I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT TRUMP’S ANTICS HAD TURNED ALL THE INDEPENDENT VOTERS AGAINST HIM: Mind-Blowing! 58% Of Attendees at Trump’s Wisconsin Rally Were NOT Republicans, Up from 43% in Ohio.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Martha McSally’s Moment of Media Relations Zen.

Arizona Republicans like me are more than happy to see McSally exhibiting some fire. She can be a bit of a bland campaigner and has recently been slipping behind in the polls to Mark Kelly, Gabby Giffords’s gun-grabbing, former astronaut husband. (Fun fact: although it was renumbered, the congressional district that McSally was elected to represent in 2014 was the district that Gabby Giffords used to represent.)

McSally almost immediately began using the incident for fundraising, another area where she has been trailing Kelly.

This would be a very good time for McSally to get back in touch with her inner fighter pilot, before Kelly pulls away in the polls. At present, she is within the margin of error in most of them.

Keep fighting.

WE HAD BEEN ASSURED WE WERE ON THE CUSP OF ANOTHER DEPRESSION: Solid U.S. Retail Sales Confirm Consumer Strength.

To be fair, we’ve been told that every month since November, 2016. It’s like nobody’s listening.

GETTING WHAT THEY VOTED FOR, GOOD AND HARD: The Cult Of Pelosi Is A Deadly Thing For Democrats’ Future.

YOUR SCIENTISTS WERE SO PREOCCUPIED WITH WHETHER OR NOT THEY COULD, THEY DIDN’T STOP TO THINK IF THEY SHOULD: Bricks Alive! Scientists Create Living Concrete.

HEH: Elise Stefanik, who antagonized Schiff in impeachment hearings, named Trump NY campaign chair.

SUBPOENA JOE, TOO: Rand Paul Goes to War: If 4 GOP Senators Vote for New Witnesses, He’ll Demand Subpoena for Hunter Biden.

AS LONG AS THERE ARE EXAMS, THERE WILL BE PRAYER IN SCHOOL: Trump Protects School Prayer: ‘We Will Not Let Anyone Push God From the Public Square.’

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Don’t Lean On Me Man If You Can’t Afford A Ticket Back From Chlamydia City.

FROM AMERICA’S NEW NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Somber Impeachment Ceremony Concludes With The Impeachment Dancers.

LOVE LETTERS: Nancy Pelosi’s Impeachment Pens Look Like Bullets.

THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: The GAO Ruled Obama Broke The Law in 2014, But No One Called for His Impeachment.

To be fair to them both, if it’s true that the average American unwittingly commits three felonies a day, then it’s probably impossible for any American president to conduct his foreign policy with breaking more than a few stupid laws.

Congress needs to get into the business of repealing stuff, but as Ayn Rand wrote:

“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

I think Trump understands it, but fortunately in his case, it makes him much more difficult to deal with.

UPDATE: Biden’s Threat To Withhold $1 Billion from Ukraine Violated the Law.

DRIVING HISTORY: If You Can Find a Better Car Than Lee Iacocca’s Personal Chrysler LeBaron, Buy It. “This 1986 Chrysler K-car convertible has amazing provenance, and it’s going up for auction this week.”

Not that it was a great car, but a wood-paneled convertible K-car with just 20,000 miles and no rust would have some serious nostalgia value.

WE GOT THIS: Americans drinking more now than just before Prohibition.

GOOD LORD: Jeffrey Epstein Accused Of Sex Trafficking Hundreds Of Girls As Young As 11 In New Lawsuit.

UNEXPECTEDLY: New York Bail ‘Reform’ Turns Into a Bonanza for Repeat Offenders.

HARSH, BUT FAIR: Nancy Pelosi Is Doing Putin’s Bidding.

THE RECEIVING END: Sanders Supporters Shocked to Find Bias at CNN. “Did these people actually believe the cable network was in the news business?”

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi tweeted, “This is an unusually vile performance by CNN.” The Nation’s Elie Mystal raged, “Jesus Christ I hate these biased questions from the moderators. ‘How would you keep your plan from bankrupting the country?’ JUST ASK THE KOCH BROTHERS TO MODERATE NEXT TIME!” HuffPost’s Zach Carter griped about CNN’s post-debate panel discussion, “CNN’s crew is just straight bashing Sanders post-debate.” The New Republic’s Libby Watson whined, “CNN is truly a terrible influence on this country.”

Hmm … Where have we heard that before? Oh, that’s right. Conservatives have been making the same point for decades, only to be sneered at by progressives who insisted that such claims were conspiracy theories. In reality, it has long been obvious that CNN operates more like the PR department for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) than a legitimate news outlet.

Well, Bernie Bros, are you going to just sit there and take it?

BERNIE CERTAINLY HAS A WAY WITH WOMEN: ‘I Sort of Can’t Believe This Is Happening’: Young Progressives Agonize Over Bernie-Warren Feud.

INCENTIVES MATTER: Illegal Alien Crossings Down an Extraordinary 78 Percent.

IT’S MINDBLOWING WHAT WE’VE BUILT DESPITE WASHINGTON’S BEST EFFORTS: We Are (Half) the World: What’s Your Real Worth, America?

A couple of years back, AEI’s Mark J. Perry put together a cool map renaming all 50 of our United States, if each one of them was an actual country of equivalent wealth (or GDP). Being the map freak Longtime Sharp VodkaPundit Readers™ know me to be, someone brought Perry’s map to my attention a few weeks ago, and I immediately fell in love with it.

But I have to warn you: It only tells a small part of the story I’m going to tell you today.

As that sharp commenter said to me, the United States economy is like an entire world unto itself.

Just how big that world is, and just how fantastically productive this country is, are the subjects of today’s column for our VIP members.

If you’re considering becoming a supporter, don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

I’M SORRY, THAT’S INCORRECT: Uproar as American game show host refuses to accept “Palestine” as an answer.

The show is structured under a number of different categories in which contestants answer questions that revolve around the same theme. In the episode that aired earlier this week, contestants were asked questions under the “Where’s the Church?” category, in which they had to name the place that was,”Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.”

In response, contestant Katie Needle said “What is Palestine?” But, her answer was rejected. Her opponent, however, responded with “What is Israel?” and was awarded the point.

As a whole, America recognises Israeli occupation of the Palestine region as Israel, however, internationally, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is not recognised as part of Israel. The Church of Nativity in question is where Jesus is said to have been born and is located in Bethlehem, at the Israeli occupied West Bank, which, again, is recognised as Palestine in most places, but not America.

It’s an American show, Israel is an American ally, and anyway that might have been a lawful part of Palestine if the Palestinians hadn’t rejected a peace offer giving them 93% of what they wanted and pursued the Intifada II terror campaign instead.

And Trebek is a national treasure.

COLD WAR II: China Discovers Underwater Spy Drones In Its Waters. “The secretive world of naval underwater surveys rarely breaks the surface. Now recent events are briefly shining a light into the darkness. In the Adriatic a Croatian fishing vessel caught one of the U.S. Navy’s undersea sensor systems last week. That mysterious object has largely been explained. Meanwhile, China has held an award ceremony for fishermen who alerted authorities after discovering similar devices in their nets. The devices may have been operating in international waters, but still in China’s back yard as they see it. We can infer that some of these devices may also belong to the U.S. Navy.”

I should hope so. I’d also hope we’ll get better at not getting caught.

Related and recommended: Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Granny Wine Box Traveling Impeachment Circus Heads to the Senate. “The impeachment of the president should be a solemn undertaking. Pelosi and Co. have turned it into a tawdry extended photo-op, complete with tacky souvenir tchotchkes.”

Are you not entertained?

SHOULD BUT WON’T: The US government should stop demanding tech companies compromise on encryption.

Related: FBI reportedly accessed locked iPhone 11 Pro Max with GrayKey third party tool.

The Feds don’t seem to have much trouble breaking into devices when they have a warrant. So I’m forced to conclude that they want official backdoors built in — which opens everyone up to all kinds of easy attacks — to easily get into devices when they don’t have a warrant.