Cross-Examination

• RFK speaks an inconvenient truth about threats to democracy: We’ll say this about the Democrats’ freakout over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s presidential candidacy: It’s not irrational. Anyone who considers Kennedy’s magnetic appeal to young people alongside Joe Biden’s diametric repellence of that same voting bloc can see the threat this poses to the Democrats’ tenuous hold on power. Yesterday, Democrat strategists got another dose of the Kennedy castor oil when he observed that Biden “has done something that no other president in history has done, which is to order media — particularly social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google — to censor his political opponents.” For young people and other likely low-information voters — those who might not fully appreciate the importance of free speech or understand the implications of Biden’s actions — Kennedy elaborated: “If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he is the license for any kind of atrocity, that is a genuine threat to our democracy. What Trump said about … questioning the election and … to the extent that he engaged … in an effort to overthrow that, of course, that’s a threat to democracy, but it is not the worst threat undermining the First Amendment of our Constitution and then weaponizing the federal agencies, to get his opponents off the ballot.” For good measure, RFKJ said the same thing on CNN. To be sure, Kennedy has a well-earned reputation for left-wing fringiness, and we disagree vehemently with his characterization of Trump’s constitutional right to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election, especially given that a heretofore incomprehensible 43% of all votes were cast by fraud-friendly mail, but we appreciate his clear-headed assessment of the threats posed by Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats. Columnist David Harsanyi agrees, noting that Biden’s efforts to co-opt the private sector might reasonably be seen as “semi-fascist,” adding, “The biggest threat to ‘democracy’ — if by democracy we still mean the Constitution — is when the powerful ignore limits of the state with impunity.”

• Biden owns the border crisis: During the push for a bad immigration bill that failed to pass Congress, Joe Biden claimed it would “give me as president the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control” and that he’d “shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.” That claim was disingenuous on two fronts. First and foremost, Biden could have acted to enforce existing law and shut down the border. Second, his entire policy has been one of maintaining an open border. That reality was recently reiterated by Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodríguez. “The president doesn’t talk about shutting down the border [and is] not advocating for shutting down the border,” she stated. “What people want to see is order and humanity in our immigration system.” Not according to repeated polling. Upwards of 70% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the border. The vast majority favor legal immigration but, at the same time, oppose illegal immigration. That distinction matters, which is why the Leftmedia and the Biden administration intentionally blur the line.

• China Joe checks in with Comrade Xi: “Candid and constructive.” That’s how national security spokesmouth John Kirby characterized a Tuesday morning phone call from Joe Biden to his Communist Chinese benefactor Xi Jinping. It was apparently the first time the two had spoken since Xi’s visit to San Francisco some five months ago. As The New York Times reports, the call “was aimed at addressing a variety of combative and cooperative issues, as the United States grapples with wars and other global crises.” “Grapples with” is one way to put it. Other, more accurate ways would include “fumbles” and “botches” and “is overwhelmed by.” In any case, these “cooperative issues” ostensibly included “fighting narcotics production,” but that’s simply a euphemism for China’s ongoing efforts to poison Americans by producing and shipping deadly fentanyl to Mexico, whereupon the cartels take it across our porous southern border. Other topics of the “check-in” included Israel’s war with Hamas, North Korea’s nukes, China’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ChiComs’ continued menacing of Taiwan and other of its neighbors, climate change, Artificial Intelligence, and the red regime’s unfair trade practices. As Xi apparently told Biden, the two countries should focus on “no clash, no confrontation” for the year ahead. As for the American president, we’re sure he vigorously represented our national interests and that he gave Xi a much-needed earful on all these matters.

• Punishing pro-lifers: The Biden administration has targeted pro-life advocates while at the same time effectively turning a blind eye to the crimes committed by pro-abortion activists against pro-life centers and churches. The latest example comes courtesy of the federal prosecution and conviction of four pro-life advocates who peacefully protested at an abortion clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. These four were charged with violating the dubious FACE Act despite the fact that they did not block anyone’s access to the clinic. They now face a sentence of up to a year in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. DOJ prosecutor Brian Boynton claimed that the four were “not on trial for their beliefs.” However, the Biden administration’s repeated actions belie that claim. In January, the DOJ successfully prosecuted six other pro-life advocates for violating the FACE Act. They all face up to 10 years in prison.

• Leftist organizations are demonetizing conservatives: If Republicans are going to win the war of ideas between now and the November 5 elections, they’re going to have to do it with one hand tied behind their backs. That’s because an influential trade group has apparently been preventing major advertisers from doing business with news outlets that occasionally depart from the approved “progressive” narrative. The effect, then, is a demonetization of conservative platforms and voices. As The Daily Wire reports, the House Judiciary Committee has documents from the World Federation of Advertisers that show how it implemented, through its Global Alliance for Responsible Media, “a strategy to prevent major advertisers from doing business with disfavored news outlets. The coordinated effort could have the effect of bankrupting news organizations that don’t get the stamp of approval.” In a March 27 letter to advertisers sent by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, he said that these speech-suppressing leftists might be running afoul of U.S. antitrust laws, and he demanded that the affected advertisers cough up some additional documentation. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: None of this oversight happens without the GOP’s control of the House.

• Facebook and Netflix make you the product: Previously sealed records from the antitrust lawsuit filed last year against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, by two private citizens have recently been unsealed. According to those records, Facebook collaborated with Netflix to allow the video-streaming company to gain access to users’ private message inboxes. Netflix would then give Facebook “a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendations, sends, and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variant.” In other words, Facebook gave Netflix all users’ private Messenger chats, and Netflix gave Facebook all account holders’ watch history. So, these two Big Tech corporations were sharing private data without the users’ knowledge. The motive was that each company could cater its ads more effectively.

• Wisconsin governor celebrates destroying women’s sports: “I just vetoed Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ bill to ban trans and gender nonconforming kids from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity.” So boasted Wisconsin’s out-of-touch Democrat governor, Tony Evers, who added a straw man for good measure: “LGBTQ kids deserve our love and respect and support just like any other kid.” At issue here is a bill that was passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature, which would’ve banned high school “transgender” males from competing in girls’ sports simply because they “identify” as female. As the suddenly aptly named WBOY reports: “Evers had promised to veto the bill ever since it was introduced. Democrats did not have the votes to stop its passage in the Legislature. He vetoed it in the Capitol surrounded by Democratic lawmakers, transgender advocates, the mayor of Madison and others.” In other words, he celebrated the bullying of girls at the hands of boys and the destruction of girls’ athletics. What a sicko. We, of course, agree that these troubled kids, these “transgenders,” deserve our “love and respect,” but they deserve our wisdom and our protection more than they need our potentially life-altering “support.” And what about our athletic daughters? Don’t they merit our “love and respect”?

• Your ESG score: Last we checked, America is not China. However, some very Chinese-like things have been transpiring in the U.S. that should be of concern to everyone. Many folks are aware that Beijing keeps a social credit score on all its citizens. This allows the government to assert greater control over everyone’s lives. In America, the Land of the Free, the expectation is that we are free of any kind of social credit system. However, as Big Tech’s censorship police have repeatedly demonstrated, we are not as free to express our views as the Constitution says we should be. It’s even worse than merely censorship by Big Tech, as a form of a social credit system is springing up within the U.S., and it’s based upon the leftist ESG values system. An industry has developed that analyzes an individual’s purchase history in order to establish his or her personal carbon footprint. Based on these ESG scores, banks and other financial institutions can then take this data to determine whether or not they are willing to do business with an individual. James Lindsay observes, “Personal ESG scores are a social credit system of tyranny based on ESG fraud and arbitrary power.” The point is to force Americans into accepting and abiding by the Left’s new neo-Marxist values system.

Headlines

• Biden admin to postpone new Title IX regulations until post-election (Washington Stand)

• Democrats eye Florida after abortion ruling (Washington Post)

• Florida top destination of migrants flying to U.S. under Biden parole program (Daily Wire)

• Wisconsin voters pass amendments to bar private election funding in response to “Zuckerbucks” controversy (National Review)

• Biden’s tax-hike plan would cost the U.S. economy nearly 800,000 jobs (Fox Business)

• Soaring interest costs to exceed defense spending as government faces fiscal reckoning (Washington Examiner)

• Pete Buttigieg mocks people who don’t want electric vehicles (Daily Wire)

• Kaylee Gain showing signs of “significant cognitive impairment” following high school beatdown (New York Post)

• Bearded “trans” athlete who injured rival was suspended from rowing team for ogling topless girl in changing room (New York Post)

• 28-year-old Dutch woman is scheduled to be euthanized in May because she is depressed (Not the Bee)

• U.S. women’s soccer player apologizes for sharing Christian content after Megan Rapinoe calls her out (National Review)

• IDF opens probe after seven aid workers killed in central Gaza (Jerusalem Post)

• 7.4-magnitude earthquake kills 7, injures 700 in Taiwan (New York Post)

• Scottish police won’t charge J.K. Rowling for “misgendering” trans convicts under new hate speech law (National Review)

• Humor: Scottish Parliament declares William Wallace was a woman after learning he wore a skirt (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.