THIS SEEMS WISE: Bergdahl Chooses to Have Trial Heard by Judge and Not Jury.

Bergdahl’s lawyers told the court in a brief filing last week that their client chose trial by judge alone, rather than a panel of officers. He faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy at his trial scheduled for late October at Fort Bragg. The latter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Defense attorneys declined to comment on the decision. But they previously questioned whether Bergdahl could get a fair trial by jury because of negative comments President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail.

Earlier this year the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance rejected a defense request to dismiss the case over Trump’s criticism of Bergdahl.

Potential jurors had already received a questionnaire including questions about their commander in chief, but defense attorneys weren’t allowed to ask jurors if they voted for Trump.

There don’t seem to be many skulls left where Trump isn’t living rent-free.

ON CHARLOTTESVILLE, TRUMP, AND ANTI-AMERICANISM, Jonah Goldberg writes:

Andy [McCarthy] writes, if you “dare notice the radical Left, you are not an observer of objective fact, you are a neo-Nazi sympathizer. If you dare notice that many of the ‘peaceful protesters’ were swinging batons and spraying chemicals, you need a re-education course in ‘unconscious racism.’”

* * * * * * * *

The funny thing is that if you actually read or listen to antifa, or virtually any of the radical groups today or in the past – ANSWER, Black Lives Matter, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers et al. – they make it quite clear that they want to be an alternative to mainstream or “corporate” liberalism. Even peaceful radicals of the Bernie Sanders stripe make that clear. They really are an “alt left” in a meaningful sense because to one extent or another they hate the market system, revile free speech and find common cause with anti-American forces here and abroad.

The problem is liberals don’t want to acknowledge it. They love the popular front logic. They celebrate the passion and will of everyone from Occupy Wall Street types to Antifa. Remember how hard it was for mainstream liberals to say anything bad about Bill Ayers?

Why is that?

Read the whole thing.

GOOD ADVICE: If you’re going to punch Nazis, first make sure they’re actually Nazis.

Want even better advice? Going around punching people, even strenuously bad people, just because you disagree with them, is kinda fascist.

CONDENSED TRAVEL EDITION: Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

I’M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN “LOYALTY OATHS” WERE BAD: Clemson RAs ‘must demonstrate commitment to social justice.’ Given all the PC nonsense at Clemson lately, I’m surprised that the South Carolina legislature has shown so little interest.

IF IT IS, I DOUBT WE’LL HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT: Is Obamacare Fueling the Opioid Overdose Death Rate?

FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S THE TIMES: Red Century story makes me see red.

“Depending on whom you ask today, my grandfather’s story is that of a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy. The revolution asked a terrible amount of those who served it. Those who resisted paid a similarly awful price. It left in its wake countless lives, like my grandfather’s, that cannot be compassed by a single line.”

Such a statement doesn’t make up for the many facts omitted from his story, starting with the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed on Aug. 23, 1939, which directly led to Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1. A secret protocol of the treaty called for the partition of Poland, with Germany getting the western portion and the Soviets the east. The Soviets invaded on Sept. 17 to grab their half of the spoils.

Also left out is what happened to Poland in the roughly 21 months of Soviet rule. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to Kazakhstan, Siberia and other points east during the occupation. Even worse, more than 22,000 military officers, politicians, professors, priests and other civic leaders were executed in what is collectively known as the Katyn Forest massacres.

Mikanowski writes that the Nazis in 1939 captured his grandfather, then a Polish soldier, but he escaped and made his way to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Curiously, he doesn’t explain why Jakub didn’t halt his flight in Soviet-occupied Poland instead of going hundreds of miles to the east. Maybe Mikanowski didn’t want to bring up all that awkward partition business and Nazi-Soviet hanky panky.

So Mikanowski says it depends on your perspective whether Jakub, a Soviet pawn, was “a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy.”

The Times won’t stop running Communist sympathizer pieces until they stop being sympathetic to Communists.

THE HILL: Left-wing assassination fantasies spill over into real violence.

“I hope Trump is assassinated!” soon-to-be former State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote on Facebook.

She is now being investigated by the Secret Service. Even some Democrats are calling for the lawmaker to resign. Unfortunately, her remarks are just the tip of the left-wing meltdown that is turning into real and worsening violence.

Don’t believe me? Then you haven’t been paying close enough attention.

Police indicted more than 200 rioters from the violent protests surrounding President Trump’s inauguration. The riots injured six police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage. Some of the protesters face felony charges and covered their faces to hide their identities. Good ideas flourish in the sunlight. You don’t need a black mask if you have a point.

We’re dealing with cowards that deserve our scorn, not World War II vets who defeated the Third Reich.

I don’t think that “I hope Trump is assassinated” counts as a true threat, or a crime. But it’s certainly an “extremist” sentiment, and we’re supposed to be okay with violence against extremists now, right? At least I think so. Things are kind of confusing on that front. . . .

SCENES FROM RAHM EMANUEL’S CHICAGO: 63 Shot, 8 Dead In Chicago’s 2nd Most Violent Weekend Of 2017.

At least 63 people were shot in the city, and eight of them were killed, police said. More than half of them were wounded over 13 hours from Saturday to early Sunday. At least 16 more people were shot through the day Sunday, including three on the same street in South Austin.

The level of violence exceeded the 52 shot on the three-day Memorial Day but fell short of the 102 hit by gunfire over the long Fourth of July weekend, according to Tribune data. Still, fewer people have been shot in Chicago this year than at this time last year: 2,435 compared to 2,710.

So they’ve got that going for them.

DISPATCHES FROM THE JOHN BIRCH LEFT. When Every Republican Is a Crypto-Nazi:

The New York Times is engaged in an ongoing effort to rehabilitate Communism. For some inscrutable reason, it has published a series of articles nostalgic for the Soviet Union’s Gulag-filled past, most recently explaining “Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism” in East Germany.

So when I write that Lindy West — who did not author any of those articles — is becoming the craziest writer at the Times, I understand the gravity of the claim I am making.

Read the whole thing.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Very Strange Indictment of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s IT Scammers. “It leaves out a lot of pertinent information.”

Plus: “There are grounds to suspect blackmail, given (a) the staggering sums of money paid to the Awans over the years, (b) the sensitive congressional communications to which they had access, (c) the alleged involvement of Imran Awan and one of his brothers in a blackmail-extortion scheme against their stepmother, and (d) Wasserman Schultz’s months of protecting Awan and potentially impeding the investigation. There are also, of course, questions about stolen information. And there is, in addition, the question I raised a month ago: Why did the FBI and the Capitol Police allow Hina Alvi to leave the country on March 5 when there were grounds to arrest her at Dulles Airport? Why did they wait to charge her until last week — by which time she was safely in Pakistan, from which it will likely be impossible to extradite her for prosecution?”

It’s almost like they don’t really want to turn over this rock, because they know what’s under it.

Related: House Democrat’s Office Approved $120k Write-off Linked To Awan Brothers.

Flashback: House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data.

NEW ISIS THREAT TO SPAIN: ‘War Has Not Been Fought and Gone.’

WEIRD HOW THIS NEVER HAPPENED AT TEA PARTY RALLIES: In Charlottesville and elsewhere, U.S. journalists are being assaulted while covering the news. Note the Stockholm Syndrome though.

FEMINISTS: It’s a sign of women’s superiority that they spend so much time on their appearance.

FROM AMANDA S. GREEN:Nocturnal Rebellion (Nocturnal Lives Book 5).

REMEMBERING HISTORY: Winning the peace.

FORGETTING HISTORY: Catalonia and terrorism; Spain and Moroccan immigration.

TOTALITARIANS GOT TO TOTALITARIAN: Internet free speech threatened.

PARENTS WHO THINK ATTRIBUTING THEIR INFANTILE THOUGHTS TO THEIR KIDS MAKES THEM MORE PROFOUND! No One Wants to Hear About Your Woke Elementary-Schooler.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: Estimated $72 Million in Medicaid Payments Made to Ineligible Beneficiaries.

OKAY THEN: This job title is the most millennial thing ever.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Trendy copper water bottles can make you sick.

IN DC?  WHY ARE PROGRESSIVE-CONTROLLED CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF DISCRIMINATION AND ABUSE? Waiter won’t let gay couple share dessert because it doesn’t ‘look right’.

PAGING SENATOR MCCLUELESS: Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill thinks ‘normal people can afford’ private planes.