As the circus turns for South Carolina, every last adult in the Democrat Party has apparently left the parade.

You have Pete Buttigieg exploiting a 9-year-old child’s “sexual” identity in front of thousands of spectators — for his own political benefit.

The ex-mayor of South Bend, Indiana, actually turned the whole spectacle into a campaign commercial. Where were that child’s parents? Where was his pediatrician?

Like I said, there are no adults left over there.

Then you have Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who seemingly lies about everything she ever talks about.

She lies to get her Harvard job. She lies about her ethnicity. She lies about how much all the free stuff she promises to give out will cost. There is nothing the woman will not say just to get her greedy little white hands on all your money and the levers of control in Washington.

Never is it more obvious that all the adults have left the room than when every Democrat candidate on the debate stage is squirming to their tiptoes, raising their hands as high as they can go and waving them to get called on by one of the debate moderators.

I say there are no adults left. Except for former Vice President Joe Biden. He is not a child, but he is headed for the diaper aisle. His plugs are wound a little too tight these days. He is slipping but at least still has the wits to escape from the old folks home.

Somebody needs to put out a Silver Alert.

And then there is Sen. Bernie Sanders. You have heard how China is the “sick man” of the world? Well, Mr. Sanders is the “sick man” of the Democrat Party.

Everybody is scrambling to get away from him. They should all wear face masks for the next debate in South Carolina.

A quick aside: The only argument against Manifest Destiny — that God has smiled on America since her founding — is that we wound up sharing a hemisphere with China, thus sharing a winter flu season.

Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah. There are no adults left in the Democrat Party and “Sick Man” Sanders is running away with the nomination.

After three years of lectures about Russian meddling in U.S. elections and how President Trump is a Kremlin puppet, the Democrats’ solution is — literally to turn control of America over to a socialist who oozes sympathy and admiration for communist dictators who kill people the world over.

Now comes former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has never been a child. Actually, he scares children. Sometimes, he likes to throw them up against the wall and frisk them for no reason.

Anything he wants, he just buys. So far, he has spent close to a half-billion dollars buying the Democrat Party. All the party Big Wigs are eager to hand him control. Anything to keep “Sick Man” Sanders from taking over.

And just like that, Mr. Bloomberg loses his adulthood. He becomes a child for the first time in his life.

After a decade-and-a-half telling us that New York streets were a war zone and “stop and frisk” was the only way to save black lives, he now gets bullied into apologizing for it.

What?

He would have been far smarter to defend the practice. Admit there might have been problems with it, but become indignant when pressed and vow to never apologize for saving black lives.

As for his miserable debate performance last week, Mr. Bloomberg should have just come out the next day and said, “You know, honestly, I was stunned. I was simply not prepared for the level of stupidity that these people have all stooped to inside the Democrat Party. I aim to study up on all these absolutely moronic issues and platforms for the next debate. It is not always easy to be the only adult in the room.”

Far and away, the best moment of Mr. Bloomberg’s debate was his zinger on Sick Man: “What a wonderful country we have. The best-known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses.”

Mr. Bloomberg needs to grow up, channel his inner adulthood, stick to zingers like that and forget all the pandering.

It’s all so childish, Mini Mike. Don’t be scared. Be a man. Stand tall. Or, at least, as “tall” as you can.

• Charles Hurt can be reached at [email protected] or @charleshurt on Twitter.

Baseball games played to empty stands — and not just at Marlins Park. Airlines largely grounded. Restaurants empty — though Grubhub deliveries are booming as hungry people fear leaving their homes.

This is the summer that possibly awaits the U.S. should the coronavirus continue its seemingly inexorable march across the globe.

The novel coronavirus, known for pneumonialike symptoms, has quickly spread far beyond the wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan whence it sprung just a couple of months ago. Outbreaks have occurred everywhere from Italy to Iran to South Korea.

The World Health Organization is now warning of a potential global pandemic. It’s fanciful to imagine that the U.S. will somehow find itself immune to what could soon be a global scourge. Indeed, a country that for decades has largely given up on enforcing its southern border seems particularly helpless to stop the spread.

It appears likely that the reelection prospects of President Trump would swoon in the event of a major outbreak here. Not only would he be blamed — fairly, or not — for allowing the virus to enter the country, but the economic shock that would ensue would surely harm his prospects.

Mr. Trump also seems oddly disengaged from the crisis. By contrast, one can imagine a Citizen Trump, having been defeated by President Hillary Clinton, calling for an immediate shut-down of the U.S. border until “we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

A glance at what has happened in the countries that have suffered from coronavirus portends bad things. Dozens of Italian towns in the country’s north are on lockdown, and Venice canceled its famous carnival. The Tokyo marathon was drastically shrunk, and it’s questionable whether the Summer Olympics will occur there later this year.

China has taken the drastic measure of essentially shutting down its economy in hopes of stopping the spread. Even this will have significant effects on the U.S., as supply chains are disrupted. And if the virus makes it to the U.S. in earnest, the economic effects could be catastrophic. Consumer spending, which comprises some 70% of U.S. GDP, would surely collapse. (Except maybe for Amazon’s delivery business. Jeff Bezos always has the last laugh.)

What would make the political effects of a coronavirus odder still is that both Mr. Trump and his probable Democratic opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have based their political campaigns largely on mass rallies. A coronavirus outbreak would put paid to that strategy, as large-scale gatherings would be discouraged. The political conventions would be canceled, too.

One veteran campaign manager says this would serve to Mr. Trump’s benefit. In the event of a coronavirus outbreak that keeps candidates off the trail, “Advantage Trump because he has Twitter already, plus TV audience on command. Bernie is still a distant second to Trump on communication tactics,” he tells me. Mr. Sanders’ “Twitter account is actually kinda mediocre. Trump could livestream from the White House and get millions of people on appointment viewing.”

Consider it a “front porch campaign” for the YouTube age. And the facemask age.

⦁ Ethan Epstein is editorial editor of The Washington Times. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @ethanepstiiiine.

The only thing that can be said about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first appearance with his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in Las Vegas Wednesday night was that Mike did not get it done, as his campaign ads promise he will if he becomes president.

He was boring, expressionless and could not defend himself against past racist, sexist and misogynistic comments, including one mentioned by Elizabeth Warren, who said Mr. Bloomberg once referred to women as “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians.” During the debate he also refused to release women who worked for him from sexual harassment nondisclosure agreements, apparently because that would reveal even more of his outrageous behavior than is already known. Bowing to pressure, however, he has since released three women from their NDAs.

While President Trump was mentioned a few times, most of the “debate” was about the candidates carving up and interrupting each other. Watching it made it sound like there is nothing good about America, homelessness is a national plague (mostly in cities and states run by Democrats, which the moderators failed to mention), and according to some of the candidates, most people are unhappy with their health insurance and want the government to take over.

Democrats call it Medicare for all, but it is the single-payer option, a government-run insurance program, which likely means the federal government will in effect become your doctor, deciding who gets care and who doesn’t, who ultimately lives or dies, based on age and diagnosis, and whether you take more from the treasury than you contribute in taxes.

Much of the second hour of the debate focused on the cult of climate change, which most Democrats seem to believe in more than they believe in God. The overpopulated panel of moderators failed to ask Mr. Bloomberg about a Fox News report (perhaps because they hate all things Fox) that a program funded by Mr. Bloomberg pays the salaries of lawyers in the offices of some state attorneys general to “pursue climate-based litigation.”

According to the Daily Wire, a conservative news and opinion site, “The arrangement, which currently pays the salaries of Special Assistant Attorneys General in 10 Democratic AG offices,” the Fox report found, “is drawing new scrutiny now that Bloomberg is running for president. The New York University School of Law’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, which was started in 2017 with $5.6 million from Bloomberg’s nonprofit, hires mid-career lawyers as ‘research fellows’ before providing them to state AGs where they assist in pursuing ‘progressive’ policy goals through the courts.”

A number of Republican attorneys general, the Daily Wire reported, “have raised concerns about Bloomberg’s funding of government lawyers, especially since he began his 2020 campaign.” It quoted West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey: “This is a fundamental question of ethics and who’s running our government. When you actually get to place someone under a specific agenda and then pay them and they’re within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office and that starts to really stink.”

Mr. Bloomberg appears to be using his considerable wealth in ways other than paying for those ubiquitous TV ads. If his record as mayor of New York City is any indication of how he would behave as president, he should not even be allowed in the tourist line at the White House, unless you are comfortable with government telling you how large a soft drink you can consume, whether salt should be available at restaurants and you are fine with your guns being taken away, along with other constitutionally protected liberties.

While Mr. Bloomberg’s money might keep him on political life-support, his credibility as a presidential candidate took a major hit Wednesday night from which he is unlikely to recover.

• Cal Thomas, a nationally syndicated columnist, is the author of “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires, Superpowers and the United States” (HarperCollins/Zondervan, January 2020).

Prince George’s County Police are seeking the public’s help in locating the driver and vehicle involved in a fatal hit-and-run incident in Forestville on Friday night, according to a police release.

On Friday, Feb. 21, around 8:50 p.m., officers were dispatched to Pennsylvania Avenue at Forestville Road for the report of a pedestrian collision. Arriving on the scene, they found the victim laying in the roadway suffering from critical injuries. The victim was pronounced dead on the scene.

A preliminary investigation revealed the victim was struck by a car as he was attempting to cross Pennsylvania Avenue. At the time of the collision, the victim was not in the crosswalk.

The vehicle, which police describe as a white 2015 or newer Toyota, fled the scene after the collision. The car may have damage to the front-end driver’s side, including the headlamp and windshield. It might also be missing the driver’s side mirror. Police released a photo of a white Toyota from the same model year.

Anyone with information should call the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit at 301-731-4422. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, or use the “P3 Tips” mobile app.

Sen. Bernie Sanders not only won the Nevada caucuses and took a commanding lead in the delegate count, he also verified that he can win over Hispanic voters.

Entrance polls in Nevada conducted by NBC News showed that Sanders was way ahead with Latino and Hispanic caucus-goers in Nevada. Polling results show ed him with 53% of the vote with that demographic. Sanders won 34 delegates in Nevada.

The Democratic race features seven candidates and the next contest, South Carolina, will reveal who amongst the large field of Democrats will perform well with African American voters.

The polling also showed that former Vice President Joe Biden at 16% of the Latino and Hispanic vote, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 9%, billionaire activist Tom Steyer with 8% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 7%.

The top three leaders in delegate totals are now Sanders, 28, Buttigieg 22, and Warren 8.

Former Vice President Joe Biden came in a distant second to Sanders in Nevada. But Biden is expected to do well with African American voters in South Carolina. The South Carolina primary is on Feb. 28. Sixty percent of the electorate is African American. If Biden stumbles and doesn’t win the primary, many feel that Sanders will be declared the front runner on the Democratic side as the candidates head into Super Tuesday on March 3. Biden has run for The White House three times and has never won a primary.

Sanders’ results in Nevada may signal that his campaign is making gains in minority communities as his opponents, notably South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, are struggling with African Americans in particular.

The next few weeks of the presidential race are likely to be decisive and result in several candidates dropping out of the race by the second week in March. After South Carolina, Super Tuesday states include California, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas.

Washington has a way of capturing presidents more than they conquer its bureaucracy — in current parlance, President Trump has become an alligator more than he has drained the swamp. Whether it’s Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Bloomberg or Joe Biden, the country will get a choice between a defender of the status quo ante — Donald Trump — and a radical vision to shake American capitalism to its foundations.

On foreign economic policy, Mr. Trump executed what left-leaning Democrats have long aspired — downgraded the World Trade Organization, thrown up tariffs on China and reworked NAFTA and commerce with China into more managed trade regimes.

Remember, Hillary Clinton promised to get tough with China and pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. None of the Democratic frontrunners are seriously suggesting taking down Mr. Trump’s tariffs or negotiating a hollow armistice in the trade war with Beijing.

If one of the terribly serious six lands in the Oval Office, don’t look for that to change. With moderate revisions, Nancy Pelosi endorsed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. None of the Democratic aspirants could end the festering confrontation with China without winning fundamental reforms in its socialist market economy, which the Chinese Communist Party simply won’t tolerate, or facing a revolt within their own party in Congress.

All the Democrats would engage in conciliatory dialogues with France, Germany and other allies to modernize the WTO, but reforming that moribund institution is like trying to boil the ocean with a Bunsen burner.

Simply, don’t look for a big change in foreign economic policy, except a bow to the international consensus on global warming that Detroit automakers and electric utilities are already moving to effect.

The economy entered 2020 in reasonably good shape, but thanks to Boeing’s problems and the coronavirus lockdown of China we will be lucky to get 2 GDP percent growth this year. A cooling economy means the improvements in wages and wealth of lower income Americans Mr. Trump bragged about in his State of the Union address will diminish.

Even with globalization on life support — the march of artificial intelligence and automation weigh down the prospects of many working Americans. Democrats have few quick fixes other than flat out confiscating legitimately earned money from the wealthy and spreading it among the less fortunate — read those folks who didn’t get a professional degree at college, didn’t finish college or go altogether.

The left has plenty of proposals for wealth taxes and millionaires’ income taxes. Look for changes to the tax code to effect either a child allowance — Germany now pays for children up to the age of 25 — or a universal guaranteed annual income.

No thought has been given to how a Singapore on steroids in Britain courtesy of Boris Johnson could easily steal a good portion of U.S. software and other high-tech activity. Prior to the Brexit referendum, Britain was eating the continent’s lunch by attracting entrepreneurs from high tax France, politically dysfunctional Italy and a Germany vulnerable to the end of gas-powered cars.

Intellectual property pays no tariffs and the real demon that moves those captains of industries to relocate is confiscatory taxes — England and Scotland could prove attractive to the Silicon Valley, Ireland for Big Pharma and Switzerland for both.

The Affordable Care Act did not stop health care inflation and if we reelect Donald Trump, the system will stay busted. These past three years, the GOP clearly demonstrated that it has no stomach for ending the price gouging by Big Pharma or busting up the local cartels that have emerged among hospitals and health insurance companies and the monopolization of local markets for medical specialties and other services.

Even a moderate Democratic president will move quickly to pass the Pelosi-endorsed House bill that would fix U.S. prescription drug prices to those charged in Canada and Europe, and perhaps peg prices of most services to Medicare reimbursement rates. The latter could even inspire doctors to flee to Canada and Britain.

The Sanders-Warren solution is a wholesale shutdown of the health insurance and pharmacy management industries and replacing those with government agencies run by Democratic Party apparatchiks. Think about the boobs who built the app for the Iowa Caucus running health care.

Emerging from these choices Mr. Trump looks downright moderate — and if the Democrats’ success in 2018 and 2019, and the polling data — indicate anything, Americans like moderates more than radicals and are not enamored by socialism.

• Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and a national columnist. 

George Washington’s birthday is Feb. 22. Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is Feb. 12. And Ronald Reagan’s birthday is Feb. 6. Instead of honoring Washington and Lincoln on the anniversary of their actual day of births, we combine them all into one holiday called President’s Day.

America is an exceptional country. We have become an exceptional country because of great leaders like Washington, Lincoln and Reagan. There are others too — like Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. Yet, many of our schools gloss over these important leaders, if they even mention them at all.

My kids learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks during February when they were in school. That is a good result. King was a remarkable leader and Parks was the inspiration for many in the civil rights movement.

Still, how is it possible to overlook the significance of the leader who signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves during the middle of the Civil War? It’s like we forget why his face is chiseled on the side of Mount Rushmore and why his memorial sits at the end of the National Mall. Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and the first Republican to hold that office.

Washington was so respected by his men at the conclusion for the Revolutionary War he could have been the king of the new nation. Instead, Washington wanted to help create a nation built on liberty. And after serving eight years as president of the United States of America, he returned to his beloved Mount Vernon. He set the standard for future presidents and showed us that the role of the government is to serve the people and not the other way around.

Reagan’s clear vision and steady leadership helped land the release of the American hostages in Iran on his very first day in office. That resolve and determination later led to the fall of the Soviet Union brought on by his belief in peace through strength, by rebuilding the U.S. armed forces.

The Reagan tax cuts helped boost the economy and increase revenues to the federal government. The economic boom started during his administration continued into the Bush and Clinton years.

Most importantly, Reagan restored confidence in America again. He was an optimist who viewed the United States as the shining city on the hill. Americans went from a “malaise” under President Carter to renewed optimism under Reagan.

Every student in America should learn about these three exceptional presidents during their birth month and not just celebrate a generic holiday that exists to host sales on mattresses or cars, while giving bankers and federal employees the day off. These remarkable leaders — and others like them are part of what makes our country so great.

And while we are at it, students should also learn about a diverse group of leaders during Black History Month. In addition to King and Parks, our children should learn about exceptional leaders like Justice Clarence Thomas, who is the second African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and is currently the longest-serving justice. And others like:

Gen. Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state and served under three Republican presidents — Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43.

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to hold the office of secretary of state. She served in that role and as national security adviser under President George W. Bush.

Dr. Ben Carson, the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland from 1984 until his retirement in 2013. He performed the only successful separation of conjoined twins connected at the back of the head. He currently serves as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sen. Hiram Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, who was the first African-American to serve in the U.S. Senate. During the Civil War, Revels helped form regiments of African-American soldiers and established schools for freed slaves. After the war, he moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the state Senate. Revels’ legislative colleagues elected him to one of Mississippi’s vacant U.S. Senate seats.

It is also important to remember that escaped slave Harriet Tubman was a God-fearing, gun-toting leader who went back to free other slaves. She worked for the Union Army as a cook and a nurse then as an armed scout and spy.

Schools in America should provide an objective view of American history. If they do, students may be surprised to learn that our leaders were much greater than they thought and that Republicans paved the way for equal rights. Now that would be an education.

• Scott Walker was the 45th governor of Wisconsin. You can contact him at [email protected] or follow him @ScottWalker.

As a people, we’ve seldom been more divided. And since that doesn’t look about to change, maybe it’s time to look at the possibility of secession. Nearly every country is staring down a secession movement, so why should we think we’re exempt? After all, 1776 was our own secession from Britain.

It’s not as though we’d fight a civil war over secession, as we did in 1861. For one thing, the stakes would be a lot lower today. The Civil Rights Revolution has taken hold, and there’d be no going back to the bad old days of Jim Crow in any seceding state. So instead of a war, what we’d see is the kind of sorting out of people that happens today, when people move from California to Texas. That’s how moderns settle these things.

Some think that secession is a constitutional impossibility. They’re wrong. If a state wanted out, I don’t think we’d see a president sending in the troops, and I don’t think the U.S. Supreme Court would want to hand him a loaded pistol either. In 1868, when the Civil War was good and over, the court held that there was no right of secession, but they based this on the 1781 Articles of Confederation, which in 1787 the Framers thought were no longer in effect. So the court’s originalists would likely take seriously a vote on secession.

That doesn’t mean that states have a unilateral right of secession. They’d have to negotiate the terms of exit, including how to divide federal property and responsibility for the public debt. But so long as democracy is a foundational value in our Constitution, a successful democratic secession referendum in a state couldn’t be ignored. Instead, it would begin a set of negotiations on how the exit might happen.

In that case, we’d have the same kind of conversation the Framers did about the optimal size of a country. Most of the Framers thought that small was beautiful, and they were right. In my book “American Secession,” I found that smaller countries are happier, freer and less corrupt. And today America is one of the biggest countries in the world in terms of population.

We don’t need to be big to defend ourselves. As it is, we spend more on the military than the next 21 countries put together. In his Farewell Address, George Washington said that we were happily isolated from Europe and all its wars, and that hasn’t changed. If California were to break away, who’s going to invade it?

Granted, we don’t want to see customs barriers erected between the states after a break-up, but if that’s what bothers you then you want a customs union, not a country. And we won’t want to need a passport to visit Disneyland, but then Europeans don’t need that either when traveling between different countries in the European Union.

And here’s the kicker: This time secession would be politically correct. It’s progressive California that wants to opt out of our immigration laws. Tell them that, if they secede and stop paying their share of the military budget, they’ll save enough to fund their own national health. And then pose the same question to them when President Trump is reelected and has a few more nominations for the Supreme Court.

Forget MAGA. Let’s Make America Small Again. And buy stock in U-Haul.

• F.H. Buckley is a professor at Scalia Law School and the author of “American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup” (Encounter Books), upon which this op-ed is based.

Rihanna is now a member of a very elite group of winners – including Muhammad Ali, Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Williams sisters — after being honored with the President’s Award during Saturday’s 51st NAACP Image Awards.

“I’m going to try to keep this simple, because tonight really isn’t about me,” Rihanna said onstage. “Because the purpose is bigger than me… My part is a very small part of the work that’s being done in this world — and the work that’s yet to be done.”

In reflecting on her history of philanthropy, she continued, “If there’s anything that I’ve learned, we can only fix this world together. We can’t do it divided. I cannot emphasize that enough. We cannot let the de-sensitivity seep in. The, ‘If it’s your problem, it’s not mine’… When we’re marching and protesting and posting about the Michael Brown Jr.’s and the Atatiana Jefferson’s of the world, tell your friends to pull up.”

“We have been denied opportunities since the beginning of time, and still we prevail,” Rihanna concluded. “Imagine what we could do together.”

The global music and fashion icon, business entrepreneur, and philanthropist was given the special recognition for her achievement and work in public service. Rihanna has used her platform to further philanthropic efforts close to her heart, including the launch of the Clara Lionel Foundation in honor of her grandparents, and being an outspoken advocate for young people around the world.

“Rihanna has not only enjoyed a groundbreaking career as an artist and musician, but has also distinguished herself as a stellar public servant,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “From her business achievements through Fenty, to her tremendous record as an activist and philanthropist, Rihanna epitomizes the type of character, grace, and devotion to justice that we seek to highlight in our President’s Award.”

First handed out in 1987, the President’s Award has gone to everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Kerry Washington, and from Condoleezza Rice to Spike Lee.

Wedding crasher!

Lil Nas X made a grand entrance while crashing a wedding at Disney World on Saturday. The 20-year-old rapper sported a white sweatsuit and matching cowboy hat as he walked inside the reception hall hand-in-hand with the bride.

“Old Town Road” blared through the speakers while Lil Nas hit the dance floor, much to the surprise of the wedding guests, one of whom couldn’t contain her disbelief.

“What the f**k is happening right now?!” the guest says in a video that Lil Nas posted on Twitter with the caption, “Just crashed a wedding at disney world.”

The Atlanta native has a reason to celebrate after winning Outstanding New Artist at the 51st Annual NAACP Image Awards held in Pasadena, California on Saturday. Although he couldn’t make the ceremony, Lil Nas was up for two awards.

His NAACP Image Award win comes after he won twice at the 2020 GRAMMY Awards for his and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Down Road” song.