Government & Politics

• No post-DNC bump for Kamala ahead of cowardly CNN interview: Thanks to spectacularly supplicant mainstream media, the Kamala Harris honeymoon has lasted a bit longer than we’d originally thought. But the end is near. Our first sense of this comes in the post-Democratic National Convention polling, which shows that Harris didn’t get the usual bump that comes at the end of these carefully choreographed events. According to a Morning Consult poll, Harris leads Trump 48% to 44%, which is unchanged from the same poll taken just prior to the convention. And those numbers aren’t likely to get any better, as Harris has refused to sit for a friendly interview without Support Dog Tim Walz by her side. What a colossal show of weakness. After more than a month of dodging interviews, Harris can’t even summon up the courage to go one-on-one with CNN’s Dana Bash. Coupled with her request for written materials in the upcoming debate, she comes across as a candidate utterly lacking in confidence as an extemporaneous speaker. As Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller put it, “The Democrats installed as their nominee … the only liberal in America afraid to do a CNN hit.”

• “Trump-proofing” the (In)Justice Department: In an effort to prevent a future Donald Trump administration from reversing priority agenda items, the Biden/Harris administration is using “Schedule A” hiring authority to fill as many career bureaucratic positions as possible with a cadre of like-minded professionals. The goal is to effectively plug the bureaucratic drain, making it much harder for Trump to drain The Swamp. Schedule A allows hiring without requiring appointments to be based on merits. Furthermore, these hires don’t expire at the end of a presidency. The Biden/Harris administration has focused on filling positions for lawyers and judges within the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources, Antitrust, and Immigration Review divisions. New immigration judges are also part of the scheme, which would make it much more difficult for Trump to cut down on illegal immigration. The environmental hirings would make it difficult for Trump to reverse course on costly green energy and climate cult policies. According to Protect the Public’s Trust, “Until recently, antitrust enforcement was a relatively technical and non-partisan division. But the Biden-Harris administration’s increasingly aggressive implementation has sparked complaints of politicized enforcement.”

• Sarah Palin vs. The New York Times, take two: Everyone knows The New York Times smeared former Alaska Governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin when it falsely and irresponsibly implied that a pro-Palin ad was the inspiration for the 2011 Tucson murder of six people and the grave wounding of then-Democrat Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords by a mentally ill young man. But at trial in 2022, a jury sided with the Times, which was allowed to issue two corrections while its editorial board tweeted an apology to its readers. But a federal appeals court has revived Palin’s lawsuit. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the court ruled that a trial judge had “committed a series of errors in presiding over the former Republican vice-presidential candidate’s case.” Oops. However, as the Journal’s James Freeman writes, “Maybe the ‘oops defense’ really can’t protect the New York Times from the consequences of its editorial decisions. News consumers may have concluded that anything goes when media organizations employ unfair and false claims to smear conservative politicians. But accountability just might be staging a comeback.”

• Jim Jordan subpoenas company headed by daughter of judge in “hush money” case (Just the News)

• Supreme Court rebuffs Biden administration plea to restore multibillion-dollar student debt plan (AP)

Security

• FBI keeps pushing its bipartisan shooter narrative: Last month, we warned about Joe Biden’s FBI investigating the near-assassination of Donald Trump. And now, six weeks hence of July 13, our concerns have been validated, as the bureau continues to stonewall congressional investigators and drag its feet on finding a motive or sharing a profile of the would-be assassin. Recall that in the wee hours after the shooting, the FBI released the shooter’s name and told us that he was “a registered Republican.” And to balance that news, the bureau told us that the 20-year-old Thomas Crooks also gave $15 to a Democrat political action committee. Yesterday, we got more of the same. As the AP reports, the assailant “searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, looked up information about explosives over the last five years and eyed the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a ‘target of opportunity.’” Move along, folks. No Trump-deranged political motive to see here. At least not before the November 5 presidential election.

• House task force investigating Trump shooting issues requests to DHS and Secret Service (Just the News)

• Migrant charged in brutal beating of NYC cops had been caught at border — and released — last year (NY Post)

• Armed crew flaunts guns inside Colorado apartment building overrun by Venezuelan gang spilling out from sanctuary city (NY Post)

• Suspects in foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows aimed to kill “tens of thousands” (AP)

Economy

• Car insurance costs soar: If you’ve gotten a sense in recent months that you’re paying a lot more to insure your teenager’s beater or your nifty new SUV, you’re not imagining things. As Fox Business reports, “A new report published by Insurify, an insurance comparison shopping site, shows the average U.S. rate for full auto insurance surged to $2,329 in the first half of 2024. That marks a 15% increase from 2023 and a stunning 48% spike when compared with 2021.” Ouch. The industry claims that it’s trying to offset underwriting losses thanks to inflation, the cost of repairs, and rising automobile prices. According to that report, there’s another familiar bogeyman: “unprecedented climate catastrophes that drive weather-related claims in states that haven’t historically seen as much of this type of damage.” Fox Business adds that the problem is far worse in certain states — such as California, Minnesota, and Missouri — where prices are projected to rise more than 50% this year.

• Yelp hits Google with antitrust lawsuit (Axios)

Dumb & Dumber

• CA homebuyer assistance for illegals: Illegal immigrants have effectively been rewarded for their lawlessness in sanctuary cities and states. But no state has rewarded this lawlessness more than California. Case in point: On Tuesday, the Golden State’s Democrat-dominated Senate passed AB 1840, a bill that requires the California Housing Finance Authority to include illegal immigrants’ applications in a taxpayer-funded program that gives first-time homebuyers up to $150,000 toward the purchase of a house. “I didn’t know it was possible to make the border crisis and the housing crisis worse with just one vote, but Democrats found a way,” said California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher. “Giving taxpayer-funded housing subsidies to illegal immigrants will drive costs even higher and encourage more chaos at the border.” Governor Gavin Newsom has not weighed in on whether he will sign the bill.

• California bans voter ID in local elections: Doubling down on California crazy, the state legislature has passed a bill banning local municipalities from adopting voter ID requirements for elections. California as a whole does not require an ID to vote, which makes any semblance of election integrity in the state a complete joke. Of course, this anti-ID position is heralded as preserving and promoting democracy. “An overwhelming body of evidence proves that voter ID laws only subvert voter turnout and create barriers to law-abiding voters,” the bill’s author, Democrat State Senator Dave Min, laughably asserted. “To register to vote in California, voters are already required to provide their driver’s license number, California identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number.” But California also infamously grants driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, so how exactly does that do anything to prevent noncitizens from voting? With terrible laws like this that undercut citizens’ faith in election outcomes, is it any wonder people are leaving the state in droves?

• Disney doubling down on DEI: By now, Disney executives should have learned the lesson that “get woke, go broke” is not merely a catchphrase but a repeatedly demonstrated reality. The recent canceling of a second season of Disney’s Star Wars show “The Acolyte” due to abysmal viewership numbers is the latest example. Furthermore, there are recent examples of companies ditching DEI in the face of consumer backlash against this radical leftist and culturally toxic anti-capitalist and un-American agenda. But Disney evidently is committed to pushing DEI, as evidenced by a recent job posting that reads, “We’re seeking a Director of Strategic External Engagement — Enterprise DEI to lead our efforts in building strategic relationships with external stakeholders, driving community engagement, and generating valuable insights to support our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) objectives.” Disney is offering an annual salary that is up to four times the national average income — from $197,700 to $241,500. That’s a lot of money to push a radical leftist agenda that the vast majority of Americans reject. Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, observes that this irrational decision by Disney “tells you just how captured by the woke mind virus a once-great American company truly is.”

Misc.

• Telegram CEO indicted, placed under supervised release amid complicity allegations (The Hill)

• MMA in Afghanistan? Too violent for the Taliban (BBC)

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