HOW TARP CREATED TRUMP:

Back in 2008, rather than fix mark-to-market accounting, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke, and other members of the financial market crisis team, chose to use a government-funded bazooka. A $700 billion bank bailout named The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

President Bush, who authorized this approach, later explained it by saying he “abandoned free market principles to save the free market.” That statement makes no sense. Either you believe in free markets, or you don’t. Violating a free market means it’s not free. More truthfully, the Bush team abandoned free markets because it was the politically expedient thing to do.

But, by doing this, Republican leadership undermined a sacrosanct belief of conservatism – markets are self-healing and government intervention creates unintended consequences. Abandoning this philosophy left voters literally adrift. Politics is just politics. The GOP ship has no anchor or rudder. Why vote for a philosophy if those who claim to support it do so only when it is convenient? The result: Donald Trump.

Read the whole thing.

SHIKHA DALMIA: EPA — The Other Villain in the Volkswagen Scam.

But the hard reality is that this might not be the last such scam we’ll see. If the EPA continues on its anti-industry crusade, it’ll practically invite widespread disrespect for the law.

The EPA slashed allowable nitrogen dioxide car emissions from the already low 1.2 grams per mile average to 0.07 grams per mile in 2008 to boost air quality that courts at the time ruled was already pretty good and adequately protecting public health. The EPA is now poised to tighten that standard another 30 percent.

The problem for carmakers is that they can’t simultaneously satisfy such regulatory edicts and consumer demand.

Drivers want cheap, safe, powerful cars. That is exactly what the EPA’s NOx standards made it very difficult for VW to produce.

To be fair, the people behind the standards want us all riding buses.

OOOH!  I DO! None Dare Call It Conspiracy: Obama’s Coordinated Climate Campaign.

BESIDES MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRAFT AND CORRUPTION? Why are Climate Models so Estranged from Reality?

CURIOUS, ISN’T IT:“Debate is closed on this issue,” they explained…

IS THE POPE CATHOLIC? More on the Pope and politics.

BUT DON’T EXPECT THE DEVOTEES OF GOVERNMENT TO BELIEVE IT: Competition and Capitalism Are Good For Your Soul .

AND YOU CAN BELIEVE THEM: Iran Promises to Violate Nuke Deal.

IF A NATION FAILS IN AFRICA AND NO ONE REPORTS IT: South Africa — the untold story. If only their leaders hadn’t been educated in leftist universities.  The worst “colonialism” was the west’s export of Marxism to underdeveloped nations under the guise of “education.”

OH DEAR: Is it too late to vote for SMOD? New Polls Show Why Joe Biden Is the True Democratic Frontrunner. Though to be fair, Slow Joe is at least funny.  Like a heart attack.

THEY GAVE UP ON FINDING DECENT BEER:  Whatever Happened to German America?

YET ANOTHER OBAMACARE FAIL:  And this is why I will not be dragged to the exchanges. One of the many reasons. Obamacare Database With Personal Information on Millions Had ‘Basic Security Flaws’.

SAY HELLO TO THE NEW RUSSIA: Same as the old USSR. Putin’s Not-So-Secret War V

THE CORRUPT COVERING UP FOR THE CORRUPT: Time to Dismantle the UN Human Rights Council.

OH DEER: Oregon town seeks solutions to droves of fearless deer.

CHARLIE MARTIN IS FEELING SMUG: because his numbers on the economy check out.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How can I watch the blood supermoon? Everything you need to know. I presume it starts with look up!

REPORT: “SAUDI PRINCE JAILED IN LA ON SEX CRIME CHARGES, ‘BLEEDING WOMAN SCREAMING FOR HELP’ SURVIVED.”

GOOD! This 16-year-old won the Google Science Fair with a way to detect Ebola.

AT AMAZON, The All New Fire TV, Now Supporting 4K Video, $99.

Also, 20-60% off Baby Clothing, Gear, And More.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN RESPONDS TO THAT DUMB ED REGIS PIECE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. Or is it?

#RAPECULTURE: Not on college campuses, but in prisons. Which, I should note, are run by the government.

I’M THINKING SOME SORT OF FATAL ACCIDENT: What If Russia’s Foreign Minister Conducted Official Business on an Unsecured Private Server?

SAUDI PRINCE ARRESTED BY POLICE: Saudi prince jailed in LA on sex crime charges, “bleeding woman screaming for help” survived.

SONNY BUNCH: VIOLENCE WORKS:

I thought Rich Lowry’s unstoppable tirade about El Trumpo’s figurative emasculation at the hands of Carly Fiorina would be hard to top, but the South Park guys have never been one to shy away from a challenge. In last night’s episode they showed a Canadian politician mocked up to look like Trump literally being raped to death. It was pretty fantastic.

That being said, it’s the sort of thing that’s worth stopping to think about for a second. I mean, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went there. They showed a (lightly fictionalized representation of a) major American presidential candidate being f—ked to death onscreen by one of the show’s beloved characters.

And yet, episodes of South Park have famously been bowdlerized by parent company Viacom when the show attempted to display an image of the Prophet Muhammad. This censorship occurred because of violence committed by Islamist savages in response to past displays of Muhammad.

So, to recap, at this point in American history you can show a major American political figure being anally raped until he expires but you cannot show an image of a historical figure from Islam. Why? Because Muslim radicals do not want the image shown and threatened violence if South Park exercised its freedom of expression.

My advice: If you don’t like your media coverage, behead a few people. That’s the incentive system they’ve — more or less knowingly — created.

If I were Trump, I’d tweet their home addresses. Because people who create such incentives should have to live with them. And if you don’t appreciate liberal bourgeois values, maybe you should try living without them for a while. . . .