SPOILER ALERT: SHE WASN’T THE VICTIM. Cop-Hating Portland City Councilor Involved in Hit-and-Run Accident. “PJ Media reached out to Hardesty’s office for comment, but the number listed on her city website is disconnected.”

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE ’21? White House curbs press, public access as Biden struggles with public demands of job.

A CNN report last month stated that the president regularly returns to his private residence at 7:00 p.m. each day and is “more of an early-to-bed type” than both Obama and Trump. Biden has thus far failed to host a single West Wing news conference, though the White House hosts daily news briefings.

The president became well-known over the course of his presidential campaign for having difficulties speaking publicly, so much so that the New York Times in 2019 ran a feature report on his struggles to give public addresses. A fifty-year veteran of Washington politics, Biden has logged hundreds and hundreds of hours of public speaking, where he has been known to make gaffes on occasion, such as his remark in 2007 that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”

His latest struggles, meanwhile, often appear less gaffe-like and more fundamental, such as at a recent Pentagon appearance when he struggled with teleprompter-fed words such as “Tuskegee,” “because of,” “defeated” and “dishonor.”

But no mean tweets, so there’s that.

LIVE IN FIVE… FOUR… THREE…‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, Preston, VodkaPundit.

BRYAN PRESTON, JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE VET: ‘Seven Minutes of Horror’ – How the Mars Rover’s Batteries Survived Landing and Keep Perseverance Rolling and Flying.

And my latest is for our VIP supporters. WANTED: 8 Civilian Crewmembers for a Private SpaceX Flight Around the Moon.

I signed up for a (very small) chance at joining the crew.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED VOTER FRAUD WAS A MYTH: Notary Arrested, Charged With Voter Fraud In Connection With Aberdeen Alderman Election.

In his ruling, the judge said that sixty-six of eighty-four absentee ballots cast in the June runoff were not valid and should never have been counted. Nicholas Holliday was declared the winner by a 37 vote margin. Robert Devaull challenged the results in court.

Judge Weill found many irregularities with absentee ballots. He issued a bench warrant for notary Dallas Jones, who notarized absentee ballots. During a hearing, Jones admitted violating notary duties.

“When you have an absentee ballot, there’s an envelope, you vote, fold the ballot, put it in an envelope, lick the flap, sign across the flap, then notary signs your election certificate, she testified that she didn’t sign in front of anybody, didn’t see anybody sign it, she just notarized it, just stamped them,” said Lydia Quarles, attorney for Robert Devaull.

In fact, Jones testified that she was called to the home of then Alderwoman Lady Garth in June to correct her father’s absentee ballot paperwork. While there, Jones testified she notarized “about 30 something ballots.”

The judge also found that 83 regular ballots were counted without being initialed by election workers.

Those are big numbers for a small election.

CAVEAT EMPTOR, SUCKERS, A RICK WILSON JOINT: After 3+ years, $65k in crowdfunding, Lincoln Project co-founder mum on promised anti-Trump film.

BLOOD ON BIDEN’S HANDS: SUV Crammed With 25 Migrants Crashes; at Least 13 Dead.

A WORTHY CAUSE: Campaign raises repair funds for USS The Sullivans.

Park officials are now focused on raising $1 million needed for permanent repairs to the historic USS The Sullivans.

The plan to permanently repair the hull of the USS The Sullivans requires a full underwater team of divers that will apply an epoxy coating to the entire exterior hull of the ship. The process which creates a water-tight barrier that strengthens and protects the thin steel of the hull from further deterioration is expected to take 3-4 months to complete.

The Naval Park is now extending the All Hands On Deck campaign to Save the Sullivans with a goal of raising the $1,000,000 it needs to permanently repair the USS The Sullivans. Contributions can be made securely online at keepingourshipsafloat.org.

It’s a terrific museum ship in need of a little TLC.

MATT MARGOLIS: Recent Studies Destroy Myth That Liberals Treat People More Equally Than Conservatives.

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: Mississippi Gov Fires Back After Biden Mocks Lifting Lockdowns As ‘Neanderthal Thinking.’ “Mississippians don’t need handlers. As numbers drop, they can assess their choices and listen to experts. I guess I just think we should trust Americans, not insult them.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Actually, it’s Neanderthals who probably would have tried to ward off sickness by relying on magical amulets. In limited circumstances, masks do a lot of good. In others, they’re no better than a bear-tooth necklace and a rattle. And the way masks are being treated these days, it’s more like the latter.

YEP, THAT’S CNN: CNN Tried to ‘Fact-Check’ Mike Pence’s Op-Ed. It Backfired.

I HAD HIM PEGGED AS THE VOLCANO LAIR-TYPE, BUT THIS IS COOL, TOO: Elon Musk Is Creating a City in Texas. It Will Be Called Starbase and It Will Be Ruled by ‘The Doge.’’

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Embarrassing! Biden Handlers Cut Him Off After He Offered to Take Questions.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: Who’s in charge of Presidentish Joe Biden’s White House?

Answer: We’d really like to know because it sure as hell isn’t Joe.

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

• You’ll sleep better at night knowing the Cornell has decolonized the English Department or whatever they’re calling it now
• Another nominee, another history of mean tweets
• You will never believe what just happened at a Milwaukee Bucks game

Bonus Sanity: Enjoy Colorado “MeatOut Day” the Insanity Wrap way — with a giant ribeye.

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

WAS THIS BEFORE OR AFTER HE ISSUED THE ORDER RESULTING IN THOUSAND OF UNNECESSARY NURSING HOME DEATHS? Cuomo Signed Law Lowering the Bar for Sexual Harassment. “’Love Gov’ likely liable under new standards.”

MOST AMERICANS ARE MORE COGNIZANT THAN BIDEN: Most Americans Oppose Biden’s Order Destroying Women’s Sports.

A FEW WHO KNOW HISTORY ARE DETERMINED TO REPEAT IT: The Cancellation Of Dr. Seuss Should Disturb You, Because You’re Next. “America is entering its very own Mao-like Cultural Revolution. The iconoclasm of the left’s culture war isn’t a side effect, it’s the point.”

To grasp how a man known as much for his messages of tolerance as for his artistic genius could be canceled for racism, you have to understand what’s actually happening here. The left’s war on the past, on long-dead authors like Geisel, isn’t really about the past, it’s about the future. It’s about who gets to rule, and under what terms.

There’s a predictable pattern to what we’re seeing now. It’s predictable because it has happened before in much the same way it’s happening now. During China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ‘70s, the Chinese Communist Party, at the direction of Mao Zedong, called for the destruction of the “Four Olds”: old customs, old culture, old habits, old ideas. All of these stood in the way of Mao’s socialist ideology, so they had to be destroyed.

Children and students were encouraged by the communist government to inform on their parents and elders, to shame and condemn them in public. The guilty were forced to recant in “struggle sessions,” during which they were mocked and humiliated, sometimes tortured, sometimes murdered. Before it was over, millions were dead.

Read the whole thing.

INDUCEMENT TO RIOT: Under Biden Administration, Feds Dismiss Dozens of Charges Against Portland Rioters.

NICE, BUT…: Google says goodbye to individual user tracking.

Privacy-minded consumers are turning to privacy-minded browsers, and Apple’s mobile operating systems already have user anonymity built-in, so this looks more like a PR move than anything else. Or maybe a recognition of changing habits and concerns.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats’ HR 1 Is a Force Multiplier for Election Fraud. “This is a dangerous, naked federal power grab that would put quite a few nails in the coffin of the good old Republic. It would also make it nigh on impossible to clean up any of the very real messes that need to be dealt with. Dealt with at the state level, that is. HR 1 is like using a machete to close up a wound that needs a tourniquet. It’s not a cure, it’s an exacerbation of the problem.”

BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES: CDC to release guide for life after vaccination—with normalcy still far off.

They’re incentivizing a “Why bother?” attitude towards vaccination.

SOMETIMES A STAGE IS JUST A STAGE: Left-Leaning Design Firm Takes Responsibility for ‘Nazi’ CPAC Stage.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, I GUESS: This lady stopped plucking her bushy eyebrows and removing her mustache in order to “weed out conservative people” from her life.

CORRECTION: ONLY MOST EVERYTHING WRONG. Chris Cuomo Is Everything Wrong With the Media’s Coverage of Andrew Cuomo. “The brothers’ buddy-cop routine on CNN was a low point in the press’s fascination with the New York governor.”

Another correction: There will be lower points.

HE’S TOO SHAMELESS TO FEEL ANY EMBARRASSMENT: Cuomo WON’T Resign, Claims He’s ‘Embarrassed’ by Sexual Harassment Allegations.

UGH: US Life Expectancy In 2020 Saw Biggest Drop Since WWII.

Life expectancy had been steadily decreasing since it reached its record peak of 78.9 in 2014, in large part due to increased drug overdose deaths, unhealthy lifestyles and suicides in the country. The CDC noted a decrease in drug overdose deaths in 2018, contributing to a higher life expectancy. Other factors include a 2.2 percent decrease in cancer deaths, as well as a decrease in unintentional deaths for the year.

Suicide rates are also continuing to rise, with a 1.4 percent increase between 2017 and 2018 in the country. The U.S. has perennially held one of the highest rates of suicide in the world.

But the pandemic added hundreds of thousands of deaths to the total and pandemic-driven restrictions have drastically weighed on future expectations.

The trendline was going the wrong way even before the lockdowns.