It's All Malarkey

Dear Weekend Jolter,

It's become something of a theme in this newsletter to gripe about President Biden's Trump-like relationship with the truth.

He lies about the debt and deficit. He lies (or imagines things) about student loans. He lies about his academic record. He lies about the serious and the trivial, it matters not. And then he insists he's not joking, but he's not serious either.

In January of last year, Biden warned that voting laws in Georgia and elsewhere amounted to "Jim Crow 2.0," all with the aim of suppressing the vote. The charge was a big theme among Democrats at the time. "It's about making it harder to vote. It's about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all," Biden said. He was happy to conflate Trump World's actually bad election denial with legitimate voting rules enacted by the state whose top Republican officials had resisted Trump. The president concluded his embellishment by asserting its unassailability: "It's not hyperbole; this is a fact."

Whaddaya know — the story was hokum. A University of Georgia survey is out showing . . . drum roll . . . zero percent of black voters reported having had a poor experience voting in Georgia. Dominic Pino flags the survey and runs through the other data points that obliterate Biden's supposedly very factual and not-hyperbolic statement:

As Ryan Mills noted . . . black voter registration had been increasing for years under Republican-controlled state government. As Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger wrote for NR in May, all the data on early voting showed that Georgia's election reforms had not reduced turnout. As Mills wrote in November, the 2022 elections had the highest ever turnout for a midterm cycle in Georgia history.

Nate Hochman describes the body of evidence we now have as a "top-to-bottom vindication" for the state's election law: "To argue that the state is 'Jim Crow 2.0,' as the sitting president put it, not only must one wave away the objective evidence to the contrary, but one must also argue that the subjective determinations of actual Georgian voters are wrong."

But whatever. Far from chastened, Democrats have gone right to declaring “Jim Crow 3.0.” And the sweet nothings continue to emanate from the White House about other matters. Biden's classified-document scandal is the perfect illustration of how we've had two successive presidents who are alike more than either will admit (and two successive vice presidents!). It, too, features a president and his communications cavalry making claims that don't withstand scrutiny. From NR's editorial on the latest developments:

The more we learn about President Biden's classified-documents scandal, the less credible are the White House's claims that he "self-reported" any problems and has been completely "transparent."

At the very least, Biden's "self-reporting" claim is exaggerated. To self-report a violation, one would need to notify the agency responsible for regulating it. . . . Instead, Biden's private lawyers notified the Biden White House. After some deliberations about which the public has not been informed, the White House notified not the Justice Department or the FBI but the National Archives and Records Administration. . . . The Justice Department was notified not because Biden self-reported. Rather, the archives' inspector general informed Main Justice.

It’s all malarkey. Charles C. W. Cooke gets into the inconsistencies here, noting how Biden's handling of this mess has only made the mess worse. Rich Lowry, over on our YouTube channel, breaks down what "transparency" actually means in this administration.

Say, remember when the Biden 2020 brand was competence, steadiness, truth-telling, normalcy, the "grown-ups," and all that? Certainly, Trump was not a paragon of these virtues, and he continues to deteriorate in the unsafe spaces of Truth Social (as Charlie, donning full HAZMAT gear, documented this week). It turns out Biden wasn't either. Your Morning Jolt host, Jim Geraghty, succinctly observes where we're at:

The latest classified-documents mess further proves that his entire campaign argument from 2020 was an illusion. Biden isn't competent or responsible. He's not a "grown-up," the adults are not "back in charge," and he isn't bringing a new era of accountability and professionalism to Washington. Biden offers a lot of the same flaws as his predecessor, just with a "D" after his name.

Meanwhile, a bit of company news before moving on to the week's highlight reel. Rich Lowry has just announced that the great Noah Rothman is joining this ragtag operation, later next month. Welcome, Noah: You'll find the water cooler is broken, and the coffee machine has a smell, but you get used to it.

NAME. RANK. LINK.

EDITORIALS

What Biden glosses over in his response to the horrific California mass shootings: Biden's Gun-Control Misdirection

The Biden administration has taken a positive step with Ukraine: Sending In the Tanks

That editorial on Biden's document mess, once more, is here: Biden's Transparency Claims Have Lost Credibility

ARTICLES

Charles C. W. Cooke: Trump Has Completely Lost His Grip on Reality

Stanley Kurtz: AP Teacher’s Guide Proves DeSantis Right in African-American Studies Clash

Jay Nordlinger: The Life of Johnson

Brittany Bernstein: San Francisco Reparations Proposal Could Cost City North of $100 Billion

Dan McLaughlin: New York Uses School Zones as Robot Speed Traps When Nobody Is in School

Dan McLaughlin: The 2022 Turnout Puzzle

Caroline Downey: Video-Game Company Folds to Trans Activist's Online Pressure Campaign, Fires Targeted Employee

Andrew McCarthy: Everybody Does It? Classified Files Found at Pence's Home, Marking Latest Twist in Saga

Ryan Mills: DeSantis Appointee Chris Rufo Unveils Plans to Roll Back Progressive Takeover of Florida's New College

Jack Crowe: Legal Resistance to Biden Administration in Doubt as Powerhouse AG Offices Stumble

Christian Schneider: Universal Tipping Has Become a Hidden Tax on Us All

CAPITAL MATTERS

Dominic Pino dispels a myth: Railroad Companies Aren't So Evil After All

A former BlackRock executive turned ESG critic offers his roadmap on the subject: How Conservatives Can Get ESG Right

And Brian Riedl's got another roadmap, this one on the debt ceiling: How Fiscal Conservatives Should Approach the Debt Limit

LIGHTS. CAMERA. REVIEW.

You'll have to click to find out Armond White's answer to this question: What Is the Worst Film of 2022?

Ever the contrarian, Brian Allen makes his case for why Boston's MLK statue deserves a second look: The Lewd Reviews of Boston's MLK Statue Have It Wrong

DON'T HATE THE EXCERPTS, HATE THE GAME

Our internal data tell us roughly everybody read this piece by Charles C. W. Cooke on Trump's fraying connection to real life outside Truth Social. In case you hadn't, this is the basic idea:

Let's check in on the shadow primary for the 2024 Republican nomination. Nikki Haley is putting together a finance committee, and suggested last week that she's "leaning in" to a run. Mike Pompeo has just published a book called Never Give an Inch, and told CBS yesterday that he'll decide whether to enter the fray over the "next handful of months." Governor Ron DeSantis has continued to pick winning fights in Florida since being reelected in a November landslide, and has stayed assiduously quiet about his future.

And then there's Donald Trump, who, despite being the only candidate who has officially announced his bid, is . . . well, ranting like a deranged hobo in a dilapidated public park. No, don't look at him — he might come over here with his sign.

There was a point in time at which Trump's unusual verbal affect and singular nose for underutilized wedge issues gave him a competitive edge. Now? Now, he's morphing into one of the three witches from Macbeth. To peruse Trump's account on Truth Social is to meet a cast of characters about whom nobody who lives beyond the Trump Extended Universe could possibly care one whit. Here in the real world, the border is a catastrophe, inflation is as bad as it's been in four decades, interest rates have risen to their highest level in 15 years, crime is on the up, and the debt continues to mushroom. And yet, safely ensconced within his own macrocosm, Trump is busy mainlining Edward Lear. Day in, day out, he rambles about the adventures of Coco Chow and the Old Broken Crow; the dastardly Unselect Committee; the (presumably tasty) Stollen Presidential Election; the travails of that famous law-enforcement agency, the Gestopo; Joe Scarborough's wife "Mike"; and other unusual characters from Coromandel. "Where the early pumpkins blow / In the middle of the woods / Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò / Who STOLLE THE ELECTION / Don't you know?"

Stanley Kurtz has been leading the way on coverage of Ron DeSantis's clash with the College Board over the pilot version of an AP African-American Studies (APAAS) course. Before the College Board announced it would issue a revised framework, Stanley reported that he got his hands on a teacher's guide that appeared to validate the Florida governor's concerns. Here's what the hubbub has been about (and it’s not over yet):

Last week's rejection by Florida governor Ron DeSantis of the College Board's pilot AP African-American Studies (APAAS) course has kicked up a controversy. Last Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre falsely accused DeSantis of trying to "block . . . the study of black Americans." In reality, DeSantis barred only this specific and very biased APAAS course plan — while inviting the College Board to revise it. Florida's Stop WOKE Act actually mandates the teaching of a series of topics in the history of black Americans, from slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination, to the overcoming of these injustices, and more. So there is no question here of "blocking the study of black Americans." The issue is what specific sort of curriculum a given state should favor.

The debate over APAAS has been complicated by the College Board's secrecy. The College Board has steadfastly refused to release the APAAS curriculum framework or associated materials. Nonetheless, I obtained a copy of the APAAS curriculum and wrote about it in September, laying out its socialist agenda and its promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Unfortunately, no one could judge the accuracy of my characterization because the curriculum remained secret. I confined myself at the time to a "fair use" discussion of the framework, declining to publish the full curriculum out of respect for the College Board's insistence that it was a "trade secret." In the wake of the controversy, however, the Florida Standard newspaper has obtained a copy of the pilot APAAS curriculum and made it public.

In another new development, I have now obtained a copy of a second document, the "APAAS Pilot Course Guide," a manual designed for use by teachers. Taken together, the curriculum framework and the teacher's guide expand our understanding of the course in a way that confirms the wisdom of DeSantis's decision.

The most serious problems in APAAS are in the final quarter of the class ("Unit 4: Movements and Debates"). This is where the course grapples with contemporary political and cultural controversies. Overwhelmingly, APAAS's approach is from the socialist Left, with very little in the way of even conventional liberal perspectives represented, not to mention conservative views. Most of the topics in the final quarter present controversial leftist authors as if their views were authoritative, with no critical or contrasting perspectives supplied. The scarcely disguised goal is to recruit students to various leftist political causes. . . .

The three suggested items for study in the reparations topic are Ta-Nehisi Coates's article "The Case for Reparations," a button that the teacher's guide says serves to "promote" reparations for the Tulsa race massacre, and the copy of H.R. 40, a federal bill that sets up a commission to develop proposals for reparations. It's clear from these assignments that APAAS itself is promoting reparations. No article criticizing this highly controversial policy is assigned. In effect, APAAS is pushing students to lobby for legislation. And by the way, M4BL also endorses H.R. 40, so students will find the same de facto call to legislative lobbying waiting for them in two successive topics.

Jack Crowe reports on rumblings within the conservative legal world about the troubled AG resistance to this administration:

The state attorney-general offices that have led the charge against Biden administration overreach over the last two years are changing direction and hemorrhaging staff, leaving some conservative legal insiders concerned that they will no longer serve as a key check on the president.

With Republicans shut out of power until this month, conservatives have relied heavily on large, well-resourced red states to push back on the excesses of Democrat-controlled Washington, Big Tech malfeasance, and ideologically captured financial firms. Former Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton captured the headlines throughout the first half of the administration, jointly leading challenges in the Supreme Court to the health-care-worker vaccine mandate, cancellation of the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy, and President Joe Biden's student-loan bailout.

Under former attorney general Mark Brnovich, Arizona led the challenge to the Biden administration's rollback of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allows the federal government to immediately expel illegal immigrants. The case will be heard by the Supreme Court in March.

For unrelated reasons, all three offices are now in a weakened position to carry on these fights, according to sources familiar with recent developments in each office. In Missouri, the senior staffers who organized now–U.S. senator Eric Schmitt's high-profile fights are on their way out after the appointment of his successor, Andrew Bailey, who is widely perceived to be less proactive than his predecessor; in Texas, Attorney General Kan Paxton's office is hemorrhaging the rank-and-file staff responsible for the daily blocking and tackling required to keep high-profile suits on track; and Arizona elected Democrat Kris Mayes to succeed Brnovich, prompting concern that the office will withdraw from or otherwise sabotage the Title 42 case.

Not even the video-game industry is safe from cancel culture. Caroline Downey has the story:

After working for more than two years as the community manager for a popular boutique video-game publisher, Kara Lynne was abruptly fired earlier this month in response to an online pressure campaign launched against her employer by a transgender activist.

Her alleged crimes? Enjoying Harry Potter and following some politically disfavored accounts on Twitter.

The first domino fell, Kara Lynne told National Review, when a friend of hers and influencer for Twitch, the video game live-streaming platform, asked his followers for their thoughts on the new Harry Potter–themed game, Hogwarts Legacy.

"Feelings on the Hogwarts Legacy Game? Curious to see what people are thinking," the ambassador wrote on Twitter on December 28.

"I'm personally looking forward to it! The more I see gameplay, the more excited I get. It's hitting all the marks I've been wanting for a Harry Potter game," Kara Lynne replied, stepping on a landmine that would derail her career.

Renowned British author J. K. Rowling has earned the hatred of many social-justice progressives for speaking out against the more extreme demands of the transgender movement, which she argues have begun encroaching on female-only spaces, imperiling women and girls and denying them the right to fair competition in sports. . . .

Kara Lynne, 30, believes that her public endorsement of the Harry Potter game caught the attention of the pseudonymous Twitter account Purple Tinker. According to the Washington Post, the account is run by Jessica Blank, a transgender woman and the founder of BronyCon, an annual convention for adult fans of My Little Pony, an animated children's television series and toy line. . . .

Combing through the archives of Kara Lynne's Twitter, Blank found a seven-year-old tweet criticizing transgender-inclusive bathroom legislation and amplified it as an example of bigotry. . . . Blank scoured her followers for more ammunition, discovering that she followed Blaire White, a transgender right-wing YouTuber; Libs of TikTok, an account run by a woman who aggregates videos of leftists espousing gender ideology; and Ian Miles Cheong, a right-wing culture-war pundit. Blank posted a round-up exposing Kara Lynne's political follows on January 6.