WHY WAS JOE BIDEN DOING GET-OUT-THE-VOTE CAMPAIGNING IN CHICAGO YESTERDAY? MAYBE THIS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT: Oak Park trustees looking to expand ban on 24-hour gas stations and impacted 7-Eleven store owners want it: ‘It’s constant crime … I can’t even keep an employee.’

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Liz Cheney Completes Her Pathetic Transition to the Dark Side. “When last we encountered Elizabeth Cheney here in the Morning Briefing she was comparing herself to Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, and, if I’m not mistaken, Pope Saint Gregory the Great. She’s a smidge delusional these days, after all.”

DON’T GET COCKY: Stunner for Democrats Drops in New Hampshire and Scrambles the Election Map.

Hold on a second. Is New Hampshire actually in play for Republicans on November 8th? That’s the story from a stunning new poll that shows that Don Bolduc is leading Democrat incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan.

Bolduc, a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate, was left for dead after winning the primary, with the assumption being that his negatives were too high and that he couldn’t draw support in a blue state. His fundraising was lackluster, and the national groups have been spending their finite resources in more “competitive” states.

Recently, though, it was revealed that Republicans were going back into New Hampshire to make last-minute ad buys for Bolduc, again putting the race on the table. That surprised a lot of election onlookers, but this new poll from St. Anselm says it’s the right move.

There will be surprises on election night, but it sure feels like most of the surprises will be unpleasant ones for the Democrats.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Illegals Bearing Giant Venezuelan Flag Attack Border Patrol.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Biden Admin. reportedly failing to cooperate with IG probe into botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

Republicans are asking why the Biden Administration is allegedly attempting to obstruct the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) investigation into the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

In a letter to Inspector General (IG) John Sopko, Reps. James Comer (R-Kentucky) and Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin) state that the Biden Administration’s alleged failure to cooperate with the IG is leading to critical delays in Congress getting requested information.

Separately, the FBI is reported to have raided the home of an ABC News investigative producer, James Meek who was reportedly working on an investigation about the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He is said to have since disappeared from public view, quit his job, and quit a book project he was working on.

The Republicans are asking for an immediate briefing to better understand obstacles prohibiting SIGAR from completing its investigation.

Read the whole thing.

My question is, what are they hiding that’s actually worse than what the whole world witnessed on TV last year?

ARE THEY TRYING TO PRE-TAINT THE RESULTS? Biden’s CISA Director Tells Us Not to Worry About Election Irregularities.

THERE HE GOES AGAIN: Does Joe Biden Know His Son Beau Did NOT Die in Iraq?

BREAKING: Liz Cheney May Have Just Put the Final Nail in Democrats’ Coffin in Ohio Senate Race.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Sen. Mark Kelly was against the Artemis return to the moon before he was for it.

The Daily Beast reported in October 2020, shortly before Kelly won his first campaign for the Senate, that the former astronaut took a dim view of returning to the moon. He said, “We should just go straight to Mars. Forget about the Moon. We’ve been there. We’ve already done that.”

Kelly’s words echoed those of former President Barack Obama 10 and a half years before. At a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, Obama heaped scorn on the idea of returning to the moon. “Now, I understand that some believe that we should attempt a return to the surface of the Moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say pretty bluntly here: We’ve been there before. Buzz has been there. There’s a lot more of space to explore and a lot more to learn when we do.“ Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was in the audience at the time, serving as a political prop for Obama’s space policy that bypassed the moon.

Fast forward to Dec. 1, 2021. Kelly introduced Vice President Kamala Harris at her first meeting of the National Space Council. In his remarks, Kelly stated that he looked forward to the day when the first woman and the first person of color would walk on the moon as part of the Artemis III mission. He said that the event will inspire a new generation to follow science and technology education.

What changed to cause Kelly to alter his views on returning to the moon? The senator has not chosen to enlighten anyone, so assumptions have to be made.

“Project Artemis was President Donald Trump’s initiative,” as the story notes. I’d note that this kind of last-minute switcharoo is typical for a candidate who fears he might be in trouble.

NOW THEY’VE DONE IT: CNN Goes After Man’s Best Friend. “It seems CNN wants us to stop adopting really big dogs and feed our canines… bugs.”

EVERYBODY: Now That Elon Musk Owns Twitter, Who Should He Unban?

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Hell No, Nancy and Paul Pelosi Don’t Deserve the Decency They Deny Us. “Paul Pelosi suffered a terrible assault, and the Left’s reaction has me asking a question nobody wants the answer to — but it’s also the answer we need. That’s the big crazy on today’s Insanity Wrap, an entire week’s worth of lefty nuttiness wrapped up in one easy-to-swallow medicated news capsule.”

• Worst. Candidate. Ever. (And she isn’t named Fetterman.)
• Lefties hate decency, assume you’ll still treat them with it.
• Biden’s most desperate lie yet.

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

WELCOME TO ZUCKERBERG’S METAVERSE: Meta Quest Pro review: For those with more money than sense.

UGH: A Transitioner Posts Her Uterus on TikTok.

LOCKDOWN FALLOUT: ‘Shades of badness’ in math, reading scores. “The longer urban schools stayed closed the worse their fourth-graders are doing in math, concludes an analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP) data.

There’s little evidence that keeping schools closed saved lives, writes Thompson. “Schools remained open in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy in late 2020 and early 2021,” because policy makers relied on “reports that schoolchildren did not play a major role in community transmission.” In addition, “evidence from Ireland, Singapore, Norway, Israel, South Korea, and North Carolina” showed that “young children were less likely than adults to get severely sick from COVID.”

There’s a media push to minimize the NAEP results. After all, writes David Wallace-Wells in the New York Times, what’s a few points after a worldwide pandemic? He worries Democratic politicians will be blamed for extending school closures.

Jay Caspian Kang, writing in The New Yorker, also wants parents to calm down and lower their expectations. Parents’ anxiety has been stoked by “the constant stream of stories about falling ACT and SAT scores, learning loss, and a generation of children who, absent some large-scale intervention, may fall well short of expectations.” But, don’t worry, because affluent, white students also did worse. And you wouldn’t want Democrats might get the blame, would you?

Related: Are You Ready to Forgive and Forget for the Damage Done by COVID Lockdowns?

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: The Morning After Election Day, Who or What Will Democrats Blame for the Shellacking? “Right now, I’m seeing the left put two excuses out there to ripen; voter oppression and scary guys (probably feds) in tactical vests watching ballot boxes.”

WELCOME TO HOTEL CHINAFORNIA: Shanghai Disney shuts over Covid, visitors unable to leave. “The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account the park was barring people from entering or exiting and that all visitors inside the site would need to await the results of their tests before they could leave.”

However many people around the world were still thinking of visiting Communist China, there must be fewer now.

Related: How Xi sacrificed China’s future in pursuit of total power.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: One Week Left for Desperate Democrats to Burn It All Down. “What this all means is that the Democrats are uneasy. And when they feel even the slightest bit of panic, they tend to act out. I doubt that they have any big November surprise waiting to be sprung on an unsuspecting electorate. They put all their chips in on abortion during the summer and the bet didn’t pay off.”

CLINICAL CHILD ABUSE: CHOP’s gender clinic founder says ‘age is just a number’ when advocating for double mastectomies for healthy 14-year-old-girls.

WELL, THEY’RE RIGHT: A Stunning Number of Americans Believe the Country Is ‘Out of Control’ Thanks to Democrats.

HMM: Russia offers conditions to end war… sort of.

We probably shouldn’t get our hopes up too high just yet, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signaled that there might be an offer on the table over the weekend. Considering how bombastic Lavrov generally is, this would indicate a serious change in his attitude if it turns out to be more than just random propaganda. But, as always, he wasn’t suggesting any sort of complete surrender or even withdrawal without concessions. Russia would only be willing to engage in such a discussion if “the West meets certain conditions.”

So what are these “conditions” that Lavrov wants to see being offered? We’re not going to get much help from him there because he seemed to be deliberately vague on the subject. He claimed that Russia is “always ready to listen to our Western colleagues” if there is a desire to engage in new talks.

The Biden White House ought to be pursuing a two-track strategy of weapons for Ukraine to punish aggression, while using carrots and sticks to get both sides to the negotiating table before this war escalates.

Instead, we’re forced to play old Kremlinology games.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Robert Spencer: Obama Fires Off Rhetorical Shot at Trump, Hits Biden Instead. “When we don’t just disagree with people but we start demonizing them, making wild crazy allegations about them, that creates a dangerous climate.”

Matt Margolis: Is There a Cover-up Underway in the Pelosi Home Invasion Story? “It may be considered unbecoming to ask questions because Paul Pelosi was seriously injured in the attack, but it’s hard to ignore some of the problems with the story.”

Yours Truly: Are You Ready to Forgive and Forget for the Damage Done by COVID Lockdowns? “This is the same author who, as recently as January, was arguing that it ‘may be necessary’ to mock ‘anti-vaxxers’ COVID deaths.'”

PAGING ELON MUSK: Twitter Bans Conservatives, Including Heritage Foundation Expert, One Week Before Midterm Elections.

HEH: Can’t We Just Admit That Modern Art Is Garbage?

Actually, there’s some great modern art — but Sturgeon’s law applies to everything.

FINALLY, A SENSIBLE (AND PROFITABLE) REFORM PLAN FOR TWITTER:

Well, Elon — the ball’s in your court.