JON GABRIEL: Biden, Trump, and the New Normal.

Politicians love fighting the last battle. Every four years, we see a slew of candidates relitigating the last presidential race, often using the same strategy that lost the previous time.

This trend is dominant in 2019 with the rise of Biden’s candidacy and the continuing rear-guard battle by anti-Trump Republicans. Joe’s main message is a return to the supposed normalcy of 2008-2016. “Know what I was most proud of?” Joe said Wednesday, “For eight years, there wasn’t one single hint of a scandal or a lie.”

Hey, there’s a lie right there. Has it never occurred to him that the Obama years are what created Trump?

To admit that would require the kind of reckoning the Democrats simply aren’t prepared to do. Maybe what they need is another four years of Trump.

And do read the whole thing.

OH: California prisoners can legally possess marijuana, appeals court rules.

California inmates are now free to possess marijuana without fear of legal consequences by the state, thanks to a new appeals court ruling.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned criminal convictions for five Sacramento defendants who had been caught with marijuana in their prison cells. The 20-page ruling says, “Consumption, not possession, is the act voters determined should remain criminalized if the user is in prison.”

The reason? The authors of California Proposition 64 — which voters passed in 2016, allowing recreational marijuana use — did not put anything in there that outlaws marijuana possession for incarcerated folks, the court ruled.

But the ruling comes with a major caveat: Consumption of marijuana by California prisoners remains a violation of the state penal code, and possession can still be punished as a rule violation by the California Department of Corrections. But if an inmate wants to keep a jar of weed next to his or her bunk, the district attorney can’t file charges, according to the ruling.

Well, I’m sure they’re just holding it for non-inmates.

CRYBULLIES: Snowflakes Whine About US Women’s Soccer Team Winning 13-0.

I JUST WASHED MY SHOCKED FACE, AND NOW I CAN’T DO A THING WITH IT!  Meatless fast-food burgers probably aren’t any healthier — and they’re definitely more expensive.

IS THIS A GOOD OR A BAD OMEN FOR BREXIT? Ancient asteroid crater found off the coast of Scotland.

WHEN CORY BOOKER SPEAKS AND NO ONE PAYS ANY ATTENTION, DID HE MAKE A SOUND?  Cory Booker says elementary school yoga can help end the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ .

And is what he said still too stupid for words?

OH PLEASE!  The Tiger Mom’s daughter earned her clerkship with Brett Kavanaugh.

They’re only exposing how THEY play the game.

WHY, IT’S AS IF THE GOVERNMENT IS SIMPLY MAKING THE NUMBERS UP!  Behind the Labor Department’s gambling game of job reports.

LOOK HOW SHOCKED MY FACE IS:  WaPo, NYT writers humiliated yesterday after separate fake news attacks almost immediately shown to be false.

LOL:  John Dean Blows Hole in Democrats’ Impeachment Push.

THE LEFT HAS TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, OF COURSE.  I CAUTION THEM TO LOOK TO EUROPE, THOUGH. YOU CAN’T TAMP DOWN DISCONTENT BY BANNING OPINIONS YOU DON’T LIKE.  YOU CAN SILENCE US A LITTLE LONGER, MAYBE, AND CHOOSE THE FORM OF YOUR DESTRUCTION.  THE FORM YOU’RE CHOOSING LEADS TO CATAPULTS FLINGING FLAMING SMART-CARS AT YOUR ENTRENCHED FORCES.  JUST SAYING:  Tech Company Platforms Move Into Censorship.

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! WORSHIP OF THE EMPEROR IS GOOD FOR THE STATE:  Environmentalists Kicked to Curb by Obama Supporters.

THE LEFT HAS BEEN TRYING TO ERASE 9/11 FOR A WHILE. IT COUNTERS THEIR NARRATIVE THAT ONLY THE WEST IS EVIL. IF THEY HAVE TO CRUSH 9/11 SURVIVORS IN THE PROCESS, THEY FIGURE IT’S JUST A FEW EGGS FOR THEIR GRAND OMELET:  9/11 First Responders Deserve Better.

YEAH. DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM. KIND OF LIKE  CRIMELESS THEFT OR RAPE WITH CONSENT. GIVE US A BREAK. BERNIE. ONLY THE BRAIN DEAD BUY YOUR SCHTICK:  Bernie Sanders Explains Democratic Socialism.

OF COURSE SHE DOES. SHE’S A SOCIALIST IN GOOD STANDING. WHERE ARE HER PERKS AND PRIVILEGES?  SACRIFICES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE:  Congressional Pay Raise: AOC Wants Hers.

BECAUSE THESE ARE THE CRAZY YEARS:  Elizabeth Warren surges. Why?

SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED.  THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Pueblos Sin Fronteras: Irineo Mújica Detained for Human Trafficking.

NOW STENY HOYER AIDE LINKED TO OBAMA’S SPYGATE: Judicial Watch released documents Wednesday that show the national security advisor to the number two House Democratic leader coordinated Steele Dossier work during and after the 2016 presidential election with top Obama administration officials at the State Department.

OPEN THREAD: Did anything happen today?

DISPATCHES FROM THE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARY: Canada Embraces Divisive ‘Genocide’ Language to Describe Socioeconomic Problems.

AND AGAIN: Twitter Suspends Project Veritas For Revealing Pinterest Blocked Pro Life Website As Porn.

LIONEL SHRIVER: No exaggeration: Hyperbole makes words worthless.

Saturday night, a guest commentator on Sky News sputtered that Donald Trump has ‘normalised white supremacy’. Once the American President has floated off to the horizon after his three-day visit to the UK as an inflatable media punching bag, we will doubtless have been subjected to much further denunciation of this diabolical, fiendish, authoritarian, hate-filled, lying, misogynistic, crass, criminal, moronic, stupid … sorry, that’s a bit too close to ‘moronic’… then, you know, totally crummy leader who is also… also… fat! Sadiq Khan made a brave superlative play in labelling Trump a ‘fascist’. Now, that one’s hard to top  — which won’t have stopped fellow detractors from trying.

Welcome to the world of impotent hyperbole. That dig about white supremacy is a good example of contemporary word inflation, in some ways worse than what’s happened to grades. (The fetishistic lefty resort to normalise deserves parsing as well: the verb seems to decode ‘Maybe it’s not strictly illegal yet but we don’t like it, so it should be illegal’.) Now that white supremacist no longer refers specifically to Anglo-Saxons who proudly believe their race is superior, the term means nothing. Granted, Trump may or may not have obstructed justice and he’s hardly Mr Protocol, but Khan has now used up fascist. So what will London’s mayor call the President were Trump actually to send in troops to shut down CNN? ‘Injudicious’?

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Arizona Teacher Pleads Guilty To Molesting 6th-Grade Boy.

VIRGINIA CLOWN SHOW UPDATE: Virginia Democrats see Roy Moore looking at Senate run, tell Republicans to hold their beer…

[Joe Morrissey] went to jail for his sex crime, and won a special election in his blue district from behind bars. He emphatically denied sexual contact with the teenaged intern, then denied paternity of the baby she delivered months later. He finally admitted the child was his. In addition to being a convicted sex offender, he’s also a disbarred lawyer: “Morrissey is no stranger to controversy. His law license was suspended after he had been cited for contempt 10 times and he was jailed or forcibly detained for misconduct five times, according to court papers. His license was revoked in 2003 for failing to tell clients he had been suspended.” Morrissey’s license was reinstated for awhile, then was revoked again in 2018.

And on Tuesday night, Virginia Democrats voted for this guy in the primary election for state Senate:

Read the whole thing.