"There's plenty of blame to go around for the 2-year debacle in Afghanistan -- enough to fill a library of books. Perhaps the effort to rebuild the country was doomed from the start. But our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us, counted on us, staked their lives on us, is a final, gratuitous shame that we could have avoided. The Biden administration failed to heed the warnings on Afghanistan, failed to act with urgency -- and and its failure has left tens of thousands of Afghans to a terrible fate. This betrayal will live in infamy. The burden of shame falls on President Joe Biden."

"AUSTIN, Texas -- The city of Laredo, Texas, has refused to take in migrants who have been bused in from elsewhere on the border after discovering 40% of them tested positive for the coronavirus, according to two local government officials.

"'That was very high,' Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz said in an interview, referring to the infection rate among migrants dropped off by the Border Patrol last week. Laredo health authority, Dr. Victor Trevino, confirmed the numbers.

"The 40% infection rate is the highest known positivity rate along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week, McAllen, Texas, reported a 15% positivity rate among migrants released from custody."

"The California Secretary of State's Office has made downloading mail ballots from home possible for the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The state legislature also passed a measure to send out mail ballots to every registered voter regardless if they asked for one or not.

"The methods being employed by the state add to concerns already raised by a group that brought up potential voter fraud issues during the 2020 general election.

"The Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization advocating for the right of every eligible citizen to vote in California, purchased VoteCal voter registration and voting history files and after auditing them raised concerns about California's election system. The group published a list of questionable mail ballots sent out during the 2020 general election to deceased Californians and those no longer living in California. It also learned that 13 California counties have more registered voters than eligible citizens."

Read the entire article here.

"State legislatures in six states limited their governors' emergency powers wielded during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing executives have overextended their authority.

"As of June 2021, lawmakers in 46 states have introduced legislation stripping governors of certain emergency powers, according to USA Today. Legislatures justified their actions as necessary to restore a balance between the branches of state government, pointing to examples of executive overreach and the centralization of power in the hands of governors.

"While in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Michigan Republican lawmakers have curtailed the emergency powers of Democrat governors, the cases of legislatures limiting executive authority in New York, Ohio, and Idaho demonstrate that power struggles between lawmakers and governors are not necessarily partisan."

Read the entire article here.

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Monday doubled down on his pledge that Republicans won't vote to raise the debt ceiling after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on Congress to pass an increase to the limit via regular order, meaning at least 10 Senate Republicans would have to vote for it to break a filibuster.

"'I thought my colleagues were thrilled to present another reckless taxing and spending spree to the American people,' McConnell, R-Ky., said. 'Shouldn't Democrats be proud to own all the debt it requires?'

"McConnell has framed his call for all Republicans to vote against raising the debt ceiling as a protest of the $3.5 trillion spending plan Democrats plan to advance under budget reconciliation. Using that procedural gambit, Democrats can get around the Senate filibuster and cut out Republicans.

"The GOP leader said Democrats should ' have total ownership' of their 'socialist shopping list' and therefore raise the debt ceiling on their own using the budget reconciliation process that empowers them to do so without GOP votes."

"Like the grandma still posting on Facebook while the crowd has moved onto TikTok, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is clearly out of step. Even as she and President Joe Biden and other Democratic Party leaders cater ever more obsequiously to the Bernie Sanders Left, the progressive movement is losing steam.

"That's good news for our country. ...

"Rising inflation, out-of-control crime, the chaos of one million people illegally crossing our southern border since the beginning of the year and worrisome deficits are causing Americans to question whether they want to put Bernie Sanders leftists in charge of our country.

"That's why in numerous elections recently, the establishment candidates have prevailed."

"I was astonished by the remarks of President Joe Biden on his support for extending the eviction moratorium, which was found to be unconstitutional by lower courts. It was later preserved by a divided Supreme Court despite the view of a majority that it was unconstitutional. It was saved from being struck down merely by the fact that it was expiring. President Biden acknowledged that his legal experts overwhelmingly told him that any extension would violate the Constitution. However, he then said it was worth extending the moratorium because it would take time for a court to intervene and, in the interim, they could rush out money to renters despite the lack of constitutional authority to do so. ...

"Yet, imagine if a Republican president announced that he was told that an order on drilling or subsidizing a religious organization was unconstitutional but would use litigation to get the money out before a court could intervene. The hue and cry in the media and from law schools would be deafening.

"Biden came to office declaring a return to the 'rule of law' but has actually racked up an impressive array of court losses. Now he is treating a presumptively unconstitutional act as a purely tactical consideration to allow the spending of federal funds. That is not exactly what he pledged before he declared 'so help me God' on January 20th."

"The bad judgment calls continue to pile up just seven months into the Biden administration. President Joe Biden's tenure is increasingly characterized by poor personnel choices, ethical lapses, and disastrous policy decisions. Simply put, judgement is Biden's biggest flaw.

"Foreshadowing what would become a pattern, Biden began his presidency by selecting the unpopular former presidential candidate and California Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice president. ...

"Perhaps Biden's biggest mistake to date -- even bigger than his personnel choices -- has been his disastrous border policies. He quickly reversed innovative solutions embraced by the Trump administration that were working to keep communities and immigrants safe.

"By reversing the Remain in Mexico policy, ending construction of the border wall, dramatically expanding the number of 'kids in cages.' and shipping COVID-positive migrants to every corner of America, Biden signaled to criminal enterprises around the world that America was open for their kind of business. He signaled to Americans that he is unapologetic about embracing unpopular policies that simply don't work. ...

"This is not a one-time problem, but a chronic condition. Biden simply doesn't have the judgment to empower America or improve our future."

Read the entire piece here.

"The Centers for Disease Control's repeatedly extended nationwide moratorium on evictions expired on July 31. The Biden administration initially chose not to try to extend it again, because of a series of defeats in court, as well as indications that a majority of Supreme Court justices believe the the moratorium was illegal and would so rule if the issue came before them.

"Earlier today, however, the CDC issued a modified new version of the moratorium that applies 'only' to areas where there are 'substantial [or] high levels of community transmission' of the coronavirus. As the Washington Post notes, that currently includes some 90% of the United States. The new moratorium is scheduled to expire October 3. But, like the old one (which was repeatedly extended by the Biden administration, after first being adopted under Trump in September 2020), it could potentially be extended again.

"The new moratorium is an only slightly scaled down version of the old. As such, it has virtually all the same flaws and legal vulnerabilities. Pretty much every argument legal argument raised against the original moratorium -- and accepted in numerous judicial rulings against it -- also applies to the new one. Meet the new moratorium, same as the old moratorium!"

Read the entire article here.

"We don't know how many illegal immigrants are infected or have been tested, but what is clear is that regardless of proven infections, those who are caught by the Border Patrol are quickly shuffled off to other U.S. towns and cities across the nation.

"Contrast that with other Biden administration policies. For example, every U.S. citizen who visits another country is required to prove that they tested negative for the virus within 72 hours before their return flight. If they can't present a negative test, they aren't allowed to fly back.

"The Biden administration maintains visa blockades against travelers from about three dozen countries, including most of Europe. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said no Cuban refugees will be admitted even if they come on small boats to Florida. ...

"But our border with Mexico is open to anyone from anywhere (except Cuba) whether or not they are infected with COVID. That is a greater danger to public health than anyone could imagine, far more significant than those who refuse to wear masks or get the vaccine.

"Biden's unenforced border policy is the worst and biggest 'super-spreader' policy in the history of COVID. It is contrary to science, public safety, and common sense."