10 MOST POPULOUS CITIES SPLIT BETWEEN RED, BLUE. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH COST MOST? Here are the 10, as calculated by Truth in Accounting: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Jose, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix.

If you live in deep-blue Chicago, your overall tax burden (including public entities like mass transit authorities and pubic schools that big cities typically don’t include in their balance sheets but which taxpayers are still responsible) is $126.360. If you live in bright red Phoenix, your overall tax burden is $11,850. Now, (assuming you aren’t rich) is the quality of life better in the blue cities or the red cities?

THAT TRUMP BABY BALLOON ISN’T FLYING — YET — IN NEW JERSEY: Remember that Baby Trump balloon protesters flew in London to express their dissatisfaction with the U.S. president? Lefties here in the states are using the balloon figure to raise funds to fly three of the Trump babies near a New Jersey golf course bearing the chief executive’s moniker. But LifeZette’s Michele Blood reports there are some pre-flight checks that haven’t been completed, so the protest babies may not get off the ground for a while.

VOTERS’ MEMO TO HILLARY — DON’T RUN AGAIN: Nothing so sad as the performer who is way past their prime but just refuses to get off the stage.

ARE THESE THE 5 BEST NATURAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: Ok, believers and skeptics, go for it on HillFaith! (But be nice to each other, please). And if you have one or more better arguments, please provide links. Ditto if you think you know five for the negative proposition.

WHY DID TRUMP TOSS THAT SERVER WRENCH INTO MUELLER’S INDICTMENT MACHINE? Journalists, Never-Trumpers and Obama partisans are going absolutely ape-you-know-what over President Donald Trump’s Helsinki questions about what happened to the Democratic National Committee’s server and those 33,000 destroyed Hillary Clinton emails. It is Trump Derangement Syndrome at its most virulent since election night 2016.

But Trump is posing the very questions his critics don’t dare ask because they fear the answers will finally and definitively explain who actually colluded with Russian interests in 2016. I won’t say the name but how much you want to bet it’s spelled C-L-I-N-T-O-N?

TIM TEBOW CONFOUNDS HIS CRITICS, AGAIN: The guy only won the Heisman Trophy as a college sophomore, then led the Florida Gators to the national collegiate championship, then led the Denver Broncos to the playoffs, but, because he insisted on thanking God for his success in a public way, his critics have derided, mocked and insulted him ever since.

Now, he appears to be headed to becoming a major league baseball player, too, which would put him in the rarified atmosphere occupied by Deion Sanders, Jim Thorpe and Bo Jackson, among a very small company. LifeZette’s Tom Joyce has more.

By the way, if Tebow makes it to the Bigs, it will be as a New York Met. Too bad he’s not in the Washington Nationals’ organization because then he would be joining Daniel Murphy, another guy with conspicuous talent and faith who also happens to be a former Met.

DOES FAITH OR SCIENCE BEST EXPLAIN MORALITY? Knowing there are many regular Instapundit readers who will be instantly (quick pun!) attracted to this question (on both sides, too!), it occurs to yours truly that this post on my “other” blog, HillFaith, may be just the thing for a Sunday. Would that all public policy debates these days were as civil, entertaining and educational as this one.

HOW MUELLER WILL LINK 12 INDICTED RUSSIANS TO TRUMP AND CALL IT “COLLUSION:” It’s a meaningless indictment intended to manipulate public opinion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But Friday’s announcement by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also offered a key piece of the puzzle that explains where Mueller ultimately is going.

PETER STRZOK’S BIGGEST PROBLEM IS PETER STRZOK’S TEXT MESSAGES:  To the maxim “that which can’t continue, won’t,” it’s time add the Peter Strzok Principle: Denying the Obvious Doesn’t Make It Go Away. 

UH OH! IS THIS BAD NEWS FOR PETER STRZOK? Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is being much more cooperative with House Republican inquisitors on Friday than her one-time bureau lover was on Thursday.

FIVE KEY THINGS THE LEFT WILL NEVER GET ABOUT TRUMP’S DEPLORABLES: Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich also spent four terms in Congress, so his thoughts about why Trump’s supporters love him might come as a suprise to some.

IS CONGRESS ABOUT TO GET TOUGH (FINALLY!)? House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) sounded supremely confident last night on Fox News, declaring, according to LifeZette’s Kathryn Blackhurst, that former FBI lawyer Lisa Page “will be held in contempt” if she doesn’t show up today or Friday to answer questions from members of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Meadows’ assertion prompted a crucially important reminder from liberal Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz that a congressional finding of contempt would be forwarded to the Department of Justice for enforcement. But DOJ under President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, has all but refused to enforce congressional subpoenas related to high-profile oversight investigations (Think Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS Targeting, FBI Hillary Email and Russia Collusion).

So, Dershowitz notes, “But if the Justice Department doesn’t do it, Congress is an independent branch of government. It can hold somebody in contempt. It can literally order the person to go into the basement jail cell, and then that person would have to go to court to seek a writ of habeas corpus.” Yes, Congress could have jailed then-Attorney General Eric Holder, then-IRS executive Lois Lerner and now Lisa Page for refusing to cooperate.

In fact, as I have repeatedly reported since Fast and Furious, jailing non-cooperative individuals is part of the inherent contempt power of Congress. It’s one of five tough tools the Founders gave Congress in making it the first and most powerful branch of the federal government. And it’s long past time for those tools to be used, at least if Congress wants its subpoenas to be obeyed.

IMRAN AWAN CANNOT BE BOTH GUILTY AND INNOCENT: That’s the rot at the heart of the Awan case: The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it found no evidence the Pakistani former IT aide abused his access to the congressional computer networks or committed procurement fraud, while the House Sergeant-at-Arms and the House Chief Administrative Officer warned Congress that he was “an ongoing and serious risk to the House of Representatives.” It’s basic logic — that which is A cannot also be Non-A.

The more interesting twist here, though, is the fact President Donald Trump a month ago specifically and directly warned DOJ not to let Awan off the hook, or his chief congressional patron, former Democratic National Committee Chairman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. There are no known Russian connections to the Awan case, so it could be the spark that moves the president to take action against DOJ.

THINK REPS LOVE AMERICA, DEMS HATE IT? POLL SAYS YOU’RE RIGHT: Mr. Gallup’s latest survey raises an interesting question for 2018 Midterm election voters — Should people who hate America be running America? LifeZette’s Michelle Blood has the details on a revealing poll.

THIS UPDATE IS UNBELIEVABLE: Rosiak reports federal prosecutors have given Awan a sweetheart deal, despite the conclusions of House investigators reported in the following:

IF LUKE ROSIAK DOESN’T GET A PULITZER FOR EXPOSING HOUSE IT SCANDAL: The Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter has been on top of this story since February 2017 and broken virtually every incredible advance on it since then. His latest scoop is this:

A secret memo marked “URGENT” detailed how the House Democratic Caucus’s server went “missing” soon after it became evidence in a cybersecurity probe. The secret memo also said more than “40 House offices may have been victims of IT security violations.”

In the memo, Congress’s top law enforcement official, Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, along with Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko, wrote, “We have concluded that the employees [Democratic systems administrator Imran Awan and his family] are an ongoing and serious risk to the House of Representatives, possibly threatening the integrity of our information systems and thereby members’ capacity to serve constituents.”

The memo, addressed to the Committee on House Administration (CHA) and dated Feb. 3, 2017, was recently reviewed and transcribed by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The letter bolsters TheDCNF’s previous reporting about the missing server and evidence of fraud on Capitol Hill.

Awan’s main congressional protector for years has been former Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who may well have provided a textbook illustration of how a member of Congress can use the position to obstruct justice.

But other than the fact Rosiak is virtually the only journalist pursuing what looks increasingly like a scandal of gigantic proportions, perhaps the biggest mystery is this: Where is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan?

The security and integrity of Congress have clearly been compromised but Ryan runs the other way whenever the issue comes before him.

BAD NEWS FOR DEMS’ DELAY SUPREME COURT VOTE TILL JANUARY STRATEGY: Turns out a clear majority of Americans want President Donald Trump to nominate Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement on the Supreme Court and the Senate to vote on confirmation before the November mid-term elections, according to a new poll from NBC.

WOULD YOU TRUST EITHER OF THESE DEM SENS WITH OUR COUNTRY? On the one hand, there is New York’s Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby introduces her to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Between the two Gillibrands, you have the two poles on the ICE issue – she was for it before she is now against it.

Then there’s Illinois’ Sen. Richard Durbin who calls ICE “a bunch of incompetents.” When LifeZette’s Connor Wolf called Durbin to ask if he means the whole 20,000+ ICE workforce or just a select few, his spokesman declined to say.

Trump has one of the key characteristics of successful politicos — opponents who make him look better.

HERE’S THE SIX-YEAR-OLD ABANDONED JUNE 19 IN THE DESERT AT THE BORDER: Don’t expect to see this child in the New York Times or Washington Post. Somebody left him at the border with a note: ‘I am looking for my mother.” He was rescued by agents from the same agency a swelling chorus of Democrats want to abolish.

BARRY MANILOW TERRORIZES VAGRANTS IN FRONT OF CALIFORNIA RITE-AIDS: Yes, you read that right. The aging pop singer is perhaps best known for the hit “Copacabana,” but I doubt seriously that he ever expected the song to be weaponized. Find out more here.

ABOUT THAT FORMER CNN PRODUCER WHO NAILED ACOSTA: Turns out that Steve Krakauer, the former CNN producer who called White House Correspondent Jim Acosta’s latest outburst at President Donald Trump “an embarrassment at multiple levels” is quite a sharp and penetrating critic of the mainstream media. Check it out here.

HIGH COURT CONSERVATIVES FLUBBED A BIG ONE: When New Deal liberals weaponized the federal bureaucracy, one of their main tools was the creation of administrative subpoenas that empower unaccountable officials to invade your property and personal belongings without first persuading a judge to approve the action. Think bank accounts. Cell phone call logs. Email messages.

Mark J. Fitzgibbons argues today in LifeZette that the five conservatives on the Supreme Court had an opportunity to restrain the issuance of administrative subpoenas in Carpenter v United States, decided on June 22. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Court’s four liberals in ruling police must get a warrant with a showing of probable cause before enforcing an administrative subpoena. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Goresuch and Anthony Kennedy dissented.

Fitzgibbons explains why this decision was an opportunity lost and his reasoning and look back in history to the Common Law origins of the Fourth Amendment as the Founders understood is well worth pouring yourself a fresh cup of java and sitting down to read a lucid analysis and warning.

MEDIA LAW EXPERT SAYS U.S. JOURNALISTS SHOULD TRY REPORTING IN MEXICO: Things are a little different down south, writes media columnist Charles Glasser on the Daily Caller this morning:

“As I’ve opined in this space before, the whining and whimpering of the American press in response to President Donald Trump’s overblown ‘mean tweets’ and reflexively invoking the phrase ‘fake news’ simply do not hold a candle in comparison to the limitations and retribution faced by journalists in other countries. In Mexico, government officials don’t say mean things about you: They have you killed. And try calling Turkey’s Erdogan a Nazi sometime. The police will shut you down and jail you before the ink is even dry on your paper.”

Just keep reading cauz this guy knoweth whereof he speaketh.

NO, THE COLORADO CAKESHOP GUY AND WASHINGTON FLORIST AREN’T LIKE RED HEN OWNER: As usual, many in the MSM are getting the analogies completely wrong here. Chris Potts of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) explains in this morning’s LifeZette.

WHY ARE LIBERALS ALWAYS SO VIOLENT? Great question that Craig Shirley and Scott Mauer pose today on LifeZette. “Such is the modern liberal Democratic Party, where violence trumps dialogue, where calls for the heads of politicians are more than just words, they’re actual threats,” write the Shirley/Mauer duo. Shirley is the award-winning author of the best chronicles of Ronald Reagan’s rise from Hollywood to the White House.

ANGELA MERKEL, MEET ANGELA MERKEL: Turns out the German Chancellor was against — make that really, really against — open borders multiculturalism before she decided to make her country a haven for 1.6 million immigrants, many from Islamic terrorism hot spots like Libya and Tunisia.