Cross-Examination

• DeSantis on Trump: In a soon-to-be-aired interview with Piers Morgan, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finally took the gloves off and hit back at Donald Trump’s escalating verbal attacks. DeSantis hit Trump over his response to COVID and specifically his choice of Dr. Anthony Fauci to head the response team. He even observed that far from firing Fauci, which is what DeSantis claimed he would have done, Trump awarded Fauci with a presidential commendation metal. Regarding Trump’s derisive naming-calling (labeling him “DeSanctimonious” and “Meatball Ron”), DeSantis shrugged it off as “background noise.” Furthermore, DeSantis made it clear that getting wins for the American people is what matters most to him. With recent polling showing Trump expanding his lead over the Florida governor, DeSantis likely recognizes that it’s time for him to officially enter the race.

• Science and politics don’t mix for Nature: If scientific credibility is important, then you need to steer as far away from politics as possible. For the scientific community, this has long been a no-brainer, but Nature Magazine eschewed this basic reality and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. Now Nature is surprised that its readership has lost trust in the magazine’s scientific credibility. A recent survey it conducted found that its “endorsement did not change people’s views of the candidates, but caused some to lose confidence in Nature and in US scientists generally.” Duh. How about focus on doing the science and leave politics to the politicians? The truth is people aren’t losing trust in actual science; what they are negatively responding to are political agendas being masqueraded as “The Science.”

• Good guys’ guns save lives more often than reported: It doesn’t usually make the national news, but it occurs at a much higher rate than anti-Second Amendment activists will acknowledge. A good guy or gal with a gun saves people, often thwarting criminals intent on using a gun to harm others. John Lott, founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center, observes that the problem of underreported instances of guns used to save people is not only a mainstream media problem but also a problem within the FBI. Lott observes that officially the FBI reports an average of just 4.4% active shooter incidents that were ended by another law-abiding citizen using a firearm. According to Lott, however, the actual statistic is much higher, coming in at roughly 34%. Lott calls the FBI’s data dishonest. “It’s garbage,” he says. “They should be embarrassed.” And Lott has the numbers to back up his criticism.

• California handgun roster shot down: In more Second Amendment news, on Monday a district judge ruled against California’s Handgun Roster law. The law was passed under the guise of “gun safety” and severely limited Californians’ access to modern handguns. Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled, “Because enforcing those requirements implicates the plain text of the Second Amendment, and the government fails to point to any well-established historical analogues that are consistent with them, those requirements are unconstitutional and their enforcement must be preliminarily enjoined.” This is a win for Californians’ Second Amendment rights.

• Red state vs. blue state finances: According to a new study conducted by WalletHub, Republican-run states are consistently more fiscally sound than are Democrat-run states. Furthermore, these GOP-controlled states also scored higher on providing superior government services than did Democrat states. Comparing 29 different metrics, the study found that Republican states faired better in five major categories — health, safety, education, the economy, and infrastructure and pollution — than did their Democrat counterparts. Observing the “dramatically different tax burdens” among the states, the study asked, “Where do taxpayers get the most and least bang for their buck?” The top 10 were all Republican led and happen to also be lower taxed. And eight of the bottom 10 are Democrat led, with California being the state where residents get the least bang for their high tax dollars.

• Racism hoax: Yet another racist “hate crime” has been exposed as a hoax, this time in a Sacramento, California, school. It’s at least the third one to make national news since Jussie Smollett’s infamous fake assault hate crime. In this latest incident, students at Kit Carson International Academy were given fake money imprinted with the N-word over an image of a black person. They were told the money was for buying fried chicken and alcohol. It turns out two black students created the fake money and were passing it out. The school’s principal reacted to the revelation by stating, “I’m sooooo pissed!!!!!” Eventually, the race hoaxers are the proverbial boys who cried wolf, serving only to make everyone doubt genuine instances of racism.

Headlines

• Influential lawmakers call to lift $250,000 cap on FDIC deposit insurance (Washington Examiner)

• Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping sign economic deal in latest demonstration of “friendship without limits” (Fox News)

• Los Angeles public schools shut down as union workers strike for better pay (KTLA)

• Anti-porn bills in eight states could force device makers to censor sexual material (NBC News)

• “That’s all there is to it”: Famed biologist Richard Dawkins confirms “there are two sexes,” defends J.K. Rowling (Daily Wire)

• Georgia legislature bans child sex changes (PM)

• Missouri issues emergency rule restricting “inhumane science experiments” on children (Daily Signal)

• Wyoming becomes 19th state to ban men from women’s sports (Breitbart)

• Policy: Accurate, nonpoliticized descriptions of biology are essential to crafting policy to preserve the integrity of female-only spaces (City Journal)

• Satire: Biden offers hush money to 330 million Americans to not tell anyone how bad he’s doing (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.