HMM: Twitter in turmoil after month of crisis leads to concerns over leadership.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Bill Gates Demands, ‘Silence, Disgusting Peasant!’

Insanity Wrap needs to know: Who is the First Amendment for?

Answer: It’s for the right people, darling, as all the right people will tell you.

Before we get to that, today’s Wrap also includes:

• The NBA’s Chinese sweatshops.

• BLM goes full mobster.

• Ideological drag queens.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

STACEY LENNOX: Here’s Why Biden’s $2 Trillion Climate-Change Plan Will Meet Guaranteed Resistance.

THE CENTER HOLDS: Focus Groups Show Midwest Swing Voters Solidly Behind Trump. “Pollsters are consistently telling us Democratic nominee Joe Biden is far ahead. I’m not looking to pick a fight, as their sample sizes are much larger than mine. That said, as a focus group moderator, I’m hearing strong support for President Donald Trump from a critical sliver of the electorate.”

As always, don’t get cocky.

DID NO ONE EVER TEACH OUR TEACHERS THAT THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE? I’m a teacher headed back to school next month. It’s going to be traumatic. “A teacher mental health crisis is coming. Schools should prepare themselves now.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Never Trumpers Leg-Hump Every Leftist Narrative Just To Make Friends. “In reality, the Never Trump crowd is one of the least principled groups in the history of American politics, which is a truly bottom-feeding feat. They’re all about the money, and they are making piles of it because there is a lot of gold in them thar turncoat hills.”

BLUE ON BLUE: Dem Governor Donates to Ilhan Omar’s Primary Opponent. “Colorado governor Jared Polis sends $1,000 to Omar challenger.”

WELL, YES: China Is What Orwell Feared. “Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control — and he’s exporting this technology to regimes around the globe.”

Xi’s pronouncements on AI have a sinister edge. Artificial intelligence has applications in nearly every human domain, from the instant translation of spoken language to early viral-outbreak detection. But Xi also wants to use AI’s awesome analytical powers to push China to the cutting edge of surveillance. He wants to build an all-seeing digital system of social control, patrolled by precog algorithms that identify potential dissenters in real time.

China’s government has a history of using major historical events to introduce and embed surveillance measures. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Chinese security services achieved a new level of control over the country’s internet. During China’s coronavirus outbreak, Xi’s government leaned hard on private companies in possession of sensitive personal data. Any emergency data-sharing arrangements made behind closed doors during the pandemic could become permanent.

Related: China’s Plans to Win Control of the Global Order.

Xi Jinping endorsed this explanation for the Soviet collapse in a 2013 address to party cadres. “Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate?” he asked his audience. “An important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce!” The party leadership is determined to avoid the Soviet mistake. A leaked internal party directive from 2013 describes “the very real threat of Western anti-China forces and their attempt at carrying out westernization” within China. The directive describes the party as being in the midst of an “intense, ideological struggle” for survival. According to the directive, the ideas that threaten China with “major disorder” include concepts such as “separation of powers,” “independent judiciaries,” “universal human rights,” “Western freedom,” “civil society,” “economic liberalism,” “total privatization,” “freedom of the press,” and “free flow of information on the internet.” To allow the Chinese people to contemplate these concepts would “dismantle [our] party’s social foundation” and jeopardize the party’s aim to build a modern, socialist future.

Two excellent pieces, both worth your time.

Hat tip for that second item to Stratechery’s recent piece, The TikTok War, where Ben Thompson reminds us: “China is not simply resisting Western ideals of freedom, but seeking to impose their own.”

REPORT: Minneapolis Neighborhood Where George Floyd Died Now A ‘No-Go’ Zone For Police, Epicenter For Violence.

I’m fresh out of unexpectedlies.

FALLOUT: ‘We’re running out of homes for sale,’ Lake Tahoe brokers say as tech workers flee Bay Area.

A new wave of urban flight is reshaping real estate markets from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles to San Francisco. As part of this shift, Lake Tahoe is seeing unprecedented bidding wars, buying activity and price increases. Brokers say the inventory of homes for sale has shrunk to about one-fifth to one-tenth of the usual levels.

“People are writing all-cash offers for houses, sight unseen,” said Sabrina Belleci, a Lake Tahoe broker with Re/Max. “They just want to get out of the city.”

Lake Tahoe has long been a bucolic escape for Californians looking for a getaway and, on the Nevada side, lower taxes. But the latest buying surge is larger than any the market has seen, brokers say. They say tech workers and investors in the Bay Area, as well as media types from Los Angeles, are coming to the Tahoe area in search of larger homes with home offices, more land for the kids to play, and access to outdoor activities such as swimming and bike riding.

What will Sacramento do if their Bay Area cash cow stops producing quite so much milk?

HYSTERICAL: Ocasio-Cortez Gets Hysterical About ‘Unmarked’ Police Vehicle Arresting Wanted Criminal.

MATT MARGOLIS: The Top Ten Epic Moments During the House Judiciary Committee Hearing With AG Barr.

LIVE TODAY AT 3:30PM EASTERN: VIP Gold Live Chat with VodkaPundit, Stephen Kruiser, and Bryan Preston. “We’ll discuss the week’s events, crack bad jokes, and share stories too personal for daytime TV chat shows. Best of all, we’ll take your questions. Any questions.”

POLITICO: Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris as Running Mate… Four Days From Now?

LAST MAY ON VODKAPUNDIT: It’s Kamala Harris, Isn’t It?

DENVER: Homeless camp cleanup underway at Lincoln Park near Co. Capitol Building.

Colorado State Patrol, along with the Denver Police Homeless Unit, are working to clean up the homeless encampments at Lincoln Park, which is located next to the Colorado State Capitol.

CSP said it is working with the Denver homeless outreach team to clear out people who are experiencing homelessness in the park.

People who had been staying in the park can voluntarily move out of the park. Some people will be bused out and given options.

“Experiencing homelessness?”

PROFILES IN COURAGE: Seth Rogen Slams Israel, Vows not to Backpedal… and then Backpedals. “The star of ‘An American Pickle’ says Israel built on lies, wouldn’t move there.”

RETREAT: Did the Feds Strike a Deal to Evacuate from Violent Portland?

COLD WAR II: Japan’s air force faces a ‘relentless’ burden, imposed by China.

Japan never went as pacifist as Germany did in postwar period, but they still have much-unrealized combat potential.

Beijing will have no one to blame for themselves if more of that potential becomes real.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Biden Gets Lost in a Gym, Plus Murder Hornets Mystery Solved. “How much chutzpah does Portland have, trying to fine Washington for daring to defend a federal courthouse from radical Portlanders?”

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

Updated & Bumped: Wrong link before — fixed now. Sorry!

UGH: Mounting poisonings, blindness, deaths as toxic hand sanitizers flood market.

TYPICAL: Runaway Fraud Plagues the Massive Unemployment Program Congress Is About to Extend, Report Finds.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is Tom Cotton a Defender of Slavery?

IT’S ALWAYS 1968 WITH THESE ‘FORWARD-LOOKING’ ‘PROGRESSIVES’: Ocasio-Cortez calls for end to federal funding for military recruitment in schools.

MOSTLY PEACEFUL: 2 arrested for attacking senator during Wisconsin protests.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Democrats Plan On Stealing the Election. “In each one of these ‘steal the election’ rants, Biden immediately rambles on about mail-in ballots. Again, that’s all they’ve got and they know it. That’s where the real election stealing can happen and it’s not going to be done by the Republicans.”