While Joe Biden’s legislative policies will have a lasting, damaging impact on the country, and already have in some cases (inflation caused by the massive COVID “relief” bill, for example), what’s not talked about much is his impact on the bureaucracies.

After all, that’s where the real power lies in our system. Elected officials are often just weak quasi-celebrities with little ability to propagate any real change. Meanwhile, a determined group of bureaucrats can make regulations, target their political enemies with state power, and generally enact massive societal change — and you won’t even know their names.

The Founders never intended for such a corrupt system to become the country’s standard procedure, but here we are, and Democrats are keen to take advantage of it. We saw what the often-called “deep state” was capable of during the Donald Trump era. Now, Biden is looking to super-size that effort, and it should terrify you. //

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2

Biden’s “domestic terrorism” plan of attack. At least $100 million for “DOJ, FBI, and DHS to ensure that the Federal Government has the analysts, investigators, prosecutors, and other personnel and resources it needs to thwart domestic terrorism.” //

What is “domestic terrorism?” Well, it’s pretty much whatever a bunch of left-wing ideologues want it to be. And after Biden and his cohorts hire hundreds of new “analysts” from biased think-tanks and activist groups, what they will want it to be is Republicans of all shapes and sizes. //

Why are we needing to spend $100 million to combat “extremism” when other causes of violence are a far, far greater threat to the average American?

None of this makes sense until you realize it’s all political. White supremacy is a catch-all to target political adversaries of the left. The definition is always expanding, and when mixed with ideologies like critical race theory, suddenly every white Republican is a white supremacist by birth worthy of cracking down on. Heck, Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is being called one by his own colleagues.

This doesn’t stop until these agencies are dismantled from top to bottom. That has to happen the next time a Republican becomes president. But what the country can’t handle right now is another influx of rabid ideologues into a bureaucracy that already has no credibility. Whatever can be done to stop this from happening must be done.

based on the propaganda they allowed to be printed in the New York Times Monday masquerading as an interview of WIV’s Dr. Shi Zhengli, it’s clear that they’re spooked. The reason for that is most likely the revelation that a high-ranking defector has been providing data to the US Defense Intelligence Agency that confirms much of what Dr. Li-Meng Yan told the FBI last year – that the Wuhan lab is run by the People’s Liberation Army, and that the COVID-19 virus didn’t just occur in nature but was engineered by scientists at Wuhan. Those revelations were part of an exclusive piece RedState published Friday evening.

Then, magically, Monday morning the New York Times wrote about an “unscheduled conversation” with Dr. Shi, whom they caught up with on her personal mobile phone. Shi was angry, they reported, and decried that “the world” was “constantly pouring filth” on a poor, innocent scientist and asking for things she cannot provide. //

Based on the contents of the article, here’s what the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army want you to believe about Dr. Shi, her research, the Wuhan lab, and the coronavirus pandemic:

• Dr. Shi’s lab has never conducted gain-of-function experiments
• Dr. Shi isn’t a member of the Chinese Communist Party
• Despite reports, three WIV employees weren’t sick with coronavirus/flu-type symptoms and hospitalized in the fall of 2019
• Both Dr. Shi and the Chinese government have been fully transparent and provided all data requested of them
• There were no sources of the new coronavirus before the pandemic erupted in the Wuhan lab
• The RaTG13 virus, which is 96.2% identical to SARS-CoV-2, couldn’t possibly have been the foundation for SARS-CoV-2
• Miners who got sick or died after working in the same mine where Dr. Shi collected the RaTG13 virus did not have bat SARS-like coronaviruses in their blood samples
• Any assertions that the Chinese government or Dr. Shi haven’t been fully open and honest or that they had anything to do with creating or disseminating SARS-CoV-2 are speculative and “rooted in utter distrust” //

How can she possibly say she didn’t do gain-of-function research? By changing the definition, obviously. Dr. Shi told the Times that:

“…[H]er experiments differed from gain-of-function work because she did not set out to make a virus more dangerous, but to understand how it might jump across species.”

So, jumping across species doesn’t make it more dangerous? Got it. That’s not what Dr. Shi’s research partner, Dr. Ralph Baric, said when their research was released in 2015. According to a Vice article, the scientists “created a hybrid version of a virus…just 12 percent different from SARS” from a horseshoe bat that “grew equally well to SARS in human cells” and “resisted all vaccines and immunotherapy too.”

The president's speech closed out the second remote convention in American history, and marked the first done right. //

The most impressive political fireworks display most will recall ever seeing on their TV sets finished President Donald Trump’s address at the close of the four-day Republican National Convention Thursday evening, wrapping up the party’s rallies, energizing the president’s supporters, and changing the convention genre forever.

Just one week after a physically isolated, professionally awkward, and visually timid Democratic National Convention finale featured Joe and Jill Biden walking down an empty hallway to a cute fireworks display while socially distanced cars honked their horns in a Delaware parking lot, the Washington sky was alight and a live concert played while hundreds of attendees applauded on the White House’s South Lawn. //

The president’s speech began and finished with American history, distilling the platform he ran on and the accomplishments of his administration into an hour-long address focused on “Promises Made, Promises Kept.” Its themes included industry and fairer trade deals versus outsourcing and China; law and order and police versus lawlessness, murder, and defund movements; and late-term abortion versus the innocent unborn and a moral America.

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely and while there are varying degrees of corruption, at some level, power affects someone for the worst. Perhaps long ago, before the age of the internet or even handheld cameras, this was less obvious, but in the information age when everyone is a walking-talking recording device, pictures are taken and distributed around the world in a matter of seconds, and these pictures show you just how corrupted these powerful people are.

The church is more concerned with answering to God than a Twitter mob. In my opinion, this is the church caving to politics, not politics caving to the church. To be sure, when it comes to deciding how a Catholic should act, modern sentiment shouldn’t play a part. At some point, that sentiment will pass, but God will still be there, unchanging, and looking not too pleased about the whole ordeal.

This doesn’t just apply to the Catholic church either. This applies to every church.

A church should be welcoming everyone it can through its doors. Unbelievers should be able to find seats and hear what Christ has to say. Gays and lesbians should be able to hear the gospel and realize that they do have a choice. If they don’t, they don’t, but at least they’ll be showing up and hearing the actual gospel.

God’s word isn’t going to make everyone happy, and not everyone is going to want to follow Christ based on personal opinion. In the end, they’ll either say to God “thy will be done,” or God will say to them “thy will be done.” But let either of these people let them hear the word first honestly. Giving the young a false idea of God or the church will only breed resentment down the line as they find out they were lied to in order to get them in the doors so the church would seem more popular.

The church needs to remember who it is, and more importantly who it answers to.

When a North Korean defector goes to an American, Ivy League university and feels like she’s back in her totalitarian home country, perhaps the country’s education system has got some problems?

That’s the takeaway from Yeonmi Park, who left North Korea at age 13 to defect to South Korea. She is speaking out, giving her commentary on what she experienced at Columbia University after coming to America in 2016 as part of a larger settlement program. Her first encounter with woke-ness was not a pleasant one.

OUR MISSION
To revive in American public education the fundamental discipline of critical and active thinking which is based on facts, investigation, logic and sound reasoning.

After an appearance on Fox News and an article written about her situation in conservative media, Fishbein began to receive messages from other parents of children whose schools are pushing woke theology and using critical race theory to promote the oppressor/oppressed trope. She used the momentum to organize groups of parents into different chapters. The group is called No Left Turn In Education.

https://noleftturn.us/

A 15-year-old Alabama girl died Saturday after she was struck by lightning while swimming off the Georgia coast, according to police.

The Tybee Island Police Department received a 911 call about 2:40 p.m. about a female who had possibly been struck as she swam in the ocean, the department said in a statement on Facebook. //

The girl’s death was the second lightning fatality of the year in the US.

On Wednesday, 70-year-old Michael Ward died after being struck by lightning while golfing in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Data collected by the National Lightning Safety Council shows a total of 17 lightning fatalities in 2020.

The most recent lightning fatality in Georgia prior to Saturday occurred on July 3, 2020, when a 9-year-old girl was struck while walking in Moultrie, WTOC reported.

Georgia ranked eighth in the US with nine fatal lightning strikes between 2010 and 2019, according to the council.

Florida ranks first, with 47 fatalities between 2010 and 2019.

The horrific crash of a Bonanza A36 in March due to a runway turnback attempt prompted AOPA Air Safety Institute to shoot this excellent video analyzing turnback results with four different types of aircraft. Bottom line: The turnback is viable for smaller, lightly wing-loaded aircraft flown by a proficient and prepared pilot. It’s unlikely—probably impossible—to pull off with a heavier, faster airplane like the Bonanza tested in the video. //

John Mc
June 14, 2021 at 12:00 pm
I don’t recommend it, but if you really want to see how well you can perform a turn-back maneuver, you need to do it with a totally dead engine, not just one at idle. Having experienced an engine failure in a plane with a fixed pitch prop, I can tell you that it is quite different. The turning prop fights the air and makes the airplane vibrate like an impending stall. The turbulence also diminishes the elevator and rudder effectiveness – one more reason to lower the nose and keep your airspeed up. And if you think you can slow the plane down enough to stop the prop from windmilling, you aren’t going to have the time to do that 800 feet above the ground. I was fortunate to have enough altitude that I made it back to the runway, but if it had lunched on takeoff, I most likely would have visited the trees off the end of the runway. //

Kit Duncan
June 14, 2021 at 4:02 pm
A couple of points here, everyone seems to be assuming catastrophic engine failure. In the Navy we had a mantra we had to recite to the instructor when he pulled the power on a touch and go: Gas, Battery, Mags, “simulate” Prime. IOW, check the fuel selector is not off, or on an empty tank. Make sure the battery switch hasn’t been tripped. Switch the mags to left then right, hoping one is still producing spark. Lastly, push the primer button to see if the engine has maybe suffered a fuel pump failure.

You could recite and point to those things in three seconds, but accomplishing them in a real emergency would have taken longer. At low altitude we pretty much had only 45 degrees either side of the nose to find a suitable (or not) place to put down.

I suffered a valve failure on takeoff in my Decathlon years ago. Thankfully the engine continued to run (rough) or I would have had no choice but to land in trees off the end of the runway. Leaving the power set, I notified Tower of my problem and immediately turned downwind to the longer parallel runway while climbing to about 500 ft. Close aboard the runway and abeam the touchdown zone, I started an”impossible turn” while simultaneously reducing power since I was over the runway, and easily landed in the first third. //

Jim Holdeman
June 14, 2021 at 4:20 pm
I recently completed a BFR by a very knowledgeable, proficient, and thorough CFII. My Bonanza had been down for its annual that did not allow me to perform my BFR in it. My BFR had expired while the airplane was down. With a single yoke and expired BFR, I could not use my airplane once the annual was completed. I was not going to go through the trouble and expense of renting a dual yoke for my BFR. So, I rented a C172 which coincidentally had an 0-360 with CS prop. Somewhat unusual from the run of the mill rental 172’s. To coordinate with his current student load and aircraft availability, I had to drive a couple of hours to a new to me airport and corresponding topography. I had not flown a 172 for about 11 years, the last flight in my former 1956 C172. I was looking forward to getting acquainted again with a 172 even if it was not an old straight tail.

During the BFR, I was directed to land at a beautiful strip surrounded by some lakes, a river, and small mountains. That landing turned out to be a touch and go where upon climb out on this humid 96 degree afternoon he pulled the power. While somewhat anticipating this earlier in the flight, I have to admit with getting re-acclimated to a 172, high wing vs low wing, 180hp/CS prop vs Bonanza variable pitch prop, late into the flight, and panel differences, and the beauty of that strip on final approach and climbout, I was surprised and startle effect did momentarily happen. But within a couple of seconds I lowered the nose, turned about 30-35 degrees left and aimed for what appeared to be about 1,000 to 1200 ft field among all the trees that were on top of this small mountain range. While about 600-700 ft agl above the airport elevation, I was less than 3-400ft agl above my present sedate cruise climb configuration and location over those still ascending small mountains which kept me at that same 3-400 ft level agl. He seemed satisfied with my decision, agreed that I would safely make the field as we got closer to it.

While I added power back and began my climb out, he asked me why I did not do a turn back to the runway. Without hesitation, I said with the high density altitude, windmilling constant speed prop in high RPM, low pitch, full of fuel, and not really proficient in this particular airplane with its STC’d mods, 11 year hiatus from my personal 172, new to me panel with fuel, switch locations, I had already decided outside of being 800ft agl above the highest surrounding terrain, I would not even attempt a turn back.

I had reviewed Paul’s video the night before my BFR. I believe there is no one size fits all strategy. It all depends on so many variables. I was familiar with a 172 but not this particular one. It was a very hot, humid day, high density altitude with unfamiliar, moderately rising terrain type of topography at the moment of the power loss. Had this happened at the home base of the airplane just a mere 10 miles away, with level ground and being 700-800ft agl, I would have done a turn back. Even if I did not make the runway, I would make it to level grass with no obstructions within the airport boundaries.

One must form a decision strategy based on current circumstances, airplane being flown, configuration, and conditions. My take away from the video and having to dead stick a Bonanza into a tight field some years ago has mentally prepared me to be far more vigilant about my current environment, particularly at take-off but throughout the flight. This includes a predertimed hard deck for all potential maneuvers should the fan stop no matter what time of the flight this might happen. I think having this sort of strategy in play helps take away the potential for indecision and wishful thinking hoping for a good outcome vs being pro-active at every moment until the airplane comes to a full stop.

Plus, I may be flying with my A game one day, and maybe not quite up to A game performance another day or time. We can be A game flyers in the morning and less than that later in the day for a variety of reasons. I was not an A game flier in this particular airplane, at this particular time, in this particular terrain. I was competent under those conditions and would have safely made to to my intended landing site. Competent and A game are not always the same. That difference has to be known before the fan potentially stops. As Paul says…depends.

On Monday, Townhall’s Marina Medvin shared a tweet showing shoplifting in San Francisco that should be considered shocking; a young man simply rides through a pharmacy with a trash bag, steals whatever he can, and not only does security allow him to ride out of the store, it seems nobody even moves to call the cops. //

For those unfamiliar, restorative justice is the progressive philosophy regarding crime. Its basic definition is “a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large.”

In other words, the solution to crimes is not punishment, but rehab and trusting that the criminal wants to change and be better and that the person committing said crime had no other choice — society forced him/her to do so.

So, all a criminal has to do is apologize, say he’ll commit to working hard, and prosecutors like Boudin give him a pass because, as Donahue referenced, these progressives believe that society–not the individual–is to blame for their crime.

To that extent, you’d be hard-pressed to find that society has ever forced a young man to ride through a pharmacy with a trash bag and snag whatever he can.

Maybe instead of imbibing from the church of progressivism, Boudin can listen to a priest from his city’s namesake’s religion; Roman Catholicism.

The now-deceased Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, “The danger today is in believing there are no sick people, there is only a sick society.”

He also stated, “There is a tendency among many shallow thinkers of our day to teach that every human act is a reflex, over which we do not exercise human control. They would rate a generous deed as no more praiseworthy than a wink, a crime as no more voluntary than a sneeze. . . Such a philosophy undercuts all human dignity. . . All of us have the power of choice in action at every moment of our lives.”

Indeed, perhaps progressives need to stop viewing society as the problem, start giving these criminals their rightful dignity, and recognize that they choose to commit crimes such as shoplifting which should rightfully be punished. Otherwise, San Francisco will continue to descend into anarchy. //

mjc227
an hour ago
Look for all the leftist losers running the city whining that SF is a food desert, hardware desert, drug store desert, dollar store desert and every other business desert and then blaming "society" after they ran every business out. It will be Trump's fault somehow or Republicans or the Tooth Fairy. Lefties create the problem, blame everyone else but who caused the problem and then come riding in with a crackpot solution to a problem they created that could not possibly solve the problem but the taxpayers wind up paying for the solution that has a zero chance of ever working. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Biden likes to talk a big Catholic game when he’s campaigning, but like most Democrats, the moment power is achieved is the moment that Catholicism gets tossed out of the window. As a result, American bishops are going to have a meeting to discuss whether or not he should be denied Holy Communion. //

According to The Hill, the Vatican has already warned these bishops not to deny Biden communion over abortion.

“The concern in the Vatican is not to use access to the Eucharist as a political weapon,” Antonio Spadaro, Jesuit priest, and ally of the pope told the New York Times.

An argument can be made that it’s not being used as a weapon, so much as making sure that the church not punishing this actual act against Catholic teachings isn’t seen as a tacit endorsement. The church could lead on the issue by seeing to it that when the question is asked how the church feels about abortion, the answer is clear and present.

The FBI wants to keep $86 million in cash and millions more in jewelry and other valuables seized in a raid on a Beverly Hills, California, safe deposit box business, even though a judge specifically said the contents of the boxes weren’t up for grabs.

Prosecutors claim it’s fair to make the renters of the 369 safe deposit boxes forfeit their valuables, because they were engaged in criminal activity, the Los Angeles Times reported. But there’s no evidence to support the allegation.

The box holders and their lawyers say the FBI is trampling on the rights of people who were unaware the business, U.S. Private Vaults, was charged in a sealed indictment with conspiring to sell drugs and launder money.

The warrant that US Magistrate Steve Kim signed on March 17 giving permission for the FBI to raid the business even said, “This warrant does not authorize a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safety deposit boxes.” //

If the FBI wanted to search the boxes, it needed to meet the standard for a warrant of probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found. But agents rifled through about 800 boxes anyway, filming their searches and bagging the property as evidence even when the holders were unknown and not suspected of crimes.

Now, the government is trying to keep the cash, gold and silver bars, pricey watches and even $1.3 million in poker chips from a Las Vegas casino.

Taking aim at CNN, in particular, the anchor compared the network reporting on Biden in 2021 vs. Trump in 2018. The difference was absolutely striking, with CNN saying that Trump was in opposition to every world leader around him, while everything about Biden seemed perfect and without trouble.

“They drive to give the illusion that he doesn’t have any disputes with any of these international leaders,” said the lead anchor.

The Australian writer Sophie Elsworth said that Biden was extremely lucky to have such loyal media on his side, and it would definitely result in higher popularity thanks to his fans in the journalist sector.

“It’s really quite appalling to watch,” said Elsworth. “And what happened to straight news reporting which doesn’t seem to be existent there?

“Trump can do no right,” added Nick Cater of the Menzies Research Center.

“There are considerable question marks over Biden’s foreign affairs policies, they’re not proven yet,” continued Cater.

Cater mentioned Trump’s strength in foreign affairs in comparison, including his show of strength against China and the Abraham accords in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Cater adds, Biden has yet to demonstrate whether or not he’ll be able to utilize America’s strength in order to make the country a leader on the global stage.

“I would be much happier to see Donald Trump at the G7, I think,” he concluded.