As if anyone needs “warm-ups” in August…

1. Here’s how you know a political candidate is an untrustworthy weasel: he places the official United States Marine Corps emblem on his campaign material. That would be Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican who has represented a conservative district near San Diego. This month, Hunter received a letter from the Marine Corps

—that also had the official Marine emblem on it, but legitimately, unlike Duncan’s mailers—telling him he did not have permission to use the symbol and demanding that he stop immediately. The letter suggested that Mr. Hunter use an approved “Marine Veteran” emblem instead.

The man’s a long-time member of Congress, and he doesn’t know the basic fact that using any organization’s official emblem, logo or letterhead for an unrelated communication dishonestly suggests that that a communication has been endorsed by the organization? This isn’t an accident. This is misappropriating and intentional deception.

Or stupidity, of course. Any of the three ought to disqualify Hunter for Congress.

2. Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias! Part I. I no longer an going to be nice when someone tells me that liberal mainstream media bias is a myth, and that they aren’t routine purveyors  of “fake news.”

On Monday, as President Trump signed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund extension, he mentioned being at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks, saying, “I was down there [at Ground Zero] also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder, but I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”  Immediately, members the media elite already working over-time to help Democrats defeat him accused him of lying. Kyle Griffin, a producer at MSNBC, actually claimed there was no evidence Trump was ever at Ground Zero after 9/11. Then CNN’s Chris Cillizza, a progressive hack since his days at the Washington Post, described the statement as the President being “Walter Mitty,” the James Thurber character who imagined himselg doing things he couldn’t and didn’t. “Business Insider”ran the headline, “Trump said he was ‘down there’ at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, but there’s no evidence he was ever closer than a few blocks away.” The New York Times  cited a retired NYFD deputy chief who said Trump was never at Ground Zero, because, apparently, he sees all and knows all.

It didn’t take long for someone to track down an NBC video of Trump being interviewed a Ground Zero, whereupon social media’s anti-Trump hoard shifted gears and claimed that the President had said he was literally in among the rescuers at the disaster site. Yet the video is slam-dunk proof that he was more than “a few blocks away,” and by any reasonable interpretation, was “at Ground Zero.”

This is a disease.

Interestingly, nobody at MSNBC, CNN or the Times bothered to point out in 2016 that  Hillary Clinton,  did lie about her whereabouts   on 9/11. The conservative Washington Times noted it, however.

3.  Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias! Part II.

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s occasionally fair factchecker, purported to check the claims of Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris in their dueling versions of Medicare-For-All. He found factual inconsistencies and misrepresentations in both, but rather than hand out his trademark one, two, three or four “Pinocchios” designating how badly their rhetoric lined up with reality, Kessler concluded, “Readers have to view these proposals mostly as political messaging statements.”

When has Kessler ever given a pass to factually inaccurate statements by politicians, including candidates, by shrugging them off as “mostly as political messaging statements,” code for “no big deal, everybody does it”? Never. Not once before. How odd that the first time involves ignoring Democratic Presidential candidate’s assertions that something is true when in fact they have no idea whether it is true or not. That itself is Pinocchio-worthy. [Pointer: Althouse]

4. Caster Semenya update. A recent Swiss ruling has now banned champion runner Semenya from international races between 400 meters and a mile until her case is resolved  Switzerland’s highest court. The problem is that as an intersex woman, she naturally has testosterone levels that give her an advantage in women’s track events.

Meanwhile, biological men transitioning into womanhood are allowed to dominate women’s sports competitions in the U.S. This makes no sense at all.

The court said that Semenya’s intersex condition, known as 46XYDSD, “has a direct impact on performance in sport, which could never be achieved by other women.” the unique physical characteristics of many, many other elite athletes can be said to have bestowed the exact same kinds of advantage. The only question should be: Are these her real, natural abilities? If so, it is unethical to punish her for being born superior.

5. Can we agree that posting “video challenges” that are likely to persuade silly, stupid people into hurting themselves is unethical? Fitness entrepreneur and YouTube star Cassey Ho issues a YouTube challenge to do 1,000 squats, and he’s not the only one.

Recently, two Chinese teenagers narrowly escaped death after doing that many squats. Such a challenge is like daring the mentally-challenged to jump off a roof.

YouTube should ban such videos. Ethically, its an easy call.

6. Thanks to all who participated in yesterday’s Open Forum, which is still active.