THE DARK MONEY GIANT YOU NEVER HEAR ABOUT: It’s called Majority Forward (MF) and, according to Capital Research Center’s master dark money tracker Hayden Ludwig, it helped channel $230 million into the Democratic Senate campaigns in 2020.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) probably bows and thanks the MF every morning before he goes to work. But putting the Democrats back in control of the Senate is just one of the many ways MF channels dark money. Ludwig has more, much more.
FRANCIS COLLINS IS NO HERO: Departing NIH chief Francis Collins has been something of a rock star among secularists and evangelical Christians alike, but Dr. John G. West of the Discovery Institute presents a comprehensive case for a profoundly different assessment.
BIDEN WEAPONIZES COVID VACCINE: Being discharged dishonorably from the U.S. military isn’t merely a matter of which box is checked on the separation papers. Here’s how His Fraudulency, or those behind him, is weaponizing the vaccine against service members who choose not to get the jab.
TODAY’S BILLY MITCHELL: Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, notes the multiple points of favorable comparison between Gen. Bill Mitchell — who was court-martialed for critiquing military leadership’s purposeful ignorance of air power — and Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller — who faces court martial for critiquing the lack of accountability for the Afghanistan debacle among military leadership.
A TALE OF TWO OLD KARMANN GHIAS: Those of you of a certain age will recognize the vehicle in the title, but what you likely didn’t know is what J. Warner Wallace claims can be learned about human beings from a couple of humble VWs graced with Italian bodies.
UPDATE: Unforgivable! Misspelling Karmann, that is. As penance, I will subject myself for the next six months to driving a British-made vehicle with Lucas (“Prince of Darkness”) Electrics. If you aren’t sure about that reference, ask Charles Glasser.
UN RELIEF AGENCY SHOT THROUGH WITH ANTISEMITISM: It required hours of laborious digging but The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz unearthed an internal report that found dozens of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) members and staff promoting hatred for Israel and the Jewish people on social media.
“Entitled ‘Beyond the Textbooks,’ the UN Watch document identified 100 UNRWA educators and staff who have publicly promoted violence and Antisemitism on social media. It highlights explicitly ’22 recent cases of UNRWA staff incitement which clearly violates the agency’s own rules, as well as its proclaimed values of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism,’” Dunetz reports.
And that’s just for starters. The UNRWA comes under the UN’s Human Rights Council, which Dunetz describes as “the most anti-Semitic/anti-Israel organization in the United Nations.” There should be a photo of council in the definition of “Hypocrisy” in Webster’s Dictionary.
Is it too much for the U.S. to ask that, if the UN wishes to remain on our soil and accept our funding, the world body must live by its own charter and expel nations and groups that fund, practice and defend terrorism, anti-Semitism and incessant, vicious lying about Israel and America?
TALK ABOUT MIXED BLESSINGS: The Covid Lockdown led to millions of Americans discovering how great working from home can be. No more hour-long commutes, more time with family and friends, etc. But there is another side to it, according to Ashe Short:
“Potential buyers are sometimes offering hundreds of thousands of dollars above the asking price of a home and offering to waive inspections, only to have their offers declined. Buyers are losing out to cash offers or in insanely competitive bidding wars. Because of demand, 50 percent of the homes sold in July were on the market for 17 days or fewer, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported.
“Limited housing supply is due to many reasons, including supply chain disruption, the increased price of lumber, housing regulations, lack of labor, and demand going up as more people realize they can move and work remotely. Another widely reported issue with the market comes from large businesses buying properties to rent and pushing out buyers with more modest budgets.”
Ashe and her husband have a happy ending to their search for a new home they could customize on a lot of their choice, but most others don’t. Like the adage goes, things that can’t continue, won’t.
PARAGRAPHS I NEVER EXPECTED TO READ: Big Labor is a bastion of the Democratic Party’s New Deal coalition, right? So how to account for this by Ben Frederick, writing in The Federalist:
“For professional trade unions in Michigan — as for any entity focused on longevity, opportunity, fewer regulations, and lower taxes for hard-working people — Republicans aren’t just one ally in Lansing, they are the only ally in Lansing. Where Democrats once advocated for trade union values, they now choose activism over job creation, time after time.”
If these Michigan unions aren’t exceptions that prove the rule, much of the conventional wisdom about the 22 and 24 elections will be out the window.
AG GARLAND’S CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Hans Bader points to the conflict-of-interest behind Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memorandum on the “domestic terrorism” of parents criticizing school boards that allow teaching of hateful doctrines like Critical Race Theory:
“Attorney General Garland has a conflict of interest in bringing this investigation. Erika Sanzi of Parents Defending Education notes that ‘Parents are concerned over intrusive surveys and ‘screeners’ that ask 12-year-olds if they are pansexual or gender fluid. The surveys are often created/administered by’ Panorama Education. ‘Merrick Garland’s daughter is married to the president and founder.’
“As PDE’s Asra Nomani observes, ‘In its survey @PanoramaEd asks students if they are ‘pansexual’ or ‘gender fluid.’ She argues that by investigating parents, ‘US Attorney General Merrick Garland is freezing parents protesting fraud and protecting his son in laws business interest.'”
WILL SEIU OWN MCAULIFFE? Terry McAuliffe, a long-time Clinton fund-raiser and enforcer, wants a second stint as Virginia’s governor and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is spending big to make it happen, according to Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig, writing in the Washington Free Beacon.
After handing $40,000 to a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that specializes in registering new Democratic voters, Ludwig reports, the SEIU “endorsed a mailer that contains a partially pre-filled absentee ballot application form sent by the D.C.-based Center for Voter Information, a left-of-center vote-by-mail advocacy group.
“The mailers, one of which was obtained by the Virginia Project, have targeted over two million voters across 134 Virginia counties and cities, urging them to register for mail-in ballots ahead of the November election, when Virginians will vote for their next governor and control of the House of Delegates.”
McAuliffe is in a close race with Republican Glen Youngkin, so the SEIU-funded effort could make the difference. Given his record, McAuliffe will be only too happy to accommodate whatever the union demands in return.
THINK TWICE BEFORE BOLTING TO THE EV FUTURE: Looks like General Motors officials may well be second-guessing their wokey decision to invest billions of dollars in developing Electric Vehicles.
There are more than 143,000 Chevy Bolt EVs on the road, but GM recently put out a bulletin advising owners of certain, uh, precautions they are strongly encouraged to take, according to Ronald Stein, writing for the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT):
The information Stein provides about the GM warning is his opening illustration of a whole passel of problems EV enthusiasts, global warming alarmists and environmental radicals don’t want people who buy cars and trucks to know about.
THE TOP 10 PEOPLE BOOKS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT: One list was compiled by a CIA analyst in 1999, the other by a former Los Angeles Police detective in 2020. The same name tops both lists, but there are some surprises in who’s where and how the rankings changed.
UPDATE: For commenters who question the accuracy of the Google search results, I should point out that Wallace notes the results are based on “every country, every publisher, and every kind of author (including self-published).”
BUILD BACK BETTER’S UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME FOR ILLEGALS: Joseph Simonson of the Washington Free Beacon went dumpster diving, again, in that $3.5 trillion spending and taxing explosion and look what he found this time. Senate Parliamentarian, are you watching this?
WRONG AGAIN, BERNIE: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) regularly claims “the working people of America” want His Fraudulency’s gargantuam $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” spending and tax hike explosion. Bernie should check out Issues & Insight’s latest TIPP survey that found most Independents are in fact opposed to the Biden Blowout.
AND THEY WONDER WHY THEY ARE HATED: Politico newsroom poo-bah disses a Gold Star family on Twitter. Learns nothing.
NEW CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA: Writing in The Federalist, Helen Raleigh tells us Zhao Wei was a prominent television figure, director and businesswoman in China, but you won’t find any trace of her these days. She’s been erased, at least digitally.
“Within a day or two of Wei’s disappearance, a blog applauding the government’s actions went viral in China. It predicates ‘the red has returned’ and ‘a profound transformation or revolution’ is underway in China. The blog was written by Li Guangman and posted on WeChat, another Twitter-like Chinese social media platform.
“Since Li is not well-known in China, few would have paid any attention to him in normal circumstances. Even in China, a fervent far-left Maoist like Li is in the minority. Yet something curious happened: All major state media, such as People’s Daily and other social media platforms, re-posted Li’s blog with the same headline: ‘Everyone Can Sense That a Profound Change is Underway!’ Welcome to Xi’s China’s Cultural Revolution 2.0.”
ALL ROADS LEAD TO HEAVEN? Well, all but one of them share a particular characteristic that sets them opposite of the exception, according to cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace, who knows a thing or three about persons of interest. Thus falls another misconception about that itinerant preacher from Nazareth (Galilee, not Pennsylvania). The latter’s most famous guy is Mario Andretti of Indy and F1 fame.
AMERICA SAYS CUT FEDERAL SPENDING: That sounds like a headline from the Reagan era, but in fact it’s what Issues & Insights found in its latest TIPP Survey on the state of the nation and the economy. As usual, what common-sense Americans want and what the Washington Establishment is focused on are polar opposites.
Observes I&I:
“The data conveys a strong message to Washington. Now is not the time to engage in social engineering. Washington is simply out of touch to even contemplate, let alone pass, such massive spending bills [ Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending explosion].
“Businesses and families in the country are hurting and afraid of inflation, and they believe that big government spending is unwise. Be warned: politicians who ignore will pay dearly for their actions in the midterm elections next year.”
MANCHIN TO SWITCH PARTIES? Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) sounds like a man who is preparing to become a Republican:
“Overall, the amount we spend now must be balanced with what we need and can afford — not designed to reengineer the social and economic fabric of this nation or vengefully tax for the sake of wishful spending.”
West Virginia is turning solidly red and Manchin knows it as well as anybody.
DEMS TO PUT $100 BILLION TAX BURDEN ON THE POOR: Patrick Hauf, reporting for the Washington Free Beacon, points to a provision of His Fraudulency’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” spending plan and notes it includes a huge hike in the cigarette tax.
Vaping would also be taxed for the first time if the provision becomes law. Why is this a tax burden on the poor? Because they smoke at three times the rate of the rest of the population. One wonders if this proposal will light up lower income voters to vote for Republicans who promise to repeal Biden’s tobacco tax.
DOES HOCHUL TALK TO GOD ON HER CELL? The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz wonders exactly how the New York governor communicates with the Almighty.
FAR MORE ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKS: Joseph Simonson of the Washington Free Beacon takes a look at the data and concludes that if you are Jewish, you are far more likely to be the victim of a hate crime in America than if you are Asian, Muslim or a transgender.
“While the media and politicians have focused on an increase of domestic hate crime attacks against Asians — a trend that has also been the centerpiece of Chinese Communist Party propaganda operations — the FBI recorded just 274 total incidents in 2020. Americans who identify as Asian make up roughly 7 percent of the U.S. population. Jews, who make up just 1.75 percent of the population, are more than twice as likely to experience hate crimes as Asian Americans,” Simonson notes.
GETTING BACK FROM MARS MIGHT BE EASIER THAN FIRST THOUGHT: It’s a long way to and from Mars, so having enough fuel to return to Earth might well seem problematic.
But maybe not, according to University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jingjie Wu. He’s got this reactor that converts C02 to methane, which can be used as rocket fuel.
WE HAVEN’T HEARD THE END OF THE ARIZONA AUDIT: Arizona’s state senate got the report Friday, according to The Epoch Times, of the audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 presidential voting and the MSM instantly reported that it gave His Fraudulency an even bigger lead than was certified early on election night. End of story, right?
Wrong. As usual, there is more, much, much more, to the story and the ball is now in the court of Arizona’s Attorney General, Mark Brnovich. He is not known as an enthusiast for the Biden administration and his promise to “take all necessary actions supported by the evidence” suggests Brnovich has a plan. This story is not over.
ABOUT THAT JONAH FISH STORY: HillFaith on one the atheists got right. (Yes, you read that right).
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