FROM MY FRIEND JEFF DUNTEMANN:  Firejammer.

Having dropped an alien-contact anthropologist on a newly discovered inhabited planet to establish a relationship with the aliens, starship *Richard M. Nixon* and its crew returns two years later on a trade mission. The corporations of the Tripartisan Economic Combine are eager to buy the aliens’ epoxy glue, which is among the best ever seen in known space. Vincent Icehall, the starship’s young shuttle pilot, has little to do during the mission but hang out with what he assumes is the alien community’s jester and village idiot. Icehall can’t pronounce the alien’s name and dubs him “Turkey,” but slowly begins to realize that Turkey is anything but. Ignoring all of Turkey’s warnings for the crew to leave the planet immediately, Icehall stumbles on a plot by the anthropologist and the aliens’ chieftain to steal the Nixon’s shuttle for use as a weapon of war.

AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD STRIKES AGAIN:  CDC: People With Dirt On Clintons Have 843% Greater Risk Of Suicide.

THESE PEOPLE NEED TO SHUT UP AND ACT/SING. IT WASN’T THEIR POLITICAL ACUMEN THAT MADE THEM FAMOUS, AND THEY NEED TO BE TOLD EVERY TIME THEY STRAY INTO POLITICS THEY INSULT MOST OF THEIR AUDIENCE:  Daily Beast, WaPo Share Unhinged De Niro, Crosby Rants.

DEAR LORD:  California Introduces Radical Anti-Semitic High School Curriculum. 

I guess all the masks are coming off.

MSNBC? WHY GIVE SPACE TO DISGUSTING RACISTS?  MSNBC Panelist On Most White People: ‘Destroy Them’.

ALL THIS AND ALSO BECAUSE OUR LEFTIST IDIOTS (BIRM) HAVE CONVINCED THEMSELVES THAT CHINA “PROVES COMMUNISM WORKS” AND HAVE HAD A MAD PASH FOR IT FOR 20 YEARS.  THIS IS… THE SELF-APPLIED BLINDFOLD COMING OFF.  MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH:  Hong Kong Protests, Why They Matter.

WELL IF SOCIALISM OF VARIOUS KINDS WERE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE, UNDETERRED, THE BUTCHER BILL IT PRESENTED THE 20TH CENTURY, WITH NO SUSPICION OF FREE MARKETS ANYWHERE, THERE WOULD BE A LOT FEWER PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, AND THEREFORE FEWER “PROBLEMS.”  Blame Capitalism For The Wrongs of The World.

“Capitalism” is the name Marx (that angry grifter) coined for free trade, which is what humans do if left alone.  Ultimately Socialism’s problems aren’t with “capitalism.” They’re with humans.

AND THAT’S BEFORE WE TAKE IN ACCOUNT THE BLATANT FRAUD FIRST PERMITTED AND ENCOURAGED UNDER THE MOTOR VOTER ACT:  Manipulation of Votes and Media Threatens Our Nation.

You maybe ask yourselves: if the dems are so sure theirs is the way of the future, why do they always find ways to corrupt the voting system as soon as they attain power? Or do I have that question turned the wrong way around?

SINCE WHEN DOES THE LEFT CARE ABOUT LIES?  Lizzie And Kamala Lose Vox And Slate Over Their Ferguson Lies.

PLEASED TO MEET YOU, I HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME:  Meet Jeffrey Epstein’s gang of accused slave ‘recruiters’.

AND THE TRUTH IS THAT THEY’RE VERY SILLY PEOPLE:  Biden’s gaffe is the left’s truth.

THE REAL REASON THE LEFT TRIES TO DENY AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM: Because the very idea of America is infective and dangerous to all those who think they were born wearing spurs in order to ride the backs of others.  And while the idea of America lives in one heart, they can’t kill it.  Protesters singing the American national anthem (video.)

AT AMAZON, Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals – Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Products.

Plus, Shop Amazon Outlet – Clearance, Markdowns and Overstock Deals.

THE WASHINGTON POST HAS A SAD ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION: Why Free Speech Makes It Difficult To Prosecute White Supremacy In America. I promise you, though, they’ll be wrapping themselves in the First Amendment before it’s over.

ED MENTIONS IT BELOW, but I should note that Roger Simon’s The Goat is already charting at #4 in Sports Fiction on Amazon.

I should also note that I read it in manuscript a while back and loved it. It’s a little bit reminiscent of Greg Benford’s Rewrite.

WITH LEFTISTS, THE THREATS ARE ALWAYS CLOSE TO THE SURFACE: ‘I’ll ruin your s–t’: Chris Cuomo uses threatening language in argument with Trump supporter.

Chris Cuomo: I’m not Fredo. I’m smart, not dumb like people say.

COMMIES GONNA COMMIE: Bernie Sanders staffers manhandle press at Iowa State Fair.

TOO MUCH DEMOCRACY CAN BE FATAL: Strategypage’s latest podcast on Hong Kong’s crisis. If you like it please subscribe.

VERY RELATED: Hong Kong challenges Xi’s authoritarianism.

According to the latest Jamestown Foundation China brief, China’s moribund economy presents Xi and the entire CCP with “immense difficulties.” The report cites two telling examples. Chinese information technology companies “are having trouble obtaining core components” from the U.S. and Western countries. Consumer spending is listless due to “unprecedented levels of household debt, which is estimated at 52 percent of GDP.”

Read the whole thing.

THE PROMISE OF LIBERALISM IS ALIVE IN THE STREETS OF HONG KONG.

To be fair, that’s classical liberalism, not the Maoism that the American left have increasingly adopted since the mid-1960s.

OPEN THREAD: You survived Monday. Congrats!

ROGER SIMON: Why, After 12 Books, I’m Self-Publishing The GOAT.

Why am I self-publishing? Aside from the obvious publishing world bias against anyone to the right of Trotsky (this is particularly true for fiction; there are several good conservative venues for non-fiction), I have real reasons for having decided, after all these years and books, to self-publish. And not just because it’s clearly the wave of the future.

I believe in free markets and self-publishing is entrepreneurial. You get a greater hand in your own creative destiny, even if it’s more of a gamble.

The author foregoes a publisher’s advance for a significantly larger piece of the revenue pie and control of production, pricing, and marketing. Of course, that means paying for everything yourself from the cover design to formatting to ads.

Speaking of which, I recall asking (begging) publishers for ads on more than one occasion and being told: “Ads don’t sell books.” When I replied, “But what about using my [in those cases stellar] reviews?” I was informed, “Reviews don’t sell books.” Then I queried, “What sells books?” Silence.

Enough of that. I’ll make that call for myself from now on, thank you.

Surprisingly, and more importantly, self-publishing tends to make the book itself better — at least it did for me. How’s that? Don’t publishers have editors? Yes, and often good ones, but they don’t, in the end, hold a candle to the “beta readers” you assemble when self-publishing. (“Beta readers” are as they sound — people who read and comment on early versions.)

As Glenn likes to say — well, this is the 21st century you know. Roger was a pioneer blogger and Internet videomaker; it makes sense that he’d eventually carry that DIY attitude to longer form mediums as well. Read the whole thing, then check out The GOAT at Amazon.

(Bumped.)

JOE BIDEN HAS DICK SWETT: Former congressman Dick Swett (D-NH) endorses Biden in NH primary.

The gags are infinite — as Stephen Miller tweets, linking to the announcement, “And just like that I’m 13 again.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Scott Adams: The “Fine People” Hoax Funnel.

FROM POWER LINE TODAY: Jeffrey Epstein’s Week in Pictures: Special Edition.

WHEN YOUR POLITICS ARE TRAGIC, THERE’S NO ALTERNATIVE: Democrats turn tragedy into politics. “Democrats always politicize gun violence, but after the tragic attacks in Dayton and El Paso, they do not just want to take away our guns, they also want to take away our freedom of speech.”

Democrats like their opposition disarmed and silenced. Because that’s how leftists are.