JAMES ANTLE: Surging crime rate spells trouble for Democrats in 2022 elections.

A rise in violent crime during the 1960s, and growing public sentiment that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party was too soft in confronting it, helped fuel Republican victories in the 1970s and 1980s. This culminated in the 1988 presidential election, in which Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis saw a 17-point national lead evaporate due in part to the “Willie Horton” ad about Massachusetts’s furlough program for convicted violent criminals. Dukakis ended up losing 40 states.

Liberals are fearful of a repeat. Left-wing commentator Ezra Klein acknowledged the crime wave “is a crisis on its own terms” but also described it on Twitter as “a crisis for the liberal project.”

Don’t get cocky… but take cover and stock up on even more ammo.

HACKS: WaPo Admits It Ignored ‘Tin-Hat Nonsense’ of COVID Lab-Leak Possibility Because … Trump.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Are Democrats Trying to Kill Colorado’s Charter Schools?

BIDEN’S RETURN TO DECENCY: Assassination Attempt? White Powder Package to Rand Paul Threatens to ‘Finish What Your Neighbor Started.’

VIDEO: Jordan Peterson responds to ‘REAL communism has never been tried’ and murders it with fire.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Biden’s Only Real Success as President Is Really Trump’s. “Once more, with feeling: the Biden kinda/sorta presidency thus far is an unmitigated disaster. True, there are partisans out there who are so invested in hating Donald Trump that they’re willing to tell themselves otherwise but that doesn’t change reality. We call these people unwell. Harsher terms could be used, but I’m in a generous mood today. We’ll get back to referring to them as bottom-feeding participants in a moronic mass delusion tomorrow.”

PRELIMINARY BUT A GOOD SIGN NONETHELESS: COVID cases after vaccination are still very rare—variants aren’t changing that.

#RESIST: Some Michigan Residents Use Transgender ‘Logic’ to Go Maskless.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Nearly 200 Minneapolis Police Officers Have Retired Since George Floyd Killing.

ENDORSED: Time for a National Freedom from Fauci Day.

STOLEN VALOR: Trump Explains Why COVID-19 Is on the Way Out, Little Thanks to Biden.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: American killed fighting alongside Hamas during recent war.

An American citizen was reportedly killed fighting for Hamas in the recent conflict with Israel. Joe Truzman, a contributor to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Long War Journal (FDD), wrote on Saturday that “an American citizen known as Osama al-Zebda was fighting with the Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades during the recent conflict.

The report notes that al-Zebda was on a US terrorist watch list. His son was featured in videos with Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar on Monday, in which the Hamas commander puts a rifle in the toddler’s hand. His death and the death of his father, a well-known Hamas engineer, have been featured on Palestinian media.

The FDD article by Truzman notes that it is unclear if Osama was born in the US or was a naturalized citizen. Jamal al-Zebda, the man’s father, was also killed in the May 12 airstrike. Nasser Atta, a journalist and expert notes that “professor Jamal Al Zebda, 64 years old, was the head of the Rockets development department within Hamas… he graduated from US universities and his eldest son Osama, 33 years old, is a US citizen who was an engineer at the rockets department; both were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza 10 days ago.”

The West has got to get out of the business of educating its destroyers, but that seems unlikely given the leanings of so many of our educators.

MOSTLY PEACEFUL MEMORIAL: Suspect Opens Fire at Memorial on Anniversary of George Floyd’s Death.

You can’t make this stuff up. And in America’s Democrat-run cities, you don’t have to.

HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): Ellen Page Shows Off Her Mutilated Body, and the Media Celebrates.

ONLY THOSE WHO DIDN’T WANT TO: Who Didn’t See This Coming?

Crime is up, especially violent crime, in Democrat-run cities where the “defund police” movement found a receptive audience in government. Now, the Times reports, “The surge is prompting cities whose leaders embraced the values of the movement last year to reassess how far they are willing to go to reimagine public safety and divert money away from the police and toward social services.”

It’s hard to care, honestly. I grew up in Detroit, once the economic hub of the country destroyed through generational control by Democrats. John Conyers represented the city in Congress for 52 years, over which time his district deteriorated to the point that sections of it resemble a third world country. That didn’t happen overnight.

The thing about Detroit is the shell of what once was is still there. You can see the building, empty, architecture today’s craftsmen could not replicate at a price anyone could afford, towering over once beautiful neighborhoods that now resemble abandoned farmland. It’s depressing to see.

So why did the residents of Detroit give the party that orchestrated their demise unbroken power since 1962? Same reasons Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, etc., etc., have done it – they’ve been conditioned to think the alternative is somehow worse.

It isn’t.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Son of Hamas Founder Urges Israel to Take Down Hamas Leaders… Even During Ceasefire. “Next time, before you get civilians on both sides involved in a bloodbath, you need to think 1,000 times. This is my personal suggestion.”

SERIOUSLY, DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Constitutional Carry Passes. “The good news is the extension of protection for our constitutional rights, and may create a whole new cohort of legal gun owners in Texas. The bad news is that this might make it even harder to find ammo.”

VIDEO: Gov. DeSantis Strafe’s Reporter’s Dumb, Biased Question With Facts.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: White House Pushing for Vaccination Notifications… on Dating Sites?

Insanity Wrap needs to know: What’s sexier than advertising your communicable disease status to potential mates on OK Cupid?

Answer: Literally anything else we could mention on a family-friendly blog.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• The cushy lives of Epstein’s corrupt and/or incompetent prison guards
• Lock step, goose step, ToMAYto, ToMAHto
• Biden looking to offshore more EV work despite campaign pledges to union guys

Bonus Sanity: Even CNN staffers and on-air talent are sick of Chris Cuomo.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

LOCKDOWN FALLOUT: A Crisis of Undiagnosed Cancers Is Emerging in the Pandemic’s Second Year.

LOOKS LIKE BOBBY, DRIVES LIKE TED, RUNS LIKE JOE III: Beto Wants to Fail at Running for Texas Governor Next.

CHARMING: New Yorker Magazine Union Posts Anti-Semitic Tweet in Solidarity With Palestinians.

FOR THE FIRST AND PROBABLY LAST TIME WE’RE IN AGREEMENT: Ouch… Obama Really Doesn’t Think Much Of Joe Biden.

MAKE AMERICA UGLY AGAIN: Biden Purges Non-Partisan US Commission On Fine Arts In Unprecedented Move Against Popular Classical Architecture. “While classical architecture remains the hands-down favorite of the American public, its opponents are powerful in academia, elite architecture circles, and, it seems, in the Biden White House.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Lies, Damned Lies, and Polling. “I doubt that 62 percent of Joe Biden thinks that Joe Biden is doing a good job. This is no more believable than the idea that I can become an outside linebacker in the NFL.”