MICHAEL WALSH: Good-Bye to All That.

And here we are. Despite the polls, which at this point only offer a choice between two superannuated, erratic geriatrics, the voting public understands that neither Trump nor Biden is the way forward. Both are running in large part on resentment of the other, and of the nearly — nearly — 50 percent of Americans who, at the moment, support them. But there is a near-zero chance that either man will be on the ballot in November of 2024 when the only poll that matters takes place. (Ask Hillary Clinton if she disagrees.) Biden is visibly crumbling before everybody’s eyes, while Trump’s King Lear imitation on his vanity social-media platform, Truth Social, has become a national embarrassment.

Further, the increasingly surly Biden’s performance in office is the best argument against returning him to power, while Trump’s disgraceful final year in office, which includes both turning the country over to the sinister Tony Fauci and summoning the demons of January 6 to challenge an election even his closet advisers later admitted under oath they knew was lost, disqualifies him from another turn in the Oval Office.

But, as they used to say in Vietnam, embrace the suck. With neither octogenarian (Trump would be 82 at the close of a hypothetical second term) in the race, the way would be clear for a long-overdue changing of the Boomer and even pre-Boomer guard that has long dominated U.S. politics. A Trump- and Biden-free election opens up vast new vistas for a rapidly changing country, allowing frank if not always friendly discussion about today’s particularly thorny problems, including the untrammeled invasion across the southern border, the rolling back of Critical Theory and all its unholy spawns, and returning the libertine genie of “non-binary” sexuality to its bottle and burying it at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

The removal of Trump and Biden from the lists would also immediately make clear the stark distinctions between the parties, unencumbered by their outsized, media-fueled personalities. On the left, the death of modern Liberalism, which began with the McGovern campaign of 1972, would be laid bare, and the “woke” minority exposed for the malignant civilization-killers they are. On the right, the post-presidential poison of Trumpism would dissipate into the atmosphere, to be replaced by a fair contest among Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence (representing some form of Trumpism minus Trump), and perhaps even Glenn Youngkin, currently lurking in plain sight.

As Andrew McCarthy notes: Democrats’ 2024 Plan Is Working to Perfection. “Former president Trump has a nine-point lead over President Joe Biden in a recent Washington Post/ABC poll! Yeah, right. So skewed in Trump’s favor is this survey, it’s hilarious — at least until it dawns on you that this nonsense was put out by reliable media-Democratic-complex organs, in the undoubted calculation that Republicans would crow, ‘See? Trump must be the nominee!’ As night follows day, Republicans have fallen for it — as if we inhabit a world where it is fathomable that the deeply unpopular Trump has a nearly double-digit lead over the incumbent president. What could get it to 20 points? Another Capitol riot?”

QUESTION ASKED: Are Cops Allowed to Be the Good Guys Yet?

Hollywood nuked the hero-cop, in an effort to be less offensive to those who might confuse movies with real life. Nowadays, exploring a cop’s internal struggles in film and seeing the world through their eyes in our current, crime-ridden era is far too brazen and provocative.

And if a filmmaker dares try, our cadre of trusty critics and demagogues are ready to swarm and condemn any effort as an endorsement of all police actions and an apology for anything awful that a real cop has ever done.

Maybe we are this impressionable?

Would the resurrection of cops as big-screen protagonists elevate the optics of the law enforcement profession, attracting a more inspired applicant? (See the Navy recruitment boost after 1986’s “Top Gun”) Cadets who are more equipped to deescalate tensions, make split-second life-or-death calls, even catch the teenage version of me?

We empower police with lethality; we should only encourage this if we want cops to be the best of us.

“There’s a flip side to that coin.”

Passions have simmered since 2020. In Minneapolis, where they enacted cuts to law enforcement budgets and staff, and in LA, where the mayor pledged to cut one hundred fifty million in police funding outside his mansion in Hancock Park, the statistics should be strategically dismissed.

Sure, crime rates have soared and response times have increased, but why would we want to summon the police anyway? Aren’t they the bad guys now?

Even if some of our national crime wave isn’t being exaggerated by Fox News, people on the Westside need not worry, it’s the communities of color that will continue to suffer the brunt of this brave new world.

Cops are still acceptable on the small screen, however. In his 1983 book Inside Prime Time, the late Todd Gitlin wrote:

[Police Story and Police Woman producer David] Gerber took to cop shows not only because the police were society’s blue line but because they could be the networks’. In the industry jargon, they afforded a franchise—a hero’s right to interfere every week in the lives of others. “In television there are a certain amount of franchises,” Gerber points out. “What do you got? You got doctor, lawyer, and chief. Throw in some Indians, for westerns. So doctor, lawyer, and police; the westerns are gone. You try to do something offbeat—White Shadow, Paper Chase, American Dream—and you get shot down. So you stay with the franchise or you take a chance. In June the networks have patience with anything. The flowers are blooming, hooray, hooray. Come September, they lose patience, because they’re in a competitive race.”

Much more recently — last year — Cheers producer Rob Long wrote in Commentary: How You Know Americans Like Cops.

But my friend who pitched this project did not make a sale. Cops, he was told, are problematic. People, he was told, don’t like cop shows because they no longer like cops. And no one wants to see a show about bad cops trying to go straight.

Which was an odd conclusion for those television executives to draw. From the Law & Order franchise (begun in 1990) to the CSI collection of hit police dramas on CBS (begun in 2000) to the successful reboots of S.W.A.T. (premiered 2017) and FBI (debuted 2018)—American audiences can’t seem to get enough of cops putting bad guys in jail. Blue Bloods, a popular and long-running drama on CBS about an NYPD family, has been a ratings workhorse since 2010. It rarely dips below 10 million viewers per episode. And don’t forget the two 911s on Fox and Chicago PD on NBC.

So why did my friend strike out all over town? Because he was pitching a new series, something fresh and original—well, not too fresh or original, it was basically The Dirty Dozen with cops—and it rattled the executives. It’s one thing to extend a franchise that already exists and that comes from a powerful producer—Dick Wolf at NBC, Jerry Bruckheimer at CBS— but it’s another to ask a network exec to lean back in his Aeron and take a chance on something, especially when all the cultural indicators he follows are sending the loud message that cops are radioactive.

And yet: The ratings for these shows in general have been steady-as-she-goes, even during 2020, the tumultuous year that saw protests, riots, and the defund-the-police movement take hold of American culture. Well, certain parts of American culture.

According to my rough math, based on weekly Nielsen ratings, about 75 million people watch police dramas every week. They may be out of step with the moment, but that’s a lot of people. Enough to make a difference in things that depend on getting a large group to agree with you, as in election results.

I’ll bet a fair amount of those viewers would enjoy a good big screen popcorn movie about cops as well.

IN THE MAIL: Borrowed Time, by John Nolte.

ROGER KIMBALL: Jamaal Bowman and the Wisdom of Orwell.

What’s the most famous line in George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”?

One good candidate comes when the animals wake up one day to discover that the uplifting, egalitarian motto that had been painted on the side of the barn for all to see—“All Animals Are Equal”—had acquired a codicil.

“All Animals are Equal,” it now read, “But Some Are More Equal Than Others.”

It’s a proclamation for our time.

Don’t be surprised if Attorney General Merrick Garland decides to substitute it for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) current motto “QUI PRO DOMINA JUSTITIA SEQUITUR”: “Who prosecutes for Lady Justice.”

Actually, Mr. Garland keeps telling us that “no one is above the law” and “everyone, Democrat as well as Republican,” is treated the same.

That’s what he says.

However, he does the opposite, as anyone who compares the way that (for example) the Bidens are treated and the way Donald Trump and his supporters are treated.

It’s a two-tier, banana-republic system over which Mr. Garland presides, with some animals obviously, flagrantly being more equal than others.

The latest, mildly comical example of this dispensation was vouchsafed to us by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, “D” with a capital “D” from New York.

The gambit that Orwell described has come in handy for Mr. Bowman.

When Mr. Bowman was a school principal, he warned students that if they disrupted the school’s business by frivolously calling 911, pulling a fire alarm when there was no fire, and so on, they would face suspension or expulsion.

Now that he’s an elected representative of the U.S. Congress, however, he sees how useful such disruptions can be.

Stephen Miller adds: It Would Appear Some People Are Above The Law:

In this country, no one is above the law” has become a rallying mantra of both our national media and increasing, the Democratic Party (but is there a difference, really?). Attorney General Merrick Garland used this phrase on 60 Minutes this past Sunday, as did President Joe Biden during a friendly kid glove chat with ProPublica reporter John Harwood.

As justification for pursuing more than ninety indictments on several fronts against former president Donald Trump, on everything from electioneering to housing classified documents, the left has pounded the tables on the rule of law being the most important foundational principal to the survival of the Republic itself. And it has been solemnly reported that way by several cable news infotainment, including Jake Tapper and Rachel Maddow.

Well now they get to put this claim to the test. This past weekend, as members of Congress were staying to vote on a continuing resolution to avert a possible government shutdown, Representative Jamaal Bowman, from New York, was captured on video camera in the federal Cannon Building appearing to pull a red and clearly-labeled fire alarm. Bowman’s excuse, per his office, was that he was in a hurry and the notion of a push-bar exit door confused and disoriented him at the time.

Meanwhile, Bowman keeps digging: In Jamaal Bowman’s continuing tale of unfortunate events, he ‘accidentally’ calls Republicans ‘Nazis:’

I just became aware that in our messaging guidance, there was inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent. I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party & neo-Nazis. https://t.co/DUi92VpUia

— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) October 2, 2023

Which seems odd, because today isn’t the first time that he’s called a Republican a Nazi:

Was it also an accidental, non-consensual use of the term when you called me a Nazi back in March? Do you condemn that use of the term too? https://t.co/frEmJjJ16u pic.twitter.com/YFp1OJwKho

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) October 2, 2023

And finally, America’s Newspaper of Record “reports:” Rep. Bowman Pulls Fire Alarm Again While Trying To Flush Urinal.

NEWSOM PICKS LAPHONZA BUTLER AS FEINSTEIN REPLACEMENT: “Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision.”

UPDATE: Why does Butler list her location as “Maryland” on her Twitter homepage?

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Buffalo Guy Kicking Himself For Not Just Pulling Fire Alarm To Evacuate Congress.

DISPATCHES FROM THE SOCIALIST PARADISE: Man arrested by Cuban police for possession of powdered milk is beaten to death.

GREAT MOMENTS IN OBJECTIVITY: Katie Couric: Obama Owes Me a ‘Big-Ass Bouquet’ for 2008 Palin Attack Interview.

Fox News media reporter Joseph Wulfsohn reported on Friday that former CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric boasted at the liberal Texas Tribune Festival last weekend about how she helped Barack Obama get elected in 2008 with her infamous attack interview on Republican Gov. Sarah Palin. “You’re welcome, by the way,” Couric told the audience, sparking laughter and applause.

She added, “I always thought that Barack Obama should have sent me a big-ass bouquet of flowers for that interview.” Then-White House battle-axe Helen Thomas said Couric “saved the country” with that interview.

She justified sticking it to McCain for health reasons, and for his poor judgment in picking Palin. “I think people were concerned that here she would be a heartbeat away from the presidency, John McCain had cancer, I believe, four times. And I think suddenly, they were not only questioning her abilities, but also his judgment in selecting her,” Couric said. “So I think that had a big impact on the election, on the campaign. And so I thought I did a good job.”

As a loyal Democratic Party apparatchik with a byline, I suppose. To be fair, she was far from alone in the MSM selling out that year:

JOHN KASS: Behold: Your Golden Moutza of the Month.

“So many worthy candidates, but only one can win,” notes John Allen. “Chicago’s Brandon for his communist grocery stores and tent cities for the invading alien army. The head vegetable in Washington for blaming that invasion and all the other problems caused by his misguided policies on Trump. Chuck Schemer for always looking over his glasses at us like some stern school marm while he relaxes the rules of decorum to accommodate a guy who refuses to wear the proper uniform. The senator from Pennsylvania who is so addled that he thinks shorts, T-shirt and hoodie IS the proper uniform. AOC for using the pandemic as a reason to buy an electric car. The gaslighted voters who elected ALL the schmos listed above. The left-wing propaganda machine — otherwise known as the news media — for gaslighting all those voters. EVERY one of them deserves the moutza. NAH! Feesa Etho.”

Lin Feddor Cappozzo nominates indicted New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Mendendez.

“Gold bars, cash and cars. Wonder what that bought? Hmm. Claims he will not resign. From the party that screams no one is above the law. Nah!”

Nah, indeed, despite Merrick Garland’s hilarious claim:

WATCH: On 60 Minutes, Joe Biden's AG Merrick Garland laughably claims, "We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends." pic.twitter.com/GUVxf5JumT

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 1, 2023

OKAY, GROOMERS: Shocked Parents Discover that Orange County’s Capistrano USD Has A ‘Private’ Individual Transition Plan.

BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT HE WON’T: House Republicans want Bowman to be given Jan. 6 treatment over fire alarm.

‘WE’LL GET YOU THROUGH YOUR CHILDREN!’ The Night in 1958 That Launched the Culture War.

BOMB CANADA — THE CASE FOR WAR: ‘Canada has a dark history with Nazis:’ political scandal prompts reckoning.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, LONDON TELEGRAPH: It’s time to admit it: Black Lives Matter hysteria made fools of us all.

THIS IS CNN: IRS agent said CNN has Hunter Biden email where Hunter claimed legal ‘stuff’ would go away under Biden admin.

The House Ways and Means Committee released a document on Wednesday showing an IRS agent relaying an inquiry from a CNN producer who claimed to have an email where Hunter Biden said that all of his “stuff” would go away once his father was elected president. To date, the alleged email has never become public.

“Documents show Hunter Biden and his business associates had access to the White House and Joe Biden’s advisors; Biden business associates were instructed to not ‘mention Joe being involved’; and official trips to Ukraine line up U.S. government actions and Hunter Biden’s financial bottom line,” the Wednesday press release states.

“And, after the IRS began investigating these crimes, Hunter apparently “expected all of this ‘stuff’ to go away when his dad becomes President.”

One of the documents involves IRS public affairs officer Justin Cole emailing two IRS officials involved in criminally investigating Hunter Biden and reporting that a CNN producer has an email from Hunter Biden where the president’s son said he was “not willing to accept” a plea deal and “expected all of this ‘stuff’ to go away when his dad becomes president.”

Of course CNN buries it, rather than actually do some reporting: The Hunter Biden scandal has exposed the death of journalism.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Massive emergency alert test scheduled to hit your phone on Wednesday. Here’s what to know.

LOL! The Jamaal Bowman fire alarm memes are … on fire.

https://t.co/66LY0LVrLB pic.twitter.com/n4pzKdCLn1

— Magills (@magills_) September 30, 2023

GREAT MOMENTS IN SPORTSMANSHIP: Watch: College Football Player Suspended After Appearing To Stomp On Player’s Head.

This is disgusting – Louisiana Tech LB Brevin Randle deliberately stomped over a defenseless player's head.

Somehow this wasn't flagged but he should be suspended immediately.pic.twitter.com/qMGr3W0n4J

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 30, 2023

MOTORIST FINED AFTER DOG SEEN BEHIND WHEEL OF CAR:

Police in Slovakia have fined a car owner whose dog was behind the wheel.

A speed camera photo, posted on Facebook, appears to show a smiling canine in the driving seat of a Skoda.

The car owner insisted that his pet — a brown hunting dog — had suddenly leapt into his lap.

But officers in the village of Sterusy, north-east of the capital, Bratislava, said footage showed this was not the case as there was no sudden movement in the car.

But why? He’s both a very good boy, and an excellent driver.

SKYNET SMILES: Future Shock: World’s first humanoid robot factory set to open later this year where robots will be helping build other robots.

The key word there is “humanoid.” We’re talking clunky Boston Dynamics-style robots, not Rutger Hauer and Darryl Hannah out of Blade Runner.

(At least for the moment.)

BOMB CANADA, THE CASE FOR WAR:

September 29, 2023—Ottawa–Gatineau—Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Today, the CRTC is advancing its regulatory plan to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework and ensure online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content.

On May 12, 2023, the CRTC launched its first public consultations. After thoroughly examining all the evidence on the public record, including over 200 interventions, the CRTC is issuing its first two decisions.

First, the CRTC is setting out which online streaming services need to provide information about their activities in Canada. Online streaming services that operate in Canada, offer broadcasting content, and earn $10 million or more in annual revenues will need to complete a registration form by November 28, 2023. Registration collects basic information, is only required once and can be completed in just a few steps.

Second, the CRTC is setting conditions for online streaming services to operate in Canada. These conditions take effect today and require certain online streaming services to provide the CRTC with information related to their content and subscribership. The decision also requires those services to make content available in a way that is not tied to a specific mobile or Internet service.

You went full Ingsoc, Canada. Never go full Ingsoc.

‘MILTON FRIEDMAN ISN’T RUNNING THE SHOW ANYMORE:’ The US Is Starting To Feel The Pain Of Years Of Massive Deficit Spending.

BREAKING: Senate Approves Continuing Resolution to Avoid Government Shutdown, signed by Biden: Biden signs last-minute, short-term bipartisan bill to avert disastrous government shutdown.

BUT WE ALL KNOW HE WON’T BE: Rep. Jamaal Bowman Broke the Law, and He Needs to Be Charged. “Bowman pulled a fire alarm on Saturday in an apparent attempt to obstruct the House from voting on a continuing resolution bill. That came as both sides attempted to come to an agreement to keep the government from shutting down. Now, video evidence is confirming that Bowman was the culprit. Here’s a still image in which the representative is easily identifiable.”

🚨🚨NEW — Capitol Police are circulating this photo of a man pulling the fire alarm in Cannon. Looks a lot like Jamaal Bowman pic.twitter.com/khzpigSvWI

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 30, 2023

HOUSE PASSES MCCARTHY’S LAST-DITCH SPENDING BILL, SENDING STOPGAP TO SENATE AS SHUTDOWN DEADLINE NEARS.