Cross-Examination

• The climate’s a-changin’: For the first time in 25 years and only the second time since 1950, no storms powerful enough to be named formed over the Atlantic Ocean from the beginning of July through August. During the first half of what is typically considered hurricane season, there has been hardly a whisper, and this despite NOAA forecasting earlier this year an above-average hurricane season. “The odds of these forecasts verifying correctly are going down by the day,” Colorado State University research scientist Phil Klotzbach acknowledged. “Now, the odds of getting 20 named storms, 10 hurricanes and 5 majors are really low.” Klotzbach added, “Forecasting the weather and climate keeps you humble!” If only. That humility certainly isn’t shared by ecofascists and leftist politicians who deride as “climate deniers” any who voice skepticism of their dire climate warnings.

• U.S. life expectancy drops again: This time it can’t be blamed on COVID. The life expectancy rate dropped for a second consecutive year in the U.S., now falling by a combined total of three years. The last time the U.S. saw two consecutive years of life expectancy decline was during World War II. While COVID-related deaths were the primary factor in the drop in 2020, the drop in 2021 has been primarily related to drug overdoses, suicide, heart disease, and liver disease. The average American’s life expectancy has fallen to 76 years and one month, and the last time it was this low was back in 1996. The opioid epidemic has really taken a toll, as last year saw a new record-high 107,000 overdose deaths. The other growing troubling factor has been the rate of suicide deaths, which had fallen since 2018 only to jump back up to 14.1 per 100,000 last year.

• Karine Jean-Pierre is still awful at her job: Being the White House press secretary can often be a difficult and thankless job. That said, there are some who have been good at it, and many others who have struggled but managed. Then there’s Joe Biden’s current press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, who is so bad one wonders how she was ever considered for the position in the first place. The press secretary’s job is to explain to the media what the president’s policies are and to give a reasoned and knowledgeable defense of those policies when questioned. Yet Jean-Pierre can do little other than regurgitate a list of prepared talking points. She repeatedly demonstrates so little knowledge regarding the administration’s broader policy agenda that she comes across as that student who never bothers to do homework or study for a test. The latest example of Jean-Pierre’s abysmal performance came recently with her inability to offer a cogent answer to an obviously expected question regarding Biden’s student loan cancellation scheme. The question: How will this program be fully paid for? Jean-Pierre answered: “So we do, we, so this, again, this is the question that my colleague here ambassador got, so we have to get a better sense, right, of what we are talking about as far as cost…” She followed that garble with something about how the Biden administration does “believe it will be fully paid for because of the work this president has done with the economy.” Eh, what? District Media Group President Beverly Hallberg responded to this display by observing: “This is an expected question. To not have a prepared answer that is said seamlessly is astonishing.”

• On this date last year — Biden’s surrender and retreat from Afghanistan: We are reposting, in chronological order, analysis of events a year ago related to the most disgraceful military exfil in American history — Biden’s deadly surrender and retreat from Afghanistan. On this date last year, Mark Alexander covered “Comprehensive Account: Biden’s Deadly Afghanistan Surrender and Retreat — Trump Was Right.” Biden’s disastrous AFG exfil versus the Trump plan for a troop drawdown is a stark and disastrous contrast.

Headlines

• Alaska’s ranked-choice voting hands Democrat victory over Sarah Palin (Townhall)

• Republican promises investigation of FBI as whistleblowers reportedly call for Wray’s ouster (Fox News)

• Judge orders source of anti-Trump dossier to explain his need for classified docs for defense (Washington Times)

• Here’s the reason they don’t show the wide shot at Biden’s events (RedState)

• The Biden administration may begin pressuring other countries to push vulnerable youth into hormones and surgeries (City Journal)

• We’re shocked, shocked! Nobel Prize-winning German biologist: Multiple genders are “nonsense” and “unscientific” (New American)

• California asks residents to avoid charging EVs due to blackout risk days after unveiling new gas car ban (Daily Wire)

• NPR is out here claiming environmentalists should get credit for a push toward nuclear power (Not the Bee)

• Feds pinpoint nearly 30K Mexican passport holders with Middle Eastern names in fraud investigation (Free Beacon)

• Policy: The FBI should apologize for its crooked past and focus on accountability for the future (The Federalist)

• Satire: “You’ll need F-15s to overthrow the government,” says Biden to nation that was temporarily overthrown by an unarmed guy in a buffalo hat (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.