J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS ON NETROOTS NATION: ‘Largest’ Progressive Conference Features Empty Seats, Racialism, Molotov Cocktail T-Shirts.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Omnibus Funhouse Edition.

ROGER SIMON: Manafort’s Purge Trial.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Military parades are always political theater, but this one was purely a rhetorical game — set up and won by Trump. “Mediate scoffs — but Trump is right. Full credit due. I never thought this military parade was going to happen. Trump lured his antagonists into looking like they were attacking the military and then, in an effort to make him look bad, getting the price jacked up to an atrocious $92 million, which was just the move that he needed them to make to justify cancellation and then to blame them for obstructing what would have been a glorious patriotic display — a display that, as ever, exists only in the mind.”

It also underscores that the “normal” way of doing business today is absurdly difficult and expensive, making the argument for Trump’s break from today’s normality seem not crazy, but sensible.

GOOD: Yale honors prof who enraged students by defending free speech. “Nearly three years after being hounded by mobs of student protesters, Nicholas Christakis has been awarded the Sterling Professorship, Yale University’s highest faculty honor. In 2015, students demanded that Christakis and his wife, Erika, resign after Erika wrote an email arguing that college students are old enough to choose their own Halloween costumes and cope with costumes that they might find offensive. At one point, a mob of angry students even surrounded Mr. Christakis on campus and berated him for defending his wife’s free speech.”

I’d like to see someone track down those students and ask them what they think now.

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And, save Big on Clearances, Overstocks, and Markdowns at the Amazon Outlet Store.

BUT THEY’RE SO WOKE!: Ok, Michelle Wolff’s “humor” leaves something to be desired, for sure. She compared First Daughter and White House advisor Ivanka Trump to herpes, made a satirical video linking ICE to ISIS while impersonating Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and celebrated abortions in honor of Independence Day with a parade and marching band. But the best part:

The Daily Beast reported late Friday night that the writing staff and showrunners of The Break with Michelle Wolf found out about their show’s cancellation on Twitter.

As is the case with all these preening Hollywood frauds “speaking truth to power”, screw the worker: “it’s all about MEEEEEEE!”

REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS’ LEE SMITH IS THE GO-TO SOURCE: At least if you seek to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Russia Collusion scandal. It’s all gathered here in one place for you.

USA TODAY: Trump at 36 percent approval among African-Americans, new poll finds. Earthshaking if true.

JUST LIKE IT DID IN 2016: Hollywood to help turn out Democratic voters.

The Washington-based Democratic Attorneys General Association lobby and two dozen other progressive groups have lined up actors Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon for an 11th hour voter turnout program.

They’re seeking 1 million volunteers in the weekend before the Nov. 6 elections to knock on doors and urge people to vote.

“We need to come together to devote 1 million hours of volunteer time to make the Big Blue Wave a reality,” said the Democratic Attorneys General Association.

“Be on the right side of history,” Sedgwick said. “Don’t just vote this year, volunteer,” her hubby of 29 years added.

Two old rich people telling you to be on the right side of history.

CAN YOU GUESS HOW MANY SPECIAL ELECTION LOSERS WIN SUBSEQUENT REMATCHES? The answer will surprise you because it’s somewhat counter-intuitive, but LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby checked the history and did the math. Hint: Ohio Democrat Danny O’Connor probably shouldn’t be making any plane reservations for D.C. just yet.

NO GOOD REASON TO BRING DOWN THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Matt Fitzgibbons wonders why anybody would not want to have a 24/7 orbiting science lab that conducts experiments that can’t be conducted anywhere on Earth. It’s a good question.

FACEBOOK ADMITS IT ZUCKED UP, RESTORES CENSORED PRAGER UNIVERSITY VIDEOS: “We’re very sorry and are continuing to look into what happened with your Page.”

As the PragerU twitter feed asks, “Does anyone really believe this was simply a mistake?”

RAND PAUL: Trump Should Keep Revoking Ex-Obama Officials’ Security Clearances.

Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) is hailing President Donald Trump’s decision to strip former CIA Director John Brennan of his security clearance. But the Kentucky Republican doesn’t think the president should stop with Brennan.

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders accused Brennan, who led the CIA for most of former President Barack Obama’s second term, of “lying.” Brennan’s “recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary,” Sanders said, “is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation’s most closely held secrets.”

Sanders’ remarks echoed the sentiments of Paul, who has spent weeks calling for Brennan, a harsh critic of Trump, to lose his clearance. Late last month, Paul wrote on Twitter that “Brennan and other partisans” should be stripped of their security clearances. He suggested Brennan has leveraged his clearance into gigs as a cable news talking head.

So it came as no surprise that Paul lauded Trump for taking away Brennan’s security clearance. “I urged the President to do this. I filibustered Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA in 2013, and his behavior in government and out of it demonstrate why he should not be allowed near classified information,” Paul said in a statement. “He participated in a shredding of constitutional rights, lied to Congress, and has been monetizing and making partisan political use of his clearance since his departure.”

In an interview yesterday with WKU Public Radio, Paul said he wants other ex-Obama administration intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, to lose their clearances as well.

According to the Kentucky Republican, Clapper lied before the Senate Intelligence Committee when he was asked in March 2013 by Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) if U.S. intelligence was spying on American citizens. “When he was asked by Sen. Wyden if the NSA was collecting information on Americans, private information, he said no and that was a lie,” Paul said. “Later, Edward Snowden revealed that they were collecting all Americans’ phone information.”

Paul has previously come down hard on ex-Obama administration officials. Last month, he suggested that Brennan, Clapper, and Comey were “bad apples that need to be dismissed from the swamp of Washington.” And in April, Paul accused Rice of committing a crime by unmasking the identities of associates to Trump.

I stand with Rand on this.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: “Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, said Thursday that Democrats should cease campaigning for Democratic National Committee deputy chairman Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced against the Minnesota Attorney General candidate.”

TOM MAGUIRE: “Is this letter – the wokest letter ever – for real, or just something I read it in the flailing NY Times?”

IT’S AN UPHILL CLIMB: Press needs to restore its credibility on FBI and Justice Department.

MORE OF ANGELA MERKEL’S LEGACY: Far-right Sweden Democrats hope to topple century of socialism.

NOW OUT FROM BARBARA OAKLEY: Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens.

ROGER SIMON: Manafort’s Purge Trial.

I was going to call this column The Trial of Tony Podesta to point out the ridiculous disparity that one is on trial but not the other. Judge Ellis couldn’t have been more right. This is selective prosecution to get at the president. The charges are outrageously broad and deliberately so.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t speak well of Trump that he chose to work with a man like Manafort. The president has made some excellent choices (Pompeo) and some doozies (Omarosa). Let’s hope he’s learning from his mistakes. It’s time.

But whatever you think of Manafort, his trial — no matter how it turns out — in its underpinnings resembles nothing so much as a Stalinist purge trial. It is political, self-serving and sadistic. Manafort is being purged — for life, if the prosecution gets its way. Maybe he could write The Mueller Archipelago.

Related: Democrats Frighten Manafort Jurors. “Why do you suppose seven news organizations–all liberal, presumably–wanted to know who the jurors are and where they live? They are worried that the jury, having heard the evidence, may not render the ‘right’ verdict, i.e., the one that helps the Democratic Party. So they want to know who the jurors are so they can apply pressure on them through mob action, newspaper denunciations, online harassment and so on. This is how today’s Democratic Party operates. If the jury fails to render the Democrats’ preferred verdict, what do you suppose Maxine Waters will suggest Democrats should do to the jurors if they venture out in public?”

Once I would have thought this paranoid, but I’ve learned that this is how they operate.

ANNALS OF SEXISM: “Educated parents seem to have changed their expectations for their daughters but not for their sons.”

OPEN THREAD: Talk.

HMM: A Powerful Psychedelic Drug Gave Users a Taste of a Near-Death Experience.