AH! THE NARRATIVE:  Comedy Central: Ice Steals, Imprisons Immigrant Children.

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Podesta’s CAP Fuels Dark Money Group Hitting Trump with Lawsuits.

OH, YEAH:  I’ve been absent, because I was at Fyrecon in Utah, teaching writing. Good Workshop. (It also has classes for art and some crafts.)

I’ll be absent from Wednesday night through Monday night, because I’ll be at Libertycon in TN, where I’m guest of honor.

And then I’m done with travel till October.

ROLLS EYES. ONLY IN LEFTIST’S WET DREAMS, AS THEY CLUTCH THEIR MARX DOLLS AND SUCK THEIR THUMBS. POLITICS IS A LAGGING INDICATOR. PARTICULARLY WHEN AIDED BY CORRUPT EDUCATION. BUT THE TECHNOLOGY THAT DRIVES THE WAY PEOPLE LIVE IS GOING MORE AND MORE TOWARDS INDIVIDUALISM. THE SOCIALIST INSANITY OF THE 20TH CENTURY WAS DRIVEN BY MASS PRODUCTION AND MASS COMMUNICATION LEADING TO IDEAS OF REGIMENTED SOCIETIES AND COMMUNITARIAN FUTURES. THAT’S THE FUTURE OF THE PAST. SURE, THERE WILL BE SETBACKS, DUE TO POISONOUS SCHOOLS AND CRAZY POLITICIANS. BUT THAT WITCH IS DEAD AND ALL THE DING DONG IN THE WORLD WON’T WAKE HER UP:  The Long March of Individualism Comes To A Juddering Halt.

(And someone find my eyes. I think the cats are playing with them. Probably rolled under the sofa again.)

THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE AID GOES TO MAKE LIFE BETTER IN THESE COUNTRIES IS AMERICA-CENTERED AND UNWARRANTED.  MOSTLY IT IS A MATTER OF MONEY FOR THE KAKOCRATIC OLIGARCHS:  Cutting Aid To Central America Won’t Solve The Border Crisis. It’ll Make It Worse.

IOW: wrong game board.

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FIGHT THE POWER: Australian Christian Lobby sets up new donation site for Israel Folau’s legal bid against Rugby Australia.

Punters are pouring more than $1000 a minute into Israel Folau’s new Australian Christian Lobby fundraising website prompting supporters to declare Australians are refusing to “bow to the gods of political correctness”.

Donations have surged passed $400,000 this morning and at this rate, by the end of the day, Folau will have earnt back more than the $765,000 he lost when GoFundMe banned him from their platform.

GoFundMe should be ashamed.

“I THINK MOST PEOPLE THINK OF RAPE AS BEING SEXY:” Anderson Cooper at a loss for words during his interview of E. Jean Carroll.

Earlier: Why Should We Believe E. Jean Carroll?

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

JEFF DUNETZ ON THE AOC MESS: Why The Holocaust Should NEVER Be Used As Weapon Of Political Warfare.

As Alan Dershowitz noted, “By making that comparison, she becomes a Holocaust denier, because what’s she’s saying is: ‘Gee, if all that Hitler did is what Trump is doing on the southern border,’ then there were no death camps, there were no killing squads, there was no genocide, there was no murder of a million-and-a-half babies, there were no selections where people were picked based on their health and whether they were twins and subjected to the most gruesome form of punishment.’”

OR ALIENS. PROBABLY ALIENS. Mysterious explosion in a German cornfield was probably a WWII bomb.

WELL: Mexico deploys 15,000 troops to US border as part of deal to avoid tariffs.

CAN WE GET ONE OF THOSE HERE? It’s Spreading: Protest against pro-China “red media” draws tens of thousands in Taipei.

FOUR MYTHS ABOUT sports and testosterone.

SCAM: New police video shows Jussie Smollett with rope around neck after alleged hate crime hoax.

I HOPE THEY CRACK DOWN FURTHER ON VAGUE LAWS: Supreme Court rules ‘crime of violence’ law is unconstitutionally vague. Justice Gorsuch: “Only the people’s elected representatives in Congress have the power to write new federal criminal laws. And when Congress exercises that power, it has to write statutes that give ordinary people fair warning about what the law demands of them.” Justice Kavanaugh disagreed, saying this will make it harder to prosecute criminals. I’m with Gorsuch.

IN THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON, Joseph Bottom reviews my The Social Media Upheaval. He gets it.

FIGHT THE POWER: Clint Eastwood will produce new film in Georgia despite abortion bill boycott: Eastwood will start production on “The Ballad of Richard Jewell” this summer.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Could coffee help you lose weight? New research suggests a fat-busting effect.

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OBAMACARE’S CONTRACEPTIVE MANDATE DISCRIMINATES AGAINST MEN.

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT: After WWII, Churchill declared that an “iron curtain” had descended across Europe, separating Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from the free world.  Berlin, which had been reduced to rubble, was an anomaly. Located deep inside East Germany, it was nevertheless not wholly under Soviet control. Rather, under the agreement reached at Potsdam, it was divided into four sectors, with each under the control of one of the allied powers—France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. The French, British and American sectors formed West Berlin, which was … well… the part you’d want to be in.

Westerners wondered how long could such an arrangement could last. How long would it be before the Soviet Union moved to gain full control? They got their answer in this day in 1948 when the Soviet Union blockaded the roads and railroads leading from West Germany to West Berlin. The Soviets were hoping to strangle this little enclave of freedom, which had only a few weeks worth of food and a month’s worth of coal.

Sensible people thought a city the size of Berlin couldn’t be supplied with food and necessities by air. That’s what freight trains and big trucks are for. But other than to surrender the city, the allies had no choice. Beginning on June 26, the air forces of France, Great Britain and the United States, along with those of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa executed the Berlin Airlift. According to Wikipedia, they flew 200,000 sorties in a single year. That works out to one every two or three minutes.

The Soviets did nothing to stop it. They knew they’d be risking war if they tried.

There were lots of heroes in this story. But the special hero was an American pilot named Gail Halvorsen. One day after flying a cargo plane into Tempelhof air field, he noticed a group of about 30 ragamuffin children watching from behind a barbed wire fence, so he went over to talk to them. They told him that if at some point the weather gets too bad to continue the airlift, they would be okay. “We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.”

Lt. (later Col.) Halvorsen reached into his pocket and came up with two sticks of Wrigley’s gum, which the children excitedly broke into tiny pieces and shared as best they could. Some only got to smell the wrapper.

A light went on in Halvorsen’s head. Next time he and his crew would airdrop candy tied with handkerchiefs as tiny parachutes. The children were delighted. Each time he dropped a load of candy he noticed the crowd of children was larger than before.

The higher-ups in the Air Force noticed too. Soon Halvorsen’s project was made official and greatly expanded to include many pilots and their crews. All told, it is thought that more than 23 tons of candy—much of it contributed by candy manufacturers—were dropped from over 250,000 little parachutes to many thousands of children who needed a bright spot in their lives. Let freedom ring.

By the way, as far as I can tell, Gail Halvorsen is still alive, one of the last of the Greatest Generation.  Here’s to you, Colonel! You are a better Gail H. than I.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Astronauts, not robots, essential to getting answers on the moon.

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Why Should We Believe E. Jean Carroll?

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: What the Viral Border-Patrol Video Leaves Out.

Predictably, the vast majority of the people and the outlets that shared this exchange failed to note that the violations being discussed had occurred during the previous administration, while those who did know failed to ask themselves (and others) why the violations didn’t receive similar coverage when they were first exposed. Instead, they jumped straight to the conclusion that the federal government, headed up by President Trump, was deliberately inflicting pain on babies. This isn’t true.

It wasn’t true during the Obama administration either. Then, as now, the violations weren’t part of an intentional or evil ploy, but were the product of the system’s being overloaded. Then, as now, the intended care at these facilities was humane, and consistent within the requirement under Flores. In 2014, the Obama administration was dealing with a serious crisis: a large influx of unaccompanied minors that strained the facilities. In 2019, the Trump administration is dealing with a serious crisis: a large influx of unaccompanied minors that strains the facilities.

The absence of coverage back in 2014 makes perfect sense. After all: