WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Ratings Crash for NBA, MLB After Protest-Filled Debuts.

OR KILL THEM AND PUT THEIR HEADS ON STICKS AS A WARNING TO OTHERS, SINCE THERE ARE NO COPS TO INTERFERE: Minneapolis Police Advise: Surrender Your Property to the Criminals and Obey Them. Remember: Ultimately, cops aren’t there to protect the community from criminals. They’re there to protect criminals from the community. Communities dealt with crime for millennia before police were invented, usually with rather limited due process.

I MEAN, IF YOU CAN’T TRUST IRANIAN GOVERNMENT STATISTICS. . . Coronavirus: Iran cover-up of deaths revealed by data leak. “The number of deaths from coronavirus in Iran is nearly triple what Iran’s government claims, a BBC Persian service investigation has found. The government’s own records appear to show almost 42,000 people died with Covid-19 symptoms up to 20 July, versus 14,405 reported by its health ministry. The number of people known to be infected is also almost double official figures: 451,024 as opposed to 278,827. Iran has been one of the worst-hit countries outside China.”

I THOUGHT THAT WAS JUST CONSPIRACY-THEORY TALK: CDC director acknowledges hospitals have a monetary incentive to overcount coronavirus deaths.

THIS IS THE PLAN OF COURSE: Americans Are Self-Censoring at Record Rates. As usual, it’s the worst for the Outer Party: “So what does predict who is reluctant to speak up? The answer is that Americans are more likely to self-censor the more urban and educated they are. In a surprising reversal of the usual trends of political participation, in which citizens who have more resources feel more empowered to take an active role in civic life, it is the urbanites and the highly educated who are most afraid to speak their mind.”

EVERYTHING IS SO UNCERTAIN: The land with no face masks: Holland’s top scientists say there’s no solid evidence coverings work and warn they could even damage the fight against Covid-19.

YEAH, BUT TULSI’S NOT PART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. She can’t be trusted to follow the script.

OPEN THREAD: Kick out the jams, motherf*ckers.

NOT SO DEFUNCT: Pentagon’s secret, defunct UFO-hunting program may still exist.

NOT REALLY SURE IT’S THE VIRUS THAT’S AT FAULT HERE: A disturbing phenomenon: New Orleans’ killings, shootings have risen sharply since coronavirus. Note that it starts in late May. What else happened in late May?

PART OF THE SECRET IS REALIZING THAT THE ONLINE “WOKE MOB” IS JUST A FEW PEOPLE ON TWITTER AND CHANGE.ORG WHO AREN’T YOUR CUSTOMERS ANYWAY: Trader Joe’s success shows it is possible ‘to stand up to woke mobs’.

TAMARA KEEL: “History is full of lessons regarding revolutions. The first is that every single time, Robespierre wakes up one morning to discover he’s no longer woke enough, and the second is this. . .”

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

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

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: How Big Tech plans to stop Trump from being re-elected.

ICYMI: Thousands gather in Berlin to protest against Covid-19 restrictions.

HACKS GONNA HACK.

AUSTIN POLICE, TEXAS STATE TROOPERS PREVENT VIOLENCE AND ARREST MANY.

Related: “Dorothy, I Don’t Think We’re In Portland Anymore.”

(Bumped.)

HERE’S THE DARK MONEY TREASURE CHEST FUNDING BLM, DEFUND THE POLICE: Leave it the Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig to turn over all the rocks and uncover the slimy progenitor of dark money, the Tides Foundation, plus George Soros, funding BLM and a host of related radical left groups.

JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): “I Feel Very Strongly That [Trump] Is Mussolini, Putin, and Hitler.”

And yet unlike people living in all of those regimes,  Clyburn is perfectly free to express his “feelings” to a national news network – and nothing will happen to him.

Worst. Dictator. Ever. (Like every other Republican president or candidate who’s been compared to Hitler by Democrats since 1940.)

MORE LIKE THE POLICY RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC, REALLY: The pandemic may cause 40 million Americans to lose their homes.