I’VE GOT AN AMICUS BRIEF WITH ERWIN CHEMERINSKY AND ILYA SOMIN IN THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, in a case involving prosecutorial misconduct and the “John Doe” investigations of Scott Walker supporters. A press account is here. The brief — which, unsurprisingly, cites my Ham Sandwich Nation piece — can be found here.

OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH EAST ARKANSAS. Kaine in 2002: Bill Clinton should have resigned in disgrace.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Denounce anti-Semitic posts or we’ll threaten your funding, Jewish group tells U. of Tennessee. It’s nice to see a university stand up for free expression by students, though apparently it helps to be a Muslim student if you want to get that sort of protection. . . .

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Man Without A Country. “The national myth of the 1950s was that America could be different from the old country. But by the looks of it the convenience store operator doesn’t trust either the police, Al Sharpton or Eric Holder. Shop owners appeared later in the day armed to the teeth. Further photos of this shop owner depict him being reinforced by people who look like his cousin, brother or near relation similarly equipped.”

Fundamentally transformed.

DISPATCHES FROM OCEANIA: Ellen DeGeneres Chastised; Forced to Deny She’s Racist After Usain Bolt Meme Controversy.

In Orwellian America, anybody can be declared a thought criminal. But why is DeGeneres even accepting the ridiculous premise of the fellow leftists who are attacking her?

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1196.

FASTER, PLEASE: Game Changer? Trump Makes a Play for the Black Vote, Roger Simon writes.

AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA’S FIRST FEMINIST PRESIDENT:

Dear President Obama,

Last week you became the first commander-in-chief to declare yourself a feminist. Using Glamour as a podium, you called on all Americans — men in particular — to become feminists, and even boasted about having taught your daughters to expect the men they love to be feminists.

You’re free to call yourself anything you like. But you’re not free to lie to the American people.

Over the past eight years, Obama has also been declared the first black president (or second!, as Bill Clinton’s zanier supporters might argue), the first Jewish president, first Asian-American president, first Hispanic president, even the first “Our first female president,” by Sarah Palin’s bête noire, Kathleen Parker. Our semi-retired president really is the Peter Lemon Moodring of Washington, isn’t he?

MICHAEL WALSH: “Under the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama, guess which group seems to rate most-favored status? One guess.”

TRAIN-WRECK UPDATE: Aetna’s Retreat From Obamacare Is More Than It Seems.

Bigger insurers gain more pricing power against rapidly consolidating provider networks. They also gain more pricing power with customers. Industries dominated by a few major players are not, in general, known for their high quality and low costs. Allowing the mergers to go through could stave off the immediate problem with the Obamacare exchanges at the cost of raising insurance costs for everyone else — and giving Democrats big headaches in 2018 and 2020.

The calculation is further complicated by the fact that the exchanges and the mergers are regulated by different agencies. Health and Human Services ultimately oversees exchange operations, while the attorney general is the one trying to block the mergers. They both work for the same president, of course. But it would not be the first time that internecine battles between different parts of the same government further complicated an already complicated game.

Whatever the truth of the matter, and whatever the outcome, we can expect to see a lot of such quandaries going forward. The exchanges do not seem to be stabilizing; instead, they seem to be growing more unstable over time, particularly outside large urban areas where there are enough providers and slack capacity in the health-care system to provide some check on the problems that have plagued insurers elsewhere.

Insurers cannot simply go on eating those losses forever. They certainly won’t do so for free. Unless the exchanges get a rapid infusion of healthier customers who pay substantial premiums without using much care, insurers are going to keep pulling out of the areas where they are losing money. Or at the very least, they will demand benefits from the government to make it worth their while to stay.

Well, ObamaCare was always meant to fail and lead to single-payer government healthcare. Related: Colorado’s Single-Payer Health Care Would Die a Fiery Death.

QUESTION ASKED: Will Nick Denton have the last laugh?

A Fortune investigation into Gawker Media’s finances reveals that though Denton is down, he is not out. As the company’s websites assailed tech giants like Alphabet GOOGL -0.59% , Apple AAPL -0.26% , and Facebook FB -0.47% for byzantine schemes meant to reduce their tax burden, Gawker Media quietly played the same game. Our investigation reveals that Denton is as much a creature of the tech industry as he is a critic—and that Gawker’s slippery but legal tactics may, in the end, help Denton survive Thiel’s crusade with funds to spare.

Read the whole thing.

DOING MORE THAN THE VACATIONING OBAMA: Taylor Swift Writes Million-Dollar Check To Louisiana After Devastating Floods.

I REMEMBER WHEN DEMS TALKED SECESSION AFTER 2004: Will Texas Stick Around for a Hillary Clinton Presidency? Three out of five Trump voters in the Lone Star State would back secession if the Democrat wins, a new poll finds.

Nobody imagined that the EU would use military force to stop Brexit. Why should secession in America be different. Sure, there was that whole Civil War thing. But we live in a milder, more civilized age in which the self-determination of peoples is regarded as a right. And, anyway, we have to regard the Constitution as a living, evolving document, one that can change to suit the needs of the times. Right?

AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.

Also, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.

And, Today’s Featured Digital Deal. The deals are brand new every day, so browse and save!

IT’S COME TO THIS: Even Jill Stein is spending more on advertising than Donald Trump.

TWO MORE DETAILS on this morning’s Trump campaign reshuffle:

“I want to win,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal. “That’s why I’m bringing on fantastic people who know how to win and love to win.”

“Buckle up,” wrote a Trump strategist in a text message Wednesday to The Washington Post.

If this is the start of some professional, traditional campaigning, then that would be a welcome change.

“YOU’RE NOT DONE WITH AL SHARPTON YET,” insists self-admitted JournoList member Ben Smith of BuzzFeed.

Actually, I’ve been done with Sharpton for nearly 30 years now.  But apparently, Comcast and NBC, for whom Sharpton remains a highly paid spokesman isn’t done with him yet, but I guess you can’t fault them for continuing to pay his protection money and leave the two intertwined giant corporations alone.

Related: Heather Mac Donald on Why Milwaukee Burns.

CYBER SECURITY: U.S. government offers states help to fight voter fraud.

The government is offering to help states protect the Nov. 8 U.S. election from hacking or other tampering, in the face of allegations by Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump that the system is open to fraud.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told state officials in a phone call on Monday that federal cyber security experts could scan for vulnerabilities in voting systems and provide other resources to help protect against infiltration, his office said in a statement.

Paper ballots, anyone?

BECAUSE THEIR GOAL IS TO ENSURE HIGH BLACK TURNOUT FOR THE DEMOCRATS: Why must the media mislead on police shootings?

Why can’t the media just accurately report what is going on when a police shooting occurs?

The latest example comes out of Milwaukee, Wisc., in which a black police officer shot and killed Sylville Smith, who refused to put down his gun.

This was not another case of a white officer shooting an unarmed black man. It was a black officer, and more importantly the man he shot was armed. Riots and violence broke out in Smith’s neighborhood anyway.

Beyond trying to downplay the race of the officer and the firearm status of the slain man, CNN went a step further by selectively editing what Smith’s sister Sherelle said to reporters.

“Burnin’ down s*** ain’t going to help nothin! Y’all burnin’ down s*** we need in our community,” Sherelle told reporters. “Take that s*** to the suburbs. Burn that s*** down! We need our s***! We need our weaves. I don’t wear it. But we need it.”

CNN stopped rolling the clip after Sherelle’s comments about her own community. They framed her comments as “calling for peace.” Not exactly.

Think of them as Democratic Party operatives with bylines and you won’t go far wrong.

ASHE SCHOW: Pointless Olympics outrage over female athletes and headlines.

Those looking for sexism everywhere have found it again, at least according to them.

A headline in the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune for an Associated Press story read in large bold print: “Phelps ties for silver in 100 fly.” It then read in smaller print right underneath: “Ledecky sets world record in women’s 800 freestyle.”

Cue the outrage.

I mean, how dare a newspaper try to sell newspapers by leading with the more recognizable name? It was a surprise that most-decorated Olympic athlete of all time, Michael Phelps, only took the silver in the 100m butterfly event. And if you’re wondering why a silver from Phelps leads a gold from swimmer Katie Ledecky, just read that last sentence. Phelps is the most-decorated Olympic athlete of all time. He is a household name.

That’s not saying no one has heard of Ledecky. After her performance in these Olympics, she will no doubt get sponsorship deals and become one of the most well-known athletes in the world. But this is her second Olympics. It is Phelps’ fifth. Ledecky will become a household name after only her second Olympics showing. Phelps didn’t become well known until after his third Olympics in 2008, when he broke the record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics.

The point is to keep women agitated and ready to turn out for Hillary. Likewise, similar treatment for other Democratic constituency groups.

YOU NEVER WANT A SERIOUS CRISIS TO GO TO WASTE: Leaked Soros Memo: Refugee Crisis ‘New Normal,’ Gives ‘New Opportunities’ For Global Influence.

(Classical reference in headline.)

AMERICA FIRST: Manafort tied to undisclosed foreign lobbying.

Donald Trump’s campaign chairman helped a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012, and did so in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party’s efforts to influence U.S. policy.

The revelation, provided to The Associated Press by people directly knowledgeable about the effort, comes at a time when Trump has faced criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also casts new light on the business practices of campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Under federal law, U.S. lobbyists must declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties and provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

This may have something to do with Manafort’s de facto demotion earlier today.

WE’RE GOING TO TAKE THINGS AWAY FROM YOU ON BEHALF OF THE COMMON GOOD: Clinton comes after the rich: ‘We’re going where the money is.’

She’s been channeling the spirit of Willie Sutton throughout her entire career (hence our headline), but it’s nice to see her finally make it official. Of course, once your business reaches the too big to fail level and you’re prepared to partake in what Iowahawk calls “bribery dinner theater” with the Clintons, Hillary’s statement is merely so much corporatist kabuki.

RESET: Russian Military Forces Staging Near Ukraine.

As many as 40,000 Russian troops, including tanks, armored vehicles, and air force units, are now arrayed along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.

Additionally, large numbers of Russian military forces will conduct exercises in the coming days that Pentagon officials say could be used as cover for an attack on Ukraine.

“Russian units will likely practice reinforcing the [Crimean] peninsula through such activities as amphibious landings and air defense exercises, and this may involve the change out of equipment and long convoys of military vehicles,” one defense official said.

The military exercises are an ominous sign. Similar large-scale Russian exercises were conducted near Ukraine a month before Moscow carried out the covert military operation to take over the strategic Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

Moving that many units around is expensive, even without a fight. Clearly Putin expects to get something out of the effort.