SAD! Members of the Tennessee General Assembly won’t tackle civil asset forfeiture abuse because they fear a backlash from law enforcement, said State Rep. Martin Daniel (R-Knoxville). “Law enforcement likes to have this revenue, I would assume, because there’s not a lot of accountability and transparency. They can use this money to spend it any way they want to without the legislature’s or a county commission’s oversight.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Candace Owens Torches Ted Lieu at White Nationalist Hearing After He Attempts to Smear Her as a Hitler Apologist.

BYRON YORK: Face it: Biden and Bernie are too old to be president.

PAPER BEAR: Russia is talking about scrapping its only aircraft carrier, putting the troubled ship out of its misery.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s sole aircraft carrier which was built during the Soviet-era, was severely damaged last October when the massive Swedish-built PD-50 dry dock at the 82nd Repair Shipyard in Roslyakovo sank with the carrier on board.

The carrier was undergoing an extensive overhaul at the time of the incident.

While the ship was able to pull away from the sinking dry dock, it did not escape unscathed. A heavy crane fell on the vessel, punching a large gash in the hull and deck.

As is, the Kuznetsov is almost always accompanied by tug boats, preparation for practically inevitable problems.

The ship is rarely seen at sea. Between 1991 and 2015, the Kuznetsov, sometimes described as one of the worst carriers in the world, set sail on patrol only six times, and on a 2016 mission in Syria, the carrier saw the loss of two onboard fighter jets in just three weeks.

Putin’s Russia is the Loki of modern geopolitics, able to cause mischief and grief, but barely able to project hard power more than a few miles beyond its own borders. A savvy and ruthless intelligence operation (not to mention all those nukes) allows Moscow to punch above its weight, but its weight since the glory days of the USSR is like the “after” in a Slim Fast ad.

GOOD: Kidnapping of Phoenix girl, 11, scuttled by witness with handgun: report.

ROGER SIMON: William Barr Is the Democrats’ Worst Nightmare. “Though they were excruciatingly obnoxious to William Barr at Tuesday’s House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Democrats would be well-advised to lay off the attorney general, maybe even treat him with kid gloves, because he holds a good deal of the future of their party in his hands. In fact, he is positioned to make that party bleed as perhaps no one in history. And it only makes it worse that he is clearly such a straight shooter.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Elite universities sitting on huge endowments tax-free that could be used to help students.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Matt Damon’s MeToo Nuance Suddenly in Vogue.

Today, the Damon model is back in vogue thanks to former Vice President Joe Biden. The possible 2020 presidential candidate has been credibly accused of inappropriate touching, kissing and, yes, sniffing. He didn’t deny the allegations.

Now, suddenly, some Hollywood power players are deeply devoted to nuance and, dare we say, “spectrum of behavior.”

First up is Rob Reiner. The celebrated director and virulent anti-Trump voice rose up to support Biden on social media.

Next, Cher weighed in her own Biden story, gently defending him by saying he never groped her sans permission.

Whoopi Goldberg told “The View” audience Biden is “a toucher,” letting him off the hook.

Finally, one of the women who shredded Damon for his “spectrum” comments circled back … to defend Biden. Alyssa Milano, the sometimes actress and full-time progressive activist, shared a picture of her and a grinning Biden on social media. She accompanied the image with her personally charged defense.

“I am proud to call Joe Biden a friend,” she said in a series of tweets.

That’s different because shut up.

Also, read the whole thing.

COMEDY IS NOT PRETTY. OR EVEN ALLOWED. In Venezuela, Comedy Is Protest. Until the Government Finds Out.

In November 2017, the stand-up comic Nacho Redondo told a joke at a university about the Paralympics that upset some audience members and drew controversy online, which he promptly used to promote his next shows. It may sound like a common, even mundane story.

But in Venezuela, where Redondo, 32, developed a following for his brash, dark humor, the price for a joke that offends can be much higher than online outrage or a boycott. After politicians harshly criticized him on state-run television, Redondo received death threats online, and the government sued him. He fled the country on the day the lawsuit was filed, and hasn’t returned. “I was terrified and then paranoid and scared for my life,” Redondo said by Skype from Mexico City, where he now lives, adding that he didn’t want to leave his aging mother and other family members but felt he had no choice. “You get jailed there because of tweets.”

Here, too, if the Totalitarian Left gets its way.

SHOCKER: After the Supreme Court Said Unions Can’t Force Non-Members to Pay Dues, Almost All of Them Stopped: After the Janus ruling, AFSCME lost 98 percent of its agency fee-paying members, while the SEIU lost 94 percent.

Doesn’t say much for their perceived value.

USELESS: The EU releases guidelines to encourage ethical AI development.

Human agency and oversight: AI systems should enable equitable societies by supporting human agency and fundamental rights, and not decrease, limit or misguide human autonomy.

Robustness and safety: Trustworthy AI requires algorithms to be secure, reliable and robust enough to deal with errors or inconsistencies during all life cycle phases of AI systems.

Privacy and data governance: Citizens should have full control over their own data, while data concerning them will not be used to harm or discriminate against them.

Transparency: The traceability of AI systems should be ensured.

Diversity, non-discrimination and fairness: AI systems should consider the whole range of human abilities, skills and requirements, and ensure accessibility.

Societal and environmental well-being: AI systems should be used to enhance positive social change and enhance sustainability and ecological responsibility.

Accountability: Mechanisms should be put in place to ensure responsibility and accountability for AI systems and their outcomes.

True AI is self-programming, so what’s to stop it from writing code to get around any human-imposed limits?

SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Mexican-American Trump Supporter Attacked in California Post Office for Wearing MAGA Hat. “Paloma Zuniga said she videotaped because she ‘wanted others to see how violent they are while we just mind our own business’.”

THE OLIGARCHS’ TROJAN HORSE: Joel Kotkin: Candidate of Big Tech: Kamala Harris is Silicon Valley’s dream of political control. “Unlike Warren and Sanders, or Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Harris has not called for curbs on, let alone for breaking up, the tech giants. As California’s attorney general, she did little to prevent the agglomeration of economic power that has increasingly turned California into a semi-feudal state dominated by a handful of large tech firms. These corporate behemoths now occupy 20 percent of Silicon Valley’s office space, and they have undermined the start-up culture that once drove the area’s growth.”

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO?  How climate change is forcing vulnerable children into sex trafficking.

INTERESTING:  The Russia Hoax was originally aimed at Flynn, not Trump.

OR MAYBE THEY COULD STOP SCOLDING THEIR AUDIENCE? NAAAAAHHH THAT WOULD NEVER WORK:  Movie theaters turn to 4D technology, haptic vests to draw new audiences.

SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE: Democrats Ask Joe Biden to Solve Their Diversity Problem by Identifying As the Mayor of Chicago.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  The Bataan Death March begins.

ISRAEL’S NETANYAHU APPEARS POISED FOR RE-ELECTION, PROJECTIONS SHOW.

“All three of Israel’s main TV channels are now predicting that Benjamin Netanyahu will remain prime minister, forming his fifth government,” Avi Mayer, assistant executive director, American Jewish Committee, tweets.

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

ANOTHER BAD IDEA FROM CALIFORNIA: Candidate of Big Tech. Kamala Harris is Silicon Valley’s candidate because she offers its executives a change to safely virtue-signal. She had little regard for individual rights as California’s attorney general, but she carefully protected the rights of tech companies. By backing her with with a “potentially bottomless cash hoard,” as Joel Kotkin writes in City Journal, tech and media oligarchs are buying insurance for their empires while flaunting their progressive credentials. “If she wins, the tech oligarchy—titans of today’s Gilded Age—will have achieved commanding influence, not just in the information business and the media, but in the White House as well.”

HMM: The Diagnosis Is Alzheimer’s. But That’s Probably Not the Only Problem.

WHEREVER COULD IT HAVE GONE? The Strange Case of the Disappearing Virginia Democrats Scandal.

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