The North Korea problem in a nutshell

George W. Bush cried wolf in Iraq, and now when faced with a genuine threat, Democrats and Republicans alike think Trump is evil for crying like a wolf. They are in denial, shrinking from reality, and incapable of anything save appeasement. There is incontrovertible evidence of a pattern of North Korean use of force, not just threats of it. Do they really want to be responsible for the deaths of many innocents before we are forced to take out North Korea's nuclear capability?

They both agree on abortion, so I guess the answer is yes.

Cost-effective warfare using the B61-12

The B61-12, here:

The B61-12 atomic bombs, for instance, are to undergo a life-extension program that will cost roughly $9.5 billion. There are 400 to 500 of these bombs, says Gronlund, which means refurbishing one will cost about $20 million.

Flashback to 12/6/2016 to Mitch McConnell: "The ObamaCare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the New Year"

Here at The Hill.

No hurry, mate.

h/t Rush

Has anyone connected Otto Warmbier's death with the North Korean novel by Han Sorya?

The North Korean novel "Jackals" from 1951 by Han Sorya provides an MO for what might have happened to Otto Warmbier.

In the novel an American missionary is showcased injecting germs into a Korean boy to kill him. You can read about it here.

I don't think it's a coincidence an American visits North Korea and suffers a similar fate at their hands. I'm guessing the North Koreans actively gave something to Otto Warmbier which they knew would kill him eventually.

Rush is absolutely right: Trump is purposely not acting "presidential" toward North Korea to keep them off balance

It's actually a North Korean value to commit spontaneous outbursts of violence. The North Koreans have never encountered the same from an American president, until now.

Smoking pot increases blood pressure and risk of death from hypertension

Story here.

Alabama US Senate race to replace Sessions shows how divided is "conservatism"

Trump has endorsed Luther Strange (all those promises to pick the very best people should have been a warning).

Mo Brooks is endorsed by Hannity, Ingraham and the Tea Party Patriots.

Judge Roy "10 Commandments" Moore, endorsed by Chuck Norris, has a 10-point lead.

Story here.

Multiple jobholding in July peaked in 1997, the go-go decade for jobs, at 8.05 million

In July 2017 it's only 7.3 million, not seasonally adjusted.

Complain that it's not more, not that it's too many.

Some people just don't get it. 

The Wall, a concrete policy which can't be reversed instantly by the next president

Levin: Republican Congress can't agree to repeal Obamacare, now we're supposed to give them war power?

Now you're talkin'.

Mark Levin is at his best to start the show this evening

He's ripping every president back to G. H. W. Bush as appeasers of North Korea, our feckless Congress, our fifth column media, and even the libertarians, observing that the president is almost alone in facing this problem.

One of Trump's biggest enemies on the radio is tonight one of his biggest supporters.

You'd better pray I don't win Megamillions tonight

With my luck I'll win and a nuclear war will start with North Korea.

Loretta Lynch now numbered among Obama's minions using e-mail aliases to avoid detection

Reported here.

She went by Elizabeth Carlisle, not Publius or Brutus.

Sort of like how Liizah Mercowsky of Alaska uses Republican as an alias for Democrat.

Medicaid enrollment increases, the number with private coverage decreases

“The danger is that the previously insured are now at risk of becoming the new uninsured,” reports Jarrett Stepman for The Daily Signal.

Hm, California has 11 counties with more registered voters than voting age adults

Reported here.

Hiroshima survivor admits school girls were being trained as decoders for the Japanese army

So they were legitimate targets.

From the story here:

On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Nakamura sat with her Grade 8 classmates on the floor of her private girls school, listening to a lecture about duty to the emperor. Setsuko and some of her classmates had been training as decoding assistants for the Japanese army, in preparation for the final invasion by Allied forces.

Like most libertarians, Ben Domenech is a progressive who imagines America began as a tabula rasa on which we wrote "manifest destiny"

I'll bet he's memorized Emma Lazarus' poem, too. Ben is deeply confused about the American founding.

Here, where you might be forgiven for thinking he's talking about Australia:

Once there was a country born without an inheritance. It was a civilization carved by the rejected refuse of the old world, by the religious freaks, criminals, bastards, and orphans. They were the type of men and women willing to risk all to cross the wine-dark sea in search of their fortune. They came from all the corners of the world, and in this land they worked the good earth and made their way. In time they built marketplaces and cities and governments, and threw off the shackles of their far-off, old-world rulers to make their own law. Where other revolutions had been crushed, they prevailed. They risked it all, and won.

The individual insurance market has shrunk by 13% in one year, led by those unsubsidized

From the story here:

As of March 2017, the individual insurance market totaled 17.6 [million-doh!] people. That is down from 20.2 million one year prior. This is a decrease of 2.6 million people, a 13 percent drop in the size of the overall individual-health-insurance market. 12.2 million bought their health insurance on the state- and federally run Obamacare exchanges [vs. 12.7 million the previous year]. 5.4 million people bought their insurance off of the Obamacare exchanges [vs. 7.5 million the previous year]. ... In other words, enrollment is steady among those who receive subsidies but declining dramatically among those who do not. ... In fact, in 2015, 7.5 million people paid the fine, while 6.5 million paid the fine in 2016, according to the IRS. ... After four years of attempts by the Obama administration, no more than 40 percent of those eligible for subsidies availed themselves of the program.

Liberalism has become illiberalism, insisting that bombing is the only way forward

Usefully discussed here.

"We have to destroy the village in order to save it."

Three easy steps to joining the middle class

1. Get a job

2. Marry someone who also has a job

3. Pool your resources and buy a house

Three salvos this morning in the libertarian war against homeownership: Fortunately human nature is stronger

There's something you don't see everyday: Grossly UNDERESTIMATING "not in the labor force"

It's actually 94.6 million in July 2017, not 50 million.

Among all those millions, just 5.4 million "want a job now". The rest are old and retired, young and in school, unable to work because of disability, homemakers, etc.

You people out there just don't get it.

If employers could fire 30 million of your asses in 2009 and get along just fine without you, they still can.

If anyone's lying about GDP, it's Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh just said Obama's never had real GDP above 1.5%, which is just silly. The man doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

Full-time job growth under Trump so far beats Obama and Bush, but that's about it

Note that employers panicked under Obama and fired people like crazy after his election, so there was a steep decline in full-time.

So far the growth of full-time shows a tentative thumbs-up to Trump, but still nothing like the vote of confidence typical after previous changes at the helm of state.

The puny 2.5% growth under George W. Bush, keep in mind, was still all pre-911 and post-Reagan bull market, which ended in August 2000. Trump is doing better than Bush, but not by much.

Robert Mueller contributed money to anti-marriage, pro-Obama crackpot William Weld in 1996

Reported here:

Mr. Mueller made two contributions in 1996 to Republican William Weld, then a candidate for a U.S. senate seat in Massachusetts, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics.

From my lips to God's ears: Death Wish is back, starring Bruce Willis

Trailer here.

White House renovations August 4-21, so Trump's headed to New Jersey

Not Martha's Vineyard.

Insane libertarian fixation on mortgage interest deduction, edition 4716

You would think a libertarian would acknowledge that shielding YOUR money from taxation is a good thing, but you would be wrong. There are at least seven tax loss expenditures more costly to the tax man than the mortgage interest deduction, but their crazy war on it continues nonetheless. What it masks is the underlying hatred of conservatism homeownership represents. Homeowners settle down and raise kids instead of sacrificing themselves to the needs of global capitalists. That's their real problem with it.

Mark Krikorian must be spending too much time in the sun this summer

Laugh of the Day: Mickey Kaus does the math CBS-DFW cannot

That's right Mickey. 92.22% to be exact.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate update for July 2017

Mean average temperature was 72.5 degrees F in July 2017 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The mean is 72.2. The average to date is 50.0. The mean to date is 46.7.

The lowest minimum temperature was 53. The mean is 49.

The highest maximum temperature was 90. The mean is 94. July is the warmest month of the year by average temperature (above), so it's not going to be a very hot summer since it's all downhill from here.

Precipitation was 1.12 inches. The mean is 3.13.

Cooling degree days came to 240, which is the mean. The total to date is 432. The mean to date is 422.

I have corrected my climate update for June 2017. Either I or NWS reported incorrect figures for lowest minimum temperatures and for cooling degree days, not sure which. I noticed the discrepancy today and fixed it. May 2017 checks out OK.

The three month Oceanic Nino Index value has averaged -0.32 over the last eleven months, climbing to +0.5 in the last measurement period in April-May-June after a weak cooling event in the Pacific lasting five months.  

America is a country full of addictive drug users: 92 million opioid users in 2015, 2 million abusers

From the story here:

"A very large proportion and large number of adults use these medications in a given year," said study author Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland. "I was still a bit surprised that 38 percent or about 92 million people used prescription opioids in 2015."

Stupid Donald Trump decides to own the stock market, and when it crashes he will

Whence the "credulity baked into the culture to make room for a Bernie Madoff"?

Pondered here rather lazily.

May I suggest:

What's the difference between Australia and The United States?

The crooks went to Australia against their will.

Most Obamacare mandate fines last year came from far more low to moderate income people than CBO estimated

In other words, Obamacare penalizes people who can least afford it.

Obamacare is just another case of liberals raising taxes on the have-nots and screwing up their healthcare in the process.

From Jed Graham, here:

What is striking about the data is that the average payment is barely higher than the minimum payment of $695. Since people were required to pay the greater of $695 or 2.5% of taxable income above the filing threshold ($10,350 in 2017), one takeaway is that most of the $2.8 billion in fines paid through April appear to have come from people with modest to moderate incomes. As a frame of reference, CBO's 2014 analysis implied that the average mandate payment for this tax season would be roughly $1,075 and that the total amount paid by people earning up to three times the poverty level would barely exceed $1 billion. ... Based on mandate collections that streamed in after April in prior years, the full-year total is likely to rise to roughly 5 million tax forms with mandated payments totaling closer to $4 billion [an average Obamacare individual mandate fine of $800].

Laugh of the Day: CNBC says US Dollar moves lower after Scaramucci fired

NASA temperature data tampering puts Amundsen's Northwest Passage in the tenth coldest year on record

Story here.

Are we sure Scaramucci's wife isn't a guy?

Out goes the Mooch after soiling the carpet

Now you see him, now you don't. A veritable turd flying at the speed of light, who wiped out both Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus in one fell swoop. Or should I say poop?

Mission accomplished, he's gone.

Wouldn't it have been cleaner doing it the usual way?

Story here.

Watch Rep. Louie Gohmert expose the FBI's Robert Mueller for his incompetence in the Boston bombing case

Watch Mueller squirm, here, as Gohmert makes him admit he was never aware the mosque which radicalized the Boston bombers was started by the convicted terrorist A. Alamoudi.

Orange County Register thinks Trump has a point, correctly calls for an end to the filibuster rule in the Senate

Here:

The 60-vote requirement to cut off debate isn’t in the Constitution. In fact, the opposite is true. The Constitution’s forerunner in 1781, the Articles of Confederation, required the approval of nine of the thirteen states to pass a law, but that supermajority provision was conspicuously absent from the document hammered out at the convention in Philadelphia in 1787 after the Articles were replaced.

Laugh of the Day: The New York Times' David Brooks is a conservative the same way Obama is a Christian

But he sort of repeats himself, here in the comments section.

John McCain's exit strategy

Do nothing US House begins 5-week vacation after Senate Obamacare repeal failure

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner once infamously said that Democrat President Obama had the right to set the agenda. But now that we have a Republican president, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan doesn't see it that way.

Slow-walking Trump's agenda isn't just a Democrat goal, it's an establishment goal. Republicans don't want to see it implemented anymore than the Democrats do, which is why Paul Ryan sabotaged Obamacare repeal in the Senate and promptly adjourned. His reassurances that the House wouldn't simply pass what the Senate passed supposedly were not good enough for John McCain.

But John McCain, who everyone knows is going to promptly die anyway, simply took one for the team. "Gee, what a guy. We get to run for reelection saying we voted for repeal and the dopes will believe us". 

Remember the agenda below from Trump? Seven months already have been blown on item 5, yet without success. Election 2018 is just 15 months away, and really 14 because August is a fait accompli. The prospects for getting nothing done by then of what Trump wants accomplished look better and better by the day, and that's just the way the establishment wants it.

   

Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:

1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act.

An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.

2. End The Offshoring Act.

Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.

3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act.

Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.

4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act.

Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.

5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act.

Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act.

Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.

7. End Illegal Immigration Act.

Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.

8. Restoring Community Safety Act.

Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.

9. Restoring National Security Act.

Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values.

10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act.

Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.



This is my pledge to you.

Average total employment is up about 5.1 million since the Great Recession by age groups, but the net increase comes from those over 54

Laura Ingraham thinks John McCain's still a POW, too

I'm not ashamed of my vote in November 2016

I'll still take incompetence over evil any day.

Eric Cantor admits Obamacare repeal was a charade which helped Republicans get reelected

Here:

He says he wasn’t the only one aware of the charade: “We sort of all got what was going on, that there was this disconnect in terms of communication, because no one wanted to take the time out in the general public to even think about ‘Wait a minute—that can’t happen.’ ” But, he adds, “if you’ve got that anger working for you, you’re gonna let it be.”

Trump's first six months of current dollar GDP aren't awful, but that's about it

There's Trump steaks and Trump wine, and now . . . the Trump wiener

As I predicted Real Clear Markets wastes no time trotting out another libertarian to attack your mortgage interest deduction, this time from the Manhattan Institute

State capitalist cronyism in Wisconsin smells to high heaven: The state will pay $3 billion for Foxconn jobs

The cost of reelection for Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and Donald Trump.

From the story here:

What will the State of Wisconsin be paying to lure Foxconn? A steep price. It adds up to $3 billion, including tax credits, training grants and infrastructure improvements. That comes to almost a quarter-million per job, which will pay an average of $54,000 per year. In other words, the people of Wisconsin will in effect be paying the plant’s entire workforce for about five years. And the construction jobs – which make up more than three-quarters of the total – will only last about four. ...

No one knows how long the Foxconn jobs in Kenosha will last. But we do know the company has publicly committed to automating away the vast majority of its current 1.2 million jobs, most of which are located in Asia. At one plant alone in China’s Guangdong province they have eliminated about 60,000 jobs. And they certainly aren’t stopping there. They have targeted to reach 30 percent automation by 2020, and their stated goal is to eliminate almost their entire human workforce, retaining only a minimal number of workers in production, logistics, and inspection.

Fusion GPS at heart of Democrat collusion with Russia against Trump, McCain their useful idiot

Kim Strassel sets the table in her column today, here, from which these excerpts:

Fusion GPS. That’s the oppo-research outfit behind the infamous and discredited “Trump dossier,” ginned up by a former British spook. Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson also was supposed to testify at the Grassley hearing, where he might have been asked in public to reveal who hired him to put together the hit job on Mr. Trump, which was based largely on anonymous Russian sources. Turns out Democrats are willing to give up just about anything—including their Manafort moment—to protect Mr. Simpson from having to answer that question.

What if, all this time, Washington and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn’t the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility. ...

What if it was the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton’s campaign [that hired Simpson]? What if that money flowed from a political entity on the left, to a private law firm, to Fusion, to a British spook, and then to Russian sources? Moreover, what if those Kremlin-tied sources already knew about this dirt-digging, tipped off by Mr. Akhmetshin? What if they specifically made up claims to dupe Mr. Steele, to trick him into writing this dossier?

Most accurate headline of the morning: McCain Kills GOP's 7-Year Quest to Repeal Obamacare

He also "suspended" his campaign in 2008 to vote for the financial crisis bank bailout, putting him in sharp relief with Obama who also voted for the bailout (sarc).

How do you spell P. O. S. ?

I spell it John Sidney McCain.

John McCain, Liza Mercowskee, and Susan Collins vote against skinny repeal, leaving millions in bondage to healthcare mandates

Bloomberg reports here:

The GOP’s ‘skinny’ repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the 50 votes needed to advance it. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski also voted against it. ... "I sadly feel a great many Americans will feel betrayed, that they were lied to, and that sentiment will not be unjustified. You cannot campaign against Obamacare and then vote for Obamacare," Republican Senator Ted Cruz said early Friday.

Yeah, well what if Pence is the leaker, whattaya gonna do about that, huh Mr. Toughguy?

John McCain is still a POW: To overturn the offense of Obamacare, the offense must be removed

Obamacare was passed without a single Republican vote. It should be repealed without a single Democrat vote to remove that offense.

But John McCain thinks like a loser, not a winner, and wants to work with Democrats now, before any of that happens. Like that'll work.

Trump was right about McCain the first time. And McCain is going to die in captivity.

Gingrich Pot calls Mooch Kettle black

June Foray, the voice of Rocky, Natasha and the fair Nell, has died at 99

Story here.

CBO says overturning individual mandate would mean 15 million would drop health insurance in a heartbeat, so to speak

Reported here.

Things we can't say anymore

The Black Death can't reappear soon enough

CNBC's John Harwood lies about the size of the individual market in health insurance, and by omission

Here:

Individual market coverage has risen to 18 million from 11 million in 2013.

That's simply false.

The Kaiser Family Foundation had individual market coverage at 15.4 million already in 2013, as I reported at the time here. Rising by less than three million in four years to 18 million, if that's even true, is purely a function of natural population growth, not Obamacare's success in extending individual market coverage where there was none before. These millions who have seen their premiums and their deductibles soar as a result of Obamacare were far more numerous than Harwood says.

Completely unaddressed by Harwood is the small group market where employers have fewer than 50 employees. Their costs have also soared, as anyone working for a small business can tell you. Obamacare compliant small group plans typically charge FIVE TIMES what individuals used to pay on the individual market before Obamacare. This small group market was 25 million strong in 2013.

That's over 40 million people in 2013 who have born the brunt of paying for Obamacare's handouts to deadbeats and grifters, not the 10 million or fewer Harwood claims.

HE'S A LYING SACK OF JAWEA.

Duplicitous bastards

HR 3762 reloaded in the Senate fails this time 45-55

From the story here:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected an amendment to gut Obamacare without a replacement ready to go, a bill identical to a 2015 measure that passed Congress.

Senators voted 45-55 on the measure, with seven Republicans and all Democrats voting no. The Republicans voting no were Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Dick Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Only Collins voted against the measure in 2015. ...

The bill is identical to a 2015 measure that passed Congress that would gut Obamacare's taxes and mandates but leave in place insurer regulations. The bill would have let Obamacare stay in place for two years while a replacement was crafted. Former President Barack Obama vetoed the legislation in 2015.

Once a Bruce Jenner always a Bruce Jenner

The male aggression rears its ugly head, or something:

Jenner in the past [you know, ages ago . . . in April] told Diane Sawyer that she has “one deal-breaker” with the Republican party: “You mess with my community, you do the wrong thing with our community, you don’t give us equality and a fair shot, I’m coming after you.”

The story is here.

Drug overdoses soar in Medicaid expansion states under Obamacare

Your government Medicaid doctors are drug pushers.

Story here.

Well, now maybe I can get back to doing what I do best: Ballbusting

Laugh of the Day: Mount Trumpmore, a new birth of freedom

Story here.

Meanwhile the transnational Max Boot is upset that the Boy Scouts love Trump, hate Hillary

Very telling, that.

He must read WaPo tweeter Jenna Johnson here, and NY Magazine here, which omit references to the loud sustained boos by Boy Scouts for Obama but focus instead on the boos for Hillary.

Well, they emphasize what's important to them. Since they are Clinton advocates and Trump opponents and want to make the story a story about Trump's inappropriate partisanship, the fact that Trump was contrasting himself with his predecessor, not Hillary, has to be ignored.

Most stories have been about the boos for Obama.

Here is Boot:

At one point he actually had the boys booing Clinton, a former secretary of State, former first lady and the first female major-party presidential nominee in U.S. history. This is an offense not only against good taste but also against the Boy Scout rule forbidding any political activities in uniform.

Winning again: Trump dumps trannies from military

David Harsanyi: There isn't a single Republican lawmaker effectively answering the lies told about Obamacare or their own plans

But Harsanyi provides persuasive answers, here.

How to identify a member of the establishment

Anyone who complains about the existence of alternative sources of information like Twitter, blogs, conservative talk radio, etc.

In other words, anyone who has lost control of the messaging, like John McCain in the Senate today, and John Boehner in a leak to WaPo.

Presidents ranked by performance of the S&P 500

Boy Scouts love Trump, boo Obama, Newsweek features lefties calling them Hitler Youth

Says the former magazine sold for a dollar because nobody read it anymore. Soon to be a former website.

Unlike John McCain, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard is very glad Trump stopped funding al-Qaeda in Syria

Here.

Meanwhile the redundant Damon Linker is just fine with a thieving lefty as defacto head of the Democrat Party

Here in "Democrats don't need 'A Better Deal.' They need Bernie Sanders":

That he was an independent who became a Democrat solely for the purpose of running for president and spent a good deal of time on the stump railing against the party's choice to succeed Barack Obama as president is just one reason why he should be treated as the party's de facto leader and its presumptive presidential frontrunner — and why he should have been the one to craft and deliver the party's message heading into the midterms. ... Populism is a politics of anger. It needn't escalate to violence. It shouldn't tear down institutions that can be reformed in productive ways. But it does need to channel the passion for justice and give voice to justified resentments.

Emotion, not reason, has the better of a person who can write that, or "who is sufficiently woke enough" and "now, at long last . . . has finally . . .."

If you get WaPo delivered and live next to Damon Linker, make sure you are "woke" before he is or you might be out of luck. 

Thieving lefty: Washington neighbor of Bernie Sanders tells Chris Plante Sanders routinely pinched his Sunday delivery of WaPo

Plante reported yesterday the anecdote from the neighbor, saying WaPo actually investigated and confirmed that an old balding and greying guy was personally observed by the person  responsible for the route picking up the paper at the door. The subscriber, however, is younger and has a full head of hair.

Makes you wonder which one has really lost half his mind

The Laugh of the Day comes from a John Boehner leak: Trump should never get into a pissing match with skunks

Mika Skunkski and Joe Skunkorough

A guy who recognizes that the media are skunks can't be all bad.

Here:

“You never get into a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. He does it every day.” Boehner said, adding, “Never get into a p---ing match with a skunk. He does it every day.” “It may have worked during the campaign. But I think he would do himself well if he would just slow the tweeting down and just focus on what he’s doing and not being critical,” Boehner said.

Trump appoints another one who is against The Wall: Scaramucci

Another real confidence builder, there, Mr. President. Not.

WaPo, here:

Despite auto company bailouts, Michigan employment lags year 2000 levels by 308,000 jobs, the worst in the country

Ohio comes in number two, with a shortfall in jobs of 108,000 from the previous peak.

Together Michigan and Ohio account for 95% of the shortfalls in eight states recently identified in a Wall Street Journal blog post.

Drug abuse in Michigan reaches an all-time high, state makes the top 10

Reported in Crain's Detroit Business, here:

Research indicates Michigan's drug abuse problem is at an all-time high. A study released in May found Michigan ranks 10th for drug use and addiction among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with analysts considering such factors as abuse of prescription drugs, illicit drugs and the rate of overdose deaths.

In 2015, Michigan recorded 1,981 fatal drug overdoses — more than five per day — with nearly half related to opioids. That death rate represents more than a 10-fold increase from 1999

Hey Trump! If you want out of Afghanistan, nuke the poppies and it ceases being a narcostate which can wage war

Deep state swamp: Federal workers gave Hillary 95% of their political contributions

The Department of Education is the worst, but the whole damn thing has to go.

Story here.

George Herbert Walker Bush's legacy: It took only 7 years of NAFTA to destroy hours worked in the United States

Hours of all persons grew 44% during the Reagan bull market, which ended in August 2000. Since then, hours of all persons has grown just 3%.

NAFTA went into effect in January 1994, eleven years after the Reagan bull began and a little over one year after Bush inked the deal. Seven years later hours of all persons peaked.

It reminds me of Bill Clinton's innovation, the so-called Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which blew up the housing market after just 10 years.

Republicans take away your job, then Democrats come along and take away your house.

If you're living in your car, you'd better watch your back.  

Laugh of the Day: David Brooks is a conservative the same way Obama was a constitutional law professor

Seen here in the comments.

Great point Mr. President: Don Jr. hands over his emails, Crooked Hillary deletes hers . . . BY THE THOUSANDS