WOEING: The first crew launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is on hold indefinitely: “NASA will share more details once we have a clearer path forward.”

DON’T COME TO MEGYN’S SHOW UNPREPARED: Megyn Kelly Brutally Fact Checks Bill Maher’s Left Wing Talking Points to His Face.

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Regular fish oil supplement use might increase first-time heart disease and stroke risk.

OLD AND COLD: No one is transing kids.

The new hotness: Health Centers At Seattle Public Schools Offer ‘Gender-Affirming’ Hormone Therapy To Children.

WELL: Pedestrians may be twice as likely to be hit by electric/hybrid cars as petrol/diesel ones.

GOODER AND HARDER: California Program Set to Pay Drivers for the Privilege of Even More Taxes in the Near Future.

THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS ARE DOING PRETTY WELL THIS DECADE: Fluoridated drinking water during pregnancy may raise health risks for baby.

READER FAVORITE: Camping Fan for Tent. #CommisionEarned

WHY SHOULD REALITY GET IN THE WAY OF MAKING PEOPLE THINK TRUMP RAPED HIS WIFE? Hollywood Refuses to ‘Believe All Women’… Again.

END SOCIALIST EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS!

Infamous for its starvation wages, Walmart just posted staggering first-quarter profits. The surge is a result of its strategic shift toward catering to affluent shoppers while its full-time workers continue to rely on Medicaid and food stamps. https://t.co/jScx1YdJ07

— Jacobin (@jacobin) May 20, 2024

UPDATE: A friend texts: “Free the Jacobin writers! Solidarity!”

THERE THEY (DON’T) GO AGAIN: Hey, How About Another Big Boeing Fail?

ED MORRISSEY: Just How Bad Was Cohen’s Performance — And Merchan’s?

HMM: Democrats Beware: A Progressive DA Fights for His Job — in Hipster Portland.

With its ubiquitous hipster coffee and IPAs, enduring live-and-let-live ethos and a politics so deep blue that the homeless guy outside the Whole Foods in the Pearl District solicited patrons to buy him a beer by bearing a “Fuck Trump” cardboard sign, Portland is hardly ripe for a Republican takeover.

But on Tuesday, the voters of Multnomah County, the surrounding jurisdiction and a county that has not voted Republican for president since 1960, could replace their incumbent district attorney, Mike Schmidt, with a man who was in the GOP until after Donald Trump became president.

“What I hear when I’m knocking on doors, is ‘Hey, I consider myself very liberal but this is out of step — we’re not getting served well,’” said Nathan Vasquez, a longtime prosecutor in the county office and now unaffiliated voter who’s challenging his boss, adding: “People definitely want public safety. It doesn’t mean people are wholly abandoning the idea of criminal justice reform. They just want it delivered in a pragmatic, practical way.”

Should Vasquez prevail, it would represent more than the rejection of a progressive prosecutor. It would be the culmination of simmering local frustration with crime, homelessness and drug abuse and a resounding correction to the shift left on criminal justice that took place here and in so many cities in 2020.

It should also get the attention of Democratic lawmakers everywhere.

It will get their attention. Whether they have any intention of changing their ways after the election remains to be seen and isn’t to be trusted.

CATCH 22: McDonald’s Trapped Between Prices That Are Too High… and Too Low?

NOW OUT: From Nellie Bowles, Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History. #CommissionEarned

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: North Dakota GOP congressional hopeful hires Dylan Mulvaney to troll opponent. “Becker, who is endorsed by the co-chairman of the Congressional Coal Caucus, posted the video featuring Mulvaney with a statement that blasted Fedorchak for ‘radical green energy proposals’ that hurt the coal industry in the Peace Garden State.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY EDITION: Columbia trustees hang up phone, ignore question about president’s handling of protests amid criticism. “The trustees have been accused of being ‘missing in public action’ as the New York university faces scrutiny for its actions regarding antisemitism on campus.”

HOW DARE SHE NOT BE INTERSECTIONAL: Caitlin Clark Shamed for Being ‘White, Straight, and From Iowa.’

HIGHER EDUCATION’S CULTURE OF BIGOTRY AND HATE: ‘GO BACK TO THE GAS CHAMBERS’: Three California colleges face federal complaints over out-of-control anti-Semitism.

It’s a toxic industry, polluting society with toxic ideologies.

OH: Rashida Tlaib has paid $435,000 to firm of anti-Israel activist for terrorism-tied groups. “Tlaib, who often faces criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for her anti-Israel rhetoric and defense of a phrase calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, has delivered more than $435,000 in payments earmarked for “fundraising consulting” since 2020 from her campaign and leadership PAC to Unbought Power, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Florida-based limited liability corporation is operated by Rasha Mubarak, a close ally of Tlaib’s who recently held key roles for terrorism-tied organizations in the United States.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Democrats Are Everything They Say They Fear About Trump. “There has been a steady media diet of ‘Trump is Hitler’ from the people who are actually fomenting and excusing Nazi sentiments on college campuses. It’s a bit surreal even for those of us who are used to the Democrats and all of their projection.”

IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO, OF COURSE: The National Geographic ‘gender revolution’ has failed. “Seven years ago, National Geographic announced a “gender revolution.” In a special 2017 edition of the famous magazine and a corresponding TV special hosted by Katie Couric, Nat Geo declared that the black and white ‘binary world’ was crumbling, replaced by the exciting new world of transgenderism and gender fluidity. The magazine cover featured a 9-year-old “transgender girl.” The ‘experts’ Couric interviewed were mostly leftist political activists. It was an embarrassment.”

Well, anything involving leftist political activists generally is.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Biden administration’s race-based tax plan is disgusting: It is a malevolent effort to destroy middle-class prosperity by brandishing race.

Do you like scary stories? How about this recent report from the United States Treasury, “Advancing Equity through Tax Reform: Effects of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Proposals on Racial Wealth Inequality.”

That sleep-inducing mouthful of grade-A bureaucratese may seem anodyne, the sort of thing that requires a surgeon general’s warning. But even a cursory trip through this twelve pages of reader-proof gobbledegook will be enough to give any sentient being nightmares. For what this malodorous blueprint aims at is nothing less than the confiscation of your wealth and property.

Beginning with its title, this report bristles with loaded buzzwords —“equity,” “racial wealth inequality.” Behind those abstractions, however, is a malevolent plan to destroy middle-class prosperity by brandishing the chief shibboleth of the age: race.

Race! Ergo, we are going to demonize whites.

Race! Ergo, we are going to punish success.

Race! Ergo, we are going to fiddle with the tax code in order to figure out ways of penalizing those with wealth, most of whom turn out to be whites and Asians.

The first sentence gives the show away. “For generations, entrenched disparities in our society and economy, at times facilitated by the federal government, have made it harder for Americans of color to have access to opportunity.”

“Americans of color,” forsooth. I am an American of color — a pleasing pink, if you must know — and so, even if you are an albino, are you. To distinguish among citizens on the basis of skin color — preferring some hues to others — is not only invidious, it is un-American. It should also be illegal.

But here we have the Department of the Treasury telling us about how the Biden administration has plans to tax Americans differently depending on their race. It is disgusting.

Related: Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.

PUMP THE VOTE: Biden to sell off 1M barrels of gasoline held in reserve to keep prices low before election.

The fuel will be released from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve, a component of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was established in 2014 after Superstorm Sandy disrupted gasoline supplies in the New York City area.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is laser focused on lowering prices at the pump for American families, especially as drivers hit the road for summer driving season,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

“By strategically releasing this reserve in between Memorial Day and July 4th, we are ensuring sufficient supply flows to the tri-state and northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most.”

Supplies are fine. It’s support for Biden that’s feeling the squeeze.

THE WAR ON CIVIL RIGHTS: New York Thinly Disguises Another Gun Control Bill as Environmentalism.