A BAD IDEA IN SO MANY WAYS: National Popular Vote frees candidates to ignore Colorado.

LAWRENCE PERSON: The Twitter Primary Revisited for September 2019. “Most amusing: Tom Steyer, who’s been throwing fistfuls of money into social media advertising, gained fewer followers than last place Wayne Messam.”

Who?

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Pelosi’s impeachment flip-flop changes everything.

In surrendering to the radicals and the noisy drumbeat of their media handmaidens, Pelosi established a formal investigative process involving the top legislative committees.

Yet she did something else, too, something far more monumental: She effectively committed House Dems to impeaching President Trump.

Because of what she said and did, if the House doesn’t go all the way, it will be a political disaster. Either failing to take a vote on articles of impeachment, or failing to get enough votes among her majority to pass any articles, would be seen as a political exoneration for Trump, likely leading to his re-election.

Don’t get cocky.

That aside, maybe the only thing to the Democrats’ kamikaze wing worse than not going ahead with an impeachment inquiry would be an unsuccessful one.

FLASHBACK: 1998 Joe Biden Said Impeachment Should Never Be Done for Political Reasons.

FAIL, BRITANNIA: British Church Leaders Want Government to Ban Pointy Knives. “Maybe there remain a few sturdy Britons who would say, ‘They can have my Messermeister carving knife when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.’ The problem is, you’re much more likely to end up dead trying to defend yourself with a kitchen tool, than you are with a firearm. Then again, the UK is already well along the road to comically complete disarmament, so I suppose the kitchen cutlery is destined to go next.”

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

BREAKING: Trump-Zelensky Transcript Released: Here’s What We Know.

MAYBE THEY SHOULD STOP HIRING 27-YEAR-OLDS WHO LITERALLY KNOW NOTHING EXCEPT HOW TO BE ASSES ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Newly-Hired NYT Reporter Accused Of Fabricating Accusation Against Another Reporter.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Indiana couple accused of abandoning daughter says she was actually an adult who tried to kill them.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Things Are Just Impeachy Now. “Of course, it’s Hallelujah! time over in Dem Land. They are now convinced that THIS IS THE ONE THING that will get rid of Bad Orange Man for them. For those keeping count at home, this is the 7,891st ONE THING since January, 2017.”

PRIVACY: Apple warns that third-party keyboards on iOS 13 and iPadOS can send data to internet without permission.

Pretty much anything you input into a third-party app can be sold to advertisers, and a third-party keyboard knows literally everything you type, but Apple says they have a patch coming to close this loophole.

SEAN DAVIS: Like Russian Collusion, Ukraine Hysteria Is Pure Projection By Media And Democrats.

I’M ALL FOR FREE ELECTIONS, BUT THIS LOOKS LIKE THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD: Trump Administration Set to Triple Pro-Democracy Aid in Venezuela.

Still, I suppose the optics are nice.

THE PROHIBITION, WHAT A SHOW: Massachusetts bans sale of all vaping products for 4 months.

GOVERNMENT IS JUST A WORD WE USE FOR THE THINGS WE CHOSE TO DO TOGETHER: VA Sued for Shutting Down Innovative Trade School That Helped Homeless Vets Get Great Jobs.

IMPEACHMENT: Less Than Meets the Eye.

It’s only been an hour, but already this impeachment process looks less like an actual congressional inquiry, and more like a sop to the growing Crazy Wing of Pelosi’s caucus.

BREXIT: The Court vs. the Queen.

Britain’s Supreme Court began its judgment recalling Parliament by claiming it wasn’t about Brexit. The question, said the court president, Baroness Hale, was just about whether Prime Minister Johnson’s request to Elizabeth II that Parliament should be prorogued was lawful. Not, the judge averred, “about when and on what terms the United Kingdom is to leave the European Union.”

That strikes us as unconvincing. It’s like saying — to pick a similar absurdity — that our Civil War was merely about states rights and had nothing to do with slavery. Of course it was about slavery. And of course the case that just rocked Britain is about leaving the European Union. If Baroness Hale believes otherwise, she might like to buy a lovely bridge in Brooklyn.

Of course this is about Brexit. That is why the Remainers of both parties are so jubilant after the decision. It’s why Labor is cheering. And why, as London’s Sun put it, “gloating EU bosses” are reacting to the court’s ruling with “glee.” And why one of Europe’s leading opponents of British independence, Guy Verhofstadt, is calling the ruling “one big relief in the Brexit saga.”

It’s about winning at any cost, the constitution, tradition, and — God forbid — the will of the people be damned.

We’ve spent the last three years or so learning a similar lesson on this side of the pond.

OBSESSED: Legacy TV Networks Mention Impeachment 73 Times in 26 Hours.

No link yet, but Pelosi has reportedly just told House Democrats she’ll move forward with an impeachment inquiry.

ATTACHING A NAIL GUN TO A FLYING DRONE ISN’T REASON ENOUGH? Researchers Found a Good Reason to Attach a Nail Gun to a Flying Drone.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: The Real Reason Critics Hate ‘Rambo: Last Blood.’

HERE WE GO: Change of Heart: Pelosi to Set the House on the Road to Impeachment.

THREAT EVOLUTION: Why U.S. Patriot missiles failed to stop drones and cruise missiles attacking Saudi oil sites. “The U.S. is having trouble defending against low-flying drones and cruise missiles after years of the Pentagon focusing on longer-range threats.”

THIS IS A LOVELY AND DIFFICULT ESSAY: I’m Watching My Father Die. “The pain of death is brutal. But it must never extinguish the absolute beauty of life.”

BUT THE NARRATIVE! The new law designed to support independent contractors gets thumbs down from rideshare drivers who prefer flexibility and freedom.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 5, which is intended to reduce worker misclassification by turning “independent contractors,” like rideshare drivers, into employees of the companies they work with. The new law would force giants like Lyft and Uber to do things like pay a minimum wage, provide health insurance benefits and paid sick days off.

As well-meaning as the change may have been intended, the consensus among the rideshare drivers waiting for pings from an LAX holding lot on a recent Friday said, thanks but no thanks.

Despite all of the complaints, protests and anger from drivers about their treatment from their so-called partners at Uber and Lyft, the top reason people endure the traffic and headaches of driving rideshare professionally in and around L.A. is that the hours are flexible. If you only want to drive after dropping off your kids at school, you can simply turn off the app when you’re done. If you want to take a month, two months, six months off from driving you won’t even get so much as an email from the companies inquiring your status. I should know. After being an Uber/Lyft driver for over five years, I stopped using the apps almost a year ago and have not heard a peep from either company asking me to return.

Other gigs might say they have flexible hours, but for all its faults, driving for Lyft and Uber is truly a side hustle with few peers. Thus, the proposition of losing that freedom in order to be an employee of a company that has rarely shown it cares about anything, including its bottom line, is something these drivers would rather quit over than embark into.

California’s AB 5 looks more and more like the Taxicab Medallion Protection Act.

HE SEEMS SANE: Bill Weld Says Trump Is Guilty of Treason, Deserves Death Penalty.

THEN BY ALL MEANS, FORCE EVEN MORE VAPERS TO TURN TO THE BLACK MARKET: Black market marijuana vapes containing substances like alcohol and caffeine may be to blame for spate of mysterious lung illnesses.