Biden Report Card, A Bad Potion of Misery, Confusion, and War

But, other than that, things are going swimmingly. Paul Bedard at WaEx sneaks a look at the White House Report Card: A bad potion of misery, confusion, and war. "John Zogby, Grade C-, Not good, not good at all for Biden. . . . Jed Babbin, Grade D-, It was a week that featured a recurring nightmare for Biden: Afghanistan." Althouse reads Maureen Dowd because nobody else will, "Exhausted, confused, isolated and depressed Americans are not buying the Democratic line that things are better than they look." When they've lost Dowd as a cheerleader, things aren't going well. At Town Hall, Spencer Brown notes how White House Spox Can't Confirm If Biden Worked This Week. Maybe that's for the best, but we know he's not really in charge anyway. 

At Bloomberg Law, Shock Gas, Grocery Price Increases Spur States to Pare Taxes. Nice try, but it won't help, inflation will gobble it up. Capt. Ed at Haut Hair cites Bloomberg: A gas-tax holiday would be a disaster, "This idea is just as short-sighted as Joe Biden’s stimulus bill, which he and his fellow Democrats apparently intend to flog ceaselessly at the State of the Union address and afterward." But don't worry folks, the Biden team has a plan, from 'Bonchie' at Red State, Democrats Roll out a Desperate Strategy to Deflect Blame for Their Failures, and on schedule, Twitchy reports REALLY? Dem Sen. Debbie Stabenow slams Republicans for doing nothing to bring down inflation. 

Concern on Da Hill as Democrats hit 30-year high for House retirements, and they're not leaving because their future looks so bright. They want to get out of town before the shit hits the fan. Democrat stronghold NPR whines about how Americans are fleeing to places where political views match their own. 

The NYT, cited at Haut Hair, is hopeful, Fringe scheme to reverse 2020 election splits Wisconsin GOP. Trying to put the asterisk behind President* Joe Biden. Benjamin Yount at JTN, Top lawmaker expects Wisconsin elections integrity report later this month, "Speaker Robin Vos said goal of investigation is to know what went on in the 2020 presidential election, and what laws need to change." From PM, Pennsylvania court that declared mail-in voting law unconstitutional says ruling can take effect next month, "The judge said that the Republican leaders who challenged the state's mail-in voting law would likely prevail at the state Supreme Court." I'm not that confident. It's a court dominated by highly partisan Democrats. 

Atop Da Hill, Jonathon Turley expresses doubts about Judge Mehta's ruling that Trump can be sued for Jan. 6, 'What-aboutism' — Ruling against Trump leaves more questions than answers on free speech. 

Despite a lengthy, detailed discussion of issues like presidential immunity, Mehta becomes more curt and cursory over Trump's constitutional claims. When Trump's lawyers said his language was largely indistinguishable from that of many Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Mehta chided them for playing "a game of what-aboutism."

That "what-aboutism," however, is precisely the point. The selective imposition of liability for speech is the very thing that the First Amendment is designed to prevent.

As rioting raged in Brooklyn Center, Minn. and nationwide in 2020, Congresswoman Waters went to Minnesota and told protesters there that they “gotta stay on the street” and “get more confrontational.” Others have used language very similar to Trump’s in declaring elections to be invalid (including Hillary Clinton calling Trump an "illegitimate president") or urging supporters to "fight" or "battle" against Republicans; Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) once said, "There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there's unrest in our lives.”

All of those statements arguably were reckless but clearly protected speech.

At PJ Media, Kevin Downey asks Why Can't We See the Other 14,000 Hours of J6 Video Footage?. Clearly because they contain a lot of things they don't want us to see. The narrative must be maintained! At ET (premium), Location of Harris, Pence on Jan. 6 Becomes Key Part of Efforts to Fight Prosecution.

NYT at Haut Hair, Who's behind QAnon? Linguistic detectives find fingerprints. By now, the FBI, CIA and NSA all have to know who QAnon really is. The fact that we don't suggests they don't want us to. Could it be an FBI construct, trolling for right-wing nut cases? It could, we just don't know. 

From Sophie Mann at JTN, Stefanik becomes latest member of House GOP leadership to endorse Cheney challenger Hageman. At Breitbart, a Report: Former VP Mike Pence Defends RNC Censure of Cheney and Kinzinger. But Henry Olsen at WaPoo has an Opinion: Republicans who voted to impeach Trump might be in less peril than people think. At WaPoo Fat George flogs an Opinion: Trump’s luck may finally be running out. The walls are closing in! Again! 

Insty, JIM TREACHER: It’s a Good Thing Quintez Brown Wasn’t Wearing a MAGA Hat.

Imagine for a moment that a young man wearing a MAGA hat walked into the campaign headquarters of a mayoral candidate in an American city, pulled out a gun, and started shooting. Imagine that he came so close to assassinating the candidate that a bullet grazed the man’s sweater. And now imagine that the shooter’s bail was set at only $100,000, and a group of white supremacists raised his bail and put him back on the street within a couple of days.

Would that be national news? Would you be able to turn on CNN or MSNBC at any hour of the day without hearing about it? Would it be presented as further evidence of what’s really wrong with America?

Heck, I’m so old, I can remember when all you needed to do to receive universal condemnation by the American media was to wear a MAGA hat and stand next to an American Indian and a drum circle.

Insty,  FOLLOW THE SCIENCE! There Is Little Evidence That Mask Mandates Had an Important Impact During the Omicron Surge: Case trends in states with mandates were very similar to case trends in states without them. Also, COVID: WAS IT REALLY ALL BAD? Of Course: Joy Behar Will Wear a Face Mask Indefinitely. UPDATE: Joy Behar spotted maskless despite her pledge to wear masks indefinitely. What in the world did Joy Behar ever do to be worthy of national airtime? 

Rick Moran at PJ Media catches an MSNBC Reporter Admitting Democratic Base Doesn't Want to Go Back to 'Normal'. WaPoo finds one kid in VA who wants to force everybody back into masks ‘A very toxic environment’: Virginia students navigate ugly mask battle. At PM, an 'Incredibly disappointed' DC councilmember withdraws bill to reinstate city's vaccine mandate. Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair, Boston abruptly lifts vaccine mandate. At WaEx, 'Anti-science': GOP representatives demand Pelosi rescind Capitol mask mandate. 

At NYPo, a report that Rep. Elise Stefanik is at war with upstate school district.

Rep. Elise Stefanik has declared war on administrators of an upstate school district for allegedly suspending a pre-school teacher for sharing the lawmaker’s Facebook posts.

A Jan. 25 post from Stefanik offered a furious denunciation of Gov. Hochul’s plans to continue a statewide mask mandate — even after it was struck down by a state judge.

“Kathy Hochul’s Authoritarian mandate was deemed ILLEGAL by NY Supreme Court. Masks are not mandatory for students as of RIGHT NOW!,” Stefanik wrote.

The brouhaha began on Jan. 28 when Carey Lizzio was allegedly placed on administrative leave after sharing the post on social media, Stefanik said.

“This widely-respected Pre-K teacher was outrageously escorted from her classroom and is no longer allowed on school property pending an investigation,” Stefanik said a day later. She described it as the “Soviet-style purging of hardworking teachers.”

The school district denies it, of course, but won't produce any records, citing privacy.  

At WaPoo, Tyler Cowan thinks Wokeism Has Peaked as Jazz Shaw at Haut Hair VIP sees A push to stop the BLM bail fund in Kentucky. 

Is this because they voted against the Democrats? Paul Bedard at WaEx, Shock: DHS springs plan for 16,000 Afghan influx through Loudoun County. PM, Loudoun County sheriff raises concerns with Biden admin's plan to house up to 1,000 Afghan refugees near local schools. Give 'em a bus ticket to Delaware. 

Athena Horne at PJ VIP, SCOTUS Nominee Should Make History by Declining Biden's Patronizing Handout. Should but won't. Politico, Biden quietly courts Republican support for SCOTUS nominee, "Officials are wary that GOP votes will ever materialize. There’s also some frustration over the lobbying campaign for one potential nominee." I'm sure that between Collins, Murkowski and Romney, they can find at least one quisling.