HEH. Dork, er, Dark Brandon.

BELOVED NEW YORK CITY BODEGA CAT returned to owners after he was allegedly stolen.

This is both a heartwarming story (because the cat was returned unharmed) and an indictment of government malfeasance (because it's not the cat's job to keep the city free of rodents).

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES urges President Biden to use his executive powers to declare a 'national climate emergency'.

The [climate change] threat now is so dire that we need Biden to deliver on his pledge. That means using every executive and administrative power legally available to him to protect Americans from climate-fueled disasters, boost renewable energy and shift away from fossil fuels.

And because declaring a national emergency would unlock additional tools and resources, he should do it,

Having digested that bit of pompous narcissism, ask yourself "How many Los Angeles Times executives, editorial staff, and other employees drive gasoline-powered vehicles to work?"

DISINFORMATION? SERIOUSLY? 'Experts' worry monkeypox disinformation will harm LGBTQ+ community. Since when is it 'disinformation' to report that monkeypox is a disease "afflicting mostly men who have sex with men."

I would say that it's disinformation (i.e., a lie) not to tell that tiny 3% or so of the population that they are at high risk of getting the disease and even more disinformation (i.e., a bigger lie) not to tell that much larger 97% or so of the population that they're at very low risk.

What these 'experts' and their political handlers are really worried about is that they won't be able to use monkeypox to lock down the U.S. prior to the midterm elections.

WELL, THEY'RE FINALLY CATCHING UP TO ME: U.S. drivers are seriously starting to sour on autonomous vehicles.

I'M WITH FREEDOM CAUCUS REP. LAUREN BOEBERT [R-CO] ON THIS ONE:

I wish I could tell you that I had full faith in GOP leadership in both the House and Senate to defund the deep state and to hold the Biden regime accountable. But I don’t. I’ve been disappointed too many times.

She's right.

MY FAVORITE from PowerLine's your lying eyes edition of its Week in Pictures:

Now go see the rest.

YOU EXPECTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT? Gina McCarthy, the Biden administration’s National Climate Advisor, is openly calling on technology companies like Facebook and Twitter to censor any dissent from the administration’s green fantasies.

You little people can't handle any dissent from our truth....

ISN'T THAT THE IDEA? 'Professors' argue that the merit system is unjust because it rewards productive individuals.

How stupid do you have to be to become a university professor?

POWERLINE: Don't tread on me. The Gadsden flag was popularized as part of the early Tea Party movement begun in 2009. I've had one ever since and still fly it whenever I fly the Stars & Stripes.

The State of Virginia authorized a Don't Tread on Me license plate (they were called 'vanity' plates then) in 2012...

...and all my cars proudly wore them until we left to move to Georgia, which didn't -- and still doesn't -- have them. But Georgia doesn't require a license plate on the front of the car, so...

...my Eos has a locally-sourced equivalent in it's front license plate holder. The truck will get one as soon as I install the front license plate holder.

BANANA REPUBLIC. Soon to come, or already here?

‘PRINCIPLED JOURNALIST’ Jake Tapper tries to define what a 'conservative' is.

Perhaps if he moved out of Washington DC for a few years he could figure it out....

RANDOM THOUGHT: America's 'Great Thinkers' are neither.

THE DIPLOMAD ON CHINA, then and now.

Some ten years ago, I wrote about the-then common belief among the Great Thinkers that the 21st century would "belong" to China much as the 20th had "belonged" to the USA.

I had doubts about that, and concluded that the 21st century would only belong to China to the degree that we gave it away. I saw neither then nor now anything intrinsically great about the thuggish CCP that would make their China into a world leader. The PRC was and is a brutish authoritarian state, albeit with large foreign currency reserves; it does not invent, or innovate in any field in particular. China's advancement such as it is, has been obtained largely by espionage, theft, purchase, bribery, and bullying of the first degree, combined with an astute understanding of the greed and the lack of patriotism of large Western corporations.

Well, have we "given away" the 21st century to China?

I don't know whether we have or not, but I do think it's clear that the Biden administration is trying.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT we broke into your home and killed you.

"If somehow we had left that door unlocked and he would've opened that door, I don't know where we would be right now...."

ONCE THE MASK DROPS, troll them. Ask stupid questions. Playing stupid should be easy. They love “explaining” things. Just keep asking questions till they run out of excuses.

Like "Where is your EV?" and "Where do you recharge it?" and "Where do you get a gallon of electricity when you run out?"

THE UKRAINIAN VERDUN: Five months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war is now reduced to one of attrition.

[Verdun was a 10-month war of attrition between the Germans and the French in World War I. About as many died in that battle as have died from today's COVID pandemic.]