BEYOND JOLT: Travelers warned about meth-laced soda in Mexico.

TED CRUZ: Tax Reform Should be Used to Repeal One of ‘Most Damaging’ Bills ‘in Modern Times.’

HOLY JOURNOLIST, BATMAN! Secret Facebook Page Reveals Marvel, DC Comics Writers Conspiring to Harass Comic-Con Conservatives.

VIDEO: Mika Brzezinski Says Trump Used to Hug Her in a ‘Pornographic’ Way.

RASMUSSEN: 34% Are Less Likely to Follow NFL Because of Protests.

You don’t say.

21ST CENTURY DATING: I’m a Marxist-Feminist Slut—How Do I Find an Open Relationship?

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Fla. Teacher Tells 11-Year-Olds to Call ‘Them’ the Gender-Neutral Pronoun ‘Mx.’

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

JIM GERAGHTY: The Unlearned Lessons of 2016.

Representative Maxine Waters calls the president and his allies “scumbags,” while DNC chair Tom Perez declares, “Republicans don’t give a s*** about people.” The outgoing California Democratic-party chairman leads a chant of “F*** Donald Trump!” Little-known Democratic lawmakers create national headlines by calling Trump the p-word, “ “fascist, loofa-faced, s***-gibbon,” and wishing for his assassination.

Russ Feingold, who came within 4 percent of winning back his old Senate seat in 2016, declared, “Let us finally, finally rip off the veneer that Trump’s affinity for white supremacy is distinct from the Republican agenda of voter suppression, renewed mass incarceration, and the expulsion of immigrants.” Enraged by the White House proposal to end DACA, Illinois Democratic representative Luis Gutierrez declared that White House chief of staff John Kelly is “a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear” who “should be drummed out of the White House along with the white supremacists.” DNC vice chairman Keith Ellison recently compared the Dreamers, those who came to the United States illegally while children, to Jews in Nazi Germany — which make ICE comparable to the Gestapo.

It is as if Democrats concluded that the reason they lost in 2016 was that they just didn’t denounce Trump angrily enough.

Related: Divided Democratic Party Debates Its Future as 2020 Looms.

Like virtually all Democrats, Tim Ryan is no fan of Donald Trump. But as he speeds through his northeastern Ohio district in a silver Chevy Suburban, the eight-term Congressman sounds almost as frustrated with his own party. Popping fistfuls of almonds in the backseat, Ryan gripes about its fixation on divisive issues and its “demonization” of business owners. Ryan, 44, was briefly considered for the role of Hillary Clinton’s running mate last year. Now he sounds ready to brawl with his political kin. “We’re going to have a fight,” Ryan says. “There’s no question about it.”

Indeed. But so long as the Democratic Party remains all-in on “no enemies to the left,” then Democrats like Ryan will remain marginalized — and the Waters and Feingolds and Ellison’s will be empowered.

Nancy Pelosi has seen which way the wind is blowing, but even she is powerless to stop the party’s descent into madness, in no small part because she spent so many years helping to push it over the cliff.

SOHRAB AHMARI: The Case for Kurdistan.

The Kurds have been a people without a state for centuries. Monday’s independence referendum in northern Iraq’s Kurdish zone is an important step toward rectifying this historic injustice, and I believe the U.S. is making a grave mistake by opposing the vote.

The Trump administration announced its displeasure in a September 15 statement, noting that the referendum “is distracting from the effort to defeat ISIS and stabilize the liberated areas.” It added: “Holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing.” The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the White House said, should work out its differences with Baghdad through dialogue.

Not now, go away, in other words. The statement reflected the sort of rigid adherence to Washington dogma that too often prevents America from seizing the opportunities presented by the tectonic shifts in the Middle East. The Trump administration failed even to nod at Kurdish aspirations, or offer an alternative timeline if the current moment is too inconvenient. This was unnecessary slap when there are compelling moral and strategic reasons for creating a Kurdish state in northern Iraq sooner than later.

The Kurds will almost certainly win their independence from at least Iraq and probably Syria. The question is whether we want to keep Independent Kurdistan as a friend and an ally.

STEPHEN KRUISER: NFL Players Double Down, Lobby for an ‘Activism Awareness Month.’

What’s the big deal? Baseball is about to enter the postseason, and the NHL’s 2017 season begins in two weeks.

SILLY RABBIT: Original Trix With Artificial Colors Is Back After Customers Revolt. “Using radishes and turmeric instead of Red 40 and Yellow 6 didn’t work for children and adults alike.”

You don’t say:

“Change it back!!” wrote Denver-area mother and photographer, Ashley Carara, on Facebook shortly after the new recipe hit shelves.She said in an interview Thursday she likes the way the artificial colors and high-fructose corn syrup look and taste. The new recipe—not so much. “My kids find the color of the new Trix cereal quite depressing,” she said.So change it back is what the company did. General Mills has decided to reintroduce the original, more-vibrant Trix, artificial flavorings and all, and will start selling it on supermarket shelves alongside the more wholesome version in October.The reintroduction of Classic Trix is a reversal of General Mills’ pledge two years ago to remove artificial colors and flavors from all its cereal brands. It said the seven reformulated, all-natural cereals boosted sales by 6% in early 2016. At the same time, natural-ingredient haters flooded the company with calls, emails and social-media posts, according to Mike Siemienas, a spokesman.It turns out consumers “don’t all want one thing,” he said.

The reformulated stuff looks almost as sad as a bowl of brightly colored Kaboom.

HAVE YOU HUGGED A FRACKER TODAY? U.S. shale oil output expected to rise by 79,000 barrels a day in October.

That translates to a small savings for you at the pump, or fewer pennies in some oilgarch™’s bank account — or a little of both.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Why a team of 8-year-old football players decided to kneel for national anthem.

In my experience, this is not the kind of thing eight-year-olds decide to do on their own.

HIPSTER PARADISE: Sen. Thom Tillis Say Federal Overregulation Causing Businesses to ‘Withdraw from Urban Areas.’

PROCUREMENT: Xbox Marks the Spot.

Remember all those gritty WWII submarine movies where the skipper brings the boat up to periscope depth, drapes his arms around the handles of the scope, and scans the surface for targets? Well, that was then. According to the Virginian Pilot newspaper – the Navy is replacing the helicopter-like stick that has been used to adjust the periscopes on more modern subs – with Xbox 360 controllers. Nowadays, there is no long tube that only one sailor can look through at a time – but rather video screens, so it is somehow appropriate going forward the display will be controlled by the same device that is used for video games ashore. In addition to being more user friendly than the joystick that had been in play in recent years, you also can’t beat the price. The joysticks costs about $38,000…but the Navy can get Xbox controllers for less than $30 a pop.

You have to wonder if the Navy endured a Playstation vs Xbox flame war as part of the purchase decision.

PIERS MORGAN: Don’t get angry about a bunch of white girls singing n***as, blame Kanye and the rap industry for putting it in their songs in the first place.

The chorus to ‘Gold Digger’ includes this line:

‘Now I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger,

But she ain’t messing with no broke niggas,

Now I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger,

But she ain’t messing with no broke niggas.’

I’ve spelled out the word ‘niggas’ exactly as it was written in the song’s lyrics because it’s important and relevant to do so for the purposes of this column.

Of course, by doing so, I will inevitably provoke outrage from certain quarters, but that outrage is also an important and relevant factor for the purposes of this column.

On Tuesday, an Instagram story video was posted showing female members of the Alpha Phi Sorority at University of New Hampshire singing and dancing to the song at a party.

Oh, sure — blame the victim: Poor Kanye who had his work culturally appropriated by privileged white female college students.

MAXINE WATERS: “Impeachment is about whatever Congress says it is.”

VOX: How Venezuela went from a rich democracy to a dictatorship on the brink of collapse.

As New York University historian Greg Grandin has pointed out, Chávez “submitted himself and his agenda to 14 national votes, winning 13 of them by large margins, in polling deemed by Jimmy Carter to be ‘best in the world.’”

“Chávez was always careful to maintain electoral legitimacy,” Francisco Toro, editor of Caracas Chronicles, an opposition-friendly news and analysis site, told me. Toro says that Chávez had big advantages with friendly media and his tendency to use state money on his campaigns, but that he didn’t “steal or cancel elections blatantly.” Chávez even allowed his opposition to run a recall referendum against him in 2004 just two years after surviving a coup attempt. He won the referendum by a huge margin.

When Chávez picked Maduro to succeed him, it was because he expected Maduro to be an effective champion for his ideas after his death. But while Maduro shared a great deal with Chávez ideologically, he has not been able to repeat his political or economic success. Instead, he’s overseen Venezuela’s descent into economic catastrophe, lost swaths of Chávez’s committed political base, and become one of Latin America’s newest autocrats.

Just last month I wrote on this page, “It’s an easy prediction to make, that the Left will portray Maduro as they eventually portrayed Stalin — the brute who betrayed the revolution of his noble predecessor.”

And, well, here you go.

PETER ROBINSON: Trump Through a Pinhole.

Congress may have thwarted the administration’s effort to replace Obamacare, but wherever the administration has been able to take action on its own it has done just that, demonstrating not incompetence but considerable effectiveness.

Consider ISIS. When Trump gave him a free hand in dealing with the terrorist organization, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced that the United States and its allies would no longer permit ISIS to recapture territory after staging merely tactical retreats. Instead we would encircle ISIS forces—and destroy them. Since then, the territory that ISIS controls has fallen by roughly one half. Or look at illegal immigration. After three decades in which administrations of both parties have failed to enforce immigration laws that were already on the books, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has begun to do so. Illegal immigration has dropped by some 70 percent.

The list goes on. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has begun rolling back regulations, notably on clean water, that the EPA had used to usurp the legislative function of Congress. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney has announced that for every new regulation any federal agency promulgates it must eliminate two. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has overturned the sexual harassment rules that the Obama administration had forced on universities. The White House has followed the nomination of Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court with the nominations of more than 30 others to the federal bench—and each of those nominees is, like Gorsuch, a thoroughly vetted originalist.

Still only eight months old, the Trump administration has demonstrated the ability to absorb new information and adjust to circumstances—that is, to learn in real time. It has displayed seriousness. It has gotten things done.

This — and the media’s Pavlovian response to them — is why Trump tweets.

Anyway, do read the whole thing.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Dotard Edition.

BEYOND EQUIFAX: Top SEC Officials Only Recently Learned of 2016 Company-Database Hack.

Mr. Piwowar, who led the agency from late January until early May, said he was “recently informed for the first time” about the hack into the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System, known as Edgar.

Former SEC Chairman Mary Jo White, who led the agency in 2016, declined to comment when asked about the hack.

The agency appeared not to have followed the typical protocols for public companies, where cybersecurity issues are overseen by the board of directors, said Thomas Sporkin, a former SEC enforcement official.

“You would have expected the commission to have been informed of a breach to an SEC database that houses information critical to investors,” said Mr. Sporkin, now a partner at law firm Buckley Sandler LLP.

Mr. Clayton’s statement described other SEC vulnerabilities to hackers, but provided few details about intrusion, possible trading or which companies might have been affected. The SEC hasn’t responded to requests for additional details.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

ALLIES: Free Speech Activists Brawl with Supporters of Turkish President Erdoğan in Times Square.

Yashar Ali tweets that “Erdogan’s security detail beats up American protesters. It appears he has given the orders directly.”. And the link goes to several videos, at least one of which seems to show Erdogan doing just that.

Meanwhile: Trump Lauds Close ‘Friend of Mine’ Erdoğan as ‘Getting Very High Marks.’

Developing, as they say.

HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE? NAFTA Talks Moving at ‘Warp Speed,’ Progress Unclear.

BUT OF COURSE: London Tube Bomber Was Part of ‘Deradicalization’ Program.

SACKED: Admiral, Captain Removed in Ongoing Investigations into USS John S. McCain, USS Fitzgerald Collisions; Head of Surface Forces Puts in Early Retirement Request.