ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: “At least nine people stabbed, several dead, by what appears to be a lone perp, around an hour ago, at a ‘diversity festival’, in…Solingen, Germany. Perp on the run, perp & reasons unknown, massive manhunt underway.”

KIRA DAVIS: The Beyoncé Campaign.

The DNC is well known for their high profile celebrity guest roster. This year the heaviest hitters showed up to take the stage — the Obamas and Oprah Winfrey.

So, it was a bit surprising when rumors of a REALLY BIG guest to close out the convention began swirling. Who could be bigger than Oprah? TMZ appeared to be the main source of this massive “stunning-if-true” surprise. They claimed the surprise guest would be Beyoncé Knowles herself. The mainstream media, never a group to let themselves be distracted by actual journalism, spent the entire day chattering about the rumor and speculating about the impact of such an appearance. Not a single word had been uttered by the Beyoncé camp, the Harris/Walz campaign or any credible news source about her possible appearance but Beyoncé’s celebrity cloud of glitter and awe descended upon the United Center anyway, and its occupants were helpless to resist the gravity.

I felt it had to be Taylor Swift, even though that would be a blow to her fiancé’s fanbase and could possibly cause a negative media storm for his upcoming football season. I felt it could be Beyoncé — she’s certainly a big get — but she has performed at inaugurations and other political events in the past. It wouldn’t be a huge “surprise” to see her on that stage, although it would certainly be exciting for the audience.

As we all know by now, it turns out the big “surprise” was Kamala Harris.

No wonder the DNC-MSM felt the strong urge to goose the ratings: How Much of This Harris Speech Viewership was Fueled by Media Hyping DNC ‘Special Guest’ Rumors?

It was all a ploy to get them to stay to the end. Shameful.

— Burt Macklin (@BurtMaclin_FBI) August 23, 2024

UPDATE:

Disappointment As Special DNC Guest Turns Out To Be Carrot Top https://t.co/bljq63tmES pic.twitter.com/MP8CTbWhix

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 23, 2024

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Deja Obamavu All Over Again.

WRISTS SLAPPED: Secret Service Employees Placed on Administrative Leave after Trump Assassination Attempt.

Multiple Secret Service employees are being placed on administrative leave after the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump during a campaign rally last month, according to multiple reports.

A member of Trump’s security detail and personnel from the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office who helped coordinate the security at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa. have been told to work on administrative duties from home, CNN and Fox News reported.

The security failures leading up to the attempt on Trump’s life are one of the most significant law-enforcement failures in American history and remain the subject of multiple ongoing investigations. Acting Secret Service chief Ron Rowe admitted the assassination attempt was an indefensible failure when he testified before the Senate two weeks after the incident took place.

Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., managed to climb up a nearby rooftop and fire eight shots at Trump and his supporters at the campaign rally, wounding Trump’s right ear and killing former fire chief Corey Comperatore. Two other victims, Marine veteran David Dutch and retiree James Copenhaver were also wounded by Crooks’s gun shots.

“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi told National Review in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”

Well, one way or another, it was a failure. Or as America’s Newspaper of Record reported last month: Secret Service Director Resigns In Disgrace For Failing To Assassinate Trump.

JOHN KASS: Kamala’s Soviet Nightmare.

In the almost 40 years when I was a reporter, columnist, and editorial board member at a faded (but once great) Chicago metropolitan newspaper, I’d periodically conduct an unpopular experiment on colleagues:

I’d ask them if they’d ever made a payroll while dealing with other bills for electricity, taxes and other operating costs.

In other words: Had they ever run a business?

It seemed reasonable to ask, since journalists were so eager and willing to weigh in on economic matters, from unaffordable teacher contracts to property tax “swaps” and  waxing on profoundly about the importance of “community investment.”  Sometimes I’d ask for a show of hands when I’d run the experiment.

“Have you ever run a business?”

But nobody ever raised their hands.

Nobody.

* * * * * * * *

Kamala Harris, now the Democrat presidential candidate desperate to distance herself from the disaster of Joe Biden, has feelings.

She is desperate to win. Which is why she called Joe Biden a racist, before eventually sucking up to him and joining his administration.

To separate herself from old Joe, she recently announced a drastic plan: If elected she would use her powers to order the federal authority to control rising inflationary costs.

In other words, government price controls just like the Stalin era, before farmers gave up and famine swept Ukraine. Stalin argued that to make an omelet you had to break some eggs. And his de facto but unofficial publicity agent, the Pulitzer Prize winning Walter Duranty of the New York Times agreed. Some eggs had to be broken, and if millions died of starvation…well, you can’t cry over broken eggs, can you?

“On Day One,” she promised, perhaps forgetting she had been at the top of the Biden administration for more than a thousand days, “I will take on price gouging and bring down costs. We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.

“We will take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases,” she continued. “And we will take on Big Pharma to cap prescription drug costs for all Americans. Our plan will lower costs and save many middle-class families thousands of dollars a year.”

She’s talking about price controls.

Yes.

Price controls didn’t work for the Soviet Union and Stalin, and the Soviets, like today’s Democrats, had the media eating out of their hands. And then came the famine.

Most of America’s inflation since 2020 has resulted from Kamala Harris, as Vice President, twice breaking Senate ties to approve the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. These didn’t reduce inflation; they caused it, they were the match to the dumpster fire. Dumping trillions of dollars in cash on the the economy and the inevitable happened, and every American who took basic economics knew what would come:

Too much cash chasing too few goods happened. Gas was under $2 a gallon. And then everything started to rise as the inflation tax of too much government spending took hold, and milk and eggs and coffee, beef and bread, everything rising and many Americans were forced to make choices.

There were moms and dads who skipped meals so their kids could eat. We never thought this would happen again in America, but it did. And some senior citizens had to select from medicine or food. It was the Democrats and their selling their “feelings” that got us here.

Not all of the corrupt corporate media was in support of Kamala Harris’ Soviet-style plan. The leftist Washington Post condemned it, as did the much more rational Wall Street Journal.

The Washington Post editorial board condemned the Harris idea as “gimmicks.”  They were too kind.

Speaking of Kass’s question to his fellow journalists, back in the early 1990s, far left Democrat George McGovern wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender…

[M]y business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: “Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.” It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.

As Steve Hayward added earlier this month, “Well, just how much private sector experience do Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have between them? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.  Not even with a non-profit organization (which maybe doesn’t count).”

No wonder the DNC’s operatives with bylines profess so much love and devotion.

DEMOCRATS’ CONVENTION OVER, ANGRY GAPING ORANGE MAW ROARS BACK INTO ACTION! Orange Glow Dominates Landscape as Icelandic Volcano Erupts.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: ‘Jews have to meet in secret at DNC,’ says Holocaust survivor, ex-ADL head Foxman.

Holocaust survivor and former Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman expressed concern on Wednesday that the situation for Jews in the US had deteriorated to the point that they had to meet in secret at events like the Democratic Party National Convention.

Foxman’s concern came after a Tuesday Agudath Israel of America DNC event on rising antisemitism against Orthodox Jews was disrupted by anti-Israel activists.

“Brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall,” the activists chanted in a video published by Agudath Israel.

Foxman, who survived the Holocaust by being hidden and raised by his Catholic Polish nanny, said on X that he knew in his heart that “in the future it will be better, for Jews in America then it is today. But I fear it will never be the same. After 50 years fighting antisemitism in America, I could not have imagined a time Jews would have to meet in secret locations in Chicago at DNC.”

The ADL noted that the event was not about Zionism, and that Agudath Israel had been targeted for being “visibly Jewish.”

Foxman, who survived the Holocaust by being hidden and raised by his Catholic Polish nanny, said on X that he knew in his heart that “in the future it will be better, for Jews in America then it is today. But I fear it will never be the same. After 50 years fighting antisemitism in America, I could not have imagined a time Jews would have to meet in secret locations in Chicago at DNC.”

The ADL noted that the event was not about Zionism, and that Agudath Israel had been targeted for being “visibly Jewish.”

Foxman may claim that he “could not have imagined a time Jews would have to meet in secret locations in Chicago at DNC,” but America’s Newspaper of Record sure could:

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Is Kamala setting herself up for a Dewey-versus-Truman defeat?

The hazy elusiveness that has characterized the first weeks of Harris’s campaign has prompted impatience and criticism from across the political landscape.

While noting the distance Harris has kept from the news media — she has neither granted an interview nor convened a news conference since emerging as the Democrats’ nominee — the New York Times nonetheless reported recently: “Some political strategists say Ms. Harris is doing exactly what she should be doing.”

Perhaps it’s not “exactly what she should be doing,” though — not when recalling campaign history and the case of Dewey, who served three terms as Republican governor of New York but twice lost the presidency as his party’s nominee.

Dewey in 1948 embraced a distant, glide-path strategy against President Harry Truman (D), sidestepping controversy and offering tame platitudes such as the importance of national “unity.”

“When you’re leading, don’t talk,” Dewey told a supporter, according to his biographer.

He specifically rejected suggestions by Republican leaders to undertake a vigorous, hard-hitting effort against Truman, who had become president in 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“I will not get down into the gutter with that fellow,” Dewey said of Truman.

Instead, Truman used the MSM to define Dewey, his fellow liberal, to devastating results:

As I asked last week, why is it okay to compare Trump — and indeed every GOP presidential candidate over the last 75 years  — to a leading National Socialist, but it’s not okay to point out Kamala’s predilection for International Socialism, especially when:

UPDATE: Speaking of International Socialism:

During the 2008 election, my Romanian cousin visited me in DC. When he saw the paintings of Obama’s face all over town, he told me, “you Americans do everything bigger—including cult of personality.” I think about that a lot. https://t.co/YuE5xH9Ra5

— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) August 23, 2024

OLD AND BUSTED: Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

The New Hotness? We have to elect the candidate so you can find out what her policies are:

They're now openly begging Kamala not to tell anyone what her platform is. I know it's an election year, but damn.
Journalists aren't people. https://t.co/Gt39uJ7KPC

— Bill D'Agostino (@Banned_Bill) August 23, 2024

UPDATE:

Did I miss the part where she "laid out her vision"? pic.twitter.com/OQaFnnrwVV

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) August 23, 2024

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN THE LEFT EXCORIATED CULTURAL APPROPRIATION:

Democrats are attempting to culturally appropriate conservatism. They think you'll let your country be destroyed as long as the means of destruction wears camo hats, flannel shirts, and talks about hunting.

Could you broadcast "we are losing with men" any louder?

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 22, 2024

MAGGOTS FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: FBI probes possible maggot attack on food at Ohio delegation hotel at Democratic convention.

Chicago Police and the FBI are investigating if saboteurs placed maggots in the hotel breakfast being served to delegates at the Democratic National Conventionon Wednesday, local media reported.

The incident took place at Fairmont hotel, where delegates from Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota are staying.

“Multiple unknown female offenders are alleged to have entered a building…and began placing unknown objects onto tables containing food,” the convention’s information center said in a statement cited by WGN. “The offenders are believed to have then left the area. One victim was treated and released on-scene. Along with CPD, FBI-Chicago is assisting in the investigation. No further information is available at this time.”

“Saboteurs?” Update your Newspeak Dictionary; you spelled environmentally conscious people on the cutting edge of doubleplusgood sustainable resources incorrectly, comrade! Maggots, other insects could become U.S. food staple as consumers seek out sustainability.

“ONE FOR THE ROAD:” The Grand Tour Reveals First-Look Image, Release Date for Final Episode: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May Head to Zimbabwe for Last Ever Road Trip.

The final ever episode of “The Grand Tour” is almost here and Prime Video is giving fans a sneak peak of what to expect — and when.

“The Grand Tour: One for the Road,” a one-off special representing the conclusion of the long-running series, is set to launch on Sept. 13 on the streamer in over 240 countries. Producer Andy Wilman unveiled a first-look image (see above) and release date at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he is appearing on a panel.

It will see Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May reunite on a final road trip.

“In their last adventure, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May ignore the instructions of Mr Wilman and head to Zimbabwe in three cars they’ve always wanted to own, a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri 3-litre, and a Triumph Stag*, for a stunning road trip through beautiful and sometimes challenging landscapes leading to an emotional ending on a strangely familiar island,” reads the synopsis.

More details at the Daily Mail: First look at The Grand Tour’s ‘weepy’ final episode as Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May unite for last time in ‘One For The Road’ special — and it’s just weeks away from hitting screens.

Long-time producer Andy Wilman told the Edinburgh TV Festival that filming the episode was ‘quite weepy’ and ‘quite heart-stringy’.

Asked why the trio had decided to bring to a close the global phenomenon, Wilman said: ‘We are getting to the point where enough is enough. On top of that, there is the sense that we want to end things on our own terms. It had to come to an end and we wanted to be the ones who called it.’

They shot the last episode in September last year. It will see the hosts return to Kubu Island, Botswana, which was the location of their first ever special. Wilman described the episode as “deliberately gentle” as the three stars wanted to go back to basics.

He said: ‘They wanted to go “unplugged”. We wanted to go back to 2005, leave the dynamite at home, we will go with s*** old cars. They give you more TV than modern new cars, they give you more stories, more laughs. So they wanted evocative cars that they adore and they wanted to be in Africa. It is the favourite continent we ever filmed in.’

The producer added: ‘Their comradery is next level. I think that you can see that they know this is the last time they will do this.’

Here’s the trailer:

* Officially pronounced Triumph “Staaaaaag,” as it was Clarkson’s ‘90s inspiration for the boys’ long-running Jaaaaaaag riff:

THAT’S NICE. DON’T GET COCKY: Real Clear Politics just released their ‘No Toss-Up States’ electoral map and Trump is gonna love it.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Corrupt Media Couldn’t Save ‘The Acolyte’ from Cancellation.

Reporters didn’t just share updates on the series, created by Leslye Headland. They defended the saga, showered it with glowing reviews and said anyone who disagreed was a racist, sexist troll.

We all know why.

The series doubled down on Disney’s progressive agenda, from the cast’s aggressive diversity to the creation of a lesbian witch coven. The media became Disney’s extended PR team, swatting away naysayers without giving fans credit for sussing out a shoddy series.

Funny how the same sexist, racist fans loved “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” a film with a very diverse cast led by an empowered heroine (Felicity Jones).

As Rachel Zegler might say, “Weird!”

“The Acolyte” stands as one of the worst “Star Wars” projects since Disney shelled out $4 billion in 2012 to acquire the property from George Lucas. None of the press’ accusations could save the series from itself.

Woke. Dull. Terribly written. Canon-breaking themes.

And as a result, the Critical Drinker notes, “No More Acolyte for You, Rebel Scum!”

DISPATCHES FROM SUMMER RERUN SEASON: Nielsen: DNC Television Ratings Crash 22% from 2016.

The television ratings of the first night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) sunk 22 percent from 2016, according to Nielsen.

The ratings crash suggests that Vice President Kamala Harris is far less popular than the media purported.

About 20 million people watched the first night of the DNC, up from 2020’s virtual convention but severely down from 2016, Axios reported:

• Around 19.1 million viewers watched the DNC live from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET during the president’s speech.
• MSNBC drew the most viewers across all networks with 4.6 million, followed by CNN (3.2 million), ABC (2.8 million), Fox News (2.4 million), CBS (2.0 million) and NBC (1.8 million), according to fast national data provided by MSNBC.
• Monday marked the network’s largest DNC night 1 viewership ever, a spokesperson said.

The ratings crash came after the media spent countless hours hyping Harris’s “historic” candidacy.

Don’t get cocky.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: ‘Queer Theory:’ Biden-Harris Official Calls for ‘Queering Nuclear Weapons.’ No, Really.

If you’ve been waiting for that perfect example that the rabid left is not only a threat to the moral fabric of American society but also a clear and present danger to the very existence of the United States, today’s your “lucky” day. Even better, the example comes from none other than the Biden-Harris administration.

Sneha Nair, appointed in February as special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a wing of the Biden-Harris Department of Energy, has been pushing various disarmament policies – including reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Fine, that’s nothing new on the left. But, as far as I can tell, this is:

Nair also argues that advancing “queer theory” to include America’s nuclear arsenal is essential to America’s national security. No, really. I’ll give you a minute to stop laughing before we continue.

Ready? Nair’s insane argument goes like this:

Queer theory informs the struggle for nuclear justice and disarmament. Queer theory helps to shift the perception of nuclear weapons as instruments for security by telling the hidden stories of displacement, illness, and trauma caused by their production and testing.

By understanding DEI as a set of values critical to security, and therefore as an element of an effective nuclear security culture, stakeholders can explore how DEI can contribute to stronger security at nuclear facilities

Collectively, these principles (of DEI) can work to mitigate counterproductive work behavior and prevent disgruntled employees from becoming insider threats.

If only the crew of the USS Dark Star recognized that their talking AI nuclear bomb was operating from beyond the gender binary, they just might have returned to earth safely:

In accordance with the prophecy:

Progress: U.S. Military Introduces Very First Gender-Neutral Bomb https://t.co/giy7KGnkSj

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 11, 2021

A CHEER FOR PHIL DONAHUE: “What is remarkable is not so much that Donahue would host Friedman for an entire show, but that he would let Milton finish his answer. He didn’t interrupt of heckle or demagogue his guest. In fact he is courteous and polite to Friedman throughout. Perhaps Donahue knew he was overmatched, but regardless it is unthinkable that The View or MSNBC or any other news outlet today would let a guest go on for as long as Donahue does in this clip.”

A UNITER, NOT A DIVIDER!

"If Donald Trump gets back into the White House, he's going to fire civil servants, like intelligence officers…and even federal prosecutors…!"

Trump couldn't buy a better campaign ad than this! 😂pic.twitter.com/QyGqWxqNYN

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 20, 2024

THE NO-LONGER READY FOR PRIMETIME PLAYER: The Accidental President Shuffles Off the Stage.

It was less a roar than a long series of shouts, a reheated collection of his greatest hits from the period since he reemerged as a presidential candidate in 2019. Biden pointed, hectored, bellowed, and glared. The president had been done dirty by his own party and the convention organizers, and he wasn’t interested in hiding his peevish mood.

“You can’t love your country only when you win.” “There’s no place for political violence in America! “We finally beat big Pharma!” “[Trump] never built a damn thing!” “Great jobs, right here in America! With every new job and new factory, pride and hope are returning to America’s communities!” “Wall Street didn’t build America! The middle class built America! And unions built the middle class!” “‘Suckers and losers!’ Who does he think he is? Who does he think he is?” “We just have to remember who we are! We’re the United States of America, and there’s nothing we cannot do when we do it together!” *

Our Noah Rothman noticed that a lot of Biden’s rhetoric was recycled from his “remarks about the continued battle for the soul of the nation” at Independence Hall in September 2022. Other parts felt recycled from this year’s State of the Union Address.

Perhaps the most significant line was one that was ad-libbed: “Those protesters out in the street, they’ve got a point.”

In one final, absurdly shameless insult from his party, Biden took the stage at 11:26 p.m. Eastern time, pushed out of the prime-time window by an inordinately long list of can’t-miss Democratic Party all-stars like Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo, childhood friends of Kamala Harris Stacey Johnson-Batiste and Doris Johnson, Maryland representative Jamie Raskin, Texas representative Jasmine Crockett, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, Georgia senator Raphael Warnock, and Delaware senator Chris Coons, before we got to Biden’s wife Jill and daughter Ashley.

Now, West Coasters might be shrugging, but there was a time when finishing by 11 p.m. Eastern was important for the local news and, after that, The Tonight Show. And even today, all other things being equal, you would rather that audiences in the Eastern time zone — you know, in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan and Georgia and North Carolina — could watch your best featured speakers.

The not-so-subtle signal was that Democrats didn’t want anyone to watch Joe Biden’s speech live. And it’s hard to begrudge them that trepidation, as his last appearance in prime time was such an unmitigated disaster that it led to him quitting the race.

I’m sure Joe’s late speech was merely a coincidence; a victim of bad planning and long-running speeches throughout the day. I mean, just ask Nancy what happened to John Gill: Pelosi Admits She Put Old Joe Out to Pasture When He Was No Longer Useful.

* And: Biden Repeats the ‘Very Fine People’ Line in His ‘Hero’s Goodbye.’

Which seems like an odd thing to bring up, given that (a) the smear against Trump has been debunked by Snopes, and (b) referencing it yet again reminds people that it’s Charlottesvilles all the way down in Joe Biden’s America:

Related: Daniel Greenfield on [INSERT SCARY MUSIC HERE] The Night of the Living Democrat Dead.

UPDATE:

An actual “very fine people on both sides” moment after giving a lecture about Charlottesville. https://t.co/WMSzLWcJee

— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 20, 2024

SPRINGTIME FOR CANDACE: At this Point, Candace Owens Should Grow Out the Rest of Her Mustache. “In less than a decade, she’s gone from the left to the right, and then to the Reich.”

BIDEN’S BACK, BABY! Or not, but still, this is embarrassing:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): They really do seem to be phoning it in this year. It’s like the whole A-Team found something else to do.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Kamala Harris Unveils New Economic Platform: 'We Must Seize The Means Of Production And Execute The Bourgeoisie' https://t.co/Ss8Y9j6wIR pic.twitter.com/Bos5Fcq7S2

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 18, 2024

Meanwhile, at American Greatness: The Rise of the Red Fascists.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER (CROWD) CONTROL: The evolution of riot response.

Crowd control has come a long way since the Chicago police department, armed only with billy clubs, sunglasses and a healthy hatred for spoiled college students, beat the daylights out of rioting hippies in summer 1968. In 2005 the department upgraded to the Damascus riot control kit. In those halcyon days, police departments issued press releases about their ability to outfit officers in upper-body and shoulder protectors, forearm protectors, knee and shin guards, elbow pads, protective gloves and gear bags. Such toys are only as good as the willingness to deploy them: the city tallied up $66 million in damage in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots in 2020.

The Chicago department’s new policy concerning crowd control, posted for public comment in June, says that its officers will “remain unbiased and opinion neutral in any communication with individuals within the crowd while affirming that the First Amendment rights of lawful participants are protected.” Democrats were awful lenient about First Amendment-inspired arson in 2020, but you get the sense Chicago authorities expected to be less tolerant of such activities with the eyes of the nation turned toward Kamala Harris’s August coronation at the Democratic National Convention.

They will have the help of the Secret Service — if you can see that as a good thing after the incompetence displayed at the failed assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump in July. Chicago PD has said that more than 2,000 officers had forty-eight hours of new training leading up to the DNC. There was also a surge in surveillance equipment covering the city — courtesy of the Secret Service.

Bryce Eddy believes that, even after the summer conventions, there are likely to be more riots due to political upheaval in the coming months. Eddy is on the board of the Center for Security Policy where he has helped partner private security with law enforcement agencies to help train for crowd control. He stood at the frontlines of the riots in LA in 2020.

“Covid and the BLM riots changed so many things,” he says. “Police departments were overwhelmed all over the country. Normally, they would rely on each other for what we call ‘mutual aid.’ But now, there have been agreements between high level security firms and police departments developing to where the security firms can offer additional services and what they call mutual aid, which is, again, usually just between law enforcement departments.”

Flashback to the end of May in 2020: Mayor Moron Destroys America’s Major Cities.

There is a validated playbook for dealing with riots. It is a tale of two riots in the awful summer of widespread racial unrest in 1967. Eugene Methvin’s 1991 National Review “riot primer” laid out the playbook:

In a nutshell: Riots begin when some set of social forces temporarily overwhelms or paralyzes the police, who stand by, their highly visible inaction signaling to the small percentage of teenaged embryonic psychopaths and hardened young adults that a moral holiday is under way. This criminal minority spearheads the car-burning, window-smashing, and blood-letting, mobbing such hate targets as blacks, or white merchants, or lone cops. Then the drawing effect brings out the large crowds of older men, and women and children, to share the Roman carnival of looting. Then the major killing begins: slow runners caught in burning buildings and-as civic forces mobilize-in police and National Guard gunfire.…

The time to halt a riot is right at the start, by pinching off the criminal spearhead with precise and overwhelming force. The cops will usually be caught flat-footed (no pun intended) by the initial outbreak. But they need to spring into a pre-arranged mobilization that should always be as ready in every major city as the fire-department or hospital disaster-response program.

Methvin compared two July 1967 riots. In Toledo, rioters began smashing things, throwing rocks at police cruisers. The authorities resounded instantly and decisively, arresting the thugs, with order restored within 36 hours. No one died. Not so in Detroit, where the authorities decided to allow rioters to let off steam. Five days of violence followed, with more than 40 fatalities and more than 1,000 injured. Property damage was estimated at over $40 million, in 2020 dollars, roughly $300 million. It was the worst rioting in America since the 1863 New York City draft riots, not to be exceeded in scale until the 1992 Rodney King riots.

And there is a lasting loss for failing to do so. South Central Los Angeles never recovered from the double blow of the 1965 Watts and 1992 conflagrations. Detroit and Newark never recovered from the destruction of 1967. Washington, D.C., never fully recovered from the riots after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As Methvin noted, during the 1991 Mount Pleasant riots in the nation’s capital, the new mayor got a crash course in the right and wrong way to deal with violent unrest:

In Washington, D.C., on Sunday, May 5, a black female police officer attempted to arrest a Hispanic man who was drinking and unruly on a street in the Mount Pleasant area, heavily populated by recent Central American immigrants. The man drew a knife and advanced, the officer reported, whereupon she shot and severely wounded him. The rumor spread that he was dead, shot while handcuffed. A flashfire of violence erupted as hundreds of youths set fire to police cars, smashed windows, and looted. Washington’s new mayor, Sharon Pratt Dixon, at first ordered police to disperse crowds but make no arrests. The second night, running gangs of youths fought a thousand policemen, burning and looting as they spread out. Mayor Dixon then declared a curfew and ordered arrests, whereupon the violence subsided. Police made 230 arrests in three days.

Q.E.D.

Yet that same year, New York Mayor David Dinkins took a “let off steam” approach, as black rioters marched through the streets of Crown Heights shouting “Heil Hitler!” as they assaulted Jews, after a rabbi’s car accidentally struck two children, killing one. A rabbinical student — a student guest from Australia, a more civilized place than was New York City in 1991 — was stabbed to death. (It should be noted that in both the Mount Pleasant and Crown Heights cases, crowds reacted violently to rumors of police misconduct that proved to be false.)

That eternal lesson, however, has once again been unlearned, as the capital’s current mayor, almost as much of a moron as Minneapolis’s America’s moron numero uno, refused to help the Secret Service guard the White House when rioters assailed the residence; the Secret Service, which does know what to do, promptly quelled the violence.

The full due bill for the current mauling of countless cities across the nation, with neighborhoods torched beyond repair, will be in the many billions. Beyond that are the businesses that will never reopen and the lives of innocent property owners and their families ruined. Even worse, the due bill comes on the heels of a pandemic that for a long time will raise the costs of rebuilding and lower potential revenues.

The 2020 riots took many people by surprise, and it probably shouldn’t have; by now we should know: Welcome to protest season, where the cause changes but the tactics stay the same.

Speaking of which: Harris/Walz: Mostly Peaceful.

QUESTION ASKED: Trump’s ‘Comrade Kamala’ Attack. Accurate, But Too Far?

Why is it okay to compare Trump — and indeed every GOP presidential candidate over the last 75 years  — to a leading National Socialist, but it’s not okay to point out Kamala’s predilection for International Socialism, especially when:

Related: Man who says he accompanied Walz on trip to China calls VP candidate ‘Maoist to the core.’

NEWS YOU CAN USE? DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions.

Alas, probably not free plywood: Chicago Businesses Prepare for Mostly Peaceful Protests As DNC Brings Joy to the Windy City.

UPDATE Accept no substitutes during the semi-annual Second City riot season!