It’s June. The school year is ending. It’s the beginning of summer. And it’s also Pride month for those celebrating alternative lifestyles and various genders no one has heard of before yesterday.

Of course, the Biden Administration is all in. And long gone are the days when the gay rights movement just wanted tolerance for two consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes.

The multicolored flags of the gay rights movement are everywhere in Washington. The Biden Administration even ordered the gay pride flag to be flown at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican.

Then there’s the U.S. Marines Corps. These are men’s men, who charge into battle to defend our country. My father, Spike Bauer, was a Marine. For years, the Marines have resisted the woke agenda and politically correct nonsense, but with Biden in charge, even they have surrendered.

Biden’s political hacks at the Pentagon just embarrassed the Marines with an image of rainbow-colored bullets in the brim of a Marine helmet. (If you weren’t paying attention, you might mistake the bullets for lipstick.) Vladimir Putin and Chairman Xi must be laughing at us.

We have the bravest and most courageous military in the world. But the political hacks who presided over the Afghanistan debacle and the woke officers who let it happen have destroyed morale. Military suicides and desertions are skyrocketing. But they have time and resources for “gay pride.”

Now there’s an “ultra-LGBTQ flag” with additional colors. There’s light pink, baby blue and white to represent the transgender community. There’s also black and brown to represent minority communities. (I thought this was all about gender identity, not race.)

The Department of Energy got in on the celebration, which isn’t terribly surprising given the background of a top Biden appointee in the office of nuclear energy. The DOE raised the ultra-LGBTQ flag outside its DC headquarters Wednesday. In a social media post, the department declared, “Pride. This month. Next month. Always.”

I bet most Americans filling up their cars, paying Joe Biden’s $4.67 a gallon, were probably thinking, “Broke. This month. Next month. And as long as Biden is running our country.”

We’d all be better off if government bureaucrats took more pride in the American energy industry and kept their gender identities to themselves. We’d be better off if we had an energy secretary who actually knew something about energy!

By the way, when is heterosexual pride month? Did I miss it already?

Real Pride

Americans with real pride in the country have watched in recent years as leftists disgusted by America’s past and present disrespected the American flag by taking a knee during the national anthem.

When conservatives criticized their childish behavior, we were lectured about freedom of speech and the right to express one’s opinions wherever you are. That was an odd and hypocritical response coming from the left, given how eager it is to censor everyone, especially conservatives.

But what do you think would happen to Marines or employees at the Department of Energy or the U.S. Embassy in the Holy See who showed up for work today and took a knee in front of the LGBTQ flag and bowed their heads?

Do you think the Biden Administration would applaud their freedom of speech? I suspect it might be the only time you see a federal bureaucrat get fired!

The Fight For Election Integrity

One of the questions I am most frequently asked is, “What’s being done to ensure the integrity of our elections?” It’s a serious issue, and it shouldn’t be a partisan issue. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 55% of voters believe that cheating impacted the 2020 elections. That lack of confidence in our democratic process is a huge problem.

Well, the good news is that the Republican Party is taking the issue seriously. The bad news is that the liberal media are grossly distorting their efforts.

Politico has gotten its hands on audio tapes that outline what it calls the “GOP Plan To Contest Elections.” The story is a perfect example of media malfeasance.

In reality, they are reporting on a plan by the Republican National Committee to ensure that there is a sufficient number of poll workers in every area of the country. The goal is not to “contest the election,” but to make sure that only eligible voters vote and that they vote only once.

But this is beyond the pale for the Democrat Party and its media allies like Politico, which is spinning a legitimate, legal effort as some kind of nefarious plot. How dare you fight voter fraud!

Here’s the problem Republicans are trying to address. In Detroit, for example, Democrats always win by large margins. No one is suggesting Republicans are going to win Detroit. The question is how big the margin of victory will be and whether all votes cast are legitimate.

In 2020, there were 5,400 elections officials (poll workers, clerks, etc.) in Detroit. But only 170 were Republicans. The Republican National Committee is simply looking to bring that number closer to parity.

It would be foolish to assume that left-wing operatives, who believe half of America is full of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, are not using such an overwhelming advantage in cities like Detroit, where virtually no one is watching them, to run up the vote tallies.

It would be political malfeasance if the GOP did not have this program, and I, for one, am glad to learn that they do. As one of the program organizers said in the presentation, the goal of the effort is to “make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

But that’s now considered inappropriate interference in our elections by left-wing media.

Iran’s Interference

FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week that the Islamic Republic of Iran was behind a sophisticated, but unsuccessful cyberattack against Boston Children’s Hospital last summer.

Thankfully, law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts were able to prevent the Iranians from compromising the hospital’s systems. Wray called the hack “one of the most despicable cyberattacks I’ve ever seen.” Such despicable behavior from the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism shouldn’t surprise us.

But what is surprising is that last summer and still today, the Biden Administration is at the negotiating table begging Iran to reenter the 2015 Obama/Biden nuclear deal, even when it was attacking one of our children’s hospitals!

Why didn’t Biden tell our negotiators to walk out of those talks last summer? Well, we don’t walk out when the Iranian government is sponsoring “Death to Israel, Death to America” rallies in Tehran.

So, I guess it really shouldn’t surprise us that Biden won’t walk out even when the Iranian government is trying to cause death to American kids in a children’s hospital.

That’s putting America last.

Trump Responds

Former President Donald Trump responded to the Sussmann verdict and all the other headlines we’re seeing every day in typical Trumpian fashion. He posted the following statement on his social media platform, Truth Social:

“Our Legal System is CORRUPT, our Judges (and Justices!) are highly partisan, compromised or just plain scared, our Borders are OPEN, our Elections are Rigged, Inflation is RAMPANT, gas prices and food costs are ‘through the roof,’ our Military ‘Leadership’ is Woke, our Country is going to HELL, and Michael Sussmann is not guilty. How’s everything else doing? Enjoy your day!!!”

If you’re on Truth Social, you can follow me @garylbauer.