita Dunn. Yes, that Anita Dunn of “Oh, Chairman Mao is one of my two favorite political philosophers” fame. She also was a damage control advisor to sexual harassment expert Harvey Weinstein.

CRIME WAVE COMING TO D.C.’S VIRGINIA SUBURBS: In fact, in some respects, it is already there. Here are two of them, according to the Washington Free Beacon’s Josh Christenson. Two Soros-backed prosecutors, one in Arlington and one in Fairfax County, right across the Potomac River from the White House and Capitol.

BIDEN’S WHO PROPOSALS HIT WALL: A buzz saw of opposition hit those 13 amendments proposed by the Biden White House to, according to critics, cede U.S. sovereignty within its borders over public health issues to the World Health Organization (WHO).

IS A METAVERSE CHURCH A REAL CHURCH? Shane Morris of the Colson Center is no fan of the digital church phenomenon sparked by the Covid Pandemic. After all, avatars can’t share a person’s joy or pain.

IT’S THE 1960s ALL OVER AGAIN: Those of a certain age (like me) well remember the SDS and the campus left-wing radicals who rioted and shut down hundreds of campuses, often by blocking access to classrooms and administrative offices.

Now check this out from the Washington Free Beacon’s Kevin Daley on the Left’s plans to shutdown the U.S. Supreme Court. Then the student union. Now the highest court in the land. And just as mindless and destructive of civilization as ever.

ORIGINS OR CONSEQUENCES IN ID/EVOLUTION DEBATE: Instapunditeer Paul Murphy read through HillFaith’s recent reprint of Discovery Institute biologist Casey Luskin’s 12-part series on Intelligent Design and came away asking a deeply perceptive question that advocates on both sides of the debate ought to consider.

PHONICS VINDICATED: Hard to believe but it’s true. A key professor at Columbia University Teachers’ College now says the argument is over, phonics is by far the best way to teach kids to read. Ron Kessler is astounded that the New York Times gives this development such prominence, and don’t miss his personal experience with the failure of the liberals’ long-favored Whole Word approach.

NEW MEANING FOR A FAMILIAR CLICHE: You know, the one about politics makes strange bedfellows. Well, the Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman offers a new twist: Aaron Boonshoft, the Democratic donor who is spending millions to legalize sex work in Oregon. He also spent $400K in Nevada brothels between 2017 and 2019.

NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS BLAMES SUBWAY SHOOTING ON GUN: Just listened to the Mayor’s response to Sunday’s subway murder and arrest of the suspect. It’s all the gun’s fault. The gun is a career criminal, with multiple charges, had just been released by the courts. Oh wait, that wasn’t the gun, that was the guy who pulled the trigger.