KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF AND/OR TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: Hard to Believe, but AOC Is Getting Even Dumber. “The integral component to the AOC phenomenon is that the volumes of inanity that issue forth from her mouth remain unchallenged by anyone in the press and her fellow Democrats. She could be on a Sunday news show telling the host that President Trump turns into a bat at night and flies around the country eating the brains of babies and no one on the panel would question her.”

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND THE MSM: The Covington Kids’ Revenge, One Year Later. “The mob did not get away with defaming Nick Sandmann. In fact, people victimized by the media’s new normal are now fighting back.”

That CNN has not made any noticeable changes in its obsessive stream of agenda journalism since the original incident a year ago, or since settling with Sandmann, suggests what they paid out is to them a reasonable price to continue to lie to the American public. Most MSM gave the settlement little or no coverage. CNN itself devoted 29 seconds to the story. Like botox, settlements are just another business expense.

If this agenda-driven journalism was limited to individual acts of defamation, such as the Sandmann case, it would be bad enough. But the MSM extend the same thinking to significant geopolitical events, using their vast resources to convince the public that Donald Trump threatens their very existence.

Remember how Trump was going to start global economic war with China, withdraw from NATO, start a wider war in Syria by bombing Russian bases, start World War III with North Korea, sell out the U.S. to get peace with North Korea, start World War III because he is Hitler, start a war over Venezuela, start a genocide of Kurds with Turkey…

Related: The not-so-dirty not-so-secret is the Times and the rest of opposition media not only love Donald Trump — they need him.

TARGETS SELF-HARDENING: Meet the Texas-based church security business training worshippers to fight back in mass shootings.

STEP DOWN. THEN MAYBE WE’LL HAVE SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT. Maduro: Venezuela ready for talks with U.S.

SORRY KIDS, BUT IT WAS HARD TO TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN EVERYONE PUSHING IT SEEMED TO BE SOME COMBINATION OF GRIFTER AND MENTALLY ILL:

THAT DOESN’T SOUND PROMISING:

I remember when he was feted as the Trump-slayer and touted as a 2020 Dem candidate. Now it’s “Avenatti who?”

THERE’S FIRE IN THE HOLE, AND NOTHING LEFT TO BURN: The Never-Ending Impeachment.

Related: Analyzing the Dems’ Repetitive Impeachment Text.

Flashback: The Hatred That Fuels Impeachment.

THEY DON’T CALL HER FAUXCAHONTAS FOR NOTHING: Elizabeth Warren Has a Fake Plan To Pay for Medicare for All.

Warren has argued that total costs for middle-class families would go down under her plan, but there are reasons to doubt this, including an analysis from Emory University health care economist Kenneth Thorpe finding that under Medicare for All, more than 70 percent of people who currently have private insurance would see costs increase. A separate analysis from the liberal Urban Institute projects that single-payer plans would raise national health care spending by $7 trillion over a decade, contrary to Warren’s estimates.

Other outside experts, meanwhile, have suggested that Warren’s plan will cost more than she anticipates and raise less revenue. In an analysis of the fiscal effects of Warren’s plan, Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, estimates that she would end up increasing deficits by about $15 trillion over a decade.

That’s because Warren doesn’t account for the likely economic ripple effects her plan would almost certainly cause; instead, she assumes that even with an array of new taxes and fees on businesses and wealthy individuals, economic growth would continue without change.

Much more at the link.

CHILD POVERTY IS AT ALL-TIME LOW IN GREEDY, CAPITALIST AMERICA? – Yes, it’s counter-intuitive (if your brain has been through the Left Media’s wash-emote-repeat cycle), but the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) lays out the data.

The IFS’s Angela Rachidi says recognizing the flaws in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) are the essential first steps to understanding the reality.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is any Democratic presidential candidate ready to be our military’s commander in chief?

NO, LOAN FORGIVENESS IS NOT THE SOLUTION TO THE COLLEGE DEBT CRISIS: Capital Research Center’s Scott Walter asks why anybody would expect more of the government that caused the crisis will end it?

HERE’S HOPING 2020 WILL BE AS GOOD FOR PRO-LIFERS AS 2019 WAS: Lots of progress last year, according pro-life leaders interviewed by The Christian Post. Formula for an even better 2020: Lots of hard work, courage, prudence and prayer because life is worth it.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Joe Biden’s Brother Frank Linked to Projects Receiving $54,000,000 in Taxpayer Loans from the Obama Administration—Despite No Experience.

ROBO-GINSBURG WILL NEVER RETIRE: What if Ruth Bader Ginsburg Retires During the Senate Trial?

RON RADOSH: Howard Zinn: Fake Historian.

AND FROM AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD:  Pelosi Releases Limited-Edition Replica Of Dentures Worn During Trump Impeachment.

I hear they’re thinking of changing their motto to “Still more truthful than the New York Times.” They’re modest people.

HEY NOW! THERE’S AT LEAST ONE INSTAPUNDIT READER IN THAT CROWD. THAT SIGN IS THE EQUIVALENT OF WAVING AT US AND SAYING “HI, MOM” (OR PERHAPS, “I TOO WANT A REVITALIZING SHAKE OF BLENDED PUPPY!):  So much for the evil, racist, bitter-clinger gun nuts of Richmond!

SIGH. THE PROBLEM IS I HATE PREPARED FISH STICKS. BUT NOW I’LL HAVE TO EAT THEM:  Fish Footprints.

BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY ARE:  Regional Forest Manager: Politicians are Using Climate Change to Deflect Blame for Bushfires.

IT’S KIND OF LIKE THE GREAT PUMPKIN, REALLY. THE LEFT HAS BEEN TRYING TO MAKE IT A THING FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE. SO FAR, NOTHING. THIS LATEST INCARNATION IS NO EXCEPTION:  What Happened to WWIII?

CANCEL CULTURE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A LONG TIME IN SOME FIELDS. WE JUST DIDN’T HAVE A NAME FOR IT. WHY DO YOU THINK I REFERRED TO MY STARTING TO AIR MY POLITICS AS “COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET.” AND IT COST ME. AS I KNEW IT WOULD COST ME. UNFORTUNATELY SPEAKING OUT IS THE ONLY WAY TO END THIS TYRANNY, AND IF NOT ME, WHO? IF NOT NOW, (WELL TEN YEARS AGO?) WHEN? AND I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE COMING TO THIS POINT:  Demoted and Placed on Probation.

AS WITH ALMOST EVERY VAGUELY SENTENCE LIKE ERUCTATION ESCAPING OCCASIONAL CORTEX’S DENTIGEROUS MOUTH, THE QUESTION MUST ALWAYS BE “COMPARED TO WHAT?”: Ocasio-Cortez Calls The Democratic Party ‘Center-Conservative’.

AND AT THE SAME TIME, THE LEFT ASSURES US THAT THE INSURRECTION IN AFGHANISTAN WAS UNBEATABLE:  “You Can’t Fight the Military with Rifles.”