Cross-Examination

• American Spirit: He was born back in 1919 when Woodrow Wilson was president. World War II veteran Arthur Walters Jr. recently celebrated his 104th birthday. During the war, he flew a B-17 Flying Fortress, and he is the last living member of the 96th Bomb Group. Regarding his long life, Walters says with a laugh, “People always ask, ‘What do you attribute it to?’ And I always say I have two good friends: Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.” Get it — American spirit? Humor aside, Walters offers some practical wisdom: “If there’s something you want, you’ve got to work for it. And if you fail a few times, get back up and get back to it.” Indeed.

• Good news: Wuhan lab funding axed: Following the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s failure to provide requested documents related to the ChiCom lab’s record on safety and security, the U.S. government has finally officially ended all funding to the controversial lab. According to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services, “This action will ensure that [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding.” With the growing consensus that a leak from the Wuhan lab was the true source of the COVID pandemic, combined with Beijing’s refusal to engage in any genuinely transparent investigation, this decision should have been a no-brainer. The lab had received over $1.4 million in funding from NIH since 2014, funding that was suspended in July 2020.

• Color the Red Chinese unimpressed by Kerry: Joe Biden’s climate czar John Kerry went to China this week with the hope of meeting President Xi Jinping and getting some concession from the world’s leading emitter of carbon. Instead, he never got a meeting with Xi, though the Chinese strongman did take the opportunity to dismiss Kerry’s mission by giving a speech to his country reiterating Beijing’s commitment to abide by the dubious Paris climate agreement, which gives China until 2030 to reach peak carbon emissions. Far from cutting emissions, Xi effectively informed Kerry that China will continue growing its carbon footprint apace. Meanwhile, China’s foreign affairs chief Wang Yi stated that cooperation on climate change “cannot be separated from the overall environment of Sino-U.S. relations.” In other words, stop supporting Taiwan’s independence.

• NYT’s Krugman says we should politicize the weather: Keynesian economist Paul Krugman evidently also fancies himself a weatherman. In a recent op-ed published in The New York Times, Krugman argued against Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s statement that he “always rejected the politicization of the weather.” As is the penchant of leftists who see everything as political, Krugman took offense. “We absolutely should politicize the weather,” he asserted, contending without even the remotest awareness of hubris that “weather is a political issue.” In fact, “Americans should be aware that it’s one of the most important issues they’ll be voting on next November.” And on what does Krugman base his assertion? Well, on this demonstrably false assertion: “We’re living in a time of accelerating climate-related disasters, and the environmental extremism of the Republican Party — it is more hostile to climate action than any other major political party in the advanced world — would, in a more rational political debate, be the biggest election issue of them all.” Looks like somebody needs a mirror. Refusing to bow to the religious fanaticism of the Chicken Little cult of climate change is anything but “environmental extremism.”

• DOD trans fitness waivers: A recently unearthed 34-page memo from the Department of Defense reveals that promoting the woke trans agenda trumps concerns over military readiness. The memo’s purpose was “to establish uniform guidelines regarding the medical and mental health care of service members who identify as transgender.” Significantly, it shows the creation of a special fitness waiver for “transgender”-identifying soldiers who, due to their receiving gender “transition” treatment, “will be non-deployable during the initial phase of stabilization on GAHT [gender affirming hormone therapy] … [which] will likely take 6-9 months.” Put another way, soldiers who act on their gender-identity fantasies will be effectively useless for deployment for half a year or longer. How does the U.S. military expect to fight a war with soldiers in such a condition? Apparently, the Biden administration believes that “diversity and inclusion” is a magic spell that defeat all enemies.

Headlines

• Joe Biden hit hard in whistleblower hearing — by Democrat Dan Goldman (NY Post)

• CMT yanks Jason Aldean’s anti-riot music video from airwaves amid claims it's "pro-lynching" (Daily Wire) | Aldean responds to backlash over new music video that slams leftist policies (Daily Wire)

• NYC to pay $13.7 million to George Floyd protesters over alleged police misconduct (National Review)

• Senate passes measure to ensure presidents don’t unilaterally withdraw from NATO (National Review)

• U.S. government agencies target purchasing 9,500 EVs in 2023 (Reuters)

• “California of the East Coast”: New Jersey moves to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035 (Free Beacon)

• Tim Ballard, who inspired “Sound of Freedom,” out at both organizations he led (Daily Wire)

• State Supreme Court decision makes Illinois the first state to get rid of cash bail (PJ Media)

• Virginia finalizes rule requiring parental consent for school gender transitions (Washington Examiner)

• Accidental release of data reveals how many people actually died of COVID in China (Hot Air)

• Russia strikes Ukraine’s critical port facilities in Odesa after halting grain deal (AP)

• Policy: Biden’s underwhelming plan to cut health costs (AEI)

• Satire: Hollywood strike enters third month of proving world doesn’t need Hollywood (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.