HOUSE: Republican wins special House election in Pennsylvania.

Keller’s victory means that the north-central Pennsylvania district will remain in Republican hands after former Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) stepped down in January, less than one month into his fifth term in office.

The 12th District still tilts heavily in the GOP’s favor, unlike several districts in Pennsylvania that became more competitive for Democrats after the state Supreme Court ordered the state’s congressional lines to be redrawn.

President Trump would have carried the district by 36 points in 2016 had the state’s current congressional boundaries been in place that year, and Keller outspent Friedenberg by more than $140,000, according to federal filings.

A win is always nice, but I wouldn’t read too much into this one.

OH: Dem Leaders Side With Iran as Trump Admin Seeks to Counter Terror Regime.

BREAKING: NJ man arrested on terror charges, allegedly wanted to bomb Trump Tower.

ALL I’VE GOT’S THIS SUNNY AFTERNOON: In Wake Of Federal Tax Reform, Blue States Scramble To Hide High Taxes. “Democrats insist richer people need to pay more taxes. When that becomes slightly more true because of a Republican initiative, they hide income.”

Any analysis of the federal income-taxing power must begin with the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which is brief but sweeping: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” While Article I always gave Congress the power to impose direct taxes, the Sixteenth Amendment removed the constitutional restrictions on that power that made its exercise practically impossible.

That power, with the pre-1916 restrictions removed, is as broad as it gets. If you have income, the federal government can tax it. From the beginning, courts have recognized the sweeping nature of the Sixteenth Amendment and, in 1955, clarified further just how broad the amendment is in the landmark case of Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co. In that case, the upheld the Internal Revenue Code’s definition of income as being truly “all-inclusive.”

To admit this does not require an endorsement of high taxes, or indeed of any taxes at all. To say that the government can tax all income does not mean you think they should tax all income. It is only to admit a fact that, until recently, Democrats were especially fond of acknowledging: the government has the power to tax your income.

Well, they’re hypocrites.

AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: U.S. Commander Confirms: Al Qaeda Operating ‘Across’ Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda is operating “across the country” and not confined to one region, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan confirmed.

General Austin Miller, the commander of Resolute Support Mission and US Forces – Afghanistan, confirmed several analyses by FDD’s Long War Journal, which has noted for years that al Qaeda’s footprint spans all regions of Afghanistan.

“We have seen al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yes, in different parts of Afghanistan,” Miller said, according to TOLONews. “In different parts of Afghanistan, we can find them, so it’s not one particular region, it’s across the country.”

Later this year, someone born after 9/11/2001 will be old enough to serve in Afghanistan.

YIKES: Tesla enters survival mode as stock price drops.

A storm was already brewing in January when Musk announced that 2,500 workers, 7% of the workforce, would be laid off. That came after 9% were laid off the previous June, with Musk saying, “We are making this hard decision now so we never have to do this again.” After two profitable quarters in late 2018, it seemed the time had come for Musk to buckle down and make good on his promise to deliver a mass-market car efficiently and profitably. Then came the first quarter from hell.

Tesla’s financial condition has only deteriorated since then. Musk has responded on two tracks: He’s watching every penny of expense, while talking up a series of projects with varying degrees of likely completion — from a new Model Y crossover to a robo-taxi service he employed to pitch the recent stock-and-bond sale. In the past such products, like the Tesla semi, while derided by critics as vehicular vaporware, have managed to boost the stock price. No more.

Tesla has been in a race to scale up from an unprofitable boutique manufacturer of electric vehicles to a profitable mass-manufacturer, before the existing mass-manufacturers move big into electric vehicles. It’s too soon to say they’ve lost the race, but the company’s mass-market Model 3 hasn’t (yet?) proven the be the financial boon Musk was counting on.

DAVID SOLWAY: A Typical High School Tells a Larger Story: Schools Are Now Dominated by the Feminist Agenda.

MARK ELLIS: Will the Deep State Conspirators Ever Be Held Accountable? “Even given all we now know, and are learning from Hannity’s ‘boomerang’ extravaganza each day, it would be irresponsible to categorically state that yes, this person, those people, will ever be charged or brought to trial, let alone hear the clank of a cell door closing behind them. Due to the labyrinthine depths, interconnectivity, and power inherent in a Deep State that has shocked a nation aghast at the reach of rogue bureaucracies, no one can say for certain whether any of those who concocted this conspiracy will ever be brought to justice.”

GREAT MOMENTS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT: A 69-Year-Old Great-Grandmother Was Arrested at Disney World for Carrying CBD Oil.

DR. TOD WORNER: Mystery, Manners, and the Rediscovery of Great Literature.

In many high school or college venues, the process of teaching literature has been reduced to performing cold and soulless vivisection on the most vibrant, engaging and instructive of stories. And what is the result? A corpse—a cold and soulless story—is left on the table, likely never to be approached again by the disillusioned student. John Jay Chapman captures the essence of this tragedy when describing what has become of William Shakespeare’s brilliance when many a teacher is through with him: “Many a lad has known less about Shakespeare than he did when the only phrase he knew was ‘Anoint thee, witch’—and he didn’t know where that came from. Now he can write the etymology of the words on an examination paper; but the witch herself has vanished. Information is the enemy of poetry.”

But this wasn’t the case for Bob Dylan. The sweep and verve, the agony and ecstasy of an obsessed sea captain, an anguished young soldier, and a homesick hero sprang off the pages at him. They were companions that challenged him to thoughtfully consider them, to be changed by them, to tell their story but in a different way. They possessed him and his music because obsession and anguish and homesickness are all parts of who Bob Dylan is. And we listen to Dylan spin the story anew because they are part of who we are too.

This is a lovely piece — read the whole thing.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Subpoena Madness! Women Cry for It, Men Die for It! “If Nadler is really serious, why doesn’t he start filing lawsuits to get the information he is demanding? Why isn’t he challenging the White House’s claim of executive privilege? He just wants a fight he doesn’t want information.”

BLUE CITY BLUES: ‘Sky-High’ Trash Piles Found In Los Angeles, Raising Concerns About Typhus.

Richard J. Riordan, the most recent Republican mayor since 1961, left office in 2001.

ABC’S THE NOTE: Impeachment buzz boiling over for Pelosi and House. “In the toggling between ‘if’ and ‘when’ on the subject of impeachment, the ‘when’ side appears to be winning.”

Pelosi seems to understand that impeachment is election suicide, but she’s losing control of her caucus.

FEAR AND JUSTICE: Firewall with Bill Whittle. “After a decade of justice denied — under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, John Brennan, James Comey, and others — Bill Whittle thinks he now detects a whiff of fear among those in that cabal.”

Must-see TV.

UGH: Nevada Senate passes bill that would give Electoral College votes to winner of national popular vote.

I’d love it if Glenn would weigh in on this, but I can’t see how any elected assembly has any constitutional authority to effectively hand my vote over to the people of another state.

UPDATE:

FLASHBACK FROM SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: Betwixt Principle and Practice: Tara Ross’s Defense of the Electoral College. Reviewing: Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College.

Tara Ross has taken on a herculean task: an exposition of and a defense of the electoral college, in conjunction with a defense of prevailing state statutory and customary presidential election processes, including: first-past-the-post, winner-take-all with regard to appointing electors.

It is a valiant, romantic, Don Quixote like effort. But in the end: the windmill still wins. It always does. Her explanation of prevailing practices falls short of the mark. And this I suggest might be a sign that the system is too complex and unwieldy. Ross also defends the electoral college for consistently producing the right winner, notwithstanding 1876 and 2000 where the electoral college winner (under the final tally) had fewer popular votes. But this defense, so common among defenders of the electoral college, fails to recognize that many states historically were rotten boroughs where those with the de jure and de facto vote controlled the whole state’s slate of electors. So the if-it-ain’t-really-really-broke-let’s-not-fix-it-Burkean position is not so clear. Lastly, Ross’s defense of the electoral college, rooted in federalism and states’ rights concerns seems, to this reviewer at any rate, somewhat untethered from the actual details of the electoral college she seeks to defend.

And some of those boroughs are getting more rotten.

SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Report Shows Online Ties Linking HuffPost, the Guardian, and SPLC to Antifa.

BUT ONLY IF YOU SHOP USING A GMAIL ACCOUNT: Google has secret log of every online purchase you’ve ever made. “The log is compiled from receipts sent to your Gmail account, and goes back years.”

DON’T DO THAT: Forest Grove man stole daughter’s cookie sale money to pay for erotic massage, prosecutors say.

DENNIS PRAGER: Are You Sure You Want to Play Russian Roulette with Your Child’s Values?

OF COURSE SHE DOES AND OF COURSE IT IS: Kamala Harris Has a Plan to Close the ‘Gender Pay Gap’—and It’s Completely Unworkable.

WIRED: 3D-printed guns are back, and this time they are unstoppable. “A decentralised network of gun-printing advocates is mobilising online, they’re anonymously sharing blueprints, advice and building a community. There’s no easy way they can be halted.”

They say that like it’s a bad thing.

FLASHBACK: Congressman’s daughter uses car with official plates to drive for Lyft.

No, that’s not Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings driving for Lyft in his downtime.

But his daughter, Adia, who borrowed her father’s car, may have made her passengers feel like VIPs since the black Honda she uses was sporting official congressional license plates.

Earlier today: Top Democrat’s wife may have gained ‘illegal private benefit’ from his committee activities.

Also Elijah Cummings.

BUT OF COURSE: Al Jazeera Gets Twitter To Silence Critics Of Its Video Implying Jews Benefited From Holocaust.

OH: Austrian SpyGate? Nationalist Vice-Chancellor Resigns after Video Shows Alleged Corruption Involving ‘Niece of Russian Oligarch.’