WHY NOT DEPORT CHILD RAPISTS??? Good question for His Fraudulency, whose minions recently abolished a successful 287(g) program that enabled local police in Bristol County, Massachusetts, to work with the feds to identify felons, including child rapists, arsonists and carjackers, to be deported, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

“The program has led to the arrest and removal of thousands of dangerous criminal aliens. In fiscal year 2020, state and local law enforcement trained under 287(g) encountered approximately 920 aliens convicted for assault, 1,261 convicted for dangerous drugs, 104 convicted for sex offenses/assaults, 377 convicted for obstructing police, 190 convicted for weapon offenses, and 37 convicted for homicide, to name a few crimes.

“As of May 2021, ICE has 287(g) agreements with 71 law enforcement agencies in 21 states. ICE has an additional 76 agreements in 11 states based on a more narrowly-focused version of the program,” CIS’s Jon Feere reports.

No doubt, this will be the first question the White House press corps nails Jenn Psaki with later today.

HERE’S WHERE I WAS OVER THE WEEKEND: That’s my incredible son, Marcus, on the right, who gifted me the Indy 500 last year, but it turned out to be a non-spectator event, so we came this year. Am I still excited? You bet I am.

We were in the grandstand in the middle of turn two, saw a tremendously fast, exciting and safe race. Speaking as someone who pushed a Formula Ford around SCCA tracks for three years, I still marvel at the skill level of these guys (and one woman, not named “Danica”) doing 230 mph laps on a slightly banked, four-turn, two-and-a-half-mile rectangle.

NOTHING BUT RED INK AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE: That’s Hans Bader’s assessment of Biden’s $6 Trillion federal budget proposal. I would add to the red ink, inflation, poverty, economic stagnation …

NEW EVIDENCE FOR THE GOSPELS: Erik Manning points to Richard Baucham’s analysis of the significance of the named eyewitnesses rendering problematic the argument of critics like Bart Ehrman that it’s all based on legends.

BEZOS BUYS BOND: And Rachel Bovard sees all kinds of problems if the sale is allowed.

‘THEIR INTEL IS BETTER THAN OURS:’ That’s how a South Texas County Sheriff describes the strategies and tactics being used by those organizing the continuing flood of illegals crossing from Mexico into the U.S. And did you know there are feral pigs roaming the borderlands that eat human flesh?

CHRISTIANS SHOULD STAY OUT OF POLITICS! Colson Center’s Brook McIntire argues that religious liberty for everybody has been a cornerstone of the faith from the beginning and it benefits believers and non-believers alike.

BIG LABOR, THE WOKE LEFT AND HIS FRAUDULENCY: There was a time not that long ago when Big Labor and Big Woke didn’t get along so well because leaders of the former recognized the latter’s policies would destroy jobs in the U.S. But things have changed in a way graphically illustrated by President Joe Biden’s appointments, according to the Capital Research Center’s Michael Watson.

Watson, writing in the Washington Examiner, details the many Big Labor veterans with solid progressive credentials who have been appointed by Biden to major posts in the federal government, most prominently Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Celeste Drake in the White House and Alethea Predeoux at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Watson observes that “the interconnectedness among the Democratic Party, the ‘woke’ social-justice left, and Big Labor explains both the radicalism of the PRO Act and the petty corruption of the Biden administration’s ethics waivers.” The transformation of Big Labor from economic special interest to far-Left ideological zealotry is almost complete. Devout Socialist Walter Reuther would be proud.

SHUT UP AND KEEP DIGGING, KID: Has anybody in His Fraudulency’s administration noted the vital importance of cobalt to Electric Vehicles (EVs) that are to replace gasoline-powered cars and trucks?

No? Well maybe they should, according to Issues & Insights, which points out that half of the world’s known Cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that children are being used as slaves to extract the resource for Western companies building EVs.

BIDEN APPOINTEE’S RENEWABLES CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: You may never have heard of Richard Glick, President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an obscure federal agency with significant energy industry power (no pun intended). Biden would probably prefer that your ignorance continue.

But in the interest of advancing public understanding, check out this report by The Washington Free Beacon’s Colin Anderson and Joseph Simonson who did some digging and discovered something important: Glick’s FERC recently approved an off-shore wind farm project half-owned by the U.S. subsidiary of a Spanish firm for which he has lobbied for years.

Now, I’m from out of town and all, but where I come from, that’s spelled C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T-O-F-I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T. But wait, there’s more! Anderson and Simonson note:

“Glick is not the only top environmental official with ties to a green energy company championed by the Biden administration. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm holds up to a $5 million stake in Proterra, an electric bus manufacturer that Biden has promoted on multiple occasions. A slew of Biden’s top donors also have sizable investments in the company, and Proterra recently turned to a pair of Obama administration alums to lobby the White House for funding.

“In addition to Glick, deputy interior secretary nominee Tommy Beaudreau represented Vineyard Wind as a corporate attorney. Under federal ethics rules, Beaudreau is barred from participating in any ‘particular matter’ involving his former clients for two years. The Biden appointee can, however, assert himself into deliberations pertaining to the wind industry as a whole.”

There’s yet more blowing in the wind on this one, so stay tuned.

BATS, BIRDS AND A BIBLE BLUNDER: You may have heard that Moses screwed up royally by classifying bats as birds. Eric Lyons of Apologetics Press suggests that this is yet another illustration of judging the past by the standards of the present.

WHICH COMES FIRST, RELIGIOUS OR ECONOMIC FREEDOM: According to Stanford Digital Lab Digital Fellow Christos Markidis, “religious liberty is an even more quantitatively important determinant of human flourishing than economic freedom.”

This remarkable study, produced by Markidis for a Cato Institute project with support from the John Templeton Foundation, is rather technical and can be heavy reading for those without statistical analysis skills. But the conclusions are clear and weighty, suggesting that advocates of economic freedom who aren’t believers nevertheless owe thanks to advocates of religious liberty.

H/T: Professor Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution.

WHO PANEL WANTS MORE POWER, FUNDING: Somebody at the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided Covid is the occasion for a worldwide application of former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s maxim to “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

A WHO group known as the “Independent Panel” issued a report earlier this month, according to LifeSiteNews, that observes:

“Our message is loud and clear: no more pandemics.  If we fail to take this goal seriously, we will condemn the world to successive catastrophes … On the basis of its diagnosis of what went wrong at each stage of the COVID-19 response, the panel makes […] seven recommendations directed to ensuring that a future outbreak does not become a pandemic. Each recommendation is linked directly back to evidence of what has gone wrong. To be successful they must be implemented in their entirety.”

Note that last sentence well. Under the seven recommendations, WHO would essentially become the world-wide version of the CDC but with vastly more power and funding. And if you question the wisdom of their recommendations, then, as Glenn puts it, because shut up.

RENAME POLITIFACT ‘POLITIFALSE:’ That might well be the conclusion of reasonable people after reading this analyis by the Media Research Center’s (MRC) Tim Graham of how Politifact approaches reporting on His Fraudulency.

WHO KNEW DEMINT WAS SUCH A BARD? Former Sen. Jim DeMint usually writes political stuff, but his new “Satan’s Dare” is a thoroughly entertaining and deeply thoughtful fictional treatment of the ultimate questions through the eyes and lives of two guys, Tony and Johnny, who are different breeds, but linked by similar life tragedies. This one might just be a summer surprise for the best-sellers lists.

ALLSIDES SURVEY RATES EPOCH TIMES MOST CENTERED: AllSides recently showed a balanced sample of 2,000 people news stories produced by five news organizations but without their brand names, then asked them to read the stories and rate them according to where they would place them on the political spectrum.

The results say something fundamentally important about the current state of American journalism:

1. Epoch Times – 64.26 percent rated it “Center.”
2. Associated Press – 53.08 percent.
3. BBC – 33.29 percent.
4. New York Times – 16.20 percent
5. Bloomberg – 14.69 percent.

Roughly 10 percent of the respondents put Epoch either on the Left or Lean Left, while 25 percent said Right or Lean Right. As an Epoch Times congressional correspondent, am I proud of these numbers?

You bet I am because the Epoch Times practices the kind of old-school journalism that was epitomized in something Wes Pruden, my former editor at the Washington Times told me when I moved from the Reagan administration to the newsroom: “Get it first, but first get it right.”

More than 68 percent put the New York Times on the Left or Lean Left. At AP, 36 percent put the wire service at Left or Lean Left. Nearly 65 percent put Bloomberg on the Left or Lean Left. The BBC was placed Left or Lean Left by 45 percent of the respondents.

HILL’S LEAST-VISIBLE, MOST POWERFUL INFLUENCE GROUP: There are thousands of them working behind-the-scenes for individual senators and representatives, as well as for congressional committees, agencies and offices.

Capitol Hill staffers have immense power by virtue of doing the day-to-work that enables Congress to function. They also have tremendous influence by way of their direct relationships with and service to individual lawmakers. Change how and what staffers think and you can go a long way toward changing their bosses’ conduct on the Senate and House floors.

A lot of folks on the Right will instantly dismiss Hill staffers as irrelevant, but in some important respects that’s a huge mistake, one that’s been made for decades. Former Scalise Chief of Staff Lynnel Ruckert’s recent testimony before the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress offers multiple insights about this obscure power center.

NO BIAS HERE: Roll Call reports that the House “Ethics” Committee has absolved Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) of violating Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s rule requiring every Member of Congress to pass through a magnetometer before entering the House chamber.

The rule — known informally around the Capitol as the “Boebert Dome,” after Israel’s anti-missile defensive system — is a response to Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s insistence on packing a Hog Leg everywhere she goes, including on the House floor. Pelosi reportedly worries that the petite Boebert, who has years of experience running a bar frequented by rowdy cowboys, is known for having a short temper, a quick trigger finger and perfect aim.

First offense fine is $500 and a second offense is $2,500. Do it a third time and you are detained by FBI Director Christopher Wray, strapped to a chair in Pelosi’s dank, dark Capitol basement chambers and forced to listen to recordings of her weekly news conferences, over and over and over and ….

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-FL) and Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), who have refused to pay their fines, may be asking who among their Republican colleagues on the committee, which is evenly divided with five members of each party, joined Democrats on the Clyburn and Rogers votes.

Clyburn, it should be recalled, is the House Majority Whip whose support during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary was crucial to rescuing Joe Biden’s then-faltering campaign. Rogers is a veteran member of the Washington Establishment by virtue of his long tenure on the House Appropriations Committee, including multiple years as chairman when the GOP had the majority.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF I TOLD YOU: Actually, it would be Dr. Steven Sanchez of the Colson Center, not me, explaining why there are thousands more manuscripts of the Bible copied multiple centuries earlier than Homer, Plato, Aristole, Julius Caesar, and indeed every other ancient work of note?

VACCINATIONS SPARK COVID VARIANTS: That’s what French virologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Luc Montaignier contends, as reported by LifeSiteNews’ Celeste McGovern. This report from the same publication also has me wondering.  Now I am really confused. But surely the CDC can clear this up, right? Right???

THIS EXPLAINS A LOT: About the wall of resistance, that is, erected by Maricopa County officials to the Arizona state senate’s audit of the jurisdiction’s 2020 election returns. Remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio, erstwhile foe of illegal immigration who lost a re-election bid in 2016.

The guy who defeated Arpaio is the current Sheriff, Paul Penzone, who, according to Just the News, benefitted from a $2 million campaign contribution from George Soros. Penzone got another $250,000 from Lauren Jobs, the deceased Apple co-founder’s former wife.

CORI CAUGHT CORONAVIRUS, WAS HEALED ON THE TELEPHONE: Yes, you read that right, though you might not realize that “Cori” is Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Kingdom Embassy International Churches St. Louis chapter. Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon spotlights the faith healer in the House.

ANY BETS ON WHEN DOJ SHUTS DOWN MARICOPA AUDIT: Public Interest Legal Foundation’s J. Christian Adams notes that Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela Karlan’s threat to bring federal charges against officials with the Maricopa County 2020 election audit lacks legal authority. And speaking of baseless, when is Karlan going to correct the record regarding her 2009 Duke Law law journal claim about the Bush administration’s alleged failure to file Voting Rights Act suits?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Nothing says “normal, fraud-free election” like baseless threats to bring federal charges against people auditing the votes.

MEDIA BIAS? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS: Joseph Simonson, writing for the Washington Free Beacon this morning, describes how the Associated Press (AP), which is the standard-setter for many media organizations in terms of what to cover and how, bowed to pressure from open-border activists and stopped referring to the waves of illegals coming into the U.S. as a “surge.” Too harsh, suggests illegals are bad, etc. etc.

AMERICA THE NEUROTIC: Issues & Insights, like all sane people, cheers the news that the masks are coming off throughout the land, including in familiar places frequented by many like Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Costco.

But, I&I notes, there continue to be Karens demanding masks today, masks tomorrow, masks forever (in a manner of speaking), and that is worrisome:

“Certainly everyone is free to express their opinions about masks, and everyone is also free to decide to shop elsewhere if they don’t like the Trader Joe’s policy. Yet the response concerns us.

“Will enough Nervous Nancies and Timorous Toms boycott Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Costco and others that have liberalized their mask policies to force the companies to backtrack on their decisions (which will help restore the humanity dignity that was ripped away by mask rules)? Will they actively picket in front of stores in an effort to bully executives into yielding to their neuroses, fixations, and superstitions?”

I think not, but I can also see this becoming an enduring obsession among certain ranks of the multitudinous cranks, loonies and loudmouths on the Left. What do you think?