Yepper

I don't use Twitter much, but I admire people who use it intelligently (h/t AoS):

It's easy if you try

Top left is the Jason Howerton's tweet of Chris Cillizza of CNN, who doesn't like it that Donald Trump won't put up with his network's whiny Sam Donaldson wannabe, Jim Acosta. All those halo shots of Mr. Trump's predecessor tell the tale quite nicely.

And while we're at it on the explanation front, here's Kurt Schlichter with another hunk o' red meat:

One of the secrets of Trump’s success is having really, really stupid enemies, enemies who are so tone-deaf and out-of-touch that they simply cannot adopt commonsense positions that resonate among normal Americans. The establishment instead insists on telling Americans that up is down, black is white, and girls can have penises. Nope. No wonder the Normals have gotten militant, and no wonder a leader like Donald Trump came along with the vision to exploit the opening the establishment left for an outsider to rise and prevail by embracing the obvious.

And seriously, wouldn't all the halo shots of the former Leader of the Free World be another example of telling people up is down?

We'll get to Al Franken anon

Get your Götterdämmerung on. And getcha popcorn. If anyone deserves a trip through the sex creep spin cycle, it's our self-satisfied, sanctimonious junior senator. In the meantime, forgive me for a post with more tags than text.

Dropping dimes in real time

I get up early in the morning so I have time to look at what's happening and write a blog post about it, if possible. As it happens, Donald Trump is simultaneously engaging in a Twitter storm in real time. As always, read 'em from the bottom up:

Naming names

So if you are reading this correctly, you see the Leader of the Free World dropping a dime on two of the most important officials in the Justice Department. So if you want a hot take, here ya go:

• It's blindingly obvious Trump has had enough of Sessions and wants him out. It's a horrible idea to turn the Attorney General into an attack dog, but it's also been done in the past. Eric Holder, who was Barack Obama's AG, was always on the attack. Based on the available evidence, Sessions is either unable or unwilling to serve in this role.
• It's not been widely reported, but it is a matter of public record that Andrew McCabe, who is still at the helm of the FBI, has a problem with his own financial disclosures. McCabe's wife, who ran for office in Virginia in 2015, received a total of $760,000 for her campaign from political action committees controlled by the Democrats, which Andrew McCabe did not initially disclose. To the extent that Hillary Clinton controlled the Democratic Party, Trump is correct.
• Some executives send out memoranda. Trump seems to Tweet. Not how I would do things, but I'm not the Leader of the Free World.

And while I've been writing this, three more Trump Tweets appear:

Carrots, sticks, and a pen

Dang. I thought Trump told us McCain wasn't so good last year. That was then, this is now. Oops, one more!

Are you not entertained?

It may not be the way to run a government, but it's a hell of a show.

News You Can Use

Walter Russell Mead and company over at The American Enterprise are amused with the latest from the New York Times:

As part of its weekly essay series on the legacy of the Russian Revolution, the New York Times has earnestly broken the news to its readers that the American Communist Party wasn’t a principled and well-meaning organization but an anti-American espionage operation:

So did you know what the Times is reporting? See if you did:

The C.P.U.S.A. dutifully spread the lies put out by Moscow. The party thus insisted that the show trials during Stalin’s purges had uncovered a vast capitalist plot against the Soviet leader. Party members dutifully repeated Soviet fabrications that Trotsky had been in the pay of the Nazis. Worst of all, many Communists applauded the execution of tens of thousands of Soviet comrades, denouncing those who were executed as bourgeois spies and provocateurs.

Dang. Who knew? Well, anyone who was paying attention, or wasn't publishing Walter Duranty's lies. Mead wonders what the Times might tell us about in 25-50 years:

The Muslim Brotherhood hated Western ideas of freedom.
Iran was a committed enemy of the United States.
Cuban communists were anti-democratic thugs.
Abortion was an unspeakable tragedy that led to millions of unnecessary deaths.
Press bias and lack of self-awareness plus elite policy failures made the Trump presidency possible.

That's just half the list. The rest is at the link.

More trolling than a fishing show

I still have a number of friends from my days in Chicago and they are exceptionally angry about the latest column from the columnist they love to hate, the Chicago Tribune's John Kass:

FBI director James Comey's announcement about the renewed Clinton email investigation is the bombshell in the presidential campaign. That he announced this so close to Election Day should tell every thinking person that what the FBI is looking at is extremely serious.

This can't be about pervert Anthony Weiner and his reported desire for a teenage girl. But it can be about the laptop of Weiner's wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and emails between her and Hillary. It comes after the FBI investigation in which Comey concluded Clinton had lied and been "reckless" with national secrets, but said he could not recommend prosecution.

So what should the Democrats do now?

Wait for it, wait for it. . .

If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would follow a simple process:

They would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately, and let her vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, stand in her place.

Democrats should say, honestly, that with a new criminal investigation going on into events around her home-brew email server from the time she was secretary of state, having Clinton anywhere near the White House is just not a good idea.

A few thoughts:

• This is world-class trolling. It's also a reminder of the demands we've all been hearing from Democrats in this cycle -- why won't you denounce Donald Trump? I've probably seen 100 ads from the DCCC on behalf of Terri Bonoff, who is running (and losing) for Congress in MN CD-3, against the incumbent Erik Paulsen. Kass is asking a relevant question -- why won't Democrats denounce Hillary Clinton?
• Kass's hypothetical question about the high moral standards of Democrats is one that rarely gets asked. It's also pure Alinsky Rule 4 -- make the enemy live up to its own set of rules.
• Maybe half of the electorate is too young to remember the 1972 election cycle, but I do. The big difference is that the rot is being exposed before Election Day.

Kass makes a larger point that can't be made often enough:

As secretary of state she kept classified documents on the home-brew server in her basement, which is against the law. She lied about it to the American people. She couldn't remember details dozens of times when questioned by the FBI. Her aides destroyed evidence by BleachBit and hammers. Her husband, Bill, met secretly on an airport tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch for about a half-hour, and all they said they talked about was golf and the grandkids.

And there was no prosecution of Hillary.

That isn't merely wrong and unethical. It is poisonous.

And during this presidential campaign, Americans were confronted with a two-tiered system of federal justice: one for standards for the Clintons and one for the peasants.

If nothing else animates Trump supporters, watching these double standards play out has to be at the top of their list of legitimate grievances. The Clintons really need to go, because they corrupt everything they touch. And that includes the party that millions support. The hour is late.

This should help

The Leader of the Free World takes it very seriously:

My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that's on the ballot right now.

And there is one candidate who will advance those things. And there is another candidate who's defining principal, the central theme of his candidacy is opposition to all that we have done.

There's no such thing as a vote that doesn't matter. It all matters. And after we have achieved historic turnout in 2008 and 2012, especially in the African-American community, I will consider it a personal insult, an insult to my legacy, if this community lets down it's guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good send off? Go vote! And I'm going to be working as hard as I can these next seven weeks to make sure folks do.

And if there's someone well versed in personal insults, it's our president:

Obama's policy legacy is a tattered ruin, but he's a handsome man so his picture will look very nice in the history books.

Nuance

It's possible I don't get around enough to know such things, but I'd never heard the term "CP Time" before New York Mayor Bill de Blasio got in trouble for using it (emphasis mine):

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing some criticism for joking about "CP time" while performing in a comedic sketch alongside Hillary Clinton at a charity event over the weekend.

During Inner Circle's annual event in New York City that includes musical and comedy performances by local politicians and reporters, Clinton made a surprise cameo during a scripted scene with de Blasio and Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr in the Broadway show “Hamilton.” 

Clinton joked with de Blasio about how long it took him to endorse her for president, to which the New York City mayor (and Clinton's former Senate campaign manager) quipped back, “Sorry, Hillary. I was running on CP time." The remark is an apparent reference to colored people time -- a phrase sometimes used as a stereotypical reference to black people supposedly being late to everything.

In a video of the skit, released by the mayor's office on Sunday night, the audience appears to laugh awkwardly at the remark. One man in the crowd can be heard shouting, “No!"

"That’s not -- I don’t, I don’t like jokes like that, Bill,” Odom, who is African-American, said.

Clinton then interjected. “Cautious politician time," she explained. “I’ve been there.”

I appreciate the explanation, but seriously, I'd never heard that term before. And in my experience, it makes no sense, because the only identifiable group of people I know who are always late are my siblings, and they're as Caucasian as they come. As always, it must be my lack of nuance.

Rule 5

Saul Alinsky's Rule 5:  “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”

Now he's just trolling

Subtle:

Feel the love

The full image, in case you weren't clear:

The ears tell the story

John Kerry will be coming over to wax the Ayatollah's car later on.