VDH: Trumpism—A Look Backward and Forward to November.

There was the first impeachment effort, the Beltway punditry in early 2017 calling for his removal by coup if necessary, the voting machine suits, the Clinton-Obama-Steele subversion of the Trump campaign and transition, the Hollywood assassination chic, the effort to take out former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, the farce of the 25th Amendment that included the bathos of high federal officials contemplating wearing wires in private conservations with the president to the psychodrama of Professor Bandy Lee testifying before Congress about Trump’s mental state, the silly Emolument Clause gambit (Trump has lost over $1 billion while in office and taking no salary), the subversion of the FISA courts, the Russian hoax, Robert Mueller’s two-year long and $35 million witch hunt, the fabricated Steele dossier implanted in the bowels of the Obama government and media, the one-phone-call impeachment circus, the revolt of the retired generals, and what has rightly lately been called “coup porn,” the hysteria over Ukraine and the caricaturing of Trump in 2020 as Typhoid Mary, Herbert Hoover, and Bull Connor as the Left weaponized the contagion, quarantine, and rioting.

The Left, the media, and the NeverTrump Right rarely now any more argue all of the above was warranted or based on verifiable wrongdoing, but see the mish-mash instead as a righteous “any means necessary” tactic to achieve the noble end of destroying a president that they detest.

That Trump is still standing is an unrecognized tribute to his resilience, stamina, and willpower to fight it out to the bitter end.

It’s Victor Davis Hanson, so definitely read the whole thing.

SCOTT ADAMS HAS A DISTURBING HISTORY OF BEING CORRECT:

COUNTING THE COST: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer deaths due to delays in diagnosis in England, UK: a national, population-based, modelling study. Shutting down “elective” services was a dreadful mistake; keeping them shutdown was an unforgivable one.

MATT MARGOLIS: Maxine Waters Has a Plan to Get Rid of Trump Without the Election.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Obama’s Painful Endorsement, and Introducing Fraud-by-Mail.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: When is an endorsement an act of cruelty?

Answer: When it comes from Barack Obama.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Cue the World’s Smallest Violin™ for journalists.

• Vote-by-mail isn’t just corrupt — it’s corrupting.

• A triple dose of mostly peaceful protest violence.

And so much more, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG. USPS appears to be retiring vital machines ahead of mail-in ballot surge.

DEFUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Public high school threatens to punish students who portray it negatively.

SEEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT ON BROADWAY: Scenes From The Destruction of New York City.

HAHA: Students demand university offer ‘safe’ rides home at night after defunding police.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Liberals Use Death of President Trump’s Brother to Reaffirm That They’re Classless Garbage. “When I see liberals I know participating in their online hive mind they become different people altogether. It’s as if they have to out awful each other just to maintain some sort of liberal street cred. I have friends who I know to be reasonable liberals who then become hideous human beings on Facebook or Twitter.”

#JOURNALISM IN 2020: Cardi B In Conversation With Joe Biden.

UPDATE:

A MEDITATION ON AUTHENTICITY: Do we really believe what we say we believe? A question for all of us, not just our elites at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the media, on campus, and atop the “commanding heights” of American culture.

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW THE LEFT MOVES SEAMLESSLY FROM ONE BATSHIT CONSPIRACY THEORY TO ANOTHER, WHILE CALLING THE RIGHT PARANOID? The Manufactured Hysteria Over Mail Delivery.

UPDATE:

This is for the Democrats spreading Post Office conspiracy theories… pic.twitter.com/nowe7Me3R0

— M3thods (@M2Madness) August 15, 2020

Heh.

EXCELLENT JOURNALISM RUNS IN THE HEMINGWAY FAMILY: Mark Hemingway, Mollie’s lucky husband, has the goods on how David Brock’s Media Matters and three other groups in his left-wing echo chamber illegally assisted Hillary’s doomed 2016 presidential campaign.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I hired Mark at the Washington Examiner back in the day and would have Mollie as well but she, wisely it turns out, had a different path in mind. Let us pray the Hemingway offspring will follow their parents into journalism, too.

FASTER, PLEASE: Gottlieb says U.S. likely “a long way” from herd immunity to virus.

Gottlieb said seroprevalence studies overall indicate that roughly 8% of the U.S. population has been exposed to the coronavirus, though the rate of exposure varies depending on whether states have experienced outbreaks. In Arizona, for example, roughly 25% of the population has been exposed based on modeling, while as much as 20% of the population in Florida has been exposed, he said.

“That’s getting closer to a level of immunity where the rate of transmission will start to decline,” Gottlieb said. “It’s not quite herd immunity, but you’re to see declines in the rate of transmission because of that level of infection.”

Despite all the hand-wringing by the press, it looks like the Sun Belt is doing much better than elsewhere.

I REMEMBER WHEN THIS TACTIC WAS CONSIDERED INDECENT AND UNACCEPTABLE BY ALL RIGHT-THINKING PEOPLE BACK WHEN IT WAS AIMED AT ABORTION DOCTORS: Protests Outside People’s Homes (Residential Picketing) and the First Amendment. “They can be banned, so long as the ban is content-neutral, and so long as people remain free to generally march through the neighborhood (as opposed to protesting right outside the target’s home).”

WHY CAN’T NYTIMES HONESTLY REPORT RUSSIAGATE? Because it is effectively an un-indicted co-conspirator in the three-year campaign to con the American public, according to The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway.

DECOUPLING: Expired temporary license for Huawei in U.S. endangers Google, Android support.

A REPUBLICAN MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL WOULD BE A GOOD START: Experts weigh in on how to save New York City post-coronavirus.

A MINORITY NO MORE: I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. Instead, I’ve been co-chairing the campaign to defeat Proposition 16 (I’ll write more on that later). As a result, I’m late on finishing three academic articles and late on an anthology that I am editing for Encounter Books. I’m also trying to get a Commissioner statement done that’s due on Thursday. Things will get better, but not soon. Instead, classes start at USD today. Argh!

Nevertheless, I can’t help but celebrate. One part of my life has just gotten a lot better: For several years, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has been 6-2 in favor of the Commission’s Progressive Caucus. The two conservatives—Pete Kirsanow and I—have been outnumbered.

Fortunately, we now have reinforcements. President Trump has filled both the seats that he is entitled to fill during this term. Consequently, the Commission is now 4-4.  My two new colleagues are Stephen Gilchrist and (most recently) Christian Adams.

Conservatives (if we can manage to stick together) can now block anything that we believe needs to be blocked. Ditto for our four Progressive colleagues. We all will have to start practicing the art of compromise.

I didn’t know Stephen Gilchrist prior to his appointment, but I know he has a lot of fans. Christian Adams I have known since he was a witness before the Commission ten year ago in connection with the Obama Administration’s bizarre handling of the New Black Panther Party case. I couldn’t be happier to be working with them both.

This is going to be a different Commission.

SHOCKER: Why Do Most Countries Ban Mail-In Ballots?: They Have Seen Massive Vote Fraud Problems.