NEW SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” CONTINUES TO PAY DIVIDENDS: AOC Is Really Mad Cocaine Mitch Called Her Bluff and Will Vote on the Green New Deal. “I wish a journalist would ask AOC why she wrote legislation if she didn’t want it voted on.”

HMM: China to Use First Atomic Icebreaker as Test for Future Nuclear Aircraft Carriers.

IS DATING HARDER FOR MEN, OR FOR WOMEN? It’s a trick question:

The ones who have it the easiest are men.

The ones who have it the hardest are also men.

It’s just that they’re two distinct groups of men.

Like it has been the case throughout history, the individuals at both the apex of the socioeconomic food chain as well as at the very bottom, are males.

Yep. Likewise, more CEOs and homeless are both disproportionately male, but only one imbalance seems to arouse society’s indignation.

BRIAN STELTER: Trump Made Me Do It!

Video at the link, but the transcript is far more watchable:

Let me take this on. Partisans on the right are already claiming the end of the Mueller probe vindicates all of their prior positions. They are saying the media, the evil media, was wrong all along.

Donald Trump Jr. is tweeting out messages like this: “#CollusionTruthers.” Accusing the press of pushing a narrative against his dad. Junior is making a rookie mistake. Mueller’s assignment was to get to the truth about Russian interference.

Now, did many commentators and Democratic politicians allege collusion? Yes.

Did many journalists ask about it? Yes.

There is a giant difference between asking and telling. The job of the nation’s news media is to ask, to question all sides to scrutinize and report on opposing points of view and only take the side of truth and decency.

In other words: We didn’t fall for anything, push a false narrative, work to delegitimize a presidential election, or cover for Hillary Clinton’s very real security lapses. No, we were just asking questions. Bravely, one presumes.

And here’s the kicker:

The president’s kids and friends on Fox should be able to tell the difference between agenda-driven columnists and journalists trying to report. There is a big difference. There is difference between news and opinion.

Would that his bosses and coworkers at CNN understood the difference.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS IN THE SHOP FOR MAINTENANCE FOLLOWING THE MUELLER REPORT: Look Who’s Holding Secret Fundraisers with Islamic Groups Tied to Terror. “And the winner is…Rep. Ilhan Omar.”

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Mueller report: Collusion by the news media, not Donald Trump, but don’t expect apologies. “The irony, of course, is that while purporting to worry about Russian interference in American politics, by advancing this story the press was actually doing Putin’s work, sowing division and confusion through the American polity. As former Clinton pollster Mark Penn tweeted, we wasted two years, thirty million dollars, and a lot of institutional credibility at the FBI and Department of Justice over ‘a false story of Russia collusion based on oppo research that was always unsubstantiated and preposterous.'”

JOEL KOTKIN: Understanding the appeal of democratic socialism is the key to defeating it.

In their race to save an unpopular president and their lack of a positive agenda, many Republicans and conservatives increasingly identify the rise of “democratic socialism” as their ultimate, if you will, Trump card. Given the fact that most Americans, particularly older ones, still favor capitalism and are less than enthusiastic about expanding federal power, this approach might work.

But conservatives, in or out of the White House, underestimate the intrinsic appeal of the resurgence of neo-Marxism at their own peril. Already more Democrats have a favorable view of socialism than capitalism. Some millennials — soon to be the nation’s largest voting bloc — even see neo-Marxism as “hip” and even “sexy.” . . .

With rampant inequality and shrinking middle class, the case for socialism should be stronger than any time since the Depression; many, if not most Americans, certainly would not object to taxing the uber-wealthy much more. But socialism’s leading messengers, reared in the ideological hot-houses of elite universities, also constitute the wealthiest and whitest of America’s political tribes.

Not surprisingly the neo-socialists carry attitudes ill-suited for capitalizing, as did Donald Trump, on the mass middle and working class disaffection. All too often they adopt the intersectional, and sometimes openly anti-American, agenda incubated throughout our culture and educational system. Their obsessions with racial redress, including reparations and open borders, seemed ill-suited to winning over most working class voters, something that more seasoned socialists, like Bernie Sanders, recognize.

Read the whole thing. I’ll just note that you can’t be a champion of the working class and also back open borders. This is why, traditionally, labor unions were anti-immigration.

Plus: “Those on the right, with all their fulsome defense of capitalism, need to be reminded that free markets need to create increased opportunity as well as the better living conditions. Our increasingly hierarchal, and feudal, capitalism all too often fails this test. My fellow capitalists, please remember that only a broadly inclusive version of capitalism can exorcise the ghost of socialism.” I agree, which is why we need to break up tech monopolies that can’t realistically be described as “free market” entities.

Related: Capitalism Saved Sweden.

It is important to refute, using simple and widely available empirical evidence, the claim that Sweden is “socialist.” It is not. In fact, Sweden is one of the most robustly capitalist nations on earth.

By socialism, I mean a system that relies on state ownership and control of the means of production, state direction of production decisions, and direct state control of education and employment decisions of individuals. If one does not mean those things, then that would require a little more thinking about what “socialism” means. If by “socialism” you mean prosperity and rule of law, then you are confused.

Sweden does have an extensive welfare state, though as its population becomes more diverse, support for that apparatus is declining.

“BUILD A WALL,” SAY OREGON, NEVADA, AND ARIZONA: A surprising number of Bay Area residents say they will likely move away in the next few years.