It’s Monday, October 23rd, 2017…but before we begin, since a picture’s worth a thousand words, we present what should constitute conclusive photographic evidence of Muddied Waters and Fredereaked-out Wilson responding to questions regarding their respective intelligence quotients:

Sounds about right to us; so much for the claim standardized tests are racially biased.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, the consequences of electing the first anti-American President in our nation’s history will continue to curse the country long after the Islamofascist has shuffled off his mortal coil…and that (hopefully!) right soon:

Deserter Bergdahl says Taliban more ‘honest’ than US Army

“Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant who pleaded guilty Monday to deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009, says his Taliban captors were more “honest” with him than the Army has been since his release three years ago. “At least the Taliban were honest enough to say, ‘I’m the guy who’s gonna cut your throat,’” Bergdahl tells British TV journalist Sean Langan in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine of London headlined “The Homecoming from Hell.”

…Bergdahl, 31, from Hailey, Idaho, says he never quite knew where he stood with the Army as he performed “administrative duties” while awaiting his desertion trial. “Here, it could be the guy I pass in the corridor who’s going to sign the paper that sends me away for life,’’ he says. “We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs.”...”

Frankly, we’ve no idea whatsoever WTF Bergdahl’s even trying to say; his statements make about as much sense as the deal engineered to exchange his worthless hide…

…for five enemy combatants; that is, unless one THINKS like the enemy! 

However, of one thing we’re certain: Bergdahl should face a firing squad for his treason; along with his parents…

…on one side and his former Commander-in-Chief on the other.

Next up, in the Twisted Logic segment, Townhall.com‘s Matt Vespa details how The News & Observer epitomizes The Left’s tortured and unrelenting refusal to admit Socialized medicine has always been its endgame: 

North Carolina Paper: Obamacare Premiums Are Rising, So Let’s Consider Single-Payer

“The North Carolina-based News and Observer’s editorial board is calling it quits on Obamacare, but they don’t want repeal. They want to straight up move to something much, much worse: single-payer. Why? Well, those darn premiums are just so high:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, a major ACA provider and the only company covering all 100 counties of North Carolina, has won an average rate increase of roughly 14 percent for those insured under the ACA. Thanks to advance planning, the boost wasn’t as great as it might have been, but the uncertainty in the overall insurance market has resulted in huge jumps for other customers, with some on grandfathered plans purchased before 2010 (less comprehensive and less expensive than ACA plans) anticipating rates double or triple what they were paying.

BCBS isn’t gouging, but rather reflecting the uncertainty in the health insurance market and in the American health-care system, which on many levels seems hostage to the profit motive. What Congress should be doing, instead of trying to patch together something that will have bipartisan approval, is moving toward a single-payer system modeled on Medicare. That is the only financially viable future for the vast majority of Americans, many of whom are seeing huge percentages of their income go to basic health insurance…”

Soooo,…the uncertainty in the market is the result of dramatic cost increases to grandfathered plans purchased before 2010…which don’t provide the soup-to-nuts coverage few, if any, actually want or need , but which Obamacare mandates…as a result of the plethora of extra coverage commitments required by the Unaffordable Care Act.  And though “BCBS isn’t gouging, but rather reflecting the uncertainty in the health insurance market” specifically and deliberately caused by Obamacare, the system “seems hostage to the profit motive”.  And the answer is “a single-payer system modeled on Medicare”?!?

We’ve a better comparison:

Seriously, no one can be that stupid; so we’re left assume The New & Observer editors are engaging in deliberate deception, in keeping with the purposeful prevarication practiced by this act of medical malpractice’s two principal architects:

Meanwhile, as the Journal relates, Britain’s NHS will ban patients from surgery indefinitely unless they lose weight or quit smoking. Yeah,…THAT oughta go over (no pun intended) BIG…

…with the entitlement crowd, the very people Progressives have left shackled in ignorance through their deliberate dumbing-down of public education.

Since we’re on subject of deliberate deception, the WSJ‘s Kim Strassel reports on…

The Fusion Collusion

Democrats are trying to protect the firm’s secrets—so the GOP should keep digging.

“…Fusion is known as a ruthless firm that excels in smear jobs, but few have noticed the operation it’s conducting against the lawmakers investigating it. The false accusations against Mr. Nunes—that he’s acting unethically and extralegally, that he’s sabotaging the Russia probe—are classic.

This is a firm that in 2012 was paid to dig through the divorce records of a Mitt Romney donor. It’s a firm that human-rights activist Thor Halvorssen testified was hired to spread malicious rumors about him. It’s a firm that financier Bill Browder testified worked to delegitimize his efforts to get justice for Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer beaten to death in a Russian prison.

It’s the firm behind the infamous “dossier” accusing Donald Trump of not just unbecoming behavior but also colluding with Russia. Republicans are investigating whether the Fusion dossier was influenced by Russians, and whether American law enforcement relied on that disinformation for its own probe.

But Fusion’s secret weapon in its latest operation is the Democratic Party, whose most powerful members have made protecting Fusion’s secrets their highest priority. Senate Democrats invoked a parliamentary maneuver in July to block temporarily Mr. Browder’s public testimony. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, has been engineering flaps to undercut and obstruct Mr. Nunes’s investigation. Democrats on the House Ethics Committee have deep-sixed what was meant to be a brief inquiry to clear Mr. Nunes so as to keep him sidelined.

Then there is the intel committee’s meeting this week. Despite the spin, forcing Fusion to appear was Republicans’ only recourse after months of stonewalling. Fusion’s letter ludicrously claimed that Mr. Nunes’s subpoenas were invalid, which essentially forced the committee to show otherwise. It was a question of authority.

Florida Rep. Tom Rooney put the Fusion attendees through a series of questions not out of spite but to clarify finally just what topics the firm is refusing to talk about. The Fifth Amendment doesn’t provide protection against answering all questions. It only protects against providing self-incriminating evidence. It is therefore revealing that Fusion took the Fifth on every topic—from its relationship with British spook Christopher Steele, to the history of its work, to its role in the dossier.

The untold story is the Democrats’ unprecedented behavior. Mr. Rooney had barely started when committee staffers for Mr. Schiff interrupted, accused him of badgering witnesses, and suggested he was acting unethically. Jaws dropped. Staff do not interrupt congressmen. They do not accuse them of misbehavior. And they certainly do not act as defense attorneys for witnesses. No Democratic lawmakers had bothered to come to the hearing to police this circus, and Mr. Rooney told me that he “won’t be doing any more interviews without a member from the minority present.”

Private-sector lawyers also tend not to accuse congressmen of unethical behavior, as Mr. Levy did in his letter to Mr. Nunes. But Fusion’s legal eagle must feel safe. He’s former general counsel to the Senate’s minority leader, Chuck Schumer. He has also, I’m told by people familiar with the committee’s activities, more than once possessed information that he would have had no earthly means of knowing, since it was secret committee business. Consider that: Democratic members of Congress or their staff providing sensitive details of an investigation to a company to which the committee has given subpoenas.

The Washington narrative is focused on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. But the ferocious pushback and unseemly tactics from Democrats suggest they are growing worried. Maybe the real story is that Democrats worked with an opposition-research firm that has some alarming ties to Russia and potentially facilitated a disinformation campaign during a presidential election.

The media has its own conflict of interest, since it would prefer nobody find out about its years of, ahem, colluding with Fusion. Don’t expect any investigative reporting. But also don’t believe the stories about GOP harassment. The ferocity of the Fusion-Democrat campaign is proof Republicans are looking in the right place.“

Where’s there’s smoke there’s fire…and this particular conflagration’s rapidly reaching Fahrenheit 451!

Then, as the editors at the WSJ recount, there’s the latest broken promise directly attributable to Trump:

Trump Caves on Ethanol

The biofuels lobby overwhelms a core campaign promise.

“The bipartisan pull of corporate welfare—also known as the swamp—is powerful. Last week it swallowed up no less than Donald Trump and his fearless Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt. They caved under pressure from the ethanol lobby and political extortion from Republican Senators Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer and Chuck Grassley.

Those new to the machinations of government would do well to remember, when dealing with the self-serving sharks on Capitol Hill, weakness…

What’s truly unfortunate is, like so many others in Congress…

…Grassley, Ernst and Fisher’s Conservative principles extend only so far as to not conflict with their re-election campaigns…not to mention the interests of their corporate contributors.  Yet another indication The Swamp may be draining The Donald.

And need we mention John Koskinen…

…is still running the IRS?!?

Which brings us to The Lighter Side:

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with this headline in the Health Section:

Your brain knows when you’ve just died, researchers say

This brings to mind one of the funniest movie lines ever uttered:

Magoo