NETWORK EFFECT: In First, NATO Ships Share Target Data & Knock Down Ballistic Missiles.

WHY ARE PROGRESSIVE-RUN INDUSTRIES SUCH CESSPITS OF RACISM? Black Facebook Employees Say The Tech Giant ‘Empowers Racism Against Its Employees of Color.’

A HAMMER ABOUT TO FALL: Former U.S. Attorney: ‘It Doesn’t Get Much More Serious Than’ Changing a Document to Get a FISA.

DON’T GET COCKY: Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon Predicts Trump ‘Will Be Re-elected in 2020.’

NETFLIX AND CHILL, BUT WITHOUT THE NETFLIX: Airmen in Subzero Temps Discover F-35 Survival Kit Works Better Than Advertised. “A testing malfunction accidentally subjected airmen to -65 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, the survival kits worked regardless.”

THE PLANET — THANKFULLY — HAS BEEN DEGLACIATING FOR ALMOST 12,000 YEARS, BUT SOMEHOW THIS IS OUR FAULT: Paired Images of Melting Glaciers and Flooding Wetlands Tell the Story of Global Climate Change.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Elizabeth Warren Is Wrong About Everything. “As this socialist battle royale has played out, the standard take from pundits on both sides is that Warren is more deep from a policy standpoint than Sanders is. Admittedly, it is quite easy to present oneself as being less crazy and possessing more intellectual heft than Bernie Sanders. However, a quick pass over what Warren offers on any given day as she campaigns proves that she may be even loonier.”

WOW: Dramatic Color Footage Shows a Bombed-Out Berlin a Month After Germany’s WWII Defeat.

DO TELL, SNOWFLAKE: How to identify (and handle) your emotional triggers before they cause real harm.

PRIVACY: Telegram Founder Says Users Should ‘Delete WhatsApp.’ “WhatsApp doesn’t only fail to protect its users’ messages, it is consistently being used as a Trojan horse to spy on their users’ non-WhatsApp content, including photos kept on their phones. Founder of rival app Telegram, Pavel Durov, says people should just delete it.”

Yes, Durov is trying to get people to move from WhatsApp to his own Telegram, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong about WhatsApp.

WINNING: China Is Out of Economic Ammo Against the U.S. “It has maxed out tariffs and other trade barriers, and selling Treasuries is ineffective.”

It isn’t all fun and games:

The agricultural industry has been hit especially hard. Farm bankruptcies are up 24% this year, and a report by the American Farm Bureau Federation finds that almost 40% of farmers’ income this year will come either from insurance payouts or government bailouts.

Nobody ever said trade wars are fun and easy — er, Trump did, which wasn’t his smartest statement ever — but the short-term pain for farmers ought to yield longterm benefits to our economy generally. And also improve our global position relative to China’s.

More:

The other big weapon in the Chinese arsenal is investment. The Chinese government is traditionally a major buyer of U.S. government debt, and it holds the second-biggest stash of Treasuries (after Japan). Over the years, many have fretted that a spat between the U.S. and China would lead the latter to sell off that mountain of debt, creating a world of hurt for the U.S. financial system and economy.

But this danger is vastly exaggerated for two reasons. First, as recent experience demonstrates, the U.S. simply doesn’t need Chinese government cash. In 2015 and 2016 China experienced one of the biggest capital flights in history, with about $1 trillion pouring out of the country. This resulted in a huge drawdown of China’s foreign-exchange reserves, most of which are U.S. bonds.

If the U.S. were heavily dependent on Chinese government financing, interest rates on U.S. debt — and by extension, throughout the U.S. economy — should have risen. Instead, they fell.

Washington’s addiction to debt is a problem, but for now anyway, there are plenty of lenders outside of Beijing. And economically decoupling from China should be — and seems to be — reassuring investors and lenders that Washington is getting at least one thing right.

On reflection, Washington hates this decoupling, as it reduces opportunities for corruption and graft. This is all Trump’s work, and so far it’s working pretty well.

HMM: Franklin Graham Claims Chick-fil-A Hasn’t Caved to LGBT Bullies, But the Salvation Army Is Still Blacklisted.

MAKE AMERICA DRINK AGAIN: Join Kruiser & VodkaPundit for a Video Live Chat.

YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME: Shot to the Groin Offers Infertility to Men for 13 Years.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Bob Menendez: You’re Damn Right I’m Going to Take Your (Toy) AR-15 Away. “I suppose the senators want us to rest safe, knowing that they won’t sit still for one minute longer while ‘F15.06 subcommittee for ASTM F589-17, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Non-Powder Guns’ remains hopelessly out of date. Perhaps under the revised version of ASTM F589-17, children’s toy guns will come in no color other than hot pink, have a nine-inch-diameter fake flower permanently plugged into the barrel, and feature a billboard-style sign sticking up from where the sights would be, with ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!’ embossed in glow-in-the-dark block letters. Because, weeeeee, fun.”

Read the whole thing, if you don’t mind me saying so myself.

(No VIP paywall.)

OH FER CRYIN’ OUT LOUD: Teen Charged with Hate Crime for Posting Photo of Friend Captioned ‘Slave for Sale.’

NEW YOU CAN USE: The most useful gadgets to have in your bag while traveling.

They left off my indispensable item: Retractable charging cables. The spring never lasts as long as I’d like, but they’re just so handy that I always keep a couple of backups.

FROM AMERICA’S NEW NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Impeachment Inquiry Canceled After 5 Episodes Due To Low Ratings.

What was I just saying about that?

DIRTY LAUNDRY: Dispatches from the Ukraine Corruption Investigation.

WELL, GOOD: Donald Trump likely to sign US’ Hong Kong democracy bill, sponsor Marco Rubio says.

CHANGE: Trump Now Beating Democrats in Wisconsin as Support for Impeachment Plummets.

THIS WAS QUITE ENTERTAINING: Joe Rogan Interviews Matt Taibbi. “Taibbi may be a lefty, but he’s willing to call bullshit when he sees it, including on the Epstein murder ‘suicide’ and the lack of any center in today’s hate-click driven media.”

THEN SHE MUST BE PRETTY SURE THE UNCHOSEN DEM NOMINEE IS ALREADY A LOSER: Nancy Pelosi Is Already Attacking the Legitimacy of the 2020 Election.

HMM: Bernie Sanders Flaunts Suspiciously Smooth Forehead at Democratic Debate.

BIDEN OFFSHORES ALL HIS ENERGY NEEDS TO UKRAINE: Biden Slams Tom Steyer: ‘I Don’t Need a Lecture’ on Climate From a Big Coal Investor.