SO AT THE END OF OCTOBER, THEY INDICT TRUMP AND A BUNCH OF HIS STAFF? “OCTOBER SURPRISE!” U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin.

Not long ago I would have laughed off thoughts that something like that could happen just to steal an election, but no more, alas.

DEJA GRUNGE ALL OVER AGAIN: Nirvana baby recreates iconic album cover 25 years later.

OBAMA RELUCTANT TO PURSUE ISLAMIC STATE GENOCIDAIRES: This is an AP article.

War crimes investigators collecting evidence of the Islamic State group’s elaborate operation to kidnap thousands of women as sex slaves say they have a case to try IS leaders with crimes against humanity but cannot get the global backing to bring current detainees before an international tribunal. Two years after the IS onslaught in northern Iraq, the investigators, as well as U.S. diplomats, say the Obama administration has done little to pursue prosecution of the crimes that Secretary of State John Kerry has called genocide…The West looks to the United States for leadership in the Middle East, and the focus of this administration has been elsewhere – in every respect,” Bill Wiley, the head of the independent investigative group, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, told The Associated Press…The U.S. has no legal obligation to take on the genocide of the Yazidis, but President Barack Obama has said that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.”

The media and academic left would be gnashing teeth and throwing moral authority fits if we had a Republican president downplaying mass murder and sex slavery while engaging in hypocritical posturing.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE NEWS YESTERDAY: Ted Cruz Endorses Donald Trump on Facebook.

“Smart politics, or a betrayal of conservative principle?”, PJM’s Tyler O’Neil asks.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1234.

FASTER, PLEASE: It’s Time for Conservatives to Boycott the NFL.

DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY:

Shot: “Colin Kaepernick Had No Choice but to Kneel.”

—Time magazine, which put Kaepernick on its cover this week after he refused to stand for the National Anthem, has a BLM-obsessed Twitter feed. and wore socks depicting pigs wearing police hats during training camp.

Chaser: “The Seattle Mariners suspended Steve Clevenger without pay for the remainder of the season, moving swiftly Friday to discipline their backup catcher after his set of tweets imploring that protestors in Charlotte should be ‘locked behind bars like animals.’”

—USA Today, yesterday.

(Classical reference in headline.)

DAMNING: Platte River Networks Employee Referred to ‘Hilary Cover-up Operation’ in Work Email.

ANOTHER JAYVEE TEAM? Mali’s President at the UN: We’ve Still Got a Colossal Jihadist Problem.

UN peacekeepers’ incentives are just as perverse as those of the condottieri, the Italian mercenaries Machiavelli once wrote off as “useless and dangerous.” Like the condottieri of old, UN peacekeepers are paid for an input measure—a fee per soldier—not for an output measure, such as actually keeping the peace. The UN reimburses peacekeeping at a rate of $1,332 per soldier per month, making peacekeeping a lucrative endeavor for major contributors like Bangladesh where soldiers are paid roughly 1/20th that amount. Well-paid, professional militaries like those of the U.S. and the U.K. commit far fewer forces to peacekeeping; for those they do contribute, the UN reimbursement does not come close to covering the cost.
Professional militaries have a difficult time implementing counter-insurgency strategy (COIN) effectively, so it’s no surprise that UN peacekeepers are struggling against the jihadist onslaught. As we’re seeing in South Sudan—where peacekeepers are turning a blind eye to mass rapes and otherwise failing to protect the civilians—the peacekeepers’ main objective is to avoid casualties, not to complete the mission.

Keeping ISIS and Al Qaeda at bay in Mali requires détente between two historically opposed forces: the Malian central government in Bamako and the nomadic Tuareg people, who fiercely defend their independence and cross Mali’s porous Saharan borders with ease. These “blue men of the desert” are known for their indigo turbans and their spirited resistance against central authorities—first the French and then the Malians. Even if the Malian state will never win the love the Tuareg, it must work to placate them and to isolate Islamist Tuareg militias like Ansar Dine, driving a wedge between apolitical Tuaregs and jihadist groups that might otherwise be inclined to join together against the state under the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Here’s the thing about terrorists in Mali: we’ll hear nothing about them and nothing about them and then suddenly everything will be about them. The geography of the Sahara makes it possible for groups to lie in wait, regroup, and plan their next moves. UN peacekeepers are useless against them. Jihadists in Mali don’t just complicate the regional security situation—they threaten European security as well. We ignore Mali’s terror problem at our peril.

Well, that’s comforting.

SALENA ZITO: Taking Trump Seriously, Not Literally.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse highlights this excerpt, and it’s worth highlighting here, too:

The 70-year-old Republican nominee took his time walking from the green room toward the stage. He stopped to chat with the waiters, service workers, police officers, and other convention staffers facilitating the event. There were no selfies, no glad-handing for votes, no trailing television cameras. Out of view of the press, Trump warmly greets everyone he sees, asks how they are, and, when he can, asks for their names and what they do.

“I am blown away!” said one worker, an African American man who asked for anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press. “The man I just saw there talking to people is nothing like what I’ve seen, day in and day out, in the news.”

Imagine that.

AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.

Also, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.

And, Today’s Featured Digital Deal. The deals are brand new every day, so browse and save!

OKAY, THIS “Waterproof Endoscope” for Android phones isn’t quite what I thought at first. Which is actually a relief.

IT’S COME TO THIS: “Caitlyn Jenner might have convinced Kim Kardashian to vote for Donald Trump, and I can’t believe I just wrote that headline,” Allahpundit writes.

A uniter, not a divider!

ANOTHER FBI FRIDAY DOCUMENT DUMP REVEALS OBAMA USED PSEUDONYM WHEN EMAILING HILLARY, STRONGLY IMPLYING HE KNEW HILLARY WAS ON AN INSECURE, ILLEGAL SYSTEM.

UPDATE: FBI: Clinton IT Aide Discussed Hillary ‘Cover-Up Operation’ in Work Email.

EVERYTHING SEEMINGLY IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL: Hillary: Demonic Possession or Natural Depravity?

(Classical reference in headline.)

GOOD: Rolling Stone gang-rape defamation case will go to trial.

The defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over its now-retracted story about a gang-rape at the University of Virginia will go to trial. . . .

Eramo claimed she was portrayed as callous and indifferent to women who made accusations of sexual assault, even though her job was to support them and investigate the claims. The magazine even photoshopped an image of Eramo to make her look sinister. Eramo was quoted in the story, by the woman who made the false accusation, as claiming “nobody wants to send their daughter to the rape school.” Eramo claims she said no such thing.

Judge Conrad found there was enough evidence for a jury trial that the magazine likely knew the accuser, named in the original article and lawsuit as “Jackie,” made false accusations.

“First, plaintiff offers evidence that could lead a jury to determine that [Rolling Stone author Sabrina Rubin] Erdely had a preconceived story line and may have consciously disregarded contradictory evidence,” Conrad ruled.

He added: “Second, plaintiff has produced evidence supporting the inference that Erdely should have further investigated Jackie’s allegations. The record suggests that Erdely knew the identity of at least one of the individuals who found Jackie the night of her alleged rape. Erdely, however, did not seek to contact this individual.”

Additionally, Conrad wrote, Jackie never provided the names of her assailants – and Erdely didn’t make a real attempt to find them on her own – meaning Erdely was “unable to test the reliability of Jackie’s story with them.” Rolling Stone knew this, but ran the story anyway.

“Third, plaintiff has presented evidence suggesting that Erdely had reasons to doubt Jackie’s credibility,” Conrad wrote. Erdely had been told that the alleged rape happened months before fraternity events actually took place. She had also made a note that it was “too much of coincidence” that three women had been gang-raped at the same fraternity, as Jackie claimed. Also, Jackie’s story had changed over time, but Erdely didn’t press her on the inconsistencies.

Rolling Stone fact checkers knew this as well, but didn’t press the issue.

We were supposed to make national policy based on this hoax.

DAVID FRENCH: Dear University of Tennessee, Hands Off Glenn Reynolds.

THE LONDON TELEGRAPH: Americans don’t like riots. Clinton’s silence on Charlotte is a liberal loss of nerve.

Obama’s silence shows something very different.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN COUNTRIES SUCH CESSPITS OF VIOLENCE? US cited for police violence, racism in scathing UN review on human rights.

UNEXPECTEDLY:

● “Why the Obama recovery was so weak.”

—Paul Mirengoff, Power Line, yesterday.

● “You and I have a rendezvous with scarcity.”

—Your humble narrator, February 25, 2009.

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Charlotte violence sparks self defense gun buying spree.

I SUSPECT AN AD BUBBLE IS GOING TO BURST: Facebook, Google allowed to “grade their own homework.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Northwestern Univ. President Calls Those Who Decry Safe Spaces, Trigger Warnings ‘Lunatics.’

Parents, alumni, spend your money accordingly.

BIG NEWS FROM THE FBI’S LATEST FRIDAY-EVENING DUMP: Obama used a pseudonym in emails with Clinton, FBI documents reveal. “Once informed that the sender’s name is believed to be pseudonym used by the president, Abedin exclaimed: ‘How is this not classified?’. . . Abedin then expressed her amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the email.”