MUST HAVE HIT IT PRETTY CLOSE TO THE MARK TO GET HIM ALL RILED UP LIKE THAT: Another CNN host lost his cool when a panelist called leftist protesters a ‘mob.’

FREDDY GRAY: Trump’s luck and the Democratic death wish. “The President’s fumbling opponents keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Trump has great fortune (I don’t mean money). Every time he is due to fail, his antagonists find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Republicans who opposed him in 2016 endlessly managed to trip over each other. Hillary Clinton was obviously the best opponent any Republican nominee could dream of. The winds of fate helped Trump preside over an economic mega-boom. And now, a virulent feminism, which demands more than justice, has given him an arguably undeserved reprieve in time for the midterms. It does so while screaming about sex and genitals in a manner that is far more off-puttingly vulgar than anything Donald Trump, for all his locker room talk, could ever manage.

Some believe Trump is a strategic genius — the President himself certainly thinks so. But even the greatest brain could never have anticipated quite how dramatically the Kavanaugh story would change the political script in his favour in October.

I commented elsewhere yesterday that I haven’t seen depressed Republicans come out of their stupor so quickly and with such passion since the birth of the Tea Party. On Kavanaugh, the Left overplayed its hand with such self-destructive passion that you can’t help but wonder if they despise themselves even more than they despise everyone else.

BAKE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO: Britain ‘Gay Cake’ Ruling Shows the U.S. How to Defend Religious Freedom AND LGBT Rights.

BUSTED: Staffers for TN Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen Caught on Tape Admitting he lied about Supporting Kavanaugh.

James O’Keefe strikes again.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM: Feds bust New York man for alleged plot to detonate massive bomb in D.C. on Election Day.

Prosecutors say 56-year-old Paul Rosenfeld planned to detonate the explosive in Washington, hoping to kill himself and draw attention to his political beliefs.

According to court papers, over the past two months, Rosenfeld allegedly sent letters and text messages to a Pennsylvania resident detailing his plan to detonate the bomb on the National Mall to draw attention to the “sortition” political system, in which government officials are randomly selected.

The Pennsylvania resident alerted the FBI and police pulled Rosenfeld over Tuesday. After waiving his Miranda rights, Rosenfeld admitted his plan.

He told agents he ordered large quantities of “black powder” online and built small test explosives before constructing the 200-pound explosive device in a plywood box in his basement. He said he installed certain components in the device to ensure that he was killed in the blast.

On Wednesday, FBI technicians removed the bomb from his basement and transferred it to a safe location.

Good work, FBI, police, and the local tipster.

REPUBLICANS SEIZE! Republicans Seize On ‘Angry Mob’ Mantra To Keep Their Midterm Base Fired Up.

Forget it, Jake — it’s NPR.

WOW: U.S., Russian Astronauts Make Emergency Landing After Failed Space Launch.

The rocket was carrying U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin. Footage from inside the Soyuz showed the two men being shaken around at the moment the failure occurred, with their arms and legs flailing.

The rocket was launched from the Soviet-era cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. A Reuters reporter who observed the launch from around 1 km away said it had gone smoothly in its initial stages and that the failure of the booster rockets must have occurred at higher altitude.

Russian news agencies reported that the crew had safely made an emergency landing and were in radio contact and that rescuers were en route to pick them up.

Glad they made it safely back to Earth.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Eric Holder Wants to Kick You and Much, Much More. “Eric Holder, the only Attorney General of the United States of America to be held in Contempt of Congress, wants his deranged, maniacal hooligans on the left to get more physical with their political activism.”

ALEXANDRA DESANCTIS: The Kavanaugh Fight Exposed Feminism’s Identity-Politics Problem.

During the 1960s and ’70s, second-wave feminists promoted their agenda of sexual liberation, and third-wave feminists radicalized further by propounding turn-of-the-century gender theory, a realm of sociology that seeks to explain the entire female experience through the lens of patriarchy and oppression. Now, feminists have fully assimilated the ideas that were once en vogue only in academic departments, and today’s feminism is nearly identical to the most militant form of progressivism. In large part, this compact was the natural fruit of the feminist movement’s emphasis on sexual license, a priority that the Democratic party has embraced for decades, most notably in its support for unlimited abortion, the ultimate guarantor of consequence-free sex.

This alliance between feminists and the Left has materialized politically in an especially potent way over the last decade. In 2012, Barack Obama ran for his second term on the promise of providing government-funded contraceptives. He made good on his vow by compelling employers to subsidize birth control regardless of their religious belief. In 2016, Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency on a Democratic platform that, for the first time in history, vowed to erase the Hyde Amendment and allow taxpayer dollars to directly facilitate abortion procedures.

With their social agenda thus wedded to the progressive movement, feminist thinkers have taken a nosedive into corrosive identity politics, asserting their influence based on the notion that all women necessarily share their viewpoint, that women as an identity group (and a voting bloc) are united in a fight against patriarchal oppression. Feminist claims to political power are therefore premised on the fiction that all women are shackled by men and that all women should be united around one liberating platform — the progressive one.

Identity politics is descended from Marx’s concept of “false consciousness,” which is a fancy way of saying that if you don’t fall into line with your victimhood group, then you aren’t a real person. That kind of thinking has been used to justify all kinds of injustices, from petty snipes at conservative women, blacks, and gays, all the way down to atrocities like Holodomor and the Holocaust.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Accelerated Army New Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Will Launch Drones.

While the particular configuration and technology woven into the new combat vehicle is still a subject of Army-industry collaboration, there is widespread consensus that the future armored platforms will be able to sense and destroy enemy vehicles and drones at much farther ranges, make use of active protection systems, leverage emerging AI and command and control systems.

Army developers also say the new vehicle will use more automation and – perhaps of greatest significance – fire lasers and the most advanced precision weaponry available.

Three industry teams have already built demonstrator vehicles: General Dynamics Land Systems, BAE Systems and a Rhienemetall-Raytheon team.

General Dynamics Land Systems, which has now unveiled its NGCV Griffin III demonstrator vehicle, intends to work with Army developers on requirements, weapons systems and technologies as they evolve.

Built with a 50mm cannon on a GDLS turret, the Griffin III integrates Active Protection Systems technology, laser warning systems and drone operations.

The timeline looks a little optimistic, but beyond-visual-range kill capability will eventually come to every major combat vehicle in the Army’s inventory.

“WHAT ARE YOU BURNING TO PROTEST?” “WHAT DO YOU GOT?”: Burning books like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is the honest next step for the anti-Kavanaugh left.

ANY STAGE SOCIALISM: U.S. says Venezuela involved in opposition politician’s death.

“The United States condemns the Maduro regime’s involvement in the death of Venezuelan opposition councilman Fernando Alban,” it said in a statement.

The statement also called for the release of all Venezuelan political prisoners and for Maduro’s government to “to re-establish democracy in Venezuela and to prevent further suffering and bloodshed,” adding that President Donald Trump’s administration would continue to increase pressure over the issue.

Authorities in Caracas have said the municipal politician killed himself by jumping out a window, while his Opposition First Justice party has said he was murdered.

Alban, 56, was jailed on Friday for alleged involvement in the explosion of two drones during an August military parade led by Maduro, according to Interior Minister Nestor Reverol. Venezuelan officials have given differing accounts of where he jumped, and on Tuesday the U.N. human rights office called for an independent investigation.

The White House on Wednesday noted that Alban died “while in the custody of Venezuela’s intelligence service.”

What’s the Spanish for “chekist?”

PUTIN’S THUGS: A Trio of Wealthy Russians Made an Enemy of Putin. Now They’re All Dead. “Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, was preparing to testify that Aeroflot was a corrupt instrument of Russian intelligence.”

The one-time finance director of Russia’s flagship airline, he was preparing for a trial in a London court. He told friends it would prove his innocence of longstanding financial charges by Russian authorities and expose Aeroflot Russian Airlines as a front for Russian security services. The case could also prove embarrassing for President Vladimir Putin, by illuminating a piece of post-Soviet history the Russian government has tried to erase.

After running out of funds to pay his own lawyers, Mr. Glushkov, 68 years old, planned to represent himself, and had amassed tomes on British law and forensic accounting. “This case was his purpose in life,” said Georgy Shuppe, a friend and former business partner. “He was not going to give up.”

On the eve of a preliminary court hearing, Mr. Glushkov stopped answering his phone. When his daughter drove to his house to investigate, she found him inside, strangled to death with a dog leash.

Good lord.

HMM: Terror in Paradise: Trinidad and Tobago Is Now a Jihad Hotspot. “At least 130 people joined ISIS from the Caribbean nation.”

CHANGE: Media Mogul James Murdoch Slated To Replace Elon Musk As Tesla Chairman.

GOOD BOY: Houston bar owners launch a line of beer for dogs.

My in-laws had a Golden/Lab/Diesel mix who would knock unattended beers over onto the patio and drink them, but this non-alcoholic brew has got to be better for Fido than that.

VODKAPUNDIT: Kavanaugh Moves Another #NeverTrump to Don the MAGA Hat.

BLUE WAVE? Kavanaugh Effect: GOP Fundraising Up 500 Percent in Past Few Weeks.

To be clear, that’s a Five followed by two Zeros.

I’LL TAKE TWO: The Army Is Testing a Devastating New Weapon: A Super ‘Bazooka.’

BECAUSE THEY’RE HOPING THE CROCODILE WILL EAT THEM LAST: Why would Exxon donate $1 million to a carbon tax initiative?

GOOD LORD: A supercharged Hurricane Michael begins pounding Florida.

Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael tore away tree limbs and sent pieces of buildings flying Wednesday as it closed in on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 150 mph and towering storm surge.

It was one of the most intense hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland and the most powerful one on record to menace the Panhandle, a roughly 200-mile stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches.

Its winds roaring, it battered the coastline with sideways-blown rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamped streets, bent trees, stripped away limbs and leaves and sent building debris flying. Explosions apparently caused by transformers could be heard.

“The window to evacuate has come to a close,” Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long said.

Gulp.

THE NEW CIVILITY: Don Lemon shouts down CNN commentator on activist ‘mob’ definition: ‘Shut up!’

And this seems apropos:

IF WE CAN’T TAKE IT, WE’LL BREAK IT: Google Exec. Responds to Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation: ‘Abolish the Senate.’

CHRISTIAN TOTO: H’Wood’s Silence on Clintons Final #MeToo Straw.

BLOWBACK: Democratic Arizona Rep. Tom O’Halleran said Monday that Democrats went “too far” during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

I’m guessing O’Halleran has his ear much closer to the ground than someone like, say, Tom Perez.