TERRY MORAN OUT AT ABC NEWS:

Moran dropped the mask, and revealed what everybody at the House of Stephanopoulos thinks about this administration, and with a fair amount of projection, Trump aide Stephen Miller in particular:

BILL WHITTLE: How L.A. Dies. “One man, 36 hours, and seven hundred dollars: a cautionary tale about the future of my home for 37 years.”

WHAT WAS I JUST SAYING?

Really, I was just saying this.

WHY IS THIS GUY STILL STANDING?

Put some oomf into it.

NIFTY: U.S. Army integrates SMASH smart fire control system on M4A1 rifle to target aerial drones. “The SMASH 2000L is developed and produced by Smart Shooter Ltd., a defense technology company based in Yagur, Israel. The firm specializes in fire control systems designed to improve small arms accuracy and lethality in complex battlefield environments. The SMASH 2000L represents a lightweight, compact iteration of the company’s proven SMASH technology, specifically engineered for integration with standard assault rifles such as the M4A1. It allows operators to effectively engage not only ground targets but also small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), which pose growing threats in modern combat zones.”

Cool, but wouldn’t a shotgun be cheaper?

POLLING NUMBERS IN? Newsom, Bass, Suddenly Talking Tough to their Shock Troops:

But they likely won’t:

Flashback to Andy Ngo in 2023: Who funds Antifa protests? We all do.

On March 5, an [National Lawyers Guild] member and staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center named Thomas Jurgens was charged with domestic terrorism for his alleged involvement in a violent Antifa attack on police in Atlanta.

When the NLG’s legal observers and their comrades are arrested, they’re immediately provided with pro-bono legal aid and connections for bail money (rioters often write the NLG’s phone number on their body in anticipation of arrests.)

And then the lawsuits come.

Last year, New York City agreed to pay tens of thousands to NLG members arrested in the Bronx in June 2020.

In Detroit, NLG members are suing the city for alleged wrongful conduct stemming from its police response in 2020.

Nearly every American city afflicted by mass protesting and rioting in 2020 ended up settling and paying out millions in taxpayer money to radical protesters who were allegedly subjected to force by law enforcement.

Denver settled to pay $1.6 million to just seven people.

Austin settled to pay $17.3 million.

The cities, led by Democrats, don’t even bother to fight the cases, preferring to write a check.

The settlement cash doesn’t just end up rewarding the protesters, awarded inflated attorney fees are used to reinvest in the legal groups to grow the operation for the next cause. Additionally, law enforcement morale declines as they are punished for doing their jobs.

But lawsuit settlements aren’t the only way that militant protesters and riot suspects get paid. Bail funds have emerged as a lucrative cash source with progressive district attorneys refusing to prosecute most left-wing riot-related cases.

We’ll know if Trump is serious about pushing back against the rioters if they face federal charges and lengthy prison sentences.

YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS AT WORK: Oops! Masked ‘Protester’ Reveals Identity to Reporter – DataRepublican Shows NGO is Paying Her to Dissent.

First, the funny part. A pro-illegal alien protester in Asheville, North Carolina, was being interviewed by a local TV news reporter. She said and spelled out her name on air. Then said she was wearing a mask to protect her identity. Yep, they’re not sending their brightest. Then, X sleuth extraordinaire DataRepublican did some quick research. Wham! Bam! Yep, the masked fool is a paid protester.

* * * * * * * *

At the beginning of 1991’s Parliament of Whores, P.J. O’Rourke famously wrote:

Not long after Andy [Ferguson] and I met, we were driving down Pennsylvania Avenue and encountered some or another noisy pinko demonstration. “How come,” I asked Andy, “whenever something upsets the Left, you see immediate marches and parades and rallies with signs already printed and rhyming slogans already composed, whereas whenever something upsets the Right, you see two members of the Young Americans for Freedom waving a six-inch American flag?”

“We have jobs,” said Andy.

But for the protestors on the left, as we’ve learned, this is their job. Nice work if you can get it: Who’s Paying for the Violent L.A. Protests Against ICE? You Are. And It Gets Worse From There.

Oh, and speaking of “signs already printed,” a quick reminder:

And this all-time classic from the late Andrew Breitbart:

DAN MCLAUGHLIN: You Picked the Wrong Time to Riot.

Trump is following through on nationalizing the California National Guard and putting them seriously to work in restoring order over the impotent protests of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Anybody who read the situation and the man could have told them this would happen. Yes, there’s some truth in the TACO taunt: Trump doesn’t much like standing up to people who can fight back, and he often blusters his way into positions he can’t or won’t back up. But Trump has no downside here. He knows he was elected to restore some basic, commonsense ideas that are overwhelmingly popular like public order in the streets, and that Newsom, Bass, and Kamala Harris are about the least sympathetic adversaries possible. He’s also just over four months into his term; it’s not 2020 anymore. A new president responds to challenges such as this one not only with an eye to the situation, but also with an eye on the tone set for the remaining three-plus years. Why did Ronald Reagan come down so hard on the air traffic controller strike? Partly out of principle but also partly to send a message: There’s a new sheriff in town, and you’re not messing with him. The public-employee unions got the message; so did the Soviets and Congress. Reagan meant what he said and was prepared to go to the mattresses.

All of the incentives for Trump, against people burning Waymos and wearing keffiyehs and waving Mexican flags, point in the direction of doing the same. Before you try to use leverage against an opponent, you should first consider whether your acts are received by him as pressure or as a gift. Trump very obviously views disorder in the streets of Los Angeles, against federal authority, and under foreign flags, as a gift. You have to be a special kind of stupid to hand him that. But nobody ever said rioters were smart people.

Neither are looters: Troops and turmoil in LA: Masked looters raid Apple store.

Flashback to 2020’s Summer of Love: Photos show how Apple is tracking and locking demo iPhones that have been stolen from its stores. “Photos of reportedly stolen iPhones have been circulating on social media showing screenshots with a message from Apple requesting that the devices be returned to the store. ‘Please return to Apple Walnut Street,’ one screenshot read, likely referring to the Apple Store located on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. ‘This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.’”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): My congressman, Tim Burchett, weighs in.

IT MUST BE THE SUMMER OF LOVE AGAIN, BECAUSE CNN HAS ACCESS TO ALL THE BEST HALLUCINOGENICS:

But is Stelter getting the wrong message, from watching footage that is “hours old?”

To be fair, Stelter isn’t the only Democrat Party operative with a Chyron who is pushing the Summer of Love message this week:

Or that they’re simply fun-filled peaceful “rallies:”

And what’s a rally without plenty of American flags?

Which presumably will quickly be set alight. But when they are, the party will demand that you ignore that it happened: