A View from the Beach: Flotsam and Jetsam - A Day Late and a Dollar Short

This might be a paltry lot, not because of the lack of news, but because I didn't keep up with the reading. Sorry. Anyhoo, lets start off with the comings and goings of the Biden Crime Syndicate. Dave Strom at Hat Hair, a new FBI whistleblower claims FBI headquarters tipped Hunter off, prevented interview. Skipping right onto the White House cocaine mystery, Secret Service Knowingly Skipped Crucial Step in White House Cocaine Investigation, asking anyone if they were responsible. PJM's Vicky Taft thinks The Excuse for Dropping White House Cocaine Case Is a Slap to Our Intelligence. Matt Margolis hears The Secret Service Knows Who Brought the Cocaine to the White House, Says Bongino, former SS Agent himself. Ace, Dan Bongino: All of My Secret Service Friends are "Furious" About the Cover-Up of the White House Cocaine "Bongino claims they "know" who smuggled Hunter Biden's cocaine into the White House. Note, however, Bongino then seems to walk back the "know" part when he says that it's either Hunter Biden or "one of his friends." It sounds like he means people have strong suspicions, not that they actually know." Nick Arama at Red State is amused as Tucker Unleashed Just Demolishes the WH Cocaine Story: Pure Gold. I think I had this video once, but if you haven't seen, so check it out.

Sundance at CTH claims Creeper Joe Biden Really Did Try to Nibble on a Little Girl in Helsinki. From the Babylon Bee, Biden’s Granddaughter Relieved To Have Been Disowned After Seeing Biden Eat Baby.

At Zero Hedge, 'Massive US Oil Caverns' Are Now Empty, Will Take 'Decades To Refill' Thanks To Biden. The Strategic Democrat Support reserve. Ace, Ignoring the Recent Supreme Court Ruling That He Cannot Forgive Federal Student Debt Without Congressional Authorization, Biden Moves to Cancel $39 Billion in Debt Anyway. "The man who unleashed the worst inflation in history and who has caused budget deficits to soar to impossible levels again claims he can spend $39 billion of taxpayer money without any actual law authorizing it. Is the nation just floating on piles of cash that we're desperate to give away, rather than pay the storage costs for? Apparently not! The government is borrowing five billion per day." From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 07.17.23, The Lid Biden Gets Fish-Slapped By Twitter’s ‘Community Notes.’ Tyler O'Neil at Da Wire, GASLIGHTING 101: How Biden and the Left Create Their Own Villains

PJM's Stephen Kruiser, Kamala Harris Apparently Wants to Kill Us Now to Save the Climate

From NRO, Non-Binary Biden Official Was Traveling on Taxpayer Dime to Secure Nuclear Facility When Luggage Heist Occurred. Good old affirmative action hire Sammy Brinton. Jonathon Turley is incensed, Report: Biden Official Committed Grand Larceny While on Sensitive Government Trip. Maybe he forgot to pack his lingerie. Hat Hair's Jazz Shaw, Revealed: Sam Brinton lived high on the hog on the taxpayers' dime.

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 07.17.23, The Lid: RFK Jr. Makes Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theorist Comments At Political Dinner and American Power The 2024 Election Is a Fight Over America’s Way of Life, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., In Hot Water After Comments Suggesting Chinese and Jews Were Spared Covid. Althouse, catches RFK Jr, COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. " Victory Girls watch RFK Jr Try To Walk Back Jewish And Chinese Covid Remarks. YaHoo! Guerrero: RFK Jr.'s left-wing appeal in L.A. is no joke. Sometime the enemy of your enemy is just a kook. Sarah Arnold at Town Hall, a Report Found Green Party Candidate Could Cause 'Nightmare Scenario' For Joe Biden In 2024. Hat Hair's Jazz Shaw wonders Is this the dumbest Democratic campaign ad ever? That's a high bar, but it may be the most dishonest.

Althouse asks Why would Trump debate? Aaron Rupar@atrupar, "Trump strongly suggests to Maria Bartiromo that he will not participate in the first GOP debate." Hat Hair's John Sexton reads the NY Times: Trump plans to centralize presidential power to undermine the administrative state. So does Althouse, "The agenda being pursued has deep roots in the decades-long effort by conservative legal thinkers to undercut what has become known as the administrative state..." Ben Whedon at JTN reports Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejects Trump motion to halt Fulton County DA's investigation. Capt. Ed, In other words, the issue is not yet ripe for review. That doesn’t mean that Trump and his team might not have grounds for a successful appeal later, but they have to have a ruling first before they can appeal it. Althouse again, "These are the kind of comments that might provoke some judges to issue a gag order.... Trump is likely trying to provoke a legal battle so he can portray himself as a victim of censorship ... ""... as well as government abuse.... He wants that to be the narrative, to fundraise and make himself the victim. Smart judges avoid unnecessary fights and don’t want to be trolled."" Scott Morefield at Town Hall has a dire prediction Here’s What Will Probably Happen If Trump Wins The GOP Nomination "Trump gets fewer votes than he did in 2020. . . Trump gets fewer electoral votes than he did in 2020. . . Republicans will lose the House. . . Republicans will be on track to lose the Senate. . . Democrats will continue their prosecutions, ensuring Trump is in prison by the end of 2025. . . The administrative state will continue unabated. . . Democrats may get to pick replacements for Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, giving the left a 5-4 SCOTUS majority."

Stephen Kruiser wants to know How Long Can DeSantis Take the High Road Against Trump? Never-DeSantis sundance at CTH hosts Bad Lipreading on the DeSantis Campaign Trail. Mildly amusing. Matt Vespa at Town Hall thinks Many in the 2024 GOP Field Didn't Fare Well Against the 'Tucker Stress Test.' Grabien, hosted at Hat Hair, Christie to Carlson, long distance: 'You've always been wrong' on Ukraine. Capt. Ed, "Christie didn’t get invited to the Iowa forum, so he wasn’t exactly ducking Tucker. It’s still a bit of long-distance bravado, though, which is how his attacks on Trump play too. He’s right about the polling on this, though — polls consistently show a majority of Republicans favoring support for Ukraine as long as it doesn’t include American troops."

Mesha Mainor

Twitches from Twitchy, Jonathan Turley takes Keith Ellison APART in thread for comparing Justice Thomas to a 'house slave' and Former Dem turned Republican Mesha Mainor shares emails from Democrats showing their true RACIST colors. At NewsBusters, CNN Deceptively Edits RNC Chair To Paint Her as a Conspiracy Theorist

Shipwreckedcrew, at home, DOJ to Appeal Sentences Imposed In Oath Keeper Cases -- The Political Narrative They Simply Refuse To "Let It Go." "A Transparent Effort to Continue to Demonize the Political Opposition Ahead of the 2024 Election." Hat Hair's Beege Wellborn says Wouldn't it be a hoot if FBI HQ moved to Huntsville? I was thinking more along the lines of Fargo, ND.

At Da Mail, Tucker Carlson strikes ad deal worth more than $1 million with conservative marketplace PublicSq - his first commercial deal since being fired from Fox News - with CEO looking to invest in his new media company. Capt. Ed comments, "Presumably PublicSq has the same estimation of the enforceability of Fox’s non-compete clause Tucker’s … and pretty much everyone else’s. I’m not surprised to see Tucker attract high-ticket sponsors. He gets lots of eyeballs, and eyeballs still matter." Althouse, "I never thought about threatening companies as a free-speech issue that courts would get involved with."

"Let me give you an example. If you had told me four years ago that the White House press secretary had got up and said, 'I have a message from President Trump. If CNN airs one more criticism of me, I am going to try and block its next merger,' I would’ve imagined that there would be a lot of outrage about that. What I could not have imagined was a judge releasing an injunction saying that people who worked for President Trump were not allowed to pass on the President’s message from the White House podium. It would be an issue for voters to decide. Or, I suppose, CNN, during the merger decision, could raise the issue and say, 'See, we didn’t get fair treatment because of what President Trump said,' and courts could take that into account. But the idea of blocking the White House press secretary from saying anything seems inconceivable to me."
I like that Chotiner makes the hypothetical about Trump. The facts in the actual litigation are about the Biden administration, and one can expect New Yorker readers to lean toward approving of whatever Biden's people saw fit to do. So it's good to flip the facts.

Martin Gurri at CJ on The New Censorship. "How the establishment Left embraced government control of digital speech." "The worst-case scenario, to which I subscribe, is that the Democrats were acting on principle. Their behavior reflected, quite faithfully, their current understanding of government." Jazz Shaw, Musk: Twitter's ad revenue is way down. Ya think? As much as I admire Musk, most of the time anyway, the world would be a better place without Twitter.

At Da Mail, Hospital worker, 52, who was kidnapped and tortured by trans activist who told a cheering crowd to 'punch TERFs in the face' brands her a 'dangerous, violent individual'. Da Wire has A Detransitioner’s Appeal For Accepting Sex Roles. Capt. Ed comments "The rest of us should stop cooperating with it. If adults want to indulge themselves in transgenderism, they can — but the rest of us are under no obligation to participate in their fantasy, recall their pronoun choices, or give them access to facilities designed for biological differences between men and women."

Stacy McCain, finds A Strange Thing to Say

OK, first the news:
Biden National Security Council adviser John Kirby on Friday told CNN host Kate Bouldan that it is “very difficult” to see the president signing an NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act, i.e., the Pentagon budget] that does not include abortion and trans rights.
“It’s very difficult to see the President supporting legislation that would make it harder for Americans to serve in uniform, and to not be able to do so with dignity, would not be able to do so with the proper care that they need both medical and mental care,” Kirby said. “It’s very difficult to see that the President would ever, ever sign legislation that would put our troops at greater risk or put our readiness at risk.”
This is lunacy. Does anyone really believe military readiness will be “at risk” without transgender treatment or taxpayer-funded abortion? As if it were self-evident that “proper care,” as John Kirby calls it, is somehow essential for America’s ability to win wars?

Dave Strom, Republicans didn't "insert" culture war into Defense bill; Democrats did. Ace, In Today's Military, Men Are Women and Women Are Stronk* * For Some Values of "Stronk" "The good news: Looks like we're all probably in good enough shape to serve in today's military. The bad news: We're all going to die."