The Patriot Post® · Friday: Below the Fold

Cross-Examination

• Larry Elder is running for president: On Thursday, conservative commentator Larry Elder¹ announced his bid for the presidency, throwing his hat into the ring of a growing number of Republican primary contenders. Elder, who launched an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to replace the then-recalled California Governor Gavin Newsom, points to his father’s and brothers’ service in the U.S. military as motivation for his own desire to serve his country. “I’m the only one who didn’t serve, and I don’t feel good about that. I feel I have a moral, a religious, and a patriotic duty to give back to a country that’s been so good to my family and to me,” Elder explains². As to his platform, Elder wants to combat the Democrats’ big lie that “America is systemically racist.” Furthermore, he notes that he’s pro-life, pro-school choice, wants to secure the border, and wants America to be energy independent.

• BuzzFeed is shuttering its leftist “news” operations: Jonah Peretti, the founder of BuzzFeed Inc., announced in April of 2023 that the company is shutting down its BuzzFeed News division³ due to declining revenue. That is an understatement given that its stock has collapsed⁴, trading at less than a dollar a share. Recall that BuzzFeed News published the Hillary Clinton⁵ campaign-funded fabricated Steele dossier⁶ as a layup to justify major Leftmedia⁷ outlets to then report on the bogus dossier, which was then used by deep state⁸ actors collaborating with Democrat Party⁹ principals to seek FISA warrants¹⁰ in order to fabricate the fake “Trump/Russia collusion¹¹” political charade to take Trump down. It almost worked…even if they did not get a Pulitzer for journalistic BS as did The Washington Post and The New York Times. This would be the same BuzzFeed News that endeavored to defame our organization¹² in order to silence it. BuzzFeed News is now refuse on the waste bin of junk-media history.

• Penalizing good credit: The federal government is at it again, putting its thumb on the scales of the “free” market in an effort to produce more “equity.” In this instance, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has proposed a new regulation that will penalize those with good credit scores in an effort to subsidize mortgages for those with a lower credit rating. And it’s all under the guise of making housing more affordable. “Mortgage industry specialists say homebuyers with credit scores of 680 or higher will pay, for example, about $40 per month more on a home loan of $400,000,” The Washington Times reports¹³. “Homebuyers who make down payments of 15% to 20% will get socked with the largest fees.” The new rule will be applied to those buying or refinancing after May 1. All this new regulation does is punish the financially responsible for being responsible, while rewarding the financially irresponsible for their irresponsibility. Furthermore, in no way does it actually address the problem of high housing costs. Indeed, deregulation¹⁴ would be a much more fair and effective means to address housing costs.

• Racism Files: If it weren’t for Democrats, would racism still exist? Recently, in arguing for granting citizenship to illegal aliens, Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) conflated legal immigrants with illegals by saying¹⁵: “This country needs immigrants to survive. Immigrants pick the food we eat, rebuild our communities after climate disasters, help construct our infrastructure, power our small business economy, clean our homes, and look after the most precious in our families — our children and our elders.” Following Jayapal’s comments, conservative group FreedomWorks observed: “Jayapal using the tired old, ‘Who will clean our homes?’ defense on illegal immigration. Limousine liberalism at its finest!” Meanwhile, social media site LinkedIn appears to have fully embraced the woke racism train, as it recently added a new “demographic information” filter tool¹⁶ to aid job recruiters in their “diversity” recruiting. In other words, LinkedIn will filter people by race.

• Baldwin walks: Charges of involuntary manslaughter that had been filed against actor Alec Baldwin following the accidental on-set shooting death¹⁷ of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins have been dropped¹⁸. Baldwin, who had pleaded not guilty, was due to appear in court on May 3, but he’s now free to walk. That said, the New Mexico district attorney recently appointed Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis to serve as special prosecutors in the case. They noted that “new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis in the case,” and that the decision to drop the charges “does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.” Furthermore, “Our follow-up investigation will remain active and ongoing.” Meanwhile, Baldwin has resumed working on the movie, but at a different set location.

Headlines

• Zero Democrats vote for House bill to protect women's sports (Daily Wire¹⁹)

• Top House Democrat says males competing against females is an “issue that doesn’t really exist” (Fox News²⁰)

• Federal prosecutors have considered four possible charges against Hunter Biden (NBC News²¹)

• Attorney General Merrick Garland is “senior” Biden official in Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower claim (NY Post²²)

• Former CIA chief Mike Morell testifies under oath that Biden campaign and Tony Blinken asked him to orchestrate letter from 50 intel officials falsely claiming Hunter Biden emails were “Russian disinformation” (PM²³)

• Biden blasts GOP “wacko notions” amid debt limit standoff (AP²⁴)

• Democrat Stacey Plaskett threatens Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi with prison (NY Post²⁵)

• U.S. military prepping to evacuate Sudan embassy as fighting rages on (Daily Wire²⁶)

• Washington set to become 10th state to ban “assault weapons” sales (Axios²⁷)

• “Blueprint on total destruction … astronomically dangerous”: FBI delaying release of Nashville shooter’s manifesto, officials say (Daily Wire²⁸)

• Louisville bank shooter left manifesto stating anti-gun motive for massacre (PM²⁹)

• Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter convicted in Daunte Wright death to be freed from prison (Fox News³⁰)

• High school volleyball player says she suffered concussion after being injured by “trans” athlete, calls for ban (Fox News³¹)

• A “tsunami” of commercial airline pilot retirements (Hot Air³²)

• Oakland to lose its last major sports franchise as Athletics shift to Vegas (PM Media³³)

• Satire: Oakland A’s forced to move after another homeless camp pops up on first base Line (Babylon Bee³⁴)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here³⁵.