PROBLEMS: CNN: Democrats worry that Obama needs to “get a spine” in VA scandal.

THE HILL: Hillary Leaves Left Cold. “For many on the left, Clinton is the woman who supported the Iraq war, ran to the right of President Obama and is associated with the Wall Street-friendly centrism espoused by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Progressives feel they are in a political golden age in which questions about income inequality are growing louder, anti-gay marriage laws are falling and the growing Hispanic electorate regards the GOP with skepticism. Given all that, they don’t want to be stuck with a standard-bearer they see as too centrist.”

CHANGE: GOP Looks Forward with New Agenda for Poor and Middle Class.

AEI President Arthur Brooks compared the 1,500 hours of training a cosmetology license requires in D.C. to just 135 hours to become a real estate agent, which he said is typically a second job for a wealthier two-parent household.

“That’s anti-poor, and it’s un-American, and we need a solution,” Brooks said.

Brooks highlighted the cosmetology example because opening a home salon is a job that many single mothers could turn to that would allow them to earn money while being with their children.

Cantor said that the House GOP agenda, called “An America that Works,” is aimed at helping Americans by introducing policies that will make it easier for people to “pursue the happiness that was the vision of the founders of our country.”

“There are way too many barriers right now to success,” he said. “The licensing question in particular is one that strikes at the heart of what America is about.”

Note to Eric Cantor: This is good stuff, but you won’t improve the job prospects of the poor and working-class by opening the borders. You know it, I know it, and they know it.

DUDE, WHERE’S MY RECOVERY? State Income Tax Revenues Fell in 2014 First Quarter; Ohio (-19%), California (-11%) Among Biggest Revenue Losers.

JOEL KOTKIN: The Three-Headed Democratic Party:

As they face the midterm elections with the wind in their faces, Democrats increasingly stake their collective political future on the issue of inequality. The topic has great resonance, given the economy’s vast preponderance of benefits to the very rich and the almost obsessive focus on the issue by the mainstream media.

But if raising the class-warfare flag gives Democrats at least hope for avoiding a 2010-style shellacking, it also threatens to open up huge, and potentially irreconcilable, differences within the party. Unlike with social issues, where the party is relatively united, class divides threaten party unity by pitting its different constituencies against each other.

Today we can speak really of three Democratic parties, each with a separate class interest. Their divisions are as deep, perhaps more so, as that between the mainstream Republican Party and the Tea Party. As the Republicans are divided between Main Street grass-roots activists and the corporate “moderate” wing, the Democrats face potential schisms over a whole series of policies, from policing Wall Street to the environment, monetary policy and energy.

The GOP, with an increased focus on economic opportunity, could peel away a lot of these votes, especially if it is able to overcome its reflexive horror at attacking big business.

THE PICKUP ARTIST COMMUNITY IS NOT IMPRESSED WITH ELLIOT RODGER: The Psychosis Of The Effeminate Male. “Egotistic, attention starved, solipsistic, passive aggressive, perpetually aggrieved, and unwilling to change when posing as a martyr feels so damn good… there’s your new American manlet, same as your new American woman.”

TOWARD Anarchy and Oblivion. “Ginning up hatred is always ‘political gain’ for liberals, and this is what the hashtag #YesAllWomen is about: Convincing women that men are their enemy.”

PROF. JACOBSON: Closing of the Campus Mind on Men’s Rights: All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others on campus.

AT AMAZON, deals galore in the Memorial Day Sale.

And remember: InstaPundit is an Amazon affiliate. When you do your shopping through the Amazon links on this page, including the “Shop Amazon” tab at the top or the searchbox in the right sidebar, you support this blog at no cost to yourself. Just click on the Amazon link, then shop as usual. I very much appreciate it when you do.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Lord Obama: “If we were living in normal times, the following scandals and failures — without going into foreign policy — would have ruined a presidency to the point of reducing it to Nixon, Bush, or Truman poll ratings.” Too many people don’t want to admit that the first black President is a failure. But, you know, he pretty much is.

SHE NEEDS TO BE REPROVED FOR HER VIOLENT LANGUAGE: Elliot Rodger Shooting Prompts Feinstein to Blame NRA ‘Stranglehold’ on Guns.

But come on, Dems: Make 2014 a referendum on gun control. You know you want to.

UPDATE: Maybe that “stranglehold” language was a subtle slam at the gun-friendly Ted Nugent.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: “They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, our moralistic Department of Justice would be trying to shut down porn stars. And they were right!”

SO PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ABOUT MY DIVE GEAR: I use an Atomic Aquatics M1 Regulator, which replaced my now-discontinued Dacor Viper a few years ago, and I now use a Cressi Travelight BC which is really nice. It has trim pockets in the back, which I like because they offset the leg-buoyancy of my toasty 5-4-3 mil wetsuit. I also carry the Spare Air, though I’ve never used it. My dive computer is a Suunto Vyper.

I know I promised some video, but I’m still waiting for the chips to be sent from Cayman, due to a snafu.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The Grandchildren of Divorce.

AT AMAZON, The Kindle Daily Deal.

Also, 100 Albums for $5.

STEVEN HAYWARD: The Power, And Limits, Of Indoctrination.

ROGER KIMBALL: The Lesson Of The European Elections.

MY HISTORIAN BROTHER READ A LOT OF EXPLORERS’ JOURNALS, and his take was that whenever they started penning odes to the beauty of fat it was a bad sign.

FASTER, PLEASE: Dementia is a modern plague that will be eradicated, leading academic says.

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Grilling Over Charcoal Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Gas. I anticipate a lack of consensus. Though the bacon argument is pretty potent.

But see, Grilling Over Gas Is Objectively, Scientifically Better Than Grilling Over Charcoal.

NEW FRONTIERS IN LAW AND ORDER: Seatbelt Checkpoints.

THE POWER, AND THE LIMITS, of indoctrination.

THERE SURE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF CRONYISM THESE DAYS: Top Patent Judge Steps Down Over Ethics Scandal, Highlighting How Federal Circuit Has Become Too Close To Patent Lawyers. “CAFC was created in the early 1980s under the belief that a more “specialized” court could better handle the more complicated technical issues related to patents. But what really happened is that it basically built a club of patent-friendly judges, who spent nearly all of their time with patent lawyers, and thus took an increasingly patent-friendly view of the world. That one of the key original judges on CAFC was also a long-time well known patent lawyer who almost single-handedly wrote the 1952 Patent Act, seemed to set the tone that has remained throughout the court’s existence.”

This kind of “judicial capture” is why I generally disfavor specialty courts.

WELL, THAT’S PATHETIC: Twitter Caves to Pakistani Censorship.

READER BOOK PLUG: From William Leslie, The Mindjack Crew.