LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Pompeo Heads to Hill for Interrogation and Much, Much More. “With Flake and Corker on the committee along with numerous unhinged Democrats, I expect this to be a real circus. The hearing will be on C-SPAN so tune-in.”

I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS: Flight attendants to be deported over turtle-smuggling operation.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Sextortion Scammers Threaten to Release Hacked Webcam Video of You Watching Porn.

ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Denver Post Runs Letter to the Editor Demanding Trump’s Execution.

GOOD LORD: Democrats Prove Willing To Make Orphans Casualties In Their War Against Religion. “Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee made it clear: they would rather see children suffer than tolerate the existence of faith-based adoption and foster-care providers.”

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: The Future Of Cannabis Has Arrived With This $400 Vaporizer.

JOHN HAWKINS: 5 Ugly Truths About Women That Young Men Need to Recognize.

DOES NOT COMPUTE: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber.

Although on occasion I do imagine a US Air Force which did build the B-70 Valkyrie.

ONE SECOND AFTER: Russian hackers infiltrated US power networks and had the ability to trigger massive blackouts.

Symantec first reported on a hacking campaign by the state-sponsored group Dragonfly targeting dozens of victims in the US energy sector in 2017. But this is the first time the DHS has provided detailed information about an incident in an unclassified setting and said the hack affected “hundreds of victims.”

Attacks began in 2016 and continued through 2017, and DHS officials said it’s likely the campaign is still ongoing.

By first penetrating the networks of power companies’ trusted vendors, hackers for Dragonfly, also known as Energetic Bear, were able to access utility networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing officials at the DHS.

As was proven with Stuxnet a few years ago, even air-gapped computer systems aren’t immune to hacking.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Georgia Lawmaker Under Fire After Yelling Racial Slurs, Dropping Pants on Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime Series.

FAKE HATE: Texas waiter faked “we don’t tip terrorist” note on receipt, restaurant says.

A waiter at a Texas steakhouse made up the viral story about a customer leaving him a racist note, his employer said Monday. The story gained national attention after Khalil Cavil, a 20-year-old server for Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa, Texas, posted a now-deleted image of the receipt he claimed was left for him on July 14.

On the bill, Khalil’s name was circled and the words, “we don’t tip terrorist,” were written at the top.

Cavil wrote in his post, which was deleted as of Tuesday morning: “I share this because I want people to understand that this racism, and this hatred still exists. Although, this is nothing new, it is still something that will test your faith.” Cavil’s Facebook page also appears to have been deleted.

Saltgrass originally said it had banned the customer blamed for the message. But now, the restaurant’s corporate office says it has learned the story was a hoax.

“After further investigation, we have learned that our employee fabricated the entire story,” Terry Turney, COO of Saltgrass Steak House, told the Odessa American in a statement. “The customer has been contacted and invited back to our restaurant to dine on us.”

Perhaps corporate could have looked into the story before banning the customer.

THE DEMOCRATS’ NEW FACE OF MODERATION: Eric Holder will decide whether to run in 2020 ‘sometime early next year.’

BLUE CITY BLUES: ‘Boulder wore me down.’ They moved here to make the world a better place. Now they’re leaving.

ROBERT SPENCER: Keith Ellison Demands Amazon Stop Selling Books the SPLC Hates. “The MN attorney general candidate comes out strongly against free speech.”

VIDEO: Ocasio-Cortez Super-Flake Super-Cut.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Hollywood Double Fail on Border, Climate Change. “A new poll says celebrities aren’t impacting popular opinion on two big issues as they hoped.”

It’s weird that Americans refuse to take into account the opinions of climate hypocrites who live behind walls of their own.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Are You Being Livestreamed In Your Uber?

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: *Poof* Go the Security Clearances and Much, Much More. “Normally, political appointees keep their clearances because the appointee has institutional knowledge that can be of help to future administrations, but it’s fair to say these folks aren’t interested in being helpful.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: NRA, Second Amendment Foundation File Suit Against Seattle Gun-Storage Ordinance. ‘Seattle simply can’t break the law to adopt an ordinance as a political statement.’

The National Rifle Association and Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation are working together with two Seattle residents in the suit against the city. They say the city’s requirement that any guns in a person’s residence must be stored in a locked container unless being carried by the owner or other authorized users violates state law.

“The City of Seattle has been trying to erode state preemption almost from the moment it was passed back in 1985,” Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said. “When the city tried to ban guns from city parks facilities under former mayors Greg Nickels and Mike McGinn, SAF and NRA joined forces with other organizations to stop it, under the state preemption statute. We should not have to repeatedly remind Seattle that they are still part of Washington State and must obey the law.”

He claimed Seattle is intentionally running afoul of the state’s preemption law in order to send a political message.

The message is clear: Knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing deplorable bitter-clingers not welcome here.

BLADE RUNNER 2018: Is Erdogan’s Turkey on the edge of a crash? “The Turkish lira is falling, prices are rising. Experts warn that the Turkish economy is close to collapse, but President Erdogan wants growth at any price — and even more power.”

More:

The economic situation has not been this bad in years. Recently, the rating agency Fitch downgraded Turkey’s creditworthiness further into junk territory: the credit rating of the country is now BB with a negative outlook. This puts Turkey on par with countries like Guatemala or Costa Rica.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to worry little about rating agencies. And after his reelection in June, he is now more powerful than ever. Now he is head of state, head of his party and head of the government — all in one person.

He is promising his country a glorious future. “Our economy is on the right track and everyone can see how we invest,” the Hurriyet newspaper quoted him as saying recently. Turkey will soon become “one of the ten largest economic powers in the world,” Erdogan promised after his swearing-in for his current term.

Sure thing. But first his wider powers are going to need wider powers.

STUDY: Women Don’t Want To Date Vegetarian Men. “Even vegetarian women preferred meat-eating men.”

Order the most conspicuous tomahawk-style ribeye on the menu, just to be safe.

IN-DEPTH REVIEW: Bolshevik Hybrid Warfare.

Whenever one is reviewing a long book about a narrow subject, one must provide the reader with motivation as much as explanation. Laura Engelstein’s Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War 1914-1921 is a detailed but readable history of the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Russian Civil War, and the birth of the Soviet Union. It manages a clean structure, well-organized chronologically into six parts and, within those parts, into chapters laying out the course of events in different regions of the hemisphere-spanning Russian empire and giving voice to the mosaic complexity of the Eastern Front, the revolution, and the civil war. What the book has going for it, compared to projects of similar scope like Orlando Figes’ A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 or classics by Shiela Fitzpatrick or Richard Pipes (both entitled The Russian Revolution),[1]is a relentless commitment to the geographic diversity within which the revolution occurred and the ever-shifting organizations and coalitions operating in that geography. This commitment to the sheer scale of the revolution gives the book enduring value and insight for those interested in strategy today, particularly in terms of political warfare.

This one has gone (near) the top of my ever-lengthening Kindle to-read list.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK — AND PLAY: Justice Department Wants Refund from Sheriff Who Bought a Dodge Charger Hellcat.

The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that Georgia Sheriff Butch Conway reimburse the government for his procurement of a 707-horsepower Dodge Charger Hellcat, which it does not believe falls under the umbrella of reasonable purchases for a police department.

However, the DOJ isn’t questioning whether the department could make use of such a vehicle, as the federal government already approved its purchase. It just isn’t sure that Conway is being responsible with it, since it sounds like the Gwinnett Country Sheriff may be using it as his daily driver.

Related?

We have far more government than we need, and far less than we pay for.

FINALLY: Study Holds Hope Old People Can Look Like Young Mice.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 4 useful things you can do with stale beer.

I’m sure somebody can use this news, but around here beer never seems to last long enough to go stale.