I CAN MAKE YOUR BIG TOE ITCH BY STIMULATING THE RIGHT SPOT ON YOUR BRAIN: But I can’t stimulate your brain to make you think about the rough elegance of Madison’s solution for the problem of factions in a republic. Trust me, this is a big deal in politics and everything else because Mind Matters.

MORE EVIDENCE CHRISTIANITY ISN’T DECLINING IN U.S. AFTER ALL: Lots of dying mainline denominational churches are not necessarily evidence of a more general decline of Christianity among Americans, according to this interesting analysis in the Wall Street Journal. They’re being replaced with more vital congregations based on new models of church growth. Reminds me of how free markets reward innovation and punish obsolescence.

BUT IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN: That’s what liberals so often say in defense of their favorite policies, so why don’t they support the traditional family? After all, the data shows unmarried, cohabiting couples with kids encourage greater social, economic and political inequality.

SUPPORT FOR HILL AIDE PAY RAISES GROWS: Interesting coalition urges congressional appropriators to give Hill staff more pay. There are 20,000 or so mostly young men and women working for senators, representatives and committees, and their labors can be grueling.

If that thought gives you a headache, think about this: Would you rather your tax dollars go to an unaccountable bureaucrat who couldn’t care less what you think, or the Hill aide whose boss has to face voters every two or six years?

KEEP AN EYE ON THIS GUY: Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) is only in his second term in the House but he’s not bashful about challenging the Washington Establishment’s addiction to waste, fraud and corruption. He’s also a motorhead!

MAYBE SOMETHING GOOD IS HAPPENING IN LA-LA LAND FOR A CHANGE: Actor Ben Affleck says his new movie, “The Way Back,” is very much biographical. From my own experience before being blessed with sobriety in 1991, I can attest to the accuracy of Affleck’s portrayal of the agony of alcohol addiction. First it was Kanye West, then Justin Bieber and now Affleck “coming out.” Let’s hope it endures.

HOW COULD BLOOMBERG, STEYER HAVE MADE BILLIONS? Judging by the incompetence of their now-defunct presidential campaigns and their records of throwing millions at advocacy groups of doubtful smarts, Issues & Insights wonders how on earth these two guys made billions in the hyper-competitive businesses in which they succeeded.

MEDICARE-FOR-ALL A GODSEND FOR HEALTHCARE FRAUDSTERS: Democrats are all about Medicare for All  to expand the 55-year-old federal health care program to cover all Americans. But judging by the program’s equally long record of waste, fraud and corruption, might we expect the biggest supporters of Medicare expansion to be those who expect to rip it off on a grand scale?

STANDING ATHWART THE DIGITAL AGE SHOUTING ‘STOP’? You know what Glenn said about “The Social Media Upheaval” poisoning journalism, politics, etc. And you know what Dr. Robert Epstein told Congress about Big Tech’s ability to sway votes without detection. Now Selwyn Duke explains in American Thinker “Big Tech’s Civilization-Busting Bias.”

ONE GOOD THING BERNIE’S CAMPAIGNS HAVE DONE FOR AMERICA: Just think of all the closet authoritarians the Vermont senator’s presidential campaigns have emboldened to come forward and show their true colors. As the Issues & Insights guys point out:

“The inescapable fact is that socialism cannot be implemented without authoritarian action, even if it’s supposedly a ‘democratic socialism,’ in which majorities decide how life is to be arranged. Even a ‘soft’ authoritarianism, a ‘democratic’ mob rule that rejects the views of his ‘revolutionary’ staffers, will grow into a malignancy.”

FISA TO BE RE-UPPED, SPYGATE REFORMS DELAYED: Careful reading of the coronavirus emergency funding bill that will pass Congress soon will likely also uncover a reauthorization provision for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Just don’t expect to see any of the reforms Republicans say must be enacted to prevent future recurrences of the FBI surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign in 2016.  Most important among those reforms is a ban on bulk metadata collection derived from telephone calls by individuals within and without the country.

DID YOU KNOW CAVEMEN DID THE FIRST COMIC BOOKS? Me either, but biochemist Fazale Rana makes a fascinating case for the proposition. Trigger Warning: God is mentioned along the way. And it has nothing to do with those old GEICO ads.

THE BUDGET PROBLEM WASHINGTON DARE NOT MENTION: It’s the unfunded future obligations under Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements that make the national debt $122 trillion, not the officially cited figure of $23 trillion.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) had an otherwise-excellent summit on the budget Tuesday that featured Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehosue (D-RI), plus key Senate and House budget panel staffers going back to 1985.

But nobody said anything about that $122 trillion monster lurking in the “out years” that won’t be out sooner than anybody thinks.

TRUMP THUMPS SANDERS 50-43 AMONG LIKELY VOTERS: Rasmussen’s survey was conducted Monday and Tuesday.

YOU DIDN’T KNOW CHILDREN ARE BORN WITHOUT A BIOLOGICAL SEX? Then you just aren’t as smart as British Labour Party Member Dawn Butler.

ELECTING SANDERS MEANS MORE, NOT LESS CORRUPTION: More regulation creates more opportunities for political corruption, Issues & Insights notes this morning, and it follows as logically as night follows day that electing Bernie Sanders will result in more of the very things he promises to get rid of in government. There’s even objective evidence of this process at work around the world.

ABOUT THOSE DOJ FORMERS CALLING FOR BARR’S RESIGNATION: Turns out, surprise! surprise! they are down-the-line Democrat partisans.

WILL THIS GUY BE BERNIE’S CHOICE TO HEAD THE DNC? Reid Hoffman is the name. He’s big into ACRONYMs.

SO ATHEISM LEADS TO CANNIBALISM? What is it with Richard Dawkins and having your neighbor over for lunch?

HERE’S WHAT BURISMA PAID HUNTER BIDEN TO DO: The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross follows up on yesterday’s Hunter Biden scoop this morning with details on how the former vice-president’s son used his access to key Obama administration officials while trying to block corruption investigations of his employer, Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. So that’s what Biden was paid $83,000 a month to do for Burisma!

BIPARTISANSHIP’S LAST GASP OR FRESH BREATH? Some senators and advocacy groups from both sides of the aisle think government should have tougher financial management controls. If the reforms are approved, will be first update since 1990.

ANOTHER HUNTER BIDEN SCANDAL UNCOVERED: The former vice-president’s son was on the board of an industry coalition that lobbied the Obama administration on trade issues in 2014, according to The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross.

Lobbying disclosure forms examined by Ross show Hunter Biden’s firm was significantly smaller by comparison to others represented on the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) board, but what the the Biden operation “lacked in terms of assets and name recognition it made up for in access to key figures in the Obama administration, with Joe Biden being at the top of the list,” Ross writes.

I wonder why we’re only now reading about this and not in the New York Times or Washington Post or any other MSM media outlet?

‘1776’ Corrects The New York Times’ ‘1619’ Lies: Bob Woodson, a Black conservative who has labored for decades against liberal welfarism, has launched “1776” as a counter to the identity politics screed, “1619.” The URL says it all: https://1776unites.com/

TRUMP’S BIGGEST MISTAKE IS NOT HIRING A TEAM: Presidents who seek to implement lasting policy change must have a dependable team of skilled loyalists appointed throughout the executive branch, according to Angelo Codevilla. President Ronald Reagan knew it well in 1981. Is John McIntee an indication Trump has figured this out in 2020?

Speaking as a Reagan administration political appointee, I would further argue that having approximately 6,000 political appointees to ensure proper policy implementation and enforcement among 2.1 million career civil servants is far too few.

HOW ARE YOUR TELOMERES TODAY? If your telomeres are healthy, your odds of living longer are improved. And a healthy faith life nourishes your telomeres. At least that’s what the first-ever study of the connection found. But you won’t hear about it in the MSM.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This study was pointed out to me by my former colleague at the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Pat Fagan, who is the founder of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) and editor of Marripedia. Both are invaluable social science policy resources regardless of one’s view on faith issues.