THE DIVINE RIGHT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: ‘They lost the battle:’ Peggy Noonan triggers #MeToo with piece on why they’re really targeting Kavanaugh.

(Classical reference in headline.)

JOEL KOTKIN: Silicon Valley’s Useful Idiots: Tech elites paid for the rope that may hang them.

The term “useful idiot,” often credited to Vladimir Lenin, applies to people supporting a cause or movement injurious to their own self-interest. Nowhere is this more relevant these days than in Silicon Valley, a place dominated by brilliant technologists and marketers who often seem to have the social and political acuity of middle schoolers, as evidenced by their strong support for progressive Democrats poised to destroy the underpinnings of their businesses.

California governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the recently passed Assembly Bill 5, which will effectively turn many contractors into employees. AB5 codifies the California Supreme Court’s unanimous May 2018 ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles that many contractors should be treated as employees. The legislation’s prime backers are the state’s unions, which see it as an ideal way to organize now out-of-reach workers.

The new measure is potentially devastating, though, for companies like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates, all built around part-time employees, and none yet profitable. Many other tech firms—including profitable ones—use contractors for everything from app development to catering to cleaning. As many as 2 million Californians are employed in so-called gig work. If AB5 passes, job losses won’t just be felt by the ride-hailing firms but also by many other businesses, including newspapers, small trucking firms, some medical providers, and even franchise owners.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Silicon Valley, like many industries, placed its bets on both political parties. Moderate Republicans like Pete McCloskey, Ed Zschau, and Tom Campbell routinely won congressional elections, as did similarly minded members of the state legislature. But over the past few decades, the Valley has become politically monochromatic, with virtually no elected Republicans. Almost all contributions from Silicon Valley tech owners and employees in the 2016 and 2018 elections went to Democrats. Tech money helped Newsom outspend his GOP rival by three to one—with major contributions from former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Lauren Jobs (widow of the Apple founder) at the top of the donor list. Former Google chairman Eric Schmidt heads data efforts for several Democratic presidential candidates, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and arch-populist Elizabeth Warren. Tech employees are, if anything, more progressive-leaning in their political contributions than their corporate masters.

Just a few years ago, these investments seemed to be paying off.

Now not so much.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The Economist Calls for ‘Complete Overhaul’ of Economy to Fight Climate Change.

PETER SUDERMAN REVIEWS THE LATEST SPIDERMAN EFFORT: At times I had to remind myself that I was watching a Marvel movie, not paging through an issue of the Columbia Journalism Review.

My question: What did Alex Jones do that CNN and MSNBC don’t do every day?

BUT OF COURSE THEY DO: PolitiFact Somehow Blames PJ Media, Not NY Times, for Kavanaugh Accuser Mess.

Flashback: Politifact Exposed.

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH ANDREW SULLIVAN IS A VOICE OF SANITY: Andrew Sullivan: Intersectionality comes for the children.

BOB MCMANUS ON The end of de Blasio’s not-so-excellent presidential misadventure.

GREAT SLOGAN: “WE’RE GOING TO TAX YOU INTO VEGETARIANISM:” 2020 Dem Yang Says He’ll Get People to Stop Eating Meat by Taxing Producers to Make It More Expensive.

SOUTH AFRICA’S TRANSITION TO ZIMBABWE CONTINUES: Pregnant mom hacked to death in front of son at luxury South African resort.

IF I RAN FEDEX, I’D SUSPEND ALL SERVICE TO AND FROM CHINA: China ramps up ‘hostage-taking binge’ by detaining FedEx pilot.

UH OH: CNN Discovers Minnesota Is ‘Turning to Trump.’ I credit Ilhan Omar.

FLASHBACK: Politico: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire: Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton. “Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.”

AT AMAZON, Fall Deals on Outdoor Heating.

Plus, save in Sports and Fitness.

FLASHBACK: Why the Demand for Fake News is a Far More Serious Problem than the Supply. “The fake news generated by Russian and other foreign plants is trivial compared to that produced by our own political parties and their homegrown partisan and activist allies.”

Just look at the Kavanaugh accusations, or the entire “Russian collusion” story arc.

GOOD, THAT ARREST WAS CLEARLY ILLEGAL: Appeals Court Rejects Qualified Immunity Claim by Dallas Transit Cop Who Arrested a Photographer for Taking Pictures.

WELL, LET ME JUST SAY THAT JUDGE RACHEL RANCILIO IS AN ASSHOLE: A Michigan Man Has Been Acquitted by a Jury for Criticizing a County Judge on Facebook. Trying to imprison a man for criticizing a judge whose decision may have led to the death of his child seems pretty assholeish. But there are a lot of nasty, entitled government employees out there, and some of them are on the bench.

Juries are an important protection for liberty, but this should never have gotten that far. Judge Sebastian Lucido also seems unfit for the bench.

EXCEPT YOU ARE A JOKE.

And Trump isn’t exercising presidential power here, so much as speaking truth to media power.

UPDATE: For example.

OPEN THREAD: It’s Friday!