RETURNCOAT: Team Mueller’s ‘Star Witness’ Rick Gates May Not Testify Against Manafort After All.

OH: There’s no sign of advertisers boycotting CBS, despite a mounting list of disturbing allegations against CEO Les Moonves.

Has #MeToo moved past knee-jerk condemnation, or is CBS just too valuable a property?

JACK DUNPHY: Police Chief Succumbs to Outrage Mob, Fires Officers for Innocent Frivolity.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Not drinking alcohol in middle age increases dementia risk, says report.

DID THEY LOSE A BIDDING WAR WITH CNN? New York Times Editorial Board Hires ‘Angry Racist’ Who Gets ‘Sick’ Pleasure Out of Racial Cruelty. “Profanity-laced tirades attacking people due to the color of their skin, joking about eugenics.”

Sarah Jeong was a senior writer for The Verge, which is a tech site owned by Vox Media, (same corporate parent as “young-adult website” Vox.com), which was co-founded by DailyKos himself, Markos Moulitsas.

IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE A FREE PEOPLE: Obamacare is now optional.

THE HORROR… THE HORROR… Donald Trump has no earthly clue about how real people buy groceries.

Flashback: Hillary Clinton hasn’t driven a car since 1996.

PAULA BOLYARD: #MeToo on Steroids? “Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations that he… um… knew or should have known that an assistant coach had been accused (but not convicted) of domestic violence in 2015.”

SOCIAL MEDIA: State Dept. Lauds Facebook ‘Aggressive Approach’ to Remove ‘Insidiuous’ Pages Doing ‘Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior.’

HMM: Housing demand sees biggest drop in more than 2 years.

Red-hot home prices, rising mortgage interest rates, very few listings at the entry level and a high rate of student loan debt have weighed on buyers for a while, but a strong economy and growing employment had mitigated those factors. Now, however, a market stalemate is developing as rates and prices continue to rise, further weakening affordability.

As a result, the number of people requesting home tours fell 6.1 percent annually in June, according to Redfin’s index, which is seasonally adjusted and covers 15 large metropolitan housing markets. There were 15 percent fewer offers made on homes as well.

The supply of homes for sale increased very slightly nationally in June, according to the National Association of Realtors, but in Redfin’s major market index, the total number of homes for sale was 3.8 percent lower than a year ago and there were 1.6 percent fewer new listings.

Anything that hot has to cool down eventually.

OH: NY Dem Governor Attacks Media For Asking Tough Questions.

When you hear about a politician verbally attacking a member of the media the story is supposed to be about President Trump, right? (And to be fair, he certainly does more than his fair share of it.) But this story, which you’re unlikely to hear much about unless you live in New York, isn’t about Trump. It’s about New York Governor (and 2020 presidential hopeful) Andrew Cuomo. During a press conference yesterday, NY1 reporter Zack Fink had the temerity to ask the Governor a question about the latest in a series of campaign finance scandals embroiling Cuomo and whether or not he planned to return some large and very dodgy donations. While he didn’t invoke the dreaded “fake news” claim, Cuomo did go after Fink’s employer, accusing them of fraud, and then went on to seemingly try to implicate the reporter himself in the company’s troubles. (Huffington Post).

That’s different because shut up.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Paul Manafort Owns an Ostrich Jacket and Much, Much More. “The trial will continue today, so stay tuned for the latest gossip about a trial that has nothing to do with RUSSIA collusion and everything to do with unfortunate fashion choices.”

FINALLY: Man Suspected of Murdering Brian Terry Extradited From Mexico to U.S. “Suspect Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes allegedly used a gun from Operation Fast & Furious, a gun-running scheme established under former Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice. He will face charges of first degree murder and have an arraignment in Tucson, Arizona.”

FRACK, BABY, FRACK: Oil Edges Lower on Surprise U.S. Crude Stockpile Build.

I had it on godlike authority that we couldn’t drill our way to lower energy prices.

BLUE WAVE? If Trump is disciplined enough to make the economy his headline, there’s not much Democrats can do to counteract his message. “Democrats were left to grumble about the rich benefiting most, and the mainstream press pointed to farmers hurrying silos of soybeans to China ahead of looming tariffs. But others recognized the seriousness of 4.1 percent growth. The Twitter feeds of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and potential presidential candidates like Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), were silent on the numbers — apparently operating under the theory that if you don’t have something mean to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Democrats have gone from “It’s the economy, stupid” to “It’s the stupid economy.”

HMM: The F-22 Raptor Is Basically Wasting Away Thanks To Air Force Mismanagement.

F-22 availability, already diminished by maintenance problems endemic to the complex and finicky stealth fighter, has been further reduced by the small size of F-22 squadrons and the practice of deploying small detachments from individual squadrons overseas. The combined effect has been to reduce F-22 availability to the point where there are neither enough planes to meet mission requirements nor to provide pilots with sufficient training for air-to-air combat, which is the Raptor’s primary role

“The small size of F-22 squadrons and wings has contributed to low aircraft availability rates,” according to GAO. “Further, the Air Force practice of deploying a small portion of a squadron makes it difficult for F-22 squadrons, as currently organized, to make aircraft available for their missions at home station. The Air Force would also face difficulties generating aircraft to support DOD’s concepts for using distributed operations in high threat environments with its current F-22 squadron organization.”

Primary blame rests with former SecDef Donald Rumsfeld, who “arbitrarily chopped the F-22 program down to 180 aircraft.” He was not, in Michael Corleone’s memorable phrase, a wartime consigliere, and should have bowed out after 9/11 when it became clear that George W. Bush’s original intentions for Defense had been obsolesced.

SCAPEGOATS, SCAPEGOATS EVERYWHERE BUT THE ECONOMY CONTINUES TO SINK: Socialist Venezuela Falling Apart As President Maduro Shockingly Blames Party.

In a surprising twist on Monday, Maduro went against the Socialists United (PSUV) playbook of blaming Washington (especially the CIA) for Venezuela’s troubles.

“The production models we’ve tried so far have failed, and the responsibility is ours—mine and yours,” Maduro told the PSUV party congress.

“Enough with the whining,” Agence France Press reported him saying. “We need to produce with or without [outside] aggression, with or without blockades, we need to make Venezuela an economic power,” he said.

Wreckers, hoarders, saboteurs, Trotskyites, kulaks, Yankee Imperialists, counterrevolutionaries, and Jews can breathe easy — for now.

VIDEO: O’Keefe Catches Antifa ‘Fight Instructors’ Teaching Activists How To Inflict Pain on Their Targets. “If you get a good liver or kidney shot, it’s pretty much crippling them.”

I’ll be at the range.

BRUCE BAWER: Freedom for Tommy Robinson.

HEH: Woodward Denies Writing ‘Fear’ Book to Help Trump.

POTUS: Trump Says AG Sessions ‘Should’ End Mueller’s ‘Rigged Witch Hunt Right Now.’ “Collusion is a ‘TOTAL HOAX’.”

CHOICE: Cheaper Health Plans With Less Coverage Move Forward.

The Trump administration, in one of its most significant efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act, on Wednesday released a rule that will allow for the proliferation of cheaper, less-comprehensive health plans that have been restricted by the former Obama administration.

The rule would loosen restrictions on a type of coverage known as short-term medical insurance—low-cost plans that cover a limited period with less-expansive benefit offerings, which are subject to fewer consumer protection regulations.

Such plans now can only be carried up to 90 days. The new rule would allow the plans to last for a year and be renewed for a total coverage period of 36 months.

The plans are often sold to people who qualify as healthy and may have annual limits on the amount of care the policies will cover. The plans don’t have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, and insurers can charge higher premiums based on a consumer’s health status.

They also don’t have to include the specific benefits mandated by the ACA, such as prescription-drug coverage.

Choice is good.

I DON’T LIKE IT: Like it or not, America is now seriously debating socialism.

TYLER O’NEIL: Any discussion of why Americans dislike Trump despite the good economy should begin with — well, CNN.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: As Trump Talks Shutdown Over Border Wall, McConnell Hoping to ‘Resolve This Issue’ with President.