Greetings! Here are the topics for today’s common-sense commentary:

• Do Not Ban TikTok
• Special Counsel Robert Hur
• Biden Effigy Beaten

DO NOT BAN TIKTOK:

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 352-65 to pass a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat. (AP)

Montana’s two members of the House, Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke voted for the bill. It’s apparent that technology has passed them by.

Shame on them. The talk about the TikTok ban is pure insanity. There are so many other issues on which the House and the Senate should be working.

CNN reported the following recently:

The Biden administration has threatened TikTok with a nationwide ban unless its Chinese owners sell their stakes in the company. But more than two years after the Trump administration first issued a similar threat to TikTok, security experts say the government’s fears, while serious, currently appear to reflect only the potential for TikTok to be used for foreign intelligence, not that it has been. There is still no public evidence the Chinese government has actually spied on people through TikTok. TikTok doesn’t operate in China.

Several cell phones are made and/or assembled in China which probably present a more serious threat to national security than TikTok.

I encourage Montana’s U.S. Senators, Jon Tester and Steve Daines, to use common sense and vote against this bill if it is brought up in the Senate.

Over 170 million Americans use TikTok and many of us vote.

SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR:

I was not able to watch all of the testimony from Special Counsel Robert Hur live, but I did go back and watch most of it.

As with many hearings that receive attention from cable news stations, this one had a lot of grandstanding by both parties.

Hur told the committee that “Politics played no part whatsoever in my investigative steps, my decisions and the words that in I put in my report.”

Psst…. Politics plays a part in everything in Washington, D.C.

Although Biden was not charged with anything, Hur did harm Biden by saying that Biden did not remember when his son died. The Associated Press (AP) reported:

Confusion over the timing of the death of Biden’s adult son Beau — who died May 30, 2015 — was highlighted by Hur in his report as an example of the president’s memory lapses. But the transcript shows that Hur never asked Biden about his son specifically, as a visibly angry Biden had suggested in comments to reporters the day the report was released.

I think the whole hearing ended up being a nothingburger for both sides.

The AP has a report about the hearing HERE.

BIDEN EFFIGY BEATEN:

Stay classy, GOP…

Attendees at a Kansas county Republican Party event punched, kicked, and took a baseball bat to an effigy of President Biden on Friday, sparking backlash from former party officials. The Johnson County Republican Party’s “Road to Red” event in suburban Overland Park, near Kansas City, featured donations in exchange for opportunities to hit a martial arts dummy with a rubber Biden mask and a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt, according to photos and video from the evening. (The Hill)

Check out the full story from The Hill HERE.

The beating of the Biden effigy is about as classy as back in 2012 when the Montana GOP held a convention in Missoula and someone brought a bullet-riddled outhouse called the Obama Presidential Library to the event. (Source)

## LEAVE TIKTOK ALONE ##