WHY YOU SHOULDN’T warm up your car.

WYCLEF JEAN: Bernie Sanders Will Become ‘Most Powerful Senator’

FROM MY COLLEAGUE PAULA SCHAEFER: Attorneys, Document Discovery, and Discipline.

ASIA PIVOT: Combat-tested U.S. bombers headed to Pacific.

The B-1B Lancer bombers from the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron dropped more than 2,000 “smart bombs” during more than 630 missions over Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan from January to July of 2015, officials at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam said. Those missions covered more than 7,000 hours of flight time.

“The B-1 units bring a unique perspective and years of repeated combat and operational experience from the Central Command theater to the Pacific,” said a statement from Pacific Air Forces headquarters in Hawaii.

Guam is a U.S.-controlled island territory in the western Pacific, some 1,550 miles east of the Philippines.

“With a large weapon capacity and exceptional standoff strike capability, the B-1 will provide U.S. Pacific Command and its regional allies and partners with a credible, strategic power projection platform,” the statement said.

Good.

THIS DOESN’T LOOK GOOD:

Strikes me as a pretty important find by @JenniferJJacobs. Trump campaign banking on vet vote, but underperforming: https://t.co/WN2pK5kCGL

— John Noonan (@noonanjo) August 4, 2016

If Trump’s strength is that “He fights!” then his weakness is that he picks his fights indiscriminately.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. U.S. Has Taught Iran a Lesson: Hostage-Taking Pays.

When it comes to Iran at least, ransom payments are standard operating procedure. It goes back to the Reagan administration. In the early 1980s, Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy in Lebanon, had taken several Americans hostage. In 1984, the Reagan administration began what it had hoped was an opening to Iranian moderates (sound familiar?). Eventually, that secret diplomacy turned into a deal to exchange anti-tank missiles from Israel for the release of hostages in Lebanon. The profits from the arms sale later went to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, but that’s another story.

Reagan didn’t get his story straight at first. In an address in November 1986 he acknowledged the arms sale, but insisted it was not part of a deal to free the hostages. By March 1987, Reagan came clean to the American people and acknowledged the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran.

All of this is important because the Iranians learned an important lesson: Hostage-taking works. Despite the completion of the Iran nuclear deal a year ago, the payment of cash, the release of Iranian nationals and the State Department campaign to encourage foreign investment in Iran, Iran’s regime is keeping to form. Since releasing the four U.S. citizens in January, the regime has arrested two more Iranian-Americans and detained other Westerners. The Wall Street Journal reports that friends and family of two captives say Iran wants more cash or a prisoner exchange.

If so, can you blame the Iranians?

When you subsidize something, you get more of it.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1183.

PAUL RYAN TO DEMOCRATS: Stop Blocking Zika Funding.

NORTH KOREA’S PROVOCATIVE MISSILE TEST: One of the missiles North Korea test-fired on August 3 splashed in Japan’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The essay speculates on Japan’s next move.

CLINT EASTWOOD ON DONALD TRUMP AND THE “PUSSY GENERATION:”

ESQ: Your characters have become touchstones in the culture, whether it’s Reagan invoking “Make my day” or now Trump … I swear he’s even practiced your scowl.

CE: Maybe. But he’s onto something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, “This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.” And I said, “Good. Let me read it tonight.” The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, “We’re starting this immediately.”

ESQ: What is the “pussy generation”?

CE: All these people that say, “Oh, you can’t do that, and you can’t do this, and you can’t say that.” I guess it’s just the times.

ESQ: What do you think Trump is onto?

CE: What Trump is onto is he’s just saying what’s on his mind. And sometimes it’s not so good. And sometimes it’s … I mean, I can understand where he’s coming from, but I don’t always agree with it.

ESQ: So you’re not endorsing him?

CE: I haven’t endorsed anybody. I haven’t talked to Trump. I haven’t talked to anybody. You know, he’s a racist now because he’s talked about this judge. And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something. He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody—the press and everybody’s going, “Oh, well, that’s racist,” and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.

“Just fucking get over it.” Plus, Obama and the Empty Chair bit:

CE: It was silly at the time, but I was standing backstage and I’m hearing everybody say the same thing: “Oh, this guy’s a great guy.” Great, he’s a great guy. I’ve got to say something more. And so I’m listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he’s going, “And no one heard at all / Not even the chair.” And I’m thinking, That’s Obama. He doesn’t go to work. He doesn’t go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell’s he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I’d get down there and make a deal. Sure, Congress are lazy bastards, but so what? You’re the top guy. You’re the president of the company. It’s your responsibility to make sure everybody does well. It’s the same with every company in this country, whether it’s a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company… . And that’s the pussy generation—nobody wants to work.

Yeah, that bit captured President Golfpants perfectly.

UPDATE: Post fixed — sorry!

OUCH: Republican releases ad promising to ‘stand up’ to Trump.

The commercial, from GOP Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado, represents the first time a House Republican has used explicitly anti-Trump messaging in paid advertising. It comes as many in the Republican Party — concerned about Trump’s impact on down-ballot races — are grappling with whether to take further measures to repudiate their presidential nominee after a string of controversies including an attack on a Gold Star family and his refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his primary.

The 30-second ad opens with a shot of Coffman, a 61-year-old Army and Marine veteran who fought in Iraq, looking directly at the camera.

“People ask me, ‘What do you think about Trump?’” he says. “Honestly, I don’t care for him much.”

A few moments later, he says: “I’m a Marine – for me, country comes first. My duty is always to you. So if Donald Trump is the president, I’ll stand up to him. Plain and simple.”

Coffman’s district has long been a GOP stronghold, but redistricting in 2012 (Cook PVI D+1) turned it into a tossup.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE. Not the Onion: Yale prepares to reconsider buildings with racist, offensive names.

Comrade Ogilvy just emailed to remind me that George Orwell never intended 1984 to be a how-to guide for his fellow leftists.

HOWARD KURTZ: Media trumpeting Trump implosion, but is it real?

I’ve never seen anything like this.

Things reached the point yesterday morning that CNBC’s John Harwood tweeted: “Longtime ally of Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager: ‘Manafort not challenging Trump anymore. Mailing it in. Staff suicidal.'”

And there was this from CNN: “A source tells @DanaBashCNN that some Trump campaign staff are frustrated w/ candidate lately, ‘feel like they are wasting their time.’”

I am told by knowledgeable campaign sources that Manafort is not going anywhere and believes that Trump will be getting back on message.

I am further told that reports of a planned “intervention” with the candidate, led by Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, are false.

And the sources also say that, contrary to media reports, party chairman Reince Priebus is not furious with Trump, though he is disappointed with the nominee’s refusal to endorse Paul Ryan.

I’ve seen something almost exactly like this, in 2008 and 2012.

ED MORRISSEY: Bankrupt of Ideas, Clinton Turns to Obama’s Big Spending Plans.

TWO YEARS AGO THE ISLAMIC STATE MASSACRED IRAQI YAZIDIS: The Yazidis remember the Sinjar massacre. The article says there’s evidence many Yazidi women are still being held as sex slaves in Raqqa, Syria. Will the media ask Hillary if the sex slave crimes make the Islamic State’s continued existence a women’s rights issue? Remember, Obama called ISIS the jayvee team.

YOU CAN’T REALLY CALL YOURSELF A UNIVERSITY WHEN YOU ACT THIS WAY: DePaul Reportedly Bars Conservative Speaker To Avoid Protesters and Objections.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Media Privilege and its consequences.

PREMISE REJECTED: I Don’t Accept the Idea of Microaggression.

KING GEORGE III NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD: Hillary Clinton Would Hike Taxes By $1.3 Trillion.

Hillary Clinton comes up $2.2 trillion short in paying for her policy agenda, despite hiking taxes by $1.3 trillion, according to a new analysis of the Democratic nominee’s campaign platform.

The American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, released a report Thursday finding Clinton’s domestic agenda would “have a dramatic effect on the federal budget.”

Even without spending increases, the deficit is on track to return to more than one TRILLION dollars annually within the next seven or eight years. And by 2026, interest payments alone will almost equal the entire discretionary budget for defense and non-defense items.

WELL, WE’VE SEEN THIS HEADLINE A FEW TIMES BEFORE: THE TRUMPLOSION BEGINS.

I was expecting an earth-shattering kaboom, but perhaps that comes in November.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Clint Eastwood On Hillary Clinton: ‘It’s A Tough Voice To Listen To For Four Years’

HMM: Trump Wants To Repeal The Johnson Amendment And Make Churches The New Super PACs.

Why have some religious conservatives decided to support Donald Trump for United States president? Leaders have named their reasons: He’s promised toappoint pro-life Supreme Court justices; he’s allegedly good at business. But they have also consistently cited something else, perhaps more unexpected: the tax code.

Trump has promised to repeal the so-called Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from participating in political activities. Proposed by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and later revised by Congress, it keeps churches and other non-profits from lobbying for specific causes, campaigning on behalf of politicians, and supporting or opposing candidates for office.

While opponents of the Johnson Amendment often frame their objections in terms of free speech, the provision’s primary impact may be financial. Right now, the IRS makes a clear distinction between non-profit groups—from charities and universities to certain private schools and houses of worship—and political organizations.

If the Johnson Amendment were repealed, pastors would be able to endorse candidates from the pulpit, which they’re currently not allowed to do by law. But it’s also true that a lot more money could possibly flow into politics via donations to churches and other religious organizations. That could mean religious groups would become much more powerful political forces in American politics—and it would almost certainly tee up future court battles.

Basically, it would give churches the kind of power that unions enjoy.

CNBC: Wall Street is giving up on Donald Trump.

But Wall Street gave up on Republicans in 2008. They’d rather have President Goldman Sachs and his handpicked successor.

(Via Newsalert.)