Cross-Examination

• Shameless Joe still can’t resist making it about himself: Memorial Day, of all days, should cause politicians to tremble and to behave meekly and speak humbly. And yet self-aggrandizing Joe Biden just can’t help himself. “Our losses are not the same,” he said at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday as he once again introduced his deceased son Beau to an audience that didn’t want to hear it. “He didn’t perish on the battlefield. He was a cancer victim from a consequence of being in the army in Iraq for a year next to a burn pit.” On he droned: “As it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with me every day as it is with you. Still sharp. Still clear. But so is the pride I feel in this service as if I can still hear him saying, ‘It’s my duty, Dad. It’s my duty. That was the code of my son. Live by the creed. All of you live by the creed.” It was shameful, it was vainglorious, and it was vintage Joe Biden.

• “Squad” members botch Memorial Day: Radical leftist House members Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush deleted Memorial Day posts after exposing their ignorance of the purpose of the annual observance. In a post on X, Bush wrote: “This #MemorialDay & every day, we honor our veterans in St. Louis. We must invest in universal health care, affordable housing, comprehensive mental health services, and educational & economic opportunities for our veterans as we work to build a world free of war and violence.” Omar echoed her comrade, likewise posting a list of Democrat priorities. The two embarrassingly conflated Memorial Day with Veterans Day. Hint to Omar and Bush: The purpose for the day is found in its name, “Memorial,” which remembers and honors those U.S. service members who gave their lives defending our great nation so that we can be free. Meanwhile, fellow “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib used Memorial Day weekend to trash Israel over its war against Hamas. Speaking at a conference that reportedly has ties to U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, she celebrated the International Court of Justice ruling that “the Israeli government must stop its invasion of Rafah.” She added, “But President Biden says what is happening to us is not a genocide. Where’s your red line, President Biden?” Tlaib might want to also learn the definitions of both “memorial” and “genocide.”

• Biden tampers with a witness: The president paid a friendly, fatherly visit to Hallie Biden on Sunday night, no doubt to see how she’s been doing since the death of her husband, Beau, nearly nine years ago. Interestingly, Hallie is one of 12 witnesses who are scheduled to testify in June in the Delaware gun trial of Joe Biden’s other son, his younger son, his wastrel son, Hunter, who also happens to be Hallie’s former lover. As Fox News reports, an October 23, 2018, police report “indicated that Hallie, who was in a relationship with Hunter at the time, threw a gun owned by Hunter Biden in a dumpster behind a market near a school.” Biden’s handlers, though, say that the visit had nothing to do with witness tampering or getting a story straight or considering the consequences of her testimony upon the freedom of Joe Biden’s son. Instead, they tell us, the visit was all about the upcoming ninth anniversary of Beau’s death.

• Closing arguments begin today in Trump case: “We’ll see how it goes. This is a very dangerous day for America. It’s a very sad day.” So said Donald Trump on his way into the Manhattan courthouse where he’s spent most of the last six weeks in a stinker of a trial still searching for a crime. As former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said on Fox News this morning, “The most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen in watching or trying criminal cases for decades is, we’re on the precipice of having summations here, and we still don’t have definity about what the crime is. … It’s like they’re making up a crime as they’re going along.” So, the crime is mysterious, and the case is weak. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board members are no admirers of Trump, but they, too, know a bad argument when they see one. “The question is whether Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg presented the evidence necessary for a conviction,” they write, “and if we were in the jury room, we’d say no.” Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley concurs. “I would currently put a hung jury as the most likely outcome of the three outcomes,” he said. On the other hand, the groupthink mentality of an overwhelmingly anti-Trump jury can’t be discounted.

• A quarter of Border Patrol quit under Biden: More than 4,000 Border Patrol agents, or an astounding 25%, have left the agency since Joe Biden took office. The reason is that under Biden, the Border Patrol is effectively doing exactly the opposite job the agency is tasked to do, which is to secure the border and keep out those who have no right to be here. As one senior Border Patrol officer observed, “The administration is so bad for morale. I’m not trying to be political. I’m just speaking facts. It’s become so political. Catch and release is demoralizing for agents.” Furthermore, agents have become fearful of doing the job they signed up for two decades ago, as the political climate has made it difficult for them to do the job without the threat of politically motivated repercussions. Exhibit A of this reality is the border agents who were falsely accused of whipping illegal aliens who were rushing the border. Demoralization may be the word that most fittingly describes the overall impact Biden’s presidency has had on the nation.

• Tax revenue down in 18 states: According to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Financial 50 project, the long-term trend for tax revenue in each state is telling when it comes to red states versus blue states. The latest report found that an increasing number of states, led by California, are on a negative tax revenue trend. The report explains that “the 15-year linear trend of tax collections leading up to each quarter, after adjusting for inflation and seasonality,” is down. Pew’s report finds that a total of 18 states are now on a negative tax revenue trajectory, which is an increase from four from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the Republican-led states of Texas and Florida are among 32 states whose tax collections outperformed their long-term trend. Tellingly, these states also have some of the lowest taxes, as both Texas and Florida do not levy a state income tax. They have been more business-friendly than California and New York in recent years, resulting in business growth and, in turn, tax revenue growth.

• “All-electric” firetruck has diesel engines: A perfect object lesson in the inherent limitations of current electric vehicle technology comes courtesy of New Mexico Democrat Governor Michelle Grisham, who recently touted Bernalillo County after it was awarded a $500,000 grant from the state’s Environmental Department for replacing its 1991 fire engine with an “all-electric” fire engine. When introducing the new truck, the fire chief even boasted, “There’s no cancer coming out of the tailpipe.” However, there is one huge caveat to this “green” story: The $1.8 million Pierce Volterra fire engine still uses diesel-powered engines to run its water pumps and back up its battery-powered motor. In other words, this fire engine is not an EV but a hybrid. It is not actually “all-electric” because, as an emergency vehicle, it must be reliable to respond quickly to a fire. It can’t sit around for hours waiting for the batteries to recharge, nor can it arrive at an emergency fire and run its water pumps, draining the batteries it needs to return to the firehouse. Even more ridiculous is the tax money being wasted on it, all for literally nothing more than “climate change” virtue signaling. Bernalillo County could have purchased a new standard diesel-powered fire engine for $600,000, which would have saved the taxpayers over a million dollars. To add to the irony, the grant money the state used came from the EPA via the 2005 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act.

• Israeli airstrike kills “dozens” of civilians in Rafah: According to local health officials, at least 45 people were killed in airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah yesterday, “including displaced people living in tents that were engulfed by fire,” according to the Associated Press. It’ll be interesting to see how that number, 45, stands up, given that “local health officials” in Gaza are propagandists for Hamas and are thus as reliable as a used car salesman. In a war zone where one side goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties even as the other side hides among civilians and within hospitals, the margin of error for Israeli military personnel is practically nonexistent, even when they respond to Hamas missile attacks on Jewish cities. As CBS News reports, “The airstrike came hours after Hamas claimed it fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza toward central Israel as rocket sirens rang for the first time in months in cities like Tel Aviv.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike “a tragic mistake,” but that will likely fall on deaf ears. Look for the pro-Hamas crowd to renew their calls for a ceasefire.

Headlines

• Joe Biden says George Floyd inspired “civil rights movement,” urges Americans to “act in his memory” (PM)

• Anti-abortion activist Mark Houck sues DOJ over “retaliatory” arrest (Washington Examiner)

• Pete Buttigieg blames increase in extreme turbulence on climate change (PJ Media) | Mayor Pete struggled against friendly media to answer why he’s only built “7 or 8” EV charging stations out of the 500,000 he promised (Not the Bee)

• Iran amasses larger stockpiles of enriched uranium (Daily Wire) | Biden opposing UK and France’s plans to rebuke Iran’s nuclear advances (Mirror)

• Washington Post reveals it passed on Alito flag story in 2021 (Fox News)

• Home insurance was once a “must”; now more homeowners are going without (Washington Post)

• California has yet to provide 1,200 tiny homes for state’s homeless that were promised in March 2023 (Fox News)

• Denali National Park official demands construction crews stop flying American flags during bridge construction (PM)

• Libertarian Party chooses Chase Oliver as presidential nominee (The Hill)

• Humor: Libertarian Party nominates giant gay bong (Babylon Bee)

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