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

Income inequality has increased really for just one reason: Growth of owner occupied housing is in decline

Homeownership is the ticket to the middle class, and fewer and fewer tickets are being issued:

Your mortgage interest deduction is only eighth in the latest list of top things on which government claims it loses revenue

But libertarians especially hate it. Expect more articles telling you it's got to go as tax reform talk heats up in Congress.

Here are the top 20 "tax loss expenditures" for 2016-2020:

1.  Exclusion of employer contributions for health care and insurance: $863 billion

2.  Lower tax rates on dividends and long term capital gains: $678 billion

3.  Income made by controlled foreign corporations: $587 billion

4.  Contributions made to IRAs and 401k plans: $584 billion

5.  Pension plan contributions: $424 billion

6.  Earned Income Tax Credit: $373 billion

7.  Deductions taken for state and local income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes: $369 billion

8.  Deductions taken for mortgage interest on owner occupied homes: $357 billion

9.  Obamacare "subsidies": $327 billion (what a laugh: they raise the cost, give you a subsidy, and count the subsidy as a tax-free gift)

10. Child tax credit: $271 billion

11. Expensing depreciable business property: $248 billion

12. Deductions taken for charitable contributions: $231 billion

13. Social Security benefits: $214 billion

14. Municipal bond income: $195 billion

15. Deductions taken for taxes on real property: $180 billion

16. Capital gains taxes excluded at death: $179 billion

17. Medical expenses and over the counter medications under cafeteria plans: $169 billion

18. Capital gains taxes excluded on sale of principal residence: $166 billion

19. Life insurance proceeds: $128 billion

20. Deduction for income from domestic production activities: $102 billion.

Total revenue the government claims it's "losing" because of its "benevolent" tax policy on these items: $6.645 trillion over five years, or $1.329 trillion annually.

My, how nice of them. 

Justin Raimondo is right, and Coulter and Nehlen are wrong: Afghanistan is the world's first narcostate, supplying over 75% of the world's heroin

Nuke Afghanistan's poppy fields, and you solve a lot of the world's problems. Raimondo is right, Coulter and Nehlen are wrong. Mexico isn't the "source". It's the conduit. 

From the New York Times in 2013, here:

Afghanistan is already the world’s largest producer of opium, and last year accounted for 75 percent of the world’s heroin supply. “The assumption is it will reach again to 90 percent this year,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the United Nations’ top counternarcotics official here.