SO FOR THE PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THE BUG-A-SALT RIFLE, how did it turn out?

IF SHE’S TALKING, SHE’S LYING: More Hillary Clinton Email News, More Hillary Clinton Falsehoods.

FASTER, PLEASE: 3-D Printing’s Next Act: Nerve Regeneration. “Peripheral nerve injuries, caused by a variety of things including disease and trauma, are fairly common—doctors perform more than 200,000 nerve repair procedures each year in the United States alone. The most common surgery entails using nerve tissue taken from another spot in the body to fill the gap. But this requires an additional surgery to harvest that tissue, and can lead to chronic pain, sensory loss, or other problems at the site from which it was cut. An alternative approach involves using an artificial scaffold, generally tube-shaped, that sits between the two ends of the broken nerve and serves as a conduit for regeneration, often with the help of biochemical cues known to prompt nerve growth. But nerves and nerve injuries are often not so straightforward, and 3-D printing technology makes it possible to design and make guides that are conducive to more complicated shapes, says Michael McAlpine, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota.”

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: A national survey finds that 72 percent of Americans say their country isn’t as great as it once was.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “A study has found that nearly half of young people agree that tracking a partner via electronic means without consent is okay.” To be fair, most of those doing the snooping are probably women.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 868.

MICKEY KAUS ON IMMIGRATION ANALOGIES: “In Pope’s implied Serra analogy, we are the Native Americans. How’d they do? Seems incompletely persuasive. …”

JOURNALISM: Hillary Clinton sits for interview with Lena Dunham.

MAKING “FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION” MORE PALATABLE, OR AT LEAST LESS NOTICEABLE: Low Interest Rates Mask the Effects of Job-Killing Policies:

Seven years of relaxed monetary policies have caused U.S. household wealth to soar, but for most Americans this tremendous accumulation of wealth has not translated into robust wage growth. . . .

In other words, while the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing has not led to the consumer price inflation that many feared, it has led to asset price inflation. (The WSJ concludes by noting, ominously, that wealth-to-GDP ratios have only come close to their current level of 4.8 during notorious bubbles). Soaring household wealth levels aren’t a bad thing per se, but job growth, not asset price inflation, is the best way to promote economic growth.
To grow the economy, cheap interest rates are not going to work as well as reforms that make business formation and job creation more attractive. Yet Democrats these days have ever-lengthening lists of job-killing policies they want to enact, from tighter environmental regulations to dramatic minimum wage increases (especially in cities where unemployment is high) to tax increases. Paradoxically, that leaves liberals cheerleading for Fed policies that increase inequality and concentrate wealth because only ultra low rates (or truly massive deficits, which can’t be rammed through a GOP Congress) can mask the effect of left-wing microeconomic policies on the economy as a whole.

There is no shortage of capital today, but there is a dearth of attractive opportunities to invest that capital in ways that will stimulate employment.

Those offer insufficient opportunities for graft.

THE HILL: Emails to hound Clinton for months. “For Team Clinton, it’s become the equivalent of a courtroom quagmire. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is finding it difficult to move past the controversy over her email setup while she was serving as the nation’s top diplomat, in part because of the nearly three-dozen legal challenges related to it. There are 35 separate, active public records lawsuits against the State Department that deal with the emails of Clinton or her top aides.”

THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS EVERY YEAR, IT SEEMS: Stampede Near Mecca During Hajj Leaves at Least 717 Dead.

IN THE MOST LITERAL SENSE: Higher education cartel challenged in North Carolina lawsuit. “I am not an expert at anti-trust law, but this looks like a very strong case, and probably a potentially criminal violation.” I remember my antitrust law teacher (2d Circuit Judge Ralph Winter) saying that it was amazing that universities don’t think laws like this apply to them.

TIME FOR THE LEFT TO START SCRAPING OFF ALL THOSE “FREE TIBET” BUMPER STICKERS: It’s Come To This: Progressives Accuse the Dalai Lama of Being Sexist.

As a legendary electric guitarist once said, what’s wrong with being sexy?

TODAY IN SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR NEWS.

DAILY SHOW’S TREVOR NOAH SAYS AMERICA SUFFERS FROM ‘INSTITUTIONALIZED RACIAL SEGREGATION’ AND SEXISM:

When asked by Rolling Stone if acts of “racism” and “racist police violence” help feed a narrative that America is a white-supremacist nation, Noah said America still has a long way to go.

“I wouldn’t say America is a white-supremacist country, but I believe America suffers from a level of institutionalized racial segregation,” said the Johannesburg native. “And the effect of that is very similar to South Africa: It’s difficult to remedy that instantly.

“If you look at the legacy of slavery, if you look at the legacy of oppression…I mean even if you just look at women’s rights, take a step away from racial issues: Society has a long way to go in terms of getting women equal pay, equal recognition in the workplace, and so on,” said Noah.

Give the man credit — unlike Jon Stewart, Noah’s not afraid to attack the Obama White House.

TRIGGERED! The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings.

CLASS ALL THE WAY: “Wow, Barack Obama just blocked CJ Pearson, a 13-year-old boy who disagrees with him, on Twitter.” Here’s Pearson’s tweet:

More at Twitchy.

As Dennis Miller has been quoted as saying, “If Obama’s skin were any thinner, he’d have a reservoir tip on top of his head.”

UPDATE (5:24 PM): Fact Check: Did Obama Really Block a 13-Year-Old Conservative Critic on Twitter? “The claim by a popular 13-year-old conservative commentator that President Barack Obama blocked him on Twitter appears to be false.”

When you’ve lost Glenn Beck’s The Blaze Website on this story…

WOULD A MUSLIM PRESIDENT BE GOOD ON GAY MARRIAGE?*, Jonathan Last asks at the Weekly Standard:

Because exactly how well would a traditional, orthodox Muslim in the White House match up with progressive politics? And I don’t mean some guy from the Taliban, but rather, say, your average, man-on-the-street from Saudi Arabia. Or Iran. Or Yemen. Would a Muslim who’s committed to sharia be good on gay rights? How about abortion? How about the war on women?

Here, for instance, is just a random vignette from Saudi Arabia this week, where a 21-year-old activist is scheduled to be beheaded—and then crucified—for “anti-God” activities. This isn’t extra-legal terrorism we’re talking about. This isn’t “all Muslims are terrorist monsters.” It’s simply window into what life can look like under a reasonably strict Muslim regime.

Of course people on the American left want nothing to do with conservative Islam as a political force in this country. It’s the sort of thing they can pretend to admire from the safety of Williamsburg only because they know the chances of having a “real” Muslim president are next to zero.

RELATED: Why Do Muslims Get to Ignore the Same Laws Used to Prosecute Christian Businesses?

* Yes, the joke writes itself here, doesn’t it?

MICHAEL BARONE: Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s vile cheap shot.

Has there ever been as hamhanded a Democratic National Chairman as Debbie Wasserman Schultz? Her latest stunt is to demand that Marco Rubio cancel a fundraiser at the home of Harlan Crow because the host’s collection of historic artifacts includes Nazi art objects.

I know Harlan Crow, who is on the board of trustees of the American Enterprise Institute where I am a resident fellow, and I have been in his house. He is well known for his collection of historic artifacts. In his garden he has placed statues of totalitarian leaders which he has purchased after the fall of totalitarian regimes. That doesn’t mean, Madame Chairman, that he endorses those regimes; it means he celebrates their downfall. To suggest that he is a Nazi sympathizer is a vile smear.

In a particularly ludicrous aside, Wasserman Schultz says one reason Rubio should cancel the fundraiser is that he “represents a sizable Jewish population in our home state of Florida.” Of course anti-Semitism and Nazism are repugnant regardless of how many Jews live in your constituency. Wasserman Schultz gives new meaning to the term cheap shot.

My guess is that Wasserman Schultz is less concerned about Republican fundraisers than she is about criticism from her South Florida constituents, Jewish and gentile, who oppose her vote against disapproving President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Her vile smear against Harlan Crow and her hamhanded attack on Marco Rubio are an attempt at distracting attention from her vote.

Related: The NYT’s attempt to blame the Jews for the majority against the Iran nuclear deal.

EGYPT PARDONS TWO AL JAZEERA JOURNALISTS: “Mr. Fahmy, Mr. Mohamed and a third Al Jazeera colleague, Peter Greste, were arrested in December 2013 in the room they had used as an office at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo, and charged with broadcasting false news.”

The stakes are severe for those accused of doing that sort of thing in Egypt — unlike America, where aging Hollywood superstars make movies celebrating those who broadcast false news.

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE TV STUDIO: Is Trump Ready for Truman’s Kitchen?, asks Roger Simon:

Truman was one tough dude.  He was, it’s worth remembering, the man who told us of politics and the presidency “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  He also opined, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”  Wise word those.

Barack Obama has been a kind of anti-Truman, hardly ever living up to his word.  Two easy examples are the phony redline to Assad regarding chemical weapons and the now silly-seeming claim that the Iranians would have to allow “anytime, anywhere” inspections in order for us to sign the Iran deal.  Compared to Harry, Barack’s a wimp. That Putin has (literally) pushed him all over the map – first Ukraine, now Syria- is no accident.

So where does The Donald fit in this equation? Superficially, he seems a macho guy, but I’m not sure Truman would approve of his thin skin.  Right now Trump’s announced he’s “boycotting” Fox News because he says he’s not been treated fairly.  Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly have been mean to him.  Maybe so, but at least from my vantage point, Sean Hannity’s been acting like Trump’s virtual press secretary.  You gotta take the good with bad.  Fox News is no perfect news organization, but I never heard of one that is. And if Trump is trying to play Fox against CNN, I have got bad news for him.  Get in bed with CNN and they will cut your heart out and feed it to all the wolves from here to Alaska when the general election starts.  These are the self-interested creeps who lied about Saddam’s rape rooms, remember, to keep access with the dictator. (Well, maybe Trump doesn’t.  He’s not always up on foreign affairs.)

Trump’s also angry at the gang from the Club for Growth for running commercials in Iowa pointing out that he, in the past at least, has not exactly been Grover Norquist when it comes to lowering taxes.  Well, he wasn’t. But The Donald called out CFG for running ads that were not only ”disingenuous, but replete with outright lies, false, defamatory and destructive statements and downright fabrications which you fully know to be untrue.”  The CFG, from their side, told him to “Stop whining.”

Read the whole thing.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Pope Francis is wrong on free enterprise. If your goal is to lift people from poverty, capitalism does what nothing else does. So, if that’s your goal, you should support capitalism.

DEMOCRAT OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, THEN AND NOW: “Drew Pearson is probably a forgotten name these days* to the young and ambitious racing about the capital. But few had more influence — and played on both sides of the journalist/politics boundary line quite as routinely — as Pearson during decades as one of the two or three most influential political columnists:”

His professional life involved very obvious quid pro quos; doing favors for powerful people by writing about something or, occasionally, not writing about something (like a senator’s tax-avoidance legislation to help a big company in his state).

Writing about a Kennedy press conference, he acknowledges that he’d wanted to assist Kennedy but didn’t get to his press secretary (Pierre Salinger) in time. “I had planned a question about the Free University of Cuba but couldn’t get hold of Salinger to coach Kennedy in advance.”

His was a world of exchanges where information was bartered. While he voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, he still withheld from readers knowledge that Republican candidate Richard Nixon had received psychotherapy. He was looking to get something in return.

He withheld, too, investigating tax breaks that then-Senator Lyndon Johnson had obtained for a Texas company in return for Johnson backing Pearson’s preferred Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Years later, Pearson helped to write Johnson’s 1964 State of the Union address, though their relationship was complex and, yes, he was still a syndicated columnist.

He operated in a pantheon of potent columnists, led by Walter Lippman and Walter Winchell, with no real counterpart these days (perhaps Tom Friedman of The New York Times when it comes to issues of foreign affairs.).

The Friedman comparison is apt, considering the latter man’s pet phrases seem to wind up each year in Obama’s State of the Union addresses, and he’s a frequent golfing partner of our semi-retired president.

* I dunno — he was on the NFL’s All Decade Team of the 1970s…

(H/T: Kathy Shaidle.)

WHY NOT LET OBAMA SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT? “I can’t follow the logic. Apparently they think that Republicans will be blamed by voters when the President vetoes legislation funding the government’s operations. That seems inconceivable to me. If Republican politicians are so bad that they can’t make clear to voters who closed down the government, we need new politicians,” John Hinderaker writes at Power Line.

Well, we do – particularly when the GOP has never suffered at election time* over a government shutdown.  (Which aren’t even real shutdowns.)

* Even after the 1995 shutdown, which GOP leaders look back on in much the same way your grandparents think of the Great Depression. But Republicans “lost only nine House seats, a relatively trivial number after a net gain of 54 in 1994. They actually added to their majority in the Senate, picking up two seats in the 1996 cycle.”