LEON WOLF: #BlackLivesMatter is wasting its time with Democrats: The movement would be better off if it engaged with Republican candidates.

The effort to hold these politicians accountable is understandable when you consider that African Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic. But from another perspective, it seems clear that #BlackLivesMatter is looking for real answers in all the wrong places, and is in danger of being taken for granted in the long term by the Democratic Party, as has been the case with previous movements that have attempted to address issues facing African Americans. Why? Because, based on their almost exclusive approach to the Democratic field, #BlackLivesMatter activists seem to be assuming — incorrectly — that conservative candidates have nothing to offer their movement.

From a policy standpoint, #BlackLivesMatter has concentrated on the subconscious (and sometimes conscious) biases that inform interactions between the police and black citizens in many communities. And these biases undoubtedly exist.

But the movement should direct more of its focus toward a crucial link in the chain that drives a substantial portion of hostile interactions between black Americans and police. The emphasis should be on asking: Why are police brought into hostile interactions with black people so often in the first place? It’s because of the big-government policies and practices of the supposedly liberal Democrats that the #BlackLivesMatter crowd is petitioning for help.

An excellent piece, though flawed by its assumption that #BlackLivesMatter has anything to do with helping actual black people.

WAR ON WOMEN: CNN criteria threaten Fiorina’s chance at main debate stage.

CNN’s criteria for its September GOP presidential debate may keep Carly Fiorina off the stage reserved for the top 10 candidates despite her recent surge in the polls.

The CNN debate methodology, released earlier this year, weighs polls from July 16 to Sept. 10.

The use of the earlier surveys will hurt the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who barely registered in the polls before the Aug. 6 Fox News debate. But since then, she has seen a significant bounce.

“It acts as sort of an anchor on those people who had done poorly early and a bit of a parachute for those people who have done well early,” said Cliff Zukin, a Rutgers University political scientist and former president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Why does CNN hate women?

JOHN HINDERAKER: The Gold King Mine Fiasco: What It Tells Us About the EPA. “We have written here and here about the EPA-caused spill of three million gallons of toxic liquid into the Animas River in Colorado. Private companies that have caused environmental disasters of that magnitude (or much less) have been criminally prosecuted; in some cases, individuals have been jailed. Will the EPA face similar accountability? Just kidding.”

WHY WHITE PEOPLE seek Black Privilege. “Dolezal and King make it clear that America’s attempts to repair the effects of that horrific history have now made black skin advantageous for a certain subset of activists, which is why people like Dolezal and now allegedly King have masqueraded as black for personal advantage.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Public higher education spending a stunner even at the back of the pack.

ROGER SIMON: The Presidency Is Trump’s To Lose. “Oh, sure, Bernie Sanders is drawing twenty or thirty thousand here and there, but this is a huge country and, as I can personally attest having been around in 1972, over two hundred thousand attended anti-war demonstrations with McGovern when he was running and he ended up winning exactly one state against Nixon. As for Hillary, her big problems are legal, not electoral. And now, with the Benghazi emails beginning to dribble out and Huma’s cell phone gone missing, no one can even imagine where this will end, but we can assume nowhere good for her Chappaquaness. The Democrats would be complete idiots to run this woman for president.”

WITCH HUNTS AS POLICY: How a little-known education office has forced far-reaching changes to campus sex assault investigations.

But what some faculty, administrators and judges call an unyielding and one-sided approach by the government has provoked a backlash. Two weeks ago, a judge in San Diego rebuked the UC campus there for trampling the rights of an accused student.

“Some schools see OCR as a bully with enforcement powers,” said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, the lobby group for higher education.

“Universities are desperately trying to do the right thing, but these cases can be really difficult to resolve fairly. Often, you have two conflicting stories, no evidence, no witnesses, and it’s all combined with substance abuse.”

University officials, many of whom will speak about the subject only on condition of anonymity, complain of heavy-handed pressure from Washington and a growing bureaucracy.

Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California and a former prosecutor and secretary of Homeland Security, warned in an article in the Yale Law & Policy Review published online this month that “a cottage industry is being created” on campuses dedicated to handling tasks that fall outside the expertise of colleges and universities.

“Rather than pushing institutions to become surrogates for the criminal justice system,” she said, policymakers should ask if “more work should be done to improve that system’s handling and prosecution of sexual assault cases.”

Under pressure from the Office for Civil Rights, campuses are rushing to set up a parallel legal system to investigate and rule upon murky encounters that often involve inebriated students. They must decide within 60 days whether it is “more likely than not” that an alleged perpetrator was guilty. And they make those decisions without many of the legal protections associated with a criminal trial.

The new procedures vary from school to school, but according to Harvard Law School professor Janet Halley and other critics, many do not allow the accused to know details of accusations against them, to question accusers, or to have lawyers participate in hearings. Many also allow only limited appeals of rulings by a campus administrator or outside expert.

If the next President is a Republican with an instinct for the jugular, he or she could double down on these rules and really put the hurt on what is, after all, a central piece of the opposition’s infrastructure. . . .

KURT SCHLICHTER: Five Serious Truths About Illegal Immigration That GOP Candidates Have To Accept. “This is our country. We don’t care that your own homeland is a socialist hellhole. That’s your problem, and we are not obligated to make it ours, too. Now, if you wish to apply to be a part of America – as millions have – then we are happy to welcome you if your coming here is in our interest. But it’s an act of grace, not obligation. This is our country and our interests come first – just as you put your interests first when you decided to ignore our laws and our borders and sneak in.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama: Earning Contempt, at Home and Abroad.

JOHN HINDERAKER: The Latest Planned Parenthood Video: Utterly Appalling. “The video consists mostly of Miss O’Donnell describing an incident in which a baby’s heart was still beating, and she was instructed to cut through the baby’s face so that his brain–the baby was a boy–could be removed for sale. It is utterly appalling. There have been multiple hints in the CMP videos that some babies are born alive and then killed by Planned Parenthood. That appears to have been true in this case, and there is another such suggestion from a different witness. I would think that at a minimum, a criminal investigation is warranted.”

SOME UPGRADES ON THE COMMENTING SYSTEM: First, and way overdue, the “like” and “report abuse” buttons have been moved so that they’re no longer next to each other. Also, there’s now a limit (5) on how many times you can report abuse in a day without being locked out. And a couple of the worst trolls have been banned. Enjoy!

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: With the Iran deal in the works, it’s time to revisit “Duck and Cover.”

YEAH, BUT WILL IT SPY ON ME? Google Introduces New, Allegedly Trouble-Free WiFi Router.

UPSIDE: IT ONLY KINDA LOOKS LIKE A TERMINATOR. Atlas, a Humanoid Robot, Takes a Walk in the Woods.

AT AMAZON, deals galore at the Men’s Denim Store.

Plus, deals on Hunting & Tactical Knives.

And please 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.

ASHE SCHOW: California continues descent into campus sexual assault madness. “California was the first state to implement a “yes means yes” — or affirmative consent — policy, which regulates how students engage in sexual activity. Now the state wants to allow community colleges to expel students for sexual misconduct even if the accuser isn’t a student and the alleged incident occurred off-campus.”

Just another advertisement for Reynolds Online University.

WELL, THAT’S BASICALLY THE POINT: Lexus LX570 Is Still Gargantuan. I don’t find its looks an improvement over the old model, though.

#COVERUP: Clinton aides’ BlackBerrys likely destroyed.

I HOPE THEY’RE BETTER THAN THE DIESEL BUICK CENTURY MY DAD HAD BACK IN THE EIGHTIES: Diesel Cadillacs Definitely Coming to U.S. The only cool thing about the Buick was that after about 30,000 miles when you floored the accelerator, it produced a James Bond-quality smokescreen.

ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY: A group of Special Operations vets and intelligence officials have asked Sec. of State Kerry to immediately strip Hillary Clinton and her top State Department aides Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan of their national security clearances.

In their letter to Kerry, the group–the Special Operations Educational Fund–assert:

The reason our organization brings this matter to your attention is our belief that national security classified information was transmitted in emails by senior State Department officials that ended-up resident on the clintonemal.com server. This belief is clearly supported by the recent actions of two independent Inspectors General (State and DNI) who have referred the matter to the Department of Justice for further investigation. !he State Department IG, General Linick, stated that emails contained classified material when generated. It is now apparent that there were breaches involving five intelligence agencies.Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that this private server was inadequately protected from foreign intelligence penetration and malicious “hacking.” Indeed, the existence of this server and its use by senior State Department officials to send and receive official emails was first disclosed publically [sic]  by a hacker from Romania.

We at OPSEC strongly believe that every email passing through the clintonemail.com server has been compromised and is now available in the raw intelligence data files of a number of hostile security services around the world. This is a serious breach of our nation’s diplomatic, operational and strategic security.

OPSEC further states that a suspension of security clearance is “standard practice” when allegations regarding the mishandling or potential exposure of classified national security information are made, and cites the six recent examples involving Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration, Foreign Service Officer Peter Van Buren, CIA Director John Deutch, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, and General David Petraeus.

I find it hard to believe that Clinton’s (and her aides’) security clearances were not immediately suspended after the first IG report was issued, documenting that Clinton’s unsecured server contained classified information. Why on earth would individuals who have mishandled classified national security information be allowed–for even one day–to continue to have access to such information?

ATTENTION, HILLARY: The Right Dose of Exercise for the Aging Brain.

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

Also, deals in Power & Hand Tools.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Novel wireframe nanostructures from new DNA origami design process.

LIST: The Unofficial State Cars Of America. Tennessee’s is the Nissan Titan.

IT’S NOT JUST THE SCIENCE TOPICS: Socially controversial science topics on Wikipedia draw edit wars.