THEY WANT TO SHUT YOU UP BECAUSE THEIR RISIBLE ARGUMENTS CAN’T WITHSTAND CONTRADICTION:

The great irony is that his own statement — which he had every right to make — is misinformative. https://t.co/T61ZbXYywf

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) August 7, 2024

SEAN TRENDE: Kamala Harris’ Puzzling VP Pick.

If Minnesota – a state the GOP has not won in a presidential election since 1972 – is in play, the election is over. Might he have crossover appeal in Wisconsin? Maybe some, but the track record of vice-presidential picks trying to deliver states beyond where they reside is not terribly impressive. Frankly, Walz’s gubernatorial campaigns in Minnesota weren’t particularly strong either, and by 2022 his support had mostly dried up outside of urban areas (which in Minnesota is enough to win).

Walz doesn’t really help shore up a narrative about Harris – if anything, his own progressive bona fides (about which more later) – complicates what is probably the narrative Harris most needs to combat this cycle. Put differently, my most progressive friends are ecstatic about him, but if your nominee is pretty liberal, and you’re pretty liberal, and you find yourself excited about the vice-presidential pick as well, you should probably be concerned (and yes, I think the complementary view is also true for conservatives). Finally, if there is one problem Harris does not have, it is a restive base; the progressive wing of the party is still in full “swoon” mode.

What makes the choice more puzzling – the same is true of Vance – is that there were other candidates who probably check off any box Walz checks off, but who might contribute to the ticket in other ways.

Waltz serves as a signal — likely delivered by Barack Obama and/or Nancy Pelosi via Kamala Harris — that the far-left wing is in full control of the party now and that resistance is futile.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): MSNBC Data Guru Has Bad News for Democrats About Walz.

One explanation, of course, is that Dems don’t expect Kamala to win and that the better candidates said no. But don’t get cocky.

RON HART: Kamala Harris: Momentum Or Fauxmentum?

WHEN YOUR NICKNAME IS “TAMPON TIM,” SHOULD YOU REALLY BE CALLING PEOPLE WEIRD? ‘Tampon Tim’: How Kamala’s VP pick earned his nickname.

JOHN LUCAS: A Combat Veteran’s View of Tim Walz’s Lies About His Military Service: Three examples of would-be Vice President Tim Waltz’s disregard of fundamental military ethos and values. “I cannot overstate how fundamental it is to the military ethos that a leader will be with his soldiers during times of danger. . . . So, when you see Walz, Harris and their rah-rah supporters in the ancien régime press touting Walz’s patriotic military service, remember this: It is all a PR scam.”

TWO TIER BRITAIN:

Why is it Hindus can be mob attacked by Islamists in Bangladesh (happening now)

Why is it Christians can be slaughtered by Islamists in Africa (happening now)

Why is it Jews can be attacked by Islamic terrorists (happening now)

But if you say something you are an Islamophobe?

— David Collier (@mishtal) August 6, 2024

Kind of funny. They say there is no two tier policing..

Mass march in London with lots of visible support for Hamas / terrorism / violence / intifadas and wiping out Israel

The police stand and watch.

One guy holds up a 'Hamas are terrorists' banner.

And he gets arrested.

— David Collier (@mishtal) August 7, 2024

Police liaison officer: “If there are any weapons or anything like that, then what I would do is discard them at the mosque. If there’s any weapons, get rid of them. We are not going to arrest anybody. Is that alright?” https://t.co/kfsuL42vhT

— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) August 7, 2024

The ruling class fears the normies taking to the streets, or even talking about it, in a way they don’t fear other groups however violent. That’s because the ruling class knows that if the normies figure out what’s been done to them they’ll hang the ruling class from lampposts en masse. It believes, rightly or wrongly, that the other groups can be controlled.

UPDATE:

This is actually happening https://t.co/50NdFdlZfi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 8, 2024

HISTORICAL NOTE: Today is the 23d blogiversary of InstaPundit, which started on August 8, 2001.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Now Do You Believe Me That the Commies Are Coming? “Why in the name of the sweet Baby Jesus would the Democratic National Committee (DNC) think the nation would elect such a Marxist damp squib, and why would she select the biggest Maoist in the nation as her running mate?”

AMERICAN STASI: Matt Taibbi: American Stasi: Tulsi Gabbard Confirms “Quiet Skies” Nightmare. “Placed on a terror watch list, the former Hawaii congresswoman and her husband were tailed by Air Marshals and bomb dogs. ‘Unconstitutional on every level,’ she says. ‘And I’m not the only one.'”

LIMITED TIME DEAL: viewstar Pillows Queen Size Set of 2. #CommissionEarned

ONE OF SEVERAL, I’D GUESS:

Has China found a new man in Washington now the Biden family are no use?
Tim Walz’s long history with China raises uncomfortable questions for anybody who understands how China works, writes former NSA counterintelligence officer John Schindler @20committee. Link below. Abridged…

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) August 7, 2024

A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM ON CALIFORNIA FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS: Finance guru who’s beaten Wall Street for 25 years makes doomsday prediction about future of California.

THEY HAVE LEARNED NOTHING AND FORGOTTEN NOTHING:

It’s like no one remembers how well “basket of Deplorables” went over.

And if your caveat is “oh, I’m just talking about Trump & Vance & not the voters” you do not understand the psychology of a voters mind.

They know you are calling them weird too. They can hear your code. https://t.co/b4rGBrdNOP

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) August 7, 2024

JON GABRIEL: Journalists: Heroes in Their Own Minds.

Sometimes, a selfie is worth a thousand words. CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta, the definition of journalistic self-regard, posted a photo to Twitter midway through the Trump presidency. Taken just before his 2018 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Acosta stares longingly into his Broadway-style lighted mirror, grasping a director’s chair emblazoned with the show’s logo. His reflection gazes into the camera’s eye revealing his bottomless well of self-satisfaction, insolence, and unearned pride. An open box of Zantac sits on the vanity.

The image was widely mocked across social media, much to the shock of the D.C. press corps. That picture revealed far more than the flaws of one spotlight-hogging reporter. It laid the soul of modern political journalism bare: the media’s supercilious id and ego, perfectly framed in an ignorant instant. Acosta quickly turned into a lightning rod, getting banished from the White House after a set of tedious stunts and histrionic hatred for the president of the United States. Yet he is far from the only Narcissus on the Potomac. The legacy media’s love for itself is topped only by its contempt for its audience.

Read the whole thing, which is an except from Against the Corporate Media, due out next month.

YEP: UT’s Institute of American Civics Survey Shows Urgent Need for Civics Education in Tennessee. It’s a nationwide problem, really. Reminder/Disclosure: I’m on the Board of the IAC.

HIS APPEAL TO BLUE-COLLAR VOTERS IS BECOMING MORE SELECTIVE: MSNBC Data Guru Has Bad News for Democrats About Walz.

IT IS NOT VIABLE WITHOUT SUBSIDIES:  Major Solar Company Files for Bankruptcy After California Strips Subsidies.

“STUDENT ACTIVISTS” LOSING CLOUT: Harvard Will Not Remove Sackler Name From Art Museum and Campus Building.

Appeasing “activists” has not worked out well for Harvard, or for anywhere else much.

ANOTHER WAY OF SAYING TOTALITARIANISM?  “Whole of Society”.

ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THAT THE AM. BAR ASSOC HAS TRIED TO DISBAR ANY COUNSEL FOR TRUMP & J6 DEFENDANTS BUT IS FINE WITH DEFENDING CONFESSED MASS MURDERERS OF AMERICANS?  Lawyers for accused 9/11 terrorists say move to revoke plea deal was ‘corrupt’.

THE OBJECTION WASN’T THAT HE WAS WRONG, IT WAS ‘HE SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO SAY THAT!’  Chiefs’ Harrison Butker doubles down on controversial commencement speech.

THEY AREN’T WRONG:  This airport will soon be able to automatically ID passengers using controversial new tech: ‘No government should be trusted’.

But I’m not sure I’d trust them either.

FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGING AMERICA:  How Kamala Harris and Tim Walz fiddled as Minneapolis burned during destructive 2020 BLM riots.

THEY’VE TRIED TO SQUEEZE IN PEDOPHILIA; WHAT’S NEXT: BESTIALITY? WHO HAS NECROPHILIA ON THEIR BINGO CARD?  Intersex, the new kid on the Pride block.

GOOD:  Students win settlement against college for censoring their speech illegally.