It’s Monday, March 9th, 2020…but before we begin, consider this snippet from a recent column penned by one Ronn Blitzer, a politics “reporter” at FOX News:

“Trump has a history of criticizing Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation that cast a shadow over much of Trump’s presidency before ultimately resulting in a lack of evidence that his campaign coordinated with Moscow in the 2016 election.”

Note the wording: before ultimately resulting in a lack of evidence“.  Au contraire, mon Ronn: the Mueller report clearly concluded there was NO evidence of Trump having colluded with the Russians, which is a far cry from what Blitzer (no relation to the other pretend “reporter” of the same last name) so loudly insinuates in his hit piece.

After consulting a nationally-known journalist of both impeccable character and credentials, here’s the juice: any unbiased reporter should have recognized the implication of this language; and any responsible editor would have corrected their reporter’s oversight, deliberate or inadvertent.

That every example of such journalistic malpractice always weighs against The Donald, after eight long years of each of them benefiting Barack, strikes us as far more than just passing strange.

Since we mentioned the term “passing”, courtesy of Speed Mach…

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, as Mara Gay and Brian Williams demonstrate, while math is obviously not their strong suit, a total unfamiliarity with the truth is their biggest challenge:

More importantly, as Charlie Cooke notes at NRO:

“Obviously, the math here is spectacularly off. If Michael Bloomberg had divided the money he spent on his presidential run evenly among Americans, we would each have got $1.53, not $1 million. For Bloomberg to give $1 million to each American, he would have to be worth $327 trillion (in cash), which, for context, is around 17 times American GDP and about five-and-a-half thousand times what he’s actually worth. The scale of the error here is galactic.

It’s also extremely telling. This, right here, is why so many left-leaning Americans think that “the billionaires” can pay for everything. It’s why Elizabeth Warren was enthusiastically boosted by the media despite her ridiculous pretense that she could pay for a series of gargantuan initiatives without raising taxes on anyone but the extremely rich. It’s why Democrat after Democrat promises not to raise “middle class taxes” while promising programs that require the raising of middle class taxes. How did this bad tweet make it onto TV to be endorsed? Why did Mara Gay agree with it? Why didn’t Brian Williams notice? Because the people involved in this clip thought it was true. This is how they see the world.

But it’s not true. Not even close. Forget the million for a moment and make it Andrew Yang’s thousand instead. Would that be possible? Nope! If Michael Bloomberg were to try to achieve what Andrew Yang promised ($1,000 per American per month, forever), he would be able to give every American about $183 in the first month before he’d have $0 left. To make it through a single month, he would have to be five times richer than he is. And, after that single month, even at five times his current wealth, his fortune would be completely and permanently depleted. Elizabeth Warren’s unconstitutional wealth tax topped out at six percent. Filter Bloomberg’s money through that tax and you get $11 per American per year.

There is still no such thing as a free lunch. If Americans want expanded services — or a monthly stipend — they are going to have to pay for them themselves. There is no billionaire out there who can do it for them.“

This classic clip from Billy Madison forwarded by Bill Meisen says it best:

Meanwhile, at least Little Mike…

…has a firm grasp of the figures.

Turning from the small in stature to those of insignificant character, as FOX News reported last Friday…

Romney could block Republican subpoena try aimed at the Bidens

Mitt…

We only hope the good citizens of Utah understand it come 2024…Mitt’s last-minute retreat from another act of political treason notwithstanding.

Turning from the “Bain” of Conservatives to the Dimocrats’ Crazy Uncle in the Attic, writing at The Spectator, Freddy Gray recalls…

My worrying encounter with Joe Biden

Each day, he reveals a little more senility

“I met Joe Biden last month, after one of his town hall events in New Hampshire. His team had turned the music up loud, presumably so that 77-year-old Joe — the gaffe machine from Scranton, Pennsylvania — would not be recorded saying something stupid as he mingled with the fans and reporters. I shook Biden’s hand and — limey hack that I am — asked: ‘Mr Vice President, how, as President, would you approach Brexit Britain and Boris Johnson?’

…he said.

I repeated the question, shouting this time.

…he said again, smiling. His dentures were brilliant; his eyes mad blue. He had no idea what I was talking about. I tried one last time, screaming ‘Boris Johnson!’ in his ear. Somewhere deep in his psyche, something stirred. ‘Bori…,’ he said. Then the emptiness returned and he went to hug some old ladies. (Before groping some…

…younger “women”!)

It’s not fair to mock the elderly, and no doubt US politicians have far more pressing matters on their minds than Brexit. But Joe Biden is emerging as the Democratic party’s choice to be the next leader of the free world, and he’s clearly not all there.

…Long before the spectre of dementia hung over him, Biden was notorious for putting his mouth in his foot, as he would say. But the trouble isn’t just that Biden makes gaffes. It’s that he can’t get anything right. The Biden of 2020 is a sad specimen — he looks lost everywhere he goes. By January he could be in charge of the nuclear codes…”

And far from getting better, the problem’s rapidly getting worse:

Like a hungry lion contemplating an aged, infirm antelope, The Donald must be, quite literally, licking his chops.

Next up, in the Friday edition of his Morning Jolt, Jim Geraghty details how Bernie’s biggest flaw has always been…

The Deadly Art of Not Compromising

“…After the Nevada caucus, Bernie Sanders was in the driver’s seat in the Democratic presidential primary.

After Nevada, Sanders could and should have begun reaching out to the establishment Democrats who were freaking out about the prospect of nominating him. This was the moment for Sanders to start uniting the party behind him. This might have meant moderating his message here and there. When Anderson Cooper asked Sanders about his past comments about Fidel Castro, the Vermont senator had two winning moves. The first would have been to surprise everyone by ripping into Castro’s human-rights record and arguing that authoritarian socialism is a betrayal of socialism’s values. (We may or may not have believed Sanders, but at least he would get out of the role of being Castro’s defense attorney.) Or Sanders could have said:

I know that I’ve said many things in my past that created controversy, rubbed people the wrong way, or even angered them. For almost all of my life, I was an outsider, and believed I could change things by being a provocateur. But the president of the United States has a different role. A president has to unite people, to bring them together to find solutions that work for the whole country. I don’t want to spend any more time talking about Fidel Castro. He’s dead. He’s part of history now; I want to focus on America’s future, and what we need to do now.

Have you ever run into someone who was too stubborn for his own good? Who kept making an argument long after it had been won or lost, and who simply alienated people by being unwilling to drop the issue?

Sanders is that kind of guy…

…Sanders kept insisting he didn’t have to compromise with the rest of the party, because there was a giant mass of previously unmotivated nonvoters who had just been waiting for someone such as Bernie Sanders to come along. After 15 Democratic contests this year, there is no evidence that those people are willing to come out and vote.

Another example: Bernie Sanders did not ask for Jim Clyburn’s endorsement. Sanders told MSNBC that “there was no way on God’s earth he was going to be endorsing me.” Hey, Bernie, sometimes people like to be asked anyway! The process of asking is a sign of respect, even if everyone knows what the answer is going to be. Not asking sends the signal, “I don’t think I need you.”

Two weeks ago, Sanders was in the driver’s seat. This coming Tuesday, Democrats will vote in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington, with Michigan being the biggest prize with 125 delegates. Biden is going to do well, he might sweep all of those states, and this thing might be close to being over. Sanders is going to find himself where he was last year — heading into a convention with an impressive but insufficient second place and furious supporters.

All because he couldn’t compromise when he needed to the most.“

Which brings us to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these bits of humor from Ed Hickey…

…along with four from our sister-in-law Amy…

…three from G. Trevor…

…and last, but certainly not least, two from Balls Cotton:

Finally, we’ll call it a day with News of the Bizarre, courtesy today of Castelvetro, Italy, in which a…

Malfunction causes red wine to flow from faucets in an Italian town

“For a few hours Wednesday, residents of the northern Italian town of Castelvetro realized they could have their Lambrusco not just from bottles — but also from their faucets and shower heads. A malfunction at a local winery caused 1,000 liters of ready-to-be-bottled wine to leak into the water pipes.

The glitch lasted about three hours and impacted about 20 homes, said Giorgia Mezzacqui, deputy mayor of Castelvetro, about 10 miles south of Modena. The local government posted on its Facebook page that the leak didn’t pose any health risks.

The incident provided a moment of levity to the town that’s in the midst of the coronavirus crisis — which has hit northern Italy the hardest. “At a time where we have very little to smile about, I’m glad we brought some levity to others,” Mezzacqui told CNN. “Hopefully some day they’ll remember us and will want to come visit us.”

Rumors Hillary’s chartered a G-VI direct to Modena…coronavirus or no coronavirus…remain unconfirmed.

Magoo