Cross-Examination

• Stefanik files complaint against hack Judge Juan Merchan: New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik smells a rat, and his name is Judge Juan Merchan. Merchan, the Biden donor whose daughter is president of a “progressive” political consulting firm whose clients include inveterate liar and Trump-hater Adam Schiff, always seems to be in the right place at the right time when it comes to being behind the bench during Trump trials. Stefanik has filed “an official misconduct complaint with the New York State Unified Court System related to the ‘random’ assignment of Acting Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan … to criminal cases against President Donald J. Trump, his companies, and his allies.” As Stefanik notes, Merchan has been assigned to not one, not two, but three separate criminal cases involving Trump and his associates. What are the odds, right? “If justices were indeed being randomly assigned in the Criminal Term,” says Stefanik, “the probability of two specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is quite low, and the probability of three specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is infinitesimally small.” Yet Merchan gets all three. Go figure.

• Roberts rebuffs Dems’ Alito flag flap: Taking advantage of a dubious assertion by The New York Times that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is compromised by partisan politics due to his wife having flown a U.S. flag upside down and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, Democrat Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse called on Alito to recuse himself from any cases involving January 6 or Donald Trump. Alito wisely refused, so the senators went over his head and demanded a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts. The chief justice, however, didn’t fall for the Democrats’ gambit to unconstitutionally assert congressional control over the Court. On Thursday, Roberts sent a letter to Durbin and Whitehouse rejecting their call for a meeting. “Separation of power concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances,” Roberts said. “Moreover, the format proposes — a meeting with leaders of only one party who have expressed interest in matters currently pending before the court — simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable.” In other words, Roberts, maybe too politely, told the senators that they were way out of their lane and to go pound sand.

• GDP malaise: Joe Biden and the Washington establishment wonder why Americans think the economy’s bad. Leftmedia outlets struggle to reconcile the supposed positive economic data and yet consistent negative polling. The result is that both Biden and these elites sound like they are completely out of touch with the experience of the average American. Indeed, The Washington Post sounds downright condescending, pointing to positive job numbers and a bull market and then arguing that Americans don’t get how good it is. They even point to inflation, saying it has “come down” or “cooled off” from its previous 40-year high as if slower inflation somehow means the lost value of the dollar has been returned. Furthermore, they dismiss the sustained high cost of food, fuel, energy, housing, etc, as the “new normal” as if that should make people feel fine about their loss of spending power. Meanwhile, even “good” economic news is subsequently revised down later. On Thursday, it was reported that the U.S. economy grew less than previously thought in the first quarter. The previous estimate was 2.5%, but that has been revised down to 1.6%. Simply put, the U.S. economy is not booming like it was under Donald Trump no matter what Biden and Leftmedia outlets keep insisting.

• AOC blames Trump for Hamas attack: In the world of the Trump-deranged Democrats, is there any onerous event that Donald Trump isn’t somehow responsible for? From Joe Biden’s Afghanistan debacle to mass shootings to hate crimes to the malaise of Bidenomics, it’s all Trump’s fault. And now, according to former barkeep and current New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Trump administration’s highly successful Abraham Accords between Israel and certain Arab nations four years ago are “absolutely” responsible for the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. As National Review reports: “The progressive lawmaker made the comment last week on a Twitch stream with progressive political commentator Hasan Piker, who, like Ocasio-Cortez, frequently accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. On the Friday livestream, the pair reacted to former president Donald Trump’s May 23 Bronx rally, where he claimed Israel would not have been attacked if he were still in office.” According to Piker, the Hamas attack was a “direct consequence of the Abraham Accords and many of Jared Kushner’s and Donald Trump administration’s actions like moving the embassy to Jerusalem,” to which AOC responded, “10,000%.”

• Fetterman tears off his Harvard collar during commencement speech at Yeshiva U: Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is no conservative, but he certainly appears to have cast off the “progressive” label that had endeared him to so many leftists. Indeed, his call for better border security and his support of Israel in its existential war with Hamas are decidedly un-Democratic positions. On Wednesday, Fetterman gave us yet another example of his independence, telling Yeshiva University graduates at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens that he was “profoundly disappointed” in Harvard’s “inability” (or is it unwillingness?) to address the Jew hatred on its campus. He then yanked off the ceremonial crimson Harvard academic hood of his alma mater. As the New York Post reports, Fetterman “expressed his disapproval of the Ivy League school during his commencement address at the private Orthodox Jewish university, which bestowed on him its ‘Hero of Israel’ award, the institution’s highest honor.” Said Senator Hoodie: “I have been profoundly disappointed [in] Harvard’s inability to stand up for the Jewish community after October 7.” Good for him. Now, if we can only get him to caucus with Senate Republicans.

• BLM’s missing money: You hate to see it, but there’s a civil war on the Left, and it’s casting the Marxist money-grubbers of Black Lives Matter in an even more sleazy light. If that’s possible. As The Washington Free Beacon reports: “The left-wing dark money giant Tides Foundation raised more than $33 million on behalf of the national Black Lives Matter group during the George Floyd riots in 2020. Now, Black Lives Matter is suing Tides over its refusal to hand the funds back. There’s just one problem — nearly $9 million of those funds have seemingly disappeared.” Nine million, eh? Has anyone checked BLM’s real estate portfolio lately? The Free Beacon continues: “From 2020 through 2022, Tides transferred $8.7 million from the fund to Black Lives Matter Grassroots,” but that organization is now telling the IRS that it never received those funds. Since bookkeeping violations are all the rage these days, we’d expect an IRS investigation and some massive fines to be in the offing, but move along; nothing to see here.

• $1B for “green” buses: In the name of fighting “climate change,” the Biden administration is justifying spending nearly $1 billion on another “green” tech boondoggle. The EPA is dolling out $900 million in taxpayer funds across 47 states to help fund the purchase of “green” school buses. Some 90% of the funds have gone to EV buses, while the remaining has gone to propane-powered buses. These are not cheap buses; for example, the Blue Bird All American Type D electric school bus retails at $400,000, whereas a new diesel school bus costs $200,000. Furthermore, the advertised range of Blue Bird’s EV bus is 120 miles on a single charge, which takes three to eight hours to recharge. The average range for a new diesel-powered school bus on a single tank of fuel is 510 miles. On a purely economic basis, diesel buses make more sense, but it runs contrary to Joe Biden’s anti-fossil fuel agenda, so more taxpayer money is wasted.

• Labor Dept. supports “menstruators”: What is a woman? Well, the Biden administration, in an effort to promote the notion that the term lacks any definitional quality and can be assumed by males based purely on their feelings, has gone to ridiculous levels to avoid calling women “women.” Recently, the Department of Labor posted on its social media account the following message: “Menstruation affects half the U.S. workforce but talking about it at work can be taboo. For #MenstrualHygieneDay, here are 5 easy actions employers can take to help menstruators thrive at work” [emphasis added]. The post included a link to an article titled “5 Ways Employers Can Make Workplaces More Menstruation-Friendly.” The craziness just getting crazier.

Headlines

• Trump guilty on all counts in New York criminal trial (Fox News)

• Biden campaign celebrates Trump’s guilty verdict (Daily Wire)

• Trump donation page crashes after conviction (National Review)

• Judge sets Trump sentencing date four days before GOP convention (Daily Wire)

• Retiring West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin leaves Democrat Party, files as independent (National Review)

• Biden allows Ukraine limited use of U.S. arms to strike inside Russia (Reuters)

• Vermont becomes first state to enact law charging oil companies for climate change damage (National Review)

• Negro Leagues’ statistics incorporated into Major League Baseball’s historical records (USA Today)

• California Democrat blasts her own party for protecting sexual predators (Daily Wire)

• UK announces temporary ban on puberty blockers (Hot Air

• Satire: Donald Trump found guilty of being Donald Trump (Babylon Bee)

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