The daily issue of Lisa DePasquale’s “Bright” political newsletter never disappoints. Her May 31 edition was quite an eye opener. To wit, via the New York Post, DePasquale highlights the findings of a study titled, “Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment”:

The study published in Current Psychology suggests that left-wing extremism is associated with toxic, psychopathic tendencies and narcissism [and] found a link between higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism and higher levels of narcissism. The authors coined the term ‘dark-ego-vehicle principle’ to describe the phenomenon where individuals with dark personality traits are attracted to political and social activism as a means to satisfy their ego-focused needs rather than working towards social justice and equality. The study also noted that some activists use social justice as a guise for unhinged behavior and prioritize self-presentation, moral superiority, and social status over genuine social causes.

This makes sense. After all, one need only think of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other left-wing monsters to see the “dark-ego-vehicle-principle” at work in the capture of organizations and movements, and their subsequent implementation of purges and democides. Yet, even on a smaller scale, one can see numerous instances of organizations of all political and apolitical stripes being captured to varying degrees by their most narcissistic and aggressive left-wing members, leading to the group’s increasing left-wing authoritarianism and, in some instances, embrace of violence, at the expense and/or eclipse of its original goals. 

Nathan Hitchen and Robert Patterson have kicked up some dust in conservative circles by revealing that things are even worse than you thought:  “The Post-Industrial Economy Has Failed.”  The authors also offer potential New Right notions for digging out of the ditch. 

Hitchen, an Alexander Hamilton Society fellow, and Patterson, a former Trump Administration official and vice president of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, start strong with a word play channeling Uncle Sam’s World War II manufacturing juggernaut to underscore China’s rise to an “industrial superpower:” the “21st-century Arsenal of Autocracy.” 

The pair then backs up that description by crushing the longtime conceit that while the Middle Kingdom may dominate production, America will always maintain the competitive edge in “knowledge fields.” 

As if. The authors cite several Chinese “Sputnik moments” in space and defense, then drop the hammer: the “stunning leads” of China (the country Joe Biden described as “not competition” for the United States) in 37 out of 44 “critical and emerging science and technology fields.” These are fields like synthetic biology, photonic sensors, advanced batteries, telecommunications, and nanoscale materials and manufacturing. 

Yikes. 

Coronaviruses can be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before,” wrote 18 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers in a shocking 2015 document titled “The Unnatural Origins of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons.”

The next time someone tries to condescend to you about how and why it is scientifically impossible not only for COVID-19 to have come from a lab, but for it to have been a bioweapon, just repeat those damning words from China’s top military scientists. If that doesn’t change your interlocutor’s mind on the matter, then that person is likely a bad faith actor in this ongoing discussion.

After having initially discounted the “lab leak theory,” the U.S. intelligence community reopened its investigation into the origins of COVID-19 in 2021.

Not since John Hinckley shot President Reagan to impress actress Jodi Foster has a lovesick suitor caused as much political havoc as the FBI’s Peter Strzok did in pursuit of FBI attorney Lisa Page. Or so, at least, it would appear.

The House Judiciary Committee this month will have a chance to probe this and other lines of inquiry with former special counsel John Durham as it regards his investigation of the apocryphal Trump-Russia connection. Although a useful guide, the Durham report never got beyond the shallow end of the deep state. Congress needs to go deeper. 

Both Page and Strzok were in a position to shape outcomes. In 2016, while their courting was still more or less covert, the 35-year-old Page served as an advisor to then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The 45-year-old Strzok, despite his adulterous affair, was promoted later that year to be deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. 

On March 3, 2016, Page texted Strzok, “God trump is a loathsome human.” In this series of texts, as in most, it is Page who initiates the Trump bashing and Strzok who plays along to curry her favor. Page, in particular, has little use for any Republican. “Would he be a worse president than cruz?” she asks. Responds Strzok, “Trump? Yes, I think so.”

At the end of April, my daughter Victoria and I departed New York City’s JFK airport, ultimately bound for the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the first destination of what would be a 26-day, 12-city tour of Russia.

While the official purpose of the visit was business (I was promoting my book, Disarmament Race, which has been published in the Russian language by the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house), the unofficial – and for me, most important – purpose of the visit was an opportunity to better understand today's Russia. To do this, I was going to dig deeper into Russian history, get a better grasp of the culture, and, in the process, try to understand the “Russian soul” in as precise a manner as possible.

From my perspective, both objectives were accomplished. I’m inclined to believe that Komsomolskaya Pravda was pleased with the results of a tour that drew positive media coverage, resulted in well-attended town hall-style events involving vigorous question-and-answer sessions, and reportedly resulted in the initial print run of 10,000 books to be sold out in a manner of days. Through the considerable interaction I had with Russians of all walks of life, I came away with deeper insight into the complexity of what comprises the modern Russian nation circa 2023. However, divining an articulable definition of the Russian soul – if indeed possible at all – requires deeper introspection into the plethora of data and experiences captured during this journey than the passage of several days affords and is beyond the scope of this article.

I left on this adventure fully cognizant of the existence of an informational pandemic in America known as Russophobia, and I always believed that I was realistic as to the challenges that I would have to face in trying to convert my Russian experience into a fact-based vaccine to counter this disease of the American mind. However, the scale of the obstacles that I imagined overcoming paled in comparison to the reality that hit home literally as I stepped off the aircraft on our way back home, when Victoria and I were both pulled out of the passport checkpoint for an hours-long interrogation by investigators from Customs and Border Protection who specialize in travelers from designated nations such as Russia.

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Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) says documents he acquired from the January 6 Congressional Committee expose a Hollywood production behind the Committee hearings. Rep. Loudermilk says every Committee member had a Hollywood-style, written script to read off of and an employee from a major network was paid to help the “production” of the hearings.

As reported earlier by Cassandra Fairbanks new election fraud whistleblowers came forward on Tuesday, including one who witnessed the shipping of an estimated 144,000-288,000 completed ballots across three state lines on October 21.

The new information was made public at a press conference by the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, a national constitutional litigation organization.

The Amistad Project said that they have sworn declarations that state over 300,000 ballots are at issue in Arizona, 548,000 in Michigan, 204,000 in Georgia, and over 121,000 in Pennsylvania. They claim that their evidence reveals multi-state illegal efforts by USPS workers to influence the election in at least three of six swing states.

The whistleblower statements include potentially hundreds of thousands of completed absentee ballots being transported across three state lines, and a trailer filled with ballots disappearing in Pennsylvania.

Video evidence has surfaced, showing multiple election machines being broken into after they were ‘logic and accuracy’ tested in Maricopa County, Arizona.

According to Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake‘s War Room, “[o]n October 14th, 17th & 18th, Maricopa County performed secret testing on the tabulators” after being tested.

There were 446 tabulators in Maricopa County, 260 of which failed. More than 59 percent of tabulators failed, yet used on election day.

Over a three day period, October 14th, 17th and 18th, they went in, broke the seals, removed the memory cards, and tinkered with the machines. The failing machines are believed to have been placed in Republican areas.

“Maricopa County did NOT Follow The Law. Instead, they ensured mass failure and chaos on Election Day,” argues Lake.

The Democrat-led House Select Committee to Investigate Jan. 6 doctored a key piece of its evidence, adding audio to silent U.S. Capitol Police security footage used to create a dramatic video montage for the opening of its primetime hearings last summer, according to a Just the News review of the original raw footage and interviews.

In at least two instances identified by Just the News, the panel's sizzle reel that aired live and on C-SPAN last June failed to identify that it had overdubbed audio from another, unidentified source onto the silent footage. Multiple current and former Capitol Police officials as well as key lawmakers and congressional aides confirmed that the closed-circuit cameras that captured the video do not record sound and that it was added afterwards.

A former spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee told Just the News that the panel was supposed to clearly mark any video that was dubbed with another audio source, and it did so on some occasions in the sizzle reel. 

Fusion GPS, a contractor that worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, reportedly withheld over 1,500 documents from Special Counsel John Durham. These documents were sought during Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe. Fusion GPS cited attorney-client privilege in their refusal to hand over the documents, a claim that has been contested by many legal experts​.

According to the initial report, Durham did not take legal action to acquire the documents.

On Friday, Paul Sperry, a senior reporter for Real Clear Investigations, broke the news on Twitter, stating, “BREAKING: Hillary Clinton campaign contractor Fusion GPS held back more than 1,500 DOCUMENTS sought by Special Counsel Durham, claiming attorney-client privilege, and Durham didn’t sue for the evidence.”

House Republicans on Wednesday passed two new bills in observance of National Police Week, including one aimed at illegal immigrants.

According to The Epoch Times, HR 2494 requires that illegal immigrants who assault police officers are automatically deportable, while HR 3091 authorizes retired federal law enforcement officials to buy surplus weapons being sold by the federal government.

Not surprisingly, Democrats opposed both measures, the outlet noted.

The individual behind the information that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national is a "highly credible" FBI confidential human source who has been used by the bureau in multiple investigative matters dating back to the Obama administration, Fox News Digital has learned.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley were approached by a whistleblower last month alleging that the FBI was in possession of a document—an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020—which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a $5 million criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.

Russia faced a major bombardment today as huge explosions ripped through the occupied port of Berdiansk - with Ukraine believed to be making the most of new missiles gifted by Britain.

Footage shows the moment facilities at the port are hit with a suspected Storm Shadow missile, Britain's most potent non-nuclear missile which can strike targets from a range of 150 miles.

A huge plume of smoke was seen rising from a location in the port area on the Sea of Azov, in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian state media outlet RT said there had been 'casualties and destruction' from the strike, the exact target of which was not immediately clear. 

The Biden administration on Friday ordered a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling leases within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, according to multiple reports.

The moratorium — which the Department of Interior initially began considering in November 2021 — is a long-sought goal of several local politicians, conservation groups and Native American tribes that want to preserve the centuries-old Pueblo ruins located there, although some tribes have opposed the ban for limiting future economic opportunities, according to E&E News.

YouTube confirmed to Axios on Friday that it will adjust its election integrity policy, allowing content that alleges fraud, errors or system glitches in the 2020 presidential election and other U.S. elections to remain on the platform.

This policy change is significant as YouTube originally implemented the policy in December 2020, following the certification of the 2020 election results by a sufficient number of states. The company, in a recent statement, expressed that continuing to enforce this policy could inadvertently suppress political discourse without significantly mitigating the potential for violence or other tangible harm.

A Chicago branch of Walgreens has been redesigned with just two aisles where customers may shop for themselves, the rest must be done via a kiosk.

The new 'anti-theft' store at at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago will trust shoppers to pick up 'essentials' for themselves in the two free aisles, but everything else must be ordered and picked up via a counter.

The store, which took weeks to construct, opened to mixed reviews on Tuesday. 

One shopper told WBBM Newsradio their experience was positive: 'It is nice that, for the essentials, you no longer have to call security to get them to open the glass case.' 

Another, however, felt that the lack of trust was disappointing: 'We should be able to be trusted to go in without having to have cameras and people watching us and all that stuff.'

Twitter’s head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, has decided to leave the company, according to a source familiar with the matter on Friday, the second safety leader to depart in a matter of days.

The latest departure adds to a growing challenge for new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, even before she steps into the role.

On Thursday, Ella Irwin told Reuters that she resigned from her role as vice president of product for trust and safety at the social media company, where she oversaw content moderation efforts and often responded to users with questions about suspended accounts.

Brown worked on efforts to prevent ads from appearing next to unsuitable content.

They’ve packed their suitcases and headed home.

Non-binary ex-nuclear official Sam Brinton is free on bond after spending more than two weeks in jail over a third accusation of stealing women’s luggage.

Brinton was arrested May 17 for being a “fugitive from justice,” and held in custody in Montgomery County, Maryland until Thursday.

The ex-Biden administration appointee — who uses they/them pronouns — was then extradited to Arlington County in Virginia, officials from both prisons confirmed to The Post.

Brinton, 35, briefly appeared before a magistrate and was released by a judge on $5,000 bond.

 “People of color” living in the West Oakland community of the San Francisco Bay are demanding reparations because they claim that global warming is causing sea levels to rise and unearth toxic chemicals hidden in the soil, supposedly displacing them throughout the community.

Like many communities across the United States, West Oakland has an industrial past that has since been replaced with housing and other uses. As a result, the people who live there are sometimes exposed to hidden chemicals in the soil, which can only be remedied, according to West Oakland residents, by delivering “climate justice.”

Because of the media’s constant fearmongering about man-made “climate change,” area residents now fear that the waters of the San Francisco Bay will rise so much that pockets of pollution will end up getting strewn across their yards and in their local playgrounds. More than 130 sites, they claim, are now at risk of contamination.

Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Thursday it is “guaranteed” Congress will be holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt for not providing the House Oversight Committee with a document allegedly related to President Joe Biden.

In a phone interview with the Daily Caller, Greene said Wray “does not know what else we [the House Oversight Committee] know and we know more than we’ve already told.” While Greene would not provide specifics on what else the committee knows, she did say they know exactly what is on the document and that they have a whistleblower.

The document in question is an FBI-generated FD-1023 form that allegedly shows an arrangement exchanging money for policy decisions.

“We’re giving him an opportunity here to do the right thing and do his job. He didn’t swear an allegiance to Joe Biden. He swore an allegiance to the American people. He took an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution,” Greene told the Caller. “That’s his job. Not to protect Joe Biden and their family and the corruption that they have been involved. And the abuse of power. So we’re giving Chris Wray an opportunity and he’s very close to blowing it, and he has a lot to worry about because he doesn’t know what else we know. That’s the other thing.”