HERE'S A THOUGHT FROM DAY 2 OF THE DEMOCRAT DEBATE: During the initial healthcare segment I recall one of the candidates (don't recall which one) railed against the pharmaceutical industry's $72 billion profits. Now we all know that math is not a Democrat strong suit, but as Stephen Green pointed out, "Here's some math: $72 billion in profits isn't much in a $4 trillion industry."

For the innumerate, that's a 1.8% profit margin. Think of it this way: if you're the owner of a small business whose sole income is the profit from that business, $1M in annual business income will net you a mere $18,000.

FROM YESTERDAY'S DEBATE: Who's on top?

What will the result be for tonight's debate?

THE GREEN NEW STEAL: America is rapidly beoming a debtor's prison from which there is no exit.

If I were President Trump, I'd send every illegal immigrant a bill for their share of the National Debt ... pay up or leave.

THE ENTIRE DEMOCRAT PLATFORM in one cartoon.

THE DEBATE FACT CHECK IS COMPLETE: Snopes pre-approves all statements made during tonight's Democrat debate.

THE SEVEN DUMBEST THINGS Democrats insist you believe.

AFTER BEING ACCUSED OF BEING A 'RUSSIAN OPERATIVE', Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemns 'modern-day McCarthyism'.

ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS NOT BE CRAZY. DNC Chair Tom Perez: Climate Change ‘Threatens Our Universe.’

RAND PAUL: I’d help pay for a ticket to Somalia so that Ilhan Omar can remind herself what it’s like.

As long as it's a one-way ticket....

SEATTLE-AREA COUNCILMAN: Power washing shit-covered sidewalks might be racially insensitive.

That's socialism - a success when everywhere is a shithole.

SNOPES IS NOT AMUSED ... by the Babylon Bee.

UPDATE: Nor is the Babylon Bee enamored of Snopes.

GOP TAKE NOTE: You’re allowed to go on the attack.

Follow your leader. Please.

WHO WINS? The Trump card or the race card?

ISSUES & INSIGHTS: Trump’s attack on Baltimore doesn’t go far enough. There are 8 other Democrat-controlled cities higher on Orkin's 'rattiest cities' list.

And then there are the cities with the most income inequality. Mostly Democrat. And the worst-run cities? Again, mostly Democrat.

Linked from Instapundit.

BELABORING THE OBVIOUS: The Democrats, not Trump, are the racists.

MAUREEN DOWD (AND NANCY PELOSI) are now on the progressive's chopping block.

Pelosi and Dowd are part of the team that decided demographics was the key to Democrat dominance in the second half of this century when white people are a minority.

What they overlooked was they are white people. And they will be a minority in their party long before the nation is.

So you have a couple of generations of Women of Color and the like who hate the country and think they are entitled to power.

The Squad is just a taste of what to expect.

Democrats eat their own. They always eat their own.

OBERLIN COLLEGE'S attempt to fight $25M judgment backfires - now they owe $36M.

IT’S DIFFERENT when Trump says it. Because reasons.

SORRY, WHITE WOMEN, your victim card has been revoked.

See John (Joanna?) Wick: Chapter 2 for the outcome.

JUST BECAUSE IT’S YELLOW, IT’S NOT NECESSARILY BUTTER. The same is true of the mainstream media; it's not necessarily journalism.

DEREK HUNTER: Democrats have lost what was left of their minds.

Note that Hunter is being generous by assuming that they have minds to begin with.

PRICKLY CITY: 'Caffeinated works, but I would prefer 'hyphenated'.

MAKE IT DELANEY/WILLIAMSON and I would consider it.

MY REACTION TO TONIGHT'S DEMOCRAT DEBATE:

They're nuts! Flaming lunatics. Except possibly John Delaney and Steve Bullock, who both steered clear of batshit crazy. Delaney in particular could pass the sane test if he makes it to the 2020 election. Marianne Williamson was 'loveable' (as usual) and somewhat sensible in that she was the only one to point out that the others at the podiums were in fact batshit crazy.

Stephen Green has his summary of their closing statements.

THE DEMOCRATIC OBSESSION WITH RACISM won’t win them minority votes. "Fixated on showing they are morally superior, they swing so far to make their case that they seem to be on another planet. "

WHY ENGLAND HAS BORIS JOHNSON AND THE U.S. HAS DONALD TRUMP: "The governed no longer consent to the globalist erasure of their national identity.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Woke racism.

The only difference between ordinary racism and woke racism is that woke racism is virtuous. Read it all.

UNDER COLOR OF LAW: the Antifa antidote.

And while we're at it, bring back debtor's prison; let the 'convictee pay off his/her/its fine at, say, $10/day in jail. (Yes, I know it costs more than $10/day to keep someone in jail, but that's one of the few things I'd be willing to pay higher taxes for.)

ANOTHER COLLISION on the intersectionality circle.

EXCELLENT QUESTION: Why do Democrats run all of the dangerous and rodent-infested cities?

GREAT MOMENTS in Democrat presidential candidate gender pandering.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS MATH-EDUCATION PROFESSOR: ‘Mathematics Itself Operates as Whiteness’.

A math-education professor at the University of Illinois wrote about some of the more racist aspects of math in a new anthology for teachers, arguing that “mathematics itself operates as Whiteness.”

“Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White,” Rochelle Gutierrez wrote, according to an article in Campus Reform.

Confused? Think that math is just math? Well, you’re wrong; math might as well be called “white math,” because as Gutierrez explained, “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”

As further evidence of her argument, Gutierrez added that more white than nonwhite people are math professors and that math professors often benefit from “unearned privilege” — getting more grants and more respect than other professors — just because they are math professors and not professors in another academic field.

“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asked.

As an answer to that question, I'm reminded of one of my engineering professors who was claimed to have said that two of his students dropped out of the College of Engineering, transferred to the College of Education, and raised the average IQ's of both colleges.

More here and here for your edification.

HYPOCRISY ALERT: The gas-guzzling District of Columbia threatens oil companies.

If it weren't for double standards....

TOWNHALL: The cultural left goes berserk.

They've always been berserk; with Trump's election, they've just removed their masks.

CNN ANCHOR seems to think the word 'infested' is racist when Trump uses it.

BUT ... BUT HE TALKED THE TALK: Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign slapped with federal labor complaint.

Bernie Sanders is learning that he really needs to walk his socialism talk in real life.

RANDOM THOUGHT: The Washington Post, whose tagline is 'Democracy Dies in Darkness', seems to be taking it as a challenge to make sure it does.

THE MESSAGE OF TODAY’S LEFT: I’m a crazy person with a lot of insane mental associations, and it’s your responsibility not to set them off by doing perfectly normal things.

A THOUGHT ON TODAY'S (AND TOMORROW'S) DEMOCRAT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: With a clown car full of candidates, how can it not be a circus?

Some thoughts from Iowa.

Linked from Instapundit.

MORE FAKE NEWS:

Snopes rolls out a new opinion-check feature.

Stopped clock named CNN's most accurate reporter.

Keep in mind that Snopes has verified that the Babylon Bee is a fake news site.

PUNCHING BACK: The Department of Justice invokes the Obama administration's 'Fast and Furious' subpoena refusal in refusing to prosecute Attorney General William Barr for contempt.

The media and Left are constantly surprised and outraged that the Right has the gall to remember things that Democrats did and then do the same.

BERNIE SANDERS: West Baltimore is a third-world country.

He's right. Many years ago I had to visit Johns Hopkins University on a regular basis; I kept the windows up and doors locked on my car as I drove through west Baltimore enroute to APL/JHU.

SNOPES adds satire policing to its 'fact-check' mission.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES: It's Mueller time!There are some good ones from his testimony before the Congressional 'investigating' committees, but this is still my favorite:

Now go see the rest.

INSTAPUNDIT: Demand for hate crimes far exceeds the supply.

Because Democrats.

THE ECONOMIC SUICIDE SQUAD wages wage war.

If only progressives could do math ... math math, not social justice math.

HOW OUR TRIP TO THE MOON pushed innovation here on Earth.

And the examples given are the minor ones. For the major ones, think internet, personal computers, cell phones ... all of which have their technology roots in the early space age.

GOOD. GOOD RIDDANCE: Kathy Griffin says severed Trump head photo made her ‘unemployable'.

FINALLY: a start at ObamaCare repair. But the short-term policies are only a temporary holding action until real reform can be put in place (after the 2020 election kicks the Democrats from any hope of returning to power).

Oh, but you won't miss private health insurance, says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I beg to differ.

I CAN USE THE RACE CARD, TOO: Trump ramps up war of words with Elijah Cummings, calls congressman 'racist'.

And he's right, too. It's about time for Americans to come to grips with the fact that the real racists, of all 'colors', are mostly on the Left.

DAMN THE TORPEDOS, full speed ahead.

ELIZABETH WARREN changes Twitter profile to include authentic Indian name.

IT’S OFFICIAL: Democrats dislike hate our country.

HEH: Democrats project more than an IMAX theater.

TWO THOUGHTS FROM THE MUELLER HEARINGS:

“Politicians are proof that God has a sense of humor and wants us to laugh.”

“Politics is too important to be taken seriously.”

Linked from Instapundit.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY ON THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE HEARING THIS MORNING:

In fact, he [Robert Mueller] comes across as completely out of it, a figurehead to protect those who were actually running the probe. That so many Clinton allies were running the probe without real oversight from Mueller (or any skepticism from the media) is suddenly difficult to ignore.

Mollie accurately summarized my feeling after watching the entire circus.

GREATER (SELF) LOVE HATH NO POLITICIAN than that he be willing to lay down your life for his utopian dream.

WHERE ARE THE MEN IN THE WHITE JACKETS? Adam Schiff's opening comments show he's gone completely around the bend.

Where are the strait jackets?

IT HAPPENS: Actual science is winning over 'climate science'.

THE BABYLON BEE strikes again.

Plus other loose ends.

YEAH, RIGHT: Rural white Americans are a bunch of ungrateful losers.

And urban white Americans are 'ungrateful asses who think they're superior to all of us (paraphrased)."

Turnaout is fair play....

ON REGULATION, Trump exceeds his campaign promises. That's a big deal - perhaps more so than tax cuts.

IF YOU'RE WHITE AND NOT 'WOKE' you're not welcome in this Democrat party.

ANOTHER MYTH BITES THE DUST: Deaths at the U.S.’s Southern border have declined during the Trump administration.

UPPING THE ANTE: Rashida Tlaib wants to make the federal minimum wage $20 per hour.

Yes, let's bankrupt Bernie Sanders.

SHORT ANSWER , NO. LONGER ANSWER, HELL NO. Can't we all just get along?

Read it all.

THE FOUR HORSEWOMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE are "the reason that there are directions on a shampoo bottle."

IF LIBERALS DIDN’T HAVE DOUBLE-STANDARDS. . . Two items out the last few days deserve a bigger horselaugh than usual.

EIGHTEEN RIDICULOUS BIAS COMPLAINTS filed on college campuses.

Proof that nuthouses mental institutions are back; we just call them colleges.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Our governing class, both Left and Right, are less and less American and more and more globalist.

Here's an example.

MORE APOLLO 11 MOONBATTERY FROM THE NATION. "Armstrong's 'giant leap for mankind' helped perpetuate inequality...."

This whole article is so incredibly stupid that it must have been written by some 20-something Gen Z 'journalist' who was taught that history started with his birth. Don't waste your time reading it.

N.B. I was right about the author, a JD/PhD candidate at Columbia Law School/Princeton University. The article is a flaming wreck at the corner of Reality and Intersectionality.

SOUTH BEND COPS WARN OF ‘MASS EXODUS’ as morale tanks over Buttigieg handling of shooting.

And this guy thinks he's qualified to be President of the United States?

OF TWEETS AND HYSTERICS: It's time for the GOPe(stablishment) dopes to quit clutching their pearls and start connecting with their voters.

Or in some soon-to-come election they will no longer be the establishment. We put you there; we can take you out - and the latter is becoming more and more tempting every day.

CURING RACISM: I hope he's right.

ISN'T THAT EXACTLY WHAT THE RIGHT HAS BEEN SAYING WOULD HAPPEN? Sanders says he’ll cut staffers’ hours to maintain $15-an-hour wage.

BUT OF COURSE: Least masculine society in human history decides masculinity is a growing threat.

It purports to be satire. I'm not so sure....

SHE'S SELF-DIAGNOSING HER OWN MENTAL STATE: Yale (?!) psychiatrist claims Trump's racism is a coping mechanism for his deteriorating mental state.

TRANS BACKLASH: Lesbian veteran asks Elizabeth Warren to 'stop with the pronoun silliness'.

But a panderer's gotta pander ... it's what they do.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS: Gramscian warfare.

THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER OUR COUNTRYMEN:

[C]ertain people, politicians, media, intellectual and entertainment figures of note, or even the establishments they work for – are no longer our countrymen. In fact, those certain people and their establishments deeply despise us ordinary, moderately-conservative, content and hard-working middle class citizens. They hate us, indeed – with a passion that convulses their souls, and drips in their every word like corrosive acid. They hate that we are individual, un-biddable, independent and proud. They hate it even more ferociously that we are not humble in the manner of the 19th century lower class Europeans in the face of nobles and bureaucrats, and they despise everything that we honor and relish, from church membership, to where we choose to shop, to adorn our homes and what we do for hobbies. They hate it that we have the franchise and exercise it, too – and even assume that it is our right and duty to be politically-involved; most recently with movements like the Tea Party. (Which, inter alia, shook and is still shaking the current ruling class down to its bones – hence the viciousness of the reaction to it, from the media, to popular entertainment and to the long-established political parties.) Most of all, I think – they despise us for not giving a damn what they think particularly, and rejecting practically everything that they tell us to do – ride public transportation, move into urban stack-a-prole housing, give up eating meat (or much of anything else), and continuing to believe that we can raise our own children and sort out our own lives without self-elected nannies breathing down our necks 24-7. Very likely the well-manicured and delicate hands of the new ruling class itch for a whip to give us all a good thrashing for our temerity. Indeed – they are no longer our countrymen in spirit, any more than the Tory sympathizers who departed the American colonies two hundred years and more ago are.

The most galling quality of the TWANLOC ruling class is how they constantly preen themselves on being so cultured, so tolerant, intellectual, competent and so very, very non-racist … unlike the ordinary rest of us; the veteran, the blue-collar working stiff, the stay-at-home-mom, the cashier working at the local grocery store, the owners of companies large and small. Alas, nine out of ten, the TWANLOC ruling class is not particularly cultured, tolerant or intellectual. Nine out of ten, the most vicious bigotries and stereotypes drop from their lips and into their narratives … and yet they remain blissfully unaware of their own faults and shortcomings.

For those of you who want to dump on us 'Trumpkins' for this, it was written in 2014 - two years before Donald J. Trump became president.

MORE HATE SPEECH FROM THE DEMOCRATS: Don’t run away from Trump — ‘Punch him in the face.’

I wonder what Sen. Tester [D-MT] would say if someone from the Right threatened to 'punch him in the face'. I doubt it would be civil.

RHETORIC IS ONLY DANGEROUS when it comes from the Right, because the Left is afraid it will inspire people on the right to act like leftists.

THE TIME IS COMING:

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

A reminder for Democratic Socialists.

LIBERALS: If you can't punch a Nazi shove a priest.

LIBERALS TWEET: "White people love dogs because they miss owning slaves."

I'm reminded of that old aphorism that dogs have masters; cats have staff (slaves?).

So ... Black people love cats because they miss being slaves.

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO: Bernie Sanders isn't paying staffers the $15 minimum wage he champions.

Translation: rules are for other people....

THERE ARE MANY GOOD ONES in this Mod Squad Edition of PowerLine's Week in Pictures, but this one has to take the favorite spot:

Now go see the rest, especially the Twitter ones.

YES, let's break up the higher education monopoly.

Get colleges and universities out of the progressives' indoctrination business.

VIA INSTAPUNDIT: The Outrage Economy.

It's time, I think, for us to start paying attention and stop patronizing firms that attempt to commodify outrage. Hit 'em where it hurts - in the pocketbook.

ENOUGH GAMES, DEMOCRATS: The Left is having a hissy because President Trump suggested that the Squalid Squad might want return to their native lands, fix them, and then return to show us country bumpkins how to do it. What they don't want you to know is that they actually wanted to deport former Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka.

More here.

DONALD TRUMP TO NANCY PELOSI: Let me show you how to play hardball.

THE UNEXPECTED EFFECTIVENESS of President Donald Trump.

To screw up a metaphor, when you need to destroy a china shop you need a raging bull.

THE NEW YORK TIMES goes pro-Soviet for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

EVEN BEFORE APOLLO, the New York Times was anti-space.

THE NEW YORK TIMES still can't stand America's accomplishments in space. They forgot to mention that the Soviets also killed the first dog in space.

MORE NEW YORK TIMES IDIOCY: The Soviets won the 'diversity' space race.

The NYT has been anti-American for years. It may be headquartered in the U.S. but it is a globalist propaganda waste of newsprint.

SOME APOLLO HISTORY: Here are some original design schematics of the Apollo systems that got the astronauts to the moon and back.

Remember, these - and all of Apollo, for that matter - were done BC (before computers). There was no such thing as a personal computer prior to the mid-1980's.

THE APOLLO 11 LANDING:



Even though I knew the outcome, I was still holding my breath....

PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE? You won’t miss it.

Oh? Alexandria Ocasio-Cotez and those of her ilk seem to think that 'Medicare for All' will be the same as the Cadillac plan she has as a member of Congress. If only....

REPUBLICANS: Quit clutching your pearls and fight back!

IS BORIS JOHNSON WRONG to claim Islam set the Muslim world back?

No, he isn't. In fact, I advanced substantially the same claim, also in 2006, when I was preparing to deploy to Bagdhad as a civilian analyst.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ silent after Antifa terrorist echoes her concentration camps rhetoric on ICE centers.

KURT SCHLICHTER: The nightmare of an America ruled by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her socialist pals.

BUT SHE'S NOT AN ANTI-SEMITE: Ilhan Omar introduces anti-Israel resolution in the House of Representatives.

Hypocrisy, anyone?

RACISM isn't what it used to be.

Michael Ramirez noticed.

ILHAN OMAR HAPPENED because media chose to lie to you.

Click on the PowerLine link for much more detail.

TRUMP WAS ‘BRILLIANT’ snookering Democrats into letting the Squalid Squad become their symbol. Follow all the links for the details.

Here's the thing that really ticks me off about the GOP establishment dopes (and their media lackeys: "[I]t’s kind of sad that some Republicans still can’t — or won’t? — sense it [Trump's Twitter savvy]". Trump is playing hardball and these GOPe dopes are still clutching their pearls and whining about his being 'mean'....

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Trump’s attack on congresswomen was ‘racist'.

Bullshit. Via Instapundit:

“The idea that politicians may or may not be subject to criticism or disagreement depending on their skin color is so un-American, and so profoundly stupid, that it is hard to imagine that anyone could assert it. Yet we live in such degraded times that one-third of Democrats are willing to tell pollsters that is what they believe.”

Not just Democrats.

And I'm with Trump on this one. You don't 'turn the other cheek' to the bullies of the Squalid Squad, or any of the other Leftist bullies (Antifa, anyone?), you punch back. With words when you can, with physical force when you must. Bullies understand only one thing - pain.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ plays the race card.

COULD IT BE THAT HE DESERVED IT? Booker says he felt disrespected in a verbal tussle with Biden.

Translation: It's disrespectful to punch back at a person 'of color'.

CHICAGO MAYOR: Police 'are losing the streets' to major eruptions of violence.

Maybe the Mayor should quit interfering and let the Chicago police department do its job?

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY [D(umb)-MA] explains identity politics. She's so smart she knows what you must think.

AMERICAN GREATNESS: The American Left is racist; not President Trump (or the American public).

ILHAN OMAR GOOD; MELANIA TRUMP BAD: because Ilhan Omar has been a citizen longer than Melania Trump.

Makes sense, no?

IT STARTED AS A SATIRE with the Babylon Bee; the Republican National Committee turned it into a highly effective ad.

DEMOCRATS: We’re so smart, we inspire felonies! Instapundit remembers, too.

Ronald Reagan said it best: "It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

TRUMP TROLL LEVEL: Grand Master.

Absolutely right. Keep trolling, Mr. President.

VICTORY GIRLS: Crude and classless is now revolutionary. Not in my book; it's just crude and classless.

I used to like women's soccer. Now? Not so much. Megan Rapinoe and her coterie of clowns have ruined it for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of female soccer players who are not elitist, narcissistic twits.

I DOUBT THAT WORKING FOR FREE IS HIGH ON ANYONE'S PRIORITY LIST: California doesn’t have enough doctors.

OBVIOUSLY A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST: Compassionate Christian votes for government to steal money from his neighbor and give it to the poor.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The 'Squad' aims to guillotine the Democrat old guard.

I'm reminded of the adage that old age and treachery will beat youth and skill every time.

ELIZABETH WARREN tried to shame combat veteran Mark Espers at his confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Defense. It didn't go well.

SHOT: Man who attacked ICE facility used AOC-like ‘concentration camp’ rhetoric.

CHASER: Extra protection sought for certain lawmakers after Trump's comments about 'squad'.

So ... it's okay to incite your followers to do violence against the established order; but if some idiot decides that you are an appropriate target for violence it's the established order's responsibility to protect you from violence you initiated.

Something. Does. Not. Compute.

WASHINGTON POST: It's Trump's fault we're batshit crazy.

What a bunch of maroons.

MICK MULVANEY: conservative hero.

HE MUST BE running as a Democrat. (Click to move forward through the cartoon series.)

ZERO: What are the odds aliens will be 'discovered' at crazy event to storm top-secret site?

And if sufficient numbers of people are stupid enough to try it, there will be deaths.

APOLLO SHRUGS: The 'woke' media revisits Apollo 11 - and gets it head handed back on a silver platter. This Washington Post twitter stream is especially instructive.

CONSTITUTION? WHAT CONSTITUTION? We don't need no stinkin' Constitution.

BETO METOO O'ROURKE VIRTUE SIGNALS: My ancestors owned slaves too.

Pandering is his middle name....

CULTIVATING HOMELESSNESS: Birds of a feather and all that....

SWAMP TALES: How the unaccountable bureaucracy wastes money racing around the country creating unnecessary - and unwanted - regulations.

HARSH:

But fair. Linked from Instapundit.

DEMOCRATS: Hate is okay when we do it.

ANTI-TRUMP REPUBLICAN JEFF FLAKE calls on GOP to condemn 'vile and offensive' tweets.

At one time I had a modest amount of respect for (former) Sen. Flake. I was wrong.

MORE HOYT: Between lizards.

Always with Sarah, read the whole thing.

TRUMP POINTS OUT THE OBVIOUS. Sarah Hoyt's friend - one Thomas Kendall - responds to the 'idiotsphere'.

Supremely well done. Read and enjoy.

Linked from Instapundit.

WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM sues to overturn unjust law of supply and demand.

And while they're at it, they should also sue to make pi equal 3.2.

Um, maybe not. Pi is irrational. Like the women's national soccer team.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Dick's Sporting Goods may close stores due to anti-gun decisions.

That's what happens when you virtue-signal your peers ... and ignore your customers. There are a number of companies that I've chosen to no longer shop at, and in talking around found that a number of my peers have independently chosen to do the same.

THE BABYLON BEE explains socialism.

FROM MY EMAIL: a note to Democrats.

A wall, a gate, and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders.

EXPLAIN TO ME how progressives can decry 'racism' or 'sexism' when anyone can be any sex or race simply by declaring it to be so (i.e., I identify as ...).

DEMOCRATS START TO WORRY.Reliably liberal media mouthpieces are noting the growing hold of identity politics extremism:

my head is spinning trying to do the sums in my head about how the numbers add and subtract to see who has the highest Certified Victim Score on the Intersectional Justice Matrix. I doubt even Common Core math can solve for this X [unknown].

Reliably conservative onlookers are buying popcorn futures....

MAUREEN DOWD: Scaling Wokeback Mountain. Occasionally she gets something (almost) right.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ AND HER 'SQUAD': the arrogance and the ignorance.

Separately, arrogance and ignorance are some of humanity’s worst traits. Together, when coupled with power, they achieve “weapon-grade stupid” status. This is the marinade of the “gang of four,” the “progressive” Congresswomen – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar....

Harsh, but fair.

"IT'S GREAT": Apollo 11 Flight Director Gene Kranz on NASA under the Trump presidency.

DIMOCRATS COMPETE TO OUT-INSANE EACH OTHER: Inslee floats Megan Rapinoe as potential Secretary of State.

And no, I didn't misspell 'Dimocrats'....

TOLERANCE, DEMOCRAT STYLE: New York legislator who told Republican staffer to kill herself endorses Kamala Harris.

ILHAN OMAR: Americans treat illegal aliens worse than dogs because they're racist.

Dogs are racist?

IT'S NOT JUST DISHWASHERS: The cycle of the dishwasher goes on and on … and on and on.

Thanks to the Obama administration's revised energy and efficiency standards, clothes washers don't wash, dryers don't dry, toilets don't flush, and showers don't shower.

But Gaia is pleased....

DEMOCRATS 2020: Trillions and trillions and trillions more.

HEH: THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE ... are women.

And they got unhorsed ... by a woman.

WHAT, NO WATERMELON? Mayor Pete sends pizza to the police.

No, I do not believe Buttigieg is racist. Neither do I believe he is competent.

COURTS IN THE NEWS:

The 9th Circuit sides with Trump on sanctuary cities.

The 9th Circuit also sides with Trump over Planned Parenthood.

President Trump's plan to 'stack the courts' with originalist judges seems to be working....

OREOS: Not just cookies anymore.

NO, you'll need a microscope to find Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's brain. Her brain - such as it is - is wholly owned by Saikat Chakrabarti.

MICHIGAN SCHOOL sued after 'discriminating against religious groups'.

HUMAN HISTORY in two sentences.

FORMER ICE DIRECTOR TOM HOMAN leaves Ocasio-Cortez speechless on immigration.

And it takes a lot to leave her speechless....

THREE HELPFUL TIPS for feminists who are being persecuted by air conditioning.

RICK PERRY: Now that Ross Perot is gone, I can tell this story.

REP. DOUG COLLINS [R-GA]: Miss McCall's government lesson [video].

Instead of solving America’s problems or appreciating its successes, we’re spending today reciting obvious legal processes and avoiding our duty to legislate.

Too bad Rep. Nadler wasn't in Miss McCall's class that day....

JOE BIDEN: Yes, let's tax the rich ... but leave my loopholes alone.

OFFICIAL HOUSE DEMOCRAT TWITTER ACCOUNT attacks the squalid squad leader.

I think we're seeing the Democrat party in its death throes.

More proof.

I DON'T THINK THEY EVER DID: The Left no longer even has a clue as to what makes America great.

REP. MARK GREEN [R-TN]: unveils bill to introduce more choice to Medicaid recipients.

Finally - we're beginning to see some marketplace - and consumer oriented - solutions for health care.

TODD STARNES: Hockey coach delivers national anthem truth bomb to team.

Megan Rapinoe and Colin Kaepernick take note. This could be coming to you.

HOW SOCIALISM WORKS: Part One, a primer for Green New Dealers; Part Two, a primer for economic illiterates.

MIKE ROWE on Nike's Betsy Ross play. His complete Facebook post is here for those like me who keep their distance from Mark Zuckerberg's empire.

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY and nothing has changed.

POWERLINE: Why wind and solar will never work.

It's the math, stupid. The Laws of Physics have been legislated by a higher power than Congress. (It's a very long article, but well worth your time).

JIM JORDAN: The nine lies of ObamaCare.

PELOSI V. OCASIO-CORTEZ: I suggest 'the squad' be renamed 'the squalid'.

BULLPEN: a political definition.

COMMON SENSE IN CALIFORNIA? California town declares itself a Second Amendment sanctuary city.

DON SURBER'S highlights of the news.

FROM MY EMAIL:

Keeping the bar low....

IT'S TIME TO BURY OBAMACARE ONCE AND FOR ALL and deliver real health care reform.

HEH: Botanical 'sexism' cultivates home-grown allergies.

STILL PANDERING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: Kamala Harris announces $100B plan for black homeownership.

It seems to me I recall a major real estate and financial crisis of a few years back that was caused in large part by government programs to encourage mortage lending to 'ill-qualified' buyers. Obviously Sen. Harris wasn't paying attention....

WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO? After decades of railing against big business, leftists woke up one morning to find that big business is – mostly – on their side.

Getting 'woke' and - hopefully - going broke.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Democratic candidates are running a race of inauthenticity.

YES, REALLY: The Lion King is fascistic.

Progressive 'logic' dictates that everything is fascistic. Or homophobic. Or racist. Or something else bad.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Have you ever noticed Antifa is never there when we have a bikers’ rally?”

SOME QUESTIONS that should be asked at the next Democrat debate.

But won't be....

HERE'S MY FAVORITE from PowerLine's Week in Pictures:

Now go see the rest.

JUSTIN AMASH misunderstands nationalism.

Voters like the idea that the people who govern them are loyal to them. Nationalism is unpopular with elites because it involves such loyalty, and loyalty to one’s own people limits one’s options in ways that our governing class finds unacceptable.

The 'governing class' - both parties, unfortunately - are more interested in virtue-signaling among themselves than they are about representing the people who elected them.

U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM isn’t the feel-good story we’re told they are.

No, they aren't.

QUESTION: If your (Democrat-run) city has a blackout, does that count towards the next Earth Hour?

HEH: New Yorkers appreciated Bill de Blasio’s real-time updates from Iowa on the massive power outage in Manhattan.

GOOD RIDDANCE: Armed man shot and killed after throwing incendiary devices at ICE detention center.

KURT SCHLICHTER: The liberal war on you.

Our would-be masters see the stakes – their power, prestige and position – and that’s why there is nothing they won’t do, no alleged principle they won’t upend, no bogus value they won’t abandon, to put off the reckoning that their greed and incompetence have brought upon them.

Be prepared.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA) ON ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: "Someone needs to tell her the voices in her head aren’t real."

Linked from Instapundit.

"THEY ADD NO VALUE and their positions should largely completely be eliminated."

OBAMA’S DHS CHIEF JEH JOHNSON: Democrat candidates’ immigration plans are “tantamount to declaring publicly that we have open borders”.

Not all Democrats are batshit crazy ... just most of them.

THE OFFICIAL SHOE OF ANTIFA.

PORTLAND’S MAYOR’S epically bad explanation of Antifa attacks.

Gist: I'll turn a blind eye to violence as long as the potential victims are of the “wrong” political persuasion.

 is for damaged, dangerous and delusional.

AMY KLOBUCHAR: Another Democrat visits Iowa.

Minnesota nice, backed by steel. In the South, we have a name for that: Steel Magnolia.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Have you ever noticed Antifa is never there when we have a bikers’ rally?”

STARBUCKS 'WOKE' UP: Here's what happened.

DO TELL: Social Justice Warriors aren't very bright.

DON'T WORRY, DEMOCRATS, IT'LL GO DOWN AGAIN: Tom Steyer just jumped into the race.

GOOGLE has 1,000 excess employees.

“DIGNITARY SAFETY” sounds better than “being a whiny little shit who can’t stand opposing ideas.”

What Glenn said.

FROM POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures I have two favorites this week:

and

There are many more. Go see them.

REPRISE: President Trump's 'Salute to America'. This is a long video; Trump's arrival and July 4th speech begins at about !:25.



It can be found on YouTube here.

CHARGE HIM WITH A HATE CRIME: American flag burning at Walmart prompts arrest.

The Left created hate crimes, so let's show them that swords have double edges. Here's another hate crime waiting to be charged (or better yet, sued into bankruptcy).

SOME? ONLY SOME? Some journalists really are revealing themselves as enemies of the people.

COLIN KAEPERNICK AND NIKE SAVE AMERICA from hate sneakers. Twitter responds...

"That great feeling of wearing brand new Adidas."

PIERS MORGAN TO ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Quit your bitching.

If he'd give up his idiotic gun control fixation, maybe we could let him back in the U.S.

RED SKELTON explains the Pledge of Allegiance:



It can never be explained often enough.

JOHN STOSSEL: It wasn't force that made America great. It was freedom.

PRESIDENT TRUMP honored American history and heroes ranging from George Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. during a rousing Fourth of July speech.

Speaking before a cheering crowd that repeatedly erupted in chants of “USA! USA!,” Trump hailed US innovations in science, medicine and space exploration during his 45-minute “Salute to America” speech on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

The Independence Day address ... was the first by a president on the Mall since President Harry Truman spoke there during the Korean War in 1951.

The president recounted episodes from the Revolutionary and Civil wars, as well as the suffragette and civil rights movements — and praised the “American spirit that emboldened our founders” and “runs through the veins of every American patriot.”

“It is the spirit — daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love — that built this country into the most exceptional nation in the history of the world."

I hope you watched it as I did.

JULY 4TH FINALE: God Bless America sung by the stars of my era.



The YouTube link is here.

HOT AIR: Happy birthday, America.

POWERLINE: The eternal meaning of Independence Day.

CALVIN COOLIDGE on the Declaration of Independence (July 5, 1926).

SARAH HOYT: On becoming an American via Robert Heinlein.

I was lucky enough that Heinlein was a great influence on my life as well.

THE 1776 FLAG ISN’T THE PROBLEM. Anti-American leftists are.

BUT WE HAVEN'T: This Fourth of July, why have we lost our patriotism?

BE NOT AFRAID: Our flag is still there.

CHARLIE MARTIN: We may consent to be governed but we do not consent to be ruled.

GIVE TANKS FOR OUR LIBERTY: U.S. Armed Forces are defenders of liberty, not tools of oppression.

ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, it is fitting to turn to the Declaration of Independence for the key to America. It lies right in that powerful statement:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

America is an exceptional nation because it is founded on an idea more than on a group of people.

A TRUE PATRIOT:

Rusty celebrates the 4th of July.

THE PASSING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:



The video can be found on YouTube here.

THE BABYLON BEE is on a roll.

Plus they stole CNN's tagline: "fake news you can trust".

FROM THE JOURNAL OF FAKE NEWS: The stupidest political science study ever.

On the lighter side, the study did show that 'political science' is an oxymoron.

HEH: I SEE YOU, but you can't see me.

AN ANGRY OLD WHITE GUY watches the Democrat debate.

And gets angrier....

THE ANTI-TRUMP CIRCUS: The characters have changed, but the carnival continues.

Buy more popcorn.

THEY WERE FOR BUSING BEFORE THEY WERE AGAINST BUSING BEFORE THEY WERE FOR BUSING: Kamala Harris wants federally-mandated school busing.

And of course they've always been for underbusing everyone not on their side....

BLOOMBERG SYNDROME: infecting the whole Democrat establishment, I'm afraid.

THE REPUBLICAN ALTERNATIVE TO UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME:

Now that there are 'not-a-burgers' even progressives should be happy.

Taken from this PowerLine post.

UH-HUH. SURE.

Sir David Attenborough made a surprise appearance ... at Glastonbury [England] to thank ... the festival for going "plastic free" as he introduced his new BBC documentary One Planet, Seven Worlds.

He told the crowd: "There was one sequence in Blue Planet II which everyone seems to remember.

"It had an extraordinary effect and now this great festival has gone plastic-free.

"That is more than a million bottles of water have not been drunk by you in plastic. Thank you."

Organisers had previously urged those attending to bring sturdy tents and return home with them, instead of dumping them at the end of the event.

In an interview with the Glastonbury Free Press on Sunday, Emily Eavis said: "We've made so many positive strides with our green campaigns this year.

Somehow I don't think the attendees got the message.

UPDATE: Litterfest 2019.

ANTIFA: It's your fault we're violent thugs.

FAKE NEWS UPDATE: "The press has taken sides.... View them accordingly."

Not really a surprise - just a warning.

ALTERNATELY SAD AND SICKENING: Some Woman’s Husband, Some Kids’ Father.

'Malicious narcisssism' is a good descriptor for what seems to be an increasingly common strain of progressive thought.

THE DEMOCRAT PLATFORM in one cartoon:

Only one correction needed: the free beer has to be free-range organic craft beer.

WHY NOT? Democrats should pay reparations. Class-action lawsuit, anyone?

NOTICE ANYTHING MISSING?: latest suicide data show the depth of U.S. mental health crisis.

I disagree (at least a little) on the missing factor. I think it's something more recent - the rise of social justice warriorship which I'll admit could be attributed at least in part to the breakdown of families.

BERNIE SANDERS' OWN STATE showed 'Medicare for all' won't work:

Bernie Sanders' home state of Vermont, governed entirely by Democrats at the time, killed off its proposal for single-payer healthcare. Democratic Gov. Pete Shumlin signed the bill to implement the program in 2011. He also pulled the plug on the program in 2015 when he found out that it would double his state's budget. Vermonters would have had to pay an 11.5% payroll tax, plus a 9-point increase in the state income tax.

In Colorado, voters rejected single-payer healthcare for the same reason, with 79% voting against a plan that would have more than doubled their state budget. And in California, where Democrats have the power to do just about any crazy thing they like, Democrats killed their own Healthy California single-payer healthcare plan because it would have tripled their state budget.

Quick summary: "The Democrats on stage Thursday night who embraced 'Medicare for all' were not just wrong, they were out of their minds. "

SHE WOULD BE A SHOO-IN IF THERE WAS SUCH AN AWARD: Holocaust survivor nominates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for 'Nobel Prize in Stupidity'.

JOE BIDEN and the great awokening. Can he survive? I hope so, because just in case the Democrats manage to pull off a victory in 2020, Biden is the one who will do the least damage.

THERE ARE RATIONAL DEMOCRATS AFTER ALL: 2020 hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan [D-OH] pokes holes into 'Medicare for All' plan.

WELL SAID, GLENN: "The problem with capitalism is that it makes societies rich enough to indulge really stupid ideas."

For proof, look no farther than the Democrat presidential primary.

THOUGHTS FROM THE AMMO LINE: Road Trip. Maybe it's time for the wife and I to take a long trip through parts of the country we've never seen.

TRUMP V. ACOSTA:

Acosta: “You did seem to be joking there with the Russian president. Are we taking that to be wrong? And what is it with your coziness with some of these dictators and autocrats at these summits? With Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, when you were asked about the case of Jamal Khashoggi, you did not respond to that question––were you afraid of offending him on that subject?”

Trump: “No, not at all. I don’t really care about offending people. I sort of thought you’d know that.”

Nothing like having your head handed back to you on a silver platter.

A LOOK into the campaign for Democrat 'Healer in Chief'. Not much there there.

I'M GOING TO BE ROOTING FOR ENGLAND IN THE NEXT MATCH: Women’s soccer stars decline White House invitation before it’s extended.

President Trump, rescind your invitation. They don't deserve it.

COMMENT OF THE DAY MONTH YEAR 2020 ELECTION CYCLE: "Talk of 'fairness' is generally just a cover for theft."

By Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) in this post.

POWERLINE: A fascist attack in Portland.

Updated: only three arrested. I'd be okay with that if there were also multiple - many multiple - reports of Antifa faceplants with the pavement....