THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S ACLU: The ACLU has never been the paragon of civil libertarian virtue that it’s pretended to be, and, as I documented in my book You Can’t Say That!, in the 1970s began its descent from a liberal civil libertarian organization to mass membership left-leaning organization with a particular interest in civil liberties.

Nevertheless, if you had told me twenty years ago that the ACLU would go so hard-left that the director of the ACLU’s Human Rights program would be publicly defending anti-Semitism, I wouldn’t have believed you. Then again, ACLU founder Roger Baldwin went through a Stalinist phase for a decade or so, so perhaps the ACLU is returning to it roots.

UPDATE: RELATED: ACLU RIP

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHUCK YEAGER: 96 years old today and a genuine American badass.

FAKE NEWS: News Outlets Take Pete Hegseth’s Joking as Serious, Won’t Correct Hand Washing Stories.

RUSSIAN HOSTILE MEDDLING BACKFIRES IN NORTHERN EUROPE

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Why Did the Media Fail to Investigate Virginia Democrats?

MAYBE IT’S TIME TO STOP LISTENING TO “STUDENT OUTRAGE.” Student outrage after police protect University of Chicago from armed robbery suspects.

But don’t be angry at these idiots. Just thank them for their in-kind Trump2020 contribution.

EVIL PLOT TO LET LEGISLATORS VOTE ON GREEN NEW DEAL: In a development I must admit I hadn’t seen coming, Sen. Ed Markey is objecting to the Senate Majority Leader’s plan for a vote on his Green New Steal bill:

You see, the idea that elected legislators in the national legislature’s premier debating chamber should debate and vote on an introduced resolution is actually a plot to sabotage a national debate on the legislation:

Got that? Good. 

I FIND YOUR LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS… DISTURBING: Sheriffs in Washington State Are Receiving Death Threats Over Their Refusal to Enforce Gun Control.

DIVERSITY PROBLEM: EXCLUSIVE ANALYSIS: Faculty, admin at Ilhan Omar’s alma mater gave exclusively to Dems. And this is not Swarthmore, it’s North Dakota State.

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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: A raw deal, crazy train derailed and much, much more. “I don’t think Trump knows how he has been played by ‘our’ party. He could have passed immigration reform and appropriated money for the wall when the GOP held the House and Senate. But the GOPe dragged their feet, made future promises that didn’t pan out and hemmed and hawed because they don’t care why the people elected Trump and they don’t really want immigration reform. Failure theater, business as usual for the GOPe.”

COLD RETURN TO PORT: The USS North Dakota pulls into Naval Submarine Base New London.

IT’S A “BRUSHBACK TERM” DESIGNED TO INTIMIDATE: White Privilege Doesn’t Mean Anything—And That’s the Point.

CONTROLLING THE PLATFORMS: It Isn’t Your Imagination: Twitter Treats Conservatives More Harshly Than Liberals.

LONG GAME: China Talks With Venezuela Opposition to Protect Investments. “Chinese diplomats discuss debt, oil projects with Guaidó camp as pressure mounts against ally Maduro.”

Chinese diplomats, worried over the future of its oil projects in Venezuela and nearly $20 billion that Caracas owes Beijing, have held debt negotiations in Washington in recent weeks with representatives of Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader heading the U.S.-backed efforts to oust Mr. Maduro, according to people familiar with the talks.

“China recognizes the increasing risk of a regime change and does not want to be on the bad side of a new regime,” said R. Evan Ellis, an expert on Chinese relations in Latin America at the U.S. Army War College. “While they prefer stability, they realize they have to put eggs in the other basket.”

The talks are a sign of the apprehensions building with creditors of Venezuela’s leftist government. Over nearly two decades, loans-for-oil deals with China and Russia have provided vital support for Venezuela. Relations flourished under Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, the late socialist strongman Hugo Chávez, who fortified ties with those countries, Cuba, Iran and even India in an effort to combat U.S. power.

It wonder what kind of guarantees Guaidó Might accept in exchange for the threat of balking on the Chavista debts to Beijing. They might be worth it, to gain additional leverage in trade talks with China.

SHOCKER: 70 percent of school district’s newest students are immigrants, legal status unknown.

Seven of 10 new students in a Baltimore-Washington area school district are immigrants, their legal status unknown and their second language English, according to a series of new media reports about the impact of surging immigration on local communities.

A recent Baltimore Sun report said that of the 5,000 new students jamming Baltimore County schools in the past five years, 3,500 are “recent immigrants or children whose family speak another language.”

That has helped to double the percentage of students who speak English as a second language, part of a national trend.

You’d think they’d head home after they saw Baltimore.

NOW THAT THE “RUSSIAN COLLUSION” THING HAS DIED OFF, THEY NEED SOMETHING TO KEEP THEIR GULLIBLE BASE EXCITED: Trump tax returns: House Democrats ready for ultimate fishing expedition.

Related: Byron York: Resistance rattled by ‘no collusion’ talk.

NOW OUT: From Todd Zywicki & Neal P. McClusky, eds., Unprofitable Schooling: Examining Causes Of, And Fixes For, America’s Broken Ivory Tower.

ROBERT VERBRUGGEN: The Upside of ‘Sabotaging’ Obamacare.

I THINK IT’S ACTUALLY RACIST TO EVEN ASK ABOUT THIS: What About Mexico’s Border Wall With The United States. “If you go to where Mexico meets the US at the Pacific Ocean you will see a curious thing. There appear to be two fences. One appears to be on each side of the border. This arrangement is normal and benign. Both countries have their own security needs. But there’s a journalistic scandal staring at you right in the face. The US media conversation covers the US fence often enough. I can’t seem to find any coverage of the Mexican border fence. Why is it there? How much coverage does it have? How much does it cost to maintain it?”

DAVID HARSANYI: Political Journalists Are Trying To Gaslight America.

During President Trump’s speech in El Paso yesterday, a Vox writer feigned indignation and claimed that “Trump falsely accuses Ralph Northam” of saying the governor supports “a newborn baby [coming] out into the world, and wrap the baby, make the baby comfortable, and then talk to the mother and talk to the father and then execute the baby. Execute the baby!”

Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, retweeted the claim to her million followers. To put this in perspective, Haberman’s following on Twitter is nearly as large as the Times’ daily weekday circulation.

No doubt Trump’s rhetoric is prone to exaggeration. In this instance, however, he was precise. For one thing, the sponsor of the Repeal Act, Virginia Democratic Del. Kathy Tran, acknowledged that her bill allowed abortion through a woman dilating during birth. “My bill would allow that, yes,” she said. For another, we have recording of the governor of Virginia describing the process in which babies who survive abortion attempts can be terminated if the mother and doctor decide the life is inconvenient.

“I can tell you exactly what would happen,” Northam said. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

You might be turned off by Trump’s use of the word “execute,” but his contention is accurate. Haberman, who is ostensibly an unbiased professional journalist, has yet to explain why she would forward an obvious falsehood to her many readers.

Because she can.

DARK, DIRTY MONEY: Elizabeth Warren Made $10,000 Donation to Stacey Abrams’s Dark Money Nonprofit; A separate nonprofit established by Abrams additionally hit with new tax liens.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Hollywood Stars Mum on Northam, Fairfax and Omar. “Modern Hollywood has never been so vocal.”

Weird, that.