REMEMBER EISENHOWER'S MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX? It was a piker compared to today's welfare-industrial complex.

The 'service charge' of government social welfare bureaucracies take up a lot of the money - roughly 80-85%. Maybe it is time to take up President Nixon's "negative income tax"; it might not help the poor but at the least it would put a large number of social justice warriors out of business.

THIS IS CNN:

"I can honestly say I had experienced the smarmiest, most self-congratulatory, dishonest, and squirm-inducing discussion I have ever had the displeasure of witnessing in person. It was like watching Bill Clinton and Stormy Daniels discuss their unyielding dedication to chastity.”

Click through to read the whole article.

LOOSE ENDS: Coal and Karl.

DEAD END: Inside the two-hour Delta Force raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

THE TRUTH BEHIND 'INTERSECTIONALITY': Motorcyclist who identifies as bicyclist sets cycling world record.

POWERLINE: Polar bears aren't as vicious as climate change activists.

GRADING, GOOD GRAMMAR are examples of white supremacy.

So ... precision of thought as expressed in good grammar (both in speaking and writing) is white supremacy?

I guess I can understand why a 'woke'idiot professor would want his students to be illiterate....

MUCH MORE here and here thanks to Instapundit.

AMERICAN THINKER: Democrats are caught between shale rock and a hard place.

KILLIN' CALIPH mourned by the Washington Post. Brit Hume is absolutely right about it being "unembarrass-able". Click on the Twitter link and scroll down.

The mockery continues....

THE FARCE IS STRONG IN THIS ONE: Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey compared President Trump to fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini because of the administration's directive to federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post. Note that the directive applies to agencies (thereby reducing taxpayer costs), not individuals

THE FEDERALIST: All the Russia collusion clues are beginning to point back to John Brennan.

A better target cannot be found....

FOX NEWS ON THE MICHAEL FLYNN PERSECUTION PROSECUTION: FBI agents manipulated Flynn file as James Clapper (then DNI) urged 'kill shot'. In addition to criminal charges, there should be a very big civil lawsuit hiding in this news.

More here.

FALLING LEAVES, EPISODE VII: I start with my usual pond view, taken from the usual place on the carport deck. From this vantage point the foliage looks fairly full (it isn't) and brown (the yellows of earlier in the weeek disappeared).

But be not disappointed; the next three photos taken from down the road show some spectacular (for the north Georgia mountains) reds.

From just down the road from our house. That's our neighbor's house just barely visible at the far right.

A close up of the tree. By next week it will probably be brown - or bare.

Now, looking back toward our house from further down the road.

And finally, this spectacular view of the pond taken early this morning.

As is usual, last week's pictures are here.

THE UNSPEAKABLE in pursuit of the brass ring. Pretty much my thoughts, just much better written.

Do read the comments.

CLIMATE STALINISM: Today’s radical green movement demands submission to an elite governing class.

Note that the governing elite and its 'experts' never have to suffer from the fruits of their so-called expertise.

COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER GUY: Al-Baghdadi dead.

IF YOU THINK 1+1 ALWAYS EQUALS 2, you're guilty of math privilege.

If it weren't for math privilege, Democrats would be able to fund all their insane socialist wet dreams. And become Venezuela....

SSSH!: NCAA names man as female athlete of the week.

ADAM SCHIFF: Behold the [impeachment] lord.

More here.