JONATHAN TURLEY: The most chilling words today: I’m from NewsGuard and I am here to rate you.

Recently, I wrote a Hill column criticizing NewsGuard, a rating operation being used to warn users, advertisers, educators and funders away from media outlets based on how it views the outlets’ “credibility and transparency.”

Roughly a week later, NewsGuard came knocking at my door. My blog, Res Ipsa (jonathanturley.org), is now being reviewed and the questions sent by NewsGuard were alarming, but not surprising.

I do not know whether the sudden interest in my site was prompted by my column. I have previously criticized NewsGuard as one of the most sophisticated operations being used to “white list” and “black list” sites.

My new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” details how such sites fit into a massive censorship system that one federal court called “Orwellian.”

For any site criticizing the media or the Biden administration, the most chilling words today are “I’m from NewsGuard and I am here to rate you.”

Conservatives have long accused the company of targeting conservative and libertarian sites and carrying out the agenda of its co-founder Steven Brill. Conversely, many media outlets have heralded his efforts to identify disinformation sites for advertisers and agencies.

Brill and his co-founder, L. Gordon Crovitz, want their company to be the media version of the Standard & Poor’s rating for financial institutions. However, unlike the S&P, which looks at financial reports, NewsGuard rates highly subjective judgments like “credibility” based on whether they publish “clearly and significantly false or egregiously misleading” information. They even offer a “Nutrition Label” for consumers of information.

Of course, what Brill considers nutritious may not be the preferred diet of many in the country. But they might not get a choice since the goal is to allow other companies and carriers to use the ratings to disfavor or censor non-nutritious sites.

Luigi and Dino Vercotti could not be reached for comment, other than insisting that you read the whole thing.

PARIS OLYMPICS: a smug spectacle of wokeness.

Is anyone else bored of ‘queering’? Everything’s getting ‘queered’ these days. We’ve had ‘Queering the Curriculum’. ‘Queering the Arts’. And my personal favourite: ‘Queering Palestine.’ This entails academics ‘unpack[ing] the multiple intersections of queer politics and the Palestinian struggle’. Hot tip for these profs: if Hamas ever invites you to discuss your theories, don’t agree to meet them on the high floor of a building. ‘Queering the Pavement’ is the only thing they’re interested in.

Now, with soul-zapping inevitability, we’ve had the ‘queering’ of the Olympic Games. Yesterday’s rain-sodden opening ceremony in Paris was super LGBTQIAzzz. There were drag acts everywhere. A bearded bloke twerked for the world. A bollock-naked man in blue paint was served on a platter of fruit to a gaggle of diet-dodging drag queens. Look, if I wanted to be exposed to the camp debauchery of drag culture, I’d go to a kindergarten.

* * * * * * * * *

The part of the ceremony that caused the biggest stink was the camp Last Supper. A bunch of drag acts gathered around a buxom woman adorned in an aureole halo crown in an unmistakable mimicking of da Vinci’s painting of Christ and the apostles at their final meal. Wearing the smug look of all glib performance artists who love nothing more than to piss off ‘normies’ – because they lack the talent for anything else – the drag queens giddily got into their disciple positions and heaped holy adoration on the lady Jesus. You could almost hear their thoughts: ‘Ooh boy, this is going to piss off old farts – yes!’

Christians are angry. As well they might be. This was ‘extremely disrespectful to Christians’, said Elon Musk. Now, naturally, there’s a backlash against the backlash. Calm down, the woke are saying. Stop being such prudes and snowflakes, they’re chortling. It’s just a little light mockery, they’re insisting. Which is big talk from a section of society that would be weeping into its keffiyehs and demanding heads on spikes if the ceremony had featured a drag-act Muhammad being served a smurf on a plate of fruit with his cock out.

No, in the land of “épater les bourgeois,” the people who would dare attempt such blasphemy would be dead:

Similarly, America’s terrifying “Christian fascists” delivered NBC, the purveyors of Friday’s mockery of the Last Supper, an absolutely savage, brutal full-on, err, Twitter ratio:

In response to Friday’s debacle, the Olympics’ spokeswoman delivers platitudes that use therapeutic leftist language about 35 years old, and a smug “sorry if you were offended” rejoinder: Paris 2024 official believes opening ceremony goal of showing community tolerance was achieved despite furor.

The ceremony’s segment appeared to resemble a depiction of The Last Supper, famously painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The performance ensemble included drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer who was stylized to resemble the Greek god Dionysus.

Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps spoke about it on Sunday.

“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps told reporters, via Reuters.

“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we are really sorry.”

Their efforts at “celebrating community tolerance” were so effective, the Olympic officials are attempting to burn every last frame of the footage: Video of Paris Olympics opening ceremony is deleted from YouTube after sparking outrage.

UPDATE: Bipartisan support! First lady Jill Biden praises Olympics opening ceremony that mocked Last Supper.

As did that man of legendary taste and decorum, Mitt Romney:

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: San Francisco’s dying downtown suffers another hammer blow as Saks Fifth Avenue bans window shoppers from coming inside.

Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to ‘appointment-only’ this summer, according to KRON4.

Locals will have to pre-book appointments at the store located on 384 Post Street from August 28.

Customers can no longer walk in and browse the luxury items, according to a company spokesman.

It comes as areas in San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery – so much so that local businesses are unable to recruit staff and residents have felt forced to flee.

In December of 2022, Virginia Postrel wrote in the Wall Street Journal: What Shopping Did for American Equality.

The urban palaces of early department stores, the climate-controlled corridors of suburban malls, the endlessly scrolling pages of Etsy, the utilitarian aisles of Walmart and the chatty reveals of haul videos aren’t merely sites of envy or exchange. They’re places where Americans—both buyers and sellers—work out who we are and who we want to be. Since the mid-19th century, modern retailing has tested the practical meaning of equality and freedom.

When A.T. Stewart opened his multistory dry goods store in 1846, the Manhattan merchant introduced two revolutionary practices that we now take for granted. He let anyone come and browse freely, whether or not intending to buy, and he charged every customer the same price. Both policies changed the everyday meaning of social equality.

At Stewart’s, wrote a journalist in 1871, “you may gaze upon a million dollars’ worth of goods, and no man will interrupt either your meditation or your admiration.” The store and its many emulators established a new social norm. Any well-behaved patron, regardless of class or ethnicity, could freely examine the merchandise without being pestered or pressured to leave.

It was a revolutionary concept, and at least in San Francisco, it was fun while it lasted.

BREAKING: Mass Casualty Event in Israel After Hezbollah Rocket Attack.

OLD AND BUSTED: Leni Riefenstahl films the 1936 Olympics from a fascist perspective.

The New Hotness? 2024 Olympics portray themselves from a uber-woke perspective:

● Drag Queens Parody the Last Supper During Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

● Bishop Barron on Paris Olympics Drag ‘Last Supper’: ‘Would They’ve Dared Mock Islam in a Similar Way?’

● As Islamic Groups Vow Massacres, Paris Olympics Target Christianity.

● Trans People Are So Oppressed That They’re Opening the Olympics (VIP).

Exit question: “Why is a planet-wide celebration of athleticism and uncommon sporting prowess being introduced with yet another tedious display of cross-dressing, oddly selective sacrilege, and self-satisfied obesity?”

UPDATE:

● Israeli soccer team booed during national anthem at Olympic opener.

● “This summer in Paris, Israeli athletes will proudly compete as citizens of Israel. Six Palestinians will be competing too — but not as citizens of Palestine, because there is no nation of Palestine.”

● Metaphor alert, part un: Olympic flag raised upside down at end of rain-soaked opening ceremony.

● Metaphor alert, part deux:

MORE:

WAIT, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE WASN’T MEANT TO BE A HOW-TO GUIDE: Astronaut Mark Kelly, one of the favorites to be Kamala’s VP pick, literally owns a spy balloon company funded by a Chinese venture capitalist.

I did NOT have the Democrats’ darling politician and favorite to be Kamala’s VP, Astronaut Mark Kelly, as a Chinese spy balloon guy on my bingo card.

But, dudes, it’s real.

Another potential veep candidate is under the spotlight as well: Pennsylvania Dem accuses potential Harris VP pick Gov. Josh Shapiro of sexism, covering up sexual harassment.

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Queen Kamala I Edition.

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY, COMRADES! Kamala the Language Cop: Harris Urges End to Terms ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism,’ ‘Illegal Alien.’

Vice President Kamala Harris said the public should no longer use the terms “radical Islamic terrorism” and “illegal alien” during a speech she gave at a Los Angeles mosque in July 2016.

“We must have the courage to object when they use that term, ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ which ignores how Muslims have overwhelmingly been the greatest victims of terror,” she told the crowd at the Islamic Center of Southern California. “We must also have the courage to reject the term ‘illegal alien.’”

Does she simply hate Genesis all together, or is she more of a fan of the Peter Gabriel era?

THE DEMOCRAT STANDARD-BEARER IS WHATEVER HER BOSSES ORDER HER TO BE:

Kamala Harris, whose mentor and former boyfriend Willie Brown was one of the most powerful figures in California state politics, was part of an expansive political machine, and she ran the attorney general’s office along the lines of a twentieth century urban prosecutor. She refused to cooperate with ICE in disclosing the immigration status of criminal offenders, but such antics are the baseline in leftwing sanctuary cities like San Francisco.

Until recently, San Francisco was a colorful but relatively safe town—small (with under a million residents), wealthy, and surrounded by water. With antisocial behavior largely confined to certain districts such as the Tenderloin, San Francisco lived up to its reputation as one of America’s urban jewels. Its murder rate was much lower than in gritty Oakland across the Bay, but the Golden Gate city distinguished itself in drug-related deaths. In that category, San Francisco posted statistics nine times the national average — until the opiate epidemic caught the rest of America up.

As DA, Harris focused her attention, somewhat strangely, on marijuana offenses. In the Bay Area, pot is considered about as exotic as vitamin supplements. To be fair, she was in line with her predecessor — Hallinan prosecuted even more of those types of  violations. But Harris opposed recreational marijuana and in 2010 co-authored the rebuttal to the pro-legalization argument for the California voter guide. Although she changed her position on cannabis prohibition once she rose to the national stage, there is little doubt that the prosecution of marijuana offenses in one of the most permissive American municipalities contributed to her downfall as a presidential contender. During the 2020 presidential debate, Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard noted: “she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when asked if she ever smoked marijuana.” Kamala’s candidacy was already faltering, and that remark finished it.

Kamala could certainly get tough on San Franciscan tokers. But cop killers? Meh:

.@theleoterrell https://t.co/lvJxCQTJUn pic.twitter.com/ypjKPUa590

— L (@SomeBitchIIKnow) July 26, 2024

MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Biden-Harris Mental Gymnastics.

Harris last faced serious opposition in 2010, when she barely won the race for state attorney general in navy-blue California. Her 2020 presidential campaign collapsed before Iowa. She has no political base, no signature issue, is not part of a movement, and is best known for her word salads and very online fans.

These inconvenient details have been ignored or forgotten. Instead, an orgy of excitement has accompanied Harris’s rise. With the efficiency of a Malenkov, she locked up the presumptive nomination within 48 hours of Biden’s departure. Her ability to read off a TelePrompTer with an expression other than befuddlement has been rapturously received by her grateful party. Young and impressionable pundits speak of an “Obama moment,” seemingly unaware that Barack Obama emerged as a star at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and became, with the publication of The Audacity of Hope in 2006, a cultural phenomenon. In 2008 Obama filled an NFL stadium for his Greek-column acceptance speech. Harris has coconut tree memes.

The Democrats and the press may yet make Harris something special, something new. Friendly reporters are doing the grunt work of pretending that Harris had no role in the southern border crisis, revising years-old articles to spread the fiction that she was never called “border czar.” No doubt they will also try to distance Harris from the 20 percent rise in prices during the Biden-Harris administration, from the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea, and from the ongoing cover-up of Biden’s infirmity. Perhaps they will succeed.

Harris’s candidacy, after all, has knocked Donald Trump off the front page the first time in a decade. Her earned-media bounce has restored the presidential race to its pre-debate equilibrium: Trump leads, but it’s close. Can Harris and the Democrats keep up the act? She’s an alternate who finds herself the star of the team. She’s facing a political gold medalist. In this competition, there’s no room for error. And the judges? They can be harsh.

“‘You are a slow learner, Winston.’ Said O’Brien gently:”

“How can I help it?” he blubbered. How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.

QED: Gretchen Whitmer: Harris has ‘more experience than the whole GOP ticket put together.’

And the public should completely forget what those experiences consisted of:

Not least of which, this experience:

THROWBACK: Kamala says she was the last person in the room and was a major part in the decision to pull out of Afghanistan which led to the disastrous withdrawal where 13 servicemembers were kiIIed.

This is on Kamala. pic.twitter.com/2894fFmHNo

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 26, 2024

BIDEN NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CITED ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP WITH LACK OF DISCLOSURE BEFORE VIOLENT PROTEST, PERMIT SHOWS:

One day before anti-Israel protesters caused mayhem in Washington, D.C., burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he spoke to Congress, scrawling graffiti across federal property, and burning American flags, the National Park Service granted the organizing group a public gathering permit. The Washington Examiner obtained a copy of that permit in full from a Biden administration source — providing a key window into the planning of the rally and the ways in which demonstrators skirted federal rules.

The permit, a redacted version of which can be read at this link, was given to the ANSWER Coalition, a group that coordinated with other pro-Palestinian activist hubs on the planning and execution of the protest. Dozens of protesters were arrested following clashes with police, though at least 11 of them had their misdemeanor charges dropped by Thursday evening, the Washington Examiner reported.

* * * * * * * *

In the permit, the ANSWER Coalition described how it would be protesting in various areas in the nation’s capital, including John Marshall Park and Columbus Plaza. At 3:37 p.m. on Wednesday, after many hours of protests in the streets, the NPS said the permit for Columbus Plaza had been revoked.

Minutes later, a man wearing a red shirt was captured on social media graffitiing the phrase “Hamas is coming” on a historic fountain in the plaza honoring Christopher Columbus.

The Wednesday protest, according to the permit, was slated for between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. that day. Activists continued to demonstrate after 4 p.m. in the district as part of the rally, which ANSWER said on the permit application was to “stop the genocide in Gaza.” The protest was called “Arrest Netanyahu! Surround Congress July 24 with the People’s Red Line for Palestine,” according to ANSWER’s website.

And in the aftermath: At least 11 anti-Israel protesters have their cases dropped in DC.

At least 11 anti-Israel protesters arrested in Washington, D.C., had their misdemeanor charges dropped Thursday evening, one day after protesters scrawled graffiti across federal property and burned an American flag in the nation’s capital.

Fortunately for the protestors, they chose the right flag to destroy. In Soviet America, choosing the wrong flag to desecrate could have very serious consequences: Three Washington [state] teens are facing TEN YEARS in jail after making skid marks on LGBT rainbow road mural while riding e-scooters.

PARIS OLYMPICS ARE OFF TO A SCARY, ROCKY START:

Fifty years ago, there were no professionals competing for the United States. Today, they’re all professionals, paid top dollar so they can train full-time for the glory of the country. They are sponsored by Coke, Pepsi, GM, and dozens of the largest corporations in the world.

Even the USA Canoe Slalom Olympic Team has sponsors.

The preparations for the games have taken seven years, so naturally, France is on edge, hoping everything goes off without a hitch.

Is a sabotage of the French rail network considered a “hitch”?

CNN:

France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple “malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as “an attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

The French state railway company SNCF said in a post on X that “a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” and asked “all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.”

Who’s behind it? The French government and the rail company don’t say. For a list of suspects, see “telephone book.”

Earlier: The Olympian Self-Deception of Anti-Zionists. “Atop this questionable decision, Adidas piled a whopper: Its chosen model for the ’72 throwback shoe would be none other than Bella Hadid, a viciously anti-Israel celebrity who has used her platform to advance pro-Hamas propaganda. Adidas then apologized and said it would be revising the campaign. Then Hadid reportedly lawyered up, and Adidas apologized to Hadid. The shoe company founded by actual Nazis is very sorry to everyone involved—sorry to Bella Hadid, sorry to her critics for hiring Bella Hadid, etc.”

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: “As the daughter of a cancer researcher, Kamala Harris would bring a lifelong familiarity with science to the presidency, experts say.”

She’s “familiar with science!” But her boss claimed to have “ended cancer as we know it” a year ago, so I’m not sure her “familiarity” is even relevant going forward.

BIDEN: "We ended cancer as we know it" 🧐 pic.twitter.com/oio44FEnVp

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 25, 2023

THUNDERBIRDS ARE NO! Sinead O’Connor waxwork compared to Thunderbirds puppet withdrawn from Dublin museum.

WATCH THE NARRATIVE BE CREATED:

Those leaked DNC talking points may as well have been an instruction manual for the media.
Just look at this. They're practically reciting the list point-by-point. pic.twitter.com/w365u927nY

— Bill D'Agostino (@Banned_Bill) July 25, 2024

Soon to be tossed into the Memory Hole:

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Kamala Harris Distances Herself From Kamala Harris.

She’s attempting to imagine what will be, but there may be way too of what has been to become unburdened by.

GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING:

Shot:

Chaser:

OOF. https://t.co/y9kTvKBKhW

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) July 26, 2024

Or to put it another way:

OH, THAT LIBERAL FASCISM: A fascist rally in Washington, DC.

What would you call a gathering of angry people marching behind a giant, grotesque effigy of a horned Jew with blood dripping from his mouth? A gathering at which one attendee held up a placard calling for a ‘Final Solution’ for ‘the Zionists’? A gathering at which people giddily waved the flag of a movement that is devoted to the murder of Jews? A gathering at which there were banners and speedily daubed graffiti on public monuments singing the praises of this Jew-killing outfit? I would call it a fascist rally. And yet, bizarrely, when just such a rally took place in Washington, DC yesterday, the liberal media called it an ‘anti-war protest’. Were they watching something else?

Let’s speak frankly: yesterday’s protests in Washington, DC against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, were deeply disturbing. They were riddled not only with the febrile Israelophobic bigotry we’ve come to expect from the supposedly progressive left, but also with open anti-Semitism. With classic anti-Semitism. With expressions of virulent contempt for the Jew as blood-drinker, the Jew as child-killer, the Jew as such a key source of the world’s ills that a ‘solution’, ideally a ‘final’ one, must be found to his continual ailing of the human race. This was a hate-fest masquerading as concern for Palestinians.

Consider what many in the press are referring to as ‘the Netanyahu puppet’. What cowardly euphemising. This was no mere mocking likeness of the Israeli PM – it was a repulsive caricature of The Jew. Displayed outside Congress, where Netanyahu was speaking, it contained almost every anti-Jew trope. Blood-spattered horns sprouted from the Jew’s head. His hands and mouth were generously smeared with fake blood, as if this creature had freshly feasted on human flesh. His white shirt was red with blood, too – the spillage from his vampiric gorging.

It was right out of Medieval Europe, where eruptions of anti-Semitism were fuelled by ‘folk beliefs’ about Jews having ‘horns and big noses’. And being blood-drinkers, of course. The blood libel that was the trigger for so many medieval pogroms held that Jews killed Christian kids to use their blood in the baking of Matzah bread. To see such Dark Ages-style hatred and hysteria on the streets of DC in 2024 – to see a mob in modern America gather to mock an effigy of a blood-drinking Jew with horns – is horrendous. There were other effigies of Netanyahu, too. One was set on fire outside Union Station to the cheers and cackles of the crowd. It was like a medieval purging. It brought to mind the centuries-old practice of ‘Judas burning’ at Easter, also known as the ‘Burning of the Jew’, when effigies of that ‘Christ killer’ would be set alight.

Nonsense — those objective straight-shooting right down the middle journalists at NPR assure me that yesterday’s protests were “Largely Peaceful,” albeit a tad fiery as well.

SHARK SANDWICH: Nancy Rommelmann: When Is a Tuna Sandwich Not a Tuna Sandwich? When it’s the press asking us to see Kamala Harris as the second coming of Julia Child.

If I try very hard, I can squeeze out a drop of admiration for the White House staff. They stayed at their posts, and if this meant feeding the public a steady diet of bullshit sandwiches with the intent of keeping Biden in office, no less sentient, then so be it. But I cannot summon that drop for the journalists conscripted to distribute the sandwiches. They had one job, to be the eyes and ears for the public, and in this they failed. Some of the failure can be traced to a susceptibility to a brain fever inspired by Donald Trump, a fever that told some reporters it was not only okay to act on a set of alt-journalistic principles, it was noble, and if this meant squinting hard enough to see a visibly failing 81-year-old man as the most capable person to lead the nation, they would do it. They had to. Animus for Trump was the power-pack they and the administration had counted on riding to 2028 and, as stinky and rickety as it might be, they could let go only at their own peril.

And then on Sunday, in flew a deus ex machina. You can nearly hear the communal heave of relief from those on the political beat. No more proppin’ up ol’ Joe; with Harris, they had a fresh candidate to spit-shine, and I imagine the country’s editors working double-time, trawling for stories that made the vice-president look, if not cuddly, then at least relatable, and didn’t she do some cooking thing a few years ago?

Which is how we wound up with multiple national reporters snorting up what crumbs they could from a short-lived “Cooking With Kamala” series on YouTube, in which — spoiler alert — the only item Harris herself cooks to completion is a tuna sandwich.

“All hail Kamala the Great!,” Neo writes:

The Democrats and the MSM have figured out a way to handle all of this. It involves three steps. The first is to re-invent Kamala as the ENERGIZED! EXCITING! FRESH! candidate, as though she just dropped in from planet Xenon and has no history. Her remarkably undistinguished record (and that’s being kind) as part of the Biden administration’s failures will be ignored, in hopes of Kamala 2.0 catching on with the public. Step 2 will be to hammer home the idea that Republicans threaten women’s “reproductive rights” and Kamala and the Democrats will protect them. Step 3 involves choosing a more moderate running mate in order to preserve the fiction that Kamala will not govern from the far left.

No doubt, as Charles Cooke writes, Kamala can win. But unlike Obama, (Bill) Clinton, and Jimmy Carter when they debuted upon the national scene, she’s not, to borrow from Obama’s description of himself from The Audacity of Hope, “a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes [can] project their own views.” And she lacks Obama and Bill Clinton’s rock star personalities and undeniable skill at retail politics:

This isn't going to be like Obama for the media. She has a very public record of comments, a prior presidential run, and in administration policy positions like put in charge of the border. This is going to be a heavy lift for them. https://t.co/YlAuH2dv1W

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 25, 2024

Classical reference in headline:

NPR: Protests in D.C. Were ‘Largely Peaceful.’

They did the meme.

Good God, they did the meme! Unfortunately, since it happened on the radio, there will be no chyron to screenshot.

* * * * * * * * *

On Wednesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered, NPR National Correspondent Jennifer Ludden said that despite “some skirmishes with police” at events in Washington, D.C. critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, “the atmosphere was largely peaceful, as protesters sought to draw attention to ongoing violence” and that the events also had “a notable number of Jewish protesters” in attendance.

Ludden said, “There were some skirmishes with police, who say they used pepper spray, but the atmosphere was largely peaceful, as protesters sought to draw attention to ongoing violence they feel desperate to stop.”

NPR can get away with this sort of thing because their audience is in thrall to them, and they don’t need to share pictures. People who listen to the station trust those voices, which are Oh So Cultured, and wrongly assume that they are getting an intelligent and accurate picture of the world.

As with CNN’s infamous Chyron in 2020, those “mostly peaceful protests” were awfully fiery as well, yesterday:

UPDATE: NPR’s “largely peaceful” quote is sure doing some heavy lifting as well:

It’s “largely peaceful” inasmuch as “The charges against four people, including a 15-year-old, who were arrested for assaulting police officers during yesterday’s riot were dropped,” Townhall alum Julio Rosas tweets.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM BUCK DHARMA:

THE PASSWORD IS “SWORDFISH” “SELFLESS:” More Media Journolisting: The ‘Selfless’ Biden Narrative.

“Nothing brings out my skepticism,” Ann Althouse wrote this morning, “like everyone using the same word.” Count me double on that, especially when the “everyone” applies to media outlets in the US and around the world.

It’s as if the Journolist has never gone away! Which it clearly hasn’t, as Ann’s screenshot demonstrates:

More Journolist-style coordination here: Well Well Well, What Do We Have Here? Dems Received Talking Points About Border Czar Kamala Harris (Pic).

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: ’Inside Kamala Harris’s Plan To End Cash Bail and ‘Transform The Criminal Justice System.’ Harris wants more restrictions on cops and fewer restrictions on criminals, a memo from her 2020 campaign shows.

JAMES PIERESON: Kamala Harris’s Michael Dukakis moment.

She and her running mate may come out of the convention even with, or perhaps even slightly ahead of, the Trump-Vance ticket.

The honeymoon will not last very long. Trump will succeed in painting Harris as an out-of-touch San Francisco leftist, much as Bush portrayed Dukakis as a Massachusetts liberal. Trump will find plenty of running room with that campaign, as there is hardly a left-wing cause that she has not embraced.

She was supposed to be in charge of the southern border but has done nothing for four years as millions of migrants flowed into the United States from just about every country in the world. She favored the Black Lives Matter campaign a few years ago (before it was revealed to be a fraud), raised money to bail out rioters and looters in Minnesota, and refused to condemn proponents of “defunding the police.” She was once a prosecutor, but very much of the kind favored by George Soros—that is, a pro-crime prosecutor. She supports the Green New Deal, with its array of taxes and subsidies designed to eliminate fossil fuels, gas-powered cars, and much else besides, including air conditioning and gas stoves. She favors cancellation of student debts, ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts. She is equivocal in support of Israel: she has supported a ceasefire in the current war, an approach favored by critics of Israel, and has criticized the Jewish state for not doing enough to ease the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

In general, she views the United States and the world much as “the Squad” in Congress does—that is, from a left-wing point of view. She and her fervent supporters are out of touch with the views of most voters. As a result, middle-of-the-road voters, independents, and many Hispanics will desert Harris’s campaign. In addition, based upon her record, she is not even an especially effective campaigner or a speaker who conveys much substance on the stump.

Once her views are made known to the public, Harris’s support will begin to melt away, though perhaps not as thoroughly as Dukakis’s support did in 1988. After all, there are enough Trump-haters and loyal Democrats to prevent her campaign from collapsing altogether. But by mid-September, Trump will have opened up a six-point lead in the polls that will remain intact for the balance of the campaign. In October, Democrat operatives, aware that Harris’s ticket is going to lose, will begin to shore up downticket races for Congress in the hope of saving some degree of influence in the House and Senate, thereby preventing a total electoral debacle.

Don’t get cocky.

MARK JUDGE: America, Honor, and Building a Grocery Store from Scratch.