YOU MAY NOT LIKE TED CRUZ’S SUPREME COURT PLAN, but the Supreme Court is already a “third political branch.”

How about this alternative: When Cruz is elected President, Congress ends the filibuster, then expands the Court to 15 justices.

CHANGE: House conservatives emboldened.

A critical bloc of House conservatives has been invigorated by its victory over GOP leaders, who caved in a high-profile fight over a punished subcommittee chairman.

The reinstatement of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is a small win for the months-old Freedom Caucus. But it could have broader implications when House Republicans pick a new leadership team after the 2016 elections.

While Freedom Caucus founders insist they aren’t focused on next year’s contests, the cluster of about 50 conservative rebels is gaining clout in the conference and will surely have a role to play if there’s a choice presented to members.

House Republicans are heavily favored to keep their majority, given their 246-188 advantage over Democrats, and many believe the next election could serve as a chance to elect more conservative leaders — including a new Speaker.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) has held the top job since 2011 and says he’s running for a fourth term, but he’s seen a rising number of conservatives defy him in public leadership votes.

And if Boehner calls it quits, his top lieutenants — Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) — could face challenges from the right as they seek to move up the ladder.

Boehner’s speakership has not been exceptionally successful.

DON’T TURN AROUND. DER KOMMISSAR’S IN TOWN. Feds: Celebrate the Fourth By Reciting Obamacare Talking Points to Your Family.

RACISM IN OBAMA’S AMERICA: Hillary Clinton Donor Calls Prominent African-American Legal Scholar a ‘Clown in Blackface’ — Will she condemn? I think that all Democratic candidates should be asked about this. And President Obama, too!

ONCE AGAIN, REPUBLICANS PREEMPTIVELY SURRENDERED TO A MEDIA BULLDOZING OPERATION: Confederate Flag Flop: Public Opinion Remains Unchanged From Where It Was 15 Years Ago.

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ADDING TO THE DIVERSITY OF THE DEMOCRATIC FIELD: Jim Webb Announces White House Candidacy.

His message touts his military experience as a company commander in Vietnam and as an assistant secretary of defense and secretary of the Navy.

He also directly takes on Clinton’s record by arguing he would not have voted for the Iraq War if he had been a senator at the time and would not have used military force in Libya during the Arab Spring.

Clinton voted to authorize that war, a decision she’s since said was a mistake, and she played in integral role in the Obama administration’s support of Libyan rebels to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

Yeah, that hasn’t gone very well.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Ex-Bishop Foley teacher sentenced for sex with student. “A former high school Spanish teacher was sentenced to at least six years in prison Thursday morning in Macomb County District Court for her sexual relationship with a student. Kathryn Kronk’s sentence will run concurrent with an identical 6- to 15-year sentence she received in March from an Oakland County judge for having sex with the 15-year-old student. Kronk, 30, a former Bishop Foley High School teacher, appeared in both Oakland and Macomb county courts because her sexual relationship with the student was in his home in Macomb Township and in Sterling Heights. She also engaged in sexual acts with the teenager in classrooms at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights.”

CAVEAT: THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO SAY YOU SHOULD PUT PEAS IN YOUR GUACAMOLE. For a Better Steak, Cook Directly on Charcoal. On the other hand, if it was good enough for Ike, . . .

OBAMA VISITS WISCONSIN, SMEARS WALKER: President Obama is visiting the Badger State today, greeted at the airport by Gov. Scott Walker. Despite Walker’s hospitality, it didn’t take long for the Campaigner-in-Chief to take the lame duck presidential gloves off and attack Walker and the GOP policies he’s implemented:

He said neighboring Minnesota had raised the minimum wage, implemented all-day kindergarten and made it easier to go to college while raising taxes on the top two percent. Obama said the results are that Minnesota has a lower unemployment rate and $9,000 higher median income than its neighbor.

Obama said all of the Republicans running — he joked that he’s lost track of how many and suggested they could start their own Hunger Games (video) — all have the same governing agenda of giving breaks to the rich while everyone else is on their own. That’s the same policies, Obama said, that led to the 2008 financial crisis.

He even joked that the Republicans were like having a crazy Uncle Harry — somebody you love but “you don’t want to put in charge.”

And he said that the fight is also about values.

“Being an American is not about taking as much as you can from your neighbor before they take as much as they can from you,” he said. “We are not a bunch of individuals out here on our own. We are a community, we are family. We are all in this together.”

Ah yes, it’s always heartwarming to hear the Dear Leader President speak of communist communitarian values that are so deeply antithetical to the individualist values upon which this country is based. And of course it’s much better, for a republic such as ours, to have only one candidate for President rather than a choice. Who wants a choice anyway–that’s so Hunger Games and individualistic, to have a bunch of competitors vying for the nomination.  As for a “crazy Uncle Harry,” let’s just say that “crazy Uncle Joe,” even crazier “Uncle Bernie,” and the pathological liar-cat lady “Aunt Hillary” aren’t individuals I would want to have the metaphorical keys to the nuclear arsenal, either.

RELATED: Scott Walker’s retort: Welcome to Wisconsin, Mr. President.

HE DESERVED A LONG LIFE: Nicholas Winton, rescuer of children during the Holocaust, dies at 106. “He was credited with saving, through his personal initiative, the lives of at least 669 boys and girls. For decades after the war, he kept his work secret.”

Plus, a reminder of FDR’s anti-semitism: “If America had only agreed to take them, too, I could have saved at least 2,000 more.”

PROBLEMS ON the EU’s southern flank.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Breitbart’s Mike Flynn Tries to Jump From Pundit to Politician in Illinois.

You can donate here if you’re so inclined. He’s a good guy.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT’S SUDDENLY ILLEGAL TO MOVE MONEY OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY? Basic Internet services disappear.

Just as individual Greeks are losing access to Apple’s iCloud, as the Athens staff of Bloomberg News recently discovered, so companies are finding themselves cut off from services critical to their ongoing operations.

The problem demonstrates a hidden risk in today’s otherwise efficient vertical disintegration. Taking for granted the easy flow of money across borders, system designers never foresaw a situation in which companies with adequate funds would find that they couldn’t pay foreign vendors.

“Greek companies are not able at this moment to pay for hosting (Amazon), storage (Dropbox), email services (MailChimp) and many other services,” says Jon Vlachogiannis, a Bay Area entrepreneur, in an email. Without these services, otherwise viable businesses are in trouble.

Vlachogiannis and other expats are stepping up to pay the bills from California, rescuing companies with astonishingly small amounts.

IT TAKES HARD MEN TO BRING SOFT ICE CREAM TO THE CALIPHATE: Just In Time For Summer, Step Inside The Isis Ice Cream Shop:

Like a stranger luring a kid into a car with a candy bar, ISIS has previously touted its sweet treats in its recruitment efforts. “If you were worried about leaving behind your local Costa Coffee then you will be happy to know that the Caliphate serves some of the best lattes and cappuccinos around,” British ISIS member Abu Rumaysah al-Britani wrote in May’s A Brief Guide to the Islamic State. For the jihadi sweet tooth, he noted, ISIS ice cream is “fluffy, velvety and sweet” and “Snickers, Kit Kat, Bounty, Twix, Kinder Surprise, Cadburys — yes, yes we have it all.” Yesterday, ISIS released photos of ice cream and smoothies being served in Iraq’s Kirkuk province.

Huh. I thought ISIS didn’t like decadent Western consumer entertainment products. So to review, synthesizers and drum kits no, Snickers, Kit Kat, Bounty, Twix, Kinder Surprise, Cadburys, yes! Ooooohkaaaaay.

RELATED: Don’t miss the photo of the woman working inside a Rossi’s Ice Cream truck in England atop Mark Steyn’s new post on “Going with the Flow.” “That’s a British ‘ice-cream lady’ of the 21st century,” Mark notes. “At a certain level, it’s ridiculous serving 99s and raspberry ripples in a burqa. But at another, far more important level, it’s not in the least bit ridiculous: it’s telling you that these guys mean it — and they’ve figured out that you don’t.”

FREE SPEECH IS SO 20TH CENTURY: Hurt someone’s feelings on the Internet in New Zealand, go to jail for two years.

ATHENS ON THE POTOMAC: “Like many Americans, I haven’t had the privilege of visiting Greece. Unfortunately, Greece will be visiting us unless we change things and fast.”

DEBATE: Are Academic Law Libraries Doomed? I hate to go with “yes,” because I love libraries. And Tennessee Law has a really beautiful library. But notwithstanding that, I do nearly all my research online now, and I think students mostly use our library as a study hall, more than as a research tool.

BRIT HUME: WITH HER HISTORY OF LYING, HILLARY’S LUCKY SHE’S NOT A REPUBLICAN. Shot:

She even once claimed that she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary after he became the first man to climb Mount Everest. But that didn’t happen until five years after she was born.

More recently she claimed she’d turned over all her job-related e-mails from her days as Secretary of State. But more work-related e-mails have since turned up that the State Department didn’t have. And she claimed the notorious Sidney Blumenthal was just an old friend with whom she kept in touch and who sent her unsolicited e-mails. Turns out as we’ve heard she was reaching out to him in the dark of night during the first year of the Obama administration and her e-mails make clear she welcomed and encouraged his advice. With such a record of mendacity, and there are numerous other examples, one thing is clear, it’s a good thing for Hillary Clinton that she’s not a Republican.

Chaser:

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A FIELD GUIDE TO ACELA REPUBLICANS, from Rick Wilson at the Federalist, who among other things correctly notes that “The Media Loves Acela Republicans Until It Hates Them:”

Acela Republicans are creatures of the media, from beginning to end. Acela Republicans are always the smartest, tallest, most articulate, most handsome fellows in the room. Just ask the people at The New York Times or MSNBC or The Washington Post, who have adopted them like exotic pets. “Oh, look,” they coo, “This one doesn’t bite or have any of those ugly, primitive conservative policies. We shall feed it, caress it and keep it for our own.”

Acela Republicans are shocked by the media’s betrayal. After years of media love and attention, John McCain found himself beset at every turn in 2008, unable to comprehend why his good friends in the press were suddenly busy destroying him at Barack Obama’s behest. “But I’m always on the Sunday shows, and this Obama fellow doesn’t even know Tammy Haddad.” Jon Huntsman, famously feted as the smart, green, modern Republican, was suddenly an also-ran practically the minute he touched down from China. Reasonable Mitt Romney? He killed a woman, remember?

Acela Republicans never get invited to the prom in the general election. No matter how perfectly reasonable Acela Republicans think they’ve been, the Democratic candidate could eat a live baby on national television, proclaim fealty to Cthulhu, and threaten to incinerate Topeka with cleansing nuclear flame and the media will still be in his camp at the end. No matter how corrupt (Clinton), crazy (Sanders), commie (Warren) the Democrat is, they’re getting all the media love in the end

Do I even need to add, read the whole thing? Read the whole thing.™

ILLINOIS: EXCLUSIVE: A Shocking Admission Comes From Within Darin LaHood’s Disillusioned Campaign — About IL GOP Governor Bruce Rauner Directing the Race. “If it seemed to you, immediately following Aaron Schock’s resignation, that the state GOP and Governor Bruce Rauner were trying to clear the field for Darin LaHood, that’s because they were trying to clear the field for Darin LaHood.”

I SURE HOPE SO:  Philip Klein: Social Conservatives and Libertarians Will Get Married.

The Republican Party, broadly speaking, is comprised of many factions that are often at odds with one another. Prominent examples are the battles between the grassroots and the national party establishment and between defense hawks and non-interventionists.

Perhaps fiercer than any of these fights is the long-standing conflict between social conservatives and libertarians. But when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last month, they created an opening for a wedding between these two groups, which could benefit the Republican Party ahead of the 2016 election. . . .

But as the dust settles on the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, it’s becoming clearer that the debate over the issue is going to shift to one of religious freedom. And on that issue, there’s much more of an opening for libertarians and social conservatives to get along. . . .

But with gay marriage legal, the cultural debate has been moving to issues such as: Should a religiously observant baker or photographer be forced to participate in gay weddings? Or, should a Catholic Church be forced to perform gay marriages?

Whatever their differences on the underlying issue of homosexuality and gay marriage, it will be hard for many libertarians to justify any sort of government coercion forcing individuals to violate their deeply held beliefs. As a result, they’ll find themselves increasingly — and begrudgingly — on the same side as social conservatives on many of the looming debates.

What this means for the Republican Party in 2016 depends in large part on how candidates campaign on the issue once the debate moves beyond the stage of the initial reactions. The most unifying message for Republican candidates would be: Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, government shouldn’t prevent individuals from living their lives in accordance with their values.

I agree with this advice for GOP presidential candidates. Don’t waste your energy trying to put the gay marriage genie back in the bottle. Focus on stopping the hemorrhage and defend the First Amendment like it’s constitutional life or death–because it is. 

OPERATION CHOKEPOINT, JR.: Chicago Area Sheriff Who Wasted Taxpayer Money Suing Craigslist, Now Strong-Arms Payment Companies To Avoid Backpage. This thing where government officials who don’t like you go after you through your bank and credit card companies needs to be squashed.

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