This new Politico poll puts the prosecution of Donald Trump in perspective.

 Althouse

. . ."The headline refers to the widely shared desire to see the trial proceedings completed before the election, but I don't think the public's enthusiasm for a speedy trial is going to spur the judicial system on, and once you know that people only support a mild or nothing punishment if he is convicted, you can see the light weight of the interest in giving the people what they want.

"I've highlighted that answer because it puts the judicial process in proportion. In this case, where we can read about the things Trump did and how his antagonists frame them as wrongdoing and where we can anticipate that he's not going to prison, whatever the outcome of the trial, the criminal charges blend in with all the other arguments against voting for him. We don't need the courts to hurry up and tell us what to think. We can think for ourselves and vote for or against Trump independently of the courts.

"AND: This question in the poll underscores my point (despite what it says in the boldface heading!):

Circling vulture: Gavin Newsom travels to red states to 'praise' Joe Biden

Monica Showalter - American Thinker   . . ."Newsom also visited deep red Idaho, to tout an "incredible" book store which he claims sells "banned" books.

"He's not just running, he's also raising money, the way a real campaign does, pulling in, according to the report, some $4 million since April.

"He's appeared on Hannity, supposedly to defend Joe Biden's record and status as a "man of decency" which is now particularly laughable, but not stopping him. When you are convinced that Joe is already political carrion, the eulogies cost nothing politically to let roll.

"He's also got members of the mainstream media suddenly throwing his name out there as presidential material to replace Joe, such as in this op-ed from the Washington Times, which was cited by CBS Sacramento, and there have been numerous others.

"But hey, he's not running for president. He just wants to tour the country to praise Joe. 

"And everyone knows he's California's answer to Joe Isuzu.

"The one guy who's probably less fooled than anyone about this is back at the White House.

"While the White House does seem to have a "praise Joe Biden" re-election strategy in place from other Democrats, given that Joe Biden is in no condition to campaign and will have to rely on others to do it for him, the idea that Newsom won't take a little slice for himself has got to be giving him the night sweats.

"Vultures are circling now, as the scandals engulf him and he can't get out now. The biggest one is named Newsom."  . . .

UPDATE: State With No Electricity Orders Everyone To Drive Electric Cars - YouTube

White House cocaine disarray as story keeps changing and one faction implies Kamala might be the fall-gal and she surrenders to hysterical laughter

 Thomas Lifson; American Thinker

Gott[a] love the title of the linked Federalist article: "The White House That Tracked Down Grannies After Capitol Riot Wants You To Believe Cocaine Caper Has Them Stumped"

"As more anonymous leaks muddy the waters on where the cocaine was found in the White House, one thing becomes clear: Biden’s handlers are divided on how to handle the scandal that now deserves the moniker “Cocainegate.” It’s panic time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"The most intriguing leak went to NBC News, always willing to broadcast propaganda meant to guard the interests of the ruling class. Host Andrea Mitchell and White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell casually let drop a shot across the bow of VP Kamala Harris -- whose unpopularity is a  huge problem for Dems worried about maintaining control of the Executive Branch -- implying that the latest version of where the coke was found, in a cubby near an entrance to the West Wing, is also near where the Vice President parks:

NEW: The White House is now claiming the cocaine was found "in a much more secure place ... near the Situation Room" and next to "where, for example, the vice president's vehicle is parked." . . .

 In a few weeks the FBI will arrest some poor fella and claim that while the J6 Insurrection was going down, this fella snuck into the WH with a bag of blow.

Garland will hold a presser to notify the serfs that the DOJ intends to file charges, because nobody is above the law in the United States blah blah…

The Biden family will peacock about.

And the MSM will call for Jack Smith to amend his case to include drug smuggling charges against DJT.  Case closed" . . 

Jean-Pierre Won’t Say if WH Supports Prosecuting Cocaine Smuggler  . . ."Jean-Pierre refused to answer a number of questions about the cocaine incident.

“Will any White House staffers be undergoing drug testing as part of this investigation?” a second reporter asked.

“Just not going to get into hypotheticals from here,” Jean-Pierre replied. “The White House is subject to rigorous guidelines that include drug testing. So, we will take any action that is appropriate and warranted.”

Cocainegate Just Got Even Stranger (townhall.com)  

For anyone who's entered the White House there or spent time in the West Wing, there's not as much space or distance between areas as some might expect. That means there was a bag of cocaine not terribly far from the Situation Room, one of the most sensitive, protected, and vital areas in the White House. 

 "The US Presidency and the administration has become little more than a meme at this point. It's joke that just keeps on giving. And nothing will happen. Which of course, is what makes it a meme. I don't care who the cocaine belongs to, what I care about is the damage that's been done to the office. It's just painful to watch them mumble, stumble and bumble through their day."

"If it wasn't Hunter's that just means, there are 2 coke heads with White House access." . . .

Karine Jean-Pierre Was Asked if Joe Biden Acknowledges His Granddaughter, and the Answer Chilled Me to the Core –

 How many children does Hunter Biden have? "I don't have anything to share from here". 

RedState   "Because it’s 2023, you expect there to be a lot of really dumb political debates. That’s exacerbated by the fact that the White House is currently inhabited by a man suffering from severe senility. His degenerate son is also constantly around, fresh off receiving a sweetheart deal from the DOJ, and suckling at the taxpayer teat in order to live like a king.

"But one argument you’d think wouldn’t need to take place is how many grandchildren the president has. Rather, you’d think that such a question would be easily answered given the quantifiable nature of it. How many children have Joe Biden’s children produced? The answer is seven. There you go. Simple, right?

"Nothing is simple when it comes to the current administration, though, and there is no level to which its members won’t stoop in order to grasp some tenuous, perceived political advantage. So when Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s press secretary, was asked whether the president acknowledges his most recently born, seventh grandchild, the answer didn’t surprise me, but it also chilled me to my core.". . .

White House reporter brings up an NY Times article on Hunter Biden's daughter in Arkansas and asks if the president acknowledges the little girl as his granddaughter.

KARINE: "I don't have anything to share from here. pic.twitter.com/bUmYXlyqV4

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 5, 2023

. . ."I’m not only struck by how petty the White House’s strategy is but how pointless it is as well. What is gained by not publicly acknowledging one’s own granddaughter? Why would anyone want to continue to humiliate and harm a child in any context, much less this context? Even if the Bidens desire no relationship with their granddaughter, a disgusting revelation in and of itself, why pretend she doesn’t exist at all? Why order your press secretary to pretend it’s some grand mystery how many grandchildren you have?". . .

If we pay reparations do you think that will satisfy anyone?

It will never end, and that includes the likes of Michelle Obama, Maxine Waters, and Joy Reid; their prosperity and reason for being come from claiming "victimhood". TD

Reparations aren’t about justice. They’re an act of revenge (nypost.com) 

"Ten years ago, the idea of “reparations” sat on the political fringes in America. The question of whether or not compensation should once have been paid to former slaves had died out.  Not least because by the start of the 21st century, no one in America had actually suffered from slavery. The country was a century and a half away from the bloody civil war it had fought over the issue.

"But there’s a tendency in our own age which does not allow wounds to mend or heal. Indeed, there is a movement that locates long-healed wounds in order to rip them open again. And then complain about the hurt caused to themselves.

"In 2014, the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an essay in The Atlantic making “The Case for Reparations.” In recent times, few articles have had more impact. The issue of reparations began to be picked up by the radical left and then made its way to the political center." . . .

The transatlantic slave trade, like the far larger Arab slave trade of the same period, was only made possible because black Africans kidnapped and sold their brothers and sisters into slavery. We know this from the historical record and from the memoirs of those to whom this was done, like the remarkable 18th century slave Olaudah Equiano. Some people at the time, including Voltaire, noted that the only thing worse than the treatment of some Africans by some Europeans was the behavior of some Africans to their fellow Africans.

"Some of us are simply a bit bored of hearing people ripping at closed wounds and then crying about their presumed hurt."

Douglas Murray says it's time to move on from what happened hundreds of years ago instead of demanding reparations.@DouglasKMurray | @piersmorgan | #PMU pic.twitter.com/EW3tA054bh

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) July 4, 2023

Joy Reid Feared Being Shot On The 4th Of July –

It just goes to show you can get on TV in 2023 and say just about anything without having to back it up. Normal people are enjoying life and not living in fear.

 OutKick   "Joy Reid uncorked an all-time crazy take about the 4th of July and the fear of being shot.

"Millions of Americans celebrated America’s birthday Tuesday with plenty of cold beers, great food, time with family and friends and fireworks to cap out the night.

"The fireworks were so extensive where I live that it sounded like a war zone getting shelled with freedom. It’s what the 4th of July is all about." . . .

MSNBC’s @JoyAnnReid: “ I did not go out on July 4th & would not. The idea of going to a mass gathering, a parade, or a big fireworks thing outside seems insane to me, to be blunt, in America, because America is awash with guns & people … seem to want to shoot people.” pic.twitter.com/MGWo8ebkTj

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 6, 2023

Joy Reid is no stranger to dropping hot takes. For example, she infamously declared she knew climate change was responsible for a hurricane (she’s not a meteorologist or a scientist) and proudly claimed she only got into Harvard because of affirmative action.

However, this is next level. Not going outside because of fear of being shot just isn’t backed up by any evidence to justify the stance.

Was Last Week the Beginning of the End for Biden? -

The American Spectator | USA News and Politics 

If the people who run the Democratic Party want Biden out of the way in 2024, they will need more than the corporate media to convince her. In the end, she will decide if last week was the beginning of the end for Biden.

"Something changed last week inside the Beltway that suggests the people who run the Democratic Party now realize President Biden’s tenure in office is not sustainable beyond 2024. The “tell” was not, however, the latest revelation by IRS whistleblowers about his corrupt administration. It was instead the sudden awakening of the White House press corps. The same “reporters” who snored through more than two years of preposterous claims by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and her predecessor simultaneously woke up Friday. Correspondents from media outlets CNN, CBS, NBC, and even the New York Times aggressively questioned Jean-Pierre about the metastasizing Hunter Biden scandals.

"This wasn’t spontaneous. The word has gone out that regime change is coming. Thus, the “news” outlets that usually repeat Biden’s claim that he and his son never discuss the latter’s business deals actually reported the testimony of IRS whistleblowers who allege political interference in their Hunter Biden investigation. CBS, for example, ran an unusually honest story about the whistleblowers that prominently included full transcripts of their testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee released the transcripts after it was announced that Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. The two IRS whistleblowers testified that he committed felony tax evasion:" . . .

The Truth About Legacies

 Ann Coulter

"After an initial burst of indignation at the Supreme Court for taking on the unpleasant task of informing college admissions offices that race discrimination is unconstitutional, the media's main focus quickly shifted to their favorite topic: blaming white men.

"True, it was going to be difficult to turn a case finally ending 50 years of discrimination against whites into a story about how whites are oppressing blacks, but you don't know our media. The fact that the plaintiffs in this case were Asian didn't even slow them down.

"Within hours, everybody was talking about "legacies." The children of alumni are apparently the ne plus ultra of whiteness. The New York Times called them "white, wealthy and well-connected." And that's how "legacy" entered the vocabulary as an epithet for white men, joining "frat boys," "rich," "privileged," "Chads" and "lacrosse players."

"Unfortunately, much like #BlackLivesMatter, this latest orgy of hatred for whites is going to end up hurting black people the most.

"We have been assured that preferences for the children of alumni are exactly like racial preferences for blacks and Hispanics -- except given to whites. Thus, Kenny Xu, one of the plaintiffs in the affirmative action case, sneered that preferences for legacies "disproportionately privilege white applicants." (These aren't your allies, white people.)

"Then, days after the decision was announced, race activists filed a complaint against Harvard for giving preference to the children of alumni, saying that legacy admissions have "nothing to do with an applicant's merit" and were "an unfair and unearned benefit.' " . . .

"White House" has a whole new meaning now

 "If they had found a bag of cocaine at the White House while Trump was president it would be ALL we'd hear about 24/7 with lots and lots of speculation about which Trump had left their coke in the library. And you know if his Press Secretary had refused to talk about it the media would have lost their freakin' MINDS."

Eight reasons to believe a coverup is underway on the cocaine found in the White House - Thomas Lifson   "The discovery of a stash of cocaine in the White House became public because a hazmat team was sent in on the possibility that the white powdery substance might have been anthrax or some other deadly terror weapon. Were it not for the hazmat team’s highly visible and noteworthy arrival, I believe it is quite possible that the matter would have been handled with the discretion for which the Secret Service is famous (and notorious), protecting the privacy of the First Family.

"Now that we know about it, there are multiple signs that a coverup is underway to protect someone whom the Secret Service guards.

"One: the “evolving” location in which the coke was found" . . .

. . ."Four: Visitors to the working areas of the White House are heavily screened for security  

The scenario of an anthrax or other bioweapon or terror device being smuggled in is why rigorous screening is enforced. The immediate dispatch of a hazmat team confirms that this is taken extremely seriously. Bringing in any quantity of an illegal substance that physically resembles deadly powders is highly likely to result in arrest and prosecution.

Five: Members of the First Family are exempt from this rigorous security screening

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino makes this point:

There’s absolutely ZERO chance anyone other than a family member brought that cocaine inside the White House complex. No chance that would make it past the mag/security checkpoints. Family bypasses those.

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) July 5, 2023

This news was made for parody; Biden Promise To Restore Decency In White House Fulfilled As Crack Found Was Of Highest Quality | Babylon Bee    "It is this administration's policy to maintain the highest standards," said Karine Jean-Pierre, a black gay White House Press Secretary who made history as a gay person who is black and works as the White House Press Secretary. "The American people deserve to feel confident that any cocaine found within the presidential residence will only be of the very finest kind.". . . 

British combat medic resigns after being threatened for post defending women from trans ideology

  LifeSite (lifesitenews.com)

Wright now works at King’s Mill Hospital in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and is currently weighing possible legal action with the help of the Free Speech Union.

'I've just had this thing hanging over me, this terrible slur on my honour.'

"A 14-year Army veteran and combat medic was pressured to leave the British military for sharing a Facebook post about the implications of transgender ideology on women’s rights.

"Reservist Colonel Dr. Kelvin Wright, who served with distinction under harrowing conditions in Afghanistan, found himself subjected to disciplinary action for sharing a quote from feminist Helen Joyce on social media that said, “If women cannot stand in a public place and say ‘Men cannot be women’, then we do not have women’s rights at all.” The post had been created by the group Fair Play for Women, which opposes the ramifications that treating biological males as women can have for the interests of actual women.

"As a result, the Daily Mail reported, he first received a critical text message from one of his junior officers, then a phone call from a superior telling him, in Wright’s paraphrasing, “you’ve upset a lot of people, you’re in a lot of trouble, we’re going to have to investigate you.”

"A group of LGBT activists within the Army had sent Wright’s superiors a seven-page letter, which Wright was not allowed to see, claiming that his “anti-trans views” rendered him unfit to serve. The report added that among the complaints was that Wright’s Facebook profile picture depicted him in uniform without a disclaimer that his personal views did not speak for the army but says such a “minor transgression” would “usually be dealt with quickly, with a warning and advice on future conduct.”

“ 'The Army is afraid of the backlash if they do the obvious thing and find me not guilty,” Wright said. “But neither can they declare me guilty and recommend a sanction because that would be ridiculous. They’re just doing nothing, unwilling to commit themselves. I’ve just had this thing hanging over me, this terrible slur on my honour.” . . .

Inconvenient Truth: 32 Climate Predictions Proven False

 Facts Matter - YouTube

Comment to this video: I'm 57, I still remember being told as a teenager that there was a "New Ice Age" coming, then in the 90s it became "Global Warming" and now it's "Climate Change".

Comments to the above video: "I'm 58 years old and I remember all through elementary school teachers scaring us with these ridiculous predictions. My parents would always assure me the world would be just fine. As I got older, it all became laughable and still is to this day. As always, your reporting is spot on."

"Gotta love how all of these predictions turned out to be false, but all the articles are written like they are without a doubt 100% true and facts. The cherry on top is them deleting the articles when they turn out to be false, they should be held accountable for spreading all this misinformation.

"When I was younger, I was all in on "saving the environment" and all that jazz, until I got into my teen years and started to realize that every new environmental crisis had the exact same 20 year deadline, and then when I got into my actual 20s and realized that the predictions from when I was a kid that were supposed to have happened didn't come to pass, I paid a lot more attention and saw how they keep moving the goalposts, I lost all faith in them. See, the thing is, moving the goalposts 20 years ahead is a perfect number for their doomsday predictions as it's just soon enough that most people alive now will still be alive to see it, but it's far enough out that they can claim "changes made that they started" were responsible for their predictions not coming true."....

"This video ought to be shown to every child. Thanks for sharing this. To the point here I'll keep it short. My grandfather was a professor or meteorology at a largeish university. Around the year 2000 he was asked to speak at a climate conference. He started his speech with this statement. "Global warming is the biggest farce ever pulled on mankind". Those were the only words from his speech he managed to get out. He was promptly removed from the podium and asked to leave the conference. This whole charade is about power and control. The actual science is ignored or the data is twisted to further the agenda. And that is truly all it is. An agenda..." More at this site.

Climate Change Is Real. Here Are 10 Undeniable Proofs | Babylon Bee   "Was your mind changed? We hope so. Now give the government hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this problem, as they've done such a great job with everything else."

1. It is hot. - If you go outside and it's a bit toasty, you can't deny it any longer: the climate is changing.
2. It is cold. - If you go outside and it's a bit nippy, you can't deny it any longer: the climate is changing.
3. It is raining. - Rain is absolute proof of climate change.
4. It is not raining. - A lack of rain is absolute proof of climate change.
5. It's a pleasant day. - A nice day outside? In Minnesota? CLIMATE. CHANGE.
6. It's not a pleasant day. - A not-so-nice day outside? In California? CLIMATE. CHANGE.

More here.

Fighting for survival in the belly of the beast -

  American Thinker   "Did you ever feel that the two major political parties are involved in a personal vendetta, similar to turf wars between organized crime syndicates?  Republicans and Democrats seem to be fighting their own private wars, mostly to gain political points for each party, while the masses of people they supposedly represent are merely insignificant pawns in a power-hungry chess game between omnipotent oligarchs.  Keep in mind that those elected officials almost never disagree with the party-line policies they embraced when running for office.  That's because they want support when it comes time for their reelection.  Therefore, even if Congressman A has changed his mind on a policy being promoted by his party, he is reluctant to oppose it, even if it may be detrimental to the country.

"That's how political parties keep their members in line.  You're one of them until your opinion changes on an issue they advocate.  What does that do to the independent-minded leader who used to reason things out and make his own decisions?  He either falls in line or suddenly sees his future in politics ebbing.  Maybe he thinks it's morally perverse to allow transgender drag shows for children.  However, if his party has the strong backing of radicals who are in favor of such an abomination, does he go against his deeply held convictions by agreeing with them?

"Is an influential position so important that it will change a good man into an evil one?  Such moral dilemmas are integrity tests that we face as a nation.  If a leader from an opposing party submits an idea that would benefit most Americans, should it be rejected on the grounds that your party didn't come up with it first?  There was a time when bipartisan agreement could be reached on some of the important issues up for debate.  Not anymore!  This is especially true if it's an issue supported by former president Donald Trump.  Whether you're a fan of Trump or not, if you're honest, you must agree that he had many important accomplishments during his first term." . . .