HALF-MEASURES CAN DO HARM: Antihistamines linked to delayed care for severe allergic reaction. Even if you give ’em benadryl, take them to the ER ASAP.

HMM: Will Trump Save Florida GOP From Unprecedented Fundraising Failure?

Are disgruntled Florida Republican Party officials taking out their grudges on the state party’s fundraising efforts? That’s what it looks like if we are to believe reports that an annual fundraising dinner was canceled due to a lack of interest.

Discord within the state party looks to be coming from the lack of enthusiasm for newly hired Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) executive director Peter O’Rourke. O’Rourke isn’t well-known and trusted yet. Former executive director Jennifer Locetta was fired though she was both well-known and liked. O’Rourke was investigated for rampant abuses in the Department of Veterans Affairs whistleblower office, the office he previously ran. The grassroots are outraged. Governor DeSantis and RPOF Chairman Joe Gruters were caught off-guard by the bombshell findings of the investigation. The internal chaos is reported to be creating a lack of enthusiasm among party members and tickets sales to the 2019 Statesman’s Dinner, a major fundraiser in Orlando are non-existent. The dinner was canceled and rescheduled for December 7. Did the investigation report depress sales and interest? The organizers couldn’t even secure a keynote speaker.

GOP fundraising has been off the charts nationally, but, well, Florida is weird.

STEPPING UP: Texas Supreme Court Justice Tweets Out 72-Page Pass List After Texas Bar Website Crash Prevents Bar Takers From Getting Their Results.

WHEN HE’S RIGHT, HE’S RIGHT: Woke is broke and call-out culture is narcissistic, says. . . Barack Obama.

CALIFORNIA’S DECLINE: “The last time I heard about mandatory rolling blackouts, it applied to Puerto Rico – a US territory that ended up going bankrupt and was incapable of managing a natural disaster in the years that followed, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.”

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Could Mr. Rogers exist today?

There’s something else that’s changed today, and it’s where Rogers would struggle the most had he come of age in 2019.

Imagine a children’s show where a straight white male, a Presbyterian minister no less, told children and their parents how to best lead their lives. This character served up old-school advice about loving one another and processing difficult moments, like the death of a loved one.

His skin color alone might cause outrage among the usual suspects. His faith may similarly be targeted. Presbyterians are far more open, and inclusive, than other Christian belief systems. The modern Presbyterian church supports gay marriage. What if Rogers had different views 10 years ago? Twenty years ago?

The woke mob perpetually hounds Chik-Fil-A restaurants because they disagree with the founder’s Biblical beliefs. In today’s climate, anything is possible.

“Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” famously tackled racism, nuclear war and divorce. You could imagine him exploring gay rights in modern times. But what about trans rights? Drag queens? Islamophobia?

Social pressure would mount until his show’s producers delivered storylines tied to those specific themes. Heaven help Team Mr. Rogers if they made a misstep, real or imagined, in the eyes of select critics.

They’ll probably nominate Tom Hanks for an Oscar for playing him, but they’d drive him off the air today if they could.

SOMEONE SET UP US THE GENDER BOMB: Blast from Waukee, Iowa gender reveal felt over two miles away.

ELIZABETH WARREN’S LOOMING LEGAL EMBARRASSMENT: There are so many reasons she isn’t quite what her admirers think. (including this one).

CHARMING: Kelly Clarkson Changes ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Lyrics Into Pro-Choice Propaganda.

ONE LITTLE LENIN: Adam Schiff Accused of Witness Tampering in ‘Soviet-Style’ Impeachment Inquiry.

AND ANOTHER NORDIC RESPONSE TO RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE: Sweden reactivates its “once secret” Musko underground naval base. The post goes on to discuss underground military facilities world-wide –their utility and their vulnerability.

UPDATE: Apologies. I thought the link was in — it wasn’t. Is now. Post is worth the read.

RELATED:From July 2018, Sweden prepares for Russian aggression.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has “updated” its embarrassing 2015 report on immigration detention centers. The result is (in my view at least) another embarrassing report. Here is my (hastily written) response. Also here is my original dissenting statement on the 2015 report.

(This is a re-post from Thursday.  My article was removed from the SSRN web site for a few days, because SSRN didn’t understand that government reports are not copyrighted. My article is now only warm off the press. )

THE POWER LINE MID-WEEK IN PICTURES: Hero Dog Edition.

And a WWI hero dog at Breitbart.com: Stormtroopers Strike Back; Sergeant Stubby’s Trench Raid.

TWO PHOTOS TODAY: First – a striking Stryker sunset in the desert called Fort Irwin, California. Second – above the clouds over the sea in softer sunlight: BUFFs on patrol over the Baltic. Two B-52Hs assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron fly in formation over the Baltic Sea during Bomber Task Force Europe 20-1, Oct. 23, 2019.

AL-BAGHDADI’S DEATH AS COUNTER TERROR INFORMATION WARFARE: Think of this column as a prose Venn diagram mulling the intersection between the war on terror and the war in Washington.

HARSH, BUT FAIR: Obama Successfully Hunted Trump Campaign Aides Instead of Terrorists.

In 2016, rather than successfully hunting down terrorists including Mueller’s captors, Obama and his top national security officials hunted down Trump campaign aides. Baghdadi’s death should be a reminder—an infuriating one at that—of how the Obama administration, particularly the CIA and FBI, squandered vital resources in service to a politically motivated investigation into Trump and his presidential campaign rather than focusing their efforts on the legitimate threats facing the country.

Trump alluded to that malfeasance in his press conference on Sunday. “When we use our intelligence correctly, what we can do is incredible,” Trump said while commending intelligence operatives who helped locate the ISIS madman. “When we waste our time with intelligence that hurts our country because we had poor leadership at the top, that’s not good.”

Trump, of course, was referring to former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey, the “Praetorian Guard” that laid the trap for Team Trump in 2016. As ISIS continued its murderous rampage in the Middle East and parts of Europe that year—including the Bastille Day truck attack in France that killed 86 people and wounded hundreds more—the most powerful intelligence professionals in the United States were surveilling Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

Politics is just war by other means for these Democrats.

GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE: Pro-life campaign threatens lawsuits against colleges for ‘coercing students to abort.’

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: “Eastman, the music school of the University of Rochester, has decided to remove all Korean students from their Philharmonia Orchestra for their short tour of China. China refused to issue visas for Korean students, forcing Eastman to either remove them or cancel their tour. Eastman has shockingly chosen to go with the former.”

Related: Taylor Swift to Perform in China at Alibaba’s Annual Shopping Gala. “After Beijing’s recent heavy-handed attempts to squash free speech beyond its borders — such as the NBA’s serious travails over a general manager’s single tweet of support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, and the erasure of South Park from the Chinese Internet because of a satirical episode — many U.S. politicians have questioned whether the Beijing regime’s global political messaging should be so readily accommodated given its various ongoing human rights abuses.”

REALLY PUTTING THE “TRACKER” INTO “FITNESS TRACKER”: Google Is Looking to Buy Fitbit, Which Is Good News for Shareholders but Terrible News for Users’ Privacy.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: La Verne May Be Sixth Law School To Close Since 2017.

“THE NUMBER IS EVEN HIGHER AMONG IVY LEAGUE STUDENTS:” POLL: Majority of students want PUNISHMENT for ‘offensive’ costumes.

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MY COLLEAGUE MAURICE STUCKE’S BOOK (coauthored with Oxford’s Ariel Ezrachi), Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy, made Nature’s list of the fall’s most important releases.

More on Maurice’s work here.