Cross-Examination

• Entitlements are going bankru…zzzzzz: What would we do without trustees? Yesterday, they sounded the sleep-inducing entitlement alarm to tell us that, according to a new report, the combined Social Security “trust” fund will be tapped out in 2035, and the Medicare “trust” fund will follow it in 2036. That is unless Congress can agree to make some much-needed reforms to these two gargantuan programs or, far more likely, print some more money. As the Washington Examiner tells it: “The report illustrates the long-term problems facing the entitlement programs, on which tens of millions of people rely. Nevertheless, it contained good news in that the deadlines have been moved back a bit from last year’s projections. The extended timeline gives a bit more breathing room to Congress, where the looming depletion of the trust fund has become a top political issue. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have vowed not to cut the popular entitlement benefits for seniors.” Former Maryland Democrat Governor and current Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley calls the report “a measure of good news,” just as, we suppose, it’s good news when a car doesn’t burst into flames after crashing into a brick wall. When we were young and stupid, we thought all these Great Society programs were engineered to last forever. But a funny thing happened on the way to Al Gore’s lockbox: People started to live longer — a lot longer. “Eliminating the shortfall,” said a sanguine O'Malley, whose life in government and whose taxpayer-funded retirement plan ensures that he’ll never have to worry about such things, “will bring peace of mind to Social Security’s 70 million-plus beneficiaries, the 180 million workers and their families who contribute to Social Security, and the entire nation.” Meantime, we’ll just keep kicking these arguably unconstitutional entitlement cans down the road.

• Talkative Trump threatened with jail: Once and perhaps future President Donald Trump has continued to exercise his First Amendment rights — much to the chagrin of Judge Juan Merchan and all the other Trump-haters with a stake in his trumped-up Manhattan show trial. As Fox News reports, the trial picked up again this morning after the ungaggable Trump “was again held in contempt of court, fined, threatened with jail time for future gag order violations, and told he’ll be required to sit in the Manhattan courtroom for at least another two weeks.” We guess the floggings will continue until Trump’s morale improves. But we wouldn’t count on the latter. As Judge Merchan warned him: “The last thing I want to consider is jail. You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” He’s certainly right about that. And he likely also knows that a trip to the hoosegow for Trump would be yet another PR win and polling boost for the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump called the proceedings “election interference,” and, speaking to reporters, he said he’d like to answer their questions, “but I can’t talk about it because this judge is giving me a gag order and says you’ll go to jail if you violate it.” He added: “And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.” Another day, another win for Trump, and another faceplant for his Democrat persecutors.

• Hamas ceasefire? Hamas has accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal devised by Egypt and Qatar. Israel, which is currently involved in its Rafah operation, has agreed to send a delegation to Cairo, Egypt, to hear and negotiate the potential ceasefire deal. However, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office explained, “The war cabinet decided Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war.” Netanyahu’s office added, “While the Hamas proposal is far from meeting Israel’s core demands, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel.” Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor John Kirby confirmed that Hamas had accepted the proposal for a ceasefire and noted that CIA Director William Burns is “talking to the Israelis about it, and we’ll see where this goes.” The trouble is that the deal that Hamas has agreed to is said to be a watered-down version of a previous one proposed by Egypt, which Hamas rejected. Israel is skeptical that this new proposal will meet its demands, especially that of Hamas returning all remaining hostages. As one Israeli official commented, “This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal.”

• Pro-Palestinian protesters at Auschwitz: During the annual “March of the Living” at Auschwitz in Poland, where Jewish survivors of the Holocaust gather to honor those who perished, a group of pro-Hamas “protesters” showed up to mock the event. The agitators shouted anti-Semitic slogans and floated Palestinian flags attached to balloons over the event. Of course, the anti-Semites claimed they were there simply to express Palestinian concerns against “Zionism” and not hatred of Jews. Given their choice of a memorial ceremony at a concentration camp as their venue, that’s about as believable as the schoolyard bully demanding your lunch money so he can buy you lunch. Ironically, they only served to underscore why modern-day Israel was established in the first place. Far from exposing Zionism, these anti-Semitic agitators demonstrate why it exists.

• Mad Maxine’s freaky fearmongering: It would’ve been nice if Joe Biden had awarded California Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters the Presidential Freedom of Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday. Heck, he awarded that lifetime leftist participation trophy to most every other aging “progressive” we can think of, including San Fran Nan Pelosi. If he’d simply included Mad Maxine, maybe then she’d have gotten the hint that it’s long past time to hang ‘em up. But no. There she was on Sunday, on MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart’s little-watched “The Sunday Show,” warning of Evil Trumpers “training up in the hills somewhere” and plotting which communities they’re “going to attack” if he, ahem, loses another rigged presidential election to Joe Biden. As The Daily Wire reports, “Waters joined to discuss Trump’s recent interview for TIME Magazine, and she said that her plan was to ask President Joe Biden and the Justice Department how they planned to prepare for violence from 'right-wing organizations.’” Because, you know, left-wing pols and left-wing mobs and left-wing pressure groups never incite their followers or resort to political violence.

• Biden’s bid to buy Michigan’s votes: It was another sleazy, scummy vote-buying effort from an administration that finds itself increasingly more desperate by the day and by the poll. Nonetheless, as the White House website shamelessly set forth, “As part of her Economic Opportunity Tour, Vice President Harris will join Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Dilawar Syed, and Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II in Detroit, Michigan to announce new funding and resources for small- and medium-sized auto manufacturers and autoworkers.” For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a $100 million taxpayer gift to auto workers and small auto suppliers. Michigan, of course, is one of the swing states Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016 and Joe Biden somehow snatched back in 2020, and it’s again likely to be the center of attention between now and November 5. Thus, Team Biden’s naked attempt to use taxpayer funds to buy the Great Lakes State’s electoral votes. As The Daily Wire notes: “Of the last 11 polls taken in Michigan, eight showed former President Trump leading, one showed a tie, and two had President Biden leading. Michigan’s 15 electoral votes could prove pivotal in the close race expected between Biden and Trump.”

• No-show Joe: Joe Biden has given fewer media interviews than any president in the last 40 years, and it appears that the mainstream media is tiring of his avoidance act. Of course, the primary reason Biden is avoiding the press is his advanced age and evident cognitive decline. For the most part, the MSM has played along, rarely focusing on Biden’s apparent and increasingly age-addled state. However, one can get away with only so much avoiding the press. Last month, The New York Times called Biden out, writing, “For anyone who understands the role of the free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term.” Politico reported that tension has developed between the Times and the Biden administration due to a lack of access to Biden. Meanwhile, the recent interviews that Biden has done have been little other than puff-piece propaganda sessions like his sit-down with Howard Stern. CNN spun it as “a larger Biden strategy” after Biden ditched the traditional Super Bowl interview: “The president is leaning far less than his predecessors on the traditional media apparatus to get his message out, opting instead for alternative mediums to address the American people.” That’s one way to put it.

• MIT axes DEI hiring policy: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently announced that it’s ditching “diversity, equity, and inclusion” allegiance pledges for prospective faculty and staff hires. The reason for this seemingly sudden woke policy reversal, according to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, is because DEI pledges don’t work. “My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,” Kornbluth explained. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.” The fact is that DEI allegiance pledges for new hires have done the opposite of promoting actual diversity of thought and have instead created an increasingly radical leftist echo chamber among school faculty. And now that DEI has been exposed to the broader public as little other than Marxism repackaged, the views of it have become increasingly negative. So much so that schools and businesses are looking for ways to rebrand DEI. Hopefully, Kornbuth’s decision on DEI is genuinely jettisoning bad policy borne of lousy ideology. Still, one can’t help but wonder if concerns over donors pulling funding played a significant role in this decision.

Headlines

• Republicans to hold Garland in contempt over audio of Biden interview with Hur (Washington Examiner)

• Ex-top Biden DOJ official now prosecuting Trump was once paid by DNC for “political consulting” (Fox News)

• FAA launches new investigation into Boeing after company may have missed some 787 Dreamliner inspections (Fox Business) | Ten more Boeing whistleblowers (Hot Air)

• Rep. Henry Cuellar and wife indicted on bribery schemes (Roll Call)

• Sen. Bernie Sanders to seek reelection to fourth term (Washington Post)

• George Washington University students hold “trial,” sentence administrators to death (Hot Air)

• DNC prepares for violent pro-Hamas protests (Townhall)

• Pro-Palestinian protesters are backed by Biden’s biggest donors (Politico)

• Thirteen federal judges pledge not to hire from Columbia, call it an “incubator of bigotry” (National Review)

• IDF takes over Palestinian side of Rafah crossing (Jerusalem Post)

• Humor: Nation cheers as protesters announce plan to stay confined on campus indefinitely (Babylon Bee)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here.