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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: ‘Sup wit dis FBI whistleblower raid?

“So who ordered the raid and why did it happen? “I really do question the need for this raid at all,” said Nick Schwellenbach, the investigations director for the Project on Government Oversight. “On its face it doesn’t seem like it was necessary.”

“This isn’t how we should be treating whistleblowers who are coming forward with information about high level wrongdoing,” he told TheDCNF. “It sends a very strong message that you will be treated as a criminal even though what you’re trying to do is expose crime or a potential crime.”

The message is: Don’t mess with the Clintons.

LATE SOCIALISM: Hugo Chavez’s Failed Socialist Experiment Is Deadlier Than Ever.

MARK PULLIAM: After Janus, what’s next? “By recognizing the inherently-political nature of public-sector unions—which exist to influence government spending decisions, in addition to lobbying, political advocacy, and electing candidates sympathetic to their interests—the Court in Janus opened the door to First Amendment challenges to other common practices, such as taxpayer subsidies to public-employee unions in the form of ‘release time’ provisions.”

ELIZABETH WARREN’S DNA DEBACLE: “The plan was straightforward: After years of being challenged by President Trump and others about a decades-old claim of Native American ancestry, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would take a DNA test to prove her stated family origins in the Cherokee and Delaware tribes. But nearly two months after Ms. Warren released the test results and drew hostile reactions from prominent tribal leaders, the lingering cloud over her likely presidential campaign has only darkened. Conservatives have continued to ridicule her. More worrisome to supporters of Ms. Warren’s presidential ambitions, she has yet to allay criticism from grass-roots progressive groups, liberal political operatives and other potential 2020 allies who complain that she put too much emphasis on the controversial field of racial science — and, in doing so, played into Mr. Trump’s hands.”

People play into his hands a lot, I notice. But she could have squelched this back when it first came up, saying that she thought she was part Cherokee based on family lore, but that it might be wrong. Lots of “family lore” tells people that they’re part Indian, and it’s often wrong. It was her refusal to climb down — and even her absurd presentation of the DNA test as some sort of vindication — that got her into this situation.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Taxpayers Will Pay $1 Million to Tear Down $18 Million Baseball Stadium That Predictably Failed to Rejuvenate Camden. “The stadium never turned a profit and the team skipped town when local officials decided to start charging rent.”

THEY LOST THE HOUSE BY NOT DOING ANYTHING. THE SENATE CONFIRMED JUDGES, BUT THE HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP NEVER SHOWED VOTERS WHY IT MATTERED: Goodlatte: House Leadership Blocked Trump-Backed Immigration Reform. “Goodlatte’s statement matches the June statement by Rep. Jim Jordan, who said: ‘If our leadership had put the same whip effort behind that immigration legislation, Chairman Goodlatte’s legislation, it would have passed.’ . . . Retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan made the decision to create the rival bill that blocked Goodlatte’s bill.”

You can put your donors ahead of your voters, but it’s hard to do that while keeping the majority.

ANNALS OF DEMOCRAT VIOLENCE: Rand Paul’s attacker: ‘I lost it and became irate.’

Flashback: Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.

Plus:

● Hillary: ‘You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.’

● Former Attorney General Eric Holder: “Michelle [Obama] always says, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No. No. When they go low, we kick them.”

● Politico: After failing to stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Democrats wonder if it’s time to be more ruthless.

● Democrat Doxxer Threatened To Reveal Senators’ Children’s Health Information.

● DC restaurant: We’ve received death threats after Ted Cruz, wife forced out by protesters.

● Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ): We Are Less Than 60 Days From Totally ‘Kicking the S–t Out of the Republicans.’

● Networks Silent On Attempted Stabbing of GOP Candidate By Anti-Trump Attacker.

● Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Jokes About Threatening Trump Supporters ‘All The Time.’

THE WHEELS OF COSMIC JUSTICE TURN SLOWLY, BUT THEY DO TURN: Bill And Hillary Clinton Had To Drastically Drop The Ticket Costs To Their Events To Mere Pocket Change.

The Clinton’s aren’t doing so hot in the popularity category, and have apparently had to lower the ticket prices to their tour by such a vast degree that they now cost about the same as a trip to your favorite fast food joint.

According to the Daily Wire, former President Bill and never-was President Hillary Clinton are showing up to lackluster receptions at events called “An Evening With the Clintons.” Once the Clintons got to Texas, the tickets for the event dipped to only $6.

While at the event, the Daily Caller quotes Maurine Dowd of the New York Times who attended the Clinton’s event in Toronto. According to Dowd, the audience that arrived was so small and sparse that event organizers forced everyone to come closer together so as not to look like no one showed up.

The Clintons can’t not be in the public eye, but it must be killing them to know these small crowds and low ticket prices say they’ll never hold public power again.

CHANGE: Admin Announces National Program for STEM Education: Entire executive branch pitches in to support science and math ed. Now limit H1-B visas, so that people who get these educations can earn a good wage.

ASHE SCHOW: Washington Post Admits False Accusations Of Rape Happen – In Order To Attack A Republican.

PINK FLOYD AS A PATH TO CHRISTIANITY? It sounds unlikely in the extreme and for most folks, it is. But not for The Poached Egg’s Greg West, who explains how a cut on the psychedelic English rock group’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album put him on the road to becoming an influential apologist for the former Jewish carpenter.

NAVAL RACE: China’s Djibouti Base: A One Year Update. “China’s first overseas military base provides an interesting test case for its global ambitions.”

China has avoided using overt military terminology to describe the base, as Mordechai Chaziza notes, “preferring instead to use the terms ‘support facilities’ or ‘logistical facilities.’” China still maintains that the base is primarily for nonmilitary activities; last year, the state-run news agency Xinhua wrote that “the Djibouti base has nothing to do with an arms race or military expansion, and China has no intention of turning the logistics center into a military foothold.” Analysis from Stratfor cast doubt on China’s claim, showing the military base has become heavily fortified with an underground space of 23,000 square meters.

Also, in the year since the base officially opened, it has been party to controversy including the United States. Washington alleged that China was directing powerful lasers from its base at nearby U.S. planes, a nuisance and provocation that injured two airmen. China has denied the allegations.

Much of the tension is attributable to a plethora of countries establishing bases in the Horn of Africa for its geostrategic location. Djibouti offers a prime opportunity for third party state actors to observe and defend international commerce passing through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a shipping passage renowned as the fourth most important world chokepoint for oil exports and imports. Because of the strait’s close proximity to Somalia and piracy originating from its shores, state powers have strong incentives to conduct frequent anti-piracy operations.

Because of the opportunity to run anti-piracy missions in addition to counterterrorism and myriad other activities, the United States, France, Japan, and Italy all maintain bases in Djibouti. The United States’ military base in Djibouti – Camp Lemmonier – is its only permanent base on the African continent, with more than 4,000 troops deployed.

If the major nations would just start sinking a lot more pirate ships, there’d quickly be a lot less need for overseas base-building. But I suspect having an ongoing piracy problem makes a great justification for overseas base-building.

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Without gas for cremation, even dying is a struggle in Venezuela.

The decay of Venezuela’s oil industry burdened citizens for months with long gasoline queues and shortages of cooking gas, and has now hit families bidding farewell to loved ones.

Venezuelans have shifted toward cremations, which cost about a third of burials, but growing demand has crematories struggling to obtain natural gas.

Members of a dozen families said in interviews they now wait as long as 10 days.

So far, common graves have been used primarily in Zulia, where blackouts and gas shortages tend to be most extreme. But decaying services in other states could spread the practice.

Shortages of wood and metal for coffins and cement for graves have complicated traditional burials. Some families wait for crematories to obtain propane gas. But the wait also boosts costs, with annual inflation nearing 1 million percent.

Command economies eventually run out of everything but zeros.

STICK A FORK IN IT: California GOP: Is It Too Late to Save This Elephant from Extinction? “Only eight of the 53 California U.S. House seats will be held by the GOP. In statewide races, no Republican got better than 40 percent of the November vote.”

JOHN STOSSEL: Google Hits The Creepy Line.

GOOD: Nearly 300 Profs, Lawyers Sign Letter in Favor of New Title IX Regulations.

CHANGE: China Confident on US Trade Pact, Trump Cites Xi’s ‘Strong Signals.’

WARTHOG IN THE DESERT: An A-10 prepares to takeoff from an airstrip at Ft. Irwin, California.

INDEED:  In praise of the Gilets jaunes.

WE. DON’T. BELIEVE. YOU. IF YOU CAN’T HEAR US, WE CAN START SAYING IT WITH FIRE: After Paris riots and green tax retreat, warmists at yet another UN Meeting escalate rhetoric, warn of the end of ‘civilization’.  Apparently you listen to fire jus’ fine.

WHO, ME? I AIM TO MISBEHAVE:  Big Tech’s Authoritarian Practices Are Accelerating. Will You Submit?

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:  Massachusetts Governor Ignores Court Order To Reinstate Gun Permits.