AFTER MONTHS OF TRUMP 24/7 COVERAGE, FOX NEWS IS OFFENDED BY ED HENRY’S BEHAVIOR.
Related: Laura Ingraham to caller worried about Trump’s moral failings: Reagan was divorced, right? “‘This clip is incredible,’ says Philip Klein, ‘for anybody who listened to conservative talk radio during the Clinton era.’”
EVEN A FLATWORM IS SMART ENOUGH TO TURN AWAY FROM PAIN: French Socialists Aren’t Feeling the Bern.
France’s Socialist government, having concluded that socialist labor legislation is stifling job growth and propping up the unemployment rate, is enacting pro-business economic reforms over the objections of more left-wing members of the party. . . .
Valls’ decision is part of a long-running trend: For decades, the decline of the blue social model has been pushing many European countries, including ones we think of as social democracies, to abandon some of the more statist features of their economic agendas. Policies that worked relatively well in closed, stable, national economies of the mid-20th century fail to deliver in the open, dynamic economies of the 21st—and even center-left governments are forced to adapt to this reality once they take power.
But the fact that the changes had to be forced through by executive decree also highlights the challenges facing democratic governance on both sides of the Atlantic. Executive power in the U.S. has steadily expanded in the last two administrations, in part because of political rancor and Congressional gridlock. Most European governments have been able to avoid this outcome because Parliamentary systems are more conducive to building temporary political majorities. But as their countries continue to grapple with economic headwinds and social upheaval, it may be that Parliamentary systems, too, will start to show signs of decay.
President Trump will no doubt dispense with gridlock, declare that “I won,” and proceed to govern with a pen and a phone.
YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: Camille Paglia: The Modern Campus Has Declared War on Free Speech.
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GOOD GUY WITH A GUN STOPS BAD GUY: Off-Duty Sheriff’s Deputy Who Shot Suspect In Taunton Stabbings Hailed As Hero.
THIS JUST IN: CANDIDATE’S ONLY CHANCE IS TO BEST OPPONENT.
Harry Truman, call your office. You too, LBJ and your media surrogates.
RELAX, GUYS, WE’RE HEADING INTO ANOTHER “RECOVERY SUMMER!” Obama Presides Over the Feeblest Post-WWII Recovery. “It is now certain that President Obama will be the only U.S. president in history that did not deliver a single calendar year of 3.0%+ economic growth, and the fourth-worst in history in terms of average RGDP growth while in office.” If he were a Republican, the press coverage would be nonstop Grapes Of Wrath stuff. Instead, it’s all about the joys of staycations and funemployment, while only a few cranks talk about how seniors are suffering.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Thomas Sowell on “Dry Rot in Academia.”
Read the whole thing.
NEW YORK TIMES: Should You Be Worried About Facebook’s Ability To Shape The News? Of Course You Should.
Yet few Americans think of Facebook as a powerful media organization, one that can alter events in the real world. When blowhards rant about the mainstream media, they do not usually mean Facebook, the mainstreamiest of all social networks. That’s because Facebook operates under a veneer of empiricism. Many people believe that what you see on Facebook represents some kind of data-mined objective truth unmolested by the subjective attitudes of fair-and-balanced human beings.
None of that is true. This week, Facebook rushed to deny a report in Gizmodo that said the team in charge of its “trending” news list routinely suppressed conservative points of view. Last month, Gizmodo also reported that Facebook employees asked Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s chief executive, if the company had a responsibility to “help prevent President Trump in 2017.” Facebook denied it would ever try to manipulate elections.
Even if you believe that Facebook isn’t monkeying with the trending list or actively trying to swing the vote, the reports serve as timely reminders of the ever-increasing potential dangers of Facebook’s hold on the news. . . .
The question isn’t whether Facebook has outsize power to shape the world — of course it does, and of course you should worry about that power. If it wanted to, Facebook could try to sway elections, favor certain policies, or just make you feel a certain way about the world, as it once proved it could do in an experiment devised to measure how emotions spread online.
Related: Could Facebook Swing An Election?
SOCIALISM IN ALL ITS GLORY: Venezuela Unleashes Tanks as 4 Killed, 1,200 Arrested. With empty store shelves and no toilet paper.
DISPATCHES FROM THE LEFT’S WAR ON BATHROOMS: Obama’s Lawsuit Against North Carolina Isn’t About Civil Rights. It’s About Crushing Dissent.
Crushing dissent, politics as domestic warfare and a useful media distraction for a failed presidency. Obama’s war on bathrooms has it all.
THE KIDS AT VOX ATTEMPT A WAGE-GAP “EXPLAINER,” AND IT’S PREDICTABLY AWFUL. Ashe Schow Explains Why.
WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S A SOCIALIST AND SOCIALISM ENRICHES THE POWERFUL AND WELL-CONNECTED, NOT THE POOR: Bernie Sanders’s plans have surprisingly small benefits for America’s poorest people.
AS THEY SAY, SJWs ALWAYS DOUBLE DOWN: Oxford SJW on Wronged Waitress: “Frankly, Her Feelings Are Irrelevant.” The waitress in question, meanwhile, is a superior human being:
In an interview she said: “Oxford isn’t a place where racists from South Africa are fit to go. It’s a privilege to be there. He is far more privileged than me.”
Schultz said she earns around $1 an hour, meaning that it would take her around 50 years to earn enough to fund Qwabe’s lavish scholarship.
But she insisted she shouldn’t “lose everything” despite being “a bit of an idiot”.
On the other hand, examples need to be made.
OPERATION CHAOS COMES TO APPALACHIA: Donald Trump Supporters Boost Bernie Sanders in West Virginia.
A third of those who voted in West Virginia’s Democratic primary say they plan to back Trump in November, according to NBC News exit polls. Sanders won those voters by a wide margin.
In fact, 39 percent of Sanders voters said they would vote for Trump over Sanders in the fall. For Clinton, nine percent of her voters say they plan to come out for Trump in the general election.
West Virginia has an open primary, meaning independents can vote in the Democratic contest. With the GOP nomination wrapped up, it’s possible mischievous Trump supporters sought to damage Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, by voting for Sanders.
SOME FREE-SPEECH GOOD NEWS FROM EMORY:
