CAN YOU GUESS WHO WINS IF BIDEN FORCES U.S. TO GO EV? Wait for it … no, not U.S. consumers … not the UAW, whose leaders haven’t figured it out yet … no, not low-income car buyers. It will be … China. Anybody want to guess how much Hunter and the Big Guy make on the deal?

THIS IS NOT HOW SCIENCE IS DONE: NPR, of all sources, reports the placebo groups of the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials were essentially dissolved after the vaccines received experimental approval from the FDA.

All of those who received a placebo were given the opportunity to get the real shot and virtually all did so. That pretty effectively ended the trials with no way to compare what happened to those in the two respective groups. Strictly coincidental, right?

ON THIS DAY IN 1945: The U.S. dropped a bomb that killed thousands and saved millions.

AS THE SLAVE WHISPERED TO THE CONQUEROR: All glory is fleeting. New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is learning the truth of that maxim. Issues & Insights explains the real reason why his former partisans are now his aspiring political pall bearers.

PORTUGAL IS NICE THIS TIME OF YEAR: It is indeed, especially if you happen to be two of those Texas statehouse Democrats who fled to Washington D.C. to prevent the Republican majority from passing election reforms. Like the man said, there’s just no cure for stupid.

NO, EVANGELICALS NOT MOST LIKELY TO BE UNVACCINATED: Religion Unplugged’s Ryan Burge crunched the data and found the group that actually is the least likely to be vaccinated. It’s not evangelicals, it’s not minorities, it’s ….

IF THIS DOESN’T MAKE YOU SCREAM, YOU MIGHT BE UNCONSCIOUS: New report out from Open the Books finds the U.S. government “spent at least $282.6 billion on foreign aid between 2013-2018—almost $47 billion on foreign aid in FY2018, alone.” And that’s just the first most general finding. Brace yourself for when you get to the details.

BTW, Open the Books has filed more than 40,000 public information requests with governments at all levels for comprehensive spending data. The result is an independent web site that is a veritable treasure chest of data on what governments do with your tax dollars.  Somewhere, little Jimmie Madison is saying “Good show, Open the Books, Good show, that’s what the First Amendment guarantee of a free press is all about.”

FOR THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED: On HillFaith today, it’s the fourth of seven great “I AM” claims by Jesus. The Good Shepherd.

A FEDERAL TAX ON EVERY MILE YOU DRIVE: The Lid reports it’s on page 511 of the draft text of the Senate infrastructure bill, authorization for a national pilot project for a Mileage-Based User Fee for every mile you drive. Glenn highlighted the privacy concerns of such a program in Road & Track in 2019.

PUBLIC NOT BUYING PELOSI’S KANGAROO COURT: New survey taken the day after last week’s first hearing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked “investigators” of the January 6 Capitol riot is full of bad news for the rump panel, according to Issues & Insights.

Asked “how likely is it that the Jan. 6 commission will make a genuine effort to uncover the truth,” only 22 percent of those interviewed said they believe it is “very likely” to do so. Almost as many, 18 percent, said “not likely at all.”

“But what is surprising is how little faith independents have in the commission. Only 36% of them think it’s likely it will make a genuine effort to uncover the truth, while 42% say it isn’t likely to do so. Among Republicans, 24% say it’s likely and 61% unlikely,” the I&I crew observes.

DEVIL’S DICTIONARY FOR THE  LEFT: They keep redefining everything, so it’s helpful occasionally to have a guide like this from Capital Research Center’s Jon Rodeback.

NO MORE ‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN’ FOR LUFTHANSA: The flagship German airline is opting to do away with the traditional welcome on board that recognizes only two genders. Don’t you feel more liberated now? No? You bigot!

GREAT QUESTION: Which NSA (or other high-ranking executive branch) official unmasked Tucker Carlson? Prediction: The identity of Ashli Babbitt’s killer will be known before Tucker’s nemesis.

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE RESURRECTION HOAX: J. Warner Wallace, the “Evidence Whisperer” of NBC’s Dateline, knows a bit about evidence and conspiracies. His three reasons why Jesus’ resurrection could not be the product of a conspiracy among the disciples should give critics something to think about, carefully.

LET’S TALK ABOUT SOME REAL ‘DARK MONEY:’ Wes Walker at The Lid looks at a new analysis that found $1.8 billion in political spending by Big Labor unions, plus another $67 million that went to politically active left-wing outfits but which was classified as either “charitable” or “representational” spending. All of it paid for with compulsory union dues.

A MIND (AND SOUL) ARE TERRIBLE THINGS TO WASTE ON CRT: Greg Smith, writing for The Dissenter, points to the doleful results of Christians going woke, as is becoming a significant problem in evangelical circles these days.

EIGHT CHARTS ILLUSTRATE THE BIDEN FAILURE: Context is everything, as Issues & Insights points out regarding the 6.5 percent quarterly growth rate just announced. Sounds really good, until you realize it’s dramatically lower than the consensus projection of 8.5-9.0 percent for the second quarter of 2021 and the first that reflects the initial impacts of His Fraudulency’s policies.

Similar insights are marshaled by the I&I platoon for a total of eight charts that track where America is headed under His Fraudulency. What is really scary, however, is the realization that as things get worse in the days ahead, our betters, rather than recognizing their errors, will double-down on them. Can you guess who will get the blame when that, too, fails?

CDC’S NEW MASK GUIDANCE BASED ON FAILED STUDY: Turns out, Just the News reports this morning, that our betters have no problem depending upon a study that failed peer review to justify their new mask guidance.

IRAN TRIED TO KIDNAP THREE U.S. JOURNOS: All three were employees of the federal government, working at the Voice of America (VOA), according to Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman. Read the whole story because, in addition to the outrageous kidnapping angle, it’s also a classic illustration of bureaucratic incompetence and political influence.

UNEXPLAINED DETAILS, RED FERRARIS AND WHAT? Well, it’s HillFaith and it’s all about those “long story short” details that make them not so short. And trust me, Enzo’s classic red beauty is definitely relevant to understanding those “unexplained allusions” Erik Manning is talking about in the video.

NO, JOE, IT’S NOT THE SEASON: Remember when George W. Bush praised “Brownie” for “doing a heckuva job” during the Hurricane Katrina disaster? The Issues & Insights guys wouldn’t be surprised to hear His Fraudulency praising Her Fraudulency, Kamala Harris, in similar fashion for her work on the border crisis. After all, he recently dismissed the swelling surge of illegals as a seasonal thing.

NEW CENSORSHIP, SAME AS OLD CENSORSHIP, BUT WORSE: It’s worse because the Internet makes it so easy for those with power to impose their views while keeping you from reading anything to the contrary.

Writing for City Journal, John Steele Gordon points out that disagreement among scientists is precisely what drives scientific discovery. But social media censorship is radically contrary to disagreement in science, politics, medicine, and pretty much every other area of inquiry.

FOR THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED: It’s the third installment in HillFaith’s look at Jesus’ seven great “I AM” claims.

DO YOU KNOW ANURADHA MITTAL? Probably not, but odds are good you’ve eaten the premium ice cream her company makes. Mittal is chairman of the board of directors for Ben & Jerry’s. She’s also a veteran left-wing activist who has supported U.S. funding of Hamas and defended Hezbolla, according to Alana Goodman of The Washington Free Beacon.

TIME FOR SUPREMES TO RESTORE COMMONSENSE ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: When a Washington state public school district ordered a football coach six years ago to stop praying for or mentioning religious faith to his players before, during or after a game, it started a long journey to what should be an opportunity for the Supreme Court to put common sense and historical context back into church/state separation jurisprudence. (Whew! That’s the longest sentence I’ve composed in months.)