Voters Skeptical of Joe Biden’s Cognitive Health, Poll Finds . . . Voters in Texas's Sixth Congressional District will take part in a special election next month to fill the seat vacated by the late Rep. Ron Wright (R., Texas), who succumbed to COVID-19 in February. A Washington Free Beacon poll suggests that residents of the suburban Dallas district are divided as to which candidate they plan to support in the crowded field. A majority of registered voters, however, are skeptical about the state of President Joe Biden's cognitive health. According to the poll, 38 percent of registered voters in the district said Biden is likely suffering from dementia or some other cognitive ailment. An additional 15 percent said they didn't know or refused to answer. That works out to a majority of 53 percent of voters who were unwilling to buy into the White House narrative surrounding the president's physical and mental fitness to hold office. Washington Free Beacon

 

 

 

A New Systemic Racism? . . . The laudable goal of recognizes the potential contributions of all without regard to race or sex has become a shibboleth at the country's elite institutions behind which lies a deep hostility to white men. Call it the new systemic racism.
The latest crop of New York Times interns provides a window into the dynamics at work. Of the Times's 33 interns, one appears to be a white male. Five are men and 27 are women. So much for looking like America, where census data suggest that white men account for about 30 percent of the population. They account for just 3 percent of Times interns. Men of all races account for 49.2 percent of the U.S. population and just 15 percent of Times interns. The Wall Street Journal's class of summer interns is similarly unrepresentative of the country at large. Washington Free Beacon

 

‘Green Infrastructure’ Backers Stand to Profit From Gov’t Spending Boost . . . Democratic lawmakers and expert witnesses pushing President Joe Biden's $2 trillion "green infrastructure" package stand to profit from the plan, financial records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. Biden's American Jobs Plan requires 100 percent of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources—including solar, wind, hydrogen, and biomass—by 2035. The provision comes as a boost to Rep. Sean Casten (D., Ill.), who holds up to a $500,000 stake in biomass company Greenleaf Power. Rep. Sharice Davids (D., Kan.)—who recently claimed that the American Jobs Plan would create a "smart and sustainable" economic boom—also holds up to $16,000 in clean energy utility companies  Washington Free Beacon

 

 

 

Ukraine Says Russia Will Soon Have Over 120,000 Troops on Its Borders . . . Russia will soon have more than 120,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, calling for new Western economic sanctions to deter Moscow from “further escalation.”
Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Western officials say the concentration of forces is now larger than during that annexation. Epoch Times

 

Satellite Images Show Russia’s Expanding Combat Buildup near Ukraine . . .  Russia has moved warplanes to Crimea and bases near Ukraine to an extent greater than has previously been disclosed, adding to its capability for political intimidation or military intervention. “They have appropriately deployed the various elements of airpower that would be needed to establish air superiority over the battlefield and directly support the ground troops,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. Air Force general who served as the top NATO military commander when Russian forces seized Crimea and intervened in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Other Russian military units on the Crimean peninsula include airborne troops, motorized rifle and armored units, attack helicopters, smoke generators, reconnaissance drones, jamming equipment and a military hospital, the photos indicate. Those forces and the stationing of Su-34, Su-30, Su-27, Su-25 and Su-24 aircraft elsewhere in the region have strengthened Moscow’s political leverage to coerce Ukraine. Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

Russia to pull out of International Space Station in 2025 . . . Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station in 2025, the head of its space programme said on Wednesday, in a move that would sever one of the most prominent and long-lasting areas of co-operation between Moscow and Washington. The US and Russia jointly launched the ISS in 1998 in what was seen as a major step to rebuild ties between the cold war adversaries that had spent more than four decades competing with each other for extraterrestrial supremacy. Russia’s decision to abandon the ISS within four years also comes as Moscow looks instead to China as a partner for its future space ambitions. Financial Times

 

Tax Hikes Will Stifle the Recovery . . . The Biden administration and congressional Democrats’ $2.7 trillion “infrastructure plan” broadens the definition of infrastructure to include more than $2 trillion in funding for things like the National Science Foundation, long-term care, corporate child care, and electric-car companies. Some are worthy causes, but they don’t belong in an infrastructure bill. About $600 billion of the plan isn’t paid for and will take the nation further into debt. Democrats will pay for the rest of the plan with an enormous tax increase, the burden of which would ultimately be borne by American workers and consumers. It would make the U.S. less competitive in the global economy, reversing progress made in the past few years.  Opinion/Analysis. Wall Street Journal

 

Do you need to file a superseding tax return? . . . The IRS is in the process of sending out a third round of economic impact payments – but some taxpayers could benefit from filing what is known as a superseding return to receive their cash quicker. Superseding returns are treated as a replacement of an original return – and treated as such by the IRS. They are filed after the original return but prior to the due date of the original return. Typically, a superseding return can be filed to correct an error or otherwise change something on a return, including filing status. However, they also have other purposes given that the IRS is responsible for doling out stimulus checks. For married couples who have separated since filing a joint return, filing a superseding return can ensure that each spouse receives their economic impact payments separately, if they are eligible. Fox Business

 

Simon & Schuster Says Mike Pence Book Will Proceed, Despite Employee Petitions . . . Simon & Schuster Chief Executive Jonathan Karp said Tuesday the publisher would proceed with a book by former Vice President Mike Pence despite objections from some of its employees, saying he wants to preserve a culture that presents different perspectives. ‘We come to work each day to publish, not cancel,’ CEO Jonathan Karp says in letter to staffers. The publisher responded to petitions being circulated by its employees internally and on social media, demanding that the company cancel Mr. Pence’s book, refrain from signing deals with other Trump administration figures and cut off a distribution relationship with Post Hill Press, a publisher of conservative books. Wall Street Journal

 

 

Women’s March, Plagued by Anti-Semitism, Demands Prominent Jew’s Resignation . . . The Women's March, a prominent left-wing organization plagued with ties to anti-Semites, is demanding the resignation of the Supreme Court's highest-ranking Jew. The group's executive director, Rachel O'Leary Carmona, released a statement Monday urging Justice Stephen Breyer to relinquish his seat on the High Court before the midterm elections in 2022. "The time has come for Justice Breyer to retire and pass on the mantle of protecting women's rights," said O'Leary Carmona. A number of controversial liberal activists have coalesced behind a "Retire Breyer" campaign in an effort to end the prominent Jew's career. Among them is Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a dark money group that advocates radical reforms such as court packing. Washington Free Beacon

 

Wife Loots Target In Name Of Racial Justice, Still Somehow Spends $250 . . . Local woman Chloe Larson heard that there were protests going on in the name of racial justice. She wasn't really interested, though, until she heard that protesters were looting a local Target. Larson immediately jumped up and shouted "For George Floyd!" as she grabbed her bag and headed out the door. Baffled sources confirmed that she still somehow managed to spend $250.

"I'm not sure this lady knows how looting works," said one Target employee. "Just out of habit, she came up to our last self-checkout machine that hadn't been smashed in and looted yet and happily spent $250 on her Target card. I tried to tell her everything was free today, but she didn't seem to hear. She said something about getting points on her Target app." She also stopped at the in-store Starbucks and looted a Frappuccino, somehow spending $6. Larson then stopped to loot a Hobby Lobby on the way home and managed to spend over $1,000, sources had confirmed at publishing time. Satire. ;-)  Babylon Bee