CHANGE: A New Home for $90,000? Manufactured Housing Is Making a Comeback.

The hope is that more Americans will see the factory units not only as a more-affordable alternative to a traditional single-family house, but also an appealing one, without the old trailer-park stigma. It helps that they’ve been getting fancier.

Scott Richards, a salesman for Rona Homes in Pataskala, Ohio, said that when shoppers come to his lot, he can dazzle them with customization options like hickory cabinets, rainforest showers and built-in entertainment systems coupled with electric fireplaces.

“We’ve got linoleum floors that look just like hardwood floors,” said Richards, who got back into selling factory-made houses after leaving the industry in 2012. “You don’t think about solid granite being in a manufactured home, but we have that as well.”

Rona Homes revamped its display lot in March in response to growing demand. Where there once sat three models for customers to see, there are now 13 — “a whole arsenal” Richards can use to sell buyers on the idea.

I’d like to see modern manufacturing techniques used to bring down the prices of site-built homes as well.

BETHANY MANDEL: How The Angry Left Turned Me Into A Nazi.

The fact that ADL found me to be one of the worst victims of Nazi harassment doesn’t matter, because progressives have decided that posting the headline of my column is the perfect virtue signal to indicate how terrible conservatives are, even if doing so is a complete misrepresentation of me, my arguments and my beliefs.

This internet pile-on isn’t just shameful for those involved; it also totally misses the point of the original column, thereby losing an opportunity to root out the hatred they claim to abhor.

They don’t abhor hate any more than a fish abhors water.

GOOD LORD: Horrified Onlookers Watch as 71 Drug Users Collapse in Connecticut Park… IN ONE DAY. “Paramedics would treat one and ‘see another immediately fall down, right there’.”

ANDREW MALCOLM: A Journalist Reflects On His Profession’s Anti-Trump Collusion.

Had those elites of both parties paid genuine attention to flyover country’s concerns, frustrations and fears, as silly and stupid as they seem to disconnected Beltway know-it-all’s, they would not be in today’s baffling, powerless position. There would have been no need for a Trump. And by the way, isn’t it strange how a billionaire from a New York high-rise could detect the heartland’s hurt better than those elected from that region?

Trump did not invent many Americans’ visceral dislike of the media. He’s using it, exactly as these 100+ newspapers will use their readers’ visceral dislike of Trump to influence a large audience on this day. It’s all fair game in a free society, even one as bitterly splintered as ours these days.

Many silent Americans see a Washington paper, for example, chronicling in excess of 4,000 Trump exaggerations and lies. Fair enough.

Where was that passion for lie detection during Obama’s endless reign of error when he spewed serial untruths about, among others, Solyndra, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, Benghazi’s video roots and how Americans could keep their insurance, doctor and about $2,500 in savings under Obamacare?

Now, some realities: When’s the last time you read a newspaper editorial, online or in print, and thought, “You know, that anonymous writer is right and I’ve been wrong all these years!”

Today’s media “collusion” won’t move the needle one tick, but it will be regarded as a success within the DNC-Media Complex echo chamber because it will suddenly seem so much louder in there. Everyone else will yawn.

Ego drives the media to overplay its hand, every time, for the same reason the scorpion stings the frog.

YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE: Twitter is “experimenting with features that would promote alternative viewpoints in Twitter’s timeline to address misinformation and reduce ‘echo chambers.'”

THE DEEP STATE WHINES BACK: Brennan, Colleagues Say Security Clearance Revocation Intended to ‘Intimidate and Suppress Any Criticism’ of Trump.

What do you suppose would have happened to dissent if the presidential candidate Brennan voted for in 1976 had actually won?

Update: Second link was wrong before. Fixed now — sorry!

RIP: Aretha Franklin has died.

THERESE SHAHEEN: The Belt and Road Illusion. “China’s international-development project reflects its global ambitions but masks problems at home.”

LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuela’s taps run dry. “Water cuts are the latest addition to a long list of woes for Venezuelans hurting from a fifth year of an economic crisis that has sparked malnutrition, hyperinflation and emigration. Malfunctions in the capital’s water network due to lack of maintenance have taken a turn for the worst in recent months, depriving many in this city of 3 million people of regular running water.”

This is a moving photo essay from Reuters.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Brennan Security Clearance Yanked and Much, Much More. “Farewell, cushy consulting jobs that require a security clearance.”

RECOVERY SUMMER, THE UN-IRONIC EDITION: Retail Sales and Manufacturing Are Powering U.S. Growth This Summer.

Retail sales—a measure of spending at U.S. stores, websites and restaurants—rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in July from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was well ahead of economists’ forecasts for a 0.1% increase.

Compared with a year earlier, they grew 6.4% in July. That’s more than double the pace of inflation, which increased 2.9% in the year to July, as measured by the Labor Department’s consumer-price index.

Robust hiring and low unemployment mean more households have income to spend. That is being amplified by tax cuts, which have resulted in less paycheck withholding.

With demand strong, production is also up. U.S. factory output rose 0.3% in July, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday, and was up 2.8% from a year earlier, largely on higher auto and computer production.

Nice.

HMM: How Bruce Ohr Could Implicate High-Ranking Obama Officials In Spygate.

We don’t know what Yates knew about Ohr’s role. When Yates testified before Congress in May 2017 about the Russia investigation, Ohr’s involvement was still secret, leading the Senate Judiciary Committee to focus instead on her role in instigating the firing of Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn.

Once again, Ohr and Steele’s exchanges detailed by Solomon provide a hint: The day after Yate’s firing, Steele contacted Ohr, texting “doubtless a sad and crazy day for you re-SY,” a clear reference to Sally Yates. “Just wanted to check you are OK, still in situ and able to help locally as discussed, along with your Bureau colleagues,” Steele added. Then, after Ohr confirmed “I’m still here and able to help as discussed,” Steele stressed that if Ohr was out at DOJ, he needed another “(Bureau?)” contact.

This exchange suggests Yates’ removal concerned Steele and left him worried that without Yates at the helm, Ohr’s continued role as a DOJ liaison for Steele was at risk, and that without Yates or Ohr, he would need to work directly with the FBI.

Was that because Yates approved of Ohr acting as a dossier courier for Steele and the FBI? If so, the Spygate scandal reaches into even higher echelons of the Deep State than previously known.

You’ll want to read the whole thing about our previous, remarkably scandal-free Administration.

VOX: Elizabeth Warren has a plan to save capitalism.

From what, having to bail out socialists?

Related: Payment seen unlikely on $1.1 billion in maturing Venezuela bonds.

NO MATTER THE REASON, IT’S A GOOD THING: NATO’s East Is Rearming, But It’s Because of Putin, Not Trump.

The jump in acquisitions behind the former Iron Curtain of aircraft, ships and armored vehicles began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, well before Trump’s 2016 election victory, according to analysts including Tomas Valasek, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels. While the median defense expenditure of NATO members is 1.36 percent of gross domestic product, below the alliance’s requirement of 2 percent, eastern members comprise seven of the 13 members that are paying above that level.

“Countries on NATO’s eastern border do not need Donald Trump to boost defense spending,” Valasek said. “They decided this long before he came to power. The spending boost was because of a president, but it was Vladimir Putin, not the U.S. President.”

Constant overflights by Russian aircraft into NATO airspace, cyberattacks on government and military installations, wargames on the borders of the Baltic states and accusations that Russia was behind a failed coup in newest member Montenegro have put NATO’s eastern quadrant on alert for what it says is an increasingly expansionist Russia. Of the 15 members exceeding the bloc’s guideline that 20 percent of total defense spending should go to equipment, six are from eastern Europe.

I’m old enough to remember when Donald Rumsfeld was mocked for saying the eastern NATO countries of “new Europe” were taking defense more seriously than the traditional western NATO allies.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT: US-led coalition fight against ISIS in Syria, Iraq ‘far from over.’

“There is still a lot of work to be done both militarily and on civilian stabilization efforts in both countries,” said Col. Sean Ryan, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition fight against ISIS. “Make no mistake — the coalition is not talking victory or taking our foot off the gas in working with our partners.”

Ryan said that partner forces are working to stabilize areas in Iraq and Syria where ISIS has been driven out, including rebuilding detention centers and training new guards. In some areas like Manbij in northern Syria, electricity is being restored and some children are going to school for the first time in five years, he said.

In other areas, the fighting continues. In eastern Syria, the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are preparing for an assault on the ISIS stronghold of Hajin, a Euphrates River Valley town.

There, he said, the SDF has set up checkpoints to vet fleeing civilians and weed out ISIS fighters trying to escape. Some have been captured, he said.

It’s certainly no time to go all wobbly, but the ISIS threat might have been eliminated already with the initial American response hadn’t been to ignore it, and then dismiss them as the “jayvee.”

TONI AIRAKSINEN: Prof Claims ‘Responsible Fatherhood’ Reinforces ‘Patriarchy.’ “Giving poor dads a leg up supports ‘hegemonic masculinity’.”

Responsible fatherhood might reinforce the patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity, if that’s what you want to call it. But it is also proven to reduce poverty, criminality, and multigenerational social pathologies. So there’s that.

‘MERICA: America’s hottest export? Sperm.

VIDEO: Transgender Dem. Endorsed by Bernie Sanders Admits: ‘I’m Not Sure I Even Know What Socialism Is.’ “I’m not a person that’s big on labels.”

I’d wager Christine Hallquist would get big on labels in a big hurry if you addressed the candidate by the incorrect personal pronoun.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? For Sale: A Hat Made of Woolly Mammoth Hair “An expert confirmed its authenticity.”

BREAKING: The White House has revoked the security clearance of John Brennan.

BILL GERTZ: U.S. Says Small Russian Satellite A Space Weapon.

ASHE SCHOW: Undercover Researchers Quizzed School Administrators On Sex Assault Policies. What They Found Is Disturbing.

PHIL BAKER: Virginia Senator Ups the Ante with Big Tech Regulation Proposals. “One proposal—requiring platforms to put a monetary value on our data—should have them worried.”

SCRAPPLEFACE: Area Man Embroils The Onion in $2 Million Lawsuit.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: New York City’s booming economy is bad news for the far left.

Gov. Cuomo, for example, is airing television ads attacking Trump while publicly ignoring his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, who is pushing him farther and farther to the left. Cuomo has called the GOP tax cuts a “missile” and a “dagger” aimed at the heart of the state. The state is also suing to overturn the law as unconstitutional.

Those are especially odd claims given that more than 80 percent of state taxpayers got a tax cut under the law, according to nonpartisan estimates. For the one-in-five who will pay the same taxes or more, the chief reason is that they can now deduct only $10,000 of their exorbitant state and local taxes.

If Cuomo and others had reacted to the federal tax law as they should have — by cutting New York taxes — 100 percent of state residents would be paying less.

But too many pols measure success by how much money government spends, not by how much of their own money working families get to keep. And by defying the national trend, Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and city and state lawmakers are putting New York at a competitive disadvantage.

Don’t underestimate the modern Democrats’ willingness to double down on economic stupidity. If these new-school Dems actually cared about robust growth, they’d be much more like old-school Dems.