ANALYSIS: TRUE. Peggy Noonan: Trump Has Been Lucky in His Enemies: Cursing pols, screeching students and intolerant abortion advocates have become the face of the left. “When I see tapes of the protests and riots at schools like Berkeley, Middlebury, Claremont McKenna and Yale, it doesn’t have the feel of something that happens in politics. It has the special brew of malice and personal instability seen in the Salem witch trials. . . . The cursing pols, the anathematizing abortion advocates, the screeching students—they are now the face of the progressive left. This is what America sees now as the face of the Democratic Party. It is a party blowing itself up whose only hope is that Donald Trump blows up first.”

REMEMBER: WHEN YOU WANT TO KEEP MORE OF YOUR OWN MONEY, IT’S “GREED.” Rich States Growl At Trump Tax Plan.

The Trump Administration’s stated intention to eliminate the state and local tax deduction (SALT) is likely to meet major opposition from big blue states’ Congressional delegations. . . .

The deduction overwhelmingly benefits six-figure earners. The benefit is largest for affluent people living in states that impose high income tax rates, which are much bluer than average.

Trump’s abbreviated tax proposal is too vague to assess in any level of detail; it appears on the whole to be too expensive and too regressive. But Congressional leaders and Administration officials looking to turn it into something more palatable should hold the line on eliminating SALT. This would raise much-needed revenue to pay for the plan’s other provisions, and it would be targeted, for the most part, at the coastal metropolitan regions that have benefited most from the economic changes of the past few decades.

Moreover, as we have noted before, scrapping SALT could have unexpected positive effects at the state level. As it stands, many wealthy people in cities like San Francisco and New York have largely withdrawn from the state political process. They can afford to acquiesce to inefficient government and the high taxes required to pay for it in part because they can deduct all of that money from their federal tax bill. If it weren’t for SALT, we might see more talented and creative people in wealthy blue states re-engage in state government in a meaningful way.

Some SALT opponents will claim that the measure would create a system of “double-taxation,” and they aren’t entirely wrong. But if this were really the concern, states could address it by making federal tax deductible from state tax bills. Of course, that would impose new costs on states, just as SALT imposes costs on the federal government. This is at its core a fight over resources, and it’s one that the working class deserves to win more than coastal high-flyers.

Indeed. In fact, that’s why they elected Trump.

B-25 GUNSHIP: Great photo of the nose of a WW2 B-25H — in StrategyPage’s WW2 aircraft photo series.

THAAD ANTI-MISSILE BATTERY IN SOUTH KOREA KERFUFFLE:

National Security Adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster said Sunday that the U.S. will indeed pay for the roughly $1 billion THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, amid neighboring North Korea’s repeated ballistic test launches.

“What I told our South Korean counterpart is until any renegotiation, that the deals in place, we’ll adhere to our word,” McMaster told “Fox News Sunday.”

He spoke days after President Trump said South Korea should pay for the anti-missile system and hours after Seoul said that McMaster had assured its chief national security officer, Kim Kwan-jin, about the deal.

“The last thing I would ever do is contradict the president of the United States,” McMaster also told Fox News. “And that’s not what it was. What the president has asked us to do, is to look across all of our alliances and to have appropriate burden sharing-responsibility sharing. We’re looking at that with our great ally South Korea, we’re looking at that with NATO.”

Trump said Thursday that he wanted Seoul to pay for the THAAD deployment, which immediately raised questions about the relationship between the two nations.

South Korea said it was Washington’s cost to bear under the bilateral agreement.

McMaster has said that recent statements by Trump were made in a general context, in line with the U.S. public expectations on defense cost burden-sharing with allies,” Seoul said in a statement.

The anti-missile system is set to be operational soon. Major elements of the system were being moved last week into Seonjgu, in the southern part of South Korea.

TRUMP’S SECRET WEAPON: People Don’t Want To Be Bored, And Trump-Hatred Has Become Boring.

UPDATE: How boring? This boring:

We watched the Trump rally, then tried to hang around for some of the WHCD, but we got tired of the blah-blah from faces we didn’t know and when they launched into giving themselves awards, it was way too tedious. It’s just another banquet. Who would watch an industry banquet — giving out awards to itself — on TV? There was a long draped table on the dais, and little heads slumped back behind big, embarrassing floral arrangements.

I’d be bored if I were in the industry and forced to attend and sit at one of the stodgy tables, so why would I watch such a thing on TV? Because it’s on television? Because at some point — they’re promising — a comedian will appear behind the lectern and tell jokes? Because the jokes will be about the President? But all the comedians have for years been telling all the Trump they can think of. What could possibly be new?

Nothing. Nothing at all. Under Obama, the press was allowed to pretend that it was made up of celebrities on a par with Hollywood stars. Under Trump, it’s been stripped of that delusion. And they’ll never forgive him for that.

Related: For Kennedy, the waiting for WHCD headliner Hasan Minhaj to be funny was the hardest part.

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WELL, TO BE FAIR, THEY WEREN’T ANY WORSE THAN THE 8 YEARS WHEN HE WAS IN OFFICE: Obama’s first 100 days as ex-president.

HE’S NOT A MESSIAH, HE’S JUST A VERY NAUGHTY BOY: Maher on Obama speaking fee: Isn’t that what cost Clinton the election?

HBO host Bill Maher on Friday slammed former President Obama for reportedly accepting $400,000 for a Wall Street speech this fall, asking, “Isn’t that what sort of cost Hillary the election?”

The “Real Time” host faced off with panelists on the “Overtime” segment of his show over reports that Obama will speak at Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s healthcare conference in September for $400,000.

Former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer defended Obama’s decision.

“Personally, as long as he’s not running for office again, I don’t care how much money he makes,” Setmayer told Maher. “If people want to pay him that, it’s a free market value. Who cares?”

Maher responded by noting the crushing criticism Hillary Clinton got during the presidential election for her paid Wall Street speeches.

“But wait a second, the current president is trying to undo all of his Wall Street regulations, and then he goes to Wall Street and takes [money]. Isn’t that what sort of cost Hillary the election?” he asked.

“Are those ‘horrible’ speeches she made to Wall Street and she couldn’t release the transcripts of it?”

Actor and liberal activist Rob Reiner said the comparison isn’t applicable because unlike with Clinton’s speeches, Obama’s are coming after his political career is entirely over.

“The difference is, ‘Are you in the pocket of Wall Street?’ And [Hillary Clinton] was running for office. He’s not running for anything right now.”

Maher responded that Reiner’s stance seemed hypocritical.

“Seemed?” Trump should troll Obama by proposing a 90% excise tax on speaking fees by former Executive officials. And announcing that he’d be happy to pay that tax!

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is the World Finally Ready for a Female-Orgasm Machine? Once again, we men are left unserved.

SCENES FROM THE NEWS MEDIA COLLAPSE: Gannett Stalls Severance Payments to Former Commercial Appeal Employees.

THIS IS A VERY SCARY IDEA FOR SOMEONE WHOSE IMMUNE SYSTEM IS AS MESSED AS MINE! Scientists Find Link between Immune System, Memory and Structure of Brain.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING MICROBES: (I’m sorry.  I denounce myself!) ISS investigation aims to identify unknown microbes in space.

ALL THOSE LEGS, AND MILLIONS OF YEARS BEFORE BUTTER WAS INVENTED! Tokummia katalepsis: Cambrian Marine Predator Had More Than 50 Legs, Can Opener-Like Pincers.

AND AN IDIOTIC RELIGION AT THAT: AGW: when a scientific theory becomes a religion…

SO, WHERE IS THAT SHOCKED FACE AGAIN? Study Finds Democrats Least Tolerant of Opposing Views.   Liberal privilege!

A REEVALUATION:#NotFondOfTrump After 100 Days.

THE DEVIL SHALL NOT BE MOCKED AND HILLARY CLINTON SHALL NOT BE INVESTIGATED: Hillary Clinton insisted on calling the FBI investigation into the private email system she established to conduct official business as Secretary of State a “security review.”

MARXISM WAS ALWAYS THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DISSATISFIED INFANT: And these people don’t even know they’re Marxists. Oh Yeah? Well You’re Fat! The Left Is Contemptuous Of Us, But They Express It Like Children

BUT ONLY FOR THOSE FOR WHOM IT MATTERS: Honor is Everything.

THESE ARE THE CRAZY YEARS: Star Trek Fan Forced to Surrender ‘ASIMIL8’ License Plate for Being Offensive.

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NICE JOB: Nashville Gunfighter Takes Out THREE Armed Robbers Single-Handedly.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Prosecutors: Ex-Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL) Ripped Off Own Charity To Fund Lavish Lifestyle.