AN IN-KIND CONTRIBUTION TO THE TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: De Blasio says he’d sue to stop Trump from intervening in NYC crime surge.

FOR MAYOR BANE, THIS IS A FEATURE: NYC is now the worst place to do business, retailers say.

WHY SHOULD THEY EVEN HAVE A UNION? Why Are Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Full-Time Police Union Employees?

I’VE PROBABLY JUST GOTTEN PARANOID OVER THE YEARS, but the sudden wave of concern over “deepfakes” makes me think maybe there’s some (genuine) video out there that’s really bad for the Democrats.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE: Texas high school teaching aide accused of having sex with 3 male students.

CCP BBQ: Houston Fire, Police Responding To Reports Of Documents Being Burned At Chinese Consulate General.

Related: “Police were told that occupants of the consulate building were being evicted from the property at 4 p.m. Friday, the official said. Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Houston, as well as the U.S. Department of State, were not immediately returned by press time.”

WHO IS A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE PRC: WHO Official Promotes Conspiracy Theory Website to Bolster China’s Coronavirus Disinformation Campaign.

Question: How much of our current domestic turmoil is the result of Chinese influence?

UGH: LinkedIn cuts 960 jobs as pandemic puts the brakes on corporate hiring.

CLASS PRIVILEGE: A Tale of Two Arsonists.

Among the dozens of anarchists arrested over the past two months, few have gotten a more vociferous defense from the anti-police left than Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, two “public interest” lawyers accused of firebombing a police car.

Their defenders, who argue that the criminal justice system is stacked against the poor and underprivileged, were the first to invoke Mattis and Rahman’s elite credentials when pressing the courts to cut them slack.

Mattis and Rahman are high achievers: He is a Princeton and NYU Law grad with a corporate legal job, and she graduated from Fordham Law after spending a summer in “occupied Palestine.” These credentials, of course, didn’t protect them from federal charges after they lobbed Molotov cocktails into an NYPD patrol car, but their defenders now cite them in pleas for leniency and special treatment, both in the courtroom and in the press.

Both were bailed out, with Rahman’s release guaranteed by an Obama-administration alumna who called Rahman her “best friend.” The duo have received friendly coverage in the Intercept, CNN, and NPR. All emphasized the young lawyers’ sterling credentials, echoing a letter signed by hundreds of NYU alumni in their defense.

Compare that with the story of Isaiah Willoughby, a Washington resident now facing federal charges for attempting to burn down a Seattle police station. Willoughby is a former foster kid and a small-time entrepreneur who once ran a quixotic campaign for city council. He also has a rap sheet a mile long.

Willoughby’s case, unlike that of his well-heeled counterparts, has received little attention in the liberal media. He remains in federal lockup, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

Our view—and the Justice Department’s—is that the cases deserve equal treatment.

It is telling that the anti-police left has made Mattis and Rahman their leniency cause célèbre, citing their elite credentials while crowing simultaneously about inequity in the criminal justice system.

It is.

STEPHEN KRUISER GOES In Search of… the Invisible Biden Voter. “Last week, a friend of mine who is well-placed on Capitol Hill remarked that no one in D.C. is talking about Joe Biden. In the ensuing four days, three other friends whose opinions I also respect mentioned that nobody ever meets a Biden supporter in person.”

FIGHT THE POWER: Distressed by Portland Unrest, Rural Oregon Citizens Launch Petition to Become ‘Greater Idaho.’ “McCarter says the values and concerns of the rural counties make better suited to be part of Idaho, and not of urban-controlled Oregon. In particular, recent months of civil unrest and protests in Portland, as well as Oregon’s COVID-19 restrictions, have spurred the group’s push to leave the state.”

My state secession paper just gets ever more timely.

T CELLS SEEM TO MATTER: The people with hidden immunity against Covid-19.

AT AMAZON, Save Up To 25% on Simpson Pressure Washers.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Three Gorges Dam deformed but safe, say operators: Peripheral structures buckle when record flooding from western provinces puts feat of engineering to the test.

THIS HEADLINE PRETTY MUCH NAILS IT: John Kasich’s ego-driven grift marches on.

OPEN THREAD: I spoke to a man down at the tracks, And I asked him how he don’t go mad.

‘EXTREME DYSFUNCTION’ IS WHAT DE BLASIO’S NEW YORK IS ALL ABOUT: ‘Extreme dysfunction:’ New York City dropped $52M on a coronavirus hospital that served fewer than 80 patients.

SPACE: Three companies studying “Orbital Outpost” space station concepts for Defense Department.

SOMEBODY’S READ HER SAUL ALINSKY: Redwood City Scrubs Black Lives Matter Mural After Trump Supporter Asks to Paint ‘MAGA 2020’ on Same Street.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Bill de Blasio’s ‘crucial’ $52 million coronavirus hospital treated 79 patients. “We all felt guilty. I felt really ashamed.”

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Harrison Bergeron University.

FOR A SECOND I WAS AFRAID THESE REALLY WERE WERE SMALLPOX STRAINS, BUT IT’S VACCINATION NOT INOCULATION: Scientists find smallpox strains used to vaccinate Civil War soldiers. It does make me worry, though, whether there might be viable smallpox still hanging around somewhere in a medical archive or a museum. I suppose it’s unlikely.