Plus its closer, “Smollett was admitted to Northwestern Hospital and released on Tuesday morning”?

Conradicted by the police account in Chi Trib:

After being treated for lacerations to his face, Smollett did not spend the night at the hospital, [police spokesman Anthony] Guglielmi said.

It’s entirely Smollett’s story in any case.

From Newsweek:

Much of the online conversation surrounds the possibility of the “Make America Great Again” appearing in the altercation. It’s unconfirmed that Trump-endorsed hats or sayings were used.

Newsweek:

Unconfirmed accounts claim the men who attacked Smollett were wearing ski masks and yelled “This is MAGA [Make America Great Again] country]”

Sun-Times:

Smollett told officers the attack happened at 2 a.m. about one block away. Not much else can be determined from the [“really dark”] photos [both Chicago papers ran].

Well not much can be determined by anything but Smollett’s account and his condition at the hospital, apparently in its emergency room.

So we should stay tuned, with only Smollett’s word as to how he got lacerations to his face and neck.

Had instant doubts about this, before I knew this, if only for this line, allegedly delivered in Chi-town, anywhere, any place:

“Empire” star Jussie Smollett was brutally attacked by 2 men who beat him up, put his head in a noose and screamed, “This is MAGA country.”

MAGA country? You kidding?

Econ freedom is good in itself — freedom is the goal — but it’s the best, the only way to prosperity, which is everyone’s goal, right?

The authors surveyed 180 countries, looking at things like tax burden, property rights, trade freedom, and regulatory efficiency. They then assigned a score from 0-100. The average score is 60.8, which they say is the third-highest level in the 25 years of making their Index.

Let’s start with the bottom five countries:

• Republic of Congo (39.7)
• Eritrea (38.9)
• Cuba (27.8)
• Venezuela (25.9)
• North Korea (5.9)

It’s probably easy to guess the bottom three, and very timely in the midst of the economic turmoil and widespread citizen revolt in Maduro’s Venezuela. It’s also a continued stinging rebuke to the Bernie Sanders’ and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s of the world who peddle their sanitized version of socialism; the “Socialism WILL work if you just do it THIS way” crowd. Sadly, I don’t think the Heritage Index will sway their “Democratic Socialist” minds.

The top ten are as follows:

• Hong Kong (90.2)
• Singapore (89.4)
• New Zealand (84.4)
• Switzerland (81.9)
• Australia (80.9)
• Ireland (80.5)
• United Kingdom (78.9)
• Canada (77.7)
• United Arab Emirates (77.6)
• Taiwan (77.3)

The United States just missed the top ten, coming in 12th with a score of 76.8. This is up six places from 2018, and every speaker at the release event credited President Trump with the increase. They noted the nation’s low unemployment rate and the Administration’s dialing back and the outright elimination of regulatory burdens. They reminded the audience that when governments do less, companies do more, and that there’s no economic challenge that can’t be solved with free market solutions.

Dems and other never-Trumpers want more regulations, less freedom, to the harm of all but the elites.

The see their role as the CEO tamping down a situation lest matters get out of hand. The big picture is their focus, as if their responsibility is for the totality of a situation, managing it.

The line between a therapeutic CEO and a therapeutic bishop is vanishingly thin. By Tuesday, January 22, [following the
Covington boys incident after the March for Life] Catholic leaders began backtracking their earlier condemnations.

Bishop Roger Joseph Foys of Covington spoke less as a shepherd than as a therapeutic manager when he said, “We pray that we may come to the truth and that this unfortunate situation may be resolved peacefully and amicably.” He announced the beginning of an “independent, third-party investigation” into the matter, and declared there would be “no further statements until the investigation is complete.”

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of neighboring Louisville could only echo the managerial cant, lamenting “the regrettable polarization in our Church and in our society” while offering vaguely to “reach out and respond to those who were impacted by these events and media reports.”

This is even worse than cravenness. Many have suggested that [Covington HS] Principal Rowe, Bishop Foys, and Archbishop Kurtz simply lacked moral courage. Yet these men also lived out our elite’s moral ideal by condemning their own children in the interest of self-realization and social order. Perhaps they rushed to judgment not so much out of fear as out of fidelity to an ideal of character—an ideal foreign to Catholic Christianity but quite at home in a rival church.

In this case, the church of public opinion, apparently.

The author,

Darel E. Paul is professor of political science at Williams College and author of From Tolerance to Equality: How Elites Brought America to Same-Sex Marriage.

First, from William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, lose the shutdown strategy:

Republicans cannot win government shutdown fights because no matter who caused it or who is unreasonable, the media blames Republicans. As satisfying and justified as a partial government shrinkage and slowdown may be, it’s a losing battle. [Emphasis added, as throughout]

But, but . . . a wall?

First, a wall would work. That is a real problem for those who favor either completely open borders or the current status quo of mass illegal cross-border migration. A wall wouldn’t be a cure all, but the arguments against it are mostly strawmen. It wouldn’t stop 100% of those attempting to enter illegally through the Mexican border. Fine, but it would stop most, and would allow the border patrol to focus on fewer areas. It also would serve as a deterrent. Another argument is that a border wall also would not stop visa overstays. Duh. It’s a border wall meant to keep out people who don’t have even a visa from illegally crossing the border. Let’s beef up tracking people who overstay their visas AND build a wall.

Besides, it’s Trump, stupid. He’s the ultimate target.

Second, and most important politically for Democrats and Republican NeverTrumpers, they see the failure of Trump to build the wall as a way to break Trump politically. It was a core promise. I think most Trump supporters understand that he has been undercut on the issue not only by Democrats but also by Republicans, but that won’t prevent the failure from being used as a wedge issue.

Enabling Democrats?

One argument I’m seeing a lot of from Republicans is that by using the National Emergencies Act for spending, Trump may be enabling a future Democrat president to do the same for climate change or single-payer. Such an argument demonstrates how differently different groups within the GOP see the illegal immigration issue: To establishment types, it’s just another issue; to Trump supporters and many others, it’s an existential crisis over whether we have a country. For the former, it’s a time to be cautious fearing future abuse, for the latter it’s now or never because the current trajectory is disastrous, a Flight 93 political issue. I’m with the latter.

Depends what worries you.

Did you know . . . ?

That presidents since Jimmy Carter have been handing out national emergencies — that are still in effect! — like popcorn, with Carter and now Trump being absolute pikers in the matter?

Of course, you soon will, as soon as NY Times and Washington Post learn about it. But they are slow learners in such matters, so you better not wait.

ABC News, on the other hand, has known it for 18 days!