A blissful Tuesday to you and an historic one indeed.

Former President Donald Trump will be arraigned in Miami at 3 p.m. on 37 counts connected to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Not to make light of it, but it occurs to me that if Trump meant to squirrel away classified documents from prying Feds, he didn’t do a great job of it. He owns private planes and properties all over the world. He could have had them buried in a sand trap in Scotland by suppertime.

Or perhaps he could have stashed them in his garage next to his Corvette. Or better yet, just changed his party affiliation back to Democrat.

In all seriousness, Trump does have some “‘splain’in’” to do, to quote noted attorney Ricky Ricardo.

Dershowitz: It’s a Political Hit, But There is One Piece of Damning Evidence

Liberal legal icon Alan Dershowitz must be okay with another summer being shunned on Martha’s Vineyard. He’s blasting the indictment of Trump. Dershowitz said of Special Counsel Jack Smith, “He was assigned only one job … Get Trump.”

However, Dershowitz does point out that there’s one “damning piece of evidence” Trump’s got to contend with. He’s on tape from 2021 waving around a document he admits is still classified.

Here’s the transcript, according to the DOJ:

TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?

STAFFER: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to —

TRUMP: Declassify it.

STAFFER: — figure out a — yeah.

TRUMP: See, as president, I could have declassified it.

STAFFER: Yeah. [laughter]

TRUMP: Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.

STAFFER: Yeah. [laughter] Now we have a problem.

TRUMP: Isn’t that interesting?

Dershowitz told Fox News’ Maria Bartilomo

There’s one problem with that, and that is the tape recording in which Donald Trump foolishly waves a piece of paper and says, “I could have declassified this, but I didn’t. It’s secret. Here, look at it.” Now, maybe he didn’t actually allow the person to read it. But that tape recording, which can’t be cross-examined, you can’t say it’s a flip witness or a witness who shouldn’t have been able to testify. That’s a damning piece of evidence.

Yeah that looks bad. But there are at least two reasons The View shouldn’t be popping the bubbly quite yet:

1. Is the transcript a literal transcript? We’ve seen enough trickery and doctoring from the DOJ/FBI and J6 investigation to not accept anything on faith. Also, does the audio carry a tone that is less damning? How’s the jury going to hear it? We’ll see.
2. The Hillary standard. Former FBI Director James Comey set the rules when rejecting a prosecution of Hillary. According to Comey, the bureau couldn’t prove Clinton intend to harm national security. Not that that’s the legal standard, but we’re talking equal protection, equal application.

Seems waving a document around while discussing how he avoided being drawn into a war with Iran would demonstrate his interest in protecting national security rather than harming it.

Ouch: Joe Biden Out of Action Monday With Emergency Root Canal

Joe Biden cancelled all his planned events Monday after undergoing an emergency root canal. Actually, it was a two-parter, the White House says, with Biden first having surgery Sunday, but going back in after feeling discomfort Monday. He may miss more events the rest of the week.

This should add to the discomfort level.

Biden Administration Accelerates Evacuation Planning for Taiwan

For the past six months, the White House has been working on plans to evacuate American citizens from Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. And according to The Messenger, the planning has “heated up” the past one or two months.

A senior U.S. intelligence official, who did not want to be named, blamed “a heightened level of tension.” “It’s nothing you wouldn’t read in the news,” he told The Messenger. “Forces building up. China aligning with Russia on Ukraine.”

The evacuation planning has been kept on the down-low because it’s a sensitive issue for Taiwan. And, as one former State Dept. put it, “Even talking about an [evacuation plan] starts people thinking something may be going on even if it is just prudent planning.”

Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies advises against a dire interpretation of the news. “The fact that the U.S. is doing this doesn’t mean that they expect there will be a war. It’s only a statement that there could be a war.”

Prudence, indeed.

On Sunday, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, navy vessels and missile systems after ten Chinese war planes crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. On Thursday, 37 planes crossed into Taiwanese air space.

Closer to home, China has reportedly cut a deal to establish a spy base in Cuba. Good news for Eric Swalwell if he wants to take Fang Fang on a Caribbean holiday. Bad news for the security of the U.S.

Wanna know why you take anything out of Washington with a grain of salt? On June 8, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder denied China had made a deal, saying the Department of Defense was “not aware of China and Cuba developing any type of spy stations separately.” Then the story blows up. Suddenly, on June 10, an anonymous Biden official is telling Fox News the China spy base “predates the current president.” From “there’s no base” to “yes, there’s a base, but it’s Trump’s fault” in 48 hours.

Echoes of the reaction to the Chinese spy balloon.

Male Cyclist Who IDs as Female Destroys Competition in Cycling Event

And the winner of the women’s title in the 131-mile Third Annual Belgian Waffle Ride in North Carolina … is a male. Transgender cyclist Austin Killips shredded the field, winning by four minutes and 20 seconds. Killips credited “strategy” for the victory, saying in a post-race interview “I … kind of asserted myself and was able to get a gap early.” The would-be winner, Page Onweller explained afterward how Killips got that gap. “The power is just not comparable.”

In a statement, however, Page tried to be gracious:

Rather than sharing my personal opinions about the UCI rule (that allows biological men to compete against women), I think it’s most important to recognize that all athletes, no matter how they identify, should have a space to compete and race. In the future, I feel a separate category is appropriate, but event promoters are also learning what is best to preserve both female cycling while also creating an inclusive space for all to ride. These things take both time and grace to resolve.

Tech Exec Who Got Fired for Listing “Assigned by God” as His Personal Pronoun Now Suing

Chad Scharf was VP of software engineering at a company called Bitwarden — until he was fired for listing “Assigned by God” as his “preferred pronoun.” Scharf, a Catholic, did not want to put anything down because of his religious beliefs, but relented under repeated pressure from his bosses. They then demanded he remove the “Assigned by God” pronoun or risk termination. He was fired.

Scharf is fighting back. He has hired lawyer Jennifer Vasquez and has filed suit against Bitwarden. In the suit, Vasquez accuses Bitwarden of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

Had Chad set aside his religious beliefs and acquiesced to Bitwarden’s promotion of gender ideology, he would not have been fired, which means his religious beliefs were the cause of his termination.

A tip of the cup to Mr. Scharf for standing up.

Along The Stream

John Zmirak’s latest is the entertaining … if frustrating … “Which Church Leaders Deserve the Coveted ‘Golden Millstone’ Award?”

Stream contributor Joseph D’Hippolito reports how “America’s Catholic Bishops Get Rich Off Our Broken Borders.”

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.