HARSH, BUT FAIR:

DENNIS PRAGER: An Open Letter to Sergey Brin.

My four weeks in the USSR were, of course, life-changing. This young American, lucky beyond belief to have spent his entire life in the freest country in the world, experienced what it was like to live in a totalitarian police state. People feared merely being seen speaking with a Westerner, lest the KGB arrest and interrogate them. People arranged to meet me at a certain tree in a certain park and only spoke to me while walking to avoid eavesdroppers. I met with Jewish engineers, doctors and professors who could find no work because they were known to the government to be “otkazniki,” or “refuseniks” — Jews who had applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union and been refused permission. I’m sure you know of them from your parents.

I left the Soviet Union angry and grateful — angry there are people who have the audacity to tell other people what they could and could not say, and grateful beyond measure to have been born in America, where no one could tell anyone what they could say. From that day to this, I have never taken freedom, especially freedom of speech, for granted.

Why I am writing to you about this?

Because, beyond my wildest dreams, two things are happening in America.

One is that for the first time in America’s history, free speech is seriously threatened.

Read the whole thing.

HARRY REID: Trump Is a ‘Very, Very Smart Man’ Who Won’t Be Easily Beaten.

A stable genius, you might say.

INDEED: ‘Freedom is not free’: Celtics’ Enes Kanter responds to LeBron James’ China, Daryl Morey comments.

Kanter is in a longstanding feud with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has resulted in him being exiled from his homeland and facing constant threats. The Boston Celtics center tweeted a list of intimidation he and his family have been a victim to over the last five years, with the line “FREEDOM IS NOT FREE” at the end.

That tweet followed three others that appear to be reactions to James’ comments.

Read the whole thing.

Needless to say, LeBron wouldn’t recognize real oppression if he and the league he plays for were knee-deep in its pocket.

Oh, wait…

NOT AGAIN: Woman killed in own home when Fort Worth officer shoots her, police and witness say.

Atatiana Jefferson, 28, died in a bedroom, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Officers responded at 2:25 a.m. to the house in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue. James Smith, who called a non-emergency police number, said he saw the doors were open and the lights were on, which struck him as unusual. He knew Jefferson, his neighbor, was home with her 8-year-old nephew.

Police parked around the corner, and the woman could not see them, according to Smith, 62. About 15 minutes later, he said, he heard a loud bang and saw several more officers rush inside.

Body-worn camera video police released shows two officers using flashlights to check the perimeter of the house, inspecting two doors that are open with closed screen doors. At the back of house, one officer appears to see a figure through a dark window, and he quickly twists his body to the left.

“Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” he shouts through the window, his gun drawn. He then fires a single shot through the window.

In the video, he does not identify himself as an officer.

Good lord.

HMM: In supporting the Kurds in Syria, US has been playing fast and loose with the law.

Here we find ourselves in 2019, partnered with the YPG, itself affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been declared a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and Turkey. Chasing al-Qaida through Iraq, which begat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or al-Sham or Syria (ISIS), we found ourselves on the other side of the Iraq-Syria border, teamed up with YPG Kurds who wanted to kill ISIS as much as we did. They were willing partners in the fight against a common enemy, but they had geopolitical baggage. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Not so fast.

Let’s review how we got here. There has only been one authorization for the use of military force (AUMF), since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and we’ve been deploying forces under its auspices ever since. It’s just 60 words long, so we should take a moment to review it again — for many of you, perhaps for the first time:

[T]he President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Everybody got that? If you planned, authorized, or committed the 9/11 attacks, or aided or harbored those that did, you’re in the U.S. crosshairs. Bin Laden’s al-Qaida in Afghanistan? Yup. Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI)? It was a stretch, but the CINC said yes, so onward! ISIL? The next CINC said they were the offspring of AQI, so again, here we go! ISIS? Again, son-of-a-son, so Charlie Mike!

Does it matter that not likely a living soul in the current ISIS planned, authorized, or committed the 9/11 attacks, nor aided or harbored 9/11 perpetrators? Apparently, not a wit.

Congress did a couple of stupid things after 9/11, including the overly-broad AUMF and the PATRIOT Act. The White House and the executive branch, regardless of party, proceeded to take full advantage as usually happens when Congress willingly cedes its powers.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Hot Mess Dem Debate Preview.

Lemme Guess, FREE STUFF!

The good news is that there is only debate this time around.

The bad news is that there will be more nonsense on the stage at one time.

I don’t know if they are all actually insane. I was a Psych major but I dropped out of college to go on the road and do stand-up so my expertise was left unpolished.

The years I’ve spent as a political activist have made one thing clear to me, however: the policies that this group of Democrats are proposing are insane.

I’ll drink to that — starting at around 7:45pm Eastern for tonight’s debate drunkblog.

RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Mike Bloomberg keeps talking to allies about running for president as Joe Biden struggles against Elizabeth Warren.

BLUE ON BLUE: Progressives fume at Buttigieg, warn him not to attack Warren at debate.

Buttigieg, who has emerged as a center-left contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has drawn the ire of progressives in recent days for remarks viewed as swipes against more liberal contenders like Warren and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas).

“It’s sad to see the potential self destruction of @PeteButtigieg, a rising star,” tweeted Adam Green, a cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backs Warren. “Tuesday will be a key trajectory moment. Does he attack the next President of The United States or take the high road and make positive waves by adding his unique voice to progressive issues of the day?”

The warning comes as Buttigieg has been rising in Iowa polls, positioning him to become a potential top-tier challenger to Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden.

It’s the old, “You don’t have to fall in love. You just have to fall in line.”

“SHUT UP,” THEY EXPLAINED: ‘Gaetz-crasher’: Here’s why a Republican lawmaker was barred from closed-door testimony.

WELL, YEAH: Nikki Haley says Venezuela shouldn’t be allowed on UN Human Rights Council.

“Venezuela is the last country that should sit on a council that’s supposed to protect human rights,” Haley wrote in a scathing op-ed in the Miami Herald on Sunday. “And yet, because of the corrupt rules for membership in the HRC, the Maduro regime has a real chance of winning.”

Before Costa Rica mounted a bid for the HRC, Venezuela was one of two Latin American countries running for the region’s two allotted spots in this week’s election, essentially guaranteeing it a seat. Brazil is also seeking to join the HRC. Haley beseeched U.N. members to vote for the Central American country over Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s “criminal, socialist, narco-state.”

Venezuela is in terrible shape, sure — but is the Maduro regime truly oppressive enough to qualify for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council?

COLD CIVIL WAR: Democrat Says Colleague Suggested Allowing Lawmakers to ‘Exercise Their Second Amendment Rights’ on House Floor.

WHERE’S THE FUN IN THAT? Microsoft wants to use AI to bleep out bad words in Xbox Live party chat.

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME:

Which rule did he break? Does it matter?

EIGHTY YEARS AGO TODAY: German U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.

CHANGE: ‘Basic income’ experiment offers Stockton residents a glimpse of the California Dream.

I’m (just) old enough to remember when the California Dream meant pulling up stakes back east, and heading west to find a good job and a new life in a sandy, sunny paradise. Now it means qualifying for unrestricted welfare in a trash-strewn, poop-filled place where they can’t even keep the lights on.

OH: Hundreds of ISIS Supporters Escape Detention in Syria.

BUT: Senior U.S. administration official says there’s no evidence the Kurds released ISIS prisoners.

We’ve seen what ISIS does to their prisoners. Taking any ISIS prisoner is a mistake.

THUMBS DOWN: White House, Trump Campaign Condemn Kingsman-Style Video With Trump Killing Media, Dems.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Reasons to Celebrate Columbus Day as a Symbol of Diversity.

OH: MN House of Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL) Protesting with ANTIFA at Trump Rally.

AND MAYBE 2% WILL ACTUALLY RIDE IT: Study: 85% of voters support Front Range rail service.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Giant Animatronic Donald Trump As Warhammer 40K God Emperor.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: California Turns Off a Lot More Than Just the Lights.

Difficult to give you a juicy excerpt from this one, since the euphemistically named “Public Safety Power Shut-Offs” cause such a broad swathe of problems. But I think you’ll find it’s worth a few minutes of your time.

HER AND WHAT ARMY? Germany’s Merkel tells Erdogan to halt Syria offensive immediately.

UGH: Children of Venezuelan exodus trade one ordeal for another in Colombia.

In the final two weeks of her pregnancy, Yisela Palencia crossed the border into Colombia illegally.

The hospitals in her own country, for all its previous oil wealth, lacks medicine and reliable hospital equipment.

So taking her other two children, aged eight and five, with her, Palencia headed to Colombia via the smuggling trails that criss-cross the border and rejoined her exiled husband in Bogota.

But the birth of Wilbelys did not bring the joy the couple had hoped for. A legal void has made the baby’s first months a bureaucratic nightmare.

Remember, if you’re opposed to socialism it’s because you’re an uncaring monster.