It’s Friday, May 25th, 2018…but before we begin, here’s all you need to know about the NFL’s sorry-ass attempt to stem the bleeding of their fan-base:

“Some important details remained unclear in the hours after the policy’s approval, including the specific fine that teams would be subject to and also how the league will define respect for the flag.“

Good work, NFL.  Thus you provide us yet another opportunity to bid Roger Goodell, all the players who kneeled and anyone who even peripherally supported them, a hale and hearty…

This is far, far too little, and way, way too late.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, a couple of quick comments on Trump calling off the Singapore summit: (a) it was the right thing to do, particularly in light of continued NoKo demonstrations of bad faith; and, (b) it’s obvious to us The Donald either wrote or dictated the cancellation letter himself, because it reads…

…precisely as he speaks.  It’s so poorly written, we initially thought it satire along the lines of The Onion.  Still, however clumsy Trump’s composition, we’re pretty certain Kim got his message…

…loud and clear!

Next up, our favorite Kim, the WSJ‘s Kimberly Strassel, correctly identifies the elephant Progressives vehemently continue to deny is standing in the room:

The Real Constitutional Crisis

The FBI and Justice Department continue evading congressional oversight.

“Democrats and their media allies are again shouting “constitutional crisis,” this time claiming President Trump has waded too far into the Russia investigation. The howls are a diversion from the actual crisis: the Justice Department’s unprecedented contempt for duly elected representatives, and the lasting harm it is doing to law enforcement and to the department’s relationship with Congress.

…This intransigence is creating an unprecedented toxicity between law enforcement and Congress, undermining what has long been a cooperative and vital relationship. It is also pushing lawmakers ever closer to holding Justice Department officials in contempt or impeaching them. Congress hasn’t impeached a member of the executive branch (presidents excepted) since the 19th century. Let’s agree such a step would amount to a real crisis. And the pressure to use these tools to get disclosure is growing, as congressional Republicans worry about losing their oversight authority in the midterms, and suspect the Justice Department is stringing them along for that very reason.

Which is why Mr. Trump was right to order that Justice comply with Mr. Nunes’s demands for documents about the alleged FBI spy Stefan Halper and other information related to the catalyst of this investigation. As president, he has a duty to protect the reputation and integrity of the Justice Department—even from its own leaders. Forcing officials to comply with legitimate congressional oversight is far better than sitting back to watch those same officials singe the institution and its relationship with Congress in a flame of impeachment resolutions.

Mr. Trump has an even quicker way to bring the hostility to an end. He can—and should—declassify everything possible, letting Congress and the public see the truth. That would put an end to the daily spin and conspiracy theories. It would puncture Democratic arguments that the administration is seeking to gain this information only for itself, to “undermine” an investigation. And it would end the Justice Department’s (self-serving, CYA) campaign of secrecy, which has done such harm to its reputation with the public and with Congress.“

Which begs the question why doesn’t Trump just DO IT?!?

As well as fairly screaming…

Only The Donald knows.

By the way, Jim Clapper, John Brennan, Jim Comey and many others deserve the fate Old England reserved for traitors.

Next up, courtesy of NRO, Dennis Prager accurately assesses…

“If you want to understand the moral sickness at the heart of leftism, read the first paragraph of the most recent column by Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne:

It’s never right to call other human beings ‘animals.’ It’s not something we should even have to debate. No matter how debased the behavior of a given individual or group, no matter how much legitimate anger that genuinely evil actions might inspire, dehumanizing others always leads us down a dangerous path.

Let’s begin with the first sentence: “It’s never right to call other human beings ‘animals.’” This is so self-evident to Dionne that he adds, “It’s not something we should even have to debate.”

Only someone who has never debated the issue could make such a claim. So allow me to debate the assertion. (In other words…

My view is the antithesis of Dionne’s. As I see it, it is not right to never call another human being an “animal.”

Calling the cruelest among us names such as “animal” or any other “dehumanizing” epithet actually protects humans. The word “beastly” exists for a reason and is frequently applied to human beings. By rhetorically reading certain despicable people out of the human race, we elevate the human race. We have declared certain behaviors out of line with being human.

Biologically, of course, we are all human. But if “human” is to mean anything moral — anything beyond the purely biological — then some people who have committed particularly heinous acts of evil against other human beings are not to be considered human. Otherwise “human” has no moral being. (Which is exactly what Progressives prefer!) We should then not retain the word “inhumane.” What is the difference between “he is inhumane” and “he is an animal”? Both imply actions that render the person no longer human.

Dionne provides his answer at the end of the paragraph: “dehumanizing others always leads us down a dangerous path.” He provides not a single argument or illustration for this truly absurd comment.

Anyone who refuses to “dehumanize” the Nazi physicians — who, with no anesthesia, froze naked people for hours and then dropped them in boiling water to rewarm them; put people in depressurized rooms where their eardrums burst, driving them out of their minds from pain; rubbed wood shavings and ground glass into infected wounds; etc. — is, to put it very gently, profoundly morally confused.

What would Dionne have us call those Nazi physicians — “not nice,” “badly flawed,” “evil”? Why is rhetorically ostracizing them from the human race “a dangerous path”? He doesn’t have an answer because he lives in the Left’s world of moral-sounding platitudes. Leftism consists almost entirely of moral-sounding platitudes — statements meant to make the person making them feel morally sophisticated. But based on their relative reactions to the sadists of the MS-13 gangs, I trust Donald Trump’s moral compass more than E. J. Dionne’s…”

Here’s the juice: the more Progressives defend the indefensible…

…the more voters will…

In a related item directly resulting from the insanity of Progressive policies…

3 more teens charged in death of Maryland police officer

To borrow a phrase from Harry Callahan…

“…16-year-old Dawnta Anthony Harris, was the first to be charged with first-degree murder. The slain officer’s body camera footage clearly shows Harris accelerating the Jeep at Caprio after she tried to apprehend him Monday in the Perry Hall community northeast of Baltimore, prosecutor William Bickel asserted during Harris’ bail hearing Tuesday.

Harris was ordered held without bond at an adult jail by a judge who described him as a “one-man crime wave.”

…The 29-year-old Caprio was run down Monday by a stolen Jeep driven by Harris after she responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle, investigators have said. Harris was apprehended shortly after abandoning the Jeep, which police said had been stolen May 18 in Baltimore. According to probable cause statement, Harris admitted as much, telling a detective that he “drove at the officer.”

According to probable cause statements obtained Wednesday, Harris identified Ward, Matthews and Genius  as the three subjects responsible for the burglary. Matthews and Ward acknowledged committing the burglary, probable cause statements allege. Genius (Not hardly!) at first declined to give a statement but later objected to being charged with murder, saying he was in the house when the killing occurred, another statement said.

…Harris, a ninth-grader, had fled house arrest a week before the incident and was still wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet when he ran down Caprio, authorities said. Sam Abed, the Maryland Secretary of Juvenile Services, said at a news conference that his department had made “many attempts” to contact Harris after he went missing from his mother’s house but was unsuccessful.

The ankle bracelet Harris was wearing Monday simply indicated whether he was inside or outside his home — it did not track his whereabouts, Shellenberger, the prosecutor, said. “Did the system not work?” police Chief Terrence Sheridan said. “It sounds like…it could have worked better in this particular case.”…”

Chief Sheridan has a penchant for understatement; the system not only didn’t work, it completely failed.

And if that’s not bad enough, as CBS in Dallas-Ft. Worth reports…

Kids, 13 & 14 Allegedly Kill Woman For Phone And Video Game

“…The two teens had been passing by the apartment when they peered inside and saw a video game console, according to police. One of the teens told police they figured the robbery would be an easy “lick.” When they kicked in the door, they encountered Gutierrez and demanded her phone. After she turned away, she was shot in the back of the head, one boy told police…”

And all of this…all of this…is primarily the result of counterproductive Progressive policies which have purposefully eviscerated traditional morality, family structure and any sense of personal responsibility.

Since we’re on the subject of those lacking any sense of personal responsibility, this just in from the Charlotte Observer:

Parents can kick their 30-year-old son out of their home, court rules

In response to which the parasitic progeny whined he just needs more time.

Turning from the unceremoniously turned out to the ill-advisably invited in, the WSJ‘s Dan Henninger highlights the immutable truth revealed by…

Starbucks’ Homeless Problem

No matter what you do to try to appease unhappy progressives, you will be wrong.