When Kanye West condemned a Republican president after Hurricane Katrina smashed New Orleans, Democrats and their media biscuit eaters weren’t all that upset.

Unpopular speech needs to be protected. But the FBI’s arrest this month of four members of a California-based white supremacist group on federal charges of “rioting and conspiracy” before and during the deadly August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., is good news for the free speech of peaceful protesters and those seeking to bring violent hate groups to justice.

In a 1985 Ms. magazine article headlined “Deal Me In: Why Women Should Play Poker,” feminist psychologist Mary Parlee dissected the gender gap in the quintessential American card game of poker. “Risking valued property, bluffing, challenging, strategically retreating from no-win situations, winning at the expense of others — these are the heart of poker,” she wrote. “Is it any wonder most women don’t play poker?”

Amid hurricanes, a vanished journalist, the recent Supreme Court hearings, midterms and “mobs,” it is little wonder that Americans are drinking more than ever.

Most of the liberal anger about the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been directed, naturally enough, at Republicans. Some of it has, however, been aimed at Democrats (whom some liberals think have been insufficiently ruthless) and at the structure of our political system (which they consider rigged against them).

With less than a month until Election Day, it’s time for Democrats to hunker down and get serious about their midterm messaging. In the dispiriting aftermath of the recent Supreme Court confirmation circus, this means taking a couple of deep breaths, not flipping out over the Republicans’ purported “Kavanaugh bounce” (which might be more of a hiccup) and focusing on a few key issues that resonate with a broad swath of voters.

WASHINGTON — Seated next to President Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday, Nikki Haley did not look like a woman who had tortured herself over whether to resign as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.