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 My son has narrated the last book I wrote.
Please consider listening to it and encouraging others to do so too. (Click on Book Cover) World & Nation Democrats caught in election-year gambit with bloated gas prices  Democrats are facing a paradox on prices at the pump heading into an election where pocketbook issues are top of mind for Americans facing 40-year high inflation. The party must show voters it’s sympathetic to the economic pains from sky-high gas prices and that blunting energy costs is a top priority. But in the process, Democrats are inadvertently drawing increased attention to the record increases on President Biden’s watch, illustrating the quagmire that the party faces as dismal polls show the party and the administration are underwater with voters on handling inflation. It’s no secret that Republicans in Washington, who have blamed the administration’s policies, have the upper hand as they try to retake control of Washington, lawmakers and strategists say. Documents Shed Light on Secret U.S. Plans for Apocalyptic Scenarios ![The executive branch has drafted dozens of classified directives that presidents can issue swiftly in a catastrophe.]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"45","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAXL0RE.img?h=450&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAXL0RE.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"35","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAXL0RE.img?h=351&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}}) Newly disclosed documents have shed a crack of light on secret executive branch plans for apocalyptic scenarios — like the aftermath of a nuclear attack — when the president may activate wartime powers for national security emergencies. The executive branch has drafted dozens of classified directives that presidents can issue swiftly in a catastrophe. © Yuri Gripas for The New York Times The executive branch has drafted dozens of classified directives that presidents can issue swiftly in a catastrophe. Until now, public knowledge of what the government put into those classified directives, which invoke emergency and wartime powers granted by Congress or otherwise claimed by presidents, has been limited to declassified descriptions of those developed in the early Cold War. In that era, they included steps like imposing martial law, rounding up people deemed dangerous and censoring news from abroad. It has not been clear what is in the modern directives — known as presidential emergency action documents — because under administrations of both parties, none have been made public or shown to Congress. But the newly disclosed documents, which relate to the George W. Bush administration’s efforts to revise the draft orders after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, offer clues. Texas school shooting spurs new questions about ‘good guys with guns’  The country suffered through more than 60 active shooter incidents last year, and in 18 of those attacks, the shooter was killed by a good guy with a gun — four of them by average citizens, according to the FBI. This week’s horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has raised new questions about the role of police and citizens in engaging with active gunmen. Residents said police took too long to storm the school and shoot the madman. Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter was killed in the attack, said he raised the idea of parents charging the classroom where the shooter was barricaded when police hesitated to breach the building. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he told The Associated Press. “More could have been done.” The issues Mr. Cazares raised are increasingly important as the U.S. grapples with what FBI statistics suggest is a growing number of active shooter incidents, going to the heart of the gun control debate: Is the answer fewer guns overall, or is it which hands are holding the guns?
Biden is reportedly planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt for borrowers making under $150,000  The Washington Post reported on Friday that, according to three people familiar with the matter, Biden's latest loan forgiveness plan include $10,000 in relief for federal borrowers who make under $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples who filed jointly. This income threshold is slightly higher than previous reports that suggested Biden was considering capping the relief for those making under $125,000. "No decisions have been made yet," White House spokesperson Vedant Patel told the Post. While the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week Biden had hoped to make an announcement regarding student-loan forgiveness while delivering a commencement speech at the University of Delaware on Saturday, White House officials told the Post that timeline has been pushed back due to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. "Biden Let The Cat Out Of The Bag": Steve Forbes Calls Out POTUS' "Confession" This last week in Asia, President Biden let the cat out of the bag. He said higher gasoline prices are an unfortunate necessity in making the transition from fossil fuels to alternatives like windmills and solar panels. Give our commander-in-chief credit for candor. But, as this episode of What’s Ahead explains, the Biden approach is profoundly wrong. It would immensely damage the economy, blighting the lives of tens of millions of people. It would be an environmental disaster, leaving the earth a poorer, uglier planet. More fundamentally, given current technology, his goal is utterly unattainable. 83% of Americans are DISSATISFIED with direction America is going as Biden faces another dire poll  Acolossal 83 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new Gallup poll, as high gas prices, a baby formula shortage and collapsing stock markets threaten a Democratic wipe-out in November's midterm elections. The poll found that only 16 percent of Americans were satisfied with the state of the U.S. - 20 points lower than the satisfaction rating four months after President Joe Biden took office and a six-point drop since April. That marks its lowest level since Donald Trump's supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol in January last year. The president's own approval rating is flat lining at 41 percent. It has not been above 50 percent since last June. Russian Proxies Claim Control of Key Town in East Ukraine Russia's separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine claimed full control of the important battlefield town of Lyman on Friday, and Ukraine appeared to concede it, as Moscow presses its biggest advance for weeks. Lyman, site of a key railway hub, has been a major front line as Russian forces press down from the north, one of three directions from which they have been attacking Ukraine's industrial Donbas region. The pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic separatists said they were now in full control of it. Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appeared to confirm the fall of Lyman in an interview overnight, and said the battle there showed that Moscow was improving its tactics.
Former Speaker Paul Ryan says ‘entertainers’ are upending Capitol Hill Former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday there are a lot of digital-age “entertainers” in Congress who are making it difficult to find common ground and forge legislative solutions for the country. Mr. Ryan, speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said that 10 years ago, lawmakers tried to climb a “meritocracy” in Congress. “The measurement of success was policy and persuasion: Could you persuade your colleagues, your country, your constituents, ‘This is the right way to go, here’s a solution?’” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s not necessarily what motivates people anymore. There’s a lot of entertainers in Congress in both parties.” Mr. Ryan said the result is lawmakers focus on their online reputation and forget about policymaking and compromise. Blinken: Biden administration policy on China does not seek end of communist system Diplomacy, economic competition are main elements of strategy against 'more aggressive' Beijing The Biden administration’s policy toward China calls for diplomatic and economic competition but will not seek to replace an increasingly aggressive Chinese Communist Party system, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday. “We are not looking for conflict or a new cold war,” Mr. Blinken said in a long-anticipated speech in Washington detailing the administration’s strategy for dealing with Beijing’s growing influence and increasingly aggressive posture on the world stage. President Biden has kept in place some elements of the Trump administration’s China policy, which recognized for the first time in decades that Beijing is working to undermine the U.S.-led democratic and free market systems. However, the approach Mr. Blinken outlined Thursday was notably less confrontational than that pursued by President Trump, and some critics said the secretary of state’s overall prescription for countering China’s efforts to achieve global supremacy was impractical. More Top NewsBiden, Obama exploit tragedy for personal, political gain There are special dungeons in hell reserved for politicians who vote to send our boys to die in wars they don’t really believe in. President Biden, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton will find out in due time. Mr. Kerry could not wait even one election cycle before he abandoned the troops he sent to die in Iraq. He ran for president in 2004 on a campaign against the very war he had supported just one year before. Remember: “I voted for it before I voted against it,” he boasted during his presidential campaign. But what would you expect from a guy who accused his fellow soldiers of atrocities after he was safely back from Vietnam? Then publicly threw away somebody else’s war medals to “protest” the war? At least Mrs. Clinton waited 10 years before she changed her mind about the war she sent good men to die in. Her gravestone could read, “Less Despicable Than John Kerry.”
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