President* Joe Biden's Cabinet
and Other Appointments
Multiple sources called this election differently



Very brief introduction:

Joe Biden has been installed as President of the U.S.  His cabinet looks a lot like that of Barack H. Obama.


Related topics on other pages:

Joe Biden (in general)

Obama's cabinet

Media bias in Biden's favor

Media bias (in general)

Specific examples of media bias

Media bias in Barack H. Obama's favor

Media bias in Hillary Clinton's favor

Media bias in opposition to Donald Trump

Wholesale voter fraud




Overviews:

Barack Obama Has Now Been President Longer than FDR.  For anyone with eyes to see, the current presidency is being run by Barack Obama. [...] On his first day in the White House, Biden expelled the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, as Obama had done on his first day in office.  (This was because Churchill was an imperialist and led the suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, during which, Obama said, his grandfather was tortured.  Trump brought the Churchill bust back on his first day in office.)  Then there are Biden's appointments.  They say personnel is policy.  Well, the old Obama gang is back, and at the center of the action is Susan Rice.  A foreign policy specialist (ambassador to the United Nations and then national security adviser under Obama), Rice was one of Biden's first appointments, as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.  That's her official title, but her actual job is Obama's "messenger boy" in the White House and to cover any remaining tracks to past criminal activities.  Heading the White House press room is Jen Psaki.  She was Obama's communications director.  Anthony Blinken moves up a notch, from being Obama's deputy secretary of state to the top job at Foggy Bottom.  Obama's chairman of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, is now secretary of the Treasury.  Anita Dunn, who had to resign from her top post in Obama's Department of Education because she'd praised Chairman Mao, is back.  Merrick Garland, whom Obama wasn't able to get into the Supreme Court in 2016, gets the consolation prize of attorney general — a "take that" from Obama.  Those are the most glaring of a slew of Obama retreads.

One week in, Biden administration shows its exquisite cruelty.  Joe Biden was inaugurated a week ago, and like the dictator his handlers have long yearned to install, his has started out as a cruel administration.  His 22 executive orders so far, more than any other president in history, have already sent tens of thousands of jobs down the drain with coldhearted carelessness.  He stopped construction of the Keystone XL pipeline with the stroke of his pen.  He has put all those who were working on the border wall out of work.  As all those who opposed his candidacy suspected, he is doing China's bidding.  Of course he is; the Chinese own him.  Every single person he has appointed to his Cabinet is aligned with China as well.


Timely news and commentary:

Ketanji Brown Jackson is a fascist who should be removed from the Court.  Ketanji Brown Jackson, is concerned the First Amendment is "hamstringing the government."  That's a 5-alarm fire of a pull-quote from a sitting Supreme Court justice, and she should absolutely be impeached and removed from the Court over it.  I'm as serious as a heart attack here.  Nearly every sentence of this single thought of hers adds up to textbook fascism, (a hybrid economic system in which the private economy exists but under strict state regulations, and must give way to the national interest, which is whatever the government says it is.) [...] Really?  Your biggest concern is how the First Amendment hamstrings... the federal government?  No, honey.  No.  Your biggest concern should be the federal government hamstringing the First Amendment.  You have it exactly backwards.  The "charter of negative liberties" is exactly that for a reason, intentionally crafted to restrict the government's ability to deprive the people of their essential liberties.  The entire point of the Bill of Rights is to "hamstring" the federal government; how does she not understand this down to her bones?

Sen. Kennedy Humiliates Another Biden Judicial Nominee.  United States District Judge Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois, who has been nominated by Joe Biden for a spot on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, had previously signed a brief supporting a ban on "assault weapons" in Illinois state courts in the 2010s, yet, when he asked her to define "assault weapons," she couldn't.  "You said, 'assault weapons may be banned because they're extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes,'" Kennedy said.  "Tell me what you meant by assault weapons."  "Just to clarify there, I was local counsel —" Maldonado said[.]  "But you wrote the brief, tell me what you meant by assault weapons," he pressed.  "Senator Kennedy, I actually I did not write the brief.  The brief was written by —"  "You signed the brief, though, didn't you?"  "Correct, I signed the brief," she conceded.  "When you sign a brief you're testifying to the court that everything in it is true, right?"  Maldonado also agreed with Kennedy's characterization that as far as the court is concerned, since she signed the brief, the words were hers.  "Tell me what you meant by assault weapons," Kennedy said.  "So, I am not a gun expert," Maldonado responded.

The Editor says...
Next!

EPA Rolls Out USA Auto Mandates Forcing EVs to Make Up Two-Thirds of Passenger Vehicles.  The backstory is so transparently corrupt it requires an explanation, so we'll go down the full rabbit hole and explain how China knew — to a demonstrable certainty — their multi-billion dollar investment in Mexican EV plants would be useful.  Always remember, there are trillions at stake.  First, who was installed in the Biden White House in charge of all personnel and staffing?  Catherine Russell.  Who is Catherine Russell?  She's the wife of Tom Donilon, a long-time aid and advisor to Joe Biden who served in the Obama White House.  After serving as Obama's National Security Advisor (prior to Susan Rice), Tom Donilon then went on to become "Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute."  His job was literally to "leverage the firm's expertise and generate proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics and long-term asset allocation."  In essence, the Donilon family represented the interests of Blackrock in the White House.

Biden's Top Intelligence Agency Says Crossdressing Makes Man 'Better Intelligence Officer,' Internal Docs Show.  Agents at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and throughout the intelligence community were distributed a newsletter that celebrated an intelligence official for crossdressing, saying that dressing up in women's clothes makes him "a better intelligence officer," according to an internal document obtained by The Daily Wire.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent its internal newsletter, called "The Dive" and obtained by The Daily Wire through a Freedom of Information Act request, to personnel across the entire Intelligence Community.  Featured in the newsletter was an article by an anonymous official claiming that crossdressing makes him a better intelligence officer.  "I am an intelligence officer, and I am a man who likes to wear women's clothes sometimes," the article, titled "My Gender Identity and Expression Make Me a Better Intelligence Officer," states in its opening line.

USAGM senior official suspended for calling white people 'snow roaches'.  In the Biden administration, anything goes.  So look who's out there representing the actual voice of the United States before international audiences in the agency known as U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees outlets like the Voice of America:  [Tweet]  'Snow roaches'?  I learn something new every day.  [Another tweet] [...] The bottom line here is that this is a freak who hates more than half the country and whose positioning near the top of the leadership of the U.S.'s flagship international communications operation, its voice and public relations arm, is very much an insult in itself to the country[,] and an international embarrassment.

Ex-Border Patrol Chief Ortiz Reveals He 'Never Once Met with' Biden or Harris during Two-Year Tenure.  Former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz has lifted the lid on the true extent that Democrat President Joe Biden's administration has been ignoring the mounting crisis at the Southern Border.  On Thursday, Biden paid a visit to the nation's border near Brownsville, Texas.  However, the trip was almost certainly hastily planned in reaction to President Donald Trump's planned visit to a separate, more consequential section of the U.S. border with Mexico in a different part of Texas.  Biden's border visit was described as "long overdue" by Ortiz.

Def Sec Austin Tells Congress He Doesn't Know Who Relieved Him of Duty during Hospitalization.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee Thursday morning in a hearing devoted to uncovering still unknown information about his January hospitalization.  The hearing did not do much in the way of fact finding — especially where the four-day period in which President Joe Biden was unaware of Austin's absence was concerned — but it did reveal that the Pentagon's top official either does not know or will not say who gave the order for his deputy to assume his duties while Austin recovered.  Under questioning from Representative Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), Austin clarified that he was unable, because of his location and lack of access to secure communications, to make the decision to temporarily remove himself from duty.

SecDef Austin:  Trump's Foreign Policy was Better.  Well, this week Trump supporters had some reason to celebrate, thanks to Congressman Pat Fallon from Texas.  This occurred during the hearing of Biden's defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who faced Congress publicly for the first time. [...] This was a very skilled display on the part of Rep. Fallon.  He wasn't rude or aggressive or insulting.  He was instead firm and assertive.  He asked specific questions and extracted the right answers without allowing Austin to filibuster.  The exchange serves as a reminder that when one deals with hard facts, President Trump was much more effective at his job than most previous presidents from the past decades and his incompetent successor.  This is true for not just foreign policy but also the economy and the border.  This is also a reminder that if the media was fact-oriented and the political class cared for the betterment of the nation, the U.S. would be in great shape today.  But alas, the media is the PR wing of the D.C. Democrat establishment.  Since they cannot get Trump on facts they concoct hoax after hoax.  Sadly, a significant section of the public still believes whatever they consume in the media and hence they will never ever vote for President Trump.

Lloyd Austin and McDonald's-level responsibility.  Remember how our corpulent, oh-so-woke Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went AWOL, reposing in the hospital for an undetermined period after failing to inform anyone, even his own deputy, he was undergoing surgery?  Remember how Joe Biden wasn't informed?  To be fair, he almost certainly wouldn't have remembered if he were, but still. [...] One might be forgiven for thinking our Defense Department is run by a dimwitted malingerer, a man — of sorts — far more interested in the perks of office, turning our military into an ineffective, woke, social justice faculty lounge, and helping the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) afflict our allies and reward our enemies than in doing his lawful duty.  But I'm torn.  On one hand, his unlawful and patently irresponsible behavior — what do you think happens to 16-year-old Jimmy when he misses a week or so of work at McDonald's without telling anyone — doesn't appear to have had any effect on the operation of the DOD or MMPA.  Does this mean America really doesn't need a SecDef?  Does it mean we really don't need this particular SecDef?  Are we to infer not having this particular SecDef on the job is more to America's benefit than having him on the job?  Better yet, is this merely evidence of the utter incompetence and anti-American focus of the entire MMPA?

Biden's woke sec of state Antony Blinken scolded staffers over 'problematic' language like 'manpower'.  Biden administration Sec. of State Antony Blinken told staffers at the State Department not to use "problematic" terms such as "manpower," "mother," and "father" in a memo.  According to a memo from the State Department obtained by the National Review, in early February, Blinken told staff about the dangers of "misgendering" as well as using terms that "can be problematic" such as "manpower" as well as "son/daughter" and "husband/wife."

State Dept Investigation of Biden's Iran Envoy Broadens Into Probe of His Suspension.  The curious suspension of Robert Malley grows even more curious — and perhaps just as curious as how he got hired at all, if not more.  Joe Biden's special envoy to Iran got mysteriously suspended last spring by the State Department, but the White House never informed Congress of it.  The Tehran Times somehow acquired and published the State Department's suspension memo last September, much to the chagrin of Congress, which demanded some answers toute suite on Malley's status.  Now Semafor reports that the State Department's IG wants some answers, too.

What Is Congress For?  [Scroll down]  But nowadays, it seems that most Americans have forgotten what that war was all about.  And the fact that Mayorkas's impeachment passed the House by only one vote, and is dead on arrival in the Senate, does not bode well for our country's future.  Basically, about half the members of Congress are saying that it's okay for a Cabinet secretary to nullify immigration laws and let ten million foreigners illegally enter the United States, so long as he's acting in service of ideology rather than doing it for a bribe.  Nor is the House's refusal to even try to impeach Anthony Fauci, in the face of abundant evidence that he had lied about gain of function research, a cause for confidence in the institutions of government.

Do Americans have any right to know what's up with Lloyd Austin?  Joe Biden's defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, is back in the hospital, with the stated reason complications from cancer surgery earlier this year. [...] While Austin's condition does evoke sympathy, it doesn't inspire confidence that a time of wars breaking out all over the world that the U.S. has anyone in charge.  The swamp defends its own, of course, and swampers don't give up power easily.  But this sets the stage for swamper mischief, now that the cat's away and they're making their own decisions, and it also gives the world's bad actors a new window to make their moves, knowing that there's some kind of power void in Washington, not just with Joe Biden, but with his secretary of defense.

House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas fails, thwarted by Republican defections.  In a dramatic setback, House Republicans failed Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, forced to shelve a high-profile priority — for now — after a few GOP lawmakers refused to go along with the party's plan.  The stunning roll call fell just a single vote short of impeaching Mayorkas, stalling the Republicans' drive to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S-Mexico border.  With Democrats united against the charges, the Republicans needed almost every vote from their slim majority to approve the articles of impeachment.  A noisy, rowdy scene erupted on the House floor as the vote was tied for several tense minutes, 215-215.

Republicans fail to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas over border crisis.  House Republicans failed to impeach Homeland Security Sec.  Alejandro Mayorkas for his mishandling of the southern border crisis in a nail-biting vote that came down to the wire.  The 214-216 vote marked the second of three major legislative failures of the day for House Republicans who remain deeply divided across the House and Senate.  Immediately after the embarrassing Mayorkas vote, Speaker Mike Johnson's $17.6 billion Israel aid stand-alone bill spectacularly failed in a 250 to 218 vote, another humiliating defeat for Republicans in a span of 15 minutes.

House Republicans Are No Votes on Mayorkas Impeachment.  The articles accuse Mayorkas of a "breach of trust" and a "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" in his handling of the Biden border crisis.  It is hard to argue with those accusations.  However, the truth is that even if Republicans successfully vote for the articles and it goes to the Senate for an impeachment trial, it would all stop there.  The Senate won't vote for Mayorkas to be impeached.  Joe Biden won't fire Mayorkas.  The Biden border crisis is intentional.  Most Democrats want an open border.  Mayorkas is doing what he is told to do by Biden or whoever is running the White House.

New Climate Envoy John Podesta had a close relationship with Chinese Communist Party.  The White House recently appointed John Podesta as Climate Envoy following the exit of John Kerry from the administration.  Yet, Podesta's previous work with a Chinese United Front-linked organization on climate change raises concerns about his ability to negotiate with China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.  Podesta has long been a household name in Democratic politics.  He is known for his close association with the Clinton family and for being active in climate policy.  Podesta first served as President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff and then later as the campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful bid for president in 2016.  In between his work for the Clintons, he served in the Obama Administration as a counselor to the president responsible for climate policy and before that as a co-chair of President Obama's 2008 transition team.  Before entering the Obama Administration, Podesta founded and led the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress (CAP), which seeks to advance progressive policies on issues spanning from climate change to the economy.

Impeach the bum!  You can tell what a good idea it is to impeach Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, just by all the screeching leftists who oppose the idea.  MSNBC and their brethren have devoted endless hours to proclaiming there is no evidence on which to base his removal.  Except, of course, for the millions of illegals and tons of fentanyl welcomed through our borders without objection.  What we have is a grotesque dereliction of duty by the secretary (who for some odd reason is the spitting image of the Japanese anime character Krillin) and under the terms of Article I he can be impeached and removed for "high crimes and misdemeanors." [...] The House impeachment articles state ad nauseum Mayorkas' constant refusal to do his job or follow dozens of laws he is obliged to enforce.  To a certain extent, officers of the executive department have flexibility in carrying out their duties, but they cannot simply refuse to do them at all.  Any more than officials of the Treasury department could ignore random visitors entering their premises and walking off with bags of money.

White House Taps John Podesta to Succeed John Kerry as U.S. Climate Envoy.  White House adviser John Podesta will be the top U.S. climate diplomat when high flying John Kerry steps down this spring and ceases his endless global tours warning the world of impending doom.  "We need to keep meeting the gravity of this moment, and there is no one better than John Podesta to make sure we do," White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said in a written statement, shared Wednesday with The Washington Post, CNN and The Hill.  "John has — and will continue to be — at the helm of driving the implementation of the most significant climate law in history," Zients added.

The Editor says...
The climate does not respond to legislation.  Any time spent on writing laws to control the weather is completely wasted.  Any money spent on trying to alter the weather is also wasted.  Climate-control laws are all about controlling us, not the weather.  The climate is just fine the way it is, and your only option is to adapt to it, if it ever really changes.  (The transition from summer to winter and back is far more drastic than the "climate change" they're talking about, but you adapt to those changes, don't you?)  If the average global temperature goes up or down at the rate of one degree per century, you shouldn't have any trouble dealing with it.

Skippy Will Replace Kerry and Move into the White House.  Interesting move and office location in yet another election year.  In 2022, Joe Biden appointed John Podesta as the "Clean Energy Czar," essentially giving him control over doling out the $326 billion in Green New Deal, aka "Inflation Reduction Act," money provided by Congress.  At least that was the pretense of the purpose.  The actual agenda for Podesta, in 2022, appeared to be using the $316 billion GND money fund leftist support networks of the Biden administration in the midterm election cycle.  Now we enter another election year, and Podesta is being given a new title to assume the role of John Kerry as Biden's latest "Climate Diplomat" as soon as Kerry exits this spring.  In an interesting datapoint that highlights both the domestic (election '24) and foreign policy political motivations, John Podesta will work out of the White House and not the State Dept where Kerry's current office is located.  John "Skippy" Podesta had no experience in "climate policy" prior to being tapped as the climate czar in 2022.  Then again, none was needed considering the non-pretending version of his responsibility.

HHS Committee Votes to Impeach Secretary Mayorkas As Democrats Blame Republicans for the Border Catastrophe.  The House Homeland Security Committee voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Mayorkas after a marathon 13-hour hearing.  The vote was along party lines, 18 [to] 15.  A full house vote will likely take place next week.  This is a rare event.  No cabinet member has been impeached in over 150 years.  Yet, that is how bad the Biden border catastrophe has gotten.  Democrats on the committee tried to flip the script and blame Republicans for what is happening on the southern border.  Chairman Green blamed Mayorkas for failing to comply with immigration laws already on the books.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy Embarrasses Clueless Biden Judicial Nominee Who Bombs Two Basic Legal Questions.  Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) is a national treasure with an incisive wit and a dry sense of humor.  He has displayed these talents throughout his time in the Senate, whether by stumping unqualified Biden nominees or in interviews with reporters.  Kennedy's wit was on display again Wednesday when he questioned Robin M. Meriweather before the Senate Judiciary Committee, who is currently a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Joe Biden nominated her to be a judge on the Court of Federal Claims earlier this month.  Kennedy exposed Meriweather's utter lack of qualifications during his line of inquiry.  He began by forcing her to admit she had never argued a single case before the Court of Federal Claims after multiple tries.

Retired General:  Enough of the Spin.  Austin Went AWOL.  Kenneth Israel has had enough of the apologists at the White House and elsewhere trying to defend the indefensible.  In an essay today at The Messenger, the retired major general blasts those spin efforts to hide what everyone can plainly see happened at the Department of Defense.  Lloyd Austin went AWOL, regardless of his personal desire for privacy or the illness for which Austin was being treated. [...] Furthermore, Israel concludes, Austin's selfish actions in pursuit of "privacy" contradicts everything drilled into the men and women who serve under him in uniform.  Any one of those would be punished for quitting a post without proper relief.  What kind of signal does it send when their penultimate civilian commander decides to simply disappear out of a concern for his pride?

Have No Fear, 'Big Brother' Is On Duty.  The news is abuzz about Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, landing in intensive care for 5 days and not telling anyone — including his boss.  The news got even more alarming when we learned that the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, was on vacation in Puerto Rico while Austin was incapacitated.  That is a chain of leadership breach which is unacceptable for a nuclear superpower.  Of course, this lapse of leadership happened to an administration in which the Secretary of Transportation took two months off for "his" maternity leave, and the president has spent almost 40% of his time napping on the beach while a myriad of global crises failed to rise to the "cancel vacation" level.  Clearly, any expectation of competence from a Biden administration will be met with disappointment.  But is there a more ominous lesson to be learned from the Austin debacle than the surface level reminder that our current administration is composed of posers rather than leaders?  Why didn't it matter that Austin wasn't on duty?  What does it mean when an essential employee (like a president or a cabinet secretary) stops doing his essential work for days on end, and nobody notices?  Does it mean that those elected to govern us, aren't really governing anything?

How could President Biden not notice his defense secretary was missing?  With US forces under regular attack across the Mideast and the Navy actively engaged with Houthi forces in the Red Sea, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was out of commission in the hospital from Monday on.  Worse, no one told the White House; worse yet, neither President Biden nor National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan noticed.  Not until the Pentagon let Sullivan know on Thursday.  Anyone thinking that the nation is well-led despite Biden's blatant feebleness better think again:  Austin and his deputies ignored the law here, while Sullivan was plainly asleep at the switch.  Again, with American forces regularly under fire, and our friends in Ukraine and Israel fully at war with Russia and Hamas.  Oh, and the public was kept in the dark until Friday.

There's Useless, Then There's Lloyd Austin Useless.  There are a lot of strange things that I could have come up with in my rather fertile imagination that might set the tone for this year, but having the Secretary of Defense win a game of hide-and-seek with the President of the United States is out there even for me.  Lately, whenever I emerge from my weekend news hiatus, it feels like the world is in prank mode.  There's a lot of triple-checking to make sure that all of the news isn't merely AI-generated satire.  When I first read the Lloyd Austin news I thought, "Come on, the Secretary of Defense can't just go AWOL."  I'd temporarily forgotten that we live in Dumb Biden Times. [...] One would think that a guy with that many detractors wouldn't want to prove that nobody would miss him, which is exactly what he did last week.

Lloyd Austin at the ICU: A Symptom of a More Serious Malady.  Lloyd Austin isn't exactly a standout in his role.  Like everyone else in the Biden-Harris regime, he's been lackluster at best, dreadful at worst.  He bears at least partial responsibility for many of the foreign policy and military disasters throughout this dumpster fire of a presidential term.  Austin has issued orders to the military in support of convoluted leftist redefinitions of extremism in an effort to drive Republicans out of the military.  Austin implemented mandatory use of untested COVID vaccines and supervised the dismissal of servicemen who refused, even on religious grounds.  Austin was in charge of the DoD when it so severely mismanaged the pullout from 2021 Afghanistan, leaving tens of billions of dollars' worth of sensitive equipment behind, not to mention abandoning thousands of employees and allies to the Taliban.  And that's just the highlight reel of his disastrous tenure.  Even if none of these decisions was his choice, an honorable Secretary of Defense would have resigned his office and left the administration rather than agreeing to implement such positions.  Lloyd Austin made them his own, implementing every leftist, anti-American decision that the Biden-Harris regime came up with.

How Obama Pulls Biden's Strings.  The Biden administration's status as Obama presidential term three is confirmed by Biden's appointment of enormous number of Obamaites:
National Security Adviser:  Jake Sullivan, Obama's Deputy Assistant and Director of Policy.
Secretary of State:  Antony Blinken, Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor (2013-2015) and Deputy Secretary of State (2015-2017).
Secretary of Homeland Security:  Alejandro Mayorkas, Obama Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  He also managed staffing the DoJ Criminal Division.
Director of National Intelligence:  Avril Haines, Was Obama's Deputy Director of the CIA then Deputy National Security Advisor.  Biden promoted her to DNI in 2021.
Ambassador to the United Nations:  Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Obama's Director General of the Foreign Service and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.
Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID):  Samantha Power, Obama's transition team for the State Department and his UN Ambassador (2013-2017)
Deputy Secretary of State:  Wendy Sherman, Obama's Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs.  Retired July 2023 and replaced by Victoria Nuland (acting) [...]
Secretary of the Treasury:  Janet Yellen, Obama's Chairman of the Federal Reserve and Biden's appointment as Secretary of the Treasury.
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers:  Cecilia Rouse, Obama member of the Council of Economic Advisors promoted to the chair by Biden in 2021. [...]
Chair, Securities and Exchange Commission:  Gary Gensler, Obama Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, then Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021

Where Is Biden's 'Gender-Fluid' Thieving Ex-Nuclear Waste Chief Today?  In Old Joe Biden's America, there's justice if you're a patriot, which could mean spending years in prison for strolling through the Capitol and taking selfies after the cops opened the doors on Jan. 6, 2021, and there's justice if you're a member of the leftist elite, which means that you can essentially do anything you want, and little or nothing will happen to you.  Sam Brinton, the gender-fluid, in-your-face, cross-dressing, puppy-playing former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy, is a member of that elite group, and so despite facing numerous luggage theft charges, he ended 2023 as a free man.

'Historic' Biden Judicial Nominee Sits on Board of Group Founded by Cop-Killing Domestic Terrorist.  President Joe Biden's latest judicial nominee, whom the White House is hailing as "historic" due to his Muslim faith, serves on the advisory board of a left-wing group with extensive ties to convicted cop killers, the Washington Free Beacon has found.  Adeel Abdullah Mangi, whom Biden tapped to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, is an advisory board member of Alliance of Families for Justice.  The organization, which works to end "mass incarceration," was formed in 2016 with Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin as a founding director.  Boudin pleaded guilty to the murder of two police officers and a security guard during an armored truck robbery in 1981.  The FBI named Weather Underground a domestic terrorist organization following a string of bombings and robberies in the 1970s and '80s.

One Senator is Blocking Hundreds of Biden DEI Nominees From Taking Over the Military.  It's unfortunate that the destruction of our military isn't a bigger story and it's also a shame that so few Republicans and conservatives have backed Sen. Tommy Tuberville's principled stand to block Biden's radical military nominees.  Senate Republicans are seeking to bypass his insistence that Biden's nominees pass proper confirmation with appropriate scrutiny instead of being shoved through.  And that may mean the end of the military as an American institution committed to defending the nation.  Instead, it will become another DEI operation.

This is what "protected minority" means:
KJP Violated Hatch Act After Being Warned to Stop (But No Disciplinary Action Will Be Taken).  The Hatch Act is a law designed to prevent federal employees from getting involved in politics while on the job.  The idea is that the bureaucrats who make up Washington, DC are supposed to work for the people, not for one party or the other.  This can get a bit tricky when it comes to positions like the White House spokesperson.  Karine Jean-Pierre is also supposed to carry out her duties in a non-partisan way and is not allowed to campaign from the White House podium even though she's speaking for a President who is the leader of a specific party.

We Are Governed By Ignorant Fools.  Sometimes your adversaries give you such a nice pitch that you can't help but hit the ball out of the park.  Education Secretary Miguel Cardona gave us just such an easy home run yesterday.  [Tweet with video clip]  What to say?  What can't you say about this?  How ignorant can you be?  Especially when your job is literally to run the education system in the country?

DHS Chief Mayorkas Warns Agents Not to Misgender Border Crossers, but Ask Their Preferred Pronouns.  President Joe Biden's border chief is now ordering border guards not to presume the correct sex and corresponding pronouns for illegal migrants.  "We just obtained [Customs and Border Patrol agency] documents directing personnel to only use woke language when encountering individuals invading the United States," a tweet from the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation reads.  The order from border chief Alejandro Mayorkas directs border guards to ignore the biological distinction between the two complementary sexes.  Instead, officers must submit to the political claim that each person's "gender" is more important than their biological sex and so must allow people to sneak across the male/female border under the disguise of "transgender" pronouns.

Biden judicial nominee appears stumped by basic legal terms: 'I'm not sure'.  A nominee for a district judgeship in Oklahoma struggled during her nomination hearing on Wednesday to define basic terms for orders issued regularly by judges.  Sara E. Hill, who is nominated by President Biden to be the district judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma, was grilled by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on the Senate Judiciary Committee about basic legal and Constitutional terms and definitions — a practice that's become usual for him in recent months after several nominees have struggled to pass his tests.  When Kennedy asked Hill the difference between a "stay" order and an "injunction" order — two orders frequently issued by federal courts — Hill stumbled through her answers.

Senate Hearing Shows — Again — Why Mayorkas Should Be Impeached.  At a recent Senate hearing on threats to the homeland, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas once again avoided answering tough questions from concerned members of Congress.  His defense of his inability to protect our borders and prevent millions of aliens, including known terrorists, from illegally entering the country had plenty of excuses but no good solutions.  During the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., showed a chart of rising border "encounters" that depicted the Biden administration's failure to prevent illegal aliens, including an unknown number of criminals and suspected terrorists, from entering the United States at will.  Johnson tried to get Mayorkas to tell the committee how many people had been let in on his watch — not just aliens released and trusted to show up for deportation hearings, but aliens paroled under various made-up programs, as well as the estimated 1.7 million people who snuck in — the "gotaways."

Granholm plays groveling tour guide to China and Russia at sensitive US nuclear weapons site.  Joe Biden's regime is perhaps the most dysfunctional of all time.  First things first, let's go over the massive threat to national security that the Biden regime continues to be, and to be honest, I hold each and every Democrat personally accountable.  In September, Bloomberg reported that under the direction of Jennifer Granholm, the Department of Energy invited high-ranking Chinese and Russian officials to tour a sensitive U.S. nuclear weapons site, to "prove its engineers aren't breaking a three-decade moratorium against testing nuclear weapons[.]"  The article also noted that this invitation came a number of months after Vladimir Putin withdrew his nation from an arms control agreement with the U.S. that restricted the buildup of "nuclear arsenals" so in other words, supplicant posturing before hostile adversaries.  But, as the Democrats love to say though, "nothing to see here!"  A Fox News item yesterday reported that in response to the news, House Republicans sent a strongly-worded letter to Granholm, asserting that the DOE's approval of "unprecedented access" to Russian and Chinese operatives was not okay, and that the level of indiscretion displayed by Biden and his comrades is "deeply alarming and fundamentally absurd."

Democrats Send A Corrupt, Inexperienced Hyperpartisan Iran-Booster To 'Help' Israel.  Architects of Barack Obama's 2015 Iran giveaway deserve plenty of blame for empowering terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, including the one that murdered 1,400 Jews — over 30 Americans.  At this point in history, they should have nothing to do with our Israel policy.  And yet, welcome our new ambassador to the Jewish State, Jack Lew.  Sen. Ben Cardin, the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations, ludicrously claimed during Lew's confirmation hearing that the former Treasury Secretary was "eminently qualified to serve in this post.  He has extensive experience."  Lew's only experience in foreign policy is championing pro-Iran policies.  During the Iran deal debate, Lew predicted the giveaway "will make our country safer, it will make our allies safer, and it will make the world safer."  Not once, in his Washington Institute speech praising Obama's foreign policy, incidentally, did Lew mention the word "Israel."  What the deal — and subsequent support for Iran — did was reward the Revolutionary Guard for murdering around 600 Americans in Iraq and incentivize that regime to take more American hostages.

Who better than an Israel-hating terrorist sympathizer to vet potential terrorists?  When the federal government is looking for qualified persons to vet asylum seekers, where would you look?  For the Biden administration, it seems they thought a good place was in the bowels of a terrorist organization that Trump kicked out.  Somehow, they believe that a former spokesperson from the PLO is well qualified.  Nothing better than plucking a person from an organization that wants to snuff out America and Israel to decide who should be allowed to come to the U.S.  What could go wrong?  Isn't it great that they picked a woman who said "f--- Israel and any Jew who supports Israel ... are you ready for your downfall"?  Nothing better than for an anti-Semite to have such an important position, as they always lecture us about fairness and inclusion.  We might as well pick Russians, Chinese, Cubans, Iranians, and Mexican cartels to decide who should be allowed in America to fill out the personnel roster.

Who Is Somah Haaland, The Activist Daughter Of Biden's Interior Secretary?  Radical activism has come to define the Biden administration, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland could be the poster child.  For instance, just last week, the former congresswoman participated in a bizarre video with a drag queen to promote the false narrative that "queer rights are more under attack than ever."  Meanwhile, the connections of Haaland's activist 29-year-old daughter, Somah, have become a major cause for concern, leading to multiple ethics complaints against the secretary over fears of undue influence.  In September, the bilingual Hispanic website ADN America documented Somah Haaland's relationship with a Cuban solidarity group linked to the communist regime's intelligence apparatus.  The connection stems from Somah's work for the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA), a far-left, Albuquerque-based climate group that often advocates issues on behalf of the Laguna Pueblo.

Towards the Dictatorship of Psychopaths.  Although the New Left's ideologues don't say it openly, based on their commitment to Marx's teachings one can logically conclude that they are trying to impose on America a dictatorship of the "oppressed" with their newest mantra, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE), as one of the main tools for such an imposition.  And it shows.  More and more individuals are propped up in public and corporate power structures based not on their merits and talents, but on their membership in any of the "oppressed" classes.  For instance, being black, "female," LGBTQ++, a non-Caucasian immigrant (including descendants thereof), etc., often makes up for a lack of qualifications.  Just look at the Biden administration, which is mostly a collection of members of the "oppressed" classes who, except for their "oppressed" status, do not demonstrate adequate preparation and abilities for the jobs that they are supposed to perform.

Biden's Team of Racists and Anti-Semites.  Formally introducing his cabinet to the public, Joe Biden proudly declared: "This is the first [time] in American history that the Cabinet looks like America."  Looking at the actual appointments and not just the gender, skin color and ethnic origins of the Biden team, it is a team that may look like America but doesn't think like America.  In fact, it is a team whose outlook is anti-American.  Take Biden's Vice Presidential choice, Kamala Harris, whose antipathy for America oozes from her every pore.  At a February 2019 presidential campaign stop, for example she said Columbus Day should be replaced with "Indigenous People's Day" because "we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country."  This is an accurate summary of the way the Biden White House views its native land, and it is a view encapsulating three big lies.  What America did with the slave system it inherited from the British was end it.

When Antony Blinken blinks.  When Blinken was a trusted staffer to senator and V.P. Biden's, he Blinked during what Bob Gates said were Biden's perpetual erroneous decisions about foreign policy.  Blinken blinked when he was on the Penn-Biden payroll, when Biden held classified documents in careless fashion in the Biden offices at the Chinese-friendly foundation.  Blinken Blinked when Biden chose to abruptly, impulsively, and foolishly withdraw from Afghanistan.  Blinken Blinked as the State Department was tossed the impossible task of the chaotic departure from Karsi airport rather than the more secure Bagram airbase.  Blinken Blinked when 6 billion dollars was given to Iran as part of the exchange for the release of U.U. hostages held by Iran.  One can assume Blinken Blinked about how it was thought to aid a futile revival of the always bogus Iran nuclear deal.  Blinken Blinked again shortly after the horrendous attack by Islamist Hamas on Israel, when he impulsively and absurdly posted the idea that a ceasefire should occur between Israel and the beyond evil Hamas terrorists!

Shameless Anthony Blinken Says Administration Does Not Know Hamas Motive.  This guy is beyond shameless.  After coordinating an appeasement policy toward Iran that included the return of $6 billion in sanctioned money, the current occupant of the Secretary of State's office, Anthony Blinken, says the administration is unsure of the Hamas motive attacking Israel.  This might sound like a crazy thing to say, until you realize it is a necessary pretending game in order to maintain the policy for preferring a two-state solution.  If Blinken or Biden were to admit that Hamas has a fundamental purpose to kill the people of Israel, they would have to admit there's no possibility of the Palestinians and Israeli's cohabitating the same landscape; thus, their 'two-state' solution would be moot.  So, they must maintain the flawed premise and pretend not to know the motivations of Hamas.  It really is a shameless exhibition in ideology, as advanced.  [Video clip]

Biden Evades The Constitution By Letting Failed Nominees Be De Facto Agency Heads.  Biden's first failed nominee is Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su.  Controversial from the beginning, Su proved too much so for confirmation to the Department of Labor's top spot.  On Feb. 28, President Biden announced: "It is my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our country's next Secretary of Labor.  Julie has spent her life fighting to make sure that everyone has a fair shot. ... I respectfully ask the Senate to take up this nomination quickly so that we can finish the job for America's workers."  The Senate did, and then it said no — specifically Sen. Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Sinema, I-Ariz., though there's no telling how many more would have joined them, because in July, the administration threw in the towel on Su's nomination, but they refuse to give up Su.  So for over two months, Su has been in place as acting labor secretary.  The administration shows no sign of nominating anyone else, regardless of her Senate rejection.  So although Su got her "fair shot," the administration will plow ahead just the same.

Biden Names Obama Crony Penny Pritzker to Lead Ukraine's Economic Recovery.  National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced Thursday that President Joe Biden would name Penny Pritzker, a billionaire heiress and former commerce secretary, to manage Ukraine's economic recovery from the ongoing war.  Sullivan, a major proponent of the "Russia collusion" hoax against President Donald Trump, told reporters that Biden, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky at the White House for the sixth time on Thursday, would "introduce a special representative for Ukraine's economic recovery, Penny Pritzker, who will focus on engaging the private sector, partner countries, and Ukrainian counterparts to generate international investment in Ukraine and work with Ukraine to make the reforms necessary to improve Ukraine's business climate."

Failed Biden nominee quietly appointed to top role overseeing war on household appliances.  The Department of Energy (DOE) quietly promoted a top adviser to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to a senior role overseeing home appliance regulations after he failed to clear Senate confirmation.  The DOE announced last week that Jeff Marootian was appointed to be the principal deputy assistant secretary of the agency's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).  The appointment came days after the White House withdrew his name from consideration to lead EERE as the office's assistant secretary.  While Marootian's nomination failed after Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., opposed him over the Biden administration's crackdown on natural gas-powered stovetops, his appointment last week makes him the effective chief of the DOE's EERE office.

Interior Secretary & Daughter Have Ties to Marxist Environmental Alliance in Cuba.  An environmental coalition that has worked with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's daughter and successfully petitioned her mother's agency to implement a New Mexico oil and gas drilling ban, openly associates with the Venceremos Brigade (VB), a U.S.-based organization that facilitates trips for young Americans to visit Cuba, where they are reportedly greeted and groomed by Cuban intelligence agents, ADN has learned based on a collection of information published online, social media accounts, news stories and official reports.  Somah Haaland began working with the Pueblo Action Alliance (PAA) in 2020, a New Mexico indigenous rights group that openly associates with the VB, whose executive director, travels with groups PAA groups to Cuba where they are hosted by the Institute of Friendship Along with the Peoples (ICAP), a regime sponsored organization led by one of Cuba's most notorious spy, Fernando González Llort, who was sentenced to prison in the U.S. for espionage.

Darrell Issa Suggests That Biden's Commerce Secretary Was Pawn In China's Plan.  Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California told Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday that she was "bushwhacked" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during her recent visit to China.  Issa questioned Raimondo during a hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology regarding a review of activity under the CHIPS and Science Act, a law that authorizes subsidies to incentivize domestic production of semiconductor computer chips.  During his questioning, Issa suggested that Raimondo's visit provided the CCP with an opportunity to embarrass the United States after Chinese firm Huawei announced a new 5G smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, which the U.S. had tried to thwart using export controls.

Meet The Covid-Obsessed Biden Nominee Who Thinks You Should Suffer For Not Getting An Experimental Shot.  Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has caught a lot of flak from Democrats, legacy media (I repeat myself), and establishment Republicans for his ongoing protest of the Pentagon's abortion policy.  To stop the Pentagon from using U.S. taxpayer money to cover military members' travel expenses to get abortions, the Republican senator has used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to slow-walk President Biden's military nominations, leading to a backlog of pending promotions.  While Tuberville's critics have baselessly claimed his protest is harming "military readiness," a deep dive into the background of nominees such as Navy Rear Adm. (lower half) Derek Trinque shows just how valid the senator's protest is.  In a thread posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, the American Accountability Foundation revealed how Trinque — whose promotion was announced by the Defense Department in February — has routinely promoted radical, left-wing views and denigrated those who hold non-leftist opinions, particularly as it relates to Covid.

Buttigieg's 'Equity' Team Seeks to End 'Racist' Private Car Ownership: 'All Cars Are Bad'.  Democrat President Joe Biden's "woke" Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has formed a team of "equity experts" that seeks to end private car ownership.  Buttigieg has been busy allocating tax dollars to appoint a group of "leading experts" to advise him on "transportation equity."  Several members of Buttigieg's Marxist "equity" team argue that cars cause "climate change" and "promote racism" and therefore should be phased out.  The target is not just traditional gas-powered vehicles, however, as the "experts" insist that "all cars are bad," including EVs.  Earlier this month, Buttigieg appointed 24 new members to his Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity.

The Editor says...
If "all cars are bad," how do Washington bureaucrats get to work?

Gay Biden doctor donates blood to mark new FDA rule that finally allows millions more homosexual men to become donors.  In honor of the reversal of the ban on gay men donating blood, a former policy advisor under President Joe Biden will roll up his sleeve and give what he has to offer.  Dr. Robert Goldstein, former senior policy advisor at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023 and a gay man, will donate blood Tuesday alongside his old mentor Dr Rochelle Walensky, former director of the CDC.  Dr Goldstein, now the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, has never been able to make the life-saving donation because he is a gay man, and up until May 2023, was forbidden from giving blood under a US Food and Drug Administration rule.

Why do we have an alcohol czar?  Taking after our good friends across the border in Canada, the U.S. alcohol czar has decided that we are now to have just two beers a week. [...] The point here is that people are the best judges of what's good for them and if beer is their thing, that's their "pursuit of happiness" as the Constitution guarantees.  Oh sure, it's just a 'recommendation.'  But in the Age of COVID, since when have "suggestions" stayed suggestions?  We know our health authorities "recommended" COVID vaccines — and heaven help anyone who said 'no.'  We know what they are up to.

So-called "czars" are popping up everywhere, just as they did in Obama's first two terms.
America's Alcohol Czar Wants Stricter Federal Guidelines for Drinking.  The federal government might soon take an interest in how many cold ones you've been cracking open.  George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, tells the Daily Mail that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) might soon revise its dietary guidelines to recommend that adults consume no more than two alcoholic drinks per week.  Canada's health authorities recently shifted to that guideline, and Koob says that the U.S. could follow suit.

Former CEO Who Made Bad Green Energy Bets [is] Now Doling Out Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars To Green Projects.  David Crane, NRG Energy's former CEO who abruptly resigned in December 2015 after making a series of green investments that failed to pan out, is now working for the Biden administration to manage billions of taxpayer dollars designated for green energy projects.  During Crane's tenure at NRG, his large investments in green energy projects yielded poor returns for investors and devastated the firm's stock price, prompting his resignation from the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.  Crane now serves as the DOE's undersecretary for infrastructure, where he is tasked with shelling out billions of taxpayer dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the bipartisan infrastructure law to subsidize hydrogen energy, carbon capture and other green technologies, according to E&E News.  Additionally, Crane will be responsible for overseeing DOE loans designed to subsidize battery factories.  Crane believes that countering climate change stands as the "moral imperative of our time," according to the White House.

White People [Bad] Again, This Time From Biden's White Air Force Nominee.  There are currently almost 300 military officers awaiting promotion by the U.S. Senate.  Rather than give a look-see to each individual up for promotion, busy senators typically give what's called "unanimous consent" to an entire group of officers at the same time.  Not so fast.  Rob Bluey of The Daily Signal reported Thursday that things are changing.  Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has been hitting the bat-chute on that for a while. [...] Also important, Tuberville is not a fan of wokeness in the military.  Enter USAF Col. Benjamin Jonsson.  He was nominated by *President Biden to be promoted to brigadier general.  Col. Jonsson is white.  And "woke."  Col. Jonsson believes the "problem" with the Air Force is "white colonels" like himself — but not really him, just all the other white colonels.  After the death of Saintly George Floyd, Jonsson penned an article for Air Force Times "calling out" his fellow Caucasian USAF colonels.

FTC Chair Lina Khan, a Puppet of Big Government Regulation, Lied to Congress to Get the Job.  Lina Khan, a progressive in charge of the Federal Trade Commission, appears to have lied to Congress about her resume and qualifications, leading to at least one Republican calling for her resignation.  The FTC chair has been accused of operating a "rogue agency" after a resignation letter from the agency's last remaining Republican called Khan out for her "disregard for the rule of law and due process."  Now, a report from Matthew Foldi at The Spectator reveals that Khan isn't even who she said she was when she was up for nomination.  Representative Harriet Hageman, a Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, claims Khan "lied to Congress, lied by omission to Congress and misrepresented herself as a lawyer while lacking the appropriate law license."

House Judiciary Republicans build case against Mayorkas: 'You should be impeached'.  The House's primary impeachment body took a step forward toward pushing out the Biden administration's top border security official, which would mark the first Cabinet-level official to be fired by Congress.  The GOP-run House Judiciary Committee concluded after four hours of questioning Wednesday that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was misinformed, uninformed, and dishonest about the state of his 260,000-person department.  It was Judiciary's first hearing targeting Mayorkas after the House Homeland Security Committee launched an extensive, ongoing investigation into the former Obama administration DHS official.

Legal Group Sues Biden Admin For Allegedly Concealing FBI Background Investigation Into Mayorkas.  America First Legal Foundation sued the Biden administration Wednesday for allegedly concealing information regarding an FBI investigation into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to a copy of the complaint first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.  The lawsuit against both the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asks that the agencies release the documents related to the Mayorkas probe, according to the complaint.  The conservative group was previously denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the records regarding the FBI's investigation into Mayorkas' background.

Hageman -vs- Mayorkas.  When the people of Wyoming removed Liz Cheney and replaced her with Harriet Hageman, it was perhaps one of the best reflections of a damaged, yet standing, constitutional republic.  To say Harriet Hageman represents an upgrade to our congressional representation would be a profound understatement.  This is a lady I would campaign for, volunteer for and fight [...] to keep in office.  During her remarks today Representative Harriet Hageman dropped all pretenses and eloquently called DHS Secretary Mayorkas what he is, "a tyrant."  Representative Hageman's perspective on the value, importance and critical protections for the constitutional freedom of speech was eloquently argued, directly to the face of the DHS organization that seeks to define, restrict, censor and control speech.  This is really good.  [Video clip]

Biden Overrules Pentagon and Names a Female Admiral to Head the Navy.  Joe Biden is obsessed with "firsts" — especially when it comes to naming minorities to positions in his administration.  Biden has prioritized "diversity" over almost everything else, including merit, experience, and judging by some of his choices, intelligence (we're looking at you, Mayor Pete).  So it was no surprise when Biden announced that the new chief of naval operations would be Adm.  Lisa Franchetti — the first woman to lead the Navy and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Our Defense Secretary's Repeated Failures Humiliate Our Nation.  The public face of our military is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.  Incompetent and corrupt best describe him.  He is a shameless self-serving political hack, a former four-star general who now goes to work in a suit.  Defense Secretary Austin was humiliated on the world stage by the Chinese Communist Party recently.  He sought a meeting at an annual security forum in Singapore with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu, China's new defense minister.

Non-Binary Biden Official Was Traveling on Taxpayer Dime to Secure Nuclear Facility When Luggage Heist Occurred.  Former Biden administration nuclear official Sam Brinton was on a taxpayer-funded government business trip when he was caught trying to steal airport luggage, according to newly revealed Department of Energy documents.  Brinton, who identifies as "non-binary" and dresses in woman's clothes, traveled in early July 2022 to the DOE's Nevada national security site outside Las Vegas as part of his role as deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the office of nuclear energy, according to internal documents obtained by watchdog group Functional Government Initiative (FGI) and first reported by Fox News.

The Cabinet is packed with women and minorities so they will be exempt from criticism.
Criticizing the FTC? You Racist!  Bully tactics.  Targeted harassment.  Politicized rulemaking.  Mismanagement.  This is the record Lina Khan has put together since becoming head of the Federal Trade Commission in 2021, according to Republican lawmakers serving on the House Judicial Committee.  However, if anyone in the GOP dared question the FTC's record under Khan, then they are only doing so because of her ethnicity, says Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA).  "When we treat a witness who looks like you with the politics of personal destruction, and when we only attack witnesses who look like you with allegations of incompetence and a lack of ability to lead their agency, it's indicative of the need for this committee to reflect what the American people look like," he stated.  Khan is a British-born American with Pakistani parents.  So, are these criticisms of Chair Khan justified, or are conservative critics only making complaints of FTC overreach because of her skin color?

Joe Manchin Delivers Knife To the Back That Could Kill Julie Su's Secy of Labor Nomination.  West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has had a busy week, most recently flirting with a third-party presidential run.  But one thing we can appreciate about Manchin is that he is present as a senator, even when he is making moves in other directions.  As RedState reported in May, the Democrat has been on the fence about whether he would vote in support of the nomination of Julie Su to ascend to the Secretary of Labor role.  As RedState has also reported, Su's nomination continues to languish in the Senate and faces opposition from both Congressional and Senate Republicans.  Many of the Senate Democrats have been mum on whether they plan to vote for Su, indicating the votes may not be present to get her over the finish line.  As my colleague Brittany Sheehan wrote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is still refusing to bring Su's nomination forward for a floor vote, while 33 Republican senators wrote to President Joe Biden at the end of June requesting he rescind Su's bid.

The Editor says...
Why does the Department of Labor exist?

GOP ramps up battle with the White House and federal government.  House Republicans are eyeing stripping the salaries of some of their main targets in the Biden administration as impeachment of these officials remains a divisive topic in the caucus.  The Holman Rule dates back to 1876 and is an obscure legislative power that allows lawmakers to reduce, or even strip the salaries of specific federal employees.  Kevin McCarthy decided before becoming House Speaker earlier this year to reinstate the Holman Rule after it remained dormant under the prior Democratic majority Congress.  This sets the stage for top leaders to back the move to strip salaries — and effectively fire — members of Biden's team.

Merrick Garland Corrupted The Justice Department and Should Be Impeached.  Attorney General Merrick Garland's denials that the DOJ, FBI, and IRS did not interfere in bringing serious criminal charges against Hunter Biden is farcical.  Compelling testimony by IRS whistleblowers tell the true story.  They cite specific actions taken to shutdown felony prosecutions to protect the president's son and avoid implicating his father as complicit in his many multi-million dollar schemes to leverage Joe Biden's power for self-enrichment.  How else do you explain an absurd plea deal to two minor tax misdemeanors in the face of clear felonious conduct that would land anyone else in prison for years?  How do you rationalize a five-year investigation that completely ignored evidence of brazen corruption?  Garland's denials are, in a word, dishonest.  The IRS found that Hunter cheated the government out of more than $8 million in unreported income from his influence peddling schemes, yet most of that fraud is not charged at all.  Who else but a Biden would receive such preferential treatment?

Biden's Degenerate Monkeypox Czar Doesn't Seem to Understand What His Job Is.  Remember monkeypox?  Given how quickly the panic involving the transmissible disease came and went, you may not, but back in 2022, the panic got so bad that California declared a state of emergency.  Further, the White House decided to appoint a monkeypox czar.  He's a controversial figure, to say the least.  Demetre Daskalakis is his name, and he has a checkered history, having served as Deputy Commissioner of New York's Division of Disease Control.  Apparently, he did so a great job formulating one of the worst COVID responses in the country that he earned a job in the White House overseeing the nation's response to monkeypox.  Failing up continues to be the name of the game inside the beltway.  Is it any wonder the country has declined to the point it's at?  Regardless, to put it lightly, Daskalakis really doesn't seem to understand what his job is.

Karine Jean-Pierre Is Finally Right About Something, and It's Not Pretty.  Biden regime spokesditz Karine Jean-Pierre wants you to know that she is very, very important, and that she is working with other important people who are doing important things.  "This is a historic administration," she announced in a new interview.  "I'm a historic figure, and I certainly walk in history every day."  And for once, Jean-Pierre has said something that is entirely true:  she is indeed a historic figure who will be remembered long after she has stopped lying and gaslighting the American people with half-baked regime talking points, ineptly delivered.  She will be remembered as the most public and obvious indication ever of the wrongheadedness and failure of the Left's identity politics agenda.

Biden's World Bank Head Promises To Spend 'As Much As We Possibly Can' On Climate Change.  Ajay Banga, the Biden-appointed president of the World Bank, promised to "push" the financial institution to its limits to combat climate change in an interview with Reuters late Tuesday.  While Banga said he would not take any actions that would threaten the global financier's "AAA" credit rating, he said that he would leverage the bank's balance sheet "as hard as you can" to address climate issues, Reuters reported.  Members of the Biden administration, notably including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Joe Biden himself, and climate activists have — at times over the objections of developing nations — called for Banga to shift the bank's focus from combating poverty to additionally combating climate change.

Sen. J.D. Vance says he will block all DOJ nominees over Trump indictment.  In the face of a virtual wall of silence among Senate Republicans, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio has announced that he will place a hold in confirmation of nominees to Justice Department positions to protest the indictment of Donald Trump:  [Tweet with video clip]  It is not clear what might cause Vance to drop this hold.  Perhaps the Special Prosecutor Jack Smith dropping the charges of the indictment?  Merrick Garland certainly will claim that Smith is "independent" and that he, Garland, cannot properly intervene.  So, expect this block to remain until the next president is inaugurated or the matter is ended in the courts.

JD Vance Decides to Play Hardball With Merrick Garland in Midst of Trump Indictment.  But regardless of how the case unfolds, there is still the issue of the timing of these charges, which as many prominent Republicans have pointed out looks an awful lot like election interference considering that Trump could end up being Biden's opponent in the 2024 presidential election. So the question is just what are Congressional Republicans going to do about it?  Talk about how unseemly and dictator-like this all looks or take action?  In the case of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), he has decided to take action, announcing in a statement Tuesday that he "will hold all Department of Justice nominations."

Confirmed: WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Violated Hatch Act Before Midterms With 'Mega MAGA Republicans' Rhetoric.  White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been found to have violated the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to influence elections.  The Office of Special Counsel determined that Jean-Pierre's repeated references to "mega MAGA Republicans" during the lead-up to the 2022 midterms constituted a violation of the Act.  During a White House press briefing on Nov. 2, Jean-Pierre referred to "mega MAGA Republican officials who don't believe in the rule of law" and made other disparaging remarks about Republican candidates.  The conservative watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust filed a Hatch Act complaint against Jean-Pierre last November, pointing out her comments as an attempt to influence the election.  The Office of Special Counsel's letter confirmed the violation but noted that it was unclear if their analysis regarding the use of "MAGA Republicans" had been conveyed to Jean-Pierre.

Cabinet secretary admits to lying under oath - why does she still have her job?  Jennifer Granholm is the Secretary of Energy, a high-level position in the Biden administration.  She sent a letter to Congress on Friday admitting to lying during her testimony under oath addressing her ownership of individual stocks.  Top government officials in charge of policy-making are not supposed to own stocks in companies that may present a conflict of interest.  Not only did she not completely divest all the stocks she owned, but she also kept six that were in her portfolio.  During her confirmation process, she told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that she did not own any individual stocks.  She did so under oath.  She didn't mention the six she held on to.  She sent a letter to the committee leadership on Friday in which she admits that she made a "mistake" in her testimony.

Biden Energy Secretary Granholm Lied to Senate Under Oath About Stock Ownership.  It has just been revealed that Biden's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm lied to the Senate under oath about the stocks she owns.  She admitted in a letter that she 'mistakenly' misinformed the Senate about her stock ownership and that her spouse owns stock in Ford, a company that is directly impacted by her work.  Will there be investigations and arrests?  After all, no one is above the law.  Isn't that what we're being told every day?

Of Course, Biden Would Pick Someone Like This to Head the CDC.  Rochelle Walensky's reign of terror is over at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but a new war is about to begin.  First, congressional Republicans should do all they can to derail this nomination.  Mandy Cohen is the person slated to replace Walensky and, given her background, could become a key piece in the Left's crusade to erode Second Amendment rights.  Cohen co-founded Doctors for Obama, which Chuck Ross of the Washington Free Beacon noted espoused anti-police and anti-Second Amendment policy positions.  Cohen is one of those professionals who want to treat mass shootings and gun violence like a viral outbreak, prescribing policies that would make it easier to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens based on medical reasons.  Forget the COVID lockdowns, which were already grounded in voodoo science, this could make way for a backdoor gun grab, and the GOP shouldn't show deference for a nominee whose aim isn't centered on enhancing public health.

Biden's CDC pick laughs while recalling collaborations on COVID restrictions across different states.  President Biden's reported new pick for The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Mandy Cohen recalled multiple collaborations between health officials across different states during a 2022 interview, and laughed over an apparent interaction about not letting them "play professional football," videos show.  Cohen, during a seminar series at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in May 2022, answered a question about crisis management and about how health officials collaborated with different states in enacting COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic.  [Tweet with video clip]

Biden's likely pick for new CDC director loosely followed her own COVID protocols, laughed off lockdowns.  President Biden is expected to pick North Carolina's former health secretary — who pushed aggressive COVID restrictions during the pandemic — as his next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Mandy Cohen, who served as the Tar Heel State's top health official from 2017 to 2021, will join the agency as its current director, Rochelle Walensky departs at a time of declining public trust.  Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra spoke with Cohen earlier this week to congratulate her on the nomination, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the news.  In a NBC News poll taken last year, just 44% of Americans said they trusted the CDC, compared with 69% at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

Texts Reveal Chummy Relationship Between Biden's CDC Chief And Teachers Union Bosses.  Newly revealed texts display a close relationship between President Joe Biden's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief and the presidents of the nation's largest teachers unions prior to the health organization's 2021 school reopening guidance.  Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest teachers union, collaborated with the CDC to draft reopening guidance for schools in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to emails obtained by the Americans Public for Trust.  Since, the union leaders and the CDC have been pressed about the extent of that collaboration, while texts, obtained on Friday through a public records request by Fairfax County Parents Association, show the parties had a friendly relationship prior to the CDC releasing instructions for school reopenings.

Recipe for Disaster: A Democrat President and a Democrat Senate.  Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security who keeps insisting the southern border is secure, intervened to help obtain a sentence commutation for the son of a major Democrat Party donor.  The son was a convicted drug dealer.  Then U.S. attorney Mayorkas approached the White House in 2000 on behalf of Carlos Vignali, a convicted drug trafficker whom prosecutors said was a leading figure in a drug ring with nearly three dozen members that stretched from California to Minnesota.  Vignali's father was a wealthy real-estate developer and a substantial donor to California Democrats.  He persuaded more than nine important Democrat politicians to approach Bill Clinton on his son's behalf.  He increased his political donations as his son's trial began, then donated ever-increasing amounts to the Democratic National Committee during their convention in Los Angeles.  The Vignali family also contributed to Xavier Becerra's political campaigns prior to his advocacy for Carlos.  Becerra is currently the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Who are the Unseen Biden Handlers Always Chasing the Media Away?  On the rare, and getting rarer, occasions when Biden's handlers place him in front of cameras as a proof-of-life kind of thing, the handpicked "journalists" granted press passes are permitted to ask two questions (three tops) before getting chased away by a chorus of white, female voices braying "thank you" in unison while corralling the press corps out the door.  Such an event occurred recently on Cinco de Mayo when Biden declared he was doing a "major press conference" later that afternoon, which in fact was not a press conference at all and actually a highly scripted MSNBC interview.  [Video clip]  "Thank you, thank you, thank you," erupted a chorus of Valley Girl-aesthetic vocal intonations which for some reason increase in inflection at the end of their silken commands even though there is no question being asked.

Biden admin hired former leader of anti-Catholic group at center of LA Dodgers Pride Night controversy.  Sam Brinton — the embattled former Biden administration official charged with multiple airport thefts — previously led the Washington, D.C., chapter of the anti-Catholic group invited to a "Pride Night" hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Brinton was the D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence's principal officer from its founding in 2016 until 2018, according to tax filings reviewed by Fox News Digital.  The group is part of the San Francisco-based Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag queen group that regularly mocks the Catholic Church and made headlines after it was uninvited then re-invited to the upcoming Dodgers Pride Night.  "When we are asked, 'Why are you mocking nuns?'  we answer: 'We are nuns!'  We do all that traditional nuns have done for centuries," the D.C. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence website states.

Biden nominee stumbles through answers after Sen. Kennedy grills her on basic legal theory.  Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., left a Biden judicial nominee speechless during her confirmation hearing Wednesday after he quizzed her on basic constitutional law theory.  Judge Ana de Alba, who currently serves on a California federal district court and is nominated to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, struggled to define the Dormant Clause and Commerce Clause under Article 1 of the Constitution.  "This has been in the news a lot lately, and you'll probably see it if you're confirmed to the Court of Appeal.  Tell me about the Dormant Commerce Clause," Kennedy said.  "I'm somewhat familiar with the Commerce Clause, which is found in Article 1 of the Constitution," de Alba said.

Biden Names Failed OMB Nominee Neera Tanden to Replace Susan Rice at White House.  President Joe Biden named Neera Tanden, his failed nominee for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to replace Susan Rice as his domestic policy advisor at the White House on Friday.  Tanden, a Hillary Clinton loyalist with a checkered past, was forced to withdraw her nomination to lead OMB — a post that requires Senate confirmation — in 2021 due to her past controversial remarks and volatile behavor.

'Climate Czar' John Kerry Is Negotiating With the CCP, James Comer Threatens Subpoena to Find out Why.  One-time presidential candidate and former Secretary of State John Kerry wasn't elected to his current position as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate — nor was he confirmed by Congress for the cabinet-level role.  In fact, President Joe Biden created simply created the title and appointed Kerry to fill it, which conveniently does not require congressional approval.  But the unelected, unconfirmed "Climate Czar" has been holding private meetings with his Chinese counterparts, and House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) wants to know why.  In February, Comer served notice that his committee would investigate the matter, and on Friday he doubled down, saying the committee was going to subject Kerry and his activities to "intense scrutiny": [...] Comer also sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting all documents and information related to the activities and budget of the SPEC and said he expects "full cooperation" from the State Department.  Fox Digital opines that it's not even clear that Blinken has authority over Kerry, adding that they have obtained department emails that suggest that Kerry is "on the same level" as the congressionally-confirmed Blinken.

Who Will be the next Chief of Naval Operations?  Last September, the Navy promoted and installed a new Vice Chief of Naval Operations.  Then Vice Admiral Lisa Franchetti got her 4th star and was appointed to the second-highest position in the Navy. [...] Would an identity-based selection for the Navy's top leader be in the best interest of the Navy and the Nation?  No, the nation needs and deserves the very best warrior to lead the Navy into our threatened future.  Admiral Franchetti is a journalism graduate of Northwestern University NROTC, a non-STEM degree which itself is unusual, as the Navy strongly favors STEM degrees for officers.  She has a Master's Degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix, an online university.  Her biography does not mention any war college credential.  In contrast, her predecessor Admiral William Lescher had multiple commands in combat zones, was a test pilot, had multiple advanced degrees in naval technical fields and his commands won multiple combat zone merit awards.  To naval professionals, for someone to have been promoted to the Navy's highest rank and second highest position based on a NROTC commissioning source with a liberal arts degree, an online masters, no war college or combat zone credentials, would be considered inconceivable.

Secretive Su: Biden Admin Won't Release Records of 'Transparent' Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su.  The Biden administration is stonewalling public records requests regarding acting labor secretary Julie Su, whose confirmation to lead the agency on a permanent basis faces an uphill battle in the closely divided Senate.  Conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation last month petitioned the Labor Department for all official correspondence between Su and the nation's most powerful unions, whose business dominates her public calendars.  Last week, the agency blew by its deadline to provide the documents as Su moved toward a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate.  The watchdog said the administration's failure to provide documents from Su's time at the Labor Department ahead of a potential vote "thickens the cloud already hanging over this confirmation process."  "The American people and members of the Senate who are considering her confirmation right now deserve to know the full truth about Julie Su and it is disgraceful that they are being kept in the dark," the group said in a statement. "The fact that the acting head of the Department of Labor right now is Julie Su herself only thickens the cloud already hanging over this confirmation process."

In the Biden Administration, Incompetent Cabinet Members Is a Feature, Not a Bug.  Remember Deputy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Samuel Brinton?  We would all like to forget about him, but he is one shining example of this very incompetence, as well as the Biden administration's agenda to promote equity and diversity over actual competence and experience.  Brinton proudly proclaimed his non-binary status.  I know a lot of smart people with lots of experience in some pretty high-level areas.  They neither brag about their intellect, their sexual orientation, or their gender affiliation.  Competent, smart, and secure people have no need to.  Brinton felt the need to brag about all of the above.  As the first "gender non-binary" official in the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, Brinton needed you to know that he used they/them pronouns, liked to cross-dress and wear makeup, and had an Instagram account to prove it.

Matt Gaetz Unleashes On Biden's Clueless ATF Director.  The director of the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was grilled on Wednesday by Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz over two watchdog reports alleging the agency has failed to implement recommendations in the wake of a theft of firearms and unlawful record keeping.  ATF Director Steven Dettelbach sat before the House Judiciary Committee as Republicans questioned the president's top firearms official on missteps they claim hamper the agency and interfere with the rights of gun owners.

The Garland, Blinken, and Morell Morass.  Doubtless your mother used to tell you to count your blessings.  It was good advice.  Your situation may be bad.  In the case of the United States, things indisputably are bad, and worsening.  You know that.  But look on the bright side.  Sure Merrick Garland, the first American Gothic attorney general of the United States, is a partisan horror show, withholding real protection from Supreme Court justices who are threatened by violent criminals even as he stigmatizes as "domestic terrorists" parents who criticize their local school boards and orders the FBI to conduct dawn raids on critics of the regime.  He is a horrible man and a dangerous partisan hack, the very instantiation of the two-tier application of the law that has made such a mockery of justice during Biden's tenure.  But again, look on the bright side.  Garland will soon be gone.  And remember, he almost made it to the Supreme Court.

Horrifyingly incompetent Biden official looks poised to fail upwards (again).  In the real world, being bad at your job will get you fired.  Yet, in the government, being bad at your job will get you a massive promotion.  At least, that's seemingly the takeaway from the Biden administration's bizarre decision to nominate Julie Su to be its next labor secretary. [...] Su currently serves as deputy labor secretary, but she is seeking Senate confirmation for a promotion to replace outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.  However, prior to becoming a deputy in the Biden administration, she was labor secretary for the state of California — and her tenure was an absolute disaster.  Su personally oversaw the state's distribution of expanded COVID-19-era unemployment benefits, massively expanded payouts subsidized by federal taxpayers thanks to the so-called CARES Act passed in March 2020.  Under her watch, the state gave tens of billions of dollars away to scammers, by its own admission.  At least $11.4 billion and possibly up to $31 billion were lost to fraud, local media reported .

Kathy Chung: The discreet & diminutive woman at the center of Biden world.  The surname of a petite woman of Korean extraction is found 31 times in our dossier: Chung.  She was Ted Kaufman's aide in the U.S. Senate (Kaufman, by the way, was practically hand-picked by Joey when Joey left the "upper chamber" for the vice presidency). Chung was then installed by Joey's son, Hunter, to be Joey's personal aide at the White House.  After Joey's stint as the V.P., she followed the crew to Joey's "transition" office & then to his smattering of "centers," "foundations," & other slush funds.  All of these movements by Chung & Joey's broader entourage — including the two federal crimes that Chung participated in — are explained in our nonprofit's Report on the Biden Laptop.  Earlier this week, Chung — who you, as a federal taxpayer, still subsidize as Chung is currently the deputy Director of Protocol at the Department of Defense — appeared before the U.S. House Oversight Committee & (to her credit) answered some of their questions about Joey's document fiasco & (hopefully) other matters.  Accordingly, we felt it our duty to provide the public with more granularity on this figure who had/has such close access to the man with the nuke codes.

Biden's non-binary ex-nuclear waste chief Sam Brinton will undergo mental health evaluation as part of diversion program.  The non-binary former Energy Department official who was caught on camera stealing luggage from Minneapolis airport agreed to undergo a mental health evaluation[,] as he avoids jail time in Las Vegas for a similar crime.  Samuel Brinton, 35, who uses they/them pronouns agreed during a remote hearing in Hennepin County on Monday to participate in a adult diversion program after he was charged for stealing a woman's suitcase in September containing $2,325 of items from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.  As a part of the program, Brinton — who was responsible for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste — will be required to write an apology to the victim, return the stolen items and participate in three days of community service.

Biden Secretary Appears To Cry Because Of Climate Change During Hearing.  President Joe Biden's Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland appeared to begin crying over the issue of climate change while giving testimony during a U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources hearing.  "I really do have to say that all of this is because climate change is the crisis of our lifetime," Haaland said, as she then appeared to start crying briefly.  "We have an obligation to future generations to make sure that we have a planet for them to live on.  And that's why I'm here, and that's why I'm working incredibly hard to make sure that we can realize that transition, that we can have differing energy sources.  We can't continue to be a one-industry country," Haaland said.  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
The Secretary is delusional if she thinks that the U.S. is a one-industry country (what industry is that?), or if she thinks that climate change is a crisis, or if she thinks there won't be a planet for future generations to live on.  It is as if she gets all of her information from comic books.  She is one of the most poorly-informed public officials I've ever heard.  There is no climate crisis.  The climate is changing, but so gradually that you wouldn't notice any difference if a century's worth of climate change happened overnight.

Sam Brinton Avoids Jail Time For Stealing Women's Luggage While Meme Creator Faces 10 Years Behind Bars.  Nearly 80 percent of Americans believe there is a two-tiered justice system.  This week's courtroom episodes only validate the public's perception.  On Friday, President Joe Biden's allegedly "non-binary" nuclear waste expert, Sam Brinton, was sentenced in a grand larceny case over stealing women's luggage from U.S. airports.  Police say Brinton stole a bag from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas with an estimated worth of around $3,670.  Authorities also charged Brinton with stealing luggage at a second airport in Minnesota.  The former Energy Department official took a plea deal over the Las Vegas bag theft Friday, agreeing to pay a $3,670 fine to the victim and a $500 criminal fee — no jail time required.  The Minnesota theft remains an open case, with the next hearing scheduled for Monday, according to Fox News.  Contrast Brinton's slap on the wrist to a pro-Trump meme creator convicted of illegal election influencing last month, and it's no wonder Americans see a two-tiered justice system.  Douglass Mackey faces 10 years behind bars over a 2016 post mocking how low Democrats want to set barriers to the ballot box.

Janet Yellen says the U.S. economy is 'obviously performing exceptionally well'.  Inflation is kicking back up.  The dollar is falling.  People are pulling money out of even big banks now and buying gold.  The dollar is losing its reserve status.  Discouraged workers are dropping out of the workforce.  Layoffs are coming.  And recession is "baked in the cake."  [Tweet]  But don't tell Janet Yellen, Joe Biden's Treasury secretary.  Out on Planet Biden, the nutty professor is telling us the economy is in good shape.

A Hole the Size of China in Biden's Personnel Policies.  [Scroll down]  Similarly, Marxist "diversity, equity, and inclusion" ideology (precedents discussed [elsew]here) has also infused federal hiring practices.  Thus, identity politics has replaced merit, competency, and experience as the primary consideration for filling job vacancies in this administration; the top priority is the hiring of Democrat-defined "disadvantaged groups," including women, LGBTQI people, and racial minorities.  The country was watched some of the results of those hiring actions with shock, humor, and outrage, depending on circumstance.  For example:
  •   The "non-binary" deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy who stole a woman's luggage at an airport
  •   The antics of an absurd transgender (sic) assistant secretary in the Health and Human Services department, who once advocated chemical castration of children
  •   An Afro-American lesbian White House press secretary (probably a "two-fer" in the thinking of White House personnel directors) who daily makes a fool of herself during press briefings
  •   The demonstrated incompetence and weakness of an Afro-American secretary of defense in the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rebuffed attempts to contact his Chinese counterpart after the Chinese balloon was shot down, whose first action as SECDEF was a department-wide standdown to "root out extremism" (misplaced priorities!)
  •   The demonstrated incompetence of a homosexual secretary of the Transportation Dept in response to seaport blockages, US domestic flight groundings, and train wrecks (and "controlled burns" of highly toxic chemicals!)
If merit, competency, and experience were important hiring considerations, none of these people would have been appointed to their positions.

Rep. Cory Mills Presents Articles of Impeachment Against Disgraced DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin.  Disgraced Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in support of Joe Biden's defense budget request.  Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) had a more pressing issue on his mind, however.  He was seeking to hold the Biden regime accountable for the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan.  Afghanistan is perhaps the most sordid part of Biden's destructive legacy.  As the Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft reported, a US Marine sniper was denied permission to shoot and kill the Kabul airport suicide bomber Who killed the 13 America service members during the botched withdrawal.

Deb Haaland's Grilling by Congress Reveals What a Clown Car the Biden Admin Is Running.  We've seen just how incompetent and bad some of the nominees that the Biden administration has put forth are.  They've been so bad they can't even answer basic questions they should know for their position, such as FAA nominee Phil Washington and judicial nominee Kato Crews.  However, the problem, as we've also seen, is that it's not just the nominees, it's the folks who are already in their positions who are beyond incompetent.

GOP Senator Stumps Biden Judicial Nominees Again, and Again, and Again.  Judicial nominees of President Joe Biden over the last few years have repeatedly been stumped by Sen. John Kennedy's (R., La.) basic questions about the Constitution in Senate confirmation hearings.  When Kennedy asked Charnelle Bjelkengren, nominee to be United States district judge for the Eastern District of Washington, to explain the purpose of article five in the U.S. Constitution, Bielkengren responded, "article five is not coming to mind at the moment."

FAA Nominee Phil Washington Withdraws His Nomination.  Phil Washington, Joe Biden's embattled nominee to head the Federal Administration Aviation, has withdrawn his nomination, sources told Reuters Saturday evening. [...] Reuters' piece went on to describe issues with Washington, a veteran, not having a waiver "from rules requiring civilian leadership to head the FAA" and questions about Washington's competency and experience as obstacles, as well as a threat by Republicans to "use parliamentary tactics to object to Washington's lack of a waiver."  They didn't refer to Washington's miserable performance when questioned by Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) in which he went 0-for-7 on aviation policy, though.  [Tweet]

Biden Nominates Federal Prosecutor With Massive Conflict Of Interest Over Biden Family Corruption.  A health-care executive who claims Jim Biden defrauded him was interviewed multiple times by the lawyer Joe Biden just nominated to serve as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.  According to two sources, while the Delaware U.S. attorney's office is aware of the allegations, that office is not investigating the potential fraud, leaving the matter solely in the hands of the conflicted-future U.S. attorney.  On Monday, President Biden named Eric Olshan, currently an assistant U.S. attorney in the Pittsburgh office, to fill the vacancy left open when former U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung was confirmed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  As I previously reported, Chung, whom President Biden had nominated to the federal appellate court, had been overseeing the criminal investigation into the bankrupt health-care business Americore — a business Jim Biden allegedly siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from to finance repairs for his beach house.  Jim Biden is the current U.S. president's brother.

Another Biden judicial nominee exposed as a doofus.  Move over, Kato Kaelin.  Meet America's newest goofus in the legal system, Kato Crews. [...] What kind of judge would Kato-the-Unready be without this utterly basic judicial knowledge?  Does this explain the kinds of lunatic legal decisions we see coming from leftist judges who reflexively side with Joe Biden no matter how wrong he is?  Crews should have known that, and what's more, he should have known he would be asked about it.  What it shows is how unfit Joe Biden's team are for any job that requires an understanding of basic, ordinary, law.  Political loyalty and having the right skin color or sexual status are how these nominees get chosen, not merit, let alone anything resembling knowledge of the law.  This is how it's done in Caracas.

Biden judicial nominees are a joke.  Joe Biden has promised to reshape America's courts in order to make them more diverse.  In this, he is achieving some success.  Before Biden's efforts, Judicial appointees were expected to know something about the law, be able to answer basic questions about biology such as the definition of "woman," and have a passing understanding of the Constitution.  The legally illiterate weren't well represented in the judicial branch, but Biden is fixing to change that.  [Tweet]  Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana has become a nightmare for Biden's nominees.  Not because he is an in-your-face critic.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  He is a southern gentleman and he savages these poor souls by asking them simple questions of law and gently watching them squirm.  He doesn't need to say a word after they flub their answers.  In a way, it is profoundly uncomfortable to watch.  People achieving their dreams of becoming federal judges have to reveal their basic ignorance of the law.  On national TV, or at least their mistakes will be.

Republican Senators grant Joe Biden a victory by confirming his controversial envoy to India.  On Wednesday, former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti won confirmation in the Senate as US Envoy to India by a vote of 52-42.  The confirmation took 20 long months.  Garcetti is a close ally of Joe Biden and even co-chaired his 2020 presidential campaign, yet his appointment was held up following accusations that he ignored serious accusations of homosexual sexual harassment against his friend and adviser, Rick Jacobs when he was LA Mayor. [...] Garcetti's confirmation took so long that his nomination expired in January 2023, Biden immediately renominated Garcetti when he could have picked another more suitable individual on moral grounds. [...] Democrats such as Mark Kelly of Arizona, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii broke party discipline to vote against him.  Surprisingly or perhaps unsurprisingly, seven Republican Senators voted to confirm Garcetti's appointment.  The names of these Senators are: [...]

It Had to Be Su.  Joe Biden's pick to head the Department of Labor is current Deputy Secretary Julie Su, who is, according to a White House statement, "a tested and experienced leader."  As confirmation hearings await, senators might test her experience during an unemployment scandal in California.  Su headed California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) which oversees the Employment Development Department (EDD) responsible for unemployment claims.  On Su's watch, the EDD sent more than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims to California, out of state, and even out of the country.  In 2020 alone, Su confirmed, fraudsters stole at least $11.4 billion in California unemployment benefits.  As it happens, fraud was not a new problem at EDD.  California's state auditor reported that "EDD had no comprehensive plan for how it would respond if California experienced a recession and [unemployment insurance] claims increased accordingly." Su had failed to modernize outdated EDD technology, and in the early days of the pandemic suspended eligibility requirements for EDD claims.  Convicted criminals took full advantage.

Manchin Kills Biden Nomination That Would Have Made Energy Crisis Even Worse.  Like during the late 1970s and early '80s, the country is currently experiencing an energy crisis.  The similarities are striking, especially the fact that Democrats also controlled the executive branch then.  But one part of it that's different today is the way Joe Biden and his administration are acting in ways that can only make the problem worse.  The most recent example came about a week ago, when a stunning, internal Department of the Interior (DOI) memo leaked.  The injury here was self-inflicted; someone in the department accidentally posted the memo on their website.

Biden's Star Trek Diversity Ambassador Getting 'Pale' 'Males' Out of Diplomacy.  Diversity bosses are essentially Soviet-style political commissars with authority over senior leadership because dogma matters more than competence.  At least Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley is eminently qualified to destroy the planet.  ["]She also is co-author of two papers published in the New York Review of Science Fiction on "Diplomacy in Star Trek" and "The Representation of Disability in Star Trek," and says she continues to follow those issues "with all the new iterations of Star Trek."["]  No wonder the world thinks we're a joke.

Biden's FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Goes Down in Flames.  Gigi Sohn — President Joe Biden's nominee for commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission — withdrew her name from consideration on Tuesday, the White House confirmed, after three successive unsuccessful nominating attempts by Biden.  Sohn's decision ended some 16 months of attempts to secure enough support, and came just hours after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced that he "cannot support her nomination" and urged Biden "to put forth a nominee who can bring us together, not drive us apart."  [Tweet]  Biden first nominated Sohn in October 2021, but her initial bid to be FCC commissioner stalled after she testified before the Senate Commerce Committee in December of that year.

Biden's FCC Pick Withdraws, Says Agency Will 'Remain Sidelined'.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a key fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Gigi Sohn, withdrew on Tuesday, dealing a setback for Democrats who have been unable to take control of the telecom regulator for more than two years.  Sohn confirmed Tuesday she was withdrawing after Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he would vote against confirming her.

Biden's FAA Nominee Can't Answer a Single Question About Aviation.  Phil Washington, President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as administrator of the FAA, continues to face questions about his qualifications to serve in the role, and his testimony before Congress isn't dispelling doubts about his ability to run America's civil aviation system and keep its citizens safe when they fly.  Already, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has raised concerns about Washington's experience and resume, suggesting President Biden is "playing politics" rather than prioritizing the safety and efficiency of America's air transportation system.  Washington's previous gigs have also seen accusations of wasteful spending and mismanagement of resources, as Townhall reported previously.  And, while he served honorably in the military, lawmakers pointed out that Washington has no experience or qualifications related to aviation safety.  That was abundantly clear this week as Washington testified before the Senate Commerce Committee when Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) asked Biden's FAA nominee questions that an FAA administrator would need to know.  Not only did Washington fail to impress senators with his answers, he had no answers.  In fact, it was absolutely brutal.

Prized Biden Nominee Is So Terrible That Democrats Are Looking to Blow up Her Nomination.  The Biden administration does not exist in the same reality the rest of us exist in.  That was perfectly illustrated by the renomination of Gigi Sohn to an open spot on the FCC.  Sohn was first put up for the spot during the last Congress, but due to a variety of problems, including a scandal in which she donated to Sen. Raphael Warnock (who sits on the committee that would approve her), the contentious selection did not make it through.  In a sane world, that would have been enough to scuttle Sohn's chances, but the White House renominated her anyway in January.  According to a new report (Axios), though, the far-left radical is so terrible that Democrats may still blow up her nomination.

Hawley Goes Off On Biden Nominee Who Refuses To Own Up To Her Social Media Posts.  Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley grilled the Biden administration's national Archivist nominee on Tuesday over her overtly partisan tweets.  In a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday, Hawley took to task the nominee, Dr. Colleen Shogan, over tweets she wrote blasting Republican politicians and COVID policies.  Shogan locked her Twitter account when she was nominated to lead the National Archives and Records Administration, but Hawley obtained several of her posts anyway.  Exasperated after she repeatedly refused to answer for her statements, Hawley blasted Shogan for stonewalling.

Joe Biden Puts Liberal Theories to the Test.  The diversity industry claims that having a diversified workforce increases creativity and customer service — resulting in improved organizational performance.  Joe gave us a few appointments who check all of the diversity boxes to test this one out.  He appointed Dr. "Rachel" Levine to be the assistant secretary of health.  Levine has a penis but thinks he's a woman — making him a valid diversity test subject.  His department has spent two years promoting a vaccine that doesn't prevent illness from the targeted virus, but does increase one's likelihood of dying from that virus.  Joe appointed Sam Brinton to be the deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition.  Sam claims to be non-binary and is into "puppy play" — which I refuse to look up because it might include pictures.  Sam has been fired because of multiple instances of stealing women's clothing from airports — and then allegedly wearing some of that clothing for a Vanity Fair spread.  Apparently, intelligence doesn't necessarily accompany diversity.  Finally, Joe Appointed Pete Buttigieg, a gay man, to lead the Department of Transportation.  Under Pete's watch, our shipping systems, airline services, and supply chains have all failed.  Pete was also AWOL when the trains literally ran off of the rails in Ohio, Nebraska, Michigan, and South Carolina.

US Treasury Secretary goes to Ukraine to visit US treasure.  Janet Yellen is visiting Ukraine.  That would be a great thing, except that she is coming back.  The only reason I can imagine she would go is that, as Treasury Secretary, she wants to visit with all that US treasure we sent over there.  What other reason could there be? [...] Seriously, though: why on Earth is Janet Yellen in Ukraine?  The President just visited the other day, and I cannot imagine a good reason why Yellen or any US cabinet secretary besides the Secretaries of State or Defense would visit there.

Buttigieg Finally Visited East Palestine.  It Didn't Go Well.  Nearly three weeks after a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, former failed mayor and current Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally visited the town today and took a tour of potentially contaminated areas.  It didn't go well.  [Tweets]  Buttigieg, in typical fashion, attempted to blame shift with a false narrative about deregulation under President Donald Trump.

Pete Buttigieg: The archetype of the Biden regime.  If there is one thing all Americans now know about transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, it is that he is massively, moronically incompetent but thinks he is the smartest, most impressive person on the planet.  As Victor Davis Hanson has noted, he is "the epitome of the empty résumé class."  He had no qualifications for the job beyond the fact that he ticks a couple of identity politics boxes, he's gay and proud of it, and he's a mind-numbed leftist.  He is therefore, the perfect book cover for the Biden Cabinet catalogue.  Like Biden and the rest of his Cabinet, Buttigieg was hired for all the wrong reasons and is thoroughly incompetent for the job he holds.  Chosen for reasons other than expertise or competence, it explains the utter failure of the Biden regime on every issue that matters:  national and border security, health and safety, military readiness, food and energy security, inflation, economic management, and dangerous involvement in a foreign war that may well lead to WWIII.  Perhaps that is the goal, given this regime's failure on every front.  Distraction from our $31 [trillion] in debt?  Distraction from the fact that the mandated vaccines are killing young people at a 40% excess mortality rate?  Distraction from the open border that has ushered into the country five million unvetted migrants and tons of fentanyl that is killing 100 [thousand] people a year?  All of the above?

African Fashion Designer Who Lost Her Suitcase at an Airport in 2018 Says She Recognizes Her Outfits on Biden's Former Nuclear Waste Guru.  ATanzanian fashion designer who lost her suitcase at an airport in 2018 said on social media this week that she had spotted Joe Biden's former "nuclear waste guru," Sam Brinton wearing her unique outfits in photographs online.  Brinton was relieved of his duties at the Department of Energy in December after he was charged with stealing women's suitcases in two different states.  Brinton allegedly stole a $320 piece of luggage from Harry Reid International Airport in July of 2022, and a $2,325 Vera Bradley roller bag from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis Airport in September of 2022.

Biden Appointee's Firm Admits He Belonged To Alleged Chinese Intel Operation.  President Joe Biden's appointee to represent the U.S. at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) formerly served as a member of an organization which experts have identified as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence front group, according to a spokesman from the company he leads.  Dominic Ng, CEO of East West Bank, served at an "executive-director level" in an "honorary position" at the China Overseas Exchange Association (COEA), yet allegedly withdrew from the organization in 2014 due to "non-participation," according to statements an East West Bank spokesman made to American Banker on Friday.  The statements were issued following a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation which found that Ng served as "executive director" at COEA between 2013 and 2017, before the banker began a five-year position with the same title of "executive director" at the related China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA) in 2019; both COEA and COFA have been identified by China experts as Chinese intelligence front groups.

Why Is Pete Buttigieg Allowed To Keep Failing Upward?  The average person can't describe the daily responsibilities of the secretary of transportation or even name the figure who holds that position — until our transportation infrastructure fails, that is.  As far as cushy political appointments go, it's on the thankless end of the spectrum.  At least that was the case before Pete Buttigieg ascended to the role in 2021. Now the secretary of transportation is both a political celebrity and someone immune to meaningful criticism over our country's transportation failures — and there have been many.  Though the left rarely misses an opportunity to announce that "the adults are back in charge," Buttigieg's failures suggest otherwise.  His highlight reel at the Department of Transportation includes a supply-chain crisis punctuated with a personal leave, flight system disruptions that stranded millions of travelers and temporarily grounded all U.S. flights, rail strikes, and a series of horrific train derailments.  On Main Street, people get fired for far less.  Plucked from obscurity as mayor of a struggling Rust Belt city, Buttigieg found himself among the leading Democratic presidential candidates in 2020; he even won the Iowa caucuses.  Biden, who considers the former mayor a future party star, awarded him a cabinet post.  It defies logic.

Biden installed: What could possibly go wrong?  How have things gone so wrong in two years?  Well, one obvious reason is Biden's thoroughly incompetent cabinet.  Not one has the expertise to do the jobs they've been given.  They were each selected not for their talent or experience, but for their skin color or sexual orientation.  Pete Buttigeig has proven to be completely unqualified as head of the Transportation Department.  He rarely goes to work, and uses government or military planes for personal travel.  He has yet to visit East Palestine and address the Chernobyl-like cataclysm that just occurred.  He's an abject coward.  Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a failed former governor, is a colossal joke; one she even thinks is funny.  When asked when gas prices might go down, she just laughed, Kamala-style.  Janet Yellen, Blinken, Ned Price, Jake Sullivan, Mayorkas at DHS, Merrick Garland — the most Stalinist prosecutor in U.S. history.  Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley, both more concerned about "White rage" and proper "pronouns" for "trans" members of the military than our readiness for the world war that Biden has almost assuredly set in motion.

Impeaching Mayorkas is a Waste of Time.  House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans are floating a motion to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, as if that would end the invasion of millions of foreign nationals at our Southern border.  How does that work, exactly, when this open-border agenda goes right to the top.  If Mayorkas is removed, wouldn't President Biden just appoint another open-borders guy to fill his slot?  If House Republicans do any impeaching, to stop the lawless flood of foreigners into the United States, it seems they would need to impeach the official Border Czar and her Boss — both of them, together.  While it may be a first, 'dual impeachment' of both president and vice president is not such an outlandish idea when you consider that the Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice.

Mockery erupts after Jean-Pierre claims Biden is the 'best communicator' in the White House.  On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre claimed President Biden is the "the best communicator" in the White House," sparking laughter across Twitter.  After being questioned by a reporter about whether Biden is viewed by his team as "equally adept in all settings in terms of communications," Jean-Pierre insisted that the president's communication skills are the best in his administration.  Many on Twitter balked at Jean-Pierre's statement.  Biden has a long history of being lampooned for his word flubs and sometimes incomprehensible speech at public events.  Some also noted that others in his administration, such as the press secretary herself and Vice President Kamala Harris, are infamous for their own verbal gaffes.

Real and Fake Worlds: Why the Trains are Failing.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg worked in the fake world of Harvard and consulting.  Consultants do not improve business outcomes.  They exist as a way to give cover to an executive team by saying that the executive team's strategy is the correct one.  This also means you can't fire the executives for failure because the consultants agreed it was the right move.  Where do you suppose "Mayor Pete's" priorities are?  [Video clip]  Roads and train tracks can't get more real.  Polluted water is as real as it gets.  Racial identity politics are part of the fake world.  We only get to fight over nonsense when infrastructure is strong enough to support our bloated selves.  The country has decided that the fake world matters more than the real world.

As Inflation Continues To Roar, Why Do Biden, Powell, And Yellen Still Have Jobs?  On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that prices climbed 0.5% in January, which is up from December's 0.1% hike.  Prices were up 6.4% over the year before, which is higher than economists had been predicting and comes amid warnings that inflationary pressures are building again.  This all comes one week after President Biden reassured the nation that "here at home, inflation is coming down."  And it comes two years after the New York Times reported how Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell were all in agreement that spending $1.9 trillion to stimulate an economy that was already roaring back from the COVID lockdowns would not set off an inflationary spiral.

Karine Jean-Pierre Fails Miserably to Explain Biden's Absence Amid Multiple Shoot-Downs.  Following multiple shoot-downs of unidentified flying objects over the last week, reporters were itching to gather more information during Tuesday's White House press briefing.  That vigor for transparency was quickly quelled by the world's worst press secretary, though.  Karine Jean-Pierre took to the podium to once again provide absolutely nothing of value for the six-figure salary she collects from taxpayers.  When pressed on why Joe Biden has still not addressed the nation about even the initial Chinese spy balloon that was downed, this was the result.  [Tweet]  The question wasn't whether he is receiving briefings.  I would hope that Biden is receiving briefings.  That would be the bare minimum given he's ostensibly the President of the United States.  That still doesn't explain why Biden can't manage to give a few brief remarks on the situation.

Now We Can Rest Easy, We Have a Gay White House Communications Director.  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it Friday:  "Also new, uh, I also know uh, that Ben is making history."  She was referring to Ben LaBolt, the new White House communications director.  "As you know," Jean-Pierre struggled on, "we believe here, in the Biden-Harris White House, that representation matters, he will be the first openly, uh, gay, uh, um, uh, communications director, which is very, very important indeed."  It is?  With the military shooting a series of strange and unexplained objects out of the sky, a nonexistent Southern border, skyrocketing inflation, and all the rest of the catastrophes that Biden's handlers have caused, it's good to know they have a firm grasp of what's really important, and are doggedly continuing to pander to their gay base.

The Origins of the Constitution.  Recently Senator John Kennedy stumped a Biden judicial nominee for a federal judgeship with some basic questions.  Senator Kennedy in his very Southern approach can be disarming and yet get to the heart of the matter.  He asked Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren if she could tell him what Article V of the Constitution does?  She replied that Article V is not coming to mind at the moment.  How about Article I, he asked?  Again she responded by saying neither is Article I.  These are very basic parts of the Constitution, which is not very long.  What is interesting is that Article V was added to the Constitution just before ratification as a means for the states to rein in an out-of-control national government and bureaucracy.  Not that we need that now!

WH Goes 'Outer Limits' on Jobs, Border, and That Strange Change to Biden's Schedule.  White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got into some trouble on Friday, when she was grilled by Fox's Peter Doocy about the false claim the Biden team made that Joe Biden "self-reported" he had classified documents.  As we noted, not only didn't Joe Biden self-report, his team hid from the American public right before the midterm election what he had done.  The only reason we know about the classified documents is because Biden got nailed by the good reporting of CBS.  Even then, Biden didn't fully fess up to how many finds they had at that point.  But Jean-Pierre had more trouble, as well, in that press conference.  She's supposed to be the one helping to explain the things that Biden says.  But when neither she nor Biden can get things straight, there's an issue.  How many jobs is Biden claiming he's created?  Eleven, according to Jean-Pierre.

Good riddance to Ron Klain and his ridiculous spin obsession.  The Biden administration's finally doing something right: saying farewell to Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who'll step down next week.  After all, when it comes to spinning facts, whitewashing President Joe Biden's abysmal record and misleading the public, it's hard to beat Klain.  He's gotten so infamous for his unhinged tweets and retweets that "The Ruthless" podcast took to featuring a game show mocking them:  Hosts had to guess which of four idiotic postings — ludicrously praising Biden, for instance, or blasting conservatives — was not shared by Klain.

Constitution? What's that?  Patty Murray gave a ringing endorsement for her, having urged President Biden to nominate Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Washington. [...] Unfortunately for all involved, Judge Bjelkengren doesn't know much about the Constitution of the United States, embarrassing herself and her supporters before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  It was a pathetic performance, although to be fair the judge had probably been told that the hearing was going to be pro forma, not a grilling.  The Democrats are in charge of the Senate, after all, and Murray didn't nominate Bjelkengren because she is a remarkable legal scholar.  She did it because she is Black and liberal.

Things sure are great with Pete Buttigieg as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation!  Peter Paul Buttigieg doesn't really have anything in his resumé that would indicate he knew how to run an entire nation's worth of critical transportation infrastructure.  But he was hand-picked by Joe Biden to by the Secretary of Transportation, so it felt like, I dunno, maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.  After two years, though, I think we're all out of benefits and the only thing we have left is doubts.

Pete Buttigieg called out after FAA system failure grounds all flights.  Rep. Andy Biggs:  ["]I'm not surprised.  It's unpleasant that I have to say that.  But I'm not surprised that he doesn't know anything because that's consistent with how he's handled any kind of question or issue that we've had in our transportation sector since he became secretary.  But what's chilling about this today is the fact that this is happening.  We've known about apparently overnight, and he has no idea what happened or how they're going to fix it and how long it's going to last.  That has an enormous impact on our economy and travelers today.["]

Pete Buttigieg called out after FAA system failure grounds all flights.  Rep. Andy Biggs:  ["]I'm not surprised.  It's unpleasant that I have to say that.  But I'm not surprised that he doesn't know anything because that's consistent with how he's handled any kind of question or issue that we've had in our transportation sector since he became secretary.  But what's chilling about this today is the fact that this is happening.  We've known about apparently overnight, and he has no idea what happened or how they're going to fix it and how long it's going to last.  That has an enormous impact on our economy and travelers today.["]

Buttigieg and his husband caught chartering military jet to international sports event.  How is this for a scandal?  Fox Digital reports that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has chartered a military jet for his trip to an international sports event: [...] Which is indeed a scandal, as well as a hypocrisy-fest, for multiple reasons.  He couldn't take commercial for a project like that if for nothing else to demonstrate that commercial flights are operating smoothly?  Sure, he's going as an official, but he should have waited for a government jet for his undoubtedly huge delegation, not snap his fingers at the military for quick service to him and his husband, or get the roundheels Bidenite White House to sign off on his many trips on private jets.  Fox noted that President Trump's former Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, was forced out of his job for the exact same kind of travel, jumping on military jets, taking the spouse along, as well as taking private planes around the country, for which he billed the government.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: Incompetent but Failing Upward.  One of the bestselling books of the 1970s was "The Peter Principle," a business management book by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull.  The book's premise, in a nutshell, was that people get promotions based on their performance in their previous jobs until they are ultimately elevated to a position in which they're incompetent, since skills and success in one position don't necessarily ensure success in the next.  "In a hierarchy," Peter said, "every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."  Put another way, as the disclaimers say in investment brokers' ads:  "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."  Both Peter and Hull are long since deceased.  Still, if publisher William Morrow & Co. were to commission someone to update a new edition of the book, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could be cited as Exhibit C of the "Peter Principle" at the highest levels of government.  (President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would be Exhibits A and B, but that's another story for another day.)

Stealing is not the queerest thing about Biden's little perv perp.  The Biden administration made headlines last year when they boastfully appointed a certain person to a high level position at the Office of Nuclear Energy.  This person is "non-binary" and refers to his/her/them/itself with ungendered pronouns. [...] Yes, I get it — this person is mentally ill.  Note that this mental case is a card-carrying member of the political party that "believes in science."  What I don't get, however, is that the person wants to be referred to not just by non-gendered pronouns, but by pronouns that are plural such as "they" and "them."  Those plural pronouns refer to multiple people, not an individual person who thinks he/she/they/it is (are?) non-gendered.  Does this person think he/she/they/it are (is?) not only non-gendered but also comprise more than a single individual?  As if there are three of him/her/them?  Eleven?  When standing in front of a mirror, how many reflections does the person see?  The moronic media go along with all this.  In fact, they encourage it.  Not only do they go along with the pronouns that are non-gendered, but they also go along with the pronouns that are plural.

Criticizing Pete Buttigieg's private jet usage is apparently off limits.  Many people were probably surprised when Joe Biden appointed "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg as the Secretary of Transportation, given his total lack of experience in such matters.  At this point, I'm not entirely sure that he understood the meaning of his role.  The Transportation Department deals with travel, obviously, so perhaps Buttigieg thought that meant he should spend his time traveling.  He's certainly done quite a bit of that, and as Fox News is reporting this week, many of his trips have been taken using taxpayer-funded private jets managed by the FAA.  Given the history of expensive travel by officials on the taxpayers' dime, this should have produced some outrage in the press, particularly at a time when so many Americans can't even afford an economy-class ticket once they finish paying for their groceries, filling up their gas tanks, and watching the value of their remaining dollars plummet.  And yet, this story is barely making a ripple in the media pond.

Biden's return to 'normalcy' brought us crazy instead — like Sam Brinton.  Remember the Trump years?  Back then we were told the administration, like its head, President Donald J. Trump, was deeply unserious: impulsive, ignorant, possibly corrupt and always vulgar.  All in all, a disgrace to the hallowed history of American government.  One argument for electing candidate Joseph Robinette Biden was that a Biden administration would restore normalcy to Washington.  Instead of crazed, self-obsessed MAGA performers, a Biden team would be made up of sober, sensible establishment types.  Boring, perhaps, but not crazy.  The problem with that argument, it turns out, is that our establishment nowadays isn't sober or sensible or boring.  In fact, it's kind of, well, crazy.  Exhibit One is the Biden administration's just-departed top nuclear-waste official, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy Sam Brinton.

Sam Brinton no longer works for Department of Energy amid luggage scandal.  Former Department of Energy official Sam Brinton no longer works for the department, a spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Monday, amid allegations that Brinton has been involved in multiple luggage thefts.  "Sam Brinton is no longer a DOE employee.  By law, the Department of Energy cannot comment further on personnel matters," the department spokesperson said in an email.  Prior to Monday's report, the department claimed that Brinton, who is nonbinary, was placed on leave but refused to comment on whether the leave was paid.  It is not clear whether Brinton resigned or was fired from the department.

Psychotherapist: I Warned About Sam Brinton, the Nonbinary Biden Official Now Arrested for Theft, but No One Listened.  A licensed psychtherapist who testified against laws banning so-called conversion therapy says he warned Americans about Sam Brinton, the non-binary Biden administration nuclear official who is facing charges for allegedly stealing two pieces of luggage at two separate airports.  "My colleagues and I warned lawmakers in California and Massachusetts, and the LGBT activist groups which were sponsoring him, about Sam Brinton's ever-changing story about abuse he allegedly underwent in therapy because of his LGBT attractions," Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, Jr., the therapist and founder of the Reintegrative Therapy Association, said in a statement first reported by The Daily Signal.  "But nobody cared, so Brinton's testimony about his alleged experience played a key role in banning legitimate practices across the nation."

Is it bigotry to focus on Sam Brinton's thefts?  Let's face it:  none of us would spend any time on Sam Brinton's luggage thefts if he weren't a prominent "non-binary" Energy Department official.  And that is the excuse that many in the media have used to soft-pedal the story:  it wouldn't be a story but for the bigotry of Right-wingers who want to use it to discredit the gender ideology sweeping the nation.  Conservative media, and of course the 2nd tier media outlets desperate for clicks have splashed Brinton's crimes all over the internet, but MSM outlets have soft-pedaled the story.

The Biden administration's peculiar attachment to accused thief Sam Brinton.  When applying for an SES position in the government, candidates must meet five mandatory criteria defined in Executive Core Qualifications ("ECQs") that the United States Office of Personnel Management ("OPM") defines as required competencies for an SES executive.  OPM further defines each ECQ to include "personal and professional attributes that are critical to successful performance in the SES."  The complaint addresses several of the ECQs that Brinton failed to meet.  The complaint discusses certain core qualifications that Brinton fails to meet, but also states that the complaint is not limited to the ones that the complaint specifically addresses.  In addressing the Business Acumen ECQ, the complaint states, "Samuel Brinton has none of the business management experience, skills, or abilities... [that meet] any of these functional areas..."  A review of Brinton's work experience supports this assertion.  For the ECQ of "interpersonal skills," the Office of Personal Management (OPM) guidance requires that the applicant respond "appropriately to the needs and feelings of different people in different situations."  The complaint states, "There is video-taped and published evidence that Samuel Brinton is biased in his treatment of others who do not share his gender-fluid identity and associated life-choice practices."

Sam Brinton: Oops! They Did It Again.  We have followed the saga of Department of Energy official Sam Brinton (they/them/theirs).  Brinton is one of the first "openly genderfluid individuals in federal government leadership," but has proved something of a disgrace.  As Alpha News recently reported, Brinton was charged with felony theft last month after allegedly stealing a woman's luggage at MSP Airport.  We loved the local angle.  The New York Post now reports, however, that the "non-binary nuclear official" has been charged in a "second luggage heist" — this one at Harry Reid International Airport in Vegas on an unknown date.  As the Post puts it, Brinton "reportedly has sticky fingers for suitcases."

Brinton Is Busted Again.  What Exactly Are the Qualifications for Working for Biden?  A felony arrest warrant for grand larceny has been issued for Department of Energy official Sam Brinton.  Brinton is the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.  The reason for the warrant?  Stealing luggage.  Again.  8 News Now said that the latest theft occurred at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.  Brinton was placed on leave for stealing luggage at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this past September.  He originally claimed the first incident was a mistake, but video footage emerged of him removing the tag from the luggage, according to the Washington Examiner.  He was also seen using the bag from the first heist on two other trips.  Along with his two thefts, the website LGBTQ Nation has called out Brinton for possibly lying about child abuse and traumatic conversion therapy.  Brinton has also made headlines for being non-binary, his penchant for "puppy play," and his participation in sex seminars.

So now Sam Brinton has been accused of stealing a second ladies' suitcase at a second airport?  Self-aggrandizing "non-binary" Sam Brinton, who's "serving" as the Biden administratron's Department of Energy's deputy assistant secretary for spent (nuclear) fuel and waste disposition, has been accused of stealing another suitcase from another lady at a second airport, according to the New York Post. [...] The news follows an earlier report that Brinton stole a woman's suitcase from the Minneapolis-St Paul airport's baggage claim, slipped the name tag off and put it into his purse, checked it into a hotel, told the cops he took it by mistake despite not having checked any bag at all and having no business on the baggage claim carousel at all, and then failed to return the suitcase or its contents when given that chance, claiming that he had left the clothing behind in the hotel, which hotel staff said didn't happen.  After that, he was filmed wheeling the same luggage on a return trip from Europe the following month.  Well, now he's accused of stealing a second bag, apparently in the same manner as the first.

The Editor says...
His... purse?

The day of the flamers.  I just watched a segment of Tucker Carlson's show from last night, during which Tucker and comedian Adam Corolla discussed the quality of people hired by the Biden administration to fill significant, important positions in our government.  They spoke specifically about Sam Brinton, hired to manage the disposal of spent nuclear material, and Rachel Levine, Assistant Health Secretary.  Not coincidentally, both Brinton and Levine are non-binary and transgender.  Carlson and Corolla addressed the situation in a manner that coincided with my beliefs; if a person can do the job, whatever that job may be, he is entitled to the position.  How someone dresses or whom he, or she sleep with are irrelevant if the job is being done in a competent manner.  But the Biden folks have definitely put the cart before the horse, seeing as how both of these individuals were hired based primarily on their aberrant sexual identities.

Biden Energy Dept.  Won't Say If It Will Fire Cross-Dresser Charged With Felony For Allegedly Stealing Lady's Luggage.  The Department of Energy won't say whether it plans to fire Biden administration official Sam Brinton, who was charged with felony theft last month after he allegedly stole a woman's roller bag from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  "Sam Brinton is on leave from DOE, and Dr. Kim Petry is performing the duties of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition," the department told The Federalist in a statement on Tuesday.  [Tweet]

6 Points on Felony Theft Case Against Biden Administration's Gender-Fluid Energy Official.  U.S. Energy Department official Samuel Otis Brinton has been heralded by the Biden administration and some media outlets for being one of the first openly "gender-fluid" individuals to serve in a top federal position.  Brinton, the deputy assistant Energy Department secretary for the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, faces criminal charges of stealing luggage from a Minnesota airport in September.  He is on temporary leave from the Energy Department.  Until now, Brinton, 35, probably was best known to Americans for social media posts and other photographs in which he poses in women's clothes and makeup. [...] Brinton, who prefers the personal pronouns they, them, and theirs, is the chief federal official overseeing nuclear waste as the Energy Department's assistant deputy secretary in charge of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.  A resident of Rockville, Maryland, he began working at the Energy Department job in June with an annual salary of $178,063.  He has so-called Q Sensitive clearance, the agency's equivalent of top secret clearance, according to The National Pulse.

Non-Binary Nuclear Waste Official Arrested for Stealing Womans Luggage and Clothes.  Hire weird and sketchy clowns and don't be surprised when the office turns into a circus.  Dept of Energy Nuclear Waste official Sam Brinton made headlines months ago for being an odd duck hired into a senior DoE position.  His resumé included teaching a "Kink 101" workshop at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and his qualifications included several degrees from MIT and a non-binary gender fluid identity.  However, stories are now surfacing of Mr/Ms Brinton stealing luggage containing women's clothing from the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport.

Controversial energy official charged with stealing woman's luggage at MSP.  Sam Brinton, one of the first "openly genderfluid individuals in federal government leadership," was charged with felony theft last month after allegedly stealing a woman's luggage at MSP Airport.  The MIT grad went viral earlier this year when he announced his new role as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy.

Biden Education Official Says Democracy — And Everything Else — Is White Supremacy.  "Kristina Ishmael [she/her]," a Biden deputy director to the Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, made her Twitter account private after Fox News caught her claiming that democracy, "fatphobia," and, well, pretty much everything else is "white supremacy."  Considering that Ishmael said she was tuning out white people, while she/herself is white, should we follow her example and exclude her from public expression? [...] Ishmael also seemed to ponder if white homosexuals ought to be considered marginalized in school curriculum.  Which is clearly a consideration of paramount importance for an educator.  "In most 'inclusive' materials, the most dominant folx are still represented in the marginalized group (e.g. white, cis, gay men).  This does not include the nuance of this group," Ishmael whined.  But she's always focused on the most important aspects of education:  "[M]ost of my curriculum was written from a very narrow and white perspective."

Mayorkas Lies (Again) To Congress.  Isn't That Illegal?  On Monday, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported that it had "encountered" 230,678 migrants illegally crossing into the country, the highest number ever recorded in October and the third highest in the nation's history.  On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas assured Congress that the border is secure and that "we are working day in and day out to enhance its security."  The back-to-back events lead to a question:  How many times can a Cabinet secretary blatantly lie to Congress before he gets brought up on charges?  Federal law, after all, makes it a crime to "knowingly and willfully" give "materially" false statements to Congress, even if you're not under oath.  The penalty includes fines and up to five years in prison, or up to eight if the lie involves international or domestic terrorism.  Mayorkas is a serial offender who deserves the eight-year beef.

Top Democrat Admits 'All of Us Knew' Their Party's Policies Would Cause Inflation.  For many, many months, Joe Biden has blamed everyone else for inflation.  He once falsely claimed that "inflation started under Trump" and that inflation was was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  More recently, he's tried to blame the Russia war in Ukraine for inflation, which Biden dubbed "Putin's price hike."  Back in June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that she and Biden were wrong about the impact inflation would have.  "Well, look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take.  As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn't — at the time didn't fully understand," Yellen told CNN.  "But we recognize that now."

The Editor says...
If you don't "fully understand" what could happen before it does happen, you shouldn't be the Treasury Secretary.

Gasoline, Electricity, and Biden's Fuel for the Inflation Fire.  You may recall that earlier this summer, in response to poor and middle-class Americans' suffering record gas prices across the country, the Biden administration floated the idea of government-supplied "gas rebate" cards.  Most of the ideas about money that originate from people who've never worked for a company with a profit motive are, naturally, terrible.  The one thing that the Biden administration has in spades is people who lack experience working with money that isn't someone else's.  This is evidenced by the fact that the median years of private sector business experience among his appointees is zero.  Yes, that's right.  Zero.

It's Time for Defense Secretary Austin to Resign.  During the Obama administration, Secretary Austin was the CENTCOM commander, in charge of the fight against ISIS in Iraq when the nation quickly fell to the terrorist group.  He was tactically and operationally in charge of the area where ISIS captured hundreds of U.S. military tanks, vehicles and other equipment and paraded them around for the world to see.  In 2015, Austin testified to congress that a $500 million U.S. military program had only trained "4 or 5" Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.  And for those who served under his leadership in CENTCOMs area of operation, his reputation for indecisiveness was an open secret.  Not only that, Secretary Austin was the top Pentagon official in charge of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal that was not only an epic failure that exposed many of our weaknesses to our adversaries, but got 13 service members killed.  Additionally, in a rushed and retaliatory drone strike, 10 innocent civilians were killed, many of whom were children.  For some time the Pentagon maintained the strike was "righteous."  To this day no one has been held accountable for this failure of epic proportions.

The WH press secretary's statement about illegal aliens in D.C. is illuminating.  [Biden administration press secretary Karine] Jean-Pierre, who defines herself by her race, gender, and sexuality, rather than by her abilities (which is really sad when you think about it), is staggeringly bad at her job, daily exposing the vast chasm behind her eyes and between her ears.  The latest example is her response when asked about why it's fine for the administration to fly illegal aliens across America but not fine for Texas to send them to Biden's and Jean-Pierre's hometown of Washington D.C. [...] There is no knowledge or intelligence driving her responses.  She's almost like my old Chatty Cathy doll:  Pull the cord, and a random statement comes out.  That she is the communication face of the Biden administration is open to several interpretations.  First, we are being governed by half-wits, which is bad.  Second, we are governed by people who believe the American people are half-wits, which is worse.  And then there's the third, and worst, possible conclusion:  We are governed by people who couldn't care less about what Americans think.

Biden's Cabinet:  Let us Count the Ways.  That "President" Biden's administration is the most inept, counterproductive, outright laughable in post-World War II American history is beyond question.  One hardly needs to list out all the failures, missed goals and broken promises that we've suffered through in the last two years.  From generationally high inflation to skyrocketing energy prices to product shortages to rampant illegal immigration, Biden's pathetic collection of Keystone Kops advisors and operatives could not have done a better job of destroying American culture, ruining the economy, gutting our defenses, and robbing us of international respect and influence if they'd tried.  Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of his sorrowful collection of incapable, bumbling cabinet members.  To a person, they are simply a pitiful assemblage of special-interest box-checkers, apparently chosen for their appearance and demographic makeup, as opposed to their actual expertise and experience.

Biden's New Cybersecurity Deputy Inexplicably Declares 'Systemic Racism' Greatest Threat to America.  Camille Stewart, a former Google strategist, has argued that the U.S. "national security apparatus must be a part of dismantling systemic racism," and that "pursuing anti-racist and anti-hate policy outcomes" should be a chief national security focus for the Biden administration, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.  So there you have it, America.  No need to worry about cyberattacks from Russia, China, Iran, or any of the other bad guys of the world, the top threat to U.S. cybersecurity is "systemic racism" — defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as "policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race."  Needless to say, Biden's latest race-obsessed hire is not likely to sit well with Republican lawmakers who have been more focused on real defense issues rather than on Biden's race-centric ideological agenda.

The Editor says...
Please note that so-called "affirmative action" and other minority hiring quotas easily fit the Cambridge Dictionary definition of "systemic racism" cited above.

Cruz: First Act of GOP-led Congress Should Be Mayorkas Impeachment — 'The Body Bags Are Piling Up'.  Friday on FNC's "Hannity," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) pledged action against the Biden administration for how it has handled the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.  The Texas Republican laid out many of the problems with President Joe Biden's border and immigration policy.  He also said the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be a priority should Republicans win back Congress.

Biden's top 68 appointees have just 2.4 years of business experience, analysis finds.  A new report from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity claims that most of President Biden's top officials have no business experience at all.  Economists Stephen Moore and Jon Decker analyzed the work records and resumes of 68 officials, including Biden himself and his Cabinet members, advisers and regulatory officials.  Moore has been a frequent commentator on tax issues and advised Trump on his tax plan, along with former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.  Along with Larry Kudlow, he helped pen the Trump 2017 tax cuts.

No business at the White House:  Biden's inexperienced lackeys unlikely to pull US out of inflation doom.  You've heard the saying, "Get woke, go broke."  Well, that is exactly what is happening to America as President Biden prioritizes woke concerns such as climate change and gender and racial "equity" over sound economic management.  With inflation hitting a spine-chilling record 9.1%, there is fat chance of his know-nothing administration having the competence and know-how to pull us out of this doom spiral.  It's no accident, either, since Biden deliberately has appointed people who tick the right "diversity" boxes, in terms of their physical appearance, with no concern about whether they are qualified to oversee a $6 trillion federal government.  A staggering new report from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows that most of Biden's top officials have zero experience in business.  Economists Stephen Moore and Jon Decker analyzed the work records and résumés of 68 officials with carriage of the economy and found almost two-thirds have zero business experience, including Biden himself.

62 Percent of Biden Officials Who Handle Economic Policy Have Zero Years Business Experience Per Report.  An explosive new analysis published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity reveals that Democrat President Joe Biden's administration has very few business-oriented officials in the administration and that the vast majority of people handling economic policy for the United States government under Biden have no business experience whatsoever.  The 15-page report, authored by economist Steve Moore and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity's executive director Jon Decker, was provided to Breitbart News exclusively ahead of its public release.  The headline of the report is:  "Not Ready for Prime Time Players:  Majority of Biden Appointees have Zero Years of Business Experience." The report analyzes the backgrounds of the "top 68 officials in the Biden administration, starting with the president himself, and including cabinet members, regulatory officials, and White House advisers."

He wasn't hired for his effectiveness or his aptitude.
Pete Buttigieg is ineffective and should be fired.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on national television news and told the watching audience he's wrapped 10 investigations into late and canceled flights and has "launched another ten or so that we're going to pursue." [...] Between the Saturday and Monday of the Independence Day weekend alone, U.S. airlines canceled almost 2,500 flights, FlightAware reported.  One long weekend; 2,500 cancellations; thousands more delays.  "In a June 16 meeting, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told airlines that he'd be closely monitoring their performance.  The very next day, his own flight from Washington to New York was canceled," The New York Times wrote.  It's time for Buttigieg to go.  Even simple solutions don't meet with his approval.  Pilot shortages are plaguing the industry.  One talked-about solution is to extend the current mandatory 65-year-old retirement age of pilots to 67.  Buttigieg's response?  No.

Legal Group Launches 'Litigation Blitz' To Compel FOIA Disclosures Of Biden's Radical Appointees.  America First Legal (AFL), a conservative nonprofit, launched a cascade of litigation last week suing 11 federal agencies over their refusal to disclose records compelled under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  In July last year, the group filed requests across federal agencies to disclose the names, titles, positions, resumes, salaries, ethics pledges, waivers, and agreements of political appointees under President Joe Biden in the new administration.  "Everyone knows personnel is policy," AFL Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton told The Federalist, highlighting the torrent of liberalism rapidly taking over the federal government from open-borders policy to the embrace of radical gender ideology.  "We FOIA'd every department and agency across the administration to obtain information about these people. ... We want to know who they are, see their resumes that they used to submit, and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions about individuals who are working in various roles in the federal government."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg thinks his job is customer service.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the son of a hardcore Marxist academic, was a good student who managed to get himself into Harvard and, from there, win a Rhodes Scholarship.  He is glib and, with his sonorous voice, makes nonsense and banality sound profound.  When it comes to actual skills, though, he comes up short.  He was an utterly average mayor of South Bend but is proving to be, not just an ineffective Transportation Secretary but an anti-effective one.  It's becoming obvious to all that he was an affirmative action appointee.

Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen should be fired.  Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell are supposed to be economic experts yet they continue to show their pure ignorance on what causes inflation or when it will occur.  One is the Treasury Secretary, the other is the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve.  But neither knows beans about inflation, which is why we have so much of it.  The Federal Reserve has two jobs:  Watching unemployment and controlling inflation, but Powell said he really doesn't understand what caused the current inflation.  He's a fan of the junk economic thought known as "Modern Monetary Theory" and it shows.  Before we ended up with the inflation we see today, Yellen and Powell repeatedly claimed that inflation was transitory and so their delayed actions to put a stop to it compounded the problem.

'Genderfluid' 'Puppy' Begins Work at Department of Energy.  Back in the days of Roman imperial decadence, at least according to legend, the emperor Caligula demonstrated his unfitness for office and the dangers of public indifference and complacency when he appointed his horse Incitatus a senator.  Woke America hasn't reached such an advanced stage of imperial decadence that we have a horse in the Senate; all we have is a dog in the Department of Energy.  Sam Brinton ("they/them") tweeted happily on Wednesday:  "It's official.  As of June 19th, I now serve my nation as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy."

Fire Kerry, fire McCarthy, fire Granholm.  To create credibility regarding energy markets (including the oil and natural gas), Biden would need to take several additional steps to make people believe he was serious about promising to stop his anti-fossil fuel agenda for the remainder of his administration.  The first step is to fire John Kerry, Biden's special presidential envoy for climate change.  Kerry's recent comments opposing building more fossil fuel infrastructure are just the latest example of why Biden needs to fire Kerry to create credibility in promising to abandon his anti-fossil-fuel agenda.  Kerry has been on a decades-long campaign to put the oil companies out of business.  Kerry should be fired, and his position should be eliminated.  The second step is to fire Gina McCarthy, Biden's National Climate Advisor.  McCarthy is a former EPA administrator under Barack Obama and a true believer that there are no benefits coming from the fossil fuel industry, only downsides.  McCarthy is one of the primary proponents of eliminating fossil fuels and transitioning to wind and solar.  She believes this so strongly that she wants to censor people who speak against her orthodoxy.  Her failed ideology has led to the current energy crisis.  McCarthy should be fired, and her position should be eliminated.  The third step is to fire Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.  Granholm is publicly a true believer in shifting away from fossil fuels.  She wants to eliminate fossil fuels from our energy industry.  Why would anyone in the fossil fuel industry trust this person?

Biden Is the Economy's Supply Chain Problem.  When Trump left office, inflation was 1.5%, even though the economy grew by about 20% in the six months before Biden left office.  But then, when Biden took over, right from the get-go, here, there and everywhere "supply chain" problems emerged.  Why?  First, Biden declared war on the American fossil fuel industry, so it began to contract output.  Prices soared.  Then he appointed regulators who made anti-business climate change rules that disrupted commerce flows.  And finally, he appointed people to key positions in his administration who were woefully unqualified for the task at hand.  Kamala Harris, his vice president, was in charge of securing the border, and this was like a monographed invitation to illegal immigrants to come on over.  Next, Pete Buttigieg was put in charge of transportation.  He seems like a very nice man, but he went on paternity leave amid the cargo shipping crisis and took no practical steps to alleviate the jam up at the ports.  With airlines canceling thousands of flights and leaving passengers stranded in strange cities, Mayor Pete is flunking again. [...] In sum, the supply chain problems and high inflation aren't going away because no one in this administration knows anything about logistics, business, commerce or fixing things.

Stunning DC Corruption — State Dept Appoints Blackrock Investment Chairman Tom Donilon, a Deep China Biden Insider, to U.S. Foreign Policy Board.  The conflict of interest is simply off-the-proverbial charts here.  Tom Donilon is a deep DC swamp operator and has been for his entire career.  Donilon is connected to every tentacle of the Obama and Biden administrations.  Donilon is also the Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute.  We have written about the conflicts [elsewhere], but this move by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is stunningly fraught with serious conflicts of interest.  Tom Donilon's literal job description at Blackrock is to "leverage the firm's expertise and generate proprietary research to provide insights on the global economy, markets, geopolitics and long-term asset allocation," and the State Dept has just appointed him as Co-Chair of the U.S. foreign policy advisory board.  Specifically, the Biden administration has just put Blackrock Investment Institute Chairman Tom Donilon in charge of U.S-China policy.

Biden administration EPA nominee supports 'climate reparations'.  The Biden administration has nominated Howard University Environmental Law Professor Carlton Waterhouse to become assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management.  Waterhouse is a truly far-left radical and supporter of so-called "climate reparations."  He believes that the United States needs to be punished for having an advanced economy, as it must have become wealthy only at the expense of other countries.  At the American Climate Leadership Summit in 2020, Waterhouse, who also believes in reparations for Black people, stated:  "Climate reparations is really just calling for the equitable redress for the harm that has been caused historically.  That's what it's about — making amends."

Report: Biden Admin-linked Special Interests Got More PPP Loan Forgiveness.  A report released Tuesday by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) suggests that Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) recipients with ties to Biden administration personnel received loan forgiveness at a higher rate than the general population.  The FGI, a new research organization dedicated to "improving the American public's awareness about the officials, decisions, and priorities of their government," compiled a database on loan forgiveness using the government's own data. [...] The report does not directly allege that specific government officials intervened directly to help firms or organizations connected to them.  However, it notes a pattern, and lists several high-ranking officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm — as among those linked to recipients of PPP loan forgiveness.

Joe Biden to sign order for LGBTQ+ inclusive schools, foster system.  President Biden will mark Pride Month Wednesday by mandating that federal agencies craft "inclusive" school policies and ensure that same-sex couples and transgender adults can foster children.  Biden will sign an executive order that includes various other gay and transgender rights initiatives at an afternoon White House event with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first Senate-approved openly gay cabinet member.  Other provisions instruct the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether the phrase "conversion therapy" amounts to deceptive marketing and order the Department of Health and Human Services to draft a "Bill of Rights for LGBTQ+ Older Adults."  A Biden administration official told reporters that the president will use the signing event to condemn recent legislation in Republican-led states that restricts the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity.  A Florida law restricts such topics in kindergarten through third grade.

Biden has filled admin with open border activists who 'do not care': Brandon Judd.  National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd criticized open border "activists" within the White House Tuesday for the migrant crisis at the southern border.  On "America's Newsroom," Judd argued President Biden and his staff "do not care" about the issues created by illegal immigration like drug smuggling, human trafficking and economic strain so long as they achieve their political agenda.  [Video clip]

Yellen about stupidity.  The venerable office of Secretary of the Treasury goes back to Alexander Hamilton.  Looking over the roster of former Secretaries, one can observe that it has rarely been held by lightweights or hacks.  Janet Yellen makes a mockery of the office.  She degrades the office in performing its responsibilities poorly and ranging far afield to parrot the shibboleths and follies of the Biden administration like a Stalinist apparatchik. [...] The inflation ignited by the Biden administration lies within the core of her responsibilities.

What's Biden's Problem With Black Staffers?  Joe Biden took office promising the most diverse presidential administration in history.  Not cohesive, not experienced, and certainly not competent, but definitely diverse.  We're all familiar with Biden's biggest hits in the diversity game, starting with his vice president, Kamala Harris.  The former California senator couldn't get her own presidential campaign off the ground in 2019, even after she attacked her future boss for being a segregationist at heart.  But Biden was determined to make a woman of color the next vice president of the United States, and lucky Kamala was in the right place at the right time.  There's also Ketanji Brown Jackson, the newest member of the Supreme Court.  She's soft on crime and apparently doesn't know what a woman is, but she's black and she's female, so what's not to like?  And then there's Karine Jean-Pierre, whose primary qualification for replacing Jen Psaki as White House press secretary seems to be that she's an openly homosexual black woman.  Further down the line, though, Biden's diversity pledge has faced some challenges.

The Sovietization of American Life.  Cabinet secretaries ignore their duties — somewhat understandable given their resumes never explained their appointments.  What binds a Pete Buttigieg, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Jennifer Granholm is not expertise in transportation, border security, or energy independence but allegiance to an entire menu of woke policies that are often antithetical to their own job descriptions.

Tucker Carlson:  Biden's Lunatic War Against Putin [is] Crushing The U.S. Economy.  Let's say just for the sake of a mind experiment, that you're the secretary of transportation for the United States of America.  That's a big job, but what would you do all day?  Well, [...] your first concern would be the price of diesel fuel.  Diesel fuel is what makes transportation possible in this country. [...] Your second concern, if you were transportation secretary, would be domestic air travel.  This is a huge country.  It's far too big a country not to have reliable commercial flights from one place to another. [...] So, that's what you would be worried about if you were the secretary — diesel and airlines — and yet, remarkably, in less than a year and a half under Joe Biden, both of these things, fuel costs and air travel have gone dramatically in the wrong direction.  The price of diesel is now hit its highest price ever recorded in history. [...] Wasn't it just the other day that the United States was energy independent?  Yes, but now we're begging dictatorships to sell us oil, but it won't be enough.  Industry officials are predicting shortages very soon.  [Video clip]

Fire her!
Commerce Secretary Raimondo admits only learning of baby formula shortage in April.  Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo admitted on Sunday that she only learned about the ongoing shortage of baby formula in April.  Mrs. Raimondo told CNN's "State of the Union" that she was not directly involved in the White House's response to the crisis.  "I first learned about it a couple of months ago ... probably April," she said.  "I'm not involved in the administration's response here, I should say."

Janet Yellen says she didn't know inflation would spin out of control?  [Whose] job was it to keep an eye on inflation, which affects 300 million people participating in the economic system in our country?  That's right, Janet Yellen, who as Treasury Secretary has the explicit job of guarding the value of the currency, and as former Fed chief under President Obama, had an even more serious job of setting monetary policy which has the highest impact on the value of the currency.  She's been placed in jobs of enormous power — she was the hand on the button of the money press — and now she's admitting that she doesn't even know basic economics[.]  [Whose] job was it to watch for inflation?  That's right, hers.  Her 'duh, I didn't know' response makes her look insanely stupid, given that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, as the late Milton Friedman famously put it.  All goods are priced in dollars, not barrels of oil, not gold, not what have you.  Mess with the dollar by printing too many dollars and suddenly too many dollars are chasing too few goods, and the price of everything goes up.  That's inflation.  How'd we get too many dollars?  Through the money presses, and why were those turned to 11?  Because the federal government spent like a sailor on one COVID relief package after another, putting mountains of money into the system.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admits she was wrong on inflation.  Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she made a mistake last year in predicting that inflation would be minimal or manageable.  "I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take," Ms. Yellen told CNN on Tuesday [5/31/2022].  A once-promising fight against COVID-19 took a downward turn in mid-2021 as variants surged and producers struggled to shake off the pandemic and meet the demand for products.

Biden's Chief Climate Officer Is A Klaus Schwab Fellow.  President Joe Biden's Chief Climate Officer and Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development was a fellow at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, founded by World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab.  The prominent position of the Biden Appointee, Gillian Caldwell, gives her considerable direction over the White House's energy and climate change policy, which the World Economic Forum (WEF) has highlighted as an integral component of its "Great Reset" agenda.  In addition to exploiting COVID-19, the WEF has been accused of using issues like the environment to advance its radical agenda of abolishing private property ownership.

A Cabinency of Dunces.  We are in a fuel price spiral that is destroying the middle class.  Yet when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked about plans to lower gas prices, she laughed off the idea as "hilarious."  Later Granholm preposterously claimed, "It is not the administration policies that have affected supply and demand."  Apparently haranguing those who finance fossil fuel production, canceling the Keystone Pipeline, suspending new federal oil and gas leases, and stopping production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge all had nothing to do with high fuel prices. [...] In Senate testimony Secretary of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland refused to explain why her department is slow walking federal oil and gas leases at a time when Americans are paying between $5 and $6 a gallon for gas.  Haaland was unable to provide simple answers about when new leases will result in more supplies of oil and gas.  Her panicked aides slid talking points to her — given that in deer-in-the-headlights fashion, she seemed incapable of providing senators with basic information about U.S. energy production on federal lands.

When it comes to energy production, the midterm elections matter.  Two amazing moments emerged from the Senate Energy Committee hearing, one on the watch of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and the other during questioning by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Sen. Manchin's moment came when he questioned Interior secretary Deb Haaland, a woman with absolutely no business holding the position.  Haaland has no background in land management.  Instead, her sole qualification is that her mother is Native American, which is how Haaland (whose father is a Norwegian Minnesotan) identifies herself.

Biden's new press secretary can't even fill Psaki's shoes.  Last Friday was Jen Psaki's last day as White House Press Psecretary.  If you're addicted to teen girl psnark, condescension, deceit, and ignorance, you're going to miss her — and you can still catch those so-not-endearing qualities at MSNBC.  The big question, of course, was whether Karine Jean-Pierre would be able to fill Psaki's pshoes, in terms of snark and ignorance, or if she'd grow beyond Psaki and actually be a polite, intelligent person.  So far, after Day 1, Jean-Pierre has done something amazing:  She's actually worse than Psaki.

Seemingly endless clips of Biden's new press secretary calling literally everything racist.  Meet the new fraud, same as the old fraud.  Karine Jean-Pierre is replacing Jen Psaki at the White House briefing room podium, but you might not be able to tell the difference.  She's exactly as cookie-cutter MSNBC/CNN lib as her predecessor and everyone else that works at and runs the "Biden" White House.  You almost can't believe it when you see it all put in one place, this absolute free reign the left is given by the media, and AS the media, to say anything they want about Republicans without ever getting any pushback or follow-up or disagreement whatsoever.  The American "press" are so deeply in the tank they almost don't know the tank exists.  There is no consequence for what you're about to see.  No one remotely expects fairness, objectivity, or an even hand in our media or in our government's primary communications.  [Video clip]

Biden Effort to Turn Ultra MAGA into a Disparaging Epithet Came from Six Month Study Headed by Anita Dunn.  The Washington Post is reporting the shift from the White House to disparage their political opposition with the terms "MAGA", "Ultra-MAGA" and President Trump as the "Great MAGA King," came from a six-month poll study led by Anita Dunn, the latest senior advisor in the White House.  Keep in mind, a few days ago White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the terminology "ultra-MAGA" was an "organic utterance" from Joe Biden. [...] On May 5th the White House announced Anita Dunn would return to the JoeBama administration as senior advisor.  Dunn's specific expertise is using pressure, blackmail and political leverage to control information distribution by media organizations.  Apparently "ultra-MAGA" was Dunn's first branding effort for the White House.

Report: Liberals Spent Six Months Coming Up with 'Ultra MAGA' Attack Line.  Liberal, Democratic Party-aligned strategists, pollsters, and think tank experts spent six months coming up with the "ultra MAGA" label that President Joe Biden has begun to deploy against Republicans ahead of a difficult midterm election. [...] The [Washington] Post noted that conservatives had since appropriated the label, with former President Donald Trump's super PAC even selling "superMAGA" T-shirts for $45. [...] [Biden adviser Anita] Dunn, notorious for having praised Chinese tyrant Mao Zedong, and for having advised disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, returned to the White House in late April.  President Biden began using the "ultra MAGA" line soon thereafter.

Fauci Gets the Giggles When Asked Why White House is Spreading Disinformation About COVID Vaccine Availability.  Fake News CNN's Jake Tapper asks White House Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci why the White House is sending out false information, aka 'disinformation', about when the COVID vaccines were available.  Fauci giggles, laughs and says "I have no idea."  [Video clip]

Well, That Didn't Take Long:  Outlets Dig Up Many Conflicts of Interest for New Press Secretary.  White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is saying goodbye to the Biden Administration this week, eyes firmly set on a cushy seat over at MSNBC. On her way out the door, Psaki introduced her replacement, current deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.  "She will be the first black woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as the White House Press Secretary.  Representation matters and she will give a voice to many, but also make many dream big about what is truly possible," Psaki tweeted.  The left loves this talking point.  They love it so much, in fact, that they are willing to overlook: her accusations that the Georgia governor's election was stolen from Stacey Abrams; that she called Fox News racist; that she's anti-Israel; and that she's involved with CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.  ... that last one is a fairly significant conflict of interest.

Karine Jean-Pierre giggles when asked about White House point person on formula crisis.  Incoming White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked who is running lead on the baby formula crisis for the White House?  Her reaction was disturbing.  During a press gaggle on Air Force One, she giggled and said she doesn't know who that person is but she'd find out.  The reporters took the answer in stride.  Imagine if the previous president's press secretary delivered that answer (and giggle) to such an important question for so many families right now.  The baby formula crisis is real and it has a lot of moms in a panic due to the shortage of products on store shelves.  Imagine being one of those moms going from store to store searching for a canister of baby formula.  This woman can't even name someone working on the problem in the White House.

Clueless, pharma-infested FDA now says independent media is "leading cause of death in US".  The leading cause of death in the United States today is not heart disease but rather "independent media," according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Dr. Robert Cardiff.  A Joe Biden appointee, Califf claimed during a recent appearance on CNN that independent media outlets must be purged from existence immediately if there is to be any hope of ending the scourge of death throughout the country.  Only corporate-controlled, government-approved fake news outlets like CNN should be allowed to exist and spread information online, Califf maintains.  Allowing free speech, he says, will result in "deadly misinformation" spreading and influencing people's health decisions.

Biden's New Press Secretary Turns out to Be a Big Fan of Conspiracy Theories.  Remember when denying the legitimacy of any election was not only disqualifying but also got you kicked off Jake Tapper's low-rated CNN show?  I wonder if that rule will hold for Karine Jean-Pierre, who is set to take over as Joe Biden's press secretary on May 13th.  I think we all know the answer to that.  Apparently, Jean-Pierre has a colorful history on social media, and now some of her old tweets are painting a far different picture than the one she's tried to present since joining the White House.  Far from the level-headed, straight shooter that she wants people to believe she is, Jean-Pierre is apparently a conspiratorial lunatic.

Biden FEC pick claimed Georgia voting machines 'switched' votes from Abrams to Kemp in 2018.  President Biden's recent nominee to serve on the Federal Election Commission represented a Stacey Abrams-backed nonprofit in a lawsuit that made several unproven allegations of voter suppression.  Nominee Dara Lindenbaum also signed on to court papers alleging voting machines "switched" votes during the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race.  The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a confirmation hearing for Lindenbaum, a lawyer with the Washington firm of Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock, to be a commissioner on the FEC.  Days later, the Georgia trial for Fair Fight Action and Care in Action v. Raffensperger began in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.  Lindenbaum's name appears as the third signature on the original complaint in the lawsuit alleging voter suppression in the race that saw then-Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp defeat Abrams by 55,000 votes statewide in the governor's race.

Incoming WH press secretary Jean-Pierre called Fox News 'racist' in 2020.  Newly minted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Fox News as a "racist" network during a TV appearance in March 2020, according to a clip that resurfaced this week.  "[Fox News] was racist before coronavirus, they are racist during the coronavirus, Fox News will be racist after the coronavirus," Jean-Pierre said during a March 15 appearance on MSNBC's "AM Joy."  "So there is nothing new here," she continued.  "I think the difference is they are all-in on being state TV for Donald Trump, and so they will continue to give misinformation."  At the time, Jean-Pierre worked as a political analyst for the left-wing network before joining the Biden campaign a couple of months later.  She tweeted out the clip from her personal account and it was still up as of Tuesday afternoon.

Biden's new WH press secretary claimed Trump, GA Gov. Kemp 'stole' elections.  President Biden's new White House press secretary has previously claimed the 2016 presidential election was "stolen" from Hillary Clinton and that Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp "stole" the 2018 gubernatorial election from Stacey Abrams.  "Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election .....welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump," Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted after former President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential win, repeating Clinton's claims that Trump was illegitimately elected.  "Reminder:  Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams," Jean-Pierre tweeted on April 2, 2020, reacting to a news story about Kemp saying he only just learned that asymptomatic people can spread COVID-19.

Perfect for government work:
Biden's nominee for Director of the CIA is an autistic, black, transsexual, cocaine addict.  [Scroll down]  Here are a few other examples, though space does not permit a comprehensive list.  There's his appointment of the LGBTQ activist in the title picture above (yes, really!) to the Office of Nuclear Energy.  This person advertises that they are "animal roleplay enthusiasts."  (The tail is a nice touch, huh?)  And yes, this individual uses "they" and "them" as first person singular pronouns; they apparently has a mouse in their pocket, or something worse.  Next up is his Vice President who's a half-black, seven-eighths-autistic woman with Tourette's Syndrome.  Then there's his nominee for the Supreme Court named Brown-Jackson, known to Biden as Black-Woman, though she herself is apparently unsure about the woman part since she's not a biologist.  There's not actually a current vacancy at the Supreme Court, but no matter.  What's important is that with the giggly aid of that loquacious Vice President there is currently a Democrat majority in the Senate to confirm her.

WH pick for Big Brother-like disinformation board spread lie about Hunter Biden laptop.  President Biden's pick to lead his Department of Homeland Security's Big Brother-like Disinformation Governance Board has her own history of posting disinformation online.  Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, has repeatedly cast doubt on The Post's reporting about Hunter Biden's laptop.  During a series of live tweets during the presidential debate between Biden and Donald Trump in October 2020, Jankowicz had referenced the laptop.  "Back on the 'laptop from hell,' apparently — Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op," Jankowicz tweeted.

What would be the point of impeachment if he had already resigned by then?  Asking for Nixon.
Sec. Mayorkas should 'resign and be impeached' over southern border crisis:  Tom Homan.  Seven hundred thousand got-aways since Joe Biden became president.  Seven hundred thousand people entered this country illegally and not arrested.  How many of them are in the screening database?  Just last month 67,000 got-aways.  These aren't Tom Homan numbers, these are based on camera traffic, drone traffic, and sensor traffic that border patrol records but can't respond to.  Here is what people need to be worried about.  After 9/11 we put a lot of processes in place where terrorists couldn't get into the United States.  The Visa Security Program.  The no-fly list.  The terrorist screening database.  You can't get into this country with any derogatory information at all.  You are not getting a visa and plane ticket.  Those processes mean nothing if you can walk across the southwest border unscathed like 700,000 people did.  This is a huge issue.

Complaint: Interior Department Won't Release Documents On Potential Ethics Violations At Secretary Haaland's Wedding.  The Interior Department is faced with a new lawsuit over its refusal to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) probing potential government ethics violations surrounding Secretary Deb Haaland's August wedding.  The lawsuit, filed Thursday by the government-transparency group Protect the Public's Trust (PPT), seeks to compel records requested by FOIA days after the event to examine whether improper gifts or influence peddling took place over the ceremony.  According to the complaint, the Department of the Interior dismissed the group's inquiries four times when following up on the request now submitted more than 220 days ago.

DHS Head Mayorkas Rewrites History, Claiming 'Equity' Is 'Core Founding Principle of Our Country'.  So let's pretend we had to choose a hood ornament for the Biden clown car — other than Biden or Harris.  Who would get your vote?  I realize it's a tough call, and there are a multitude of factors to consider.  Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose sole upside for conservatives as Biden's AG has been to afford us the opportunity to thank our lucky stars this guy was not confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court?  Antony Blinken, Biden's feckless Secretary of State?  Transportation Department head Pete Buttigieg, who is far more interested in playing the role of Biden's electric car salesman, than in solving the flight delays and cancellations by the thousands that continue to plague the travel industry?  There's always Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has been far more obsessed with pretend "systemic racism" and "pronoun misgendering" than with maintaining the most bad-ass military on the planet.  Tough choice, but my vote goes to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who not only supports and defends the never-ending Biden Border Crisis™, but is also actively working to undermine the core beliefs and values of America. [...] As is the case with the entire Biden administration, from the most inept president in modern history and on down the list, these people are overtly attempting to destroy America as we know it, on multiple levels in multiple ways.

LGBTQ+: Leftism's corruption of God's sacred gift to humankind.  Then there is Rachel Levine, another man "transgendered" into a "woman," holding titles of pediatrician, admiral, and assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Levine masquerades with a virtuosity sufficiently convincing that the potentates running USA Today have named "her" to its "Women of the Year" list.  One may wonder whether one of the requisite qualifications is for exhibiting audacious presumption.  Levine is quoted as urging society, "...to be more compassionate and more accepting of girls and women, no matter what their size and shape."  Right.  Presumably, such compassion should include girls shaped like boys, women shaped like men, and people with chromosomes shaped like "X-Y."

Biden Dips Into The Well of Extremism Once Again.  The Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are pressing hard to force a vote on two of the most extreme nominees ever to face Senate confirmation.  Alvaro Bedoya nominated to sit on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Gigi Sohn nominated to sit on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), recently advanced through the committee process on a tied committee vote.  Both the FCC and FTC wield incredible power; each possessing the capacity to cripple the free enterprise system.  And both nominees were tapped to lead these agencies precisely because they are well-known activists who seek to expand the power of unelected bureaucrats over the private sector.

Senators have every right to question Ketanji Brown Jackson's child pornography record.  What was once shaping up to be a sleepy Supreme Court confirmation process turned contentious this week when Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri took to Twitter to question Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's record on child pornography cases.  Hawley raised a number of separate incidents that he claimed establish a pattern of Jackson being soft on defendants charged with child pornography, including her role in producing a 2012 United States Sentencing Commission report to Congress recommending that lawmakers reduce mandatory minimum sentencing for child pornography offenses.

Will Senate apply the Ginsburg or the Barrett Rule to Judge Jackson?  During [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg's confirmation, then-Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden told her that a confirmation is where a nominee is expected to "answer questions or to discuss your judicial philosophy."  He later expressed concern over how Ginsburg, "at least from my perspective, appeared to be reticent to answer some of our questions even more so than recent nominees."  Nevertheless, in her confirmation, Ginsburg declared that she refused to answer questions on her position on particular issues.  "I'm not going to give an advisory opinion on any specific scenario," she explained, "because as clear as it may seem to you, I think I have to avoid responding to hypotheticals because they may prove not to be so hypothetical."  What became known as the Ginsburg Rule meant that nominees could refuse to answer questions on how they interpret the Constitution on issues like abortion.  The rule has been given broader and broader meaning with each confirmation.  I have been a critic of the rule as reducing confirmations to largely contentless staged events where nominees avoid legitimate questions on their interpretative approaches in any given area.

Biden's Choleric New COVID Czar.  The White House has announced that Dr. Ashish K. Jha will soon replace Jeffrey Zients as the Biden administration's coronavirus response coordinator.  The good news is that Jha, unlike Zients, is an actual physician.  The bad news is that, since the advent of COVID-19, his public statements concerning the pandemic have been tainted by partisan politics and malicious ad hominem attacks on any heretic who dares to question establishment coronavirus orthodoxy.  Dr. Jha once appeared on The View, for example, to accuse Stanford University's Dr. Scott W. Atlas of spreading unspecified "misinformation" during the latter's brief tenure as advisor to then-President Trump.  Anyone reluctant to believe this cheap shot was more about politics than public health should consider that Jha also pronounced Trump rallies dangerous, yet insisted that BLM riots were not.

Three things that should concern senators about Ketanji Brown Jackson.  First is her record on sex-offense cases, as Sen. Josh Hawley pointed out this week.  In nearly a dozen child pornography cases, Jackson chose to ignore the government's sentencing recommendations while on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and hand down lenient sentences instead.  For example, in United States v. Hawkins, the government recommended sentencing a man who had "multiple images of child porn" to up to 10 years in prison.  Jackson gave him only three months in prison, Hawley said.  Past comments made by Jackson confirm this lax sentencing was not a coincidence.  While on the Sentencing Commission, Jackson seemed to downplay the possession of child pornography, claiming the criminals who seek it out do so "for either the collection, or the people who are loners and find status in their participation in the community." And in law school, Jackson questioned the justice system's treatment of sex offenders, arguing that courts should take into consideration the "climate of fear, hatred, and revenge associated with the release of convicted sex criminals."

Ketanji Brown Jackson: A+ Credentials, D- Judge.  Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett could only wish to have experienced a fraction of the media praise being heaped on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.  If anything, it should be the other way around.  President Donald Trump's Supreme Court appointees showed immense legal ability and fidelity to the rule of law before joining the Court.  The politically incorrect truth is that President Joe Biden's nominee, who is set to face Senate questioning on Monday, is a mediocre judge whose politics trump the law.  Let's look at two cases Jackson handled as a district court judge, her job for eight years until being elevated to the D.C. Court of Appeals last year.

The Disturbing Details About Biden's SCOTUS Pick Just Keep on Coming.  Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was briefly hailed (by some) as a consensus nominee that even some Republicans could support.  I'm starting to think that Republican support will be much harder to get than Biden had hoped.  Last month, we learned that in 1996, Jackson wrote a "Note" for the Harvard Law Review arguing that convicted sex offenders were treated "unfairly" in the courts.  Earlier this week, her past work advocating on behalf of Guantánamo Bay terrorists also became an issue that will undoubtedly come up during her confirmation hearings.  Completing the trifecta of disturbing aspects of Ketanji Brown Jackson's radical record is her repeated embracing of champions of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in lectures and speeches and her belief that "microaggressions" are real.  If confirmed, Jackson won't alter the court's ideological balance, but that's no reason for Republicans not to stand up for American values and vote "nay" on her confirmation.

Hawley cites 'alarming pattern' in Supreme Court pick's treatment of sex offenders.  Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday [3/16/2022] slammed President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, claiming he's seen an "alarming pattern" of "letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes."  Hawley, who met with Jackson last week as part of her rounds on Capitol Hill ahead of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings next week, took to Twitter on Wednesday to levy extensive claims about the judge he said make him "concerned that this is a record that endangers our children."  "As far back as her time in law school, Judge Jackson has questioned making convicts register as sex offenders — saying it leads to 'stigmatization and ostracism.'  She's suggested public policy is driven by a 'climate of fear, hatred & revenge' against sex offenders," Hawley tweeted.

A Look at Ketanji Brown Jackson's Most Noteworthy Judicial Decisions.  On March 21, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing will begin.  Senators will be scrutinizing her past judicial opinions on critical issues from labor law to illegal immigration to presidential claims of executive privilege.  This brief overview of several of those key opinions provides some insight into her general approach to resolving legal issues.  Jackson has been through this confirmation process three times before — when she was nominated to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, to the district court, and to the D.C. Circuit — but it is safe to say that a lot more people are going to be paying attention this time.  The first day will be taken up with speeches by all the senators of the Senate Judiciary Committee and will conclude with an opening statement by the nominee herself.  The real fireworks, though, will take place over the next two days when senators ask a battery of questions of the nominee herself, many of which she will avoid answering, citing the longstanding rule that a nominee should not answer questions about legal issues that might come before the Supreme Court if she is confirmed.

The Editor says...
Can-of-Worms Alert!  Aren't these hearings highly premature?  There is no vacancy on the Supreme Court at this moment.  What if Justice Stephen G. Breyer changes his mind and decides to stay a while longer?  What is K. B. Jackson's status if she's confirmed by the Senate but Breyer refuses to leave?  Can an incoming President nominate a new Justice in the absence of any openings on the Supreme Court — just to send a message?

Rep. Chip Roy to Seek Impeachment Proceedings Against DHS Head Mayorkas.  Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) will attempt to bring impeachment proceedings against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, documents obtained by The Epoch Times show.  The move caps off a full year of Republican dissatisfaction with Mayorkas, who as the DHS secretary is in charge of border security.  In the past year, the United States has seen unprecedented levels of illegal immigration.  Estimates of how many illegal aliens have entered the country since Biden took office vary, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection data show that about 2 million people illegally crossed the border in 2021, a nearly fourfold increase from illegal crossings a year earlier.  In addition, deportation rates have plunged under Mayorkas' leadership of the DHS.  In 2021, 68 percent fewer illegal immigrants were deported in comparison to 2020; Compared to 2019, the DHS deported 78 percent fewer illegal immigrants.  Responsibility for the situation, according to a letter penned by Roy's office to GOP leadership, lies squarely with Mayorkas.

Manchin Saves Biden From Appointing Bank Regulator Who Wanted to Destroy US Oil and Gas Industry.  Biden, or the guys and gals pulling his strings, couldn't think of a better time to appoint a top banking regulator who wanted to destroy the oil and gas industry than when gas prices are already horrifyingly high.  Until, once again, Senator Manchin stepped in to save Biden and his party from themselves.  After Manchin came out against Sarah Bloom Raskin's appointment as the Fed's vice chair for supervision, the Biden administration insisted that it was going to keep pushing her nomination, only for Raskin to withdraw.  This little piece of Kabuki theater is how administrations pull a nominee without infuriating their backers too much.  Or at least their less politically connected fanbases who don't know how things are actually done in D.C.  Raskin, who had talked about exploiting the Fed to crush and the domestic oil and gas industry, leaving us dependent on Chinese solar panels and Islamic and Russian oil, was the worst nominee at the worst possible time.  It's a tribute to how much of a death grip lefties have on Biden that this even happened.

Don't let the door of the vault hit you on the way out.
Sarah Bloom Raskin withdraws her candidacy for Federal Reserve board.  Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden's embattled nominee to the Federal Reserve, on Tuesday withdrew her candidacy to serve at the central bank, ending a weekslong partisan battle in the Senate over her views on climate policy.  Raskin's withdrawal comes a day after Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, said he could not support the 60-year-old's nomination to be the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, one of the world's most powerful banking regulators.

Manchin to block Biden Federal Reserve nominee Sarah Raskin, likely sinking candidacy.  Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday [3/14/2022] said he opposes President Biden's nomination of Sarah Raskin to serve on the seven-member Federal Reserve board — likely blocking her nomination.  Manchin's surprise announcement handed the White House a significant defeat after it invested time defending Raskin's contentious candidacy.  It follows Manchin (D-WV) blowing up Biden's $2 trillion Build Back Better Act in December.  Manchin said in a statement that "[n]ow more than ever, the United States must have policy leaders and economic experts who are focused on the most pressing issues facing the American people and our nation — specifically rising inflation and energy costs."

Biden's America:  The inmates are running the asylum.  How does one sanely describe what has happened to the United States since Joe Biden was inaugurated?  The nation has been effectively ruined by the policies of Biden's band of incompetents; every Cabinet member is a disaster, promoted for his previous record of failure.  Not one of them is qualified for the jobs they've been given. [...] Consider Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary.  She is inexplicably ignorant about energy, where it comes from, and what it costs.  Buttigieg as transportation secretary, the failed mayor of South Bend, has not a clue about transportation beyond telling all Americans to buy electric cars.  Chances are he has no idea about the costs and downsides of E.V.s.  Considering the problem of disposal of the batteries when they die, electric vehicles do far more damage to the environment than fossil fuels.  Biden's ridiculous promise to end American dependence on fossil fuel is a stupid pipe dream.  Fossil fuel is the engine of democracy, of civilization.  To suggest we can live without it is pure sophistry.

Biden Supreme Court pick backed by radicals who believe the Constitution is 'trash'.  Demand Justice, the secretive leftist group in the Arabella Advisors dark-money network dedicated to judicial nominations, has revealed a bit more about itself in recent tax exemption applications, which were obtained by Americans for Public Trust.  The filings include the first complete list of the board of directors of Demand Justice.  One name stands out in particular:  Elie Mystal, The Nation's justice correspondent.  He has long written far-left screeds about the law and recently declared on "The View," "The Constitution is kind of trash."  That was no slip of the tongue for Mystal.  In another recent interview, when asked if "the Constitution needs to be scrapped altogether," he replied, "Sure, but I don't think that's going to happen."

New Documents Show NBC Promised To Go Easy On Biden Official's Domestic Terrorism.  New documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the government watchdog Protect the Public's Trust shared exclusively with The Federalist show NBC News sought to downplay a key Biden nominee's links to domestic terrorism.  As President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Tracy Stone-Manning, faced controversy for her involvement with a 1989 Idaho tree spiking case last summer, NBC's Josh Lederman sought comment from the Interior Department whether the administration stood by its nominee for the preeminent land agency.  Stone-Manning had been granted immunity in the case when she agreed to testify against her co-conspirators that she had retyped and sent an anonymous letter to the Forest Service for her friend and former roommate, John T. Blount.  The letter warned of 500 pounds of "spikes measuring 8 to 10 inches in length" driven into trees of the Clearwater National Forest targeted for harvest.  Such spikes can kill and maim foresters, firefighters, and animals.

[The] Judicial system [is] 'unfair' to sex offenders, says Biden's Supreme [Court] pick.  President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, acknowledged in a Senate confirmation questionnaire that she was the author of a paper published anonymously that charged the American judicial system was "unfair" to sex offenders.  The paper, which said sex offenders' punishments had been "excessive," "unfair and unnecessarily burdensome," was titled "Prevention Versus Punishment:  Toward a Principled Distinction in the Restraint of Released Sex Offenders."

Joe Biden SCOTUS Nominee Refuses to Use 'Illegal Alien,' Opts for 'Noncitizen'.  President Joe Biden's nominee to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, apparently refuses to use the term "illegal alien" in her court opinions, opting instead for "noncitizen."  In a handful of immigration-related cases that Jackson has ruled on U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, she has made a note to employ the term "noncitizen" or "undocumented non-citizens" rather than the terms "alien" or "illegal aliens" that are regularly used in court and in federal statutes.

Black Lives Matter's True Colors.  [Scroll down]  As an emblem of the Biden Democrats' support for the anti-white, anti-law racists of the left, Biden recently appointed political consultant Minyan Moore to advise him on his selection of a black woman to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.  Minyan Moore is a director of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation.  Worse, she is a close friend and promoter of Kimberle Crenshaw, the creator of Critical Race Theory, which indicts America's constitutional order as "white supremacist" from its inception and concludes that no American laws or institutions should be respected because of those origins.

Biden to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court.  President Joe Biden will nominate federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, which would make her the first black woman on the high court's bench should she be confirmed by the Senate.  Breyer announced his retirement last month after 28 years on the Supreme Court, effective when the current term ends this summer.  That paved the way for Biden to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise of nominating a black woman as a Supreme Court justice.

Biden's choice to help with his SCOTUS pick is a BLM board member, CRT promoter and defund-the-police supporter.  President Joe Biden touted his appointment of Clinton confidant and Kamal Harris-bestie Minyon Moore to help him choose the first black female Supreme Court justice, but he never mentioned that she's a Black Lives Matter board member, CRT promoter and supports the Defund the Police movement.  Moore's deep blue political credentials go all the way back to Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.  But when the president announced that he would be setting up a board of advisors to help him with his SCOTUS pick and confirmation strategy he soft-peddled Moore's history.

Fight Beltway corruption:  Vote 'no' on Sarah Bloom Raskin.  Being a politician or a regulator in D.C. is far too often the path to riches.  The revolving door and congressional insider trading have corrupted Congress and every presidential administration.  The Federal Reserve has never been totally above the swamp, but it's imperative to keep the central bank cleaner than the other parts of our government.  By nominating revolving-door lobbyist Sarah Bloom Raskin to a Federal Reserve position, President Joe Biden has endangered the Fed's integrity.  Every senator who cares about good government must vote "no" on Raskin's nomination to be the Fed's top bank regulator.  Make the president send a nominee who doesn't use positions of public trust as platforms for private enrichment.  After cashing out from the Federal Reserve and landing plush board seats at a few financial firms, Raskin lobbied that same Fed for a special favor for one of her companies, a financial technology company called Reserve Trust.  The Fed granted that special favor, which created massive value for Reserve Trust.  Raskin was paid for her efforts in stock, which she sold for $1.5 million.  So that was what she managed to sell her Fed access for, at least in that one instance.

Biden Unleashes Dog-Role-Playing Fetishist On Key Nuclear Post.  The Biden administration's new top dog at a key nuclear energy agency is an MIT-trained engineer whose sexual fetishes include tying up his partner while he eats dinner and watches Star Trek.  Sam Brinton was appointed to serve as deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy at DOE last month after serving a stint at the gay and transgender suicide prevention organization the Trevor Project.  Besides working at the Trevor Project, Brinton also holds a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had previously advised former President Donald Trump on nuclear waste matters.  Deputy assistant secretaries at Cabinet agencies are typically under-the-radar political appointments that do not require Senate confirmation.  But Brinton's garnered attention on social media after the popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok tweeted a picture of Brinton standing over three men role-playing as dogs.

Sullivan Confronts Biden Nominee Over Her Tweets.  Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) questions Gigi Sohn, the nominee to be Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.  [Video clip]

Biden Fed Nominee Raked In $1.5 Million From Start-Up She Pulled Strings For.  As a longtime legislator, I know that nothing frustrates the people of Wyoming and the rest of the country as much as when connected people in Washington, D.C. use their public service to profit handsomely in the private sector.  Right now, the Senate is considering a nominee whose background looks like the dictionary definition of what we call the "revolving door."  The revolving door is a term we use when a politician or bureaucrat works for the government, then goes to the private sector and "cashes out" by using their connections and influence to make huge amounts of money in a way that no ordinary American could.  This nominee is Sarah Bloom Raskin.  During the Obama administration, Raskin worked at the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury before leaving Treasury in 2017.

Alabama's first Black federal judge asks Biden not to tap Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court.  The first Black federal judge in Alabama sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to pass over a leading contender for the US Supreme Court, NBC News reported on Friday [2/11/2022].  U.W. Clemon — a former state lawmaker who served as a federal judge in Alabama from 1980 to 2009 — petitioned the president not to consider Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the vacancy that will be filled upon the departure of Justice Stephen Breyer later this year.  Jackson, who has been a frontrunner for the seat, currently sits on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.  In his letter, Clemon said that there were "several exceptionally well-qualified black female aspirants for the Supreme Court," but expressed a desire to see Jackson out of contention for the nomination.

Biden's New Energy Department Pick Is His Most Outrageous and Appalling Yet.  Sam Brinton ("they/them"), had some "pretty BIG news" for his friends and followers on LinkedIn recently:  "I have accepted the offer to serve as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy.  In this role I'll be doing what I always dreamed of doing, leading the effort to solve the nation's nuclear waste challenges."  Brinton also noted proudly that he would "even be (to my knowledge) the first gender fluid person in federal government leadership."  He is much more than that.  He is, to the best of my knowledge, the first drag queen and the first person to discuss his affinity for sex with animals to hold an office of the public trust.

The Editor says...
In the good old days, a transvestite who bragged about having sex with animals would be locked up in a mental hospital.

Biden puts an LGBTQ+ activist in charge of the nuclear waste that could be used for terror bombs.  Terrorists wishing to construct "dirty bombs" that could contaminate entire cities, rendering them uninhabitable, would love to get their hands on some of this stockpile.  So the handling and ultimate disposition of this lethal accumulation, the responsibility of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy, requires a person of scientific/technical erudition, good judgment, and responsible character.  Meet Sam Brinton, hired by the Biden Administration for that role.

Biden Taps LGBTQ+ Activist, Drag Queen For High-Level Position at the Office of Nuclear Energy.  Joe Biden has tapped an LGBTQ+ activist, drag queen "pup" fetishist to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy. [...] Sam Brinton, according to his profile on an LGBTQ website, has "a dual Master's degree in engineering systems and nuclear science and engineering from MIT."  In his spare time, Brinton also enjoys roleplaying as a "pup handler," and talking about having sex with animals.

Republican opposition to liberal Biden FCC nominee intensifies.  A left-wing Federal Communications Commission nominee who would be poised to implement President Joe Biden's telecommunications and technology agenda faced intense criticism from Republicans during a Senate hearing Wednesday.  Senate Republicans strongly oppose Democrat Gigi Sohn's confirmation, criticizing her as a left-wing ideologue who would favor heavy-handed regulation, as a threat to censor conservative speech, and for her alleged conflicts of interest.

Biden's FCC Commissioner Nominee Gigi Sohn Wants To Nuke Right-Leaning Broadcasters From Air.  President Joe Biden's nominee for commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission hates Fox News and wants the federal agency to regulate conservative broadcasts because she disagrees with them.  The White House first announced Gigi Sohn as Biden's FCC nominee in October.  [Biden administration statement omitted for brevity, among other things.]  Sohn's inclination towards censorship and partisan regulation, however, torpedoed her chances of confirmation.  Biden re-nominated Sohn at the beginning of the year but her chances of gaining Republican support are once again slim considering her history of criticizing and painting TV networks she disagrees with as threats to our democracy that need to be punished.  In one 2019 tweet, Sohn hinted that Fox News should be scrutinized because they "have played their own role in destroying democracy."

Rep. Jamie Raskin slapped with ethics complaint over failure to report wife's huge stock payout.  Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin was hit Monday with an ethics complaint over his failure to properly disclose stock shares that his wife — President Biden's nominee to be the Federal Reserve's top banking regulator — received for her work at a Colorado-based financial technology company.  The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative ethics watchdog, said in a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics that Raskin had violated federal financial disclosure reporting obligations by waiting too long to report a huge stock payout that his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, received in December 2020.

Why GOP senators must reject Biden's 'diversity hire' Supreme Court justice nominee.  Last week, Joe Biden declared that he intends to nominate "the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court."  Joe Biden had reportedly promised House majority whip Jim Clyburn during the 2020 campaign that he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.  So what does one make of this declaration?  It is a grave affront to any candidate for any position to be openly declared as a "diversity" hire because it means that the primary criteria for her selection are genetics and not merit.  Besides being anachronistic, Biden's public declaration is an insult to the nominee.

Biden Nominee Refuses To Say If Racial Discrimination Is Wrong.  We all know Joe Biden has a history of making racist statements towards blacks, Indian's, and many other groups.  Now it appears as if he is picking fellow racists as his nominees.  Kenly Kiya Kato, Biden nominee to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California was unable to say if racial discrimination is wrong.  [Video clip]

68 senators move to circumvent Schumer and speed up the pace of votes.  Resentment over Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer's stewardship of the Senate boiled over Thursday [2/3/2022], with more than two-thirds of the chamber circumventing the leader in backing a bipartisan proposal to speed up the pace of voting.  In total 68 lawmakers — 35 Republicans and 33 Democrats — have signed onto a proposal by Sen. Thom Tillis that would curtail the time allotted for voting on legislation and nominations.  Mr. Tillis, North Carolina Republican, began circulating the proposal this week after the Senate took roughly 50 minutes each to approve three of President Biden's judicial nominees.

Also posted under What's the rush?

A shady liberal funding network is pushing Biden's hand for SCOTUS pick.  A secretive liberal dark-money juggernaut spent more than a billion dollars in 2020 to help President Biden win the White House, take the US Senate and hold the US House of Representatives.  This group, Arabella Advisors, isn't a household name, but if there is a liberal cause that you've heard of, Arabella is likely funding it.  And now the group is turning its attention to the Supreme Court.  Arabella, which former Clinton administration official Eric Kessler founded in 2005, manages a network of five nonprofit groups: the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund and the North Fund.  Each of these groups focuses on different policy issues, but they all operate under the Arabella umbrella.

John Kennedy And Biden Nominee Trade Barbs In Heated Exchange.  Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy grilled Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden's nominee for the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, over her past comments regarding the oil and gas industry during a Thursday [2/3/2022] confirmation hearing.  Kennedy took issue with Raskin's New York Times opinion piece from May 2020, in which she argued against the Federal Reserve's support for the oil and gas industry despite the financial hardships caused to companies by the pandemic.  "May 2020. World economy is melting down, because government shut it down.  We're trying to hold it together with bailing wire, duct tape, spit and happy thoughts.  And you say, 'that's great, but we ought to let oil and gas companies go broke,'" the senator said.  "Did you really mean that?"  The president's nominee said in response that she believed the Fed's role to be not the one of picking "winners and losers."

The Editor says...
If the government should not be picking winners and losers, then why do massive subsidies exist for windmills, solar panel, and electric cars?

Calls for DHS Secretary to Be Impeached.  The Heritage Foundation's new president and its homeland security team are calling for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached by Republicans if he will not step down due to his terrible handling of the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.  The think tank is the latest conservative heavyweight to call for impeachment as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) says he will lead the charge of impeaching Mayorkas if Republicans take back Congress in the upcoming midterms.  It also comes after Mayorkas' disastrous meetings with Border Patrol agents stationed at the southern border, where agents vented their frustrations at the Biden administration's open border policies and they leaked audio and video of the tense meetings to the media.  In addition to the high number of illegal crossings agents have had to deal with in 2021, they were frustrated they have been unable to arrest hardened criminals and seize drugs, like fentanyl, because they are often bogged down with processing family units and children who willingly gave themselves up.

Biden's nominee for Federal Reserve governor has called for reparations for black Americans.  One of President Biden picks for the Federal Reserve Board has called for black Americans to receive reparations for decades of slavery and economic discrimination.  Details emerged in the week when Republican are expected to grill Lisa Cook, an economics professor at Michigan State University, about whether her public views would prevent her being a nonpartisan Fed official.  Biden announced Cook's nomination on Jan. 14 and, if confirmed, she would be the first black woman on the seven-person board.

Biden's Possible SCOTUS Nomination Has a Curious Past, and Curious Advocates.  Fulfilling Joe Biden's pledge to nominate a Black female to the Supreme Court, the White House confirmed that Judge J. Michelle Childs is on Biden's list for consideration.

Biden's Federal Reserve nominee backed slavery reparations.  President Joe Biden's nominee for governor of the Federal Reserve has backed the idea of reparations, the controversial proposed policy of financial compensation for black Americans as a form of atonement for slavery and discrimination.  "Everybody benefited from slavery.  Everybody," Michigan State University professor Lisa Cook said in a September 2020 "EconTalk" podcast.  "So, I think that we absolutely need some sort of reckoning with that.  There are many proposals on the table to study the possibility of reparations, many economic proposals being put forward, and I think they should all be taken seriously."  In March 2021, Cook endorsed H.R. 40, a Hosue bill which would've created a commission to study the issue of reparations.  Biden said during the 2020 presidential campaign that he supports the study of reparations.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki doubled down on it last year when asked about H.R. 40.

The Raskin Fed Nomination:  Not a Great Idea.  If there's a time for the Fed to be sticking to its core role, it is surely now (inflation and all that) — but there is, in my view, a wider issue at stake.  If there is to be any "reimagining of the economy," that is what elections, not regulators, are for.

The Enemy Is At the Gates.  We're just barely a year into this national nightmare but it feels like ten.  Joe Biden was always going to be a terrible president, but this feels like we're spiraling through disaster after disaster.  The fight we're engaged in is the ultimate one that will determine if America survives.  Democrats are trying to enact full-blown authoritarian socialism.  You already know this — but not only is America itself facing an existential threat, so are we here at Townhall.  Enter Gigi Sohn.  She's Joe Biden's nominee for FCC commissioner and she's hellbent on destroying us forever.  She will seek to regulate conservative media completely out of existence.  The worst part is that she apparently has allies in Newsmax and One America News Network.  What these idiots are thinking, I don't know — but Sohn seeks our total erasure.  The enemy is at the gates.  Liberal state media is a few small steps away.

Oil and gas industry rallies against environmentalist Biden Fed nominee.  Oil and gas industry groups are coming out strongly against a top Biden Federal Reserve nominee who has called for the financial sector to pull investment away from fossil fuels.  Forty-one trade associations told Senate Banking Committee leadership on Friday that policies favored by Sarah Bloom Raskin, who is up for vice chairwoman for supervision at the Fed, would "wreak havoc" on the U.S. economy if enacted.  "Oil and natural gas provide the feedstock for thousands of products used every day, from anything with a computer chip to the COVID vaccines that have saved millions of lives across the globe," the groups wrote Chairman Sherrod Brown and ranking member Pat Toomey.  The trade groups include the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Western Energy Alliance, and the Appalachia-based Marcellus Shale Coalition.

Biden Administration Official Broke Stock Trading Law Nine Times Last Year.  Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm broke the STOCK Act — a law that requires top federal officials to disclose their asset transactions within a 45-day window — nine times last year. [...] The report occurs as Congress debates new restrictions on stock trading — especially for shares in individual companies, as opposed to index funds that track market movements as a whole.  At the end of last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — whose husband, Paul, frequently trades large volumes of assets — avoided questions as to why lawmakers should be allowed to trade stocks in individual companies given lawmakers' high degree of restricted knowledge relevant to certain industries.  "Because this is a free market and people — we are a free market economy," Pelosi said during a news conference.  "They should be able to participate in that."  On Thursday, however, Pelosi appeared to change her tune.  She said that she has "great confidence in the integrity of my members" — yet will remain open to new regulations.

Energy Secretary Granholm Violated STOCK Act 9 Times In 2021, Spox Blames 'Clerical Error'.  Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm blamed a "clerical error" for serial violations of the law that governs the reporting of securities transactions, according to Insider.  Granholm violated the STOCK Act nine times in 2021, Insider first reported Thursday.  The secretary filed two reports with the Office of Government Ethics on Dec. 15 and 16 detailing nine stock transactions that she conducted between April 30 and Oct. 26.  All nine transactions fall outside the 45 day window that the STOCK Act mandates government officials report their trades within, according to Insider.  "This was an inadvertent clerical oversight on reporting stock sales that ethics officials previously determined did not pose a conflict in her role as Energy Secretary and the Secretary paid the late filing fee," an Energy Department spokeswoman said of Granholm's transactions.

The Editor says...
Tell it to the jury.

49 Pro-Life Groups Urge Senate Opposition to Biden's Nominee for FDA.  A coalition of pro-life organizations expressed opposition Wednesday to the confirmation of President Joe Biden's choice to run the Food and Drug Administration, saying the nominee has used selective research to push approval of mail-order abortion pills and to ignore their risks.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on Biden's nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to be FDA commissioner.  Califf previously served in the position during the final 11 months of President Barack Obama's administration, from Feb. 22, 2016, to Jan. 20, 2017.  If confirmed by the full Senate, Califf would replace Dr. Janet Woodcock, who has served as the acting commissioner for the past year.

Senate panel approves LA mayor after attending Hunter Biden art show.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti won approval from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday [1/12/2022] to be President Biden's ambassador to India — months after Garcetti controversially attended first son Hunter Biden's Hollywood art show.  The Garcetti pick was voted out of committee along with a larger batch of nominees and now goes before the full Senate.  Biden nominated Garcetti, 50, in July.  He drew negative headlines in October after promoting the novice art career of Biden's son, which ethics experts have slammed as a possible vehicle for influence-peddling.

Stop Gigi Sohn Now:  The Dangerous Radical Trying to Undo Free Speech for All Americans.  The failure of Joe Biden's Build Back Better legislative agenda on account of Joe Manchin's doubts proves that, even though they control neither house of Congress, Republicans can still win victories against President Biden's agenda.  Not every Democratic senator is maximally left-wing, and if Republicans can pick the right battles, they can delay and even prevent the worst excesses of a far-left administration.  One of those worthy battles should be taking place right now.  Very soon, the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Gigi Sohn, Joe Biden's nominee to fill the decisive fifth spot on the Federal Communications Commission.  And with a 50-50 split in the Senate, that confirmation is only a sure thing if Republicans decide to take it easy.  They shouldn't.  Gigi Sohn is a dangerous extremist whom Republicans should fight ferociously to keep away from any sort of regulatory power.  By tradition, the chairman of the FCC steps down when the presidency switches parties, so that that the new president can choose a replacement.  In October, after an unusually-lengthy 10-month delay, Biden elevated sitting commissioner Jennifer Rosenworcel to be FCC chairwoman, and chose Gigi Sohn to fill the vacant fifth seat.

'He's a punchline': 'laughable' pick for Greece envoy puts pressure on Biden.  Joe Biden has styled himself as a defender of democracy but, critics say, is setting the worst possible example with his choice of envoy to Athens.  The US president nominated George Tsunis, a hotel developer and Democratic donor with no diplomatic experience, as US ambassador to Greece.  Joe Biden at the White House, speaking on the anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.  When Tsunis seeks confirmation at a Senate foreign relations committee hearing on Wednesday [1/12/2022], he will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the train wreck that was his last appearance there eight years ago.  On that occasion Tsunis was Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Norway.  Bumbling and ill-prepared, he admitted that he had never been to Norway and referred to the country as having a president when, as a constitutional monarchy, it does not.  Tsunis also claimed that Norway's Progress party was among "fringe elements" that "spew their hatred" and was criticized by Norway's government.  In fact, the Progress party was part of the governing coalition.

Biden nominee equated 'proof of citizenship' with 'voter suppression,' likened felon voting ban to slavery.  One of President Biden's judicial nominees reportedly disparaged various voting restrictions in the United States, including by comparing slavery to the ban on felons voting and "proof of citizenship" to "voter suppression."  "When you add laws that prohibit people with a criminal conviction from voting, it's practically the same system as during slavery — Black people who have lost their freedom and cannot vote," attorney Nancy Gbana Abudu said in a post for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).  "And without access to the ballot, a victim of the system cannot elect the very officials pulling the levers to hire the police, determine which cases are prosecuted and what sentences are imposed."

Senate Republicans Had Better Block This Biden Judicial Nominee.  Biden has nominated a left-wing activist who thinks photo ID and proof of citizenship are "voter suppression."  Nancy Gbana Abudu, who has ties to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and is deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has been nominated by Biden to replace a retiring Obama-nominated judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.  In a 2011 interview, Abudu discussed her work as senior staff counsel with the ACLU southern regional office in Atlanta.  "I would say 95 percent of my work is in voting rights, and it runs the gamut," she said.  "Obviously, we do a lot when it comes to voter suppression, which includes five priority areas:  photo ID, proof of citizenship, restrictions we see when it comes to registration ... early voting as well as absentee voting and the restrictions we see when it comes to criminal convictions."

Robert Califf, Joe Biden's [Nominee] To Head The FDA, Is Tied To Big Pharma.  The Biden administration has nominated Dr. Robert Califf to head the Food and Drug Administration.  Peter J. Pitts, a former FDA Associate Commissioner, had published at the International Business Times an enthusiastic essay about Califf's nomination because Califf is a proponent of accelerated approval for drugs.  However, that one factor, while it can be beneficial, ignores myriad other problems with Califf. [...] COVID has revealed that the FDA, the CDC, Fauci, the White House, and "science" are at odds with each other.  The FDA desperately needs major reform and transparency surrounding hiring, drug safety, and new drug approvals.  As commissioner under Obama, Califf made few or no noteworthy changes to the FDA and shows no signs of improving the record if re-appointed.  Califf arrived at the FDA in 2015 determined to modernize how the agency reviewed drug and device study data, but there is little evidence he achieved that goal[.]

The madness of King Brandon.  The icing on the leftist cake of idiotic accomplishments was Biden's appointment of pretend woman Richard "Rachel" Levine to the position of assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Biden's HHS secretary lackey, Xavier Becerra, crowed about the historic nature of having a deluded and mentally ill (and yes, gender dysphoria is a mental illness) man who wears a dress as "the first openly transgender four-star officer."  Anyone who didn't participate in Biden's version of make-believe and instead pointed out Mr. Levine's actual sex was labeled a bigot by the lapdog news media and scolded by fellow leftists.  Science!

Biden's 'infrastructure czar' is a total incompetent.  Mitch Landrieu, the former two-term mayor of New Orleans, was recently appointed "Infrastructure Czar" by President Joe Biden.  He will oversee spending the $1.2 trillion allocated by Congress for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  Not surprisingly, most of the funds will be spent on projects that have nothing to do with infrastructure.  With this appointment and the resulting media attention, Landrieu's stock is rising so fast that CNN has just added him to the list of potential Democrat party presidential candidates in 2024.  Does Landrieu deserve all this hype?  Certainly not when considering his performance as mayor of New Orleans.

Sen. Kennedy Takes Apart Another 'Embarrassing' Biden Nominee.  There was a hearing this week for another Biden nominee, Anne Traum, for United States District Court Judge for the District of Nevada.  Once again, it was Sen. Kennedy probing to see just how radical the nominee was.  But she kept refusing to answer his one simple question: do you think we should forgive a criminal act in the name of social justice?  Now, it would seem the obvious answer to that would be no, but she just couldn't bring herself to say it, likely because the answer for her wouldn't be a no.  Kennedy asked her the question nine times — and she kept ducking it.

John Kennedy Asks Biden Nominee Anne Traum The Same Question 9 Times In A Row.  Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy grilled one of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees with the same question nine times in a row over the course of five minutes.  Anne Traum was nominated by Biden to be the United States District Judge for the District of Nevada.  During Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Kennedy questioned Traum's beliefs on criminal justice.  "Do you think we should forgive criminal misbehavior in the name of social justice?" Kennedy asked.  "Senator, thank you for that question.  I recognize that all issues of crime and all responses to crime are fundamentally policy issues.  So, those are important issues, they are important for our community and our nation, but I leave those policy issues to the policymakers if confirmed as a judge I would not be a policy maker," Traum said, before Kennedy cut her off.  "I'm not asking your opinion as a judge.  I'm asking your opinion as a person, as a law professor.  I'll stipulate, with all of you, that you're all going to be fair and unbiased.  Now, do you think misbehavior and illegal acts should be forgiven in the name of social justice?" Kennedy pressed.

Cornell professor who wanted to 'starve' oil companies withdraws Treasury nomination.  Cornell University Professor Saule Omarova has withdrawn herself from the nomination for the Comptroller of the Currency.  The Ivy League law professor had faced criticism from Republicans and purple state Democrats for her support for ending private banking "as we know it."  Omarova also said that she wanted to bankrupt the oil and gas industry by shutting off its ability to get capital — a normally absurd statement but even scarier because she would have overseen thousands of banks and other saving institutions in her Treasury Department role.

Sanders Joins Manchin In Opposition To Biden's FDA Commissioner Nominee.  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday announced he will oppose the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Sanders, a nominal independent who caucuses with Democrats, joins Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in opposing Califf, who President Joe Biden nominated to head the FDA last month.  In the 50-50 Senate, that means Califf would need support from at least two Republicans to win the job.  During a nomination hearing on Capitol Hill, Sanders noted that 9 out of the last 10 FDA commissioners have gone on to work for the pharmaceutical industry or to serve on a drug company's board of directors.

The Six Most Disastrous Members Of The Biden Administration.  #4: Attorney General Merrick Garland:  In terms of advancing impartial and blind justice to the American people, Garland might as well not even be the Attorney General.  It is hard to think of anything happening under his auspices that would be considered fair and just.  On the other hand, in terms of advancing the narrative of cultural Marxism and leftism tropes in general, he has been wildly successful.  Most notorious of his abuse of power is the episode where he directed his goons to keep an eye on concerned American parents.  Most outrageous is the fact that these actions were taken after the father of a raped high school girl was prevented from speaking at a Virginia school board meeting.  When he got upset and law enforcement was sicced upon him, the larger narrative of out-of-hand Trumpers threatening the safety of school board members arose.  As it turns out, the Virginia county where this took place knowingly covered up the sexual assault.  Lies from the beginning.

Saule Omarova, Biden's Nominee to Oversee National Banks, Withdraws.  Saule Omarova, President Biden's nominee to oversee large national banks, withdrew from consideration on Tuesday, amid opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats who had sought to block her nomination, the White House said.  "I have accepted Saule Omarova's request to withdraw her name from nomination," President Biden said Tuesday, saying he would look for a new nominee.  Mr. Biden last month nominated Ms. Omarova, a Cornell University law professor, to be Comptroller of the Currency, which supervises many of the biggest U.S. lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Workers can't afford Biden's pro-China Ex-Im Bank nominee.  The Export-Import Bank already has a troubling history of subsidizing China's largest financial institutions.  Unfortunately, President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Ex-Im Bank, Reta Jo Lewis, appears likely to embrace that past.  For decades, the bipartisan consensus in Washington was that the economic modernization of communist China would, as if by magic, create a demand for and a willingness to adopt democratic reforms.  It is long past time to admit that this reasonable-sounding aspiration has failed.  The United States needs an Ex-Im Bank nominee who understands that China is a threat, not a partner.  Lewis is not that nominee.

Sen. Kennedy Catches Biden's Radical Judicial Nominee in Lie, Asks Him If He Will Pull His Own Nomination.  Republican senators took turns grilling President Biden's nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at a Senate hearing on Wednesday [12/1/2021].  Dale Ho, who headed the ACLU's partisan Voting Rights Project, came under fire for his radical views, including a number of incendiary statements he made on social media. [...] Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made it a point that Ho be called to account for his self-described "wild-eyed leftist" views.  Ho dodged answering whether or not this was an accurate self-assessment.  Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) gave a barnburner of a performance, asking Ho if he would withdraw his nomination if found to have called the Republican Party an "anti-democratic virus."  Dale Ho was reminded that he was under oath, but nonetheless said that he didn't "believe" he had made the statement.  Senator Kennedy asked him if he would withdraw his nomination if it was proven that he had used those words to describe the Republican Party.

Biden's oil and gas leasing "reform" proposal pleases absolutely no one.  When Debra Haaland snuck through confirmation (with 51 votes) to become the Secretary of the Interior, everyone who had been paying attention knew that she was going to be gunning for the oil and gas industry.  That made her a valuable ally for Joe Biden, who began working to shut down pipeline construction and "pause" energy exploration on public lands within hours of being sworn in.  (Unless the pipeline is owned by Russia, of course, in which case he basically finances it.)  Now, with gas prices spiking dramatically and in the midst of what is quickly becoming the Biden energy crisis, Haaland's Interior Department has released a "review" of the country's oil and gas leasing process, in which she finds "significant shortcomings."  The timing of this was no accident, as Joe Biden had been under pressure from progressive ecowarriors to find ways to stop drilling on public lands.

It's Over For Omarova.  Scott and John have written about Saule Omarova, Joe Biden's nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.  That office is the chief regulator of America's banks.  Omarova is a graduate of Moscow State University (Russia, not Idaho), where she won the 1988-89 Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship.  In her current, merely socialist, incarnation, Omarova would like to reimagine banking, as the cliché goes.  Along the way, she would like to drive America's oil, coal, and gas companies out of business.  It's not surprising that Biden would be okay with Omarova as the nation's chief regulator of banks.  It's a bit surprising, at least to me, that he and his handlers actually nominated her.  Now comes word that five Democrats have said they will not support Omarova's nomination.

Experts Worry Biden FCC Pick Will Use Post To Attack Conservatives.  Telecommunications experts worry that President Joe Biden's decision to put a career political activist on the Federal Communications Commission could transform the agency into a bludgeon for the administration to attack conservatives.  Gigi Sohn has called for expanding the FCC's authority to investigate and regulate conservative networks.  She has suggested that one of the leading conservative broadcasting companies should not have a broadcast license and founded a nonprofit that is actively lobbying cable providers to drop the right-wing One America News Network (OANN).  Sohn could soon have the power to act on these radical positions, which some say is cause for concern.

Comrade Down:  Senate Forces Biden to Dump OCC Nominee, Lenin Scholar.  Five Senate Democrats told the White House late Wednesday they will not support Lenin scholarship recipient Saule Omarova to serve as Comptroller of the Currency, nuking her chances to serve as the country's bank regulator.  The Democrats — Sens. Jon Tester (D., Mont.), Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.), Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), Mark Warner (D., Va.), and John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.) — join all Senate Republicans in opposition to Omarova, who came under scrutiny over her proposals to use the banking system to "bankrupt" the oil and gas industry and her education in the Soviet Union.  Axios reported Wednesday [11/24/2021] that the Democrats informed the White House they will not support Biden's nominee.

Biden Energy Secretary Subject of Ethics Complaint for Promoting Electric Company She Held $1.6 Million in Stock.  President Biden's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has received an ethics complaint for promoting an electric bus company she sat on the board of and held over a million dollars of stock in.  She did so all while being a part of the executive branch in Biden's administration.  Breitbart reports Granholm, "who oversees moving the country toward an electric vehicle transportation system and enjoys newfound powers after the passage of Biden's infrastructure package — is facing scrutiny for promoting Proterra, a Burlingame, California-based electric bus company she sat on the board of and held 240,520 shares of stock in, which garnered her $1.6 million when she finally divested them 157 days after her nomination."

Comrade Omarova's nomination crashes and burns.  The radicals who tell Joe Biden what to do as president overreached when they had him nominate Saule Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency, a powerful regulator of the banking system.  The émigré from Soviet era Kazakhstan, a Lenin Scholar at Moscow State University, earned a credential as a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, while also earning the credential of thief for an arrest for shoplifting in Madison, demonstrating contempt for private property.  Naturally, she ended up as a professor.  That contempt, along with a Soviet Commissar's view of private enterprise, when she expressed a desire to starve oil and gas producers of capital and drive them into bankruptcy, made it difficult for Democrat senators in swing states to vote for her confirmation.  Then, there was her plan, expressed in an academic paper, to sweep bank deposits into the Federal Reserve Bank, all the better "for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a democratic economy — the People's Ledger."

What Biden's Nomination of Omarova Tells Us.  Once upon a time in America, there would have been collective outrage at plucking a communist or fellow traveler for any role in our government.  You see, communism is antithetical to a free society.  It's darkness to our light.  But in those bygone days, Americans — Republicans and Democrats — were reared to embrace liberty and the core beliefs that made freedom possible.  Yes, we had differences, but we shared a culture rooted in traditional values.  There's been plenty of negative ink by conservative media about Omarova's nomination, as well there should be.  The corporate news media are predictably nonplused.  That shouldn't surprise us, given that "journalists" for establishment outlets operate as shills for the left.  Most Americans, however, don't have a clue who Omarova is, and that their president, who claims to be a capitalist, is trying to make a woman who graduated from Moscow State University on a Lenin academic excellence scholarship, comptroller of the currency.

Biden Hits the Panic Button As White House Civil War Intensifies.  All last week the scuttlebutt in the media and in Washington was that President Biden was leaning toward appointing progressive favorite Lael Brainard to replace the "dangerous" (in Lizzie Warren's words) Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, because Brainard pledged to make the Fed a full partner in pushing the climate and "anti-racist" agenda by pressuring financial institutions not to make loans to any fossil fuel companies.  Never mind that the legal authority for this kind of thumb-on-the-scale of capital allocation cannot be found in any statute governing the Fed, but who needs statutory authority when you have the Administrative State?

We've reached the point where a Leninist might be running our banks.  Just for the record, I am a life-long, card carrying, practiced anti-Communist.  As a proud Cold Warrior, I grew up in the heat-seeking years of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, and the infiltration of world capitals by communist revolutionaries. [...] As a diplomat, I was at the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie days after it fell in November 1989. It is with pride that I counted myself as a member of the Reagan team that brought down the Soviet Union while I served the United States at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from 1988 until 1992.  My time with the notoriously capitalist Salomon Brothers makes me all the more righteously indignant for assailing the moneylenders.  Capitalism is, after all, a moral system that rewards effort and insight and allows people and nations to prosper.  Communism is the precise opposite.  And today, in 2021, President Biden has nominated a sworn former communist, Saule Omarova, to be his comptroller of the currency.  What is going on?  Has our country gone insane or has communism become our default progressive ideology?

Biden will nominate Powell for second term as Fed chair.  President Biden on Monday will nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for a second term.  The decision, which was announced by Mr. Biden, ended a months-long guessing game about whether he would bow to pressure from his party's progressive wing and replace Mr. Powell as the head of the nation's most influential economic body.  The president will also nominate Lael Brainard, who was the far-left's pick to be the Fed's next chairman, to serve as vice chair.  Mr. Biden said he didn't want to change course from the "remarkable progress" of the economic recovery in the last 10 months.

Marco Rubio Calls Biden Bank Nominee A Flat Out 'Communist'.  Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio blasted President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, saying she supports communist policies on Friday [11/19/2021].  "Saule Omarova supports abolishing private bank accounts, using govt to bankrupt energy companies & creating a Soviet style 'National Investment Authority,'" Rubio wrote on Twitter.  "She supports communist policies & a communist should not be our Comptroller of the Currency," Rubio added.

A Red Scare over 'Comrade' Omarova Is Warranted, Actually.  The Left is quite perturbed that Louisiana Republican senator John Kennedy had the gall to suggest, during a confirmation hearing, that "comrade" might be an appropriate way to address Joe Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova.  "The attacks on your nomination have been vicious and personal.  We've just seen them.  Sexism, racism, pages straight out of Joe McCarthy's 1950s Red Scare tactics," whined Senator Elizabeth Warren.  In a piece taking Chris Hayes's feigned outrage seriously, The Daily Beast categorized the incident as "Red Scare 2.0."  The Guardian asked, 'Professor or comrade?' Republicans go full red scare on Soviet-born Biden pick."  A little "red scare" is fine — especially when collectivists are trying to infiltrate the bureaucracy.  The problem isn't that Omarova is "Soviet born" but that she's ... let's call it "Soviet curious."

Saule Omarova hearing brings out the identity-politics grievance mongers — to hide her indefensible ideas.  Democrats were up to some slimy old tricks in their bid to ram through the nomination of radical left-wing Saule Omarova into the position of comptroller of the currency, the nation's top overseer of banks.  At the hearings, Sen. John Kennedy triggered a ruckus after he asked what a lot of us are asking:  "I don't know whether to call you 'professor' or 'comrade.'"  It prompted hollers of "McCarthyism" from left-wing senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren, along with "racism" and "sexism" and "nativism."  Saule herself engaged in that, in a public-relations "build up" interview with New York magazine.  The misnamed Lincoln Project went wild.

Republicans Can Be Just as Woke as Democrats.  When Dr. Richard/Rachel Levine was named four-star rear admiral to the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in October most liberals recognized Levine as the "first-ever female four-star admiral" in the USPHS Commissioned Corps.  Oh really?  Maybe for those who put identity over biology, but for everyone else the first woman had yet to earn that prestigious title. [...] Think about the absurdity of what happened:  The 64-year-old Levine who has lived 54 years as a man and only 10 years as a woman is now recognized by Democrats as the "first woman" four-star rear admiral in the Public Health Corps.  Before you roll your eyes and mumble that this is Democrat wokeness, consider that some Republicans play the woke game just like the Democrats they frequently denounce.

The White House's Hammer And Sickle.  Thursday's Senate confirmation hearing on Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden's choice to be comptroller of the currency, confirmed that she is the wrong person for the job.  Flags the color of those that once were raised over Moscow were flying throughout the three-hour session.  Omarova is a professor of regulation of financial institutions, banking law, international finance, and corporate finance at Cornell.  As comptroller of the currency, she would ensure that the "federal banking system operates in a safe and sound manner."  The White House says she "is eminently qualified and was nominated for this role because of her lifetime of work," and is "a leading academic" in her field.  Her critics, however, see someone whose policy positions are far out of step with a market economy.

Sens. Kennedy and Scott Take Apart Scary Statements of Biden Nominee Saule Omarova.  Joe Biden's nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Saule Omarova, faced fierce questions from Republicans on the Hill today.  Rightly so, given her radical positions on capitalism and banking.  My colleague Dennis Santiago has written about some of those positions [elsew]here.  Here she is arguing why we should do away with private banking and increase government control by having everything run through the Fed.  "How is it politically feasible for the Central Bank to effectively take money away from people's accounts?" she asks.  [Video clip]  Oh.  That's reassuring.  Because that sure sounds like they want the government to be able to control everything and simply snatch your accounts.  What do you call that kind of a system?

Shoplifting Saule Omarova and the War on Retail.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that four to five million Americans work in retail, with an average salary of about $27,000 per year. [...] Shoplifting is in the news today, as well it should be, though for a surprising reason:  usurper-in-chief Joe Biden has nominated a shoplifter named Saule Omarova to the coveted position of comptroller of the currency, a position supervising some 3,500 federal banking regulators in the Treasury Department.  This is a Soviet-born, Soviet-educated socialist who wrote a glowing portrait of Karl Marx as her thesis at Moscow State University, where she studied on the V.I. Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship.  Yes, Gentle Reader, you read that right.  We couldn't make up a thing like this.  Having a communist as a professor at Cornell Law School isn't all that odd nowadays, unfortunately.  But having one as top appointee to the department founded by the great Alexander Hamilton is disturbing, to say the least.

Biden's FCC Nominee:  Fox News Is State Media, and Must Be Regulated to Death.  We have Americans still trapped in Afghanistan, rising inflation, lackluster jobs growth, an immigration fiasco, and are still awaiting the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial — so you can see how this story fell below the radar.  If you're in conservative media, pay attention because Joe Biden's nominee for FCC commissioner has been quite vocal about regulating us to death.  The wolf is about to enter the hen house — and even some conservative outlets are supporting this effort.  Why?  Two words:  Fox News.  One America News Network has been vocal about their support for this nominee.  Hill sources told Townhall that Newsmax might be onboard, as they see this woman as one who could deliver a death blow to their number one competitor.  Allow me to introduce you to Gigi Sohn — and her left-wing bias is widely documented.

Biden Nom Saule Omarova Stole Hundreds of Dollars of Merchandise From a T.J. Maxx.  President Joe Biden's nominee to regulate banks stole hundreds of dollars of merchandise from a discount retail store, according to a police report revealed Wednesday [11/17/2021].  Saule Omarova, whom Biden tapped to serve as Comptroller of the Currency, was arrested after she was caught stuffing $214 worth of clothes, shoes, cologne, and belts in her purse at a T.J. Maxx in Madison, Wis., in May 1995.  Omarova was 28 years old at the time and studying for her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin.  Omarova is slated to appear before the Senate Banking Committee for her confirmation hearing Thursday.  If confirmed, Omarova will oversee regulation of the country's banking system.  The police report, published by the American Accountability Foundation, could get her into further hot water with Senate Republicans who say she supports radical economic policies.

Too good to vet?  Biden nominee arrested for "retail theft" in 1995.  Knowing Saule Omarova's preferred brand of politics, perhaps she only intended to redistribute a little wealth.  Even so, the nomination of the radical-Marxist nominee to Treasury just got a little more complicated, thanks to a background check from Fox News that Joe Biden's team must have skipped: [...] As it is, however, the late revelation of this arrest and prosecution for a nominee to a high-ranking position at Treasury will complicate an already unpopular confirmation process.  As Karen wrote a week ago, Omarova isn't a reconstructed ex-Marxist but a full-fledged autocrat still in the Soviet mold.  For another point, Omarova explicitly went after Joe Manchin for failing to fall into lockstep with her like-minded progressives.

Biden's Pick for FTC Commissioner Called ICE 'Out-of-Control Domestic Surveillance'.  President Joe Biden's nominee to fill the empty seat on the Federal Trade Commission has a history of opposing immigration authorities' use of data to enforce the law.  Alvaro Bedoya, a Georgetown Law professor and privacy advocate who is scheduled to have his committee nomination hearing Wednesday, is a staunch proponent of limiting the ability of immigration agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to collect and use data to facilitate deportations of illegal immigrants.  Bedoya has criticized private companies that provide immigration agencies with citizens' data.  "It is time to call [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] what it is:  An out-of-control domestic surveillance agency that peers into all our lives," Bedoya tweeted in February, calling for stronger privacy laws to "rein in data brokers."  While federal data privacy legislation has thus far failed to gain traction in Congress, Democrats have looked to the Federal Trade Commission to begin a privacy rule-making process under existing legislation.

Tom Cotton:  Biden has surrounded himself with a team of incompetents.  I think it's important to remember that what the American people are seeing right now is not like an unintended consequence or an accident, it's the specific design of Joe Biden and the far left's policies.  They want you to pay $4 or $5 a gallon for gas because they want you out of your pickup truck or your SUV.  They want you to ride in a small compact electric vehicle or a bicycle or a scooter or whatever it is that Pete Buttigieg takes to work this week.  They want the border to be open.  They think borders are racist and xenophobic, and nativist.  They want this country flooded with illegal migrants to help drive down the cost of working-class White jobs and reward their businesses supporters with more cheap labor.  None of these sayings are unintended consequences or accidents, they are the intended results of incompetent ideologues in this White House.

Biden Pick for Bank Regulator Proposed Fed Take Over Banking, Manipulate Stock Prices.  In Saule Omarova's world, America only really needs one bank — the Federal Reserve.  Omarova, President Joe Biden's nominee to be one of the top banking regulators, has proposed such drastic expansion of government control over finance that it's leaving some experts scratching their heads over whether the administration is serious about her nomination.  A descendant of Kazakh intellectuals who were persecuted by the Soviet regime, Omarova saw firsthand the effects of a tyrannical state.  However, that doesn't appear to have tempered her vision of expanding the power of the state in America.  It would be best, she outlined in a series of articles and papers, to virtually abolish private banking.  Every American would have a bank account set up at the Fed and authorities would be free to inflate the currency by issuing interest on the deposits or even crediting the accounts directly.  To counter inflation, the Fed could also slash interest rates or even, if all else fails, take away people's money as needed, she proposed in a recent paper.

When Looking at Treasury Nominee Saule Omarova, Do Not Forget Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  One thing CTH does is to look at proposed leftist advancements through the prism of previously blocked moves.  The Joe Biden nomination of avowed communist Saule Omarova to the Treasury Department Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) should be considered in a similar perspective.  There's a couple of different issues surfacing in the Omarova nomination.  Obviously, she is aligned with the view that controlling money is another way to control the behavior of businesses and people; Omarova's previous statements about intentionally bankrupting oil and gas companies is indicative of the former — and the most recent statements are aligned with the latter.  [Video clip]  Obviously, Saule Omarova is interested in the concept of an all controlling central bank that would eliminate the need for private banking interests.  As she states, "There will be no more private bank deposit accounts, and all of the deposit accounts will be held directly at the fed."  The basic premise is that all employers would funnel their payrolls into a centralized federal depository, where they would be then be taxed and re-distributed, electronically, to the workers.

Biden's Banking Nominee Calls to Eliminate All 'Private Bank Accounts'.  Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden's nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), called during a March 2021 virtual conference to eliminate all private bank accounts and deposits.  Omarova spoke at the Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project's "Law & Political Economy:  Democracy Beyond Neoliberalism" conference in March.  Omarova discussed one of her papers, "The People's Ledger How to Democratize Money and Finance the Economy," which would help "redesign" the financial system and make the economy "more equitable for everyone."  She said it would change the "private-public power balance" and democratize finance to a more systemic level.

The Editor says...
If you capriciously "change the 'private-public power balance,'" how will it remain balanced?  No sane person tampers with a stable system that has worked reasonably well for centuries — just for the sake of change.  People like this claim to have good intentions, but they don't.

Guess Who is Going to Be the New FDA Chief?  We are living under a totalitarian fascist regime and this "appointment" by the Biden administration should shock literally no one.  President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration, a job he briefly held during the Obama administration.  If you think the vaccine propaganda is bad now, just wait.  This tyrant is going to ram things down our throats and lie like the fascist is he is to promote the dystopia they want for all of us.  Califf is a cardiologist, who spent most of his career at Duke University, his alma mater.  Before becoming FDA's commissioner in February 2016, he was involved in the agency's Office of Medical Products and Tobacco for about a year, according to a report by RT.  As we have repeatedly said, there is no political solution when the obvious problem we face is politics.  Stepping free from the brainwashing that a master is needed to control us is step one, and we are on our way.  But this move is going to embolden the controllers further, meaning we need to be extra alert to all of the excess propaganda we are about to see.

Biden's radical nominee for Comptroller of the Currency faces bipartisan opposition.  Joe Biden nominated Saule Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency.  Her history is so radical that some Democrats are beginning to speak out about their concerns with moving forward with the nomination.  At the end of September, the Wall Street Journal ran a story on Omarova's nomination.  What jumps out is her Marxist history.  In her opinion, the Soviet economic system is superior to any other. [...] She envisions a centralized banking industry — she wants to expand the Federal Reserve's mandate to include the price levels of "systemically important financial assets" as well as worker wages.  She suggests "the Federal Reserve take over consumer bank deposits, "effectively 'end banking,' as we know it," and become "the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a modern economy." How's all that sound?  She wants to do away with banks, the very sector her job requires her to supervise.  She would supervise 1200 financial institutions.

Biden Banking Nominee Wants To 'Starve' Companies That Invest in Oil and Gas.  President Joe Biden's pick to regulate the banking system said earlier this year that she wants to "starve" companies of money to invest in the oil and gas industry in order to fight climate change, comments that could further complicate her chances of Senate confirmation.  Saule Omarova, who received the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship at Moscow State University, has proposed establishing a National Investment Authority to divert investments away from the oil and gas industry and into "clean and green" infrastructure projects.  Speaking at a virtual forum in May, Omarova said "the way we basically get rid of those carbon financiers is we starve them of their sources of capital."

Biden's 'Marxist' Treasury Nominee Wants To Bankrupt, 'Starve' Fossil Fuel Industry To Tackle Climate Change.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a key Treasury Department role admitted that oil, natural gas and coal firms need to go bankrupt to prevent climate change, a resurfaced video showed.  "Here what I'm thinking about is primarily the coal and oil and gas industry.  A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order, at least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change," Saule Omarova — who the Senate is considering to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — remarked in a clip uncovered Tuesday by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative research group.  The comments were originally made during a March talk Omarova gave as part of the Jain Family Institute's "Social Wealth Seminar" series.  Omarova has already been slammed by top GOP senators over her Marxist thesis paper which she has yet to share with the Banking Committee.  She wrote the thesis, titled "Karl Marx's Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution," while studying at Moscow State University in Russia decades ago.

Let's think about why Biden nominated a Marxist to the Treasury Department.  The Comptroller of the Currency is not another one of those do-nothing Washington jobs.  The person filling this critical role controls all federally-licensed banks, credit unions, and foreign banks operating in the United States and similar institutions.  Normally, you would think receiving your postgraduate education at the University of Moscow (in the USSR) and writing your doctoral dissertation on the advantages of Marxism over free economy capitalism might be a disqualifier for this all-powerful position.  But not in the Biden administration.  To Biden and his cronies, the fact that their nominee for Comptroller is a lifelong Marxist is not disqualifying.  In fact, to the radical Democrats pulling Biden strings, Russian-born Saule Omarova's dedication to hard-core communism is one of her strongest qualifications.  Ms. Omarova makes no attempt to hide her radical leftist political and economic feelings, other than to try to prevent the Senate committee considering her confirmation from accessing her other "academic" works.  As noted yesterday, some conservatives digging into Omarova's recent past may have found the wooden stake to drive through the heart of her nomination.  In a newly unearthed video clip, this woman who Biden wants to control all our nation's finances told her audience "in order to prevent climate change, we have to bankrupt all the coal, oil, and gas companies."

Key Biden Nominee On Oil Companies: 'We Want Them To Go Bankrupt If We Want To Tackle Climate Change'.  Saule Omarova, Democrat President Joe Biden's Marxist-friendly nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said earlier this year that she wants oil and gas companies to go bankrupt, which comes as Americans face surging gas prices.  "Here what I'm thinking about is primarily coal industry and oil and gas industry.  A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order, at least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change," Omarova says in the clip, unearthed by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF).  Omarova, who made the remarks back in March at the Jain Family Institute's 2021 Social Wealth Seminar (SWS) series, later said that the economic fallout and number of job losses that would ensue would be too much for the U.S., saying, "we cannot afford" it.

Controversial Biden bank nominee said 'we want' oil and gas companies to go bankrupt.  President Joe Biden's pick for a top banking regulatory position said "we want" oil and gas companies to go bankrupt, although she acknowledged the country couldn't afford the loss of jobs.  Saule Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University who graduated college in the USSR, has faced pushback over her nomination to be comptroller of the currency from business groups and Republicans, who have said that she is extreme and opposed to the industry as a whole.  A video of her discussing the idea of a National Investment Authority — a new government bureaucracy that would act directly in financial markets to allocate "both public and private capital" to fight social ills — has resurfaced in which she muses about oil and coal companies failing in order to fight climate change.  "A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to, probably, go bankrupt in short order — at least, we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change," Omarova said as part of the Jain Family Institute's "Social Wealth Seminar" series in March.
[Video clip here].

Treasury Department Nominee Says Biden Administration Purposefully Wants to Bankrupt Oil, Coal and Gas Companies.  Against catastrophic outcomes, we have been pointing out how the people within the Biden administration are not incompetent; they know exactly what they are doing, and they are destroying the U.S. economic system on purpose.  All of their economic damage is by design, it's a feature — not a flaw.  An example today is so demonstrative of that point, it's almost a parody.  Joe Biden's nominee for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a branch of the Treasury Department that polices some 1,125 banks, is a communist ideologue named Saule Omarova.  She is directly from communist central casting and literally from Kazakhstan in the former Soviet Union.  Ms. Omarova graduated from Moscow State University in 1991, and Joe Biden nominated her for the OCC job in September.

Biden's 'Marxist' Treasury Nominee Saule Omarova Wants To Bankrupt, 'Starve' Fossil Fuel Industry To Tackle Climate Change.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a key Treasury Department role admitted that oil, natural gas and coal firms need to go bankrupt to prevent climate change, a resurfaced video showed.  "Here what I'm thinking about is primarily the coal and oil and gas industry.  A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to probably go bankrupt in short order, at least we want them to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change," Saule Omarova — who the Senate is considering to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — remarked in a clip uncovered Tuesday by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative research group.  The comments were originally made during a March talk Omarova gave as part of the Jain Family Institute's "Social Wealth Seminar" series.

Granholm's 'Shock' Aside, US Energy Dominance Is Exactly Where Biden Wants It — Weakened.  When U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked a direct question about skyrocketing gas prices, her response was as telling as it was disappointing.  Instead of offering middle-class Americans an explanation or an apology or a sliver of hope, she let out a hearty laugh.  "Oh my... that is hilarious!  As you know, oil is a global market.  It is controlled by a cartel, that cartel is called OPEC, and they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase [production] beyond what they were already planning."  How did America fall so far, so fast on the topic of energy?  How, in less than a calendar year, did we go from energy independence to begging foreign cartels like OPEC for more supply?  We went from net-exporting our oil to hoping that someone will help fill gaps in our energy supply.

Fake Laughter Is Not The Best Medicine.  Does anyone recall the good old days of 2020, before the price of gasoline rose some 50 percent?  We were maximizing the production of energy in the United States as a matter of national policy.  Something happened in January 2021.  Biden Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm addressed the rising cost of gasoline yesterday in a Bloomberg interview.  Is there anything to be done?  "That is hilarious," she said and showed just how funny she found it.  She seems to have taken a lesson or two from Kamala Harris in the department of fake laughter.  [Video clip]

Energy Secretary Erupts in Laughter When Asked if Biden Administration Will Start Increasing U.S. Oil Production.  Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked what the Biden administration plan was to increase U.S. oil production.  Her response is exactly what you might believe it would be from a thoroughly incompetent ideological administration.  [Video clip]

Jennifer Granholm's hilarity about rising fuel prices is worse than you thought.  A short video is circulating showing Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm's response to being asked about rising gas prices.  Granholm starts giggling and says "That is hilarious."  Most thought she was laughing at people's suffering but, in a way, her response was worse than that because she was really laughing about the fact that she and Biden do not plan to improve the situation for ordinary Americans.  Rising gas prices are a huge problem.  Not only do they make travel significantly more expensive, but they also make everything more expensive because there's nothing in America that isn't in some way dependent on gasoline.  The mechanized farming that feeds America requires gasoline.  The same is true for the few remaining factories that make our goods.  And getting all those foods and other goods to market requires gasoline, too.  Every home, store, and office in America relies on fossil fuels in one way or another — and on Biden's watch, prices have gone up and up.

We Refused to Lie About Rachel Levine's Gender — So Twitter Locked Our Account.  We knew this would eventually happen.  Twitter has locked PJ Media's account and is demanding that we delete a tweet that told the truth about Rachel Levine's gender.  You remember Levine.  He's Joe Biden's transgender assistant secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and, if you believe the Washington Post, the "first-ever female four-star admiral" in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.  PJM's Matt Margolis took issue with that claim in an article titled:  "Rachel Levine Is Not the 'First Female Four-Star Admiral' ... Because He's a Male."  He wrote:  ["]Even if you believe that gender is a social construct and subject to how one feels and not dependent on biology, sex chromosomes determine whether an individual is male or female.  Rachel Levine is 100 percent male, right down to his DNA.  He is not a female.  He may have grown his hair out and changed his name to a woman's name, but that doesn't make him a female.["]  Most reasonable people would not quibble with that statement.

The Editor says...
If you refuse to play along with the charade that he's a woman, why accomodate him by calling him a girl's name?

Non sequitur of the week:
Sunday Talks, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Says West Coast Port Backlog Unlikely to Be Resolved Until Every American is Vaccinated.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on the DC narrative shaping program hosted by swamp gatekeeper Chris Wallace.  Within the interview Buttigieg was questioned about why West Coast port backups are worse now than before the White House announced their solution to operate ports 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Buttigieg proclaimed the ports are being impacted by the pandemic, and ships stuck in China are the reason why ships are sitting off the coast of California.  Yeah, try to square that circular logic.  LOL.  The scale of incompetence, even in common sense politispeak, is off the charts.  The illogical statements by this guy are legendary; however, he outdid himself today.  Eventually Pete weaves his way through fourteen nonsensical catch phrases to get to a point where he proclaims nothing in the supply chain will start being more efficient until everyone is vaccinated.  And yes, it appears that he is so stuck in pretzel-speak, Buttigieg actually believes that.  [Video clip]

Biden flips 2nd Circuit to majority Democratic with confirmation of lesbian judge.  The Senate confirmed the first openly lesbian judge to a federal circuit court on Monday, flipping the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to a majority of Democrat-appointed judges.  Judge Beth Robinson, who previously served on the Vermont Supreme Court, was confirmed by a 51-45 vote.  Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska broke with their party and supported her confirmation.  The makeup of the 2nd Circuit now has seven Democrat-appointed and six Republican-appointed judges following Judge Robinson's confirmation.  She is President Biden's third judicial appointment to the 2nd Circuit.

Texas Republicans join Rep Chip Roy in calling for Sec Mayorkas' impeachment for 'undeniable and unavoidable damages' on US due to border crisis.  A number of Texas Republicans have signed on to Rep. Chip Roy's memo calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Sec.  Alejandro Mayorkas, after the border officials apprehended a record 1.7 million migrants trying to cross illegally during the 2021 fiscal year.  The letter takes issue with Mayorkas terminating the border wall, failing to take adequate legal action against illegal migrants and causing CBP to become overwhelmed, releasing migrants into the interior of the US and refusing to enforce interior immigration laws.  Roy writes that Mayorkas has refused to expel most migrants under Title 42 and has ended the Migrant Protection Protocols, or the Remain in Mexico program.

Biden's Bank Regulator Nominee Would End Community Banking.  Saule Omarova does not want to reform banking regulations — she wants to kill banks.  The biggest Wall Street banks would likely survive her favored reform.  But it would have a 100 percent lethality rate for community banks.  Last month, President Joe Biden tapped Cornell Law School Professor Saule Omarova to be the next Comptroller of the Currency.  That would put her in charge of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Treasury agency that supervises national banks and federal thrifts.

Cindy McCain Completes Her Grift.  You'll likely recall the late John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, as a very outspoken individual during Donald Trump's presidency.  For example, she took a special interest in Syria and the plight of refugees there along with generally criticizing the former president's foreign policy moves.  Later, she would endorse Joe Biden, claiming principle and a false story from The Atlantic as her reasons.  Following Biden's inauguration, in what I'm assured was a total coincidence, McCain was then offered an ambassadorship at the United Nations.  But while that give and take already reeked of a political payoff, it was what happened after the nomination that really cemented the grift. [...] Cindy McCain is now in a political position, appointed by the current president.  Any assertions that she's off-limits for criticism are ludicrous.

Jeff Flake, Cindy McCain confirmed to diplomatic posts on same day.  The U.S. Senate confirmed Cindy McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake to diplomatic posts Tuesday [10/26/2021], formalizing their roles in the administration of President Joe Biden, a man they helped put in the White House.  Flake and McCain are Arizona Republicans who separately helped send the message to moderates in their party that they could support Biden over then-President Donald Trump.

How The Rachel Levine 'Four-Star Admiral' Photo-Op Will Damage U.S. Security.  To great public fanfare, Joe Biden has anointed Rachel Levine a "four-star admiral" in the Public Health Service (PHS). The public relations campaign in support of Levine has emphasized his status as the first transgender four-star "admiral" in the "eight U.S. uniformed services." That PR campaign is misleading, and it is part of a dangerous effort to undermine the military.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) kicked off the propaganda campaign, leading with the "four-star transgender" meme:  On October 19, it announced "the nation's first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the eight uniformed services of the United States.  (Emphasis here and below is added).  HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra reinforced the theme:  "Admiral Levine's historic appointment as the first openly transgender four-star officer is a giant step forward towards equality as a nation."  The U.S. surgeon general touted Levine as "first openly transgender four-star officer to serve in any of the uniformed services."  The media parroted the party line.

2 GOP Representatives Censored for Telling Truth:  Rachel Levine Is a Man.  Two Republican members of Congress found themselves censored on Twitter last week for stating a simple biological fact about Dr. Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender nominee to be confirmed by the Senate to a federal position as President Joe Biden's Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary and, now, the first openly transgender four-star officer to serve in any of the nation's uniformed services.  Biden announced last week that Levine had been appointed a four-star admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the United States' "first-ever female four-star admiral."

Biden Nominee Who Praised Soviet Union Refuses to Give Senate Her Karl Marx Thesis.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a top banking post in his administration is refusing to give the U.S. Senate her thesis on Karl Marx, lawmakers say.  Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, asked Saule Omarova earlier this month for the document and other papers she omitted from a disclosure package that's standard for nominees to submit to the Senate.  Toomey asked for the documents by Oct. 13.  Omarova did not hand over the papers, Amanda Gonzalez Thompson, a spokesperson for the Republicans on the panel, told The Epoch Times in an email.  "Ms. Omarova has time to attack Republicans in an interview with the Financial Times, but she can't bother to comply with a Banking Committee requirement that nominees — regardless of their political party or ideology — submit copies of their writings," Thompson said.  "We certainly hope she reconsiders so Senators have the information necessary to fulfill their constitutional duty to advise and consent on appointments."

Biden has nominated an anti-gun activist to be Solicitor General.  Joe Biden nominated David Chipman, an anti-gun fanatic, to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (although thankfully he withdrew); Tracy Stone-Manning, an ecoterrorist to head the Bureau of Land Management; Kristen Clarke, an openly anti-White racist and anti-Semite to lead the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division; and Rear Admiral Ann Phillips (ret.), someone with zero shipping experience, to serve as the next U.S. Maritime Administration administrator.  That's why it shouldn't come as any surprise that his nominee for Solicitor General is a fanatic anti-gun activist who participated in the simultaneously abusive and farcical Mueller investigation.

If You Can't Tell A Man From A Woman, You're Not A Health Official, You're A Health Threat.  The left became impossible to parody somewhere in between "believe all women" and peak trans. [...] Here is what I am reacting to, and it is not made up.  It is real.  Not only did Joe Biden appoint a man who claims he's a woman, and whose poor public health decisions led to thousands of unnecessary COVID deaths, as assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Biden has now made that man a four-star admiral and proclaimed we should all cheer at his administration appointing the "first" "female" "four-star officer."  I repeat, this is not a joke.  This official, Rachel Levine, has zero military experience.  He's as much a soldier as I am (although I am 100 percent more female than he is).

GOP Rep. Jim Banks is criticized for calling the first transgender admiral Rachel Levine a 'man'.  GOP Rep. Jim Banks hit back after Rachel Levine became the nation's first transgender four-star admiral, calling her a 'man' and a disappointment for 'little girls.'  The Indiana Republican's remarks drew pushback.  Levine, a Biden appointee, was sworn in as head of US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which made her the nation's highest-ranking transgender official.  She will also continue to serve in her position as Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  'The title of first female four-star official gets taken by a man,' Banks tweeted in response to the news.  'Calling someone that was born and lived as a man for 54 years the first 'female' four-star officer is an insult to every little girl who dreams of breaking glass ceilings one day,' he wrote in a subsequent tweet.

Transgender HHS Official Rachel Levine Named 'First-Ever Female Four-Star Admiral' In Public Health Corps.  The Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday publicly announced that Rachel Levine, the transgender assistant secretary of health for HHS, had been named the nation's first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the eight uniformed services of the United States.  According to the press release, this makes Levine, a biological male, the "highest ranking official in the USPHS Commissioned Corps and its first-ever female four-star admiral."  "Admiral Rachel Levine, who serves as the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health and head of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, was ceremonially sworn in as a four-star admiral," HHS said in a Tuesday statement, identifying the official as its "first-ever female four-star admiral."

Biden banking pick denies communist sympathies, says critics vilifying her because of Kazakh heritage.  President Joe Biden's pick for a top banking regulatory position said that she was an "anti-communist" while attending school in the Soviet Union and that critics accusing her of radicalism are lashing out against her because of her heritage and gender.  Saule Omarova, a Kazakh-born law professor at Cornell University who graduated college in the USSR, is pushing back on Republicans and business groups for opposing her nomination to be comptroller of the currency.  She said that though she attended Moscow State University on the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship, she does not have Marxist sympathies.

Pete Buttigieg Returns to D.C. From Playing House, and Is About as Useful as When He Wasn't Here.  Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been on family leave since August, and no one in the Biden administration seemed to care.  According to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, the meltdown at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are problems caused by the previous administration, and they are "tackling" it. [...] I would be curious to hear the responses from the peanut gallery if Buttigieg were a female Secretary of Transportation who was also part of a Republican administration. [...] In the midst of what is a true transportation infrastructure crisis, when the head of the transportation arms of our nation should be giving insight and working on solutions, Howdy Doody Buttigieg is deer in the headlights, talking about everything but the supply-chain issues.

The Editor says...
[#1] Barack H. Obama is using the same playbook he used in his first two terms, and one of his best plays is to blame everything on his predecessor.  Years ago, it was George W. Bush who got the blame for nearly everything — years after Obama took over, and now it's Donald Trump.  [#2] Two months of paid paternity leave is a lot, especially when same-sex marriage is still a controversial idea, as is paternity leave, and nobody in this household gave birth to the children.  The idea behind maternity leave, and later paternity leave, is that Mom needs to recover from childbirth and can't return to her routine right away.  That doesn't apply here, and even if it did, two months is highly excessive.

Amateur hour:  Pete Buttigieg's inexperience exposed as supply chain breaks down.  After a quiet first nine months in office, the former mayor has his first crisis on his hands: a massive supply-chain breakdown exploding across the country that will impact every American, particularly the lower and middle classes.  Restaurants, stores and small businesses that provide products and services to people will all be negatively affected as the cost to the consumer goes up.  Per a recent CBS News report:  "A growing number of shipments are stuck at sea because of supply chain issues, leading to growing concern that holiday shipments may not arrive in time.  Container ships are crowding ports from New York to Los Angeles, where 250,000 containers are floating off the coast waiting to be unloaded," the report reads. [...] [A]lmost all [news] outlets are focusing on Buttigieg's foray into fatherhood and not on the one major issue he's in charge of fixing, or at least getting under some semblance of control, as cargo ships continue to pile up off the coast of America's port cities.

Have We Ever Witnessed a More Incompetent and Out of Touch Bunch Than Biden's Appointees?  Chapter 5.  Not to overlook we seem to have another corrupt democrat asshole as Attorney General, but if you ever wondered what would happen when a president appoints people based on their sex, color, or persuasion, look no further than the disaster that is Joe Biden's administration.  We all know he didn't pick Pete Buttigieg because of his experience with transportation issues.  [Tweets]  Guess it's a little different than managing the bus schedule in South Bend.  Besides, he has a really cool bicycle.

Scandals from top to bottom in Joe Biden's cabinet of horrors.  While the president is primarily to blame for the choices in Afghanistan, the border and holding an infrastructure bill hostage to the Squad, his team is facing their own crises, many self-created.  Here, some of the lowlights of many of the members of Joe Biden's Cabinet of Horrors.

Interior secretary describes White House property as 'ancestral homelands'.  Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the nation's first Native American Cabinet official, tearfully described the White House grounds Friday as "the ancestral homelands" of two Native American tribes.  During an event with President Biden on the North Lawn of the White House, Ms. Haaland became choked up as she praised the president's action to restore territory of two sprawling western national monuments that had been reduced in size by then-President Trump.  "We are here today on the ancestral homelands of the Anacostan and Piscataway people, bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice," Ms. Haaland said.

Biden Banking Nominee Scrubs Karl Marx Paper From Résumé.  President Joe Biden's pick for the nation's top banking regulator, who received a scholarship named for Vladimir Lenin, scrubbed her résumé of a reference to a thesis she wrote on Karl Marx while a student at Moscow State University.  Saule Omarova, who Biden tapped to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, listed a paper titled "Karl Marx's Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital" on her résumé as recently as 2017.  But the paper was not disclosed on the version of the résumé reported last month by the Washington Free Beacon.  Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, pressed Omarova about the discrepancy in a letter on Tuesday asking her to hand over a copy of her report.  Omarova, a professor at Cornell Law School, has already proved a controversial nominee.  She has said she wants to "end banking as we know it" by providing bank services through the Federal Reserve rather than private banks.

Why Rachael Rollins' Nomination to Be Rogue US Attorney Should Terrify Us All.  It brings us no joy to say we were right.  But we predicted last year that a disaster-in-the-making would unfold if President Joe Biden selected rogue prosecutors from around the country to become rogue U.S. attorneys.  Some were specifically floating the name of Rachael Rollins, the rogue Suffolk County district attorney in Boston, as a potential pick to become the chief federal law enforcement officer — the U.S. attorney — in Massachusetts.  That came to pass, and Biden nominated her for the position.  On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced her nomination on a tied vote (11-11).  Now, the full Senate will have an opportunity to consider her nomination.  Rollins' conduct as a rogue district attorney has certainly been problematic.  As Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., made clear at Thursday's hearing, "It's ... rare for the president to nominate a radical, pro-criminal prosecutor for a U.S. attorney position."  In fact, we cannot think of any other time in recent (or, frankly, distant) history where this happened.

Biden's bank robber.  Joe Biden's nominee for Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. Treasury Department is Saule Omarova, a native of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and graduate of Moscow State University, which she attended on a "Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship."  In a May 9, 2020 interview with Chris Hayes of NBC, Omarova revealed she was in an exchange program with the University of Wisconsin in 1991 when the USSR collapsed.  The Lenin scholar remained stateside to pursue a PhD in political science.  Some of her views on economics emerged in 2019, nearly 30 years after the USSR collapsed.  "Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there," Omarova wrote, "Market doesn't always 'know best.'"  Contrary to the Lenin scholar, individuals know what's best for themselves and a free market empowers them to make choices that reflect those interests.

Biden Pick for Comptroller Likes Soviet Financial Planning.  Wants to End "Banking as We Know It".  Forget about the "transgender woman" President Joe Biden hired to oversee the transition of the Defense Department.  Or the "transgender woman" he appointed as second-in-command at the Health and Human Services Department.  Or his Transportation Secretary, a man who thinks he's married to a man.  The latest from China Joe is his pick for Comptroller of the Currency.  Saule Omarova is a fan of Soviet economic policy.  Critics call her an "actual communist."

Biden's nominee for Comptroller of the Currency thinks the Fed should 'end banking', admires the Soviet Union's economy.  A Cornell University law professor who advocated ending banking 'as we know it' and praised the Soviet Union's financial system over its lack of a gender pay gap has been tapped by the White House to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).  Saule Omarova's nomination to head the regulatory agency overseeing the country's largest banks is a controversial choice that's alarmed banking groups.  She's advocated for moving Americans' financial accounts from private banks to the Federal Reserve and for forcing banks to lose leverage on federal subsidies by becoming 'non-depository lenders.'  It would diminish the stature of the institutions she's supposed to regulate.

Yellen lends support for effort to remove the debt ceiling altogether.  With a potential default looming for the U.S. in October, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday she would just as soon see the power over debt limits taken away from Congress.  A bill introduced in May would repeal the national debt ceiling, and Yellen said "yes, I would" when asked during a House hearing if she backs the effort.  She noted Congress makes the decisions on taxes and spending, and should provide the ability to pay those obligations.

Biden's DoJ vs. the Police.  While American heads are still spinning over Afghanistan, despotic COVID mandates, and gluttonous spending bills, the Civil Rights Division (CRD) under Merrick Garland is quietly advancing a Biden campaign promise to put major police departments back under the thumb of the federal government.  This jihad against police is occurring against a backdrop of DoJ paralysis towards burning cities, Antifa violence, the inhumane treatment of January 6 protesters, election fraud, and city and state attorneys who coddle felons.  Muscling the CRD initiative is newly-minted Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, a ne'er-do-well Democrat with a Harvard chip on her shoulder who's made no bones judging people by their melanin levels.  Despite her race-based predispositions, she gained her position by Republican duplicity.  Susan Collins crossed the aisle to end Senate debate over Clarke's nomination and gave the Democrats the slim majority they needed to drag her across the finish line.

President Withdraws Nomination of Former Agent to Head ATF.  President Joe Biden on Thursday [9/9/2021] announced the withdrawal of his nomination of gun control activist David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Biden's move comes after Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joined unified Republican opposition in the Senate to Chipman's heading ATF.  King caucuses with Senate Democrats.  Some centrist Democrats also raised concerns, The Hill reported.

ATF Nominee David Chipman Pulled After Racism Allegations.  It's another botch for the Biden administration!  The White House announced today that it is pulling its nomination of David Chipman to be ATF head.  Chipman is currently senior policy advisor to Giffords, an anti-gun rights group who faced allegations of racism.  The question is will the networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) report on yet another Biden failure or will they quietly brush this fiasco under the rug?  Chipman's nomination was pulled after it was clear he wasn't going to get enough Dem votes with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Montana's Jon Tester refusing to give him the nod.  Chipman already faced opposition from gun-rights groups but allegations of racism may have been the final blow.

Republicans Celebrate Defeating David Chipman as ATF Nominee.  Republicans on Thursday celebrated defeating President Joe Biden's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) nominee David Chipman.  Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Breitbart News' article in celebration, asserting Republicans will also "defeat all of Biden's attempts to restrict our Second Amendment rights!"  [Tweet]  "David Chipman is an unhinged gun-grabber.  His defeat is a win for the Constitution — and a crushing loss for Joe Biden," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) tweeted:  [Tweet]

Biden's defense secretary has no plans to resign over Afghan disaster.  Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has not offered his resignation to President Biden following the complete collapse of the U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan military and has no plans to do so, Pentagon officials said Monday [8/16/2021].  A day after victorious Taliban forces rolled into Kabul with little opposition, Pentagon officials said they are now focusing their attention on securing Hamid Karzai International Airport so the remaining Americans in the capital can be safely evacuated.  "It's a fluid and dynamic situation," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.  "There will obviously be things that I don't know because things are continuing to unfold."

Cruz blocks Biden's State Department nominees ahead of Senate break.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blocked the quick confirmation of dozens of State Department nominees on Wednesday morning [8/11/2021], guaranteeing that they will stay in limbo until next month when the Senate returns from its summer break.  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tried to get the nominations confirmed at the end of an all-night session before the Senate left Washington until mid-September.  In a floor back-and-forth that lasted roughly 50 minutes, and wrapped just before 6 a.m., Menendez and then Murphy went one by one through the list of State Department nominees trying to get consent to confirm them.

Biden's ATF Nominee Talked Guns On A Chinese Propaganda Network And Failed To Tell The Senate.  President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) did not disclose his TV hit on a Chinese propaganda network to the Senate, Fox News revealed on Wednesday [8/4/2021].  In 2012, David Chipman joined the China Global Television Network to talk about the U.S. response to the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.  At the time, Chipman worked for Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-firearm group dedicated to sparking more gun control in the United States.  During the interview, he highlighted how he believes there will be more shootings "unless we do something about it." According to Fox, Chipman's interview on U.S. failures to contain gun violence was used by the communist propaganda machine to distract from "a mass stabbing of 23 children at a school in China's Henan Province."

Cruz Crushes Biden ATF Nominee Over New 'Troubling Allegations'.  Yesterday [8/5/2021], Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Joe Biden's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman, on the floor of the Senate.  Cruz lit into Chipman over new allegations that he made racist comments about Black ATF agents and that he failed to disclose to the Senate that he'd appeared on a Chinese government propaganda station to disparage "gun violence" in America.  Cruz and ten other Republican senators are now demanding there be a new hearing to grill Chipman over the new allegations, but the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee isn't complying because he supports Chipman, no matter how bad a nominee he is.

Biden nominates Clyburn's daughter to federal commission on poverty.  President Biden has nominated a daughter of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, one of his key allies in Congress, to a seat on a federal commission aimed at addressing poverty in the southeastern U.S.  The president appointed Jennifer Clyburn Reed as federal co-chair of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, which was created in 2008 and received a large boost in federal funding in the current fiscal year.  Mr. Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat whose endorsement is credited with helping Mr. Biden to win a crowded presidential primary in 2020, has often spoken of his daughter someday taking his place in Congress.  Her nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.

This is exactly what Barack H. Obama would have done.
Biden nominates first Muslim to religious freedom post; Holocaust scholar as anti-Semitism envoy.  President Biden on Friday announced his intention to nominate four people to religious freedom posts, including the first Muslim to serve in one of the top roles; a noted Holocaust scholar as a special envoy on anti-Semitism; an openly gay Jewish cleric, and a Muslim immigrant who famously clashed with former President Donald Trump.  The president nominated Rashad Hussain to serve as U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, a post most recently held by former Kansas governor Sam Brownback.  Mr. Biden also named Khizr Khan — noted for his 2016 Democratic National Convention speech claiming that then GOP presidential nominee Mr. Trump "had sacrificed nothing" for the nation — to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, an advisory body.

The Editor says...
The people who make decisions for Joe Biden are obviously thrilled to appoint "historic firsts" to various positions in the administration, just for the sake of pushing the envelope, breaking new ground, or uprooting American traditions.  They don't seem to understand that if something has never been done before, there might be a very good reason.

Biden's Screwball Land Management Nominee:  We Need to Stop 'Breeding Our Weapons' to Save Grizzly Bears.  President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, once penned an essay that called for population control to protect the endangered grizzly population.  As Stone-Manning's nomination heads for a likely final Senate vote next week, Fox News reported that she once wrote an essay for High Country News in which she declared that we human beings keep "breeding weapons" used against the precious grizzlies, that is, breeding human babies.  The 1991 diatribe argued that land should be set aside for the bears following the "pyrrhic" conquest of the West, and that humankind has "annexed too much space" in a battle in which our "greatest weapon" has been our population.

GOP senators demand second hearing for embattled ATF nom Chipman over racist comments.  Every GOP senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee has demanded a second hearing for President Biden's embattled nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over alleged past racist comments.  The 11 Republican senators, led by ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, demanded another hearing for Biden's ATF nominee David Chipman in a Thursday letter to committee chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill.  According to the senators' press release, they called for the hearing "following now-corroborated reports of racist comments directed at other ATF employees."

Joe Biden nominates the wives of three of his political allies to plum diplomatic positions.  Joe Biden has nominated three of the wives of his political allies to coveted diplomatic posts — putting his own spin on the tradition of giving the positions to major donors.  The ambassadors to Austria, Slovenia and the U.N.'s world food program are all wives of supporters.  Biden is also reportedly considering Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy, for an ambassadorial role in Asia or Australia.

ATF nominee mocks gun buyers as 'Tiger Kings' prepping for zombies.  President Biden's choice to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives once mocked first-time gun buyers during the coronavirus pandemic as preparing for the zombie apocalypse and even compared them to the "Tiger King."  David Chipman's remarks were revealed in newly unearthed video from an April 2020 interview with Cheddar in which he talked about how gun sales were spiking during the pandemic and how people needed to take safety precautions.  "I understand the fear, I understand the concern.  I have it myself," he said.  "But we don't want to make rash decisions that place ourselves, our neighbors and our families more at risk than actually keeping them safe."  Chipman, then the senior policy adviser at the Giffords Organization, which advocates for gun control, said there are risks for people who buy firearms during the coronavirus because they have no training.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Nominee Faces Pushback Over Stonewalling Senators.  After his March 2 Senate committee confirmation hearing, Rohit Chopra appeared to have a "reasonably assured path forward" to becoming the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Suddenly, however, Chopra's prospects look a bit different.  As Government Executive reports, several current and former employees of the bureau allege that the Biden administration is flouting civil service protections.  Specifically, they claim that the administration has offered separation incentives, including early retirement, and launched investigations into career senior executives to sideline them, targeting about a half-dozen of the highest-ranked nonpolitical staffers at the bureau.  At the very least, this approach is questionable because of civil service rules that exist to protect career employees from politically motivated personnel decisions.  The tactic is also disingenuous because President Joe Biden promised that his administration would not interfere with career employees in that way.

'Seditious!' Pence's National Security Adviser Rips Milley Over Trump 'Coup' Remarks, Calls for Dismissal.  Former Vice President Mike Pence's national security adviser said Tuesday if comments about former President Donald Trump attributed to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley in a new book are true, he should be dismissed immediately because his comments are "seditious."  "I think he has violated his oath of office," retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told Just The News' John Solomon.  "I think he should go."  In addition to serving as an infantry commander in war, Kellogg also served several national security .posts during former President Donald Trump's administration, including chief of staff of the National Security Council.

Catherine Lhamon's Record, Answers Disqualify Her to Serve as Civil Rights Chief.  A presidential appointee must take an oath "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States" in order to be sworn into office.  Catherine Lhamon, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, could not take that oath in good faith.  Last week, when asked at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee if she believed in the presumption of innocence, Lhamon could only muster that campus investigators looking at an accused student should be "open to the possibility that the person is not [guilty]."  Not the presumption of innocence, only the possibility.  Such a dismissive view of basic, constitutional due process rights demonstrates that Lhamon is not fit for the position.  Senators would be wise to think twice before putting someone with this track record back in charge of the Office for Civil Rights.

Education Dept. civil rights nominee rejects presumption of innocence for accused students.  The Biden administration's nominee to lead the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights told a Senate committee Tuesday [7/13/2021] that a year-old Title IX regulation does not require the presumption of innocence for students accused of sexual misconduct.  The claim drew bafflement from critics of Catherine Lhamon, who held the same job in the Obama administration's second term.  In response to threats from Lhamon to pull their federal funding, colleges lowered evidentiary standards and enacted policies that treat accusers more favorably than accused students.  Courts have been steadily reining in those practices, sometimes citing the pressure from Lhamon's office as evidence of bias.  Asked by North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr, ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, if she would support "keeping a presumption of innocence requirement" in the Title IX regulation if it were changed, Lhamon twice answered that it doesn't currently exist.

Why is Joe Biden still standing by his Earth First! nominee for Bureau of Land Management?  It's starting to look bad for Tracy Stone-Manning, Joe Biden's nominee to run the Bureau of Land Management.  The latest news is that she lied to Congress about her involvement in eco-terrorism; an Earth First! tree-spiking incident in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest in 1989.  At the time, she wrote a profane threatening letter to "warn" loggers about the spikes and then told Congress she knew nothing about the whole thing and was merely an innocent college kid forced to do it to try to make sure nobody was "getting hurt."  It didn't happen that way, according to various sources.  Normally, a person with any such involvement, lying or not, would be exceptionally unfit to run the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 to 247 million acres of public land, and has 9,000 employees.  Putting her in charge of it would be like putting an embezzler in charge of the Federal Reserve.  Yet incredibly, Joe Biden continues to stand by her, even as one bad thing after another about her activity now rolls out.

Biden Nominee's Deleted Tweets 'Raise Serious Concerns' About Fitness to Serve, GOP Senator Says.  President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the top federal housing deleted several tweets disparaging law enforcement and Republicans, the Senate Banking Committee's ranking member said.  Republican Sen. Pat Toomey urged Julia Gordon, who President Joe Biden nominated to lead the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), to assist him in recovering her deleted tweets in a letter sent Thursday and obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.  Using an online archive tool, GOP Banking Committee staff have already recovered some tweets that "raise serious concerns" about Gordon's fitness for office, Toomey wrote.  "As the Senate evaluates nominees' fitness for senior leadership positions across the Federal government, it's important the public has a full picture of one's policy views, judgment, and character," Ranking Member Toomey told the DCNF in a statement.  "A nominee's past public statements matter, and a nominee should not be able to avoid scrutiny by merely clicking a button marked 'delete.'"

Republicans ramp up pressure on Biden to pull nominee linked to eco-terrorist plot.  Republican senators are ramping up pressure on President Biden to withdraw Tracy Stone-Manning's nomination for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director, citing her link to an eco-terrorist plot and her apparently misleading answers to senators about it.  Every Republican on the Senate Energy Committee signed a letter Wednesday [7/14/2021] urging Biden to pull Stone-Manning's nomination.  "Ms. Stone-Manning has made false and misleading statements in a sworn statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (Committee) regarding her activities associated with an eco-terrorist cell whose tree spiking in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest in 1989 put lives at risk," the senators wrote.

Lead investigator of eco-terrorist plot involving Biden nominee says she was the 'nastiest of the suspects'.  The lead Forest Service investigator of the eco-terrorist plot involving President Biden's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) director nominee sent a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday pushing back against Tracy Stone-Manning's testimony.  Michael Merkley, a retired criminal investigator for the U.S.D.A. Forest Service with over 28 years of service, said he felt compelled to write the letter to the Senate committee because many of the reports he had seen about the tree-spiking case linked to Stone-Manning were "inaccurate or incomplete" and misrepresented her as a "bystander or a victim."  "Contrary to many stories in the news, Ms. Stone-Manning was not an innocent bystander, nor was she a victim in this case," Merkley wrote.  "And, she most certainly was not a hero.  Ms. Stone-Manning was not only a member of Earth First!, but she played an active role in the Earth First! hierarchy."

Biden fires Trump-holdover Social Security Administration boss in 'Fright Night Massacre'.  President Joe Biden fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul on Friday despite objections of Republicans and the Trump appointee himself.  Saul, who called his firing a "Fright Night Massacre," was terminated from the role after refusing a request to resign earlier in the day, a White House official confirmed to the Washington Examiner.  His profile already appears to have been removed from the SSA website.  David Black, Saul's deputy, agreed to resign, while Kilolo Kijakazi, the deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy, will serve as acting head until Biden picks a nominee who is confirmed by the Senate, the White House official added.  Democrats pressured the White House to fire the Trump administration holdover, who was accused by critics of making it difficult for people to get disability benefits, delaying economic stimulus checks, and undermining workers' rights over the past two years.

Biden Fires Social Security Chief after He Refused to Resign.  President Biden dismissed Social Security commissioner and Trump appointee Andrew Saul from his post Friday after he refused to resign.  As justification for releasing him, the White House claimed Saul "politicized" the subject of his work and that his performance in the role was unsatisfactory. [...] Social Security is one of the most expansive and longest-enduring federal social-insurance programs, maintaining a safety net of regular retirement, disability, and survivor's benefits for millions of Americans.  In the Social Security Administration, technically an independent agency, the leadership does not typically change with the establishment of a new administration.  Saul's and Black's terms were not set to expire until January 2025, making their removals premature, considering precedent.

Trump-appointed head of Social Security Administration Andrew Saul is refusing to leave the job after being fired by Biden.  Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul is refusing to give up his post after he was fired by President Joe Biden on Friday, and declared that he will show up for work on Monday as usual.  Saul, a Trump-era holdover, was accused of mismanaging the delivery of COVID stimulus payments and union bashing.  He was asked to resign his post but was fired when he refused, according to a White House official.

Garcetti to India:  Is Joe Biden sidelining a sneaky, scheming rival?  Like all blue-city mayors, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles has been a colossal, miserable failure.  So when Joe Biden announced yesterday that he was appointing Garcetti ambassador to India, it wasn't surprising to see huge cheers of "good riddance" — not just from the right, but the radical left, too: [...] Garcetti was hated in all quarters.  His COVID lockdowns brought untold misery to the city.  The homeless crisis, which he stoked by shoveling millions of dollars at, is now out of control.  Crime is soaring, the police are defunded, and the streets are full of potholes.  And his administration is loaded with scandals, lots of pay-to-play and union overtime scams, which Garcetti covers up.

23 High-Ranking Officials in Biden Administration All Came from the Same Shadowy Firm.  Many of the highest-ranking members of the Biden administration came from the same shadowy firm.  It is a relatively new name among revolving-door power brokers in Washington D.C., which makes it all the more surprising.  Founded in 2017, WestExec describes itself as a "diverse group of senior national security professionals with the most recent experience at the highest levels of the U.S. government.  With deep knowledge and networks in the fields of defense, foreign policy, intelligence, cybersecurity, international economics, and strategic communications, our team has worked together around the White House Situation Room table, deliberating and deciding our nation's foreign and national security policies."

A Chinese 'Spy Recruitment' Scholar is Now Running Joe Biden's NSA Personnel Department.  Thomas Zimmerman — a Special Assistant to Joe Biden on National Security Agency personnel — formerly served as a visiting scholar at a Chinese Communist Party think-tank labeled as a "front group for Chinese intelligence collection and overseas spy recruitment" by the FBI, The National Pulse can reveal.  The stunning revelation — that Joe Biden's intelligence apparatus relies on the recruitment from a recent collaborator with the Chinese Communist Party — comes just weeks after the G7 summit where Western nations pledged tougher measures against an increasingly aggressive Beijing.

Joe Biden's BLM Nominee Pushed Population Control, Defined American Children as 'Environmental Hazard'.  Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden's nominee to be director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), described American children as an "environmental hazard" while advocating for slowing U.S. population growth in her 1992 graduate thesis.  The Daily Caller reported on Stone-Manning's thesis, titled "Into the Heart of the Beast:  A case for environmental advertising," after which she was awarded a master of science degree in environmental studies.  Her thesis, however, amounted to public policy recommendations for the University of Montana described as "environmental education."

Biden's $118 million cabinet:  Net worth of secretaries revealed.  President Joe Biden's cabinet members have managed to build back their portfolios — with the average member of his team amassing $7 million in wealth, for a total haul of $118 million.  The hefty total in fact represents a considerable drop-off from the Donald Trump years, when the president's cabinet contained several multi-millionaires, with a combined worth of $6.2 billion.  Two cabinet members are worth considerably more than the president himself, who comes in at about $8 million.

Biden Nominee's Complicity in Eco-Terrorism Case Disqualifies Her from Leading the Bureau of Land Management.  Western loggers, mill workers, and small communities were shocked when President Biden nominated Tracy Stone-Manning as the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Stone-Manning was part of the notorious domestic eco-terrorist group Earth First! when she was a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Montana.  As an editor of one of the group's publications, she provided fodder to the faithful who opposed congressionally mandated logging on federal lands.  On one occasion, however, she went beyond advocacy.  In 1989, she was an accessory to an act of eco-terrorism called tree spiking in an effort to stop the sale of Idaho national forest timber.

The Editor says...
Eco-terrorists should be in prison, not in the government.

FNC's Hilton:  General Mark Milley 'Should Be Removed Immediately'.  During Sunday's [6/28/2021] broadcast of FNC's "The Next Revolution," host Steve Hilton called for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark Milley to be removed from his post for promoting Critical Race Theory and other radical left-of-center ideologies.  Given the promotion of those philosophies, Hilton said Milley was a "divisive figure."

'How Many Genders Are There?' Biden's Education Secretary Refuses to Answer.  "We emphatically support all students taking advantage of all opportunities in our schools, including athletics, the arts, and that includes transgender students," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told the House Education and Labor Committee on Thursday [6/24/2021].  "So that's something that we stand firm with, and we recognize that discrimination against any student is unacceptable, and we stand strong there."  Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, on Thursday challenged Cardona on the administration's new guidelines for protecting the rights of transgender students — possibly at the expense of other students' rights.  "I won't be answering your question," Cardona told Miller, when she asked him how many genders there are.

Joe Biden picks second DOJ nominee with Hunter Biden connection.  President Joe Biden has, for a second time, selected a nominee with ties to his son Hunter Biden for a top post at the Justice Department, picking a former longtime partner at the law firm where his son worked for years and that was involved in helping the younger Biden in his business dealings with Burisma.  Biden announced on Friday [6/25/2021] that he had nominated Hampton Dellinger, a Yale Law School graduate and former deputy attorney general in North Carolina, to be assistant attorney general for DOJ's Office of Legal Policy.  Dellinger's LinkedIn indicates he founded Hampton Dellinger PLLC in November after working as a partner at Boies, Schiller, and Flexner from May 2013 through last year.  Hunter Biden was a counsel at the same firm, starting there in 2010 and reportedly leaving in 2017.  In 2014, the president's son landed the Ukrainian energy giant as a client for the firm and took a lucrative position on its board.

Joe Biden's BLM Nominee Pushed Population Control, Defined American Children as 'Environmental Hazard'.  Tracy Stone-Manning, President Joe Biden's nominee to be director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), described American children as an "environmental hazard" while advocating for slowing U.S. population growth in her 1992 graduate thesis.  The Daily Caller reported on Stone-Manning's thesis, titled "Into the Heart of the Beast| A case for environmental advertising," after which she was awarded a master of science degree in environmental studies.  Her thesis, however, amounted to public policy recommendations for the University of Montana described as "environmental education."

Chairman Milley Degrades, Divides and Politicizes the Military.  General Milley of the Joint Chiefs of Staff turned in a performance that was part gaslighting and part humiliating theater.  It's hard to imagine how his part in the hearing could have gone any worse than defending the imposition of critical race theory by arguing, "I've read Mao Zedong.  I've read Karl Marx.  I've read Lenin.  That doesn't make me a communist."  The military does not, as of yet, conduct Communist indoctrination sessions. [...] At the rate we're going it may only be a matter of time.  Learning from the enemy is very different than becoming the enemy.  Indoctrinating personnel with critical race theory is not studying the enemy.  It's trying to convince our men and women that America is the enemy. [...] Does rage have a color?  And is diving America around such cheap race-baiting tactics strengthening or weakening the military?  Milley knows the answer, but he also knows, like so many other figures in this career space, that he has to parrot the party line if he wants to have a future.  And national security is a small price to pay for his career.

The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs is a Political Operative.  A statement made by Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley defending the teaching Critical Race Theory to West Point cadets has gained some attention.  However, the comments Milley made today actually reconcile several years of CTH watching Milley operate and having puzzling questions.  Remember, General Milley did some really odd things as Joint Chiefs Chairman under President Trump:  (1) Milley never removed Lt. Col Alexander Vindman from his White House post after the underling compromised his leadership position.  The pentagon left Vindman on assignment to the NSC even after Vindman attempted to take-down President Trump.  (2) Milley was then slow to react to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer threatening President Trump; attempting to extort him into inaction over the disciplinary plans against the SEAL commando, Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher.  And perhaps worst of all, (3) Joint Chief Chairman Milley, SoS Mike Pompeo traveled to Mar-a-Lago in December 2019, where they informed President Trump of military strikes in Syria and Iraq *after* they took place.

Moderate Republican May Have Torpedoed Biden ATF Nominee, Will Not Vote to Confirm.  Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has received plenty of criticism from conservatives for siding with the left too often.  However, her latest decision is one that will be welcomed by her Republican colleagues.  According to Fox News, Collins announced this week that she will not vote to confirm David Chipman, President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  "After meeting with Mr. Chipman, listening to Mainers, and reviewing his record, I have decided to vote against Mr. Chipman's nomination to serve as the ATF Director," Collins said in a statement, according to Fox.  "In recent years, Mr. Chipman has been an outspoken critic of the firearms industry and has made statements that demean law-abiding gun owners."

Biden's Nominee to Head the ATF, Who Wants Congress to Ban 'Assault Weapons,' Says He Can't Define Them.  President Joe Biden wants Congress to ban "assault weapons," and so does David Chipman, his nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).  But neither Biden nor Chipman will say what that term means, and their obfuscation makes it impossible to take their proposal seriously.  Chipman, who worked as an ATF special agent for 25 years and later served as a senior policy adviser to the gun control group Giffords, was repeatedly asked to define assault weapon during his Senate confirmation hearing last month, and he repeatedly dodged the question.  Given Chipman's long experience as both an ATF agent and a gun control advocate, his evasiveness cannot plausibly be ascribed to a lack of preparation or knowledge.  Instead it seems to be an intentional strategy designed to avoid exposing the illogic of targeting firearms based on their "military-style" appearance.

Top Republican Requests IG Probe Into Biden's Potentially 'Unlawful Actions' Placing Activists In Regulatory Agency.  Republican Sen. Pat Toomey requested the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's watchdog to review allegations the agency has illegally forced senior officials out.  Sen. Pat Toomey, the Senate Banking Committee's top Republican, asked Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Inspector General Mark Bialek to review the allegations and potentially open a formal investigation into the matter in a letter sent Thursday afternoon [6/17/2021].  Toomey referenced a recent Government Executive report, which laid out how President Joe Biden's administration is using dubious means to force senior CFPB officials to retire.  "The political leadership of the [CFPB] under the Biden Administration has been taking unusual and possibly unlawful actions to push out top-level career civil servants at the CFPB in order to fill those civil service positions with hand-picked loyalists," Toomey wrote to Bialek.

Education Secretary Prioritizes Transgender Students Over Biological Girls, Does What Supreme Court Hasn't.  Americans can't say they weren't warned.  During his Senate committee confirmation hearing in February, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona affirmed his support for transgender athletes during a line of direct and intensive questioning by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.  Cardona stated, "I think that it's critically important to have education systems and educators respect the rights of all students, including students who are transgender, and that they are afforded the opportunities that every other student has to participate in extracurricular activities."  Cardona on Wednesday cemented his department's formal position on the matter, indicating that the U.S. Supreme Court's Bostock v.  Clayton County opinion extending workplace discrimination protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to gay and transgender employees would likewise be applied by the Department of Education to gay and transgender students under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Why JoeBama Picked Garland — U.S. Senate Confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson as DC Circuit Judge.  [Scroll down]  The vote was 53-47 [link here] Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham voted with Democrats to support KBJ to the circuit court.  This Deep State manuever was transparently predictable.  This was the real reason why Biden elevated Merrick Garland to AG, to get him out of the way for Ketanji Brown Jackson to work her way to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Obama would then have another tool for total control. [...] We all know that Biden is an avatar for Obama's third-term.  Hence the plan by Team Obama (BLM) and James Clyburn (AME) to use a cognitively impaired tool to secure the 2020 club nomination.  They then inserted Kamala Harris as the useful radical to manipulate for actual policy objectives.  Once you see the strings on the marionettes you can never return to that time before when you did not see them.

Court Records Show Eco-Terrorist Letter Received by Forest Service Was Sent by Biden's Bureau of Land Management Nominee.  A past link to an activity described as eco-terrorism should disqualify President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, according to a Republican senator.  Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming responded critically to nominee Tracy Stone-Manning's role in sending a threatening letter on behalf of an environmentalist group that committed tree spiking crimes in 1989.  "Tracy Stone-Manning collaborated with eco-terrorists," Barrasso said, according to the Daily Caller.  "She worked with extreme environmental activists who spiked trees, threatening the lives and livelihoods of loggers."

The New Secession Crisis: The Democrats have already left the Union.  The Democrats have already seceded from America's historic conception of nationhood in many respects: [...] THEY have removed entire groups of Americans who are not in their privileged demographics from roles in government leadership.  Biden tweets about a cabinet that looks like America, when his cabinet of 25 has no whites of Protestant origin, a group that encompassed almost every one of the founding fathers and even today makes up about 40 percent of the electorate.  Meanwhile, in the civil service, the Democrats are taking pains to out Trump supporters and ban them from government jobs.  Even the military is now falling under their assault.

Biden's BOEM Pick has Worked for Top Offshore Wind Firms.  Tommy Beaudreau spent the Trump years as a corporate lawyer working for energy companies of all stripes, including many of the developers that are key to the Biden administration's goal of building thousands of offshore wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean.  Beaudreau is now poised to be confirmed as the number-two official at the Interior Department, which will decide whether these projects should receive federal permits to start construction after evaluating their environmental impact.  Although some environmental groups have criticized him for his corporate work for fossil fuel companies, it's his private practice work for a wide swath of the offshore wind industry that may force him to sit out key decisions in an area that's central to President Biden's climate goals.

Biden's FERC Selection Lobbied for Major Wind Developer.  President Joe Biden's pick to lead a major federal energy agency spent years lobbying for the renewable power giant behind an offshore wind farm backed by the administration, a Washington Free Beacon review of disclosure forms found.  Shortly after his inauguration, Biden tapped Richard Glick to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  From 2001 to 2016, Glick served as head lobbyist for Avangrid Renewables, the U.S. subsidiary of Spanish electric conglomerate Iberdrola.  The company holds a 50 percent stake in Vineyard Wind, which is set to become the country's first large-scale offshore wind farm after the Biden administration approved the project on May 11.

Deception Wearing the Mask of Truth.  How is it not indecent that the Biden administration denies fundamental biology, while insisting that boys whose affliction with the mental illness of gender dysphoria should play in girls' sports?  Or that Joe Biden's appointee as Assistant Secretary of HHS is transgender Dr Rachel Levine, formerly Dr Richard Levine, who fathered four children, now an open advocate of chemical castration and genital mutilation for children, who instead need psychiatric counseling for gender confusion.  How is this decent or moral?

GOP Sen. Rick Scott to block DHS nominees until Biden visits border.  Sen. Rick Scott said Thursday [5/27/2021] he will block top Homeland Security nominees until President Biden makes a trip to the southern border to get a firsthand look at the situation.  Mr. Scott revealed his stance at a confirmation hearing with three nominees, the picks for deputy secretary, general counsel, and undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans.  He said it wasn't anything personal toward the three nominees, but rather a statement about Mr. Biden's approach to the border.

If Biden's pick to head the ATF gets the nod, we're all in trouble.  Biden's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, David Chipman, is a long-time gun control advocate.  Putting him in charge of the ATF is a guaranteed attack on American's Second Amendment rights.  As Wednesday's Senate hearing showed, the guy is also a crackpot and a liar.  If you check out leftist media outlets, including taxpayer-funded NPR, it's clear that Chipman's attraction for Democrats is his commitment to grabbing guns.

Biden's pick to lead ATF dodges on Hunter gun incident.  President Biden's pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday stonewalled questions about whether he would turn over records related to allegations that Mr. Biden's son Hunter lied on a background check to buy a gun.  David Chipman, who has been nominated to lead the federal agency, said he would try to get records requested by Republican senators but cautioned that he would have to abide by ATF and Justice privacy policies.  Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, pressed Mr. Chipman on what more he would need to know to produce the documents.

Biden's ATF Nominee Wants to Ban 'Assault Weapons' and His Definition Is Terrifyingly Broad.  President Joe Biden has nominated David Chipman, a longtime gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), an agency that plays a key role in gun regulations.  Chipman, who served as an ATF special agent for 25 years, left to work with former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) at her gun restriction organization Giffords.  During his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Chipman confirmed his support for a ban on AR-15 rifles.  He also suggested he still supports banning "assault weapons," and he presented an absurdly broad definition of "assault weapon."  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pressed Chipman on his public support for an AR-15 ban.

22 State AGs Voice Opposition to Biden's Nominee for ATF Director.  Attorneys General in 22 states have called on the U.S. Senate to oppose David Chipman's confirmation as director of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), citing the efforts of the president's nominee to restrict second amendment rights.  Montana's Attorney General (AG) Austin Knudsen led 21 of his colleagues in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate making a case against Chipman's confirmation.  "The Second Amendment is the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights," the AGs wrote.  "It guarantees our natural God-given right to defend our lives, our families, our property, and our freedom.  The confirmation of David Chipman to head the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is an attack on that right and on the millions of law-abiding gun owners across the country."

Senate Confirms Biden DOJ Nominee Kristen Clarke with One Republican Vote.  The Senate confirmed Kristen Clarke to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division with only one vote from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).  Clarke was confirmed as the first black woman to run the Civil Rights Division with a close 51-48 vote Tuesday afternoon.  Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) did not vote.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly called this vote "particularly poignant and appropriate" as it came on the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd.

Exactly what Barack H. Obama would do!
Biden Brings in Islamic Activists to Investigate U.S. Military for 'Extremism'.  A decade ago, Hina Shamsi was fighting on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation whose leaders had been convicted of providing material support to Hamas.  As the head of the ACLU's National Security Project, Shamsi, a Pakistani citizen, had fought fiercely for the Islamic terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.  "We all must pledge — not one person more in Guantanamo, not in our names," she recently declared.  But now the Pakistani advocate for Islamic terrorists has a new job:  going after our soldiers.  Shamsi is one of the terror lawyers who appears on a list of partners for the Biden administration's crackdown on "extremism" in the military.  The only kind of extremism that Shamsi appears to be an expert on is the Islamic kind and her expertise has been in denying it.  Furthermore, at least as of 2017, Shamsi had described herself as a Pakistan citizen with permanent legal residency in America.

The Ongoing Politicization of the DOJ.  President Joe Biden over the past few months has added to his administration multiple officials from the Obama-era who had direct participation in "RussiaGate."  The latest addition by the Biden administration is Susan Hennessey to the Department of Justice's National Security Division.  Hennessey has been one of the primary promoters of Russia-collusion theories during her time at Lawfare, a blog affiliated with The Brookings Institution.  Notably, her outlandish claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia have consistently been proven wrong. [...] Like so many leading promoters of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, Hennessey had worked in the intelligence community earlier in her career.  Before joining the Brookings Institution, Hennessey was an attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the National Security Agency.  On July 27, 2016, at the exact time that Steele's Dossier and information regarding Papadopoulos's conversation with Australia's Alexander Downer was being transmitted to the FBI, Hennessey and Wittes co-authored an article titled "Is Trump a Russian Agent," discussing if Trump could be subjected to a FISA surveillance.  Hennessey, along with Wittes, would remain focused on promoting allegations of Trump-Russia collusion for the next four years.  Hennessey was also routinely quoted in articles on Russia Collusion and was the single-source quote for an early influential article in McClatchy that was used to promote the theory that the intelligence community had evidence of Russia-collusion that went beyond the Steele Dossier — a statement that was later roundly disproven.

Biden HUD secretary receives warning for Hatch Act violation.  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge violated the Hatch Act in March with comments she made at a White House press briefing, the Office of Special Counsel found.  In a letter to Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director for Americans for Public Trust, the office's Hatch Act Unit chief, Ana Galindo-Marrone, confirmed the determination and said a warning had been issued to Fudge.  The letter was in response to a complaint filed by the organization regarding the official's remarks.  "OSC reviewed a transcript of the event and learned that Secretary Fudge appeared in her official capacity at the briefing and answered press questions about HUD-related topics," she said, adding, "At the end of her appearance, Secretary Fudge was asked to opine on the election to fill her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and she declined to respond.  Then Secretary Fudge was asked to discuss the 2022 Ohio election for U.S. Senate."

Deputy White House director said ICE 'doesn't have to exist,' told protesters to 'shut-it-down'.  The Biden White House's new deputy director for political strategy and outreach encouraged people to "look up your nearest ICE office and shut-it-down" and said ICE "doesn't have to exist" in 2018 tweets.  "If you're looking for a way to help — look up your nearest ICE office and shut-it-down," Natalie Montelongo wrote on Twitter on June 21, 2018, in response to a story about anti-ICE protests in Portland.

The three faces of the Republican Party.  Thanks to Donald Trump, we can all clearly see who among our officials actually represents the American people who elected them; which members of Congress are interested only in keeping their seats; and those who passively align themselves with the Democrats to push our republic into a version of communist China with a social credit system, struggle sessions, and mandatory submission to an all-powerful government that would make Mao and Stalin proud.  Far too many of them are sitting still for this.  The Republican Party is in serious disarray; it's fractured.  Yellow-bellies like Kevin McCarthy are the majority, and the open NeverTrumps are traitors to their constituents.  Where do they all seem to work together?  When confirming Biden's dismal appointees to high office within his illegitimate administration.  They are all awful!  William Burns for CIA has numerous links to the Communist Party of China; Susan Hennessey to the DOJ is a confirmed rabid Russia hoaxer.  Lisa Monaco probably ordered the raid on Giuliani.  On this one score, their three faces meld into one insipid like-mind that cravenly submits to the most radical administration in U.S. history.

Where is the Congressional Republican Outrage?  Recently, the new Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin explained that an existential threat to our military forces is climate change.  I guess the secretary missed the session on orientation day explaining the main objective of the U.S. military to fight wars and defeat the enemy.  When not engaged in war, they should be training and preparing for one.  To achieve that objective he said, "We in the Department of Defense are committed to doing our part, from increasing the energy efficiency of our platforms and installations, to deploying clean distributed generation and energy storage, to electrifying our own vehicle fleets".  I look for the announcement of a newly designed, totally electric Abrams tank.

Granholm grinning
Energy Secretary Granholm just can't suppress her smiles over the gasoline shortages from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.  Jennifer Granholm sure doesn't look too upset over the impact of the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline on gasoline and other energy supplies. [...] Don't you realize it's good for you to learn to get along without fossil fuels?  Did you realize that if you drive an electric car, this wouldn't be a problem?  Watch as a reporter's question on whether the shutdown would "speed up" the transition to green energy yields utterly` inappropriate (and chilling, if you think about it) smiles from Granholm:  [Photo]  [Tweet]  Sacrifices are going to have to be made, and it's the little people who must make them.  Don't expect Granholm to take the bus to work or swear off private jets.  And don't call what's going on a "gasoline shortage"!  That's too reminiscent of Jimmy Carter.  Call it a "supply crunch"!


Symone Sanders 'hurt' that Biden picked Psaki over her for press secretary, Wa-Po reports.  The problem with those who go through life perceiving themselves as victims is that their victimhood lives on in perpetuity.  Symone Sanders, 31, senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, is reportedly "hurt" that she wasn't selected over White House press secretary Jen Psaki to be President Joe Biden's spokesperson.  Sanders bailed on Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., — no relation — after briefly serving as press secretary during his 2016 presidential campaign.  After joining CNN later in the year as a contributor, Sanders declared, "We don't need white people leading the Democratic Party right now."

One of the Worst Russian Collusion Hoaxers Just Got Hired by the DOJ.  In another move proving that there is no justice in Washington, one of the worst Russian collusion hoaxers of the Donald Trump era has been hired by the Department of Justice.  Susan Hennessy, who was still fluffing the Steele Dossier well after its demise, will now work for the National Security Division.  Hennessey was also a chief opposer of the highly successful strike to kill Qasem Soleimani, jumping into action to condemn the intelligence behind the raid.  Later, Iran's Javad Zarif would admit the attack was devastating for the terrorist nation.

Senate should reject radical, unethical Kristen Clarke for top civil rights post.  The Senate should reject leftist lawyer Kristen Clarke's nomination as the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division.  New ethical questions help illustrate why.  Clarke's record already showed a tendency toward ideological extremism.  Now, she stands credibly accused of multiple instances of providing false testimony under oath. [...] Clarke's extremist tendencies have manifested themselves on matters of policing and race.  On law enforcement, she long has stood accused of animus against the police in general.  On race, she has a long history of advocacy for, or association with, black radicals and black anti-Semites and of opposing the prosecution of black vote-fraudsters.

A Major Biden Administration Scandal Is Brewing.  As RedState reported weeks ago, there are serious issues surrounding millions of dollars in stock owned by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.  That stock is in Proterra, an electric vehicle company that is being actively promoted by the Biden administration.  Further, Granholm being the Secretary of Energy means she gets to make regulations that can directly enrich herself.  Now, the story has gotten worse as Granholm appears to have reneged completely on her pledge to sell her stock and leave the board of the company in question.

The Editor says...
It's not a scandal if the news media ignores it.  At least that appears to be the plan.

Biden Nominee Kirsten Clarke Promoted Work of Racist Anti-Semitic Black Supremacist.  Kirsten Clarke, Biden's nominee to head civil rights at the DOJ, has a history of black nationalism, and sympathy for racism and antisemitism. [...] What kind of decent person would be associated with filth like this?  No one.  Only a Biden nominee would.  Imagine a Republican nominee circulating material from anyone half this hateful and deranged.  But the media keeps playing defense for Clarke.

Biden DOJ Nominee Conceals Ties To Anti-Semitic Professor.  Archived copies of a scholarly journal show Justice Department nominee Kristen Clarke listed on the masthead alongside an anti-Semitic writer with whom she claimed under oath she has never collaborated.  The revelation could prompt charges that she gave inaccurate answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Clarke told lawmakers that she has never worked with Amiri Baraka, the Marxist and anti-Semitic black nationalist who accused Israel of having advanced knowledge of 9/11 in a 2002 poem.  Both Clarke and Baraka are listed as editors of the journal Souls at least eight times over two years.  While Clarke's denial may not technically amount to perjury, less-than-candid responses have proved fatal for other nominees of both parties.

Biden SBA Pick Serves on the Board of Anti-Israel Group.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a top Small Business Administration job sits on the board of a group that lobbies in favor of the anti-Israel boycott movement and describes Israel as an "apartheid" state.  Dilawar Syed, Biden's pick for deputy administrator of the SBA, has served on the board of the Muslim-American advocacy group Emgage Action since 2017, according to his public financial disclosure form submitted as part of his nomination process.  Emgage Action is a staunch defender of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) that seeks to hurt Israel with economic pressure.  The stance could be an obstacle for Syed ahead of his confirmation vote by the Senate Small Business Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), one of the Democratic Party's most vocal opponents of BDS.

Senate Republicans Just Handed Matches to [an] Arsonist.  On Wednesday [4/21/2021], 48 Republican senators — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and two former chairmen of the Senate Judiciary Committee — voted to confirm Lisa Monaco as Biden's deputy attorney general.  (Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas voted no.)  Monaco, as I explained [elsew]here, is an Obama confidante who played a key role in perpetuating the myth about Russian collusion both before and after the 2016 election.  The former chief of staff to Robert Mueller when he headed Obama's FBI and then Obama's homeland security advisor, Monaco has been a harsh critic of Trump and Republican policies over the past four years.  She backs a "whole of government" approach to combating domestic terrorists, code for Americans who support Donald Trump.  Not a single Republican senator should have supported Monaco's nomination.  Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month should have featured GOP senators demanding answers about her involvement in the collusion hoax and assurances she would not use her broad authority to keep targeting people on the Right.

4 Things to Know About Biden's New Voting Czar.  As Democrats push to expand the federal government's purview over elections, President Joe Biden has named a former Justice Department official to be a White House adviser on voting issues.  Biden this week tapped Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor, to be his senior adviser for democracy and voting rights. [...] Levitt has been critical of Georgia's recent election reforms, telling FactCheck.org that the state's new law bans food and drink from voter lines at polling places.  "This new prohibition is extra, and prevents giving anyone in line food or drink, even if it's demonstrably not an incentive (e.g., giving someone who had already waited two hours in line a bottle of water)," Levitt told the website in an email.  Actually, the new Georgia law bans campaign workers and activists from handing out food or drink within a certain distance but specifically allows poll workers to hand out water.  The law prevents campaign workers from setting up a booth 150 feet from a polling station or within 25 feet of a voter.

Biden pick to manage federal personnel promoted controversial racial theorist.  As CEO of a dark money-backed philanthropy, President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management promoted a controversial racial theorist as well as groups calling to defund the police and post bail for violent left-wing protesters.  Kiran Ahuja would take office at a time of upheaval inside the federal government as it champions radically new notions of race and history.  If confirmed in the evenly divided Senate, Ahuja would lead an agency of several thousand employees and act as chief human resource officer to millions of government officials.  Biden has directed his administration to take a whole-of-government approach to addressing racial inequity, issuing sweeping executive orders and weaving the language of critical race theory into federal directives.

Biden's pick to lead the DOJ criminal division under fire for brokering plea deal with Louisiana district attorney.  President Joe Biden's pick to lead the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division is facing new scrutiny over a plea deal he brokered with a Louisiana district attorney who was accused of coercing sexual favors from as many as two dozen women.  A former FBI agent blasted Kenneth Polite in a whistleblower letter unsealed this week, saying he lacked the courage to seek justice and left victims in the dark about the 2016 case while serving as New Orleans' top federal prosecutor.

Senate Overwhelmingly Confirms Lisa Monaco To Be Deputy Attorney General.  Lisa Monaco, President Joe Biden's pick for the no. 2 post at the Department of Justice, was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate Tuesday [4/20/2021].  Monaco, a security advisor to former President Barack Obama and a former member of the Homeland Security Council, was confirmed 98 to 2, and joins Attorney General Merrick Garland in leading the department.  The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved her nomination after she earned bipartisan praise, even as it split on another Justice Department nominee in the same hearing.

Conservative group says 'independent' postal board nominee is really a Democrat.  A group that conducts "non-partisan conservative research and fact-checking" is calling into question the claim that one of Biden's nominees to the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service is a true independent and has produced online evidence she is a Democrat.  Amber McReynolds's nomination will be considered at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on Thursday.  President Joe Biden nominated McReynolds to serve as the only independent governor on the nine-member board, which would make her a crucial tiebreaker on the panel.  The American Accountability Foundation believes McReynolds is a Democrat, and her confirmation to the board as an independent could allow Democrats to fill a vacancy later with another Democrat, illegally stacking the board in their favor.

Pompeo calls Thomas-Greenfield's 'slavery' comments 'reprehensible'.  Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed comments from UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield that "slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents" — saying the remarks are "reprehensible" and should disqualify her from representing American interests around the world.  "America is a noble place," Pompeo told "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM in an interview that aired Sunday [4/18/2021].  "I heard our ambassador to the United Nations this week talk about our founding as fundamentally corrupt and flawed and not noble and good.  I couldn't disagree more."  Thomas-Greenfield spoke about the "imperfect union" of America during a virtual speech last Wednesday at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference.

Biden Nominee Skates Through Confirmation Hearing Without Facing Questions About Her Handling Of Steele Dossier.  State Department nominee Victoria Nuland coasted through her Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday without facing any questions about her role disseminating information from former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 presidential campaign.  Nuland, who is nominated for undersecretary of state of political affairs, authorized two meetings during a previous stint at the State Department between government officials and Steele, a former British spy who compiled a dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.  She also pressed the FBI in the weeks before the 2016 election to investigate Steele's allegations, according to government documents released last year.

Psaki: Biden won't remove UN ambassador over 'white supremacy' comments.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said President Biden has no plans to remove UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield over comments she made that "slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles."  The senior US diplomat described racism and discrimination in the US in taped remarks this week to Al Sharpton's National Action Network.  Emerald Robinson of Newsmax asked Psaki at her daily press briefing whether Biden is "going to remove her from her position" — saying the speech hit themes similar to an anti-US diatribe by Chinese diplomats in Alaska last month.  But Psaki defended Thomas-Greenfield, who also denounced China's treatment of Uyghurs and Burma's treatment of Rohingya Muslims in her remarks to Sharpton's group.

Kristen Clarke Is Unfit to Be in Government.  Kristen Clarke, Joe Biden's nominee for assistant attorney general of the United States, once promoted racist pseudoscientific quackery, arguing that the human brain was structured in a way that makes Black people superior to white people, and that "human mental processes" in the brain have chemicals that imbue one race with "superior physical and mental abilities" and "spiritual abilities."  Rather than owning up to a youthful relationship with radicalism, Clarke, who made these comments in the Harvard Crimson as a 19 year old, claims that her racist diatribe was a merely a parody mocking the controversial book, "The Bell Curve."  "What I was seeking to do was to hold up a mirror," she says, "Put one racist theory alongside another."  Purely by chance, Clarke also happened to invite a Holocaust-denying fraud named Anthony Martin — then a professor at Wellesley College whose assigned primary textbook was called "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," which blamed Jews for the slave trade, and who wrote "The Jewish Onslaught," published by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — to speak at Harvard.  Around the same time Clarke was writing unrecognizable satire about Black supremacy, she was calling Martin an "intelligent, well-versed Black intellectual who bases his information on indisputable fact."

Kristen Clarke, Bigot and Liar.  Having sworn to answer all questions truthfully, in an appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division offered a series of answers that strained credulity and veered into outright falsehood.  The most bald-faced of the lies Kristen Clarke offered in her own defense relates to her activism while a Harvard University undergraduate in the 1990s.  Pressed about a 1994 letter published in the Harvard Crimson making the case that blacks are intellectually and physically superior to whites, Clarke waved it off as a "satirical" attempt to refute The Bell Curve, which came out the same year.  Everybody knew she was joking, she said, when she wrote that "black infants sit, stand, crawl and walk sooner than whites," and, in a demonstration of scholarly rigor, pointed to the work of the writer Carol Barnes to assert that "human mental processes are controlled by melanin — that same chemical which gives Blacks their superior physical and mental abilities."  The letter concluded:  "It is completely naive to say that Blacks have achieved economic equality with whites.  It seems that whites have grown tired of hearing about racism."  Was that a joke, too?

There Is Absolutely No Evidence That Kristen Clarke's Racist Letter Was Satire.  Yesterday [4/14/2021], Texas senator John Cornyn asked Kristen Clarke, Joe Biden's nominee for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, about a letter she wrote promoting pseudoscientific racist theories in The Harvard Crimson back in the 1990s.  Clarke claimed she was merely "holding up a mirror" to the "racist theory that defined the Bell Curve book."  "But this was satire?" Cornyn asked.  "Absolutely, senator," said Clarke.  Cornyn moved on quickly, but was still skewered by the usual characters. [...] Indeed, there is not a single shred of contemporaneous evidence that the letter was satire.  Quite the opposite.  Subsequent pieces in the Crimson specifically point out that Clarke refused to concede that she wasn't serious.  The Harvard Crimson staff, in fact, demanded a retraction and noted that it had "searched in vain for a hint of irony in Clarke's letter."  In another response, a columnist argued that "Clarke refuses to explicitly deny the theories" and accused her of "disseminating racist theories."  Again, believing stupid things when you're young is no crime.  (Though Clarke still supports the occasional Farrakhanite.)  But it seems quite likely that Clarke lied to Congress — with the help of a number of people in the media.

Biden DOJ Pick Struggles to Defend Record on Black Panther Prosecutions.  Justice Department nominee Kristen Clarke struggled to explain her criticisms of a civil rights case lodged against members of the New Black Panther Party during her confirmation hearing Wednesday [4/14/2021].  Clarke tried to duck questions about her opposition to prosecuting two Panthers for civil rights violations in the 2008 election while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Republican lawmakers say the Black Panther case is a troubling indicator of her approach to enforcing civil rights laws.  Clarke's history of opposing civil rights prosecutions of black defendants has made her nomination contentious.  If confirmed, she will lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and serve as top prosecutor for a range of nondiscrimination statutes.

Wherever Vanita Gupta Worked, Her Father's Money Followed.  Hiring Vanita Gupta has come with an added perk for her employers: hundreds of thousands of dollars from her wealthy chemical executive father.  A Washington Free Beacon review of financial documents found Rajiv Gupta's Ujala Foundation donated $50,000 to the ACLU the same year his daughter, now President Joe Biden's nominee for the number-three position at the Department of Justice, was promoted to a management position.  Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of dollars in Ujala donations carefully tracked Vanita Gupta's employment record.  Among the foundation's first major contributions was $50,000 in 2010 to the ACLU, the same year Vanita Gupta was promoted to a leadership position.  The Ujala Foundation's donations totaled $182,500 to the ACLU while Vanita worked there, including installments of $50,000 in 2010, $50,000 in 2011, $40,000 in 2012, and $42,500 in 2013.  Its donations ceased once Vanita left in 2014 to join the Obama administration.

Who is David Chipman, Biden's pick to lead ATF?  President Joe Biden has chosen a gun control advocate with a history of pushing for limits on guns and ammunition to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.  Biden announced David Chipman, a former ATF agent, as his pick to lead the agency last week alongside the unveiling of executive actions aimed at curbing certain kinds of firearms.  Chipman's past advocacy for restricting guns, however, could complicate his path to confirmation through a sharply divided Senate.  His most recent employer — Giffords, part of a gun safety organization founded by Rep. Gabby Giffords — has pushed this year for stripping gun manufacturers of protection from lawsuits if their guns are used in crimes, requiring permits for the purchase of all types of guns, and limiting magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.  Pro-gun groups quickly panned the nomination last week.  The National Rifle Association on Friday announced its opposition, calling him a "gun control extremist."  The Second Amendment Foundation called Biden's selection of Chipman an "alarming development."

Cotton: Biden Admin Says [the] Same Things about American Racism that China [and the] USSR Used to Say.  On Wednesday's [4/14/2021] broadcast of the Fox News Channel's "Fox News Primetime," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reacted to U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield's statements about racism being a part of America's founding documents by saying that under the Biden administration, our own diplomats are saying the same things about America that we used to hear Chinese or Soviet officials say about the U.S.  Cotton said, "Amazing.  Yeah, you used to listen to Communist Chinese or Communist Soviets call Americans racists at the United Nations.  In the Biden administration, you hear that from our own ambassador.  That's disgraceful."

Biden U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield Faces Backlash For Attacking U.S.: 'CCP Propaganda'.  Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden's U.N. ambassador, faced widespread criticism on Wednesday [4/14/2021] after she bashed the U.S. while speaking to a far-left organization run by "genuine bigot" Al Sharpton.  Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration wants to have "humility" as it raises the issues of "equity and justice at the global scale."

Biden U.N. ambassador blasts U.S., rips 'White supremacy' within 'founding documents and principles'.  President Biden's U.N. ambassador wants the world to know that the Declaration of Independence and the principles espoused within are laced with "White supremacy."  Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the blanket comments about founding documents this week while speaking to the Al Sharpton-founded National Action Network (NAN).  "I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved White supremacy into our founding documents and principles," she said.

The Editor says...
The people at the U.N. have a low enough opinion of the U.S. already, without some America-hating leftist radical egging them on.

Biden's Team of Racists and Anti-Semites:  An Anti-American Coalition in the Heart of the White House.  Formally introducing his cabinet to the public, Joe Biden proudly declared:  "This is the first [time] in American history that the cabinet looks like America." Looking at the actual appointments and not just the gender, skin color, and ethnic origins of the Biden team, it is a team that may look like America but doesn't think like America.  In fact, it is a team whose outlook is anti-American.

Report: Biden Is About to Nominate Cindy McCain for a Coveted Position.  Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, is in line for an ambassador position in the Biden administration, according to a new report. [...] According to Politico, McCain will now be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations World Food Programme.  The agency is based in Rome.  McCain, 66, previously worked to fight world hunger and human trafficking as the chair of the board of trustees for the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.  McCain was also a member of Biden's transition team.  Earlier speculation indicated she could be named the administration's ambassador to the United Kingdom, according to Axios.

Biden Picks Pro-Illegal Police Chief Who Evicted Border Patrol to Head CBP.  I'm only surprised that Biden didn't pick an actual illegal alien to head CBP.  That'll come a little later.  Meanwhile, Biden decided to nominate Tucson, Arizona police chief Chris Magnus, to head Customs and Border Protection. [...] It ought to go without saying that the head of a pro-illegal department who actually blocked the Border Patrol from doing its job has no place whatsoever heading up CBP, but Biden, like Obama, keeps appointing foxes to oversee the national henhouse.

Biden 'Environmental Justice' Appointees Equate Energy Production, Fossil Fuels With Racism.  In February, Beverly Wright linked the legacy of slavery and the Jim Crow era with energy development.  In March, President Joe Biden appointed Wright to his White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.  Wright, the founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, is joined on the council by Jade Begay of the Indigenous Environmental Network, who co-wrote a 2018 op-ed in EcoWatch contending that climate change is "colonialism" and "cultural genocide."  Biden has named several activists that tie energy development to racial bigotry to the Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Biden Border Coordinator Roberta Jacobson stepping down.  The Biden administration's Southern Border coordinator will step down at the end of the month as officials continue to struggle with a large influx of migrants trying to enter the United States.  Roberta Jacobson, the former ambassador to Mexico, was chosen as President Biden's border czar amid pressure from lawmakers to address what some are calling a "crisis" at the southern border.  "Consistent with her commitment to serve in the administration's first 100 days, Ambassador Jacobson will retire from her role as Coordinator at the end of this month," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Members Of Biden's 'Environmental Justice' Advisory Council Have History Of Radicalism, Claiming Fossil Fuels Are Racist.  At the end of last month, the Biden administration announced the members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which would "provide advice and recommendations to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council on how to address current and historic environmental injustices."  Twenty-six people were named to the council, but at least four of them have made radical statements connecting fossil fuels to racism.  Susana Almanza, for example, is the director of People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER), an environmental justice organization based in Austin, Texas.  Hilltop Views, the student news website of St. Edward's University, profiled Almanza, noting that she has a Che Guevara poster in her office and said that her organization is "fighting big monsters; they're not little ones," referring to oil companies.

Biden's Nominee To Lead ATF Pushed Dubious Claim About Waco Siege To Call For Blanket Ban On Assault Rifles.  The gun control activist who President Joe Biden is expected to nominate to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) claimed last year that members of the Branch Davidian sect shot down two helicopters during a standoff with federal agents in Waco in 1993.  David Chipman, the expected nominee, posted the comments as part of a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" event.  He also called for tighter gun control measures, including restricting gun sales only to licensed gun stores and a ban on the manufacture and sale of so-called assault rifles.  Biden is expected to announce Chipman's nomination on Thursday during an event where he will lay out a series of executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence.  Chipman currently serves as a senior policy adviser to former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was nearly killed after being shot by a gunman at a campaign event in 2011.   CNN described Chipman Wednesday as a "fierce advocate for gun control."

Biden's Pick to Lead ATF Locked His Twitter Account:  What Is He Hiding?  President Joe Biden is set to nominate David Chipman, a prominent adviser to the anti-gun group launched by former democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on Thursday [4/8/2021].  But, shortly after news broke of his appointment, Chipman changed the privacy settings on his Twitter to private.  What is he hiding?  Chipman previously served 25 years at the ATF and became a special agent to lead the bureau's Firearms Program, according to The Federalist.  Indeed, it seems there is no better person to help Joe Biden push his radical gun control agenda.  Chipman locking his Twitter account is perhaps a precautionary measure, as past tweets have created problems for several of Biden's nominees.

Biden's nominee for ATF head is an anti-gun lobbyist who was at the Ruby Ridge standoff and Waco massacre — and lied about cult members shooting down helicopters.  Joe Biden's pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was an agent involved in the Ruby Ridge standoff and Waco siege — and, it was revealed this week, he lied about Branch Davidian cult members shooting down two helicopters during the infamous standoff.  Gun rights advocacy groups are extremely concerned that Biden is tapping gun control advocate David Chipman to lead the agency that oversees firearms-related issues.  They are also now concerned about his previous false statement.  'Joe Biden knows he cannot beat gun owners in Congress.  Instead, he's circumventing the legislative process to impose his own tyrannical [vision] by executive fiat,' Gun Owners of America Vice President Erich Pratt told Fox News in a statement.

Joe Biden Border Czar Roberta Jacobson Stepping Down.  President Joe Biden's "border czar" will leave the White House, as the administration continues struggling to handle the migration crisis on the Southern border.  Former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Roberta S. Jacobson, who was appointed by Biden to lead the diplomatic effort in Central America, will leave her position at the end of April, she revealed to the New York Times.

Biden asks his Education Secretary if he can legally cancel up to $50,000 in student debt for EVERY American.  President Joe Biden's Secretary of Education is looking into whether the president can cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt for millions of borrowers.  White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said at a Politico Playbook event Thursday that Biden has asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to figure out if the president has the legal authority to wipe out their balances.  On the campaign trail he said he wanted to wipe away $10,000 per borrower, but prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have pressed him to pursue $50,000 in debt relief per student.

'Environmentalist' Buttigieg unloads bike from SUV before riding the short distance to his destination.  The United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was caught on video Thursday unloading a bike from an SUV just moments before riding the bike a short distance to his destination, to make it look like the 'environmentalist' was saving energy, in an epic virtue signal fail.  A person off camera can even be heard questioning why the Biden administration official would be wearing a suit while bike riding.  Buttigieg has been at the forefront of advocating for President Joe Biden to implement new taxes on transportation, including taxing individual's based on the amount of distance they have driven as well as increasing taxes on gas.

Pete Buttigieg's little bicycle theater is ridiculous.  Little Petey Buttigieg is now playing in the big leagues, having made the tremendous leap from ineffectual mayor of a crime-ridden city to Transportation Secretary of the United States of America.  To make a point about alternative transportation, he rode a bicycle to his first White House cabinet meeting — after first having several burly men drive him near the White House and then escort him and his bike.  This kind of theater is typical for leftists, who often seem incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality.  Last week, Little Petey (who always reminds me of a cross between Alfred "What, Me Worry?" Newman and Beaver Cleaver) let Americans know that being transportation secretary is more than focusing on roads and cars.  Therefore, he tweeted out, "You should not have to own a car to prosper in this country, no matter what kind of community you're living in."  On Thursday, he decided to use his first White House cabinet meeting to make that point.

A lifetime position on the Supreme Court is far too important to trivialize with race and gender quotas.
Psaki Reveals That Biden 'Absolutely Committed' To Installing A Black Woman On Supreme Court.  During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki revealed that Joe Biden is "absolutely" committed to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court.  During his campaign, Biden promised to put a Black woman on the nation's highest court in order to appeal to the critical race theorists of the Democrat Party.  The campaign promise was put in the spotlight as a reporter asked Psaki if the Biden team was considering giving favorable chances to political nominees of certain skin color.  Biden's campaign pandering came back to the spotlight after he released his first federal judicial picks, a group of 11 attorneys that included multiple Black women.

The Editor says...
If the nominee must be black and must be female (how is that legal?) I'm rooting for either Sheila Jackson Lee or Maxine Waters.  Imagine all the lively discussions that would ensue behind closed doors at the Scotus with either of those two clowns in the room.

Biden Puts Susan Rice in Charge of Effort to Expand Vote by Mail.  President Joe Biden put controversial former national security adviser Susan Rice in charge of directing hundreds of federal agencies and departments to expand access to mail-in voting.  Biden signed an executive order in March that put Rice, now the assistant to the president for domestic policy, in charge of soliciting strategies from federal agencies to produce "relevant information" on expanded voting registration procedures.  Federal agencies must submit to Rice "a strategic plan outlining the ways identified under this review that the agency can promote voter registration and voter participation" within 200 days under the terms of the order.  "Agencies shall consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process," the order states.

SOCOM's First Diversity and Inclusion Chief Gets Immediately Re-Assigned Over Post Comparing Trump to Hitler.  As covered by RedState's streiff over the weekend, the Department of Defense has added an office of "diversity and inclusion."  Via Twitter, the U.S. Special Operations Command christened its first chief, Richard Torres-Estrada:  [Tweet]  Some considered it a curious choice, as the man hadn't necessarily placed great emphasis on including things that are diverse. [...] Meanwhile, the nation's new Secretary of Defense has announced his support for transgenderism in the service.

Biden's list of judicial nominees leans heavily toward checking one identity box in particular.  Identity politics looms large in the list of judicial nominees released by the Biden White House today.  Can you guess which identity box is focused on like a laser beam on this list?  It's black women.  It is as though a call was sent out that only black women will be considered for judicial nominations, with a particular focus on one who may be Biden's Supreme Court nominee, should the opportunity arise.  Anytime a Democrat begins talking about diversity and the historic nature of decisions, you know what is coming.  The Biden administration doesn't even bother to finesse its blatant sop to a demographic that is responsible for Sleepy Joe's election.  Joe Biden won the presidential election thanks to black Democrat women voters.  It began in South Carolina with Biden scoring the endorsement of Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat powerhouse in that state, and went from there.  Black women organized support for Biden and got out the vote for him across the country.  Now it's payback time.

Biden's DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas Fires all but three members of his advisory council in the middle of the border crisis.  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Alejandro Mayorkas has been slammed for firing 32 members of the agency's advisory council, including several Donald Trump allies, in the middle of the border crisis.  Mayorkas announced the shock move to 'reconstitute' the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) in a letter to the ousted members Friday telling them that their place on the council had ended effective immediately, with only three members kept on in their roles.  'I am considering how the HSAC can bring the greatest value to the Department and how the expertise, judgment, and counsel of its members can be harnessed most effectively to advance the Department's mission,' he wrote.

SOCOM Investigating New Diversity Chief's Posts including One Comparing Trump to Hitler.  U.S. Special Operations Command is investigating its new chief of diversity and inclusion over social media posts criticizing police and former President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Monday.  SOCOM welcomed Richard Torres-Estrada in a tweet Thursday [3/25/2021]. [...] But within days, critics were roasting Torres-Estrada for some of his public Facebook posts, particularly one last summer that implicitly compared President Trump to Adolf Hitler.  The well-circulated meme juxtaposes a doctored photo of Hitler appearing to hold up a book resembling a Bible with a genuine photograph of Trump holding a Bible in front of St. John's Church across from the White House.

US Special Operations Command Appoints a Political Commissar to Make Sure the Whole Place Is Woke Enough to Suit the Left.  Part of the Defense Authorization Act that passed Congress over President Trump's veto (it had only twelve No votes in the Senate and 87 No votes in the House) was the mainstreaming of Critical Race Theory into the U.S. Defense establishment.  This attack of morale, good order, and discipline comes in the form of mandating a "diversity and inclusion" (diversity and inclusion do not, apparently, extend to heterosexual males, particularly if they are white) apparatus at all levels of command and essentially instituting something like NKVD commissars to ensure the entire chain of command is supportive of racial grievance-mongering.  Yesterday [3/26/2021], US Special Operations Command announced the appointment of its first "chief of diversity and inclusion."

Ri-i-i-ight.
US Special Operations Command 'Not Aware' of Top Hire's Anti-Trump Posts.  U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) didn't know that a newly hired official had compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and expressed support for the quasi-Marxist equity theory, a spokesperson said on March 27.  USSOCOM earlier in the week announced the hiring of Richard Torres-Estrada as its chief of diversity and inclusion.  Torres-Estrada last year compared Trump, who was president at the time, with Hitler, who perpetrated the Holocaust, killing millions of Jews in Europe.  He also made at least one other clear anti-Trump post, according to Facebook posts reviewed by The Epoch Times.  In addition, Torres-Estrada posted an image expressing support for the radical theory of equity, which posits that an equal outcome among people is favorable to certain persons getting ahead of others.  The ideology has been reintroduced across the federal government by President Joe Biden, who reversed an order by President Donald Trump that had banned the use of training for federal employees based on the ideology, amid deep concerns that it fosters racism.

Special Operations Command Hires Diversity and Inclusion Chief Who Posted Anti-Trump Memes.  United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has hired as its first "chief of diversity and inclusion" a person who posted anti-Trump memes on his Facebook page, including one that compared the former president to Adolf Hitler.

US military has gone full woke, waging war on those who disagree with them.  Who exactly is Richard Torres-Estrada?  His Facebook page gives us some indication of who he is.  On it, you'll find an attack on the police, you'll find crude BLM propaganda, you'll find a picture of Donald Trump holding a Bible in front of a church.  Next to Trump is a photograph of Adolf Hitler.  The point is, they're the same.  So, this is the guy who now oversees hiring for the SEALs.  If you're wondering whether our military leadership has gone woke, consider that question settled for good.  The Pentagon is now the Yale faculty lounge, but with cruise missiles.

Biden nominates Sen. Joe Manchin's wife to federal commission.  President Biden has picked the wife of an extremely influential U.S. senator for a federal commission post, the White House announced Friday [3/26/2021].  Biden nominated Gayle Conelly Manchin to co-chair the Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development partnership with 13 states designed to boost investment in the Appalachian Region.  Manchin is an educator, past president of West Virginia's State Board of Education and the former first lady of West Virginia.

A convenient way to dodge questions:  I haven't been briefed, so I know nothing.
FEMA nominee [is] in the dark about agency's work at Mexico border.  President Biden's nominee for FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, told senators Thursday [3/25/2021] that she's unfamiliar with what the agency is doing since it was summoned to help address a migrant surge along the US-Mexico border.  Criswell, currently commissioner of New York City Emergency Management, said she hasn't been briefed by Biden administration officials on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's role.  "I've not been briefed on their specific activities that they're performing," Criswell testified to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The Biden Administration's identity politics obsession.  The central problem with the Biden Administration is that people are not being selected for top jobs based on merit but on gender and race preferences.  This will rapidly lead to gross, even dangerous, ineffectiveness and abuse when linked primarily to advancing woke ideology rather than cost-benefit service for the American people.  We are seeing appointees pushing radical agendas in positions and ministries that should be disconnected to issues of race and gender.

Biden's HHS Pick Becerra Collaborated With Dems' Mystery IT Man Imran Awan.  The Senate has voted to confirm Xavier Becerra, Joe Biden's pick to head the federal Department of Health and Human Services.  As Deion Kathawa notes at American Greatness, the California attorney general is a rather odd choice for the job. [...] In Mendota, near Fresno, the MS-13 gang imposed a reign of terror, committing at least 14 murders, with some victims hacked to death before they could testify.  Federal authorities spearheaded the case against the gang, and Becerra only showed up after the feds arrested 25 MS-13 members.  The attorney general made it clear he was not concerned about the gang's "status."  In similar style, the murder of police officers Ronil Singh and Brian Ishmael, both by illegal aliens, prompted little concern for the slain officers and no campaign against criminal illegals, who enjoy sanctuary in California.  These issues did not surface in Becerra's HHS hearing.  Neither did the curious case that led to his surprising departure from Washington in 2016.

Senate confirms transgender official to key post in historic first.  Voting mostly along party lines, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be the nation's assistant secretary of health.  She is the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation.  The final vote was 52-48.  Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats in supporting Levine.

Has there ever in US history been a more pitiful cabinet?  Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have once again betrayed the American people and voted to confirm one of the most insidious persons ever nominated to a cabinet position, Rachel Levine.  He/she will now be the assistant secretary of health.  Levine was as toxic as NY Gov. Cuomo when it came to rendering Pennsylvania nursing homes super-spreaders of covid, but she put her own mother in a hotel.  She knew what she was doing as surely as Cuomo did.  There is much to condemn this appointment but most serious is Levine's promotion of medication and surgery for pre-pubescent children with gender dysphoria.  Sane people realize this is perhaps the most despicable form of child abuse that has currently won favor among trans activists.  Surely both Murkowski and Collins know full well that the vast majority of the American people do not support such extremist views but they apparently wanted to appear to be sufficiently "woke."

Richard Levine highlights the problem of maverick Republicans.  On Wednesday [3/24/2021], the Senate confirmed Richard Levine (aka Rachel Levine) as Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. [...] His gender confusion is the only qualification he has for the position to which he's been appointed.  Were he just plain old Richard, it is unlikely that anyone would pay attention to this shlemiel, with his offensive, stereotyped cultural appropriation of femininity. [...] If Levine is a competent doctor despite his eccentricity, then he can serve in that role.  It's Levine's competence that is questionable.  His performance as Health Secretary in Pennsylvania was less than stellar.  Pennsylvania is one of the four states that saw so many old people die from COVID that it became the subject of a Department of Justice investigation.  In addition, even as his state was shipping COVID infected people into nursing homes, turning them into charnel houses, Levine spirited his mother out of her nursing home-like facility and off to safety.

Awkward moment Jen Psaki refuses to explain why White House fired five pot-smoking staffers when VP Kamala supports legalization and admitted getting high.  The White House was again forced to defend firing five pot-smoking staffers during Wednesday's [3/24/2021] press briefing.  Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked how aides could get axed after Vice President Kamala Harris has admitted to smoking pot and even praised it saying, 'It gives people joy and we need more joy in this world.'  Psaki stuck to her position that the White House allowed more people to serve than previous administrations would have, with a revised pot policy, adding that for a number of those let go 'there were other security issues that were raised.'

What's the difference between this and racism?
Democrat Sens. Duckworth and Hirono Ready to Withhold Support for Biden Nominees Until Asian Picks Put Forward.  Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said she will vote "no" to confirm nominee Colin Kahl for the Pentagon's top policy chief until President Joe Biden appoints Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) as "nominees to vacant positions."  When Duckworth asked White House staff about AAPI representation, she was told, "We're very proud of Vice President Harris," which Duckworth found "incredibly insulting."  She said until AAPI nominees are appointed to vacant positions, the Office of Budget and Management (OMB), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), or other various cabinet positions, she will remain a "no" vote.

Duckworth, Hirono won't vote on 'non-diversity' Biden nominees over lack of Asian American representation.  Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., reversed course on vowing to object to President Joe Biden's nominees because of a lack of Asian American and Pacific Islander representation Tuesday evening after a spokesperson from her office said she had received assurances from the Biden administration.  "Senator Duckworth appreciates the Biden administration's assurances that it will do much more to elevate AAPI voices and perspectives at the highest levels of government, including appointing an AAPI senior White House official to represent the community, secure the confirmation of AAPI appointments and advance policy proposals that are relevant and important to the community," said Ben Garmisa, a spokesperson for Duckworth.  "Accordingly, she will not stand in the way of President Biden's qualified nominees — which will include more AAPI leaders," Garmisa said.

Becerra's Confirmation Underscores the Senate GOP's Uselessness.  In a near-party-line vote, the United States Senate on Thursday [3/18/2021] voted to confirm California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as secretary of Health and Human Services.  Becerra sued the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns that cares for the indigent poor, because their Catholic faith compelled them not to be complicit in the sale of contraceptives under Obamacare.  Becerra charged David Daleiden, a pro-life activist and journalist whose undercover videos exposed Planned Parenthood's sale of aborted babies' body parts, with 15 felonies.  Becerra went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2018, defending a California law that would have forced pro-life crisis-pregnancy centers to advertise abortion — a move so brazen that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote separately to liken the law to the way "authoritarian regimes" are "relentless" in their "attempts to stifle free speech."

Report: Woke Pentagon Worried Troops View BLM/Antifa and Capitol Hill Riots Equally.  During his confirmation hearing, now-Penatgon chief Lloyd Austin vowed to purge "ideological enemies ... within our own ranks."  Wasting little time, he ordered a military-wide "stand down" to address extremism within our nation's armed forces.  Reports are now surfacing that the Pentagon is distressed that their attempts to ferret out wrongthink under the guise of 'extremism' have a hit a snag.  Apparently, some military members view the events at the Capitol on January 6th and the year-long BLM/antifa rioting, looting, vandalism, arson, and murder as equally problematic.  This reportedly "worries" Pentagon officials.

Haaland sworn in wearing traditional Native American skirt, moccasins.  Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Thursday was sworn in while wearing a traditional Native American skirt and moccasins in a nod to her heritage.  Haaland was wearing the garb while she became the first Native American to be sworn in as a Cabinet secretary.  In photos from the ceremony earlier on Thursday, Haaland could be seen standing with her family as she was sworn in to office by Vice President Harris.

What You Need to Know About Biden's Far-Left Interior Secretary.  His former congressional colleague will advance a far-left agenda as the new secretary of the interior, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., says.  The Senate voted 51-40 Monday [3/15/2021] to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., to lead the Interior Department under President Joe Biden.  Haaland supports Biden's decision to halt further construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Marcia Fudge's White House discussion of Ohio politics may have violated the Hatch Act: report.  Welcome to the White House, Marcia Fudge.  A week after she was sworn in as President Joe Biden's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, ethics experts told the Washington Post that the former Democratic Congress member from Warrensville Heights may have violated a law called the Hatch Act by answering questions about Ohio politics at a Thursday [3/18/2021] White House press conference[.]  At the end of an appearance to discuss the American Rescue Plan's effects on housing, Fudge was asked whether she'd weigh in on Ohio races to succeed her in Congress and to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.  She wouldn't endorse her own successor, but said she's friends with both Niles Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who might enter the contest to replace Portman.

Vanita Gupta Says She Backs $15 'Livable Wage.' Her Family Business Pays Mexicans $1.30 an Hour.  President Joe Biden's nominee for a top Justice Department post is a longtime advocate for raising the minimum wage to $15, but she owns up to $1 million in stock in a company chaired by her father that pays its Mexican workforce as little as $1.30 an hour.  Vanita Gupta — whose net worth of between $42 and $187 million makes her the Biden administration's wealthiest nominee — owns at least $500,000 in Aptiv PLC, an international auto parts manufacturer chaired by her father.  In contrast with Gupta's advocacy for a $15 an hour minimum wage, the company pays some of its Mexican employees hourly rates as low as $1.30, according to active job listings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. One job posted on Indeed.com, for example, offers a line operator role at a Zacatecas plant that pays the U.S. dollar equivalent of $260 a month for a 50-hour per week job.  In her nonprofit work and her personal social media, Gupta has repeatedly expressed support for both the $15 per hour minimum wage and a so-called livable wage.

Senate Narrowly Confirms Xavier Becerra To Lead Health And Human Services.  The Senate narrowly confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Thursday to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.  Becerra, who also previously served in the House of Representatives, was confirmed 50-49, with Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins joining Democrats in voting for him.  The vote was the closest of any of President Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees so far due to near unanimous Republican objections, citing Becerra's stance on abortion and alleging that his only health care experience came from suing to protect the Affordable Care Act.  Democrats hailed Becerra's nomination, saying that he had the right experience to lead the United States out of the coronavirus pandemic.  The department oversees the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, all critical agencies in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

There is No Biden Administration.  The Biden administration was built out of the wreckage of the Obama and Sanders campaigns, but staffers and appointees are only loyal to whoever can get them their next job.  That's not Obama and it's not Biden who can't name his own Secretary of Defense.  It's the think tanks and non-profits who built the Obama administration and built an even more radical Biden admin.  But non-profits and think tanks can't actually run a government.  Neither can Biden.  That's why there isn't a Biden administration.  There's an ongoing Netroots conference on government property.  That's why Jen Psaki can't answer any real questions.  The press secretary is supposed to speak for the White House, but there's no one to speak for.  Like a plane with no airport, she keeps circling back because there's no administration position.

Race-obsessed Vanita Gupta should not be confirmed to Justice Department.  Ordinarily, senators should defer to the president on executive-branch appointments.  But Justice Department nominee Anita Gupta is too radical to merit such deference.  Gupta, nominated by President Biden to be associate attorney general, is a radical on criminal justice and race.  She has been an avid participant in the morally corrupt mutual back-scratching known as third-party settlements.  She has made vicious partisan comments that give ample reason to believe she will politicize the Justice Department.  The third-ranking official at the DOJ has vast operational power behind the scenes, whereas his or her two superiors serve more as the public face of the administration.  Gupta began her legal career with direct funding from the left-wing Soros Foundation.  For most of her career, she has demonstrated animus against police and evinces a conviction that this nation's institutions, law enforcement and otherwise, are inherently racist.  She advocates a huge role for the Department of Justice in interfering with local policing.

A Kingdom of the Anti-American Elite.  Joe Biden's secretary of health and human services is a militant atheist and compulsive abortionist, responsible for the prosecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor for declining to pay the contraception, sterilization, and abortion expenses of those whom they employ or house. [...] Climate czar John Kerry actually professes to believe that without drastic measures to restrain the use of carbon, the world will be on an irreversible march to the destruction of earthly life in nine years.  His budget should be reduced by 99 percent, with the balance devoted to his psychiatric help. [...] Biden's defense secretary, General Lloyd Austin, tells us the greatest security threat to the United States comes from internal subversive organizations, and it is implied that these are white supremacists.

Maternity Flight Suits and Other Admonitions.  Just about the first thing Lloyd Austin did after being confirmed as Joe Biden's Secretary of Defense was to issue a service-wide order mandating a one-day "stand down" within sixty days to "address extremism within the nation's armed forces."  "What extremism?" you might be asking, and you would be right to ask.  No matter what Lloyd Austin or the media tells you, the trouble with the U.S. Armed Forces is not political extremism but the enervating rust of political correctness.  As Victor Davis Hanson has shown, the upper echelons of the U.S. military were purged by Barack Obama.  If they are politicized today, it is firmly in the direction of the woke ideology of identity politics.  Thus we have the commander-in-chief, Joe Biden, speak about the "intensity of purpose" that will be devoted to "designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, creating maternity flight suits, updating requirements for their hairstyles."  This was not a joke — or, rather, it was not said in jest.

The Devastating Tragedy of Becerra's Likely Confirmation to HHS.  On Thursday, a spokesperson for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told CNN and National Review that the moderate Democrat who has shown true fortitude in standing up to the radicals in his party will not be holding his own on one of President Joe Biden's worst nominees.  Manchin will support the nomination of Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).  This makes Becerra's confirmation virtually certain, and that is a crying shame for America, on many levels.  First, Becerra has no medical experience and "little health policy experience."  This alone should raise alarm bells in a nominee for a key health position during a global pandemic.  Yet Becerra is also an abortion radical.  In 2003, when Becerra served in the House of Representatives, he voted against the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.  During his confirmation hearing, Becerra refused to name a single abortion restriction he supported, including a ban on sex-selective abortion.

Garland Confirmed as Attorney General 70-30, Now Watch the Next Move.  We all know that Biden is an avatar for Obama's third-term.  Hence the plan by Team Obama and James Clyburn to secure the 2020 club nomination and then later insert Kamala Harris.  As a result JoeBama's first judicial move is a slightly stealthy one.  Judge Garland was an important judge on the important DC Circuit Court.  Garland's replacement will be a senate confirmed seat for that court.  Once that replacement is senate confirmed, we anticipate (almost to a certainty) that replacement will be quickly elevated to a Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice Stephen Bryer, now 82-years-old.  The senate will have no political ammunition to block or not confirm the radical SCOTUS pick because she will have been confirmed a few months before.  It's a smart play.

Garland Confirmed as Attorney General 70-30, Now Watch the Next Move.  Merrick Garland has been confirmed by a UniParty Senate 70-30.  Now we watch the next move(s); as with everything in Obama's third-term, if you watch the 'other hand' you will find the play... and bookmark this.  With Garland confirmed there will be multiple people and groups who supported President Trump targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice.  The extremist Lawfare group is openly advocating for more political targeting; to wit Garland has stated his intent to continue weaponizing the DOJ where former AG Eric Holder left off.

Senate confirms Merrick Garland as attorney general.  The Senate voted to confirm attorney general nominee Merrick Garland on Wednesday [3/10/2021], sending the appellate judge on his mission to uphold the integrity of the Justice Department after its actions over the past years threatened to undermine it.  Garland was confirmed in a 70-30 vote.  The former chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has been praised by members of both parties.  He pledged in his nomination hearing last month to "fend off any effort by anyone" to politically influence the Justice Department's investigations, and that his first priority would be to fully prosecute the "heinous" crimes committed in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.

Obama's Wingmen Set to Take Over Justice Department Again.  In his first public remarks, Joe Biden's acting deputy attorney general promised he would spare no resource in the nationwide manhunt for anyone involved in the Capitol breach on January 6.  "The investigation into those responsible is moving at a speed and scale that is unprecedented, and rightly so," John Carlin said in a February speech on the threat of domestic terrorism.  "Those responsible must be held to account, and they will be."  Carlin referred to the Capitol melee as an example of "violent extremism."  If Carlin's name rings a bell, here's why.  Carlin headed Barack Obama's National Security Division at the Justice Department for more than two years; his office handled all the evidence presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking permission to spy on suspected enemies of America.

Biden Admin Officials Had Roles in Probes [and] Surveillance of Trump Campaign.  As Joe Biden constructs his new administration, individuals from the Obama administration are quietly resurfacing in positions of power.  Some of these people are well known, others lesser so.  But they all played critical roles at various times during the Obama administration.  Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser and now the "top adviser to the president on domestic policy and related decisions," has admitted to participating in the unmasking of members of the Trump transition team.  Unmasking is the process whereby a U.S. citizen's identity is revealed from collected surveillance.  Initially, Rice publicly denied the allegations, claiming that "I know nothing about this.  I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today."  Two weeks later Rice stated that she had not done so for "for any political purposes."  It was later reported that Rice told House investigators that "she unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York."

Cotton grills Biden Pentagon nominee on 'volatile outbursts,' 'almost always wrong' foreign policy judgments.  Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., accused one of President Biden's top Pentagon picks of having a "long record of volatile outbursts" and said he will oppose the nomination during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday [3/4/2021].  Colin Kahl, a former Obama adviser, is Biden's pick for undersecretary of defense for policy.  Cotton accused Kahl of being wrong about Middle East policy for the last four years before questioning some of his social media posts about former President Donald Trump and Republicans.

In over her head:  Deb Haaland advances to Senate as Interior nominee.  In Joe Biden's caretaker administration, it's amazing how many misdeeds can be erased through the useful tool of identity politics.  Take his nomination Deb Haaland, a congresswoman representing greater Albuquerque, who's a registered member of a Native American tribe ... and a tax cheat, energy ignoramus, persistent welfare recipient, and marijuana booster, who has now advanced in the Senate as his nominee to run the $12 billion U.S. Department of the Interior.  Her trump card in qualifications after all those red flags?  That she's half-Native American and has mastered the identity politics games of victimhood.

Senate Vote on Communist-Backed Interior Secretary.  Will the Senate confirm Communist Party-backed Rep. Deb Haaland as Biden's Secretary of the Interior, with jurisdiction over 20% of our nation's energy?  Trevor Loudon talks to Cliff Kincaid about the vote, scheduled for Thursday, March 4, and the evidence of pro-China communist backing of this nominee.  [Video clip]

A Photographer Snapped Photos From Trump And Biden Press Secretary's Helpful Notes.  The mainstream media have a totally different approach to the Biden administration, unlike Trump's administration which was under constant attack from the media, Biden's team is having a leisure opponent.  The same goes for their press secretaries.  When Kayleigh McEnany was press secretary the MSM attacked her for very strange reasons[.]  One of the mainstream media headlines at the time was:  ["]Why does White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, thumb through a notebook in order to answer questions from the press like it is a high school debate?["]  The answer is easy, Kayleigh McEnany, was able to run through a marathon of topics quickly during press briefings — sometimes moving so efficiently that the inquiring minds of the press often defer to their colleagues to ask their question again. [...] Kayleigh McEnany had her notebook squared away in a presentable manner!  Psaki just looks like she came out of an 8th-grade biology class.

Biden's Administration Choices Are A Disgrace — Including Rachel Levine.  In the Biden administration everything is driven by identity politics.  The nominee for Interior Secretary is someone who supports an anti-American North Korean front group and is supported by the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA).  All that matters, though, is that she is Native American.  The new Treasury Secretary is completely compromised by the same financiers and Wall Street firms she is now expected to control and regulate.  Never mind.  She is female.  So, it is with Rachel Levine, Biden's choice for Assistant Health Secretary.  Levine, as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, presided over a COVID-19 nursing home debacle in Pennsylvania perhaps only second to that in New York State.  Levine has very problematic views about gender transition related surgery and hormone treatment for minors.  No big deal.  Levine is transgender.  That is all that counts.

Biden's Pick For Defense Policy Is A Russian Collusion Hoaxer Who Repeatedly Smeared GOP Senators On Twitter.  President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as undersecretary of defense policy, Dr. Colin Kahl, is a Russia hoax truther who often hurled insults at Republicans in Congress and holds a more than shaky track record on foreign policy.  In addition to his questionable ties to China, Kahl, a former national security adviser for Biden in the Obama administration, repeatedly denounced Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee for amplifying the FISA abuses in 2018 that were used to spy on the Trump campaign.  He specifically targeted Republican Rep. Devin Nunes for being "biased and dishonest" about the investigation surrounding then-presidential nominee Donald Trump's supposed ties to Russia and promoted a House Intelligence Committee Democrats' memo that he claimed was "a devastating rebuttal to Nunes & his crackpot staff."

Why Deadnaming Matters.  Richard Levine was born in 1957 in Wakefield, Massachusetts, an affluent suburb 20 minutes north of Boston.  He went to Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah before heading to the very tony (very expensive) all-boys Belmont Hill School, where he played as a linebacker on the football team.  From there he went to Harvard undergrad before heading south for med school at Tulane.  While still in school, he married classmate Martha Peaslee; the couple would go on to have two children, one boy and one girl.  Richard's career got off to a running start with a residency and fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.  From there he moved to Penn State Hershey Medical Center, where he established himself firmly as a leader in his field, building both an adolescent medicine division and an eating disorders clinic.  But even with a loving family and a meaningful career, something was amiss in Richard Levine's world.  Eight years after his move to Pennsylvania, the doctor began to see a therapist.  Another eight years after that, he publicly announced his decision to transition to presenting as a woman.  Now, a full decade after that announcement, Richard — now Rachel — stands as Joe Biden's nominee for the United States' Assistant Secretary for Health.

Merrick Garland Is in the Dark about Antifa.  [Scroll down]  Seriously, if you watched only the carefully curated national news, you'd have gotten the impression that (a) Antifa doesn't exist; (b) Antifa is a civic betterment movement led by the public-spirited Wall of Moms; and (c) The peaceful protesters of Antifa were the Gandhi-like victims of Trumpian brutality.  On the other hand, some of us who are Pacific time zone night owls watched hundreds of Andy Ngo videos of what was happening in Seattle and Portland during the wee hours long after the national media had called a lid on their coverage of the Peaceful Protests.  In Ngo's simple video footage, the Antifada sure looked extremist and terrorizing.

Is this the world's most unsalutary health official?  If you consult the mainstream news media on a regular basis, you've probably heard that last Thursday was a red-letter day in American history [...] Why?  Because, for the first time ever, a transgender nominee for a government office was up for Senate confirmation.  That nominee was Dr. Rachel Levine, President Biden's pick for Assistant Secretary for Health.  Is Rachel a great, or even a competent, physician?  Who cares?  It's 2021, and Rachel is trans!  Rachel's birth name was Richard, though there's no way you could tell that from, say, Wikipedia.  (In fact, on the "talk" page for Rachel's Wikipedia entry, you can see anxious contributors earnestly debating how to deal with the ticklish fact that Rachel had a bar mitzvah, not a bas mitzvah.)  Now aged 63, Rachel transitioned a decade ago and was divorced a couple of years later.  Neither Rachel's ex nor their two children appear to have attended the hearing.  Importantly, Rachel is not only a trans person; Rachel is a trans activist, a self-described champion of transgender youth.  Meaning what?  Meaning, among much else, that Rachel supports giving puberty blockers to children who say they're the opposite sex, and is open to ordering "gender-confirmation" surgery to kids under age 18 with or without parental permission.

What's up with Biden's transsexual?  If you want to be part of Joe Biden's administration, you need to be a "first."  I don't mean "first" like first in your college graduation class.  Heck, Biden himself was only in the top 50% of his law school class according to Biden and only in the top 85% according to the school records.  No, not that kind of first.  After all, this is a Democrat administration and so we're not talking about dead white patriarchal European so-called merit.  What we're talking about is that you need to be a "first" in your skin color or sexuality.  Such as "first Asian Director of the Office of Management and Budget" or "first black woman vice president" or "first gay cabinet member" or "first Native American cabinet secretary."  Or the subject of this column.  Biden boasts that he has nominated the first transsexual Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services.

Forty Days of Biden:  Not so Centrist, Not so Competent.  When the complete history of the Biden administration is written, the nomination of Neera Tanden to be director of the Office of Management and Budget will be a minor detail.  If her nomination fails, the White House will just find a like-minded nominee who doesn't have Tanden's personal HR issues.  And the Senate's confirmation of Biden's cabinet is moving slowly but largely smoothly, with eleven of 23 cabinet officials confirmed so far.  But a fairer question, more than 40 days into Biden's administration, is whether Biden and his team are moving fast enough to fill out all of those lesser-known administration positions.  For example, Biden hasn't nominated a director of the Food and Drug Administration yet, which seems a little odd, considering how central the FDA is to the approval of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 right now and in the coming year.  There are about 1,250 positions in the executive branch that require Senate confirmation; Biden has picked 58 nominees so far.

Becerra confirmation would mean left-wing 'culture wars,' GOP senators say.  The confirmation of Xavier Becerra as head of the most sweeping federal health agency will mean "culture wars" driven by divisive liberal policies, Senate Republicans say.  "Xavier Becerra isn't an experienced consensus leader, he's a culture war super-soldier with a long history of attacking First Amendment freedoms," Nebraska Republican Ben Sasse said.  "Culture wars are poison to self-government, especially during a real public health crisis.  The Senate should reject his divisive nomination," he said.  Sasse, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, had a heated exchange with Biden's nominee in his confirmation hearing last week in which he attacked Becerra for "bullying" an order of nuns that cares for the elderly poor, referencing Becerra's lawsuit against the Trump administration's move to allow faith-based ministries an exemption from the Obamacare contraception mandate.

Tanden Withdraws Nomination for Budget Director.  Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination to become director of the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday [3/2/2021] after she struggled to receive the support needed for a Senate confirmation in light of old tweets in which she insulted lawmakers.  "Unfortunately, it now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities," Tanden wrote in a letter to President Biden.

Mystery deepens over Biden Interior nominee's finances as she files third amended ethics report.  Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), President Biden's nominee to run the Interior Department, has now offered a third account to House ethics officials about how much she earned the year she first won her congressional seat.  As her cabinet nomination wound its way through the Senate confirmation process, Haaland late last week quietly filed a second amendment to her legally required congressional financial disclosure report, eliminating more than $40,000 in income she previously claimed she earned in 2018.  The new report, dated Thursday, reports her total earnings in 2018 were only $4,000, even as she traveled the country and New Mexico campaigning for Congress and carried a student loan debt of between $15,000 and $50,000 that dates to 2006.

Biden's Education Secretary Confirmed, Asks America To 'Reimagine Education'.  The Senate confirmed Dr. Miguel A. Cardona to lead the Education Department on Monday [3/1/2021].  The final vote was 64 to 33.  "There are no shortages of challenges ahead, no shortage of problems for us to solve.  But by the same token, there are countless opportunities for us to seize," said Cordona after accepting the nomination in December.  "We must embrace the opportunity to reimagine education — and build it back better.  We must evolve it to meet the needs of our students."  Cardona, 45, is new to the national stage, spending most of his professional career working in the public education system in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut.  He started out as a fourth-grade elementary school teacher, became the youngest principal in the state in 2013, then assumed the role of assistant superintendent at the district's central office ten years later.

Left toasts Merrick Garland, the Swamp elitist who served as Bloody Janet Reno's henchman.  At his Senate confirmation hearing on Feb. 22, Joe Biden's choice to be attorney general transparently sought to equate former President Donald Trump and his America First movement with Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing: [...] Unstated yet readily apparent is the salute to a return to Janet Reno, the bloodstained Bill Clinton attorney general who presided over a Justice Department that covered up the FBI murders of a young mother holding a baby in her arms and a 14-year-old boy at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992 and actively slaughtered 76 Branch Davidians at Waco one year later.  It is rather astonishing that given Garland's public vow to aggressively treat Trump supporters as domestic terrorists more attention isn't given to his prominent role serving Reno.  Garland was Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General to Jamie Gorelick, Reno's Deputy AG.  Reno referred to Gorelick as her Justice Department's "chief operating officer" and Gorelick has described Garland as her "wingman."  So that would make it:
  [#1]   Janet Reno
  [#2]   Jamie Gorelick
  [#3]   Merrick Garland
This was the hierarchy of a Justice Department that burned American citizens to death in the name of fighting "domestic terror."

Biden Secretary of State Makes a Whopper of a Mistake During Meeting With Mexican Official.  Democrats have pushed the fiction of the "adults being back in charge" with Joe Biden. [...] But speaking of those adults who are supposed to know more (spoiler: they know less), we give you Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken who apparently doesn't know how to hang the Mexican flag and almost causes an international incident with how he does it.  Blinken was having a virtual meeting with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.  The Zoom meeting showed Blinken sitting at a desk in front of the American and Mexican flags.  Except there was one rather significant problem:  the Mexican flag was hung upside down.  Apparently, Blinken was unaware of it.

JoeBama Put The Gang Back Together Inside The DOJ — John Carlin Returns as Acting Deputy AG.  Those who have followed all of the internal research will know the name John Carlin.  As noted in this text message below Carlin has returned to the DOJ and is currently Acting Deputy Attorney General inside Main Justice.  Once again the corrupt DOJ is attempting to secure itself from sunlight upon prior activity, very corrupt activity.  John Carlin was the assistant attorney general and head of the National Security Division inside the DOJ when efforts against the Trump campaign and incoming administration were underway.  John CarIin was previously chief of staff to FBI Director Robert Mueller.  In September of 2016 Carlin manipulated the FISA court by misleading them on the Section 702 certifications.  Carlin never informed the court of FBI contractors having access to the NSA database and exporting the search results to unknown actors.

Not a Rose Garland.  If you've a memory longer than a nanosecond you might recall that in 2016 when he was nominated by then-President Obama to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia's death, Merrick Garland was widely touted as a "moderate."  President Biden has now nominated him for the slot of Attorney General, and the confirmation vote is scheduled for this coming week.  How do you define moderate?  His confirmation hearings reveal to me that Garland is certainly not one:  Last summer, 220 cities were besieged by gangs that attacked homes, businesses, federal buildings, and local law enforcement.  In his confirmation hearing, Garland testified that the people who did this could not be considered "domestic terrorists" because they did this only at night and apparently terrorist acts can only be committed in the daytime in his view.  Is that preposterous?  Of course, it is.

Rand Paul compares gender change surgery for minors to genital mutilation in furious exchange with Biden's transgender pick for assistant HHS secretary.  Rand Paul angrily confronted Joe Biden's pick for assistant secretary for Health and Human Services on Thursday [2/25/2021], likening gender changes surgeries to genital mutilation and pushing the transgender nominee on if they would allow minors to decide if they want to go on hormones to stop puberty.  'We should be outraged that someone is talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex,' Paul said of Rachel Levine, a transgender woman Biden picked to help head up HHS.  Paul, who was a practicing ophthalmologist before becoming a U.S. senator, likened transgender minors starting on transitioning treatments to genital mutilation, blaming the increasing rates of trans-identified youth on 'the social pressure to conform.'  [Video clip]

Rand Paul Challenges Far-Left HHS Nominee Rachel Levine Over Pre-Teen Surgery to Remove Sex Organs.  JoeBama is appealing to the radical left-wing base of his support crew with the nomination of former Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine, to be an assistant secretary at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.  Levin[e] is a transgender person with a history of terrible policy execution around COVID-19.  Today Ms. Levine testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee on Capitol Hill and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul called-out the insanity of talking to three year old children about gender reassignment.  [Video clip]

Why is Neera Tanden so important that Democrats would smear Joe Manchin to save her doomed nomination?  It's a bold move to smear your own party's most important senator as a racist and sexist.  But evidently, the Biden administration believes that ramming through a professional Twitter troll as the director of the Office of Management and Budget is worth it.  Nine of President Biden's nominees earned bipartisan support and, with the exception of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, majority support even among Republicans.  But now, the president of the liberal Center for American Progress is set to be voted down by every Republican in the Senate plus West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.  Manchin, the crucial swing vote of the 50-50 Senate, has announced his opposition to Tanden's confirmation.  The case against Tanden is simple enough:  She lacks both the resume qualifying her for such a vital position and the civil temperament to work across the aisle.

Biden Admin Says TRUMP Is The Reason His Cabinet Appointments Are Moving Slow.  Donald Trump hasn't been in office since noon on January 20, and he's not a member of the U.S. Senate.  And yet, for some reason, he's being blamed for the supposedly slow pace of Joe Biden's Cabinet nominees being confirmed.  It wouldn't have anything at all to do with an evenly divided chamber or the fact that most of his selections are highly controversial leftists including a Health and Human Services nominee who believes kids as young as three years old should be able to 'decide' to get sex change therapy.

With cabinet nominees, Biden pokes conservatives, scrapes the bottom of the barrel.  Why does it seem like with each and every cabinet nominee, Biden or whoever is calling the shots are poking their thumbs in the eyes of every pro-American conservative?  Because that is exactly what they are doing. [...] It is impossible that the Democrats do not know that Merrick Garland is nearly as senile as Biden, terrified to utter a word that might tank his confirmation.  He is so willing and anxious to be the next tool of the radical left that he could not form a coherent sentence.  He pretended not to know what the word "illegal" means with regard to the border.  He eagerly expressed his approval of the destruction done by Antifa and BLM but the oh-so-carefully-planned pseudo- insurrection of January 6 will be a primary focus of DOJ investigation.  Oh, and he will seek out white supremacy wherever it is lurking.  Garland's performance was an embarrassment.  And oddly, his lack of knowledge and expertise is on a par with every other Biden nominee.

Xavier Becerra Refused to Name Even One Abortion Restriction He Could Support.  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra refused to answer questions about his radical pro-abortion views during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday and could not name even one abortion restriction he could support.  Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) asked Becerra, President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whether he supported any restriction whatsoever on abortions, including those intended to end the life of babies with a prenatal disability diagnosis of Down syndrome or partial-birth abortions.

Biden's Pick For U.N. Ambassador Confirmed As [the] Position [is] Elevated To Cabinet-Level.  On Tuesday [2/23/2021], the Senate confirmed President Joe Biden's nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.  As The Washington Post reports, "the upper chamber took an initial step, voting 78 to 20 to elevate Linda Thomas-Greenfield to ambassador status," followed by "a second vote to make her 'representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations'" by a vote of 78 to 21.  Biden announced in November that he would elevate the position to Cabinet-level after the Trump administration had downgraded the role in 2018.  Thomas-Greenfield, 68, has said the United States would have a more active role in the United Nations following former President Donald Trump's "America First" philosophy.

AG Nominee Merrick Garland: 'I Will Supervise the Prosecution of White Supremacists...'.  Merrick Garland, tapped to be President Biden's attorney general, told his confirmation hearing on Monday that his top priorities include going after "white supremacists."  "If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government," Garland's prepared statement reads: [...] Later, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Garland, "What steps will you take to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack on our Capitol are brought to justice?"  Senator, I think this was the most heinous attack on the democratic processes that I've ever seen and one that I never expected to see in my lifetime," Garland responded.

Biden's CDC chief delivers grim public service message with bizarre continuous smile.  At a time when Americans are starting to suspect a COVID-industrial complex with an entrenched interest in permanent lockdowns, out comes Joe Biden with a very bizarre video tweet from his newly appointed CDC director:  [Video clip]  The unmasked woman with the strange, smirking, mirthless grin, making that grim message about COVID having no end in sight and calling for everyone to wear a mask is Biden's appointment to the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.  Who [...] delivers news like that with that bizarre kind of extended smile?  And worse still, the head bobbing, and that flippant giggly ending?  That's the image she wants to project as the calm, knowledgable, trustworthy top doctor?  Even Dr. Anthony Fauci was pretty good at putting that act on.  Her strange smile suggests that apparently she thinks her audience is stupid.

Neera Tanden, Xavier Becerra under fire as Biden nominees fight to survive confirmation battles.  President Biden is standing behind a pair of Cabinet picks facing uphill battles — including Neera Tanden, his nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, and Xavier Becerra, his pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — as a growing number of senators have vowed to oppose their confirmations.  Tanden's confirmation appears to be the most in jeopardy after several swing vote senators — including at least one Democrat — have announced plans to vote against her confirmation.  The former president of the liberal Center for American Progress repeatedly came under fire during her confirmation hearing, as Republicans pointed to hostile tweets she posted against various lawmakers — many of which she deleted late last year.

Biden State Department nominee claimed Israel controls American politics, says Jews have dual loyalty.  President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya, has a history of publishing conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel, Washington Free Beacon reports.  Zeya, who formerly worked for the Washington Reporter on Middle East Affairs, compiled research for the book Stealth PACs:  How Israel's American Lobby Took Control of U.S. Middle East Policy, which the book credits her for.  The book makes a number of controversial claims, including that "the Israel lobby has subverted the American political process to take control of US Middle East policy" through the use of "dirty money" to bribe American politicians.

Biden's HHS Pick Advocates Sex Changes For Kids.  On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Dr. Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's pick for Assistant Secretary of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  There are plenty of reasons for the committee to be concerned about placing Dr. Levine in such an influential and powerful role. [...] Most alarmingly, Dr. Levine has advocated for sex changes for pre-pubertal people, otherwise known as "children."  A professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, Levine has given lectures in various settings since at least 2012 on how to perform sex changes and gender conversion therapy on children.  According to Levine, children ought to be given the latitude to choose their own gender.  Levine has advised adults to "try not to force them one way or other [sic]" and instead to follow the child's lead.

Biden AG Nominee Merrick Garland Refuses to Call Illegally Crossing the Border a Crime.  Joe Biden's pick for Attorney General refused to state that illegally crossing our border is a crime during his nomination hearing on Monday[2/22/2021]. During the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley asked the nominee, Merrick Garland, if he believes that illegally crossing our borders should remain a crime.  "Do you believe that illegal entry at America's borders should remain a crime?" Hawley asked.  [Video clip]  "I haven't thought about that question... uhhh... uhhhhhhh... I just haven't thought about that question," Garland reluctantly replied.  "I think the uh, the uh, president has, uh, made clear that we are a country of uh with borders and uh a concern about national security.  Um, I don't know of proposal to uh decriminalize, but um, still make it unlawful to uh, enter."

Garland Refuses to Say If Illegal Entry Should Remain a Crime; Makes Strange, Confused Comment About What Happened on Jan. 6.  Merrick Garland was just a horrible witness on his own behalf today [2/22/2021].  He couldn't stop saying um, uh, any time he was asked a question and the answers he gave were batty.  As we reported earlier, he indicated that attacking a federal courthouse at night, as Antifa was wont to do in Portland, wasn't necessarily domestic terrorism if it was done at night.

Merrick Garland confirmation hearings start Monday.  [Merrick] Garland, President Joe Biden's pick to be attorney general, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday [2/22/2021] for the first day of his confirmation hearings, scheduled to continue through the week. [...] The federal appeals court judge is expected to be confirmed swiftly — likely by the start of March — though he may face some uncomfortable grilling, primarily from the panel's Republicans.

Biden AG Nominee Downplays Portland Riots, Compares Capitol Riot to OKC Bombing.  President Biden's nominee for Attorney General, Merrick Garland, is signaling that the days of politicized Department of Justices are going to continue.  While weighing in on threat of domestic terrorism in the United States, Garland clearly made a distinction between right-wing extremism and far-left extremism.  "I certainly agree that we are facing a more dangerous period than we did in Oklahoma City at that time," Garland reacted to a question on the Capitol riots at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Merrick Garland, who was a principal associate deputy attorney general at the time, led the DOJ prosecution of the bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was connected to far-right groups.

Did Biden Pick Garland As AG To Wreak Revenge On Trump, GOP?  For those who don't recall, Garland was nominated in March 2016 for a seat on the Supreme Court.  The Obama administration sold him through the mainstream media as a potential court "moderate," the best the Republicans could hope for.  Despite nonstop media pressure, Senate Republicans held fast, dragging their feet on confirmation hearings for Garland in the hopes (then seen by most political pundits as highly unlikely, if not impossible) that a Republican president would succeed Obama.  But, mirabile dictu, Donald Trump defied expectations and won the presidency.  Consequently, not only did the country escape Garland, three new conservative justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — are now on the nation's highest court, thanks to Trump.

Merrick Garland to face questions on Hunter Biden, Cuomo at AG hearing.  Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland will face questions over how he plans to address the federal probe into Hunter Biden's tax dealings and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nursing home scandal at his confirmation hearing Monday [2/22/2021].  Both of the issues will be top of mind for Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee during Garland's confirmation hearings, which will take place over a two-day period.  In his opening remarks to the committee, released over the weekend, the DC circuit court judge will reveal his plans to launch an investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.  "If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy:  the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government," his opening statement reads.

Establishment Flacks Remind Everyone How We Got Trump.  If a "Republican" can't even be counted on to oppose someone as lacking as Neera Tanden, then what exactly is the point of being an opposition party?  Why not just fold up shop and hit the cocktail circuit full time?  Republican voters are sick of this stuff.  It's why they rebelled in 2016, and it's why they will do so again in 2024 despite the best laid plans of the establishment.  And while I get that there's a contingent within the GOP that thinks playing nice during the Biden years will earn them some kind of reciprocation in the future, you'd have to be an absolute idiot to believe that.  Further, opposing Tanden should have nothing to do with trying to preserve decorum or buying good will.  She's a terrible pick who should be nowhere near the levers of government power, much less an agency as consequential as the OMB.  She should be opposed at all costs, and any Republican who breaks rank on this should be cast aside with prejudice.

How the Biden Administration is Politicizing the Military.  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made it absolutely clear that the U.S. military's top priority is not facing external threats, such as the Chinese or Iran's aggressive strategy in the Middle East or foreign terrorist groups.  Instead, Austin sees the main threat as coming from within the U.S. military.  In his confirmation hearings, Austin said that he would make it his priority to combat racism and extremism in the United States military.  Once confirmed as defense secretary, he ordered a two-month stand-down of the American military in order to examine the problems of extremism among military personnel.  National defense is supposed to be a bipartisan endeavor, yet never before has a defense secretary made such overt moves to politicize the military.  Austin's order to remove all Trump appointees to the 42 Defense Department advisory boards is unprecedented and downright stupid.

John Kerry endorses 'climate weirding' term, warns of doomsday within nine years.  John Kerry says the world faces a climate change doomsday within nine years unless drastic action is taken now.  The comment by President Biden's special envoy for climate change came during a segment for CBS' "Eye on Earth" hosted by senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy.  "Some people get hung up on the term 'global warming' and say, 'well, I thought everything's supposed to get warmer?'  I heard one scientist say this is really 'global weirding.'  Is that a better way to think of this?"  Mr. Tracy asked Friday while referencing a recent cold snap causing havoc across the nation.

More about John Kerry.

Conservative Groups Launch $2 Million-Plus Campaign Targeting Senior Biden Appointees' Dark Money Ties.  Judicial Crisis Network, Heritage Action for America, and Americans for Public Trust on Thursday [2/18/2021] announced a more than $2 million joint media and grassroots campaign against two of President Joe Biden's senior nominees:  Xavier Becerra for secretary of Health and Human Services and Vanita Gupta for associate attorney general.  The campaign focuses on the dark money that continues to flow into prominent Democrats' hands, through radical organizations such as Arabella Advisors.  The advocacy group effort is directly targeting "pay-to-play," a strategy that permits campaign contributions from businesses or enterprises seeking government contracts.

Joe Biden Faces First Major Senate Defeat After Joe Manchin Opposes Neera Tanden.  President Joe Biden faces his first major defeat in the Senate as his nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden meets Democrat opposition.  Sen. Joe Manchin, (D-WV) announced Friday afternoon [2/19/2021] that he would oppose Tanden's confirmation.

Past Comments Haunt Russel Honoré, Pelosi's Pick to Lead Capitol Security Review.  Russel Honoré, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) selection to lead the review of Capitol security after the events of January 6, is facing scrutiny after past tweets reveal partisan behavior, particularly directed towards Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).  Honoré, a retired Army lieutenant general who has recently been critical of Republicans, called for Hawley to be disbarred earlier this year.

General Russel Honoré Should Not Be Leading a Conga Line, Let Alone an Investigation Into the Capitol Riots.  I reported yesterday on Beto O'Rourke's "Big Lie" about the Capitol Riots, and reasons why the supposed spontaneous attack on January 6, that was allegedly perpetrated by Trump supporters, is being revealed as a pre-planned act that Congress had advanced knowledge about. [...] Instead of making herself accountable (what a concept), Pelosi has decided to contract an outright, racist, left-wing partisan to oversee a review into the Capitol unrest. [...] If you haven't noticed, I cannot stand people who accomplish something big, and instead of maybe accomplishing something greater at the most, or going gently into that good night and learning to fly fish at the least, instead ride the wave, and dine out on that one accomplishment for decades.  Lt. General Russel Honoré is one of those people.  He was head of the Joint Task Force for Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.  What has he done since, and what does he do now?

Pelosi's Pick To Lead Capitol Security Investigation Thinks Hawley Should Lose His Job.  Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's pick to lead a Capitol security investigation in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot hurled multiple partisan insults at congressional Republicans, even calling for some of them to lose their jobs.  In a now-deleted tweet, posted just one week after the Capitol incident, revived by Fox News's Tucker Carlson, Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré publicly insulted Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, calling [...] for him to "be run out of DC and Disbarred ASAP."

Manchin opposes Neera Tanden, endangering her OMB nomination.  Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he will not vote to confirm President Biden's pick to be Office of Management and Budget director, Neera Tanden, endangering and potentially tanking her confirmation.  Because of the 50-50 split in the Senate, one Republican would have to back Tanden to compensate for Manchin's "no" vote, which seems unlikely.

Conservatives Release Memo in Opposition to Neera Tanden's Nomination to Head OMB.  The Conservative Action Project, a coalition of conservative groups and leaders, released a memorandum entitled:  "Neera Tanden is Unfit to Lead the Office of Management and Budget."  The coalition hopes to disseminate the memo across social media and other platforms to put pressure on Senators to oppose President Joe Biden nominating Tanden, who has a far-left policy record, including during her tenure as president of the left-wing Center for American Progress.

The radicals:  Five firebrand Biden nominees and appointments.  Candidate Joe Biden appealed to voters as a deal-minded moderate and experienced Washington hand.  While many of the now-president's nominees and appointments so far have been seasoned Beltway pros, others have raised eyebrows.  Here is a list of Biden's most controversial picks to date.

Nothing To See Here:  Facebook's Leftist Oversight Board Member Leaves To Join Radical Biden Regime.  A law professor who's been sitting on leftist Facebook's oversight board stepped down to accept a position in President Joe Biden's Department of Justice.  Pamela Karlan will serve as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's Civil Division after spending less than a year on the Facebook board set up in 2019 to review the social media behemoth's content policing decisions.

Corona Cash:  Financial Disclosures Reveal Biden Surgeon General Made Millions off Pandemic 'Consulting'.  Vivek Murthy, President Biden's pick for surgeon general, cashed in last year as the Chinese coronavirus pandemic gripped the nation, making more than two million dollars off pandemic "consulting."  Several of Biden's nominees have filed financial disclosures, including Murthy, who according to Politico made millions by consulting various companies, including those in industries severely impacted by the pandemic, such as Carnival Cruise Line.  Such consulting gigs have raised eyebrows due to concerns of bias.

The Coming Military Purge.  One of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's first actions after confirmation has been to order a "60 day stand down" to combat extremism.  This follows the widespread and mostly baseless establishment fantasy that "right-wing extremists" and "white supremacists" are running rampant and pose some immediate threat to the country.  The details and definitions will ultimately determine whether this campaign is a sensible one that is in keeping with the Constitution or ends up being a purge of the overwhelmingly conservative ranks of the military.  No reasonable person would object to removing dangerous and disloyal people from the service, but such a limited goal is distinct from punishing those with merely dissenting and idiosyncratic views.  For example, a recent briefing among the Army's Special Forces singled out Pepe the Frog and the Gadsden Flag as signs of extremism.  These popular symbols — one an historical American flag — are widely embraced among the mainstream Right.  Austin's other priorities do  not signal moderation or common sense.  He has ordered the services to allow transgender members to serve and enlist, including the right to "medically-necessary transition-related care."  He has also purged defense advisory boards of hundreds of Trump appointees without regard to their qualifications.

How Media And Pentagon Brass Used Bad Math To Slander Our Troops.  Are the ranks of the U.S. military riddled with white supremacists?  CNN thinks so, and won't let the facts get in the way of this compelling narrative.  CNN makes its case in a story headlined, "Disproportionate number of current and former military personnel arrested in Capitol attack, CNN analysis shows."  This is both factually untrue and downright libelous.  It dishonors the brave men and women who serve in our armed forces.  More broadly, fears over extremists secretly serving in the military were made official policy when new Secretary of Defense and former U.S. Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, III called for a military-wide "stand-down" to root out white supremacy and extremism.

Biden Justice Department Pick Opposed Enforcing Civil Rights Laws Against Blacks.  The incoming Justice Department civil rights chief has a history of opposing civil rights prosecutions of black defendants, opposing a complaint against an African-American Democratic leader who discriminated against white voters.  As an NAACP lawyer, Kristen Clarke lambasted the Justice Department for bringing a complaint against an African-American party boss in Mississippi who worked to suppress white votes, according to a federal probe.  On a separate occasion, a federal oversight commission investigated claims that Clarke worked with allies at the Justice Department to quash the prosecution of the Black Panthers who menaced voters outside a Philadelphia precinct in 2008.  Clarke's nomination to an influential Justice Department post will test the Biden administration's commitment to "equity-based" policy making, which purportedly promotes racial justice by giving special attention to marginalized groups.  Clarke's professional history suggests a staunchly ideological approach to civil rights enforcement where touchstone civil rights laws are applied to advantage some demographic groups but not others.

We Need Civil Rights for All, Not Just a Select Few.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are probably two of the most important — and successful — pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress.  They outlawed racial discrimination in all aspects of our society, from education and employment to housing and voting, and have been very successful in achieving that objective with only rare exceptions.  And they were written — and intended — to protect all Americans, not just a select few, from being discriminated against based on the color of their skin.  Unfortunately, President Joe Biden's pick to be the new head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, has made troubling comments suggesting she does not believe these laws should be enforced on behalf of all Americans.

Biden's CIA Pick Runs Think Tank Filthy With Chinese Money.  Can you imagine any Cold War president nominating a CIA director who worked for a think tank that took Soviet money?  "Sure, Hubert J. Kissup's Detente Institute took money from the Young Communist League, but you should confirm him because he's a swell guy!"  Notice how quickly our garbage elites went from "Ivanaka Trump sells clothing in Russia!  This is a huge conflict of interest!" to "CIA director bringing in a half million dollars in Communist Chinese money at his last gig?  Nothing to see here!  Move along, pleb!"  President Trump's list of his administration's accomplishments cites numerous instances of confronting and reigning-in communist China.  However, Democratic Party grandees seem far more concerned with sucking up to, appeasing, and profiting off China than confronting it.  From Hunter Biden's documented payoffs from China to universities taking money from China to Hollywood studios bowing to censorship pressure to attempting to repress any mention of the possibility that the Wuhan cornavirus escaped from a Chinese lab to getting a case of the vapors over mentioning Flu Manchu as the "China Virus" to a sitting Democratic congressman literally banging a communist spy, our garbage Democratic ruling class is in bed with communist China both literally and figuratively.  The Burns nomination should be rejected on the basis of his Chinese ties alone.

Pamela Karlan, Facebook oversight board member, quits to join Biden administration.  A founding member of Facebook's oversight board responsible for impartially adjudicating enforcement and government issues has quit the board to join the Biden administration.  Pamela Karlan, a Stanford University law professor who testified to Congress in support of the first impeachment charges against former President Trump, is going to work in President Biden's Department of Justice.  "Working with my colleagues on the Oversight Board to build a fairer and more effective approach to content moderation has been an honor," Ms. Karlan said in a statement on Saturday, the board confirmed on Monday.  "The Board has a critical role to play in holding Facebook to account, and I will continue to watch their work with great admiration."

Muslim Brotherhood Supporter Named VA Secretary.  The U.S. Senate just confirmed Denis McDonough to be the new Secretary of the Veterans Administration.  McDonough has a long history of openly supporting jihadis while in public office.  The counter-terrorism policies and strategies created under his watch as Deputy National Security Advisor and Chief of Staff under President Obama demonstrate his overt support for individuals and entities who openly call for the overthrow of the U.S. government and the destruction of liberty and innocent life.  McDonough's seditious and unlawful actions are unprecedented in their brazenness and blatant violation of his oath and the law.  For instance, as the Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, McDonough went to the Muslim Brotherhood's mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, Virginia with senior U.S. leaders including FBI, DHS, NSC, etc to PRAISE its imam.  The ADAMS Center imam is Mohamed Magid, a Muslim Brotherhood leader.

'Only choice for somebody like me': John Kerry flew on private jet to accept climate award.  It turns out Leonardo di Caprio isn't the only one taking private jets to pick up climate awards.  Biden global climate czar John Kerry flew by private plane in 2019 to accept an award for his climate work in Iceland, a decision he defended at the time as "the only choice for somebody like me," as shown on a video posted Wednesday by FoxNews.com.  Mr. Kerry, who has been criticized for owning a climate-unfriendly Gulfstream jet, appeared in person in October 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle Prize for his "leadership in international climate cooperation" at the Arctic Circle Assembly held in Reykjavik.

Biden's Department of Homeland Sleaze Chief.  The corruptocracy of the Obama administration is back with a vengeance in the White House.  Once more, the "S" in "DHS" stands not for security — but for sleaze.  Our nation is back for sale to the highest foreign bidders and their "America last" cronies.  Last Thursday [1/28/2021], the Senate Homeland Security Committee pushed through the nomination of Alejandro "Ali" Mayorkas to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [...] Seven years ago, I first raised alarms when Barack Obama's shady Chicago crony Mayorkas was tapped for the No. 2 position at DHS. Feckless Senate Republicans surrendered then, as they will again now.  Mayorkas' main qualification for the deputy DHS secretary slot was his glorious record of achievement as a top Obama presidential campaign fundraiser in 2008.  "Obama bundler" bestowed the same magical powers of access for Ali Mayorkas as "Open, sesame!" did for Ali Baba.

Pete Buttigieg becomes first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary.  Pete Buttigieg was confirmed as Transportation Secretary Tuesday [2/2/2021] as the first openly gay Cabinet secretary to be confirmed by the Senate.  Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a Democratic presidential candidate, received overwhelming bipartisan support with a 86-13 vote.  Following the vote, Buttigieg said he was "honored and humbled by today's vote in the Senate — and ready to get to work."  Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the incoming Democratic chair of the panel overseeing Buttigieg's confirmation, praised him Tuesday as a "young, energetic mayor" who could "help us usher in a new era of transportation."

Schumer taps Sanders to head Finance, Manchin to lead Energy.  Sen. Bernie Sanders has been elevated to the powerful role of Senate Budget Committee Chairman as the Democratic Party continues its metamorphosis under the new Biden administration.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday [2/2/2021] announced the committee memberships for the new 117th Congress and also confirmed that West Virginia centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, who is quickly emerging as a powerful voice in the upper chamber, would lead the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.  After damaging allegations about her flagging mental acuity emerged in the press late last year, 87-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein also stepped aside and has been replaced as the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.

Justice Department Nominee Lisa Monaco Prosecuted Black Man Sentenced To 27 Years In Prison For Selling $20 Worth Of Drugs.  President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as deputy attorney general helped prosecute a black man who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for selling $20 worth of heroin to an undercover police officer.  The government dropped charges against the man's co-defendant as part of a plea deal, court records show.  Lisa Monaco, who Biden tapped for the Justice Department position, was one of the assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted a case in 2003 against Reginald C. Steward, a Washington, D.C. man who was charged following an undercover drug bust.  Steward was arrested in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 20, 2002 and was charged with unlawful distribution of heroin, according to court records.  He was convicted at a jury trial on April 16, 2003, and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The Iran Appeasement Team Is Back in Place.  It's official, Joe Biden has announced his pick to serve as the administration's Special Envoy for Iran.  Surprise, surprise — It's Rob Malley.  Malley is a former Mideast advisor to President Barack Obama.  Malley was actively involved with the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.  He was a key architect of the deeply flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), so it should come as no surprise that he's a trong supporter of returning to the JCPOA deal that President Trump wisely withdrew from.  Additionally, Malley spoke out against the Trump administration's bold and courageous decision to assassinate the Iran Guard Corps (IRGC) General Qasem Soleimani.  Malley had this to say:  "From Iran's perspective, it is hard to imagine a more deliberately provocative act."

John Kerry, Global Warming Ghoul.  Presidential climate envoy John Kerry stirred up a black cloud last week when he said the workers who lost their jobs over the administration's decision to shut down Keystone XL pipeline construction could just make solar panels instead.  At least he didn't tell them they should learn to code.  But it was a cruel comment nonetheless, and representative of the political left's careless destruction of livelihoods in service of their climate god.  At a news conference last week, Kerry said "what President Biden wants to do is make sure that those folks" who lost jobs "have better choices, that they have alternatives, that they can be the people who go to work to make the solar panels."  Unsaid yet clearly understood is the Democrats' contempt for calloused-hand working class Americans — these "deplorables" just can't make good decisions and need the guiding hand of government to help them avoid the briar patches and potholes of life.

Biden's Education Secretary opposes re-opening, loves racist critical race theory.  Not opening schools is child abuse.  Children need to be in school.  Joe Biden allegedly wants to open the schools.  Some states, red states such as Florida, reopened months ago, while others, under the teacher union jackboots stay closed.  That makes Biden's pick for deputy secretary of education a mystery.  Cindy Marten, the superintendent of schools in San Diego, fully backs the irresponsible unions and closure.  Matthew Foldi reported at the Washington Free Beacon that she is still fighting to keep students out of the classroom in San Diego, where she's school superintendent.

WaPo: Two Pinocchios For Kerry's Wind-And-Solar Jobs Claims.  If you missed John Kerry's remarks on the job-destruction impact from Joe Biden's executive orders on climate change, let's refresh memories first.  Reporters asked Kerry how the new administration would explain to hundreds of thousands of energy workers about the necessity of making them unemployed, Kerry suggested that they could "make better choices," and told reporters that they should learn to build solar panels instead. [...] Obama, Kerry, and Biden had eight years to prove the assertion that massive government subsidies in renewable energy would pay off with "millions" of green-tech jobs.  Remind us again how many wind and solar installer jobs America currently has 12 years after the massive Porkulus bill?  The most significant lie here isn't Kerry's statistical claims.  It's that this administration cares one whit about energy-sector jobs while they take every step they can to destroy them without viable employment or energy options.

Report: Biden State Dept.  Spox Trashed Cops in 2016 Facebook Post.  Jalina Porter, who was recently made the deputy spokeswoman of Joe Biden's State Department, called American cops the "largest threat to U.S. national security" in a Facebook post in 2016, reports the Washington Free Beacon.  The Beacon obtained a screenshot of the offending remarks. [...] PJ Media could not independently verify the legitimacy of the Facebook post shared by the Washington Free Beacon.  Either the post has since been deleted from her Facebook profile, or her privacy settings don't allow unapproved people to see the post.  The Washington Free Beacon did not explain how they obtained the screenshot.  The State Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the publication.  Porter is a former NFL and NBA cheerleader who was working at the Truman National Security Project, a left-wing foreign policy think tank, at the time of the post.

State Dept Spox: 'Largest Threat to U.S. National Security are U.S. Cops'.  The State Department's newly installed deputy spokesperson, Jalina Porter, said in a 2016 Facebook post that the "largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S cops," according to a screenshot of the post obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.  "The largest threat to U.S. national security are U.S. cops," wrote Porter, who was recently tapped by the Biden administration to serve as State Department spokesman Ned Price's deputy.  "Not ISIS, not Russian hackers, not anyone or anything else."  Porter's comments were made on Sept. 20, 2016, and appear to be in reference to video footage released that day of an unarmed black man being shot by police officers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Biden climate envoy John Kerry is a lifelong joke.  What was Joe Biden thinking for his choice of climate-change ambassador extraordinaire?  John Kerry is one of the biggest gasbags in American politics, singlehandedly responsible for massive amounts of terrible emissions.  People have been laughing at him since Yale, when "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau was zinging his pretentious, vacuous self-promotion.  We look forward to the anti-carbon lectures from a guy who travels the globe on private jets and luxury yachts.  Set aside his deer-in-the-headlights loss as the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2004.  He was a joke as secretary of state under President Barack Obama — off on his yacht during Egypt's 2013 military coup.

Janet Yellen Received $810K In Speaking Fees From Hedge Fund Embroiled In GameStop Saga.  Treasury Sec.  Janet Yellen received more than $800,000 in speaking fees from a hedge fund that has become embroiled in the saga over stock trades for video game retailer GameStop, according to her financial disclosures.  Citadel, a hedge fund founded by Ken Griffin, a major GOP donor, paid Yellen $810,000 to speak at several events from October 2019 to October 2020, according to Yellen's filings with the Office of Government Ethics.  The Chicago-based hedge fund paid Yellen $292,500 for a speech on Oct. 17, 2019, $180,000 for one on Dec. 3, 2019, and $337,500 to speak at a series of webinars held from Oct. 9-27, 2020.

Biden Treasury Sec Yellen Paid by Chinese Communist Party-Linked Group.  Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's financial disclosures reveal she was paid to speak at Caixin — a Beijing-based media outlet with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.  The financial relationship is revealed via her most recent disclosure as item 33 on a 68-item-long list titled "Filer's Sources of Compensation Exceeding $5,000 in a Year."

Sen. Blackburn Says Biden EPA Appointee Broke Law.  Environmental Protection Agency principal deputy general counsel Melissa Hoffer may have violated federal law by asking the Department of Justice to put a hold on all litigation involving the EPA, according to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).  In a Jan. 25 letter made public on Jan. 28, Blackburn asked EPA Inspector General Sean O'Donnell and Comptroller General Gene Dodaro to "open an investigation into potential violations of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA) and other potential violations of ethics rules."  Dodaro heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.  Hoffer, a political appointee, is one of the first 16 officials dispatched to EPA by the White House on Jan. 20 to carry out President Joe Biden's plan to make combating climate change one of his administration's top economic and national security policy priorities.

John Kerry reportedly still owns private jet as he fights climate change.  John Kerry, President Biden's top environmental policy adviser, still owns a private jet — despite his intention of fighting fossil fuels in the new administration, according to a report.  A Federal Aviation Administration registry shows a Gulfstream Aerospace aircraft owned by Flying Squirrel LLC, the name previously reported as the climate czar's wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry's private charter jet company, Fox News reported.  The company's address in the registry matches that of the Heinz Family Foundation, according to the network.  The plane's registration certificate was issued in July 2005 and expires in October 2023, according to FAA records cited by Fox News.

Incompetence:
'Circle Back': WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki's Go-To Answer for Avoiding Transparency.  It's not really clear what people were expecting in terms of transparency within the new Biden administration.  But if we go by the "expertise" of current White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, people will have more questions than answers for the next four years.  In what has already become a noticeable trend, Psaki seems to use the same phrase — "circle back" — over and over when being asked questions about what President Joe Biden and his administration are doing, among other questions.  Psaki has basically become a walking meme at this point, and we're only one week into the new presidency.

The Editor says...
Lots of TV news anchors, meteorologists, and field reporters have their own set of "crutch words," verbal tics, and signature catchphrases.  Most of them don't even know it, because their co-workers are too polite to tell them about it.  But by the time one arrives at the national news media level, those amateurish flaws should have been ironed out.

John Kerry to Oil and Gas Workers Who Lose Their Jobs Because of Biden's War on Energy: 'Go Make Solar Panels'.  John Kerry, the Biden Admin's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, has a message to oil and gas workers:  make solar panels.  Joe Biden killed tens of thousands of jobs his first day in office when he canceled contracts with the Keystone XL pipeline and waged a war on the energy business.  This is just the beginning — millions of US jobs are at risk now that Biden is stopping new oil and gas leases on federal lands.

Biden's Energy Nominee Divvied Millions In Taxpayer Funds To Alternative Energy Startups That Went Bankrupt.  President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, divvied out millions in taxpayer funds during her two terms as Michigan governor to alternative energy companies that eventually went bankrupt.  In one instance, Granholm's administration provided a $9.1 million refundable tax credit to a renewable energy company registered to the address of a single-wide trailer and run by a convicted embezzler named Richard Short.  Short was found to be in violation of his parole and sent back to prison after appearing on stage with Granholm in 2010 to accept assistance from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.  Granholm also granted $10 million to an electric car battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, in 2009 and lauded the company in a press conference, saying it would help "make Michigan the alternative energy capital of North America and the advanced battery capital of the world."

Biden Appoints Susan Rice To Drive Racial Politics Deep Into Federal Bureaucracy.  Joe Biden has brought on former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice as a domestic policy aide to promote racial justice and equity.  This is the latest example of Biden promoting policy that sounds like it came directly off of a college campus.  [Video clips]  Now might be a good time to remind Democrats and especially members of the Biden administration, that before COVID hit, the unemployment rate for minorities across the board were at historic lows.  It's also a good time to remember that this woman went on five Sunday news shows after the Benghazi attack and blamed it on a YouTube video.  It's amazing she has not been shamed off the national stage.

Biden Picks CA Labor Sec Julie Su, Responsible For $10B in Fraud Losses, for Deputy DOL.  Yet another California Democrat with a record of failure might be headed to Washington if Joe Biden gets his way. [...] Today Biden announced the nomination of California Secretary of Labor Julie Su for Deputy Secretary of Labor, the number two position in the department, a move that has Californians in both parties scratching their heads.  Su served as a Labor Commissioner from 2011 through 2018 and in 2019 was appointed Secretary for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) by Newsom.  Her tenure leading LWDA, which "enforces workplace laws, combats wage theft, ensures health and safety on the job, connects Californians to quality jobs and career pathways, and administers unemployment insurance, workers compensation and paid family leave," has been an unmitigated disaster.

Wall Street's luck has run out with Biden's SEC head Gary Gensler.  Among corporate America's biggest worries about a Biden presidency was that he might cave to the left wing of his party and select Elizabeth Warren as his top white-collar-crime cop.  Well, the corporate chieftains dodged that bullet, only to find themselves now in the crosshairs of the next worst thing.  To say Gary Gensler — nominated as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission — is the favorite regulator of the business-hating Massachusetts senator isn't an overstatement.  Both he and Warren view the business of monitoring securities markets and regulating big business as more of a progressive holy war than matter of governance.  With that you can expect not just the usual flurry of enforcement activity out of the agency when Gensler comes to town.  People who know Gensler tell me he is also intent on remaking the SEC in Warren's image.

Biden Just Picked A CIA Director With a 7-Year-Long Relationship with Chinese Communist Party Fronts.  Bill Burns — Joe Biden's pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency — serves as the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which has over a decade-long relationship with the China-United States Exchange Foundation and other Chinese Communist Party-linked groups.  Burns has served as President of the think tank since 2014, overseeing its involvement with the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) which dates back to at least 2009.

Back to the Obama's Failed Policies and Blinkered Personnel.  From the beginning, Biden sends the message that by executive fiat and personnel choices he plans to double down on policies that will undo Trump's achievements and weaken our nation while further restricting American liberties.  Democrats found COVID so convenient a means to open the gates for election fraud and population control and now they plan to use this example as a governing principle, demonizing their opponents while mouthing calls for "unity."  If it's true that personnel is policy, let's have a look at some of his picks.  Susan Rice, John Kerry, and Samantha Power are Obama retreads, but there are others just as statist and loony.  His choice to head the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is Kristen Clarke author of this:  "Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities — something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards." Anita Dunn as a"senior advisor," a woman who regards Mao Tse-Tung, the worst mass murderer in history, as one of her "favorite political philosophers."  It's not just the abhorrent beliefs and records of his selection that raises eyebrows.  It's the utter incompetence that shines through.

Joe Biden's Concept of an American Nation.  [Scroll down]  I fear that Biden and those he has chosen for his Cabinet have no idea of a "shared national identity" other than their ideal of "diversity."  Diversity, however, cannot be a source of "shared" identity — if anything, it is a means of eradicating the shared values, traditions, and heroes that President Trump spoke of.  More to the point, Biden's conception of America not only "gets in the way" of national sovereignty, but actively opposes it.  Biden is a globalist whose loyalty is to transnational organizations like the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the World Trade Organization, and other global institutions and non-profits.  He will seek to undermine national sovereignty because he believes in world governance, not in governance by nation-states.  These views are shared by Antony Blinken, Biden's choice for secretary of state.

Biden's Presidency of Disunity.  Biden's choice for Education Secretary nominee, Miguel Cardona, points to the hollowness of talk of unity.  Cardona greatly expanded Critical Race Theory as Connecticut education commissioner.  Cardona introduced mandatory Black Puerto Rican and Latino Studies that analyze how race, power, and privilege influence group access to citizenship, civil rights, and economic power.  Mr. Cardona is likely to want to expand such efforts on the federal level.  Children in America's educational institutions will be divided into categories based on race, and ethnicity.  Stripping people of their individuality for categorized thinking will cause resentment because those in attendance will not necessarily view themselves as privileged or see peers like the categories presented.  Other people in attendance, if it is mandatory attendance, will resent the time spent away from useful learning.

Biden defense nominee faults leadership while promising to root out white supremacy.  President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for defense secretary, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, laid blame on military leaders for failing to detect and root out white supremacy from the ranks during his Tuesday nomination hearing.  "We have to train our leaders to make sure they are in touch with the people they are leading," said Austin, who would be the first African American secretary of defense if granted a congressional waiver to become the Pentagon's top civilian leader after recently serving on active duty and confirmed by the Senate.  "I don't think this is a thing you can put a Band-Aid on and fix and leave alone," he added, stressing how leaders must instill military values in subordinates.  "Failure to be able to adhere to those values means you shouldn't be a part of our formation."

Hawley delays quick confirmation of Biden's DHS nominee.  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Tuesday [1/19/2021] he would place a hold on Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Hawley, who has come under fire recently amid allegations that he played a role in the Capitol riot early this month, made the announcement just hours after the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs wrapped its hearing with Mayorkas.  The move delays the nomination of a post Democrats have argued is critical to fill immediately to protect national security.  "Mr. Mayorkas has not adequately explained how he will enforce federal law and secure the southern border given President-elect Biden's promise to roll back major enforcement and security measures," Hawley said in a statement.

Forced from Obama Admin for Praising Mao, Anita Dunn to Return to White House.  President-elect Joe Biden will tap Anita Dunn, an Obama-administration alumna who praised Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong's political philosophy, for senior White House adviser, Axios reported Friday [1/15/2021].  Dunn's last stint in the White House ended after just seven months, when she resigned after former Fox News anchor Glenn Beck aired a clip of the then-communications director saying Mao was one of her "favorite political philosophers."  Dunn worked as senior adviser for the Biden campaign from 2019 until last spring when she took over its operations following a disastrous Iowa caucus showing.  She then became co-chair of Biden's transition team after his victory in November.

Biden Picks Health Sec Who Forced Nursing Homes to Accept Infected Coronavirus Patients.  The most notable thing about Biden's pick of Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rick 'Rachel' Levine as his assistant secretary of health is the doctor's drag act.  For the dead senior citizens in Pennsylvania nursing homes and their families, Rick is known for something more gruesome than turning coronavirus press conferences into the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

China Ties Raise Questions for Biden's Pick for Top Defense Post.  Joe Biden's pick for a top Pentagon post works at a research center partnered with China's Peking University, a school that has long been eyed as a security risk by western intelligence.  Colin Kahl, whom Biden tapped for undersecretary of defense for policy, has served as a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University since the beginning of 2018.  The institute oversees the Stanford Center at Peking University in northern Beijing, which opened in 2012.  Peking University, which is run by former Beijing spy chief Qiu Shuiping and has been linked to multiple espionage cases in the United States, recently updated its charter to require loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, according to an NPR report.  The school has also been ramping up its student and faculty surveillance system in what China watchers see as part of the government's broader crackdown on independent scholarship.

Biden picks Levine, openly transgender woman, for health post; if confirmed, she would make history.  Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine, who is openly transgender, has been nominated to become assistant secretary of health under President-elect Joe Biden's administration, The Associated Press is reporting.  ["]President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.["]

Biden's New HHS Pick [is] Historic, All Right — In COVID-19 Nursing-Home Policy Double Standards.  Get ready for lots of media fawning over the appointment of Rachel Levine to become assistant secretary at HHS.  This morning, news outlets have already begun hailing Joe Biden for his historic choice of appointing the first transgender nominee to a Senate-confirmed position.  But Levine has other history that should be more directly applicable — and to raise more questions about Biden's judgment[.]

Incoming White House Climate Team Blames Systemic Racism' for Climate Change.  A pair of top incoming White House environmental aides has blamed "systemic racism" as a driver of climate change in an attempt to justify a government-led economic overhaul.  President-elect Joe Biden named progressive policy adviser Maggie Thomas as Office of Domestic Climate Policy chief of staff and climate advocate Cecilia Martinez as "senior director for environmental justice" on Thursday [1/14/2021].  Both Thomas and Martinez have cited racial inequality as perpetuating climate change, arguing that the Biden administration's environmental policy must be centered on "racial and economic justice."  "Unless intentionally interrupted, systemic racism will continue to be a major obstacle to creating a healthy planet," Martinez said in a 2019 press release touting her "Equitable & Just" climate platform.  "The only path forward is to design national climate policies that are centered on justice."

The Editor says...
Did the climate start changing after the passage (over Democrat objections) of the Civil Rights Act of 1965?  Is there no "systemic racism" anywhere else in the world?  The climate has always changed, regardless of politics, but it changes so gradually that nobody would ever notice, if the news media didn't bring it up constantly.

Biden Is Already Rewarding Failure.  When Sundown Joe takes office on Wednesday, the old gang will be back in the saddle again: the foreign policy establishment hacks who have done nothing but fail, fail, and fail again, and in response keep getting rewarded not with dismissal and a forced return to private life, but with honors, awards, and promotions.  AFP reported Saturday that Biden has appointed Wendy Sherman, whose chief claim to fame is negotiating the notorious Iran nuclear deal, to be deputy secretary of state.  It's a classic example of failing up.

Joe Biden Nominates Gretchen Whitmer as DNC Vice Chair.  President-elect Joe Biden announced Thursday he nominated Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to serve as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). [...] The DNC position would allow Whitmer to raise her profile nationally, despite Michigan still being locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic and complaints from business owners and Republicans that there is no real plan to reopen.

Biden taps former FDA chief Kessler to lead vaccine science.  President-elect Joe Biden has picked a former Food and Drug commissioner to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration's first 100 days and stem the COVID-19 pandemic.  Dr. David Kessler, who will have the title of chief science officer of COVID response, headed the Food and Drug Administration in the 1990s under presidents of both political parties.  He has been acting as a top pandemic adviser to Biden and his appointment was announced Friday by the presidential transition office.

The Editor says...
For months, the Socialist Democrats have insisted that we "follow the science."  Now they say someone has to lead the science.

Joe Biden''s Choice to Lead the DOJ Civil Rights Unit thinks Blacks are Superior Mentally and Physically Because of Melanin.  In 1994, Clarke wrote a letter to The Harvard Crimson in her capacity as the president of the Black Students Association to explain her views on race science.  "Please use the following theories and observations to assist you in your search for truth regarding the genetic differences between Blacks and whites [sic]," Clarke wrote.  "One:  Dr Richard King reveals that the core of the human brain is the 'locus coeruleus,' which is a structure that is Black, because it contains large amounts of neuro-melanin, which is essential for its operation.  [Video clip]

Biden Pick For Civil Rights Chief Promoted Racism and Anti-Semitism at Harvard.  Kristen Clarke, President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, advanced pseudoscientific theories of black racial superiority and organized an event with a notorious anti-Semite as a student at Harvard University.  Clarke and a coauthor outlined "the genetic differences between Blacks and whites" in a 1994 letter to the editors of Harvard's student newspaper, which criticized the political scientist Charles Murray's book The Bell Curve.  The genetic difference they identify, varying levels of melanin between whites and blacks, accounts for disparate cognitive abilities, physical power, and even spirituality, the pair said.  The so-called melanin theory has no basis in science.  "Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities — something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards," they wrote.

Biden Nominates Former Obama Official, Unmasker Samantha Power as USAID Administrator.  President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday he was nominating Samantha Power, a former Obama administration official and key unmasker of Trump campaign staffers, to a top position in his incoming administration.  "Ambassador Samantha Power is a world-renowned voice of conscience and moral clarity — challenging and rallying the international community to stand up for the dignity and humanity of all people," Biden said in a statement.  "As USAID Administrator, she'll be a powerful force for principled American engagement."

Joe Biden Picks Pro-Abortion Samantha Power to Head USAID, Will Make Americans Fund Planned Parenthood.  Abortion activists praised Samantha Power, President-elect Joe Biden's choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, as a "steadfast voice for human rights" on Wednesday [1/13/2021].  Biden's transition team announced Power as his choice for USAID administrator this week.  She is one of a growing list of pro-abortion leaders slated to fill the new presidential administration.  In the position, Power will assist Biden in restoring taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood and other global abortion advocacy groups — funds that President Donald Trump cut through his Protecting Life policy.  Power previously worked in President Barack Obama's administration as a representative to the United Nations.  Before that, she served on the National Security Council where she advised Obama and Biden on "women's rights," which, to Democrat leaders, includes abortion on demand.

Biden names Samantha Power as pick to lead USAID.  President-elect Joseph R. Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, as his pick to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Mr. Biden also elevated the position to be in the National Security Council (NSC).  "As USAID Administrator, Ambassador Power will be a powerful force for lifting up the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development, and advancing American interests globally," Mr. Biden said.

More about Samantha Power.

Biden's choice to lead DOJ Civil Rights is an open anti-white racist.  On his Monday night show, in addition to commenting on the terrors of a new tech oligarchy in America, Tucker Carlson revealed the shocking truth about Kirsten Clarke, who is Joe Biden's choice to lead the Department of Justice's extremely powerful Civil Rights division.  When Clarke was an undergraduate, she wrote such a vile anti-white screen that even the hard-left Harvard Crimson pushed back.  In addition, she invited to campus a black speaker whose claim to fame was his Hitlerian anti-Semitism, and showered him with praise.  Clarke attending Harvard as an undergrad.  Right there, of course, you can see just how oppressed this woman has been.

Biden Picks Someone With No Experience To Run The CIA.  As Joe Biden continues to flesh out his cabinet and White House staff, I'm seriously beginning to wonder if anyone is actually advising him on these picks.  We already discussed his curious choice of Gina Raimondo for Commerce, and now he's made an even stranger selection.  For some reason, Uncle Joe has tapped former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to take charge at the CIA.  The 64-year-old Burns certainly has plenty of experience in the swamp, having served under multiple administrations, but he's a career diplomat.  There is virtually nothing in his record to suggest that he has any experience in the intelligence community, and that's only the beginning of his shortcomings.

Biden Said to Pick Merrick Garland, Blocked by G.O.P. From High Court, as Attorney General.  President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to nominate Judge Merrick Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination Republicans blocked in 2016, to be attorney general, placing the task of repairing a beleaguered Justice Department in the hands of a centrist judge, according to a person familiar with the matter.  If confirmed, Judge Garland, who has sometimes disappointed liberals with his rulings, would inherit a department that grew more politicized under President Trump than at any point since Watergate.  Judge Garland will face vexing decisions about civil rights issues that roiled the country this year, whether to investigate Mr. Trump and his administration and how to proceed with a tax investigation into Mr. Biden's son.

Biden to name judge Merrick Garland as attorney general.  President-elect Joe Biden has selected Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge who in 2016 was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court, as his attorney general, two people familiar with the selection process said Wednesday [1/6/2021].  In picking Garland, Biden is turning to an experienced judge who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor of the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Here's What To Tell Relatives Who Insist Biden's Cabinet Is Centrist.  What, in today's political culture, is a "centrist"?  Old-fashioned political nerds define it by support for legislation and policy proposals.  If you love really big tax cuts and favor abolishing several Cabinet departments, you're not a centrist.  If you want to "defund the police" and "end fossil fuels," you're also not a centrist.  This is one of those matters of political categorization that our most prestigious newspapers mangle on a regular basis.  Liberal editors and reporters have an annoying tendency to define the center as the precise location where they stand on the ideological spectrum.  Case in point:  The New York Times placed this fraudulent headline at the top of its front page on Sunday:  "On Philosophy, Biden Cabinet Leans Centrist."  This is simply preposterous.

Meet Joe Biden's climate 'dream team'.  President-elect Joe Biden has appointed a mix of Cabinet and White House officials who will compose the first "climate team."  Some of them are pending Senate confirmation, while others don't require it.  Together, Biden has charged the team with implementing his agenda to combat climate change, the most aggressive proposed by a presidential candidate, that calls for reaching net-zero emissions across the U.S. economy by 2050 and carbon-free electricity by 2035.  Other personnel choices not listed here are also expected to focus on climate change in ways their agencies have not previously, such as Janet Yellen at the Treasury Department, Pete Buttigieg as the transportation secretary, and Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary.

Grenell: 'Very Concerned' With Biden and His NSA Pick Over China.  Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, said on Sunday that he was very concerned with Joe Biden and his national security advisor pick with respect to U.S.-China policy.  Mark Levin, the host of the Fox News' "Life Liberty & Levin" show, suggested that Biden is "exactly the wrong man, at the wrong time, to be anywhere near creating and leading American foreign policy" because his family is "so bought off in so many ways by the Communist Chinese government."  "I'm very concerned about what not only Joe Biden and his family, how they've responded to China in the past," Grenell told Levin on Sunday evening," but also those around him."  "I mean, look at Jake Sullivan, who has really tried to compliment Beijing and to really surrender to the fact that China is going to be a superpower and that we should just deal with it.  I don't think that that's true."

Who Is to Blame for Black Poverty?  The evident theme for Joe Biden's [cabinet] picks has nothing to do with whether his picks are actually qualified for their postings.  Rather, that must check off the appropriate victim identity group box:  female, Black, Hispanic, gay, trans, or (Jackpot!) a combination of two or more, where being a black Hispanic lesbian is the pinnacle of the victim hierarchy.

Here's A List Of Biden's Pro-Gun Control Cabinet Picks.  At least five of President-elect Joe Biden's reported cabinet picks have expressed pro-gun control views in past statements, a Daily Caller News Foundation review has found.  Biden, who is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, has said he plans to end the sale of so-called "assault weapons" and "high-capacity magazines" in addition to instituting red flag legislation and ending liability protections for gun manufacturers and sellers, according to his campaign website.  The former vice president's gun control plan, coupled with his slew of cabinet picks that seem to share his views on the issue, has pro-Second Amendment groups on edge.

Joe Biden's cabinet of nitwits.  Desperately attempting to prove he wasn't a mere 47-year-in-office political hack and to distinguish himself from President Trump, Joe Biden made a big deal about "listening to the experts," and "following science," as if to argue that successful non-politician outsider Trump was some kind of amateur. [...] So why is the so-called "president-elect" of experts doing something very different:  Packing his cabinet with ignorant political cronies and zero-experience morons?  The New York Post has an excellent editorial takedown of all these so-called experts Joe is putting forward to run his likely coming administration, wondering if he was selecting them by dartboard.

Gina McCarthy, Deb Haaland And Gold King Mine.  Gina McCarthy and Deb Haaland are on Biden's climate team.  This should be interesting given both of their ties to the disastrous Gold King Mine spill of 2015.  That year, a mine up near Silverton, Colorado was under clean-up protocols by the EPA.  The same EPA that Gina McCarthy was running at the time.  Then, the spill happened.  The Animas River turned into yellow sludge from southwestern Colorado all the way into and nearly through New Mexico.  Who lives in New Mexico and just the year before lost her bid to be NM Lieutenant Governor?  Joe Biden's new choice for Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland.

There's a message behind Buttigieg's lack of qualifications.  Pete Buttigieg is only the latest in a list of unqualified cabinet appointments Biden has been making.  It's one thing to reward loyalty; it's another thing to hand cabinet positions to useless people.  But that's really the point — that they're useless.  Biden's is a Potemkin presidency.  Neither he nor his cabinet members will wield power.  Obama and the Deep State are the ones in charge.

The Persistent Myth of Biden's 'Moderation'.  The dominant media is an unreliable arbiter of political labels.  While it is quick to cast even the most prosaic Republicans as "hardline conservatives," it is far more circumspect in its description of Democrats.  To enhance the appeal of figures like Joe Biden, the media will often confer upon them the label "moderate."  This is a lever by which the media moves the ideological spectrum steadily leftward, to the advantage of liberals.  A biased media would like the public to see liberalism and "moderation" as interchangeable.  Hence, even though Biden ran a campaign to the left of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, many in the media still described it as moderate.  This media flattery continues as Biden rolls out his personnel picks.  He hasn't selected a veritable moderate yet.

How Biden just gave House Republicans a major boost.  President-Elect Joe Biden has chosen a Democrat from the U.S. House of Representatives as his nominee for Secretary of the Interior, which is likely to give Republicans in the chamber a boost.  Sources confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that Biden planned to ask Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., to fill the role, which would make her the first Native American to do so if she is confirmed by the Senate.  However, her exit from the House leaves Democrats with a very slim majority over Republicans, after Biden also tapped Reps.  Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and Cedric Richmond, D-La., for separate roles in the administration.  The slight 219-member majority will make it tougher for the incoming president to pass coveted his agenda items.  A party needs 218 seats for a majority among the 435-member body.

Biden Considering Disney CEO for China Ambassador after Company Praised CCP.  Joe Biden may appoint Disney CEO Bob Iger as ambassador to China or the United Kingdom, sources told the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday [12/16/2020].  The news comes as Disney's extensive footprint in China has drawn criticism in the U.S. In particular, the company's live-action remake of Mulan contained segments shot in Xinjiang, where the Chinese Communist Party has imprisoned over a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in concentration camps and has conducted a forced-sterilization campaign on Uyghur women.

Biden calls Buttigieg's husband 'Kirsten,' snubs gay GOP cabinet member.  President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday [12/16/2020] mangled his rollout of Pete Buttigieg as the "first" gay cabinet nominee — using a female name for Buttigieg's husband and omitting mention of President Trump having named the first gay cabinet-level official.  Biden noted his fondness for Buttigieg's husband "Kirsten" during a speech in Wilmington, Del., as he formally named the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor as his nominee for transportation secretary.  Biden also snubbed Ric Grenell, whom Trump celebrated this year as the first gay cabinet member when he worked three months as acting director of national intelligence.

Biden Fundraiser Floated as Ambassador Pick Took Millions in PPP Loans While His Law Firm Won Massive Settlements.  A prominent trial lawyer being floated as a potential ambassador pick by Joe Biden took millions of dollars in COVID relief, even as his firm was winning hundreds of millions in settlements.  Joseph Rice, cofounder of the South Carolina-based Motley Rice law firm, helped raise large sums for Biden's campaign and could land an ambassadorship spot in his administration, local reports indicate.  Motley Rice received $7.03 million from Paycheck Protection Program funds, which were intended to help small businesses pay workers and stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.  Several companies have faced criticism for taking PPP loans when they did not need them, including from prominent Democrats.  Those criticisms don't seem to have swayed the incoming administration, which the State says is considering Rice for an ambassador role.

It's Outrageous That Joe Biden Is Even Considering Disney's Bob Iger For Ambassador To China.  News that former Disney CEO Bob Iger is under consideration to serve as Joe Biden's Chinese ambassador is a concerning indication the president-elect's relationship with Beijing will be even worse than expected.  Iger, currently the executive chairman of Disney, has collaborated closely with the Chinese government to produce and release films in the Middle Kingdom, a venture that ultimately makes him complicit in the country's mounting human rights abuses.

Biden pushes back against critics, touts 'Cabinet of firsts'.  After weeks of pressure from all sides of the Democratic Party's vast coalition over the makeup of his incoming administration, President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday [12/16/2020] pushed back against his critics as he made another history-making Cabinet nomination.  "By the end of this process, this Cabinet will be the most representative of any Cabinet in American history.  We'll have more people of color than any Cabinet ever.  We'll have more women than any Cabinet ever.  We'll have a Cabinet of barrier breakers, a Cabinet of firsts," Biden emphasized on Wednesday.  Biden, who has vowed to make good on his promise that his administration would "look like America," touted his choices to date, saying "our Cabinet doesn't have just one first, or just two of these firsts, but eight precedent-busting appointments.  And today a ninth — the first openly gay nominee to lead a Cabinet department and one of the youngest Cabinet members ever."

AOC Rips Biden Appointees As Corporate 'Revolving Door.  By now it has to be dawning on the socialist wing of the Democratic party that former vice president Joe Biden was only paying lip service to them on appointing a diverse array of leftists to his cabinet.  Team Biden has raised the ire of Bernie Sanders supporters who bought the lies again and lined up behind him just as they did with Hillary in 2016 with expectations that their loyalty would be rewarded.  Instead, Biden has fielded a parade of Obama era retreads including Tony Blinken, Neera Tanden, Dennis McDonough, Jen Psaki, and Janet Yellen while shutting out gullible leftist ideologues.

Biden picks Pete Buttigieg, 38, as transportation secretary-making him most senior gay official confirmed by Senate.  President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Pete Buttigieg, his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, according to two people familiar with the matter.  Buttigieg, 38, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has never held federal office, would be the first LGBTQ person nominated to Biden's administration and, if confirmed, the first LGBTQ Cabinet secretary to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

Introducing the man slated to run the Department of Transportation.  Biden has selected Pete Buttigieg as his pet gay activist.  After mulling making Buttigieg the Ambassador to China, Biden opted, instead, to hand him the Department of Transportation.  That's quite a plum assignment for a guy with a pathetic administrative record.

Biden's Energy Secretary Pick Spent Years Pushing Russian Collusion Theories.  President-elect Joe Biden's choice to helm the Department of Energy, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), has a history of publicly promoting theories about Russian collusion in the 2016 election.  Granholm, who if confirmed by the United States Senate as energy secretary, would be in charge of America's nuclear arsenal, began pushing the notion that President Donald Trump was enamored of Russia in mid-2015, according to the former governor's social media posts.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms declines role in incoming Biden administration.  Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms turned down a position in President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet, her spokesman said, amid speculation about what role she might play in the new administration.  "Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was honored to have been offered a role in the Cabinet, which she respectfully declined," senior adviser Rashad Taylor said in a statement on Saturday.  "The mayor's focus remains on the people of Atlanta and the great state of Georgia."  Ms. Bottoms had been rumored to be under consideration to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development or to head the Small Business Administration, a Cabinet-level post.  A reporter for the New Yorker said Friday she'd been offered the less prestigious role of ambassador to the Bahamas.  The transition denied that report on Friday, and Mr. Taylor did again Saturday.

Biden's strange staffing decisions.  Susan Rice and Xavier Becerra were always likely to get plum appointments in a Biden administration.  Both are important figures in the Democratic Party and both check a race/ethnicity box.  But the appointments the two received are odd.  Rice, a foreign policy/national security hand, will be Biden's domestic policy adviser.  Becerra, the Attorney General of California, is the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services.  He has no experience working at HHS, no medical background, and has never been chief executive of a state or any entity other than an attorney general's shop.  Biden's odd selections don't end with Rice and Becerra.  As Jim Geraghty notes, Denis McDonough, the pick for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, is not a veteran and has no experience focused specifically on veterans issues.  And Rep. Fudge, who stated she didn't want to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development — traditionally a dumping ground for Black politicians, she said — has been selected to run that department.

Biden Is Poised To Hand Republicans An Incredible Tool To Investigate The Hunter Corruption Scandal.  China, Ukraine, tax fraud, corruption, and federal investigations.  After a year of partisan attacks and obfuscations, media smears and derision, and Big Tech censorship and de-platformings, this week the Hunter Biden protection chamber finally collapsed.  As reporting by The New York Post, The Daily Caller News Foundation, James Rosen, Tucker Carlson, The Federalist, and others continues to pile up, corroborated drip by drip, so too do the questions for both the incoming Biden administration and the former Obama administration.  Fortunately for interested U.S. senators, the two administrations are stacking up to be virtually identical — and they just might get the chance to ask a few questions.  Among Joe Biden's intended nominees are former White House Chief of Staff and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, up for Veterans Affairs; former Deputy National Security Councilor and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, up for State; and former Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the CIA Avril Haines, up for director of national intelligence.

AP source:  Cuomo among contenders for attorney general pick.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is one of several contenders under consideration by President-elect Joe Biden for the role of attorney general, a person with knowledge of the search process said Friday [12/11/2020].  The other three contenders at the moment include outgoing Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, said the person, who cautioned that no decision had been reached and no announcement was expected imminently.

Joe Biden talks up scandal-scarred Susan Rice for domestic policy role.  President-elect Joe Biden officially introduced Susan Rice as the chief of his domestic agenda on Friday — claiming the scandal-scarred Obama-era national security adviser would be an "effective and tireless champion for all Americans."  On Thursday, Biden's transition announced that Rice was headed back to the White House as the director of the Domestic Policy Council, an eyebrow-raising choice given Rice's lack of domestic policy experience and past controversies.  "She'll lead and coordinate my critical domestic policy agenda," Biden said at the Friday press conference in Wilmington, Del., where he unveiled his latest batch of new cabinet appointments.

Biden: Cabinet picks from Obama era mean 'bold new thinking'.  President-elect Joe Biden on Friday introduced a series of key picks for his new government that drew heavily from the Obama administration, saluting their "deep experience" while insisting he could rely on them for "bold new thinking."




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Updated March 22, 2024.

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