ANALYSIS: TRUE. A History Lesson for Howard Kurtz: Honest Reporting Died Long Ago.

Congratulations, Howard, you’re emerging from the media jungle. However, you’ve a chronic case of historical amnesia, one that often accompanies life in the mainstream media’s heart of obliviousness. So what do you say we do a little historical research, sir, to establish an even more lamentable context? Remember the 2008 campaign? In February 2008 The New York Times and Washington Post both ran poorly-sourced but innuendo-laced stories about John McCain’s relationship with a lobbyist.

The Times’ version implied McCain had an affair with the lady. Reporters? Rumor-mongers, Howard, targeting a Republican presidential candidate. The timing of the article damaged McCain’s campaign, so it was a successful political operation. Unfortunately it also maligned the woman’s reputation and she would have none of it. The Wikipedia summary notes a year The Times made a retraction, of sorts, in “an unusual ‘Note to Readers’ stating that The Times had not intended to allege any affair.” Read the quotes from the article and tell me with a straight face The Times didn’t mean to imply McCain wasn’t romantically entwined.

There’s much more — read the whole thing.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’: Uber’s Self-Driving Car Plans Involve a Trucking Startup.

The San Francisco ride-hailing company, which announced last year its plans to invest in self-driving tech, has agreed to acquire Otto, a young startup, it revealed to Bloomberg. Otto, which developed a kit that lets big-rig trucks drive themselves on highways, was founded by four former Googlers, including Anthony Levandowski, one of the original engineers on the company’s self-driving team, and Lior Ron, who headed Google Maps for five years.

Uber hasn’t disclosed terms of the deal, but Bloomberg pegs the price tag at roughly $680 million, assuming certain targets are met. When the deal closes, Levandowski will take the lead of Uber’s self-driving car operations while also running Otto’s trucking business, according to the report.

Who will robot trucks will deliver goods to, once everyone has lost their jobs to robots?

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1197.

WELCOME TO POST-KEMALIST TURKEY: Turkey seizes assets as post-coup crackdown turns to business.

Turkish authorities ordered the detention of nearly 200 people, including leading businessmen, and seized their assets as an investigation into suspects in last month’s failed military rebellion shifted to the private sector.

President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to choke off businesses linked to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for the July 15 coup attempt, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism.”

Tens of thousands of troops, civil servants, judges and officials have been detained or dismissed in a massive purge that Western allies worry Erdogan is using to crack down on broader dissent, risking stability in the NATO partner.

In dawn raids on Thursday, police from a financial-crimes unit entered some 200 homes and workplaces after a chief prosecutor issued 187 arrest warrants, state-run Anadolu news agency said. TV channel CNN Turk said 60 people were detained.

It wasn’t a failed coup; it’s a successful purge.

WHAT WOULD VICTORIA WOODHULL, THE FIRST WOMAN WHO RAN FOR THE PRESIDENCY — IN 1872 — THINK ABOUT HILLARY? David Solway on Hillary and Gender.

THIS ISN’T THE 21st CENTURY POP CULTURE I WAS PROMISED: Autostraddle Apologizes for Favorably Reviewing the ‘Animated Queer Taco’ in Sausage Party.

As Glenn wrote yesterday, “when historians wonder what happened to America in the 21st century, they should start here.”

MILITARY-GRADE AMPHIBIOUS EXOSKELETON UPDATE: This Technological Breakthrough Could Give Hillary Clinton a Crucial Edge in 2016.

INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM: Research: As A Group, Only Men Pay Taxes. “With the exception of the age group between 45-59 (a 15 year span) years old, women cost more to the state than the tax they provide. In contrast, men generate more tax revenue than they cost between 23 and 65 (a 43 year span). In the brief period in which women generate more or as much tax money than they consume, men outscore them by at least 3 times. y large, the cumulative tax money given to women outweighs the tax money generated by women. The short period of positive impact of women between 45 and 59 is countered by 65 other years in which their allocated tax expenditure is more than what they supply the state. Overall, the research suggests that male taxpayers are the only ones to ever have a positive contribution in taxes. Based on Figure 17, the closest that the average woman will come to having a positive fiscal incidence is when she is at minus $50,000 around 55 years of age. While feminists are demonizing men for benefiting from all liberties and rights they have constructed, they have oddly remained silent over the fact that anonymous male tax payers are paying women to exist. Read that sentence again. The fact that feminists want a stronger government is not a coincidence. While historically, women had to choose a wealthy husband for resources, they can now stay single, be lesbians, marry a poor man, or use the sperm bank, and the state will still transfer male taxes to them.”

No wonder men are going on strike.

UPDATE: Yes, I know it’s New Zealand, but I suspect the analysis applies in most industrialized democracies. Note this bit: “Interestingly, within 10 years of women’s suffrage, the government doubled their tax revenue and expenditure in the USA.”

Flashback: “Although women tend to love the notion of government control more than men do, it is women who will be told they’ll have to cut back. On treatments. And years. You know we’ve been taking more than our share.”

A BUNCH OF PRESIDENTS TALKED “ENERGY INDEPENDENCE,” BUT IT WAS THE PRIVATE SECTOR THAT HAS MOVED THE BALL: The World Is Gassing Up on US Shale.

We already know that oil drilled from U.S. shale is leading the rise in global crude output—after all, those U.S. supplies were what helped create the glut that sent oil prices crashing from more than $110 per barrel two years ago to under $50 today—but new projections suggest that U.S. frackers will be key drivers of growth in another hydrocarbon market in the coming years: that of natural gas. . . .

The United States already produces the lion’s share of the world’s shale gas, and those fracked hydrocarbons make up the majority of U.S. natural gas production as well. But Canada, Argentina, and China are all beginning to chase after that shale bandwagon, producing small but significant quantities of fracked gas, and in the coming decades Algeria and, importantly, Mexico will hope to join the club.

Shale producers have so far struggled outside of the United States, running up against any number of hurdles—from poor geology to water scarcity, from opaque government regulations to NIMBYism—but countries and companies will refine their methods and eventually start tapping shale reserves abroad on a commercial scale. The United States will continue to lead the pack, but with Canada and Mexico both ready to join in on this energy boom, North America as a whole is emerging as a new center of global energy supplies.

All of this shale gas is helping to keep natural gas prices down, which in turn is helping to topple Old King Coal from his perch as the world’s cheapest source of power. That’s not just good news for the developing world, it’s also good news for Gaia: natural gas emits far fewer local pollutants and roughly half as much carbon as coal.

And yet Greens are overwhelmingly anti-fracking. That’s the sort of behavior you’d expect from tools of Putin and the Saudis, not Gaia-worshipers.

TO PROTECT AND SERVE: Army Veteran Hangs U.S. Flag Upside Down to Protest Eminent Domain, Gets Arrested.

Homer Martz, a 63-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Iowa, was unhappy about the oil pipeline being built on his property by a private company which had been granted access to the land through eminent domain. Among Martz’s concerns were the risk the pipeline presents to his water supply and the fact that the pipeline could have been placed — much less disruptively, a few hundred feet away from its current path — where it wouldn’t disturb anyone’s home or water supply.

So he decided to protest this public-private intrusion into his home by hanging a U.S. flag upside down.

Then the police arrived.

Read the whole thing.

SHOCKER: Turkey Accused Of Aiding Islamist Extremism In Leaked Report. “Germany has accused Turkey of supporting terrorist organisations like Hamas and the Islamist opposition in Syria, a leaked report reveals. Berlin believes that Turkey has been deliberately financing radical groups with the direct consent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the Ankara government takes an increasingly Islamist line, according the confidential report obtained by broadcaster ARD. . . . It accuses Turkey’s ruling AKP party of providing ‘many expressions of solidarity and support’ for groups like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Palestinian terror group Hamas and the armed Islamist opposition in Syria. It adds that this support ’emphasise[s] their ideological affinity with the (broader) Muslim Brotherhood.’ The document also claims Turkey has deepened ties with these groups in recent years.”

Note to Europe: Erdogan sees himself as the next Sultan. The Sultans were not friends to Europe.

EXTREMELY CARELESS: Clinton Foundation Possibly Hacked.

A potentially campaign-ending October Surprise could be in the making for Hillary Clinton in the form of hacked Clinton Foundation emails, according to a report out late Wednesday evening.

Reuters is reporting that according to sources familiar with the matter, the Clinton charitable foundation had to hire a cyber-security firm to examine its data systems after seeing signs that they were hacked. The culprits appear to be the Russians, cyber-security experts say.

She can’t even protect her own secrets.

MICHAEL WALSH ON THE MORAL COWARDICE OF THE #NEVERTRUMPUMPKINS.

EXPLORING MEDIA BIAS.

KATHY SHAIDLE: From Scopes to Snopes.

Read the whole thing.

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COME NOVEMBER, WILL THE RIGHT PARTY LIKE IT’S 2009? The Re-Death of Conservatism?

POOR THING: Clinton Pushed From Left and Right on Health Care.

Democrats have tried to move past debate over the Affordable Care Act, a goal made harder this week when Aetna said it would withdraw from 11 of the 15 state health care exchanges, unsettling the marketplaces and reducing consumer options.

Mrs. Clinton has backed a public option since 2007, and she reaffirmed her support during her Democratic primary against Mr. Sanders. He and others on the left will be pushing to make sure she carries through, especially given their concerns that she will tack to the center if elected president.

Conservatives, meanwhile, say Aetna’s decision shows the law isn’t working and should be scrapped.

“Aetna just today announced that they are dropping out, as are many of the major insurance agencies. Obamacare is a disaster,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said at a rally late Tuesday in Wisconsin.

No wonder she’s “often confused.“

ESPN MORPHED INTO MSNBC SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED. ESPN Panel: ‘NFL Players Don’t Speak Enough on Social/Cultural Issues.’

But Gaia forefend they don’t express the current grievance industry-approved thoughts: Cam Newton Criticized for Telling GQ That America Is “Beyond” Race.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: ‘There’s not much that’s German here anymore.’ “The debates about the refugee crisis and the burqa ban are touchy subjects in Bad Godesberg. Many people prefer not to comment, or say they’re afraid of being labeled right-wing extremists.”

ROBOTIC RIDE-SHARING: Uber’s self-driving cars will pick up their first customers this month.

Uber’s self-driving taxis will get their first real-world test in Pittsburgh this month, with the semi-autonomous vehicles assigned at random to customers using the company’s app. According to a report from Bloomberg, the test fleet will consist of modified Volvo XC90 SUVs, with each car supervised by a human in the driver’s seat (a legal requirement) as well as a co-pilot taking notes. The trips themselves will be free, with a tablet in the backseat informing the passenger about the car’s capabilities.

Related: Ford will sell fully autonomous cars by 2021 with no steering wheels.

What is really needed is an AI able to pass the Turing Test well enough to make smalltalk during your trip.

Would you ride in a fully autonomous robot cab?

LEAVING HIGH-REGULATION STATES FOR LOW-REGULATION STATES: IRS Migration Data: Taxpayers Leave NY, IL & CA For TX, FL & SC.

FEED THE GORACLE: Soros Paid Al Gore Millions To Push ‘Aggressive US Action’ On Global Warming.

THE HILL: New emails highlight ties between White House and Google.

Related: Tech Companies Apple, Twitter, Google, and Instagram Collude to Defeat Trump.

Plus: Could Facebook Swing An Election? (Bumped).