THE DAY GAWKER TORE ITSELF APART, from Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast, who also formerly worked for Condé Nast, whose CFO’s life was upended by Gawker last week. Grove writes, “When the history of Gawker Media is someday recorded—and perhaps presented as a case study in flawed judgment at whatever journalism schools might still exist—the events of July 20, 2015 will likely be memorialized as the Monday Morning Massacre:”

At a meeting at the office today, Monday, according to New York magazine, Craggs and Read spoke about their reasons for leaving, which was to protect “a sacred principle,” according to a source in the room.

Craggs said that the stakes were large: Denton wanted to turn Gawker into a “tamer Vox.”

The meltdown over Thursday’s article has become his “Reichstag fire,” Craggs told staffers. Another source told New York magazine, by that Craggs meant “this was the pretext by which he can Vox-ify Gawker.”

Another source told the magazine, “Nick has decided Gawker should be Vox but a little edgier.”

And the reverse could also come to pass:

Vox's Chris Ziegler drives a billboard on a truck past the burning offices of Gawker Media, offering jobs: https://t.co/jkT1NLKqQx

— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) July 20, 2015

gawker media peeps: many of you are awesome and if you're having a crappy day we'd love to talk to you. DM me or http://t.co/tdaPLh6gB5

— Chris Ziegler (@zpower) July 20, 2015

As Cathy Young wrote on Monday at Real Clear Politics, Gawker may be a son of a bitch, but “for the left, Gawker was ‘our son of a bitch.’”

RELATED: Tim Blair spots Gawker’s “Boss Bewildered.”

EXPERT VOICES: How Asteroid Mining Could Open Up the Solar System (Podcast Transcript).

WILL SALETAN: “They Want You To Be Overwhelmed:” The war against genetically modified organisms is full of fearmongering, errors, and fraud. Labeling them will not make you safer.

DO WOMEN KNOW ABOUT SHRINKAGE? “Shrinkage” problem lands Apple in legal hot water with retail workers.

MORE ON THE HOSTILE EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT AT AMHERST, FROM ASHE SCHOW: University refuses to listen to expelled student who may be innocent. “It reflects a bias in schools where there is no such thing as evidence for accused students. Evidence that would cast doubt on an accuser’s story is reframed to work in their favor; meanwhile, similar evidence against the accused is taken at face value.”

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Nanowires Boost Hydrogen Production from Sunlight Tenfold.

SPACE: Elon Musk: Failed Strut Caused SpaceX’s ISS Rocket Disaster. Rockets blow up, especially when they’re new. It’s important to learn when they do.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: ‘Going To Law School Is Becoming A Thing Again.’ I certainly hope so. . .

MATT YGLESIAS HAS HIS KNICKERS IN A TWIST ABOUT THIS KEVIN WILLIAMSON COLUMN ON BERNIE SANDERS: Bernie’s Strange Brew Of Nationalism And Socialism. “Like most of these advocates of ‘economic patriotism’ (Barack Obama’s once-favored phrase) Bernie worries a great deal about trade with brown people — Asians, Latin Americans — but has never, so far as public records show, made so much as a peep about our very large trade deficit with Sweden, which as a share of bilateral trade volume is not much different from our trade deficit with China, or about the size of our trade deficit with Canada, our largest trading partner. Sanders doesn’t rail about the Canadians and Germans stealing our jobs — his ire is reserved almost exclusively for the Chinese and the Latin American.” And the crowds he draws are overwhelmingly white. . . .

IF YOU LOVE DATA AND WORDS, the following job description may be of interest and perhaps we should talk. Contact .

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Must be able to do both summary statistics and deep-dive analyses using Excel, Access or other software programs to analyze large official databases such as FEC contributions, FBI Uniform Crime Reports data and CMS Excluded Doctors in search of news at the Daily Caller News Foundation. Should also be able to scrape/clean/reformat documents and datasets, and be comfortable graphically communicating data-driven stories using D3 or Tableau. Knowledge of national politics and recent history required. BIG plus for candidates with web programming capabilities. Salary commensurate with experience.

RICHARD EPSTEIN: Obama’s Disastrous Iran Deal.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 803.

WHY DOES DE BLASIO HATE THE POOR? Uber Serves the Poor by Going Where Taxis Don’t.

People talk about the ride-sharing service as if it’s mostly a boon for rich people, who have conspired with the titans of Silicon Valley to take food out of the mouths of hardworking taxi drivers. And sure, what’s good for Uber is bad for taxi drivers — or at least, bad for the owners of taxi medallions. But the assumption that the beneficiaries are rich is a little strange.

As I noted in the very first article I ever wrote about the company, the primary appeal of Uber for me has never been avoiding taxis, or even getting a cheaper fare. If I’m in an area where it’s easy to catch a street hail, I’ll usually just stick my arm out like the old-fashioned girl I am. No, the biggest benefit I’ve always seen is that Uber allowed you to catch a ride from places where taxis are scarce.

Five years ago, when we moved in, my neighborhood in Washington was one of those places. I almost never saw available taxis near us. For taxi drivers, time is money — any time they’re not driving someone around, they are burning gas looking for a fare. So no wonder drivers would rather head downtown, where there were lots of people looking for taxis, than cruise a larger area for the few fares that might need a ride. Street hailing simply isn’t efficient without a dense population of taxi riders. And while you could theoretically call a taxi to your house, this was a highly unreliable means of transportation. More than once, I have had to press my retired mother into emergency service for a ride to the airport, because my car simply never showed up.

I’ve always thought that in terms of letting you do something you couldn’t do before, Uber provides the biggest benefit to people who live in lower-income neighborhoods, not in rich ones. That’s where dispatch is often unreliable, where street hails are rare, and where many residents don’t have a car.

But Uber offers insufficient opportunities for graft. Negotiating the creation of those opportunities is what the controversy over Uber is really about.

HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: Student Expelled for Rape Has Evidence He Was the Victim. Amherst Refuses to Review It.

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FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Michael Walsh writes that when America was attacked by Imperial Japan at Pearl Harbor, FDR vowed that “we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.” In telling contrast, Walsh writes, “in response to the latest Muslim atrocity, President Obama went on vacation to New York City to fund-raise and for some ‘down time’ with his daughters. Oh yes, and the Empire State Building was lit up Muslim green to ‘celebrate’ the end of Ramadan.”

What’s the linchpin that caused this fundamental transformation of America? Via an excerpt from his new book The Devil’s Pleasure Palace, Michael blames the far left Frankfurt School, which fled National Socialism in Germany and established a foothold for international socialism in America.

Read the whole thing.

WHY A&P, AMERICA’S FIRST NATIONAL SUPERMARKET CHAIN JUST FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY, AGAIN: (Spoiler Alert: Unions).

CHANGE: Rand Paul readying Hill push for guns on military bases and in recruiting stations.

Well, we can’t rely on civilian volunteers protecting them forever.

Plus, Rand Paul on immigration from Muslim countries: “If a third of [a country’s] population is in civil war, and saying ‘death to America,’ maybe we should ask them a few more questions before they visit. Same goes for student visas.”

ASHE SCHOW: University updates policy stating that students with disabilities cannot consent to sex.

Until late last Thursday, Armstrong State University’s sexual misconduct policy stated that students with disabilities couldn’t consent to sexual activity, making any such activity rape.

The policy had been in effect since Sep. 8, 2014, but on Thursday — following questions from the Washington Examiner — the university updated its policy, calling the original wording an error.

Original policy: “In addition, persons under the age of 16 and persons who have a physical and/or mental impairment are unable to give consent.”

Updated policy: “In addition, persons under the age of 16 and persons who have a physical or mental impairment and are unable to communicate are unable to give consent.” (Changes in bold.) . . .

The original policy indicated that physically disabled students — including those who were fully able to participate in college classes — were unable ever to consent to sexual activity, an absurd notion.

The original policy was first brought to light by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s Samantha Harris in a tweet.

Thankfully the policy has been changed, so students with disabilities attending the university for the upcoming school year will not be treated differently.

Could have been an ADA suit. I wonder how many other universities are similarly vulnerable?

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NOT A PRIORITY: IRS Claims It Has No Money To Answer Its Phones, Yet Can Pay Millions To Hire Private Lawyers.

MICROAGGRESSION, MACRO-CRAZY: “The University of California keeps upping the ante in its search for imaginary bias,” Heather Mac Donald writes at City Journal:

The ultimate question raised by the seminar is: Are there any adults left on campus, at least in administrative offices? And the answer is: no. An adult administrator would realize that he is presiding over the most tolerant, well-meaning, and opportunity-filled community in human history. He would understand that the claim that females and minorities are the victims of discrimination on campuses is sheer fiction. He would know that teaching students to go around ferreting out imaginary slights does them a disservice.

But not from the campus administrators’ point of view, who are happy and eager to manufacture an endless supply of angry new young leftists.

RELATED: “Western Lit, shot to death by ‘trigger warnings.’”

Ray Bradbury was just slightly off – no reason to burn books, when society is too afraid to even open them.

STEPHEN L. CARTER: Nuke Deal Gives Iran Room to Cheat. “I am concerned about what happens if at the conclusion of a dispute about an inspection, Iran will not back down. My analysis of the 159-page agreement says: probably nothing.” If by probably, you mean damn-near certainly, yeah.

BREAKING NEWS FROM 1861, 1913, 1942, and 1963: Martin O’Malley learns that Democrat Party activists don’t believe all lives matter.

RELATED:

Martin O’Malley: Climate Change Created ISIS: http://t.co/b8uhkOPJQ3 pic.twitter.com/WtwjRVTfAN

— Fox Nation (@foxnation) July 20, 2015

So no plans for a private campaign jet, huh?

THE HILL: White House on defense after Security Council vote on Iran.

The Obama administration was forced to play defense on Monday after lawmakers in both parties criticized its decision to let the United Nations — not Congress — have the first say on the Iran nuclear deal.

Republicans pounced on the decision following the 15-0 U.N. Security Council vote, arguing the White House was giving short shrift to congressional assent in a rush to build international support for the agreement.

The White House appeared to hope that the U.N. vote would build pressure on Congress to back the deal, but the strategy risked backfiring, with some Democrats scolding the administration for the decision.

They deserve more than scolding.