TAKING IT TO THEIR HOME TURF: 9th Circuit gets another Trump-picked judge, after White House bypasses consultation with Dems.

RUN, DON’T WALK AWAY: Student’s MAGA Apparel Allegedly Gets Ripped Off At School: ‘Take That Sh*t Off N*****.’

HARD BREXIT > BRINO: The great Dan Mitchell sums up why a “hard” Brexit (I prefer “clean” Brexit myself) would be better than Brexit In Name Only. Of course, the New York Times is desperately trying to persuade its readers that prosperous Britain is already worse than Venezuela:

The scene that met Cockburn’s eyes upon exiting the terminal at Heathrow reminded him of his days as a foreign correspondent during the Lebanese civil war, or a night out in south London. A dog was eating the innards of a corpse, because supplies of Romanian dog food have broken down. A naked fat man had carved off a slice of his own buttock and was roasting it over a burning tyre, because imports of Bulgarian lamb are held up at Calais. A woman offered to prostitute herself for an avocado, and to sell both of her blank-eyed children for a packet of French butter. There were no black taxis either, because London’s notoriously pro-Brexit taxi drivers had all joined one nationalist militia or other. Finally, a black-market cheese dealer with a rocket launcher affixed to the back of his pickup agreed to take Cockburn into the city. They bribed their way through the checkpoints with wedges of brie. Or not.

All right, that was actually a Spectator columnist satirizing the Times’ coverage. But it’s not far off…

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: UC-Berkeley ‘culture’ is ‘especially hostile’ toward conservatives. Just ask Hayden Williams.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Clarence Thomas is right: Here’s why Supreme Court should revisit libel law overreach.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Prison-bound Cohen to testify in public and much, much more. “Prison-bound Cohen lied to Congress and others, one of the reasons he is in legal trouble. Is he now telling the truth? Who knows, but Cohen is not really a credible witness. Cohen took Trump’s money with no ethical qualms about the things he is now alleging. Did he make a deal to get shorter prison time?”

THOSE LUCKY EARLIER GENERATIONS ONLY HAD TO STORM THE BEACHES AT NORMANDY AND GUADALCANAL: WiFi Down For Five Days: ‘Hell Is Real And It’s Amherst College.’ On the other hand, this is a fair question: “How could an elite college with a $2.2 billion endowment and that charges more than $50,000 in tuition a year fail to provide basic services, such as internet access?”

MEET THE TESTOSTERONE-FUELED HE-MEN OF WOMEN’S SPORTS: You’ve heard of Maine “where the men are men and the women are, too.” Now, courtesy of The American Spectator’s Melissa McKenzie, meet the new giants of Connecticut’s indoor women’s track and field championship. Then ask yourself, how did America get to this?

ATLANTIC OCEAN SUPER HORNET LAUNCH: Nice shot of a Super Hornet departing the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

OH: How electric cars could make America’s crumbling roads even worse.

Every time you go to the pump, each gallon of fuel you purchase puts money into a variety of pockets.

About half goes to the drillers that extract oil from the earth. Just under a quarter pays the refineries to turn crude into gasoline. And around 6 percent goes to distributors.

The rest, or typically about 20 percent of every gallon of gas, goes to various governments to maintain and enhance the U.S. transportation’s infrastructure.

Currently, the federal government charges 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline, which provides 85 percent to 90 percent of the Highway Trust Fund that finances most federal spending on highways and mass transit.

State and local government charge their own taxes that vary widely.

Combined with the national levy, fuel taxes range from over 70 cents per gallon in high-tax states like California and Pennsylvania to just over 30 cents in states like Alaska and Arizona. The difference is a key reason the price of gasoline changes so dramatically when you cross state lines.
While people often complain when their fuel prices go up, the real burden of gasoline taxes has been falling for decades. The federal government’s 18.4 cent tax, for example, was set way back in 1993. The tax would have to be 73 percent higher, or 32 cents, to have the same purchasing power.
On top of that, today’s vehicles get better mileage, which means fewer gallons of gas and less money collected in taxes.

And electric vehicles, of course, don’t need gasoline, so their drivers don’t pay a dime in fuel taxes.

I’m not sure what to do about this. One solution would be for the states and Congress could get serious about funding necessary infrastructure out of general funds, and cutting less necessary (but more popular) spending. That seems unlikely. Another is a mileage-based tax, prorated by vehicle weight (heavy vehicles cause more wear and tear), but that involves serious privacy concerns. The third is just to privatize it all, but that’s just not going to happen.

LEARN TO CODE: Trust in media hits bottom, 60 percent say sources pay for stories.

LATE SOCIALISM: Jorge Ramos: Maduro detained me after I showed him video of Venezuelans eating out of garbage trucks.

THE HUNT BROTHERS COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: China Rushes to Dominate Global Supply of Lithium.

(Classical reference in the headline.)

THE STATE DOESN’T OWN YOUR KIDS, AND SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE A KIDNAPPER IF IT TRIES TO ACT OTHERWISE: State Bills Foreshadow Frightening Trend Of Considering Parents Guilty Until Proven Innocent.

VOTER FRAUD UPDATE: RealClearInvestigations: True Confessions of Texas Vote Harvesters.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Boots Riley Props Up Venezuelan Dictator on Twitter. “The auteur behind the anti-capitalism comedy ‘Sorry to Bother You’ is defending a regime bringing mass starvation, suffering to its people.”

Well, to be fair, anti-capitalism is mass starvation and suffering, eventually.

BUT WHAT MATTERS IS THAT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IS POPULAR AMONG THE ELITE: Most Americans Reject Race-based College Admissions. “A large majority of Americans—73 percent—say that neither race nor ethnicity should be factors in deciding which students are granted admission to colleges and universities. Only 7 percent think race and ethnicity should be major factors, and 19 percent favor allowing them to be light factors. The survey was conducted by Pew Research Center in January and February of this year.”

But it’s popular among the elite. So popular among the elite that, even when it’s banned by the voters, the elite just ignore the law and keep doing it.

COLD WAR II: China’s military build-up just starting – a lot more to come, expert warns.

Under its plan for military modernisation China had achieved “great advancements in space, electronics and cyberwarfare”, the academic said, but its achievements to date were only the beginning.

As well as the expansion of its missile force, Beijing was investing heavily in its navy, he said.

With the deployment of the new Type 055 guided-missile destroyer – which some Chinese military experts have said is as good as anything in the US Navy – the balance of power was shifting, he said.

“For the first time in 500 years, the East has combat equipment that is at least as good as the West’s.”

Equipment? Maybe. Crews and institutional knowledge? That’s a lot less certain than “maybe.”

REMEMBER, ONLY TRAINED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS CAN BE TRUSTED WITH GUNS: A former police sergeant won’t serve any time in prison after shooting his son four times in an argument over liquor.

WELL, AT LEAST SHE WASN’T IN BLACKFACE WHEN SHE DID IT, LIKE THE DEMOCRATS NEXT DOOR IN VIRGINIA: Dem Maryland Lawmaker Apologizes After Being Accused of Using N-word To Describe A Maryland District.

SMART! THEY’RE PRE-RATIFYING WHAT TRUMP WILL DO IN HIS SECOND TERM. Progressive group wants 2020 candidates to endorse packing the Supreme Court.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Spike Lee Is an Ass.

New York Knicks fans will never forget the 1994 playoffs, when Spike Lee, an ostensibly grown 37-year-old man who had leveraged his celebrity into scoring a courtside seat at Madison Square Garden, decided to make himself the center of attention late in the game. Lee, only a few feet from the action, got up and moved around and shouted at players and generally made a complete ass of himself. Lee had inexplicably made it his personal mission to taunt and distract the rival Indiana Pacers’ star shooting guard Reggie Miller. Then things got even worse: Miller responded by turning up the heat on his game from “smoking” to “molten.” Miller scored 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Pacers came from behind to win the game. The Daily News ran a photo of Lee with the caption, “Thanks a Lot, Spike.” When the series moved to Indianapolis, Lee made his typical horrible move of mixing evil with entertainment, telling reporters (falsely) that Indiana was the birthplace of the KKK and that he would be staying at “the governor’s mansion,” in “the slaves’ quarters.”

A man who acts like a churl in his late 30s is liable to remain one forever. You may correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Lee made Oscar history Sunday night. As far as I know, he was the first Academy Award loser ever to throw a public tantrum right there in the auditorium.

He’s made some fine movies, but his public antics make you feel sorry for whatever his cast and crew must have to put up with in private.