ACTUALLY, I WAS HOPING TO GET AN F-35: Biden Jeers Americans Would ‘Need an F-16’ to Take on Government.

FALLOUT: General Electric stops servicing gas turbines at Russian thermal power plants.

General Electric (GE) has stopped servicing GE-made gas turbines installed at Russian thermal power plants with extended sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine coming into force.

The Kommersant daily cited officials from several thermal plants in Russia as saying that the servicing of turbines produced by the U.S. company had stopped as of June 19, adding that GE may also stop spare parts supplies for its turbines in several important thermal power plants across Russia.

That could prove inconvenient.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Riley Gaines Humiliates the President of Human Rights Campaign. “My experience — my husband, he swam at University of Kentucky, as well — In terms of accolades and in terms of national ranking, I was a much better score than them. He could kick my butt any day of the week… without trying.”

BREAKING: House Votes to Censure Adam Schiff.

WATCH: O’Keefe Has Video of BlackRock Recruiter Claiming That Financial Titans ‘Run the World.’

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: Fly Your Freak Flag, You Crazy Gynosexual. “Thanks to the experts, I now understand that I’m a total freak with my own special made-up word and everything.”

Plus:

• Follow the science: Conservatives are happier.
• Meet VodkaPundit, the canine version.
• Is this the too-soonest meme ever?

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

I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: What the New, Low Test Scores for 13-Year-Olds Say About U.S. Education Now.

The math and reading performance of 13-year-olds in the United States has hit the lowest level in decades, according to test scores released today from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gold-standard federal exam.

The last time math performance was this low for 13-year-olds was in 1990. In reading, 2004.

Performance has fallen significantly since the 2019-2020 school year, when the coronavirus pandemic wrought havoc on the nation’s education system.

The pandemic didn’t wreak the havoc. Government and our educators did.

CHANGE: ‘Cisgender’ and ‘Cis’ Are Now Considered Slurs on Twitter.

COLORADO: If Jared Polis is saving me money, why am I paying more than ever?

This is where my bank account doesn’t lie. No matter how many lists Polis throws at me for how he’s supposedly responsible for saving me money — a stretch in and of itself — I know for a fact that overall my expenses are higher, not lower since he took office. There’s just no amount of savings in tax-free tampons or reduced state park passes that could even come close to racking up the savings necessary to offset the double-digit percentage increases I pay for almost every other essential living item.

The “free” goodies are the distraction a pickpocket uses on your shoulder so you don’t notice him slip your wallet.

WELL, YES: Joe Biden Is Not OK.

There is no need for insinuation. Biden’s mental acuity, never impressive, has considerably deteriorated. Sure, he also tends to botch “old-timey” sayings like, “lots of luck in your senior year,” which he says is a gibe from his Corn Pop days. But most reporters who pretend perceptions of Biden’s decline are due to his propensity for homespun maxims or previously unknown stuttering problems almost surely wouldn’t find him fit enough to babysit their kids.

Every week, the president of the United States says something completely bonkers, and everyone goes on with their day. We’re not talking about his propensity to lie about politics or his blustery lifelong fabulism (his “folksiness,” The New York Times recently explained, “can veer into a personal folklore” with “the factual edges shaved off to make them more powerful for audiences.”) We’re talking about his inability to articulate simple ideas without notes — and often with notes. There are rarely any fact-checks of these statements. How can there be? They don’t even make sense as lies. There is no handwringing about the role of competency in our democracy. There is no discussion about the 25th Amendment.

Just listen to any one of his speeches. “Put a pistol on a brace, it turns into a gun — makes it more — you can have a higher-caliber weapon, higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun,” the president explained before wishing Her Majesty his best. This was also complete gibberish. There is so much gibberish.

Biden’s relationship with the truth was always at arm’s length but now his lies don’t even make any sense.

HMM: RFK Jr. Is Really Scaring Them Now: LA Times Says He’s a Threat to ‘Our Democracy.’

SAME: Wall Street Sours on America’s Downtowns.

Investors are paying less for bonds linked to New York subways and buses. Downtown-focused real-estate investment trusts trade at less than half their prepandemic levels. Bondholders are demanding extra interest to hold office-building debt.

Downtowns have been a mother lode for American cities over the years, providing billions of dollars in tax revenue along with their distinctive skylines. In turn, investors who bet on downtown office towers, or on the trains and buses delivering workers to them, could generally trust they held a winning hand.

Now, with white-collar workers spending more time in their home offices, a phenomenon that shows few signs of ending, investments linked to downtowns are trading at falling prices in volatile markets.

“You could see this as a slow-motion change or as the beginning of a slow-moving train wreck,” said Richard Ciccarone, president emeritus of Merritt Research Services, a municipal credit-analysis firm. “I hope it’s not a train wreck, but it could be.”

I’d rather see America’s cities be great than not but, by and large, local voters don’t seem to agree.

TRIED AND TRUE: The Big-City Murder Rate Is Falling and the Reasons Won’t Surprise You. “In the wake of the sky-high violent crime rates from 2020, big-city mayors hired more cops, and many departments reinstituted ‘aggressive policing methods’ to deal with the out-of-control shootings and murders.”

IT IS UNWISE TO CROSS CZAR VLADIMIR: Popular Russian TV series disappears from streaming service after its lead actress speaks out against war. “‘Olga,’ a popular Russian TV series whose last season was released in May, has been removed from the site of the channel that aired it, as well as from the channel’s streaming service, just weeks after the show’s star, actress Olga Troyanova, spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine. The show is considered to be one of TNT’s most successful shows.”

At least Troyanova hasn’t been defenestrated or poisoned — yet?

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: China Is Certainly Getting Their Money’s Worth Out of Joe Biden. “Who wouldn’t want a relationship with a guy that stays bought?”

COLD WAR II: China negotiating with Havana about joint military training facility in Cuba. “According to a senior U.S. official, Beijing and Havana are discussing what kind of training would take place at the facility and what the leadership structure would look like. Biden administration officials have brought up these talks with their counterparts in Beijing and Havana. It’s unclear, however, how far along China and Cuba are in their chats about the prospects for a deal, the official said.”

Cuba has needed a new foreign sponsor to help keep the lights on since the collapse of the Soviet Union and China “is muscling into power across America’s underbelly.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Team Sleepy Joe Seems to Have a Case of Kennedy Panic. “The Democrats were obviously hoping that the drooling shell they have running as an incumbent president wouldn’t be challenged at all. They can’t have Biden in any sort of contest with other people, as he is in a constant struggle with himself. They just want to get Sir Sniffsalot back to the basement and record the occasional video where First Lady DOCTOR Cruella de Biden can do all of the talking.”

WHEN COMPETENCE AND EXPERIENCE TAKE A BACKSEAT TO INCLUSIVENESS:

https://twitter.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1671372796876984320

From the replies: “You can’t spell DEI without DIE.”

LINCOLN BROWN: ‘Inclusion’ Claims Another Victim.

As we all saw on today’s news, there is indeed a two-tiered system of justice. Perhaps three-tiered may be more appropriate. One is for the people who control the government, the economy, and the media. The second is for those who have pledged their fealty to those in the first tier, or who fit the right criteria. The third is for the rest of us.

Since a girl who attended ASK Academy in Rio Rancho, N.M., does not fit into the first two tiers, we may assume that justice for her may be slow in coming, if it ever does at all. Even though she was allegedly raped by a boy in a school bathroom.

Read the whole thing.

HMM: OceanGate REFUSED to put missing Titan sub through independent inspection process and also fired director in 2018 after he asked for more rigorous safety tests.

MAYBE NOT THE TOUGHEST CALL…: Trump Predicted Hunter Biden’s Sweetheart Deal.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Related: Can you say Banana Republic? I knew that you could. And not the store.

Ep. 5 As in most of the developing world, it's safer to be the president's son than his opponent. pic.twitter.com/AtRRaxYSjs

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 20, 2023

INTRODUCING The Mine-Laying Lawnmower of Death.

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE):

https://twitter.com/FederalSpyGuy/status/1671121398310354946

THOSE DOOMSDAY NARRATIVES DON’T ESTABLISH THEMSELVES, YOU KNOW: Democratic Donor Arrested and Charged With Setting Destructive Wildfire That Democrats Blamed on Climate Change.

SEEMS MORE LIKE MILLIONS OF DEMOCRATS HAVE A PROBLEM: RFK Jr. has a big primary problem: Democrats like Joe Biden. “For Biden to start dropping, Democrats would have to stop thinking he’s doing a good job as president. Biden’s approval rating among Democrats in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week was 84%. Just 16% either disapproved (13%) or didn’t hold a view (3%).There is no precedent – at least since World War II – of an incumbent president losing a contested state primary while polling above 70% nationally within his party.”