TOM STEYER WANTS TO KNOW WHY THE GAS PRICES HE JACKED UP ARE SO HIGH:

It’s impossible to simply skim over the irony of someone demanding to know why gas prices are so high in the very same press release where they push for an additional ten percent tax on oil extraction. Does Tom Steyer actually understand where gas comes from? While it may come as a terrible shock to find out that gasoline is refined from crude oil and the cost of extracting and refining that oil feeds directly into the cost of the finished product, there’s more at work than that. California is a regulation and tax happy paradise and the voters there can frequently be rallied to support all manner of referendum driven schemes when they are portrayed as ways to save the world. Steyer himself has participated in quite a few of these, some of which are coming home to roost in the form of the precise problem he’s now trying to solve.

Isn’t the very essence of 21st leftism a Mobius Loop of more and more regulations and restrictions in a continual effort to “fix” the problems created by earlier generations of leftists?

(Though to be fair, why should Republicans have the lock on the kabuki of “failure theater?”)

IT JUST GETS WORSE: ‘Top secret’ emails on Clinton server discussed drone program, may reference classified info.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Amidst 48% Decline In 1L Class, Charleston Law School Admissions Dean Abruptly Resigns.

HMMM: “Trump’s shtick is catching on this time because he’s filling the void Breitbart left” when he passed way in 2012.

PUTIN GETS CAUGHT IN HIS OWN TRAP: The war in Ukraine and shifts in energy markets have put the Russian leader in a bind. “The global energy game is changing—and it is not changing in Moscow’s favor. Shale, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and renewables—three areas where Russia is extremely weak—are ascendant and are dramatically altering the market. The potential for ending sanctions on Iran puts a powerful new player and competitor —the world’s third-largest natural-gas producer—in the game. And the Ukraine conflict and Moscow’s aggressive posture toward the West have led Europe—Russia’s most important market—to change its energy policies and seek alternative suppliers. Moreover, rather than looking the other way as the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom repeatedly flouted the European Union’s antitrust laws, Brussels is now cracking down. If one looks at Gazprom as a barometer of Russia’s fortunes, one statistic says it all: In 2008, the company had a market value of $360 billion; today it is worth just $55 billion.”

Related: Oil’s Worst-Ever Summer Signals Price Rout Is Nowhere Near Done.

USA TODAY: Fact-Checking Hillary: Clinton convicted herself with a multitude of misleading and error-riddled email apologies.

A JOURNALIST WHO REQUESTS ANONYMITY WRITES:

WHAT NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT BUT WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT

Hillary will be totally blackmail-able if elected. Here’s the logic:

1. It’s safe to say that there were things on that server which could cause Hillary tremendous harm politically – which is why she destroyed the evidence that would have been exculpatory if you believed her explanation. In my mind, it’s also why she used a private server to begin with.

2. She is lying about what was on that server, potentially to include while under oath in her upcoming congressional testimony.

3. If someone had all the copies of her emails and those of her staff, they could readily blackmail her because of the above. They’d have proof of her wrongdoing and her lying about it.

4. Hillary Clinton, as both a future Presidential candidate and a sitting Sec. of State would have been one of the Top 100 intelligence targets in the world and probably one of the top 10.

5. It’s thus certain that the Chinese and Russians would each have had a team focused on accessing her communications.

6. Every security expert I know of has said it’s a virtual certainty the Chinese and Russians both gained access to her server and all her emails. From what I know about their capabilities, I’d agree.

There are probably a bunch of folks in China and Russia who are praying (even if they’re atheists) for Hillary to be elected. If she wins, they own the President of the United States. I can just imagine in a meeting with Putin, Hillary being told to back off supporting Ukraine or he’ll release her emails (as he hands her a folder containing the most damaging ones for her to peruse). Put in that position, would Hillary fall on her sword or sacrifice a country like Ukraine? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t want to be living in Ukraine…

Someone with that kind of vulnerability to blackmail shouldn’t be allowed to sweep the floors of the NSA, much less run our country.

Good point.

FUNNY, YOU SEE THIS KIND OF COINCIDENCE A LOT IN SOCIALIST PARADISES: Being the ex-President’s daughter pays off: Hugo Chavez’s ambassador daughter is Venezuela’s richest woman.

YET ANOTHER REASON NEVER TO BUY A LENOVO COMPUTER: “The company abused the Windows installer’s anti-theft mechanism, which reads the firmware for executables at install-time, embedding a ton of crappy, insecure shovelware that would be added to your computer every time you reinstalled the OS.”

IF YOU’VE LOST ALCEE HASTINGS: Florida Dem Says No to Iran Deal, Introducing Bill to Authorize Military Force.

A House Democrat says he’ll not only vote against the Iran nuclear deal, but top it off with a bill to authorize military force as needed against the Islamic Republic to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), ranking House Dem on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or U.S. Helsinki Commission, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, got quickly to the point in a Palm Beach Post op-ed: “After careful review, I have decided that I cannot support this deal.”

“The goal of the recently concluded negotiations was to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The negotiators worked diligently, but in the end, the JCPOA allows Iran to remain a nuclear threshold state while simultaneously reaping the benefits of relief from international sanctions,” Hastings wrote.

Ouch.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR REPUBLICAN PLANS TO CUT COLLEGE COSTS, you might want to check out Marco Rubio’s.

DO YOU TRUST FACEBOOK? CAN YOU TRUST FACEBOOK? Harvard student loses Facebook internship after pointing out privacy flaws.

CHANGE: Biden getting closer to presidential run as Hillary getting closer to going to prison.

JUSTICE: Judge Stops USC from Expelling Football Player Who Failed to Prove He Wasn’t a Rapist: Another important win for due process in college sex disputes.

BRING BACK DDT: America faces a resurgence of tropical diseases. “For half a day each week, one wing of the Smith Clinic’s third floor in Houston is transformed into a tropical medicine clinic, treating all manner of infectious diseases for anyone who walks through the door. Since it opened in 2011, Woc-Colburn and her colleagues have treated everything from dengue and chikungunya to river blindness and cutaneous leishmaniasis. Their patients are not globetrotting travellers, bringing exotic diseases back home. The Smith Clinic is a safety net provider, the last resort for healthcare for people on low incomes and without insurance. Many of their patients haven’t left the Houston area for years. This suggests that what Woc-Colburn sees in the clinic may be just the leading edge of a gathering crisis. Diseases once associated with ‘elsewhere’ are increasingly being found in the southern states of the USA.”

ROGER SIMON: Will Huma Fall on Her Sword for Hillary? “They say it’s not the crime, but the coverup. But sometimes it’s the crime and the coverup. Hillary Clinton’s metastasizing email scandal is beginning to look more and more like a case of both.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Joanne Jacobs: Crybabies on campus.

AT AMAZON, Fall deals on Men’s Jeans and Clothing.

Also, deals in Power & Hand Tools.

CHARLES LIPSON: “The political class is seriously underestimating the impact of Hillary Clinton’s email controversy. They see it mainly as a problem of public opinion and electoral politics, where it has been increasingly costly but not yet fatal. The political damage—the drip, drip, drip of revelations—has been bad, but there is worse to come. Hillary Clinton’s big problem now is legal, and it could well be insurmountable politically. Here’s why. Once a ‘political’ issue finally moves into the legal system, as the Clinton email server has, it moves forward with an independent logic. That logic will slowly ensnare Secretary Clinton. You can already see it happening.”