THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Is it Ilhan Omar’s Democratic Party now?

(Classical reference in headline.)

HMM: China’s Tariff List Advertises Its Trade War Weakness.

What’s even more revealing about China’s choices are the U.S.-made products that haven’t made any tariff list. They include civilian aircraft and their engines and parts, which had a 2018 export total of $17.73 billion. They include semiconductors and their components, which last year had China shipments that totaled several billion additional dollars. They include the equipment needed to manufacture and inspect semiconductors and their parts, which racked up at least $850 million in 2018 exports to China; devices for conducting chemical and physical analyses (with $912 million in China exports last year); laser equipment ($304 million), motor vehicles, auto parts, and plastics resins and polymers (which each produced billions in exports to China); and billions of dollars’ worth of other products that the Chinese either can’t (yet) make or can’t make in the amounts that they need—or that consist of goods preferred by Chinese consumers over their Made in China counterparts.

America’s tariff lists for Chinese goods have contained any number of obscure, exotic products as well. But from the start, they’ve been dominated by products valued highly by China’s leaders for their industrial and technological importance—especially those covered by the Made in China 2025 program aimed at achieving Chinese global dominance throughout advanced manufacturing and information technology sectors. Subsequently, the Trump administration has added the kinds of consumer products on which the PRC relies heavily for both export earnings and its own domestic employment.

Xi made China’s bid for hegemon status too soon, probably having assumed continued American acquiescence or a President Hillary Clinton — which amounts to the same thing.

GREAT AGAIN: In This Oil Boom Town, Even a Barber Can Make $180,000. “Driven by shale drilling, a gusher of crude production has transformed the Permian Basin into America’s hottest oilfield, turning what was a remote stretch of towns spread among mesquite trees and scrubland into an industrial zone, seemingly overnight. . . . Mr. McGarity’s barbers are raking it in. Those who venture to Pecos can make anywhere from $130,000 to $180,000 per year, he said. He is considering investing in additional trailers to send to farther-flung towns in the oil patch and says the additional revenue may allow him to retire soon. If there’s a bust, he’ll just store the mobile shops until things come back, he adds.”

COLLUSION: Dems Tied to Obama’s Pro-Iran ‘Echo Chamber’ Spread Terror Regime’s Anti-Trump Talking Points.

THE WILLINGNESS OF DEMOCRATS TO WEAPONIZE EVERY INSTITUTION AGAINST REPUBLICANS IS PROOF THAT “RULE OF LAW” IS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN AN ASPIRATION AND A JOKE: New York Legislators Approve Double Jeopardy for Trump Cronies to Protect ‘the Rule of Law.’

DUPES: Democrats Overwhelmingly Believe U.S. Has Only 12 Years to Fight Climate Change.

THE VERY DEEP THINKING OF OCCASIONAL CORTEX:  “Those white people and their… cauliflower?“

THE ANSWER, AS ALWAYS, IS GRAFT: Why Should Anyone Need a License for Anything?

Imagine a US state where locksmiths, pastoral counselors, home security companies, and acupuncturists do not have to be licensed by the government to do business. They could pursue certification with a private organization if they wanted to, but they could decide not to as well. Would chaos ensue?

Recently, the state legislature in my home state of North Carolina approved draft legislation that would undo licensing requirements for 15 professions, including locksmithing, pastoral counseling, and acupuncture. At present, practicing in these professions requires licensure by the state, but this bill would dissolve that requirement for these professions. . . .

And what if the state decides not to serve as licenser? Will private organizations step in? The answer is an almost certain yes. Take athletic trainers, one of the professions the North Carolina bill would remove licensure requirements for. Becoming an “athletic trainer” in North Carolina requires a state license, but becoming a “personal trainer” does not. It turns out, however, that most employers seem to want only certified personal trainers. So where do personal trainers get certified? Often, employers will only hire trainers with college degrees in a field like exercise science. But there are also — you guessed it — private certifying bodies for personal trainers, such as the National Personal Training Institute and the International Fitness Association. Why do employers tend to hire trainers who are certified? Presumably, it’s not because of any government demands, but because they find those trainers to be better for business.

Locksmithing is another profession for which the North Carolina bill would dissolve licensure requirements. To help us predict the outcome for the state’s consumers, we can look to Great Britain, where the government imposes no licensing requirement on locksmiths. British locksmiths can, however, pursue certification with the nonprofit Master Locksmith Association and other similar organizations, which allow locksmiths to advertise as certified. And, true to form, a good many locksmiths voluntarily acquire this certification.

Occupational licensing holds people back, and limits competition.

SOUNDS LEGIT!  To Close 32-Point Gap With Biden, Sanders Launches Cross-Country Hair-Sniffing Tour.

EDITED BY LARRY CORREIA AND KAYCE EZELL (AND I HAVE A STORY IN IT):  Noir Fatale.

The silky note of a saxophone. The echoes of a woman’s high heels down a deserted asphalt street. Steam rising from city vents to cloud the street-lit air. A man with a gun. A dame with a problem . . .

NOIR.

From the pulpy pages of Black Mask Magazine in the 1920s and 30s, through the film noir era of the 1940s, to today, noir fiction has lured many a reader and movie-goer away from the light and into the dark underbelly of society. Names such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain; titles like The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice . . . these have inhabited our collective consciousness for decades. Humanity, it seems, loves the dark. And within the dark, one figure stands out: that of the femme fatale.

Here then, Noir Fatale an anthology containing the full spectrum of noir fiction, each incorporating the compelling femme fatale character archetype. From straightforward hardboiled detective story to dark urban fantasy to the dirty secrets of futuristic science fiction—all with a hard, gritty feel.

As Raymond Chandler said, “Down these mean streets, a man must walk who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” Because, as these stories prove, doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily mean you get the big bucks or the girl. But you do the right thing anyway.

THE DEATH OF UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS CONTINUES:  EMBATTLED VCU PROFESSOR WAS ONCE MY ART TEACHER. HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED.

FROM NITAY ARBEL: Operation Flash: Episode 1: Knight’s Gambit Accepted.

On March 21, 1943, one man came within a hairbreadth of blowing up nearly the entire Nazi leadership.

In timeline DE1943RG, he succeeded.

Then the conspirators discovered that killing Hitler and his chief henchmen was the *easy* part.

AND WILL THEIR HEADS BE PUT ON PIKES?  (WHAT? IT WOULD CERTAINLY ENCOURAGER LES AUTRES, NO?):  Will the Spygate perpetrators ever be held accountable?

LET ME HAVE AN “UNEXPECTEDLY!”: Wealthy people think they’re better than others, even when they’re not.

THE FATHER OF MODERN TAXONOMY: Carl Linnaeus was born in Sweden on this day in 1707.

BUT DON’T WORRY, WE CAN TRUST THEM TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS ANY DECADE NOW:  China is pumping tons of banned chemicals into the air.

MY FACE, SO SHOCKED. BEHOLD! IT IS FILLED WITH SHOCK:  Hillary’s Resistance Group Has Pocketed Millions From The DCCC.  It’s almost like it’s associated with Hilary Clinton!

AND THERE IS MY SHOCKED FACE AGAIN:  Dems Tied to Obama’s Pro-Iran ‘Echo Chamber’ Spread Terror Regime’s Anti-Trump Talking Points.

LIKE A LANDED FISH: Madam Speaker Flips and Flops on Impeachment.

LET’S FORGET EVERYTHING BUT MERIT. JUST MERIT:  SAT ‘Adversity Score’ Will Discriminate More, Not Less.

WATCH THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF MY SHOCKED FACE:  Avenatti Indicted, Accused Of Stealing Stormy’s Money.

WAS?  Comey Was a Commie? 

AT AMAZON, save on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.

Plus, deals on Patio and Deck Furniture.

CONRAD BLACK: Democrats Are Painted Into a Corner.

Since the day after the 2016 election they have been threatening this, placing their chips on the Russian-collusion fantasy and then on the phantasmagoric charade of obstruction of justice. The attorney general accurately gave the ingredients of the offense of obstruction of justice in his four-page summary of the Mueller report: a corrupt act for corrupt purposes in contemplation of a legal proceeding.

The attorney general, William Barr, the then deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, and the Justice Department counsel concurred that none of the elements was present in the conduct of the president as recounted by Mr. Mueller. The dream died, except in the febrile imagination of the Democrats, who launched an unfounded attack on the attorney general’s integrity.

Everyone knows that the prospects of a successful move to impeach and remove the president from office by two thirds of the Senate finding that he has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed high crimes and misdemeanors, as the Constitution requires, are less than zero.

The turn of the tables has been exquisite and complete. The idea that anyone ever nominated by a serious American political party would collude with a foreign power to rig a presidential election is insane. No one, not even a scoundrel such as Aaron Burr or a third-party naif such as Henry Wallace, would have dreamt of such a thing.

But in their desperation and denial after the unimaginable victory of someone pledged to clean out the entire political class that has ruled America since the Reagan years, the Democrats paid $10 million for a false dossier on Mr. Trump, corrupted and politicized the intelligence services and the FBI, set up an echo chamber of self-verification with the national media Trump had already reviled as dishonest, and provoked the creation of a special counsel to look into Trump–Russian collusion.

The Republican congressional leaders sat on their hands to see if the leader none of them had supported would be impeached, and the Democrats and their scripted press choristers smugly carped and waited like noisy crocodiles for their victim to be reduced to inert helplessness. Guess what.

He fights.

GOOGLE’S INSANE, TOTALITARIAN EMPLOYEES CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH OUR FUTURE: Republican Google Engineer Writes Open Letter About Company’s ‘Outrage Mobs’ And ‘Witch Hunts.’