DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: Remembering James Hodgkinson.

TRUMP BROKE HER, TO BORROW AN INSTAPHRASE: Even CNN Admits: ‘Pelosi Gambled and Lost on Impeachment Delay.’

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Bernie Sanders is Not Normal.

ALSO, THEY’RE HORRIBLE PEOPLE: Environmentalists Want To Take Your Food, Your Home, And Your Children.

HE’S NOT CRAZY: Kansas man requests ‘trial by combat’ with swords to settle custody battle with ex-wife. Trial by combat was still part of the common law when the United States separated from Britain, and many, perhaps most states adopted the common law as of that date. So it’s not crazy. A modern court would probably reject it out of hand, but arguably such an action would be lawless.

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THEY’LL PILE ON YOU FOR AN UN-PC TWEET, THOUGH: Manchester police knew a ring of Pakistani men were abusing young girls and did nothing (Update).

So why didn’t the police and social workers do more to stop this? Because the crimes were considered racially sensitive. Local Labour MP Ann Cryer did try to do something after a group of mothers came to beg her help. She went first to a local Pakistani community leader but her concerns were brushed off. She then tried to bring attention to the story by going directly to the media.

Andrew Malcolm, a reporter for the London Times, saw the press release written by Cryer but ultimately decided not to write about the story because he didn’t want to provide fodder for the British National Party, which was gaining support at the time. “To my shame I allowed my liberal fear about giving succor and credence to the British National Party to act as a break on actually doing my job,” Malcolm told the BBC.

Cryer, the Labour MP, said that some members of her party offered support but others began whispering that perhaps she was a racist.

It’s almost like “racism” is just a tool to neutralize any effort by communities to look after themselves.

SELECTIVE COOPERATION: Apple Said It Is Helping In The Pensacola Shooting Investigation, But It Won’t Unlock The Shooter’s iPhones. A friend comments on Facebook:

About ninety days ago, Apple willingly and without complaint cooperated with the Chinese Communist regime to deny organizing tools to Hong Kong protestors via its platforms.

Today, Apple refuses to cooperate with the United States against actual known terrorists who killed members of the American armed forces on American soil.

The reckoning will come for the tech elites too. They have made their choices and chosen their side.

Indeed they have.

I REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS THE DEMOCRATS’ GREAT WHITE HOPE: Michael Avenatti Arrested by Feds at California State Bar Hearing. “The arrest occurred outside the disciplinary hearing in which the State Bar of California has accused the hard-charging, tough-talking attorney of using a doctored document to scam a client out of nearly $840,000, funneling money from a lawsuit settlement fund to his own personal use. . . . Best known for his public feud with President Trump, Avenatti has criminal matters pending on both coasts.”

BAD NEWS FOR THE MULLAHS: How Digital Sleuths Unravelled the Mystery of Iran’s Plane Crash.

HEH:

ONLY TRAINED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS CAN BE TRUSTED WITH FIREARMS: Off-duty Secret Service agent shoots and kills dog on a leash in Brooklyn. They don’t tell you his name, because titles of nobility.

Plus: “In answer to a request from The Daily News to clarify the characterization of ‘unleashed’ since The News has a photo of the dog’s body at the scene with her leash still attached, a spokesman for the Secret Service said it ‘will not have further comment.'”

I’ve been blogging about problems with the Secret Service for going on 20 years, and it has never gotten any better. Perhaps we should simply abolish it.

MARK LEVIN ON what’s happening in Israel.

WELL: Michael Flynn Withdraws Guilty Plea.

Flynn’s legal team filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Washington less than two weeks before he was scheduled to be sentenced. They say the guilty plea should be vacated “because of the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement.”

“Mr. Flynn will not plead guilty. Furthermore, he will not accede to the government’s demand that he ‘disavow’ any statements made in his filings since he obtained new, unconflicted counsel,” defense attorney Sydney Powell wrote.

“Michael T. Flynn is innocent. Mr. Flynn has cooperated with the government in good faith for two years. He gave the prosecution his full cooperation,” Ms. Powell continued.

By contrast, the government was never acting in good faith.

OPEN THREAD: Did anything happen today?

I’M KINDA RELIEVED: First new sunspots in 40 days herald coming solar cycle. I don’t want to live in a Maunder Minimum.

NOW IS NOT THE END. IT IS NOT EVEN THE BEGINNING OF THE END. BUT IT IS, PERHAPS, THE END OF THE BEGINNING: The Final Debate Drunkblog Before the Voting Begins.

Tonight’s beverage: Jura “Origin” ten-year-old. It’s flavorful, rustic, and reasonably priced. Maybe the best deal I know of in single malts.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What we’ll miss by not having Tulsi Gabbard on the debate stage. Item #5 is the critical point.

THEY DON’T CALL THE GOP A BIG TENT PARTY FOR NOTHING!

Shot: MSNBC Touts ‘Forensic Colonoscopy’ of the ‘Vichy Republicans’ with Unhinged Frank Rich.

—NewsBusters, today.

Chaser: The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.

WHY ARE BERNIE BROS SO VIOLENT? Remembering James Hodgkinson.

As I noted earlier, James O’Keefe released a series of videos today that feature a Bernie Sanders campaign worker named Kyle Jurek. They are in the usual undercover format used by Project Veritas. Jurek says many shocking things. He promises that Milwaukee will “burn” if Sanders doesn’t get the Democratic nomination, and vows to attack police officers. He endorses the Soviet Gulag in particular, and Communist re-education camps in general. He talks about “revolution” and suggests that anyone who opposes the Bernie Sanders revolution will be shot. He comes out against free speech. Jurek advocates sentencing billionaires to hard labor “breaking rocks” and approves of Antifa. His language is vulgar and threats of violence are interspersed through his conversation.

Democrats are already in damage control mode on Twitter. You can see the Project Veritas videos as well as some of the Democrats’ responses on O’Keefe’s Twitter feed. Democrats describe Jurek as a volunteer, which he isn’t. He is a paid staffer in Iowa (or was until today). He was described as a “top-tier organizer” by Sanders’ senior campaign officials in Iowa, who have now closed down their social media accounts.

One Democrat on Twitter described Jurek as “a random, drunk, low-level organizer for Bernie.” That’s really the question: how typical of the Bernie movement is this thoroughly disgusting creature? O’Keefe says the Jurek videos are only the beginning, and he hints that there are more videos coming, featuring more Sanders employees and volunteers. We will see.

Meanwhile, there is one thing we can say for sure. To paraphrase John Lennon, Kyle Jurek may be a violent Communist dreamer, but he’s not the only one. James Hodgkinson, another Bernie Bro, has already done some of the worst things that Jurek threatens. The liberal press has tried to bury the fact that Hodgkinson, a Sanders volunteer and hard-core labor unionist, shot up a group of Republican Congressmen, and would have succeeded in murdering the House Majority Whip, but for the miracles of modern medicine. In that case, Sanders was quick to condemn political violence. If asked, I suppose he would distance himself from Jurek, too. But how many more are there where Hodgkinson and Jurek came from? How extreme is the Bernie Sanders movement, really?

Very extreme.

NOT ANTI-WAR, MERELY ON THE OTHER SIDE:

Shot: Kevin McCarthy Backs House Dems Into Corner, Will Introduce Resolution Supporting Iranian Protestors.

—The Daily Wire, this morning.

Chaser:

Hangover: Democrats Always Choose America’s Enemies Over America.

—Kurt Schlichter, Townhall, Monday.

REPORT: Iran drops to 2nd in places that hate America behind #1 Portland, Oregon.

NICHOLAS EBERSTADT: Men Without Work. “America today is in the grip of a gradually building crisis that, despite its manifest importance, somehow managed to remain more or less invisible for decades — at least, until the political earthquake of 2016. That crisis is the collapse of work for adult men, and the retreat from the world of work of growing numbers of men of conventional working age. . . . Lest it go unsaid: The collapse of work for men in modern America is much more closely associated with family structure than race.”

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Have you hugged a fracker today? Our oil expansion keeps us safe from Iranian meddling.