KATIE PAVLICH: Where is the media’s explanation for Avenatti?

Now that he faces 400 years in federal prison for a series of crimes, reflection from those who promoted the fraudster is warranted. Unsurprisingly, his hundreds of appearances are still being justified.

“There are lots and lots of reasons why Avenatti was newsworthy when he was representing Stormy Daniels. Journalists did their jobs and questioned him — some more effectively than others,” Stelter wrote in his newsletter, comparing Avenatti to President Trump and accusing others of “distorting” his comments about the lawyer.

“Some folks have been distorting my comment last September about Avenatti. My thesis back then, which still holds, is that all future U.S. presidents will be television stars of some sort. TV star power will be a prerequisite for the presidency. [That’s why] I told Avenatti ‘one reason I’m taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news,’ ” he continued. “Obviously I’m not taking him seriously anymore, but I own that comment. He showed a Trump-like mastery of the media last year.”

Newsrooms built Avenatti and yet, they’ve been interestingly silent — probably out of embarrassment — about the latest developments.

Nah. If they were embarrassed, they’d apologize and try to learn from their mistakes. Avenatti no longer dominates CNN/MSNBC because he stopped being useful, but the next Avenatti is never much further away than the end of the next commercial break.

SATIRE… OR IS IT? Tim Cook apologizes for creating racist OK hand gesture emoji – will be removed in next iOS update.

I just now discovered NPC Daily, and some of their stuff is very well done.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Mueller’s Farewell, Damage Control Concert. “Here’s the real story with Mueller’s press conference: Mueller doesn’t want to be called by Nadler to testify before the House Judiciary because he doesn’t want to answer tough questions under oath. Nadler doesn’t want to call Mueller because he doesn’t want Mueller answering questions that undermine the Democrat’s plan to keep a cloud of suspicion floating over Trump until 2020.”

Sounds about right.

MY LIVER THANKS THEM: DNC makes it more difficult to qualify for 3rd debate.

The debate is set for Sept. 12 and could extend to a second night, Sept. 13, if enough candidates meet the threshold to participate. The location and moderators have not yet been announced.

Like the first two Democratic presidential debates — which are set for next month on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo and for July on CNN — the September debate and a fourth, to be held in October, will cap participants at 10 per night.

But it will be more difficult for the nearly two dozen 2020 Democratic hopefuls to make the stage.

Unlike the first and second rounds of debates, when candidates must cross either a donor or polling threshold to qualify, candidates will need to surpass both bars to make the stage for the third and fourth debates. For the September event, candidates will have to hit 2 percent in four qualifying polls, versus 1 percent in three polls for the first debates, and they will need 130,000 individual donors, up from 65,000.

Although the polling threshold increase is modest, it could represent a significant barrier for many candidates who have struggled to hit that mark in early polling.

Interesting that the fundraising qualifier is determined by the number of individual donors, rather than total donations received. If that incentivizes candidates into going after any fringe Democrat voter with a few dollars to spare, the results shouldn’t fail to amuse.

I DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING: Fake Beto Staffer Arrested for Popsicle Theft.

WHERE IS MY SHOCKED FACE? Sanders: Of Course We’re Going To Increase Your Taxes.

MAKE TEXAS GREAT AGAIN… ER, GREAT MORE? Texas Gov. Abbott signs law lifting ban on brass knuckles, kitty keychains and clubs.

Don’t mess with Texas.

Seriously, don’t.

IBD: The Stunning Statistical Fraud Behind The Global Warming Scare.

The actual measured temperature record shows something different: There have been hot years and hot decades since the turn of the last century, and colder years and colder decades. But the overall measured temperature shows no clear trend over the last century, at least not one that suggests runaway warming.

That is, until the NOAA’s statisticians “adjust” the data. Using complex statistical models, they change the data to reflect not reality, but their underlying theories of global warming. That’s clear from a simple fact of statistics: Data generate random errors, which cancel out over time. So by averaging data, the errors mostly disappear.

That’s not what NOAA does.

According to the NOAA, the errors aren’t random. They’re systematic. As we noted, all of their temperature adjustments lean cooler in the distant past, and warmer in the more recent past. But they’re very fuzzy about why this should be.

Far from legitimately “adjusting” anything, it appears they are cooking the data to show a politically correct trend toward global warming. Not by coincidence, that has been part and parcel of the government’s underlying policies for the better part of two decades.

What NOAA does aren’t niggling little changes, either.

Government cooking the books like this would be a major scandal if we had a nonpartisan press.

MICHAEL LEDEEN: It’s Time for a Thoroughgoing Revamping of the Intelligence Community.

For decades, Congress and various special committees and duos (such as Robb-Silverman) have invariably responded to intelligence failures by adding more bodies to the agencies and expanding their budgets. The predictable result? Today we’ve got too many spooks collecting too much money, with predictably bad results. Among other bad consequences, intelligence is typically churned out by committees, guaranteeing that we don’t identify our best analysts. We need to drastically reduce the numbers of both budgets and bureaucrats, in order to figure out who’s good. Then we need to promote them, within a much smaller system.

It’s hard to imagine this happening under normal circumstances, but today’s circumstances aren’t normal. As the investigations of the intel malefactors go forward, there will be numerous opportunities to remove lots of bad and incompetent actors, and put the whole community on the cutting-room floor.

That would be nice.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: NBC Polling Data Shows Sanders Voters Are ‘Low Information’ And Sanders Voters AREN’T Happy.

IMPEACHMENT FOR, AND CONVICTION OF, TREASON, BRIBERY, OR ORANGE MAN BAD: The Case to Impeach Trump for Bigotry.

Although most Democratic leaders and most House Democrats continue to resist calls for impeachment, more and more prominent Democrats, out of frustration with the Administration’s refusal to coöperate with the House’s investigators, are inching away from the Party line—either in support of impeachment on its own merits or in support of beginning impeachment hearings as a legal strategy to sustain subpoena requests.

In both cases, the Mueller report’s description of ten actions by President Trump that may have constituted obstruction of justice is central to their argument. But there are other arguments for impeaching Trump—ones that Democrats, even those most critical of the President’s conduct in office, are curiously reluctant to make.

“I think the strongest case is his bigotry and policy,” Green [not me! -Steve] told me in a recent conversation. “We shouldn’t allow a bigot to continue to hold the highest office in the land. We hear people daily on television who call him a racist, a bigot, who say he’s unfit—people in his own party have said he’s unfit to be the President. And the people of this country gave Democrats an overwhelming majority.”

Well, if people are saying stuff and calling names…

NICHOLAS BALLASY: Mueller Says Charging President ‘Not an Option We Could Consider,’ the Final Report Is ‘My Testimony.’

JOHN KASS: Why have Democrats lost their curiosity over the Trump-Russia story?

Sunshine is conspiracy? Transparency in federal investigations is “un-American?” Ridiculous. An idiotic parrot chewing on its own toes and demanding crackers has more sense. And just who weaponized law enforcement Mr. Schiff?

I am not saying any crime occurred, nor that any conspiracy was hatched and then flown like a raptor to take Trump down. It smells, yes, but we don’t know. Let’s allow sunshine and find out. Isn’t anyone curious?

Barr has assigned John. H. Durham, a respected career prosecutor and U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to find out. Also investigating is Michael Horowitz, inspector general of the Department of Justice. They’re pulling the threads of how all this started, with the FISA warrant application and who knew what about the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. He was the author of the Steele dossier, was on the Clinton political payroll and used Russian contacts to put a political case together against Trump, which was then leaked to the media.

Already there is indication that some players have begun pointing fingers at each other in panic, just like a few sweaty Chicago aldermen I know.

In Washington, on Trump, did they do things by the book?

There was that weird Jan. 20, 2017, email that Susan Rice wrote to herself. It reportedly documented a Jan. 5 meeting between then President Barack Obama, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, then FBI director James Comey and Vice President Joe Biden in which the Steele dossier was discussed.

In her strange email to herself, Rice noted that Obama said everything should be done “by the book.”

By the book, really? Who talks like that? Someone covering their behinds?

Yes.

WOKE AND BROKE: CNN Fires All London Correspondents, Asks Them To Reapply For Jobs.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND COMMUNIST STATISTICS: An under-the-radar way to measure economic growth in China is painting a bleak picture.

China’s true pace of economic growth is always hard to decipher, but the country’s lagging diesel demand could be a sign that the world’s second-largest economy is in a much more dire state than official numbers indicate.

Diesel demand in China fell 14% and 19% in March and April, respectively, reaching levels not seen in a decade, according to data compiled by Wells Fargo. Monthly demand has also been falling every month since December 2017, the data shows [sic].

“We believe the accelerating decline is most likely tied to economic factors and the effects of the tariff ‘war’ with the U.S. (lifted demand earlier in 2019 to ‘beat’ the tariffs, but now falling),” Wells Fargo energy analyst Roger Read said in a note Monday. “If one wants to worry, that is where to focus most closely in our view.”

China said in April its economy grew by 6.4% in the first quarter of 2019. However, global investors and economists have been skeptical of China’s official economic figures for years as they believe they are overstated.

You can’t trust anything out of Beijing.

RELATED: Global stocks plunge after China hints it could unleash a ‘powerful’ trade war weapon by limiting US rare-earth supply.

I read this threat as a sign of desperation, not strength. Anyone “smart” enough to try to get rich cornering the market for a natural resource ought to have a long talk with the Hunt brothers. In the long run, it never works, as high prices cause people to find substitutes or new sources.

THE ONE WITH THE ICK FACTOR: Joe Biden Asks For 10-Year-Old Girl’s Address, Tells Her She’s “Good Looking.”

Creepy Joe’s gotta creep.

LEO GOLDSTEIN: The Trump ‘Secret Server’ Hoax Was a Subplot of the DNC Spygate Strategy to Foment the Russia Collusion Conspiracy.

AT A CERTAIN POINT YOU’VE MADE ENOUGH MONEY: Obama Earning Almost $600K for Speech in Colombia.

That’s different because he’s better than you bitterly clingy proles.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: It’s Not Your Imagination: The Journalists Writing About Antifa Are Often Their Cheerleaders.

Antifa often receives media coverage that is neutral or even favorable, with its members’ violence either being ignored by reporters or vaguely explained away as a product of right-wing provocation. What’s more, anecdotal evidence has suggested that many of the mainstream reporters who are most active in covering Antifa also tend to enthusiastically amplify Antifa’s claims on social media.

In October 2018, my research partner and I decided to investigate the truth of this impression by using a mix of network mapping and linguistic analysis to see which prominent journalists who covered Antifa also were closely connected to leading Antifa figures on social media. We then inspected the Antifa-related stories these journalists had written.

We created a data set of 58,254 Antifa or Antifa-associated Twitter accounts based on the follows of 16 verified Antifa seed accounts. Using a software tool that analyzed the number and nature of connections associated with each individual account, we winnowed the 58,254 Antifa or Antifa-associated Twitter accounts down to 962 accounts. This represents a core group of Twitter users who are connected in overlapping ways to the most influential and widely followed Antifa figures. Of these 962 accounts, 22 were found to be verified Twitter accounts of journalists—of which 15 were journalists who work regularly with national-level news outlets.

None of this is exactly surprising, but the research involved here makes Eoin Lenihan’s piece well worth your time.

HMM: Where’s Joe? Biden’s campaign pace called into question.

After launching his Democratic presidential campaign in late April, the former vice president came out of the gate with a busy schedule, holding events in all four of the states that kick-off the primary and caucus calendar, as well as stops in California. And Biden started and closed that campaign swing with speeches in his native Pennsylvania, which is also a crucial general election battleground state.

But Biden hasn’t held a public campaign event since his large kick-off rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 18. Since then, he’s headlined a top dollar fundraiser in Nashville, Tennessee and two more in Florida.

And while a bunch of his rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination are stumping this holiday weekend, Biden’s off the trail.

“Joe Biden has no public events scheduled,” read a release from his campaign.

Plus: Joe Biden’s Early Campaign Strategy Doesn’t Involve Much Campaigning.

The former vice-president is doing far fewer public events than most of his competitors in the crowded Democratic field. That’s especially evident this holiday weekend, when Elizabeth Warren is getting coffee with voters, Bernie Sanders is hitting up Memorial Day cookouts, and Kirsten Gillibrand is making 11 public appearances in Iowa — the same number of events Biden has held since launching his campaign.

But this makes sense for Biden, his team tells the Washington Post, because he simply doesn’t have to work as hard.

“He doesn’t have to work as hard” isn’t an exactly inspiring message.

GOOD LORD: White South African farm activist is stabbed and beaten to death at her home in horrifying hammer attack.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: James Comey Excretes Another Op-Ed.

For the love of G-d, can someone please take the computer away from Twitter personality and fired government bureaucrat James Comey? He’s written another op-ed. It’s titled: “No ‘treason.’ No coup. Just lies — and dumb lies at that.”

Click at your own risk. It reads like an emo 14-year-old’s poetry after listening to Fields of The Nephilim’s “Last Exit for the Lost” on repeat for 24 hours.

I love it when Liz doesn’t hold back.

THE SCANDINAVIAN MODEL: The Welfare State is Tearing Sweden Apart.

With a welfare state as a punching bag between groups however, cultural divides become much harder to bridge. Large scale immigration will always be culturally demanding, even when there is access to market mechanism to bridge cultural differences. But the welfare state largely nullifies such avenues.

1. The attractive welfare state lures non-productive economical migration, deters labour-market entry for migrants who do want to contribute, and cements welfare dependency. Beyond cultural effects, we therefore must add resentment fueled by the predominant culture having no choice but to fund absolute strangers.

2.While not specifically related to the welfare state; minimum wage requirements and other protectionistic union regulations exacerbate this mechanic. In Sweden, hardly a day goes by without some enterprising tax-paying immigrant getting a deportation notice because of having “taken too few vacation days,” or having “accepted too low a salary.” Yes, migration authorities actively enforce union edicts! In the face of this, who can blame a migrant who simply decides to play it safe and remain on welfare?

3. In Sweden, the welfare state is enormous and encompasses everything; from a plethora of transfer payments, to schools (including university), and health care. There is literally no way of escaping its grasp if you wish a lead a semblance of a normal life.

When a welfare state subsidies migration we get a direct burden on existing net taxpayers, who tend to be ethnically and culturally Swedish, above and beyond the burden already imposed by native welfare-recipients and rent-seekers.

Cloward and Piven, call your offices.

THERE ALREADY IS ONE: Japan’s deal to buy F-35 Lightning jets from US ‘may fuel arms race with China in region.’

China is engaging in one of the largest naval buildups and military modernizations in history, but Japan is at fault for buying 105 fighters?

LIFE IN THE OIL-RICH OPEC-MEMBER SOCIALIST PARADISE: Venezuela’s gas shortages create days-long lines.