STEPHEN MOORE: Why the Left Has Been So Wrong About the Trump Boom.

But so far the Trump haters have missed the call on the economy’s trajectory. Doubly ironic is that the same Obama-era economists who are trashing Trump’s increasingly realistic forecast of 3 percent growth are the ones who predicted 4 percent growth from the Obama budgets. Obama never came anywhere near 4 percent growth, and at the end of his second term, the economy grew at a pitiful 1.6 percent.

Under Obama, free enterprise and pro-business policies were thrown out the window. What was delivered was the weakest recovery from a recession since World War II, with a meager 2.2 percent average growth rate. Middle America felt it, which is why Trump won these forgotten Americans.

One reason that economist Larry Kudlow and I and others assured Donald Trump that 3 to 4 percent growth was achievable was that Trump could capitalize on the underperformance of the Obama years. Under Obama, business investment fell almost two-thirds below the long-term trend line — thanks to higher taxes on investment. Now, partly in anticipation of the tax cut, business spending keeps climbing.

“Get the hell out of my way!” the wise man once said.

BUT OF COURSE: ‘Moderate’ London Mosque Official Exposed as Hamas Terrorist Leader.

THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES: Air Travelers Resisting the ‘Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.’

BILL WHITTLE: Guns, CNN, and Sutherland Springs.

FAKE NEWS: 6 Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Texas Church Massacre.

DEROY MURDOCK: Diversity-Visa Lottery Is a Jackpot for Immigrants from Terror States.

Last fiscal year alone, Washington’s breathless quest for diversity admitted to America 7,224 individuals from this baker’s dozen of terrorist-infected nations. (Saipov’s native Uzbekistan is not among these countries of concern.) From the start of FY 2007 through FY 2016, such visa-lottery admissions totaled 65,144.

The State Department officially designates only Iran, Sudan, and Syria as “State Sponsors of Terrorism.” Regardless, under this diversity scheme, 2,788 Iranians, 1,833 Sudanese, and 164 Syrians won the lottery, scored green cards, and came to America in FY 2016. From FY 2007 to FY 2016, this program brought into our borders 20,739 Iranians, 7,232 Sudanese, and 812 Syrians.

The federal government couldn’t even properly vet a single convicted domestic abuser in Texas.

RESET: Air Force ‘hopeful’ Congress will support new strategy to phase out Russian rocket engines.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Texas Shooting Update, Comey Changed His Story and Much, Much More.

THIS SEEMS PREMATURE: What Saudi Arabia’s purge means for the Middle East.

At this early stage, it’s a bit like explaining “What Hitler’s destruction of the Red Army means for the New Europe” in August of 1941.

Maybe Prince Salman’s purge will help modernize the Kingdom, maybe he’ll end up against the wall himself. It’s just too soon to know, or to explain.

JEFF DUNETZ: The REAL Reason Donna Brazile Wrote Her Book.

Since her election loss Hillary Clinton has been a constant media presence trying to explain all the reasons lost the election (my latest count is 30 excuses). Along with her blame game, at times Ms. Clinton has hinted she might run again in 2020. By drawing the coverage, Hillary’s been squeezing out other Democrats from receiving coverage.

Enter Donna Brazile, whose book “Hacks” feeds the rumor her winning of the nomination wasn’t fair, claims that the campaign was incompetent, had racist and misogynistic elements, and was too arrogant in its belief they had the election won to listen to advice that they were in trouble.

If Hillary Clinton’s book is named, “What Happened,” Brazile’s book could have been titled “What Really Happened.” Donna Brazile is a long-time Democratic Party operative who twice served as interim chairman of the party. She wouldn’t have written a book bashing Hillary Clinton if she wasn’t trying to free the party from the grasp of the Clinton machine.

Eight years of Obama nearly destroyed the Democrats as a national party, and Clinton’s lousy campaign just about sealed the deal. I doubt Brazile’s book is 100% honest (ahem), but I don’t doubt it’s an honest attempt to save the party from the Clinton Kleptocracy and from the far-left Obama/Sanders Progressives. Instead, the Democratic Remnant is doubling down on the radical identity politics and associated culture wars which cost the party so much since 2009…

…and I can’t think of anything more except to pop some corn.

SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY: Is Political Backing from Gun Industry ‘Worth the Blood’?

The government failed to enforce existing gun laws on the Texas shooter, who was stopped by instead a legally armed citizen.

UH-OH: Tesla’s Director Of Battery Engineering Is Out.

Jon Wagner, who joined Tesla in 2013, worked as the team leader for battery pack design engineering at the automaker and helped develop technology in the Model S, X, and 3, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served as Tesla’s interim director for battery manufacturing, body engineering and computer aided engineering, his LinkedIn page says.

Wagner couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Tesla declined to comment.

Sources said he officially left the company within the past month, but the circumstances of his departure aren’t immediately clear. There are some hints on Wagner’s LinkedIn page, which says he still works at Tesla, but, as of last month, now states that he’s launching a battery and powertrain startup in Redwood, California.

“[C]ontact me to find out more,” Wagner writes on his page about the new venture, “now hiring!”

It’s possible Wagner’s new venture was in the works for some time, before the Gigafactory issues became known. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week the company didn’t fully grasp the extent of the issues “until quite recently.”

That last line ought to be more worrisome than Wagner’s exit.

AL HUNT: Look for Republicans to Backtrack on Taxes.

Well, I certainly hope not. But one unintended consequence of the Democrats’ disarray is that it gives Republicans the impression that they can afford to keep sliding on their promises.

TAKE A BITE OUT OF THIS: Apple’s secret tax bolthole revealed.

As others (and myself) have written many times before, corporations don’t pay taxes — they collect them. Any taxes are actually paid by customers (higher prices), employees (lower wages), shareholders (smaller returns), etc. The ideal corporate tax rate is therefore zero, but politically that would never fly. Instead we have a tangled mess of corporate tax law, which benefits large corporations with their armies of lawyers and lobbyists. Small corporations which can’t afford all that are put at a competitive disadvantage, not to mention sole proprietorships which pay through the nose on everything.

But since we can’t get an ideal corporate tax rate, a flat and transparent corporate tax would be the next best thing. Our current system is the worst of all possible worlds: It diverts resources and manpower away from investment and innovation, and stifles entrepreneurs to the benefit of established interests.

On the other hand, our system creates endless possibilities for corruption and graft. So it has that going for it. Which is nice for Washington.

THIS IS PRETTY MUCH THE 21ST CENTURY I’VE COME TO EXPECT: Woman Who Married Herself Cheats On Herself.

DOG BITES MAN: Barack Obama Touts Gun Control After Texas Church Massacre.

WALK OF SHAME: Stars are skipping red carpets to avoid talking about scandals.

VIDEO: School Board Member Gets 10 Flat Tires after Blog Post about Quitting Teachers Union.

It isn’t thuggery when they do it, because shut up or else.

REMINDER: There Have Been More Attempted Mass Shootings by Bernie Sanders Campaign Volunteers Than There Have Been by Members of the NRA.

MICHAEL WALSH: The NFL’s ratings woes are only a symptom; the lingering death of television is the cause.

THEN BY DEFINITION THEY AREN’T MARKETABLE: Congress’ Plan to Kill the Electric Car Tax Credit Could Kill Electric Cars.

It gets tiresome, footing the bill for other people’s virtue-signaling.

GLENN GREENWALD: Four Viral Claims Spread by Journalists on Twitter in the Last Week Alone That are False.

Viral Falsehood #1: The Clinton/DNC agreement cited by Brazile only applied to the General Election, not the primary.

On Wednesday, Politico published a blockbuster accusation from Donna Brazile’s new book: that the DNC had “rigged” the 2016 primary election for Hillary Clinton through an agreement that gave Clinton control over key aspects of the DNC, a claim that Elizabeth Warren endorsed on CNN. The Clinton camp refused to comment publicly, but instead contacted their favorite reporters to publish their response as news.

The following day, NBC published an article by Alex Seitz-Wald that recited and endorsed the Clinton camp’s primary defense: that Brazile was wrong because the agreement in question (a copy of which they provided to Seitz-Wald) applied “only to preparations for the general election,” and had nothing to do with the primary season. That defense, if true, would be fatal to Brazile’s claims, and so DNC-loyal journalists all over Twitter instantly declared it to be true, thus pronouncing Brazile’s accusation to have been fully debunked. This post documents how quickly this claim was endorsed on Twitter by journalists and Democratic operatives, and how far and wide it therefore spread.

The problem with this claim is that it is blatantly and obviously false. All one has to do to know this is read the agreement.

I used to think of them as Democratic operatives with bylines, and that did make everything make more sense. But now I just think of them as fake newsies.

POTUS: Texas Shooting ‘Isn’t a Guns Situation,’ But Mental Health Issue.

QUESTION ASKED: Does Ralph Northam Think 67% of Virginians are Racists?

Maybe, maybe not — but DNC Chair Tom Perez sure seems to think so.

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: T. Rex’s tiny arms weren’t meek after all — new research says they were meant for ‘vicious slashing.’

It’s important to note that while T. Rex’s forelimbs were indeed small in relation to the dinosaur’s huge body and jaws, they were still one meter (three feet) in length and may have been capable of bench-pressing over 180 kg (400 pounds) each. Stanley has identified several clues that suggest T. Rex mini-arms were actually secret weapons capable of inflicting ferocious damage.

For starters, the arms are strong and robust, as indicated by the bones that make up the limbs themselves but also the coracoid, which is the shoulder bone that helps control arm movement. Being so short in relation to the dinosaur’s towering body, the arms would have been perfectly adapted to slashing at close quarters. Another hint is that T. Rex had two claws on each forelimb instead of the typical three most other theropods feature. Having just two claws would have helped T. Rex exert 50 percent more pressure when slashing and clawing. The (8-10 cm long) sickle-shaped claws would have caused deep wounds.

I don’t know if the science is settled, but this theory is much more exciting than the old one.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Hey, they mock Trump’s “tiny hands,” too, and yet he uses them to send slashing tweets. . . .