OH MY! George Takei Steps in It With Tweets About Gun Control.

LIZ PEEK: Trump is ramping up for a 2020 run (but Democrats STILL don’t get it).

Someday, Trump watchers are going to figure out what makes this man tick. Here’s a little secret: President Trump likes to win. Bowing out after only one term would look like losing. He won’t do it.

But there are some who apparently didn’t see it coming. Michael Wolff, who got a lot of notice for his gossipy and error-laden book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” has suggested the president probably wouldn’t run again.

According to Wolff, who pretends to have an inside track, President Trump doesn’t like his job. Wolff told an Australian Broadcasting Service interviewer earlier this year: “In the end, I think that the real truth is he does not want to be the president – the president of the United States.”

Turns out Wolff’s “track” is a lot like Amtrak’s – unreliable.

The official announcement usually comes years later than Trump’s did, but every President’s reelection thoughts begin shortly after they remove their hand from the Bible — if not sooner.

CHANGE: Walmart Statement on Firearms Policy.

In light of recent events, we’ve taken an opportunity to review our policy on firearm sales. Going forward, we are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age. We will update our processes as quickly as possible to implement this change.

In 2015, Walmart ended sales of modern sporting rifles, including the AR-15. We also do not sell handguns, except in Alaska where we feel we should continue to offer them to our customers. Additionally, we do not sell bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and similar accessories. We have a process to monitor our eCommerce marketplace and ensure our policies are applied.

We take seriously our obligation to be a responsible seller of firearms and go beyond Federal law by requiring customers to pass a background check before purchasing any firearm. The law would allow the sale of a firearm if no response to a background check request has been received within three business days, but our policy prohibits the sale until an approval is given.

We are also removing items from our website resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys. Our heritage as a company has always been in serving sportsmen and hunters, and we will continue to do so in a responsible way.

“If an object resembles something we think is bad, then it is bad,” is the sloppiest kind of magical thinking.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump Flips on 2A, Hicks Out and Much, Much More. “It was a nightmare. Trump taunted lawmakers by telling them ‘you’re afraid of the NRA.’ He’ll soon find out why politicians are afraid of the NRA during the 2018 elections if he doesn’t walk balk some of the insanity he was tossing about in that meeting.”

STEVEN BUCCI: Sheriff Scott Israel Is a Lesson in Failed Leadership.

Real leaders take responsibility for everything their people do, and fail to do. Israel said he gave the school resource officer a weapon and training, but that he is not responsible for the officer’s lack of heart to take action.

Seriously, sheriff? Training the spirit to protect is not part of a leader’s job? So you have no responsibility for the performance of your people?

That is a cowardly supposition, and an inaccurate one. If your deputy failed to go to the sound of gunfire to save those children, it is on you. If he was too incompetent to recognize the shooter was still firing inside the building, it is on you, sheriff. Leaders take responsibility.

Servant leaders work to empower their people in order to accomplish the mission. Beyond that, they give their troops the credit in success. But most importantly, if they fail, the true leader stands up and says, “It’s on me.”

It’s pretty clear Israel thought he could use this tragedy to further his career; it’s even more clear he isn’t up to the job he has now.

LIVE BY THE NETWORKING GIANT, DIE BY THE NETWORKING GIANT: Changes To Facebook’s Algorithm Have Claimed Their First Casualty.

Media companies have been waiting for the other shoe to drop since Facebook announced changes to its all-important newsfeed algorithm that (at least on paper) were designed to stop posts from businesses, brands and media from “crowding out” personalized content.

Now, barely six weeks after the changes were first announced, Facebook’s decision to deprive publishers from a crucial stream of user traffic has claimed its first casualty: A four-year-old publisher called LittleThings.

The change, according to LittleThings’ COO Gretchen Tibbits, had a “material” impact on the site’s traffic, killing 75% of its organic reach, according to DigiDay.

LittleThings’ comScore traffic declined to 40 million this month from 58 million last May. The closure will leave the company’s 100 employees without jobs.

Facebook is great for reconnecting with old friends and sharing adorable family photos, but never forget that it’s somebody else’s business with no real concern for anyone else’s.

INFIGHTING: Sessions defends himself after Trump bashed him on Twitter.

“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc,” the president tweeted. “Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”

In an unusual public response that did not mention Trump by name, Sessions rejected the attack.

“We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary,” Sessions said. “As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.”

I’m not sure why Trump has kept Sessions this long as AG. Or why Sessions chooses to stay, for that matter.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB: I Bought My First Gun Because Of The CNN Town Hall.

Seeing a mob of people celebrating baseless and morally reprehensible claims at CNN’s town hall was frightening. More than that, as the evidence continues to mount over the failure of law enforcement in handling the Parkland shooter, it will only heighten the truth that a promise of security from the government doesn’t actually guarantee safety.

The town hall was a display of tyranny. For tyranny has never come from a single person, but rather from a mob cheering for the destruction of liberty and rights from those with whom they disagree.

So I bought a gun.

Reportedly, NRA memberships spiked (again) after CNN’s antigun circus.

READY OR NOT: AI Experts List the Real Dangers of Artificial Intelligence.

Digital:

Automated phishing, or creating fake emails, websites, and links to steal information.
Faster hacking, through the automated discovery of vulnerabilities in software.
Fooling AI systems, by taking advantage of the flaws in how AI sees the world.

Physical:

Automating terrorism, by using commercial drones or autonomous vehicles as weapons.
Robot swarms, enabled by many autonomous robots trying to achieve the same goal.
Remote attacks, since autonomous robots wouldn’t need to be controlled within any set distance.

Political:

Propaganda, through easily-generated fake images and video.
Automatic dissent removal, by automatically finding and removing text or images.
Personalized persuasion, taking advantage of publicly-available information to target someone’s opinions.

The fact that the T-800 isn’t listed might be taken as evidence that this report was generated by a hostile AI.

OH: Barack Obama To Skip Billy Graham Funeral.

NEW YORK TIMES: Trump Stuns Lawmakers With Seeming Embrace of Gun Control Measures.

To the surprise of many in the room, Mr. Trump urged the bipartisan lawmakers to start with a bipartisan bill put forward in 2013 by Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat, and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, a Republican. That bill died months after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., after intense Republican opposition.

Mr. Trump repeatedly suggested that the dynamics had changed, in part because of his leadership in the White House, a sentiment that the Democrats in the room readily agreed with as they saw the president supporting their ideas.

“It would be so beautiful to have one bill that everyone could support,” Mr. Trump said as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, sat smiling to his left. “It’s time that a president stepped up.”

As Glenn likes to remind people, watch what Trump does rather than listen to what he says. But clearly, this is an issue to watch.

Update: ‘Take the guns first, go through due process second.’

This one is from The Hill:

“I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence.

“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.

Trump was responding to comments from Vice President Pence that families and local law enforcement should have more tools to report potentially dangerous individuals with weapons.

“Allow due process so no one’s rights are trampled, but the ability to go to court, obtain an order and then collect not only the firearms but any weapons,” Pence said.

“Or, Mike, take the firearms first, and then go to court,” Trump responded.

Developing…

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Oprah Talks to God, But It’s Okay Because She’s Not Mike Pence. “I don’t know how Democrats resolve the cognitive dissonance, but it’s fun to watch them try.”

SLOW-MOTION MAGIC: Creating Parkinson’s awareness one magic trick at a time.

This is the latest from magician and Parkinson’s suffer Dovid Rabotnick, who I introduced you to a while back. If you haven’t seen him in action, you’re missing out on something special.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? 5 Easy Ways to Ruin Your Life. “With enough hard work, anyone can turn their life to garbage.”

I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS, BUT IT WAS ALIENS: Freaky Theory Offers Totally New Explanation of the Moon’s Origin.

Their theory involves an entirely new type of astronomical object called a synestia (no, not synesthesia, that’s something entirely different). The word is an amalgam of “syn”, meaning “together,” and “Hestia,” the Greek goddess of architecture. The idea was first proposed in 2017 by Stewart and Simon Lock of Harvard University, a co-author of the new study.

A synestia happens when young, planet-sized objects smash into each other, creating a rapidly spinning mass of molten and vaporized rock. Significant portions of this volatile cloud orbits around itself, and it puffs out into an object that looks like a gigantic donut floating in space. A synestia only lasts about 100 to 200 years, shrinking quickly as it loses heat. The rock vapor first condenses into a liquid, and then into a molten planet.

“A synestia is an astronomical body that exceeds the rotation limit of a planet,” Stewart told Gizmodo. “Synestias are created by the high energy and high angular momentum of a giant impact.”

According to this latest research, the Moon may have formed within the Earth-synestia. Following a collision and the formation of the synestia, a “seed” formed within it from chunks of molten rock. As the Earth-synestia began to shrink, vaporized silicate rock began to rain onto the proto-Moon. Eventually, the Moon emerged as a discrete celestial object, trailing its own atmosphere of rock vapor.

Related? A 4G network is headed to the moon.

UPDATE: The CDC researcher who mysteriously vanished had recently been passed over for a promotion, police say.

MAYBE, MAYBE NOT — BUT THEY COULD HAVE TAKEN AN HONOR GUARD OF NAZIS: Rep. Young suggests guns could’ve saved Jews during Holocaust.

SPENGLER: Polish Catholic Speaker Claims Jews ‘Have a Different Concept of Truth.’

SOUTH SAINT LOUIS BLUES: Cherokee Street shop vandalized for flag supporting police, owner says.

Cherri Elder, the owner of Elder’s Antiques at 2124 Cherokee Street, said an American flag with a blue stripe on it supporting police officers has caused her, her employees and her neighbors anguish for a while now.

Elder said someone broke one of her business’ windows, leaving a message inside that read, “you’ve been warned.” It also had communist symbols on it.

The incident happened late Monday or early Tuesday, less than two weeks after someone posted a sign on her business saying “pig supporters not welcomed,” apparently referencing police.

“We’re so deep in it now, we can’t get out,” she said. “I can’t take it down.”

Elder said the flag went up as a sign of support for a handful of police officers who frequently patrol that part of Cherokee Street.

That’s the kind of gesture which ought to earn Elder her neighbors’ appreciation.

THE SCORPION STINGS THE FROG, EVERY TIME: ‘Ambassador Samantha Power Lied to My Face About Syria.’

BUT OF COURSE: SPLC Targets Feminist Scholar Christina Hoff Sommers.

In a report on “Male Supremacy,” an ideology that the group says “advocates for the subjugation of women,” it included American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers, calling her someone “who gives mainstream and respectable face to some [Men’s Rights Activist] concerns.” Sommers told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that she finds her inclusion in this report “quite surprising.”

“I completely reject that,” Sommers said. “This is a group I used to admire. They once went after Klan members and Nazis and now… [they go after] people like Ben Carson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It’s absurd.” She adds that the SPLC has no evidence for the suggestion that she “gives mainstream and respectable face” to “male supremacy”:. “They’re blacklisting in place of engaging with arguments. They blacklist you, rather than try to refute you.”

The SPLC is a hate group.

THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT “CONCEALED CARRY”: Kentucky Governor Says We Need ‘Element of the Unknown’ with Guns Secretly on School Staff. “Don’t disclose ‘how many people it is and whether it’s the gym coach or whether it’s the third-grade arts teacher,’ says Bevin on arming employees.”

JOY PULLMAN: Parkland Underscores How Americans Pay For Garbage Government While Doing Its Job Ourselves.

U.S. government forces citizens to support a layer of incompetent fat that impedes our best interests; and government failures force us into a burdened mode of self-government. We have to both pay for government to not perform basic functions like protect citizens from criminals and carry out justice, and accomplish those same ends ourselves if we want them done at all.

As Charles Murray says, government has become an “insurable hazard,” but only to the small proportion of Americans with the requisite money or connections to secure such insurance. The rest of us are sitting ducks. And we know it.

Read the whole thing, which reinforces a point I’ve been making for years: We have far more government than we need — and far less than we pay for.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: GreenTech, the electric car company once led by McAuliffe, files for bankruptcy. “The electric car company founded by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, blaming in part a wave of negative coverage by a conservative news website for its financial woes.”

Plus:

According to its bankruptcy filing, GreenTech raised $141.5 million from investors between 2009 and 2013 as part of the EB-5 visa program that offered immigrant investors permanent residency.

GreenTech’s filing says that all the investors were advised the investment constituted a risk “and that there were no assurances that the investors would ultimately receive permanent residency in the U.S.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that GreenTech’s business model relied heavily on having a Democrat in the Oval Office.

REPORT: Broward State Attorney’s Office Has Opened 40 Investigations Into Sheriff Israel’s Office. “For serious misconduct, ranging from drug trafficking to kidnapping to in some cases killings.”

Florida Governor Rick Scott has the legal authority to suspend Sheriff Israel, but the smart move politically might be to let him twist in the wind a good while longer.