CHRISTIAN TOTO PROFFERS FIVE REASONS YOU’LL AVOID THE ‘GHOSTBUSTERS’ REBOOT.

Besides not having the memories of one of the most beloved movies of the 1980s trampled, I think this is the key: “Who Needs to Be Lectured?The media has been rallying around the movie ever since the casting news hit the web. It’s Hollywood’s attempt to balance the gender scales at long last. There’s some truth to that. Hollywood remains a male-dominated industry. Yet movie lovers who approached ‘Ghostbusters’ with skepticism were instantly labeled as ‘haters’ or even ‘misogynists.’ Movies should be a fun experience, the ultimate in escapism. Getting lectured at for hating a trailer is the exact opposite.”

Didactic comedy is a contradiction in terms.

BAYH, BAYH GOP SENATE? Evan Bayh makes it official, announces U.S. Senate run in Indiana.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1161.

SOUTH CHINA SEA: China loses a legal battle. Now it’s threatening to establish an air defense identification zone over the region. That’s beating the war drums.

TONIGHT ON A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE OF LAW & ORDER: POSTMODERN OBFUSCATION UNIT, AG Loretta Lynch Can’t Make Her Mouth Say: ‘Driving 65 MPH in a 55 MPH Zone Is Against the Law.’

WINNING THE ON LINE WAR ON TERROR: “The American government is taking credit for the recent decline in ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) activity in social media.”

OUR RULING CLASS IS DEEPLY COMMITTED TO FORTIFYING ITS POSITION: We Need To Talk About Downward Mobility:

Low levels of social mobility, more than raw inequality or slow growth, is probably the greatest challenge facing the American political-economic system today. America’s ruling class is hardening into a hereditary caste, putting more and more social and economic distance between itself and the rest of the population. And the sense that lower and middle class families are stuck in place undermines the public’s trust in our economic institutions.

Most discussions of social mobility in the United States focus, understandably, on the problem of upward mobility. How can we make it easier for children born at the bottom of the heap to break into the middle, and easier for children born into the middle to make it to the top?

But as Brookings’ Richard Reeves reminds us, social mobility necessarily goes in two directions. If we are serious about having turnover in our elite class, then upward mobility isn’t sufficient—we need downward mobility as well. . . .

To be sure, we can and should aim for income growth at all levels of the spectrum. But increasing the level of relative social mobility means making it more likely that a child born in the bottom quintile will make it higher on the economic ladder. And for that to occur, someone else born higher on the ladder needs to take his place at the bottom. The American economy isn’t Lake Wobegon, where everyone can be above average. For capitalism to work, people need to rise and fall according to their talents and hard work.

Now, higher levels of social mobility are not always an unalloyed good. (If the United States had a Robespierre-flavored revolution every generation, social mobility would be very high, but it’s hard to argue that this would be a better arrangement than the one we have now). At the same time, there is a broad consensus that our current levels of mobility are below their optimum level. To attack this problem, we need to not only look at ways to help make it easier for people to rise—we also need to look at ways the upper class has stacked the deck, hoarded resources, and protected members of its tribe from the consequences of failure.

Well, if you want to do that, then we need to abolish the Ivy League, and ban the college box. Reducing the emphasis on higher education in employment would do more to boost social mobility — both ways — than any other single change you might make.

THE PENSION CRISIS WAS A BIPARTISAN DEBACLE:

For two decades leading up the the Great Recession, state and local governments across the country, under continuous pressure from deep-pocketed public sector unions, moved to steadily increase already-generous pension benefits for government workers, appeasing a powerful constituency while hiding the implausibility of their promises with accounting gimmicks.

The economic crisis of 2009 rattled the foundations of this Ponzi scheme. Five municipalities—along with Puerto Rico—have been forced into bankruptcy, with more almost certain to follow, as the combined shortfall approaches three-and-a-half trillion dollars. In response, GOP lawmakers have led efforts to beat back public sector unions and bring pension benefits back in line with states’ ability to pay.

But who engineered this epic fiscal crisis in the first place? One might assume that it was tax-and-spend Democrats, eager to grow government and do the bidding of unions, math be damned. In fact, according to a new study by political scientists at Stanford and UC Berkeley that should blunt Republicans’ self-righteousness about their party’s allegedly superior fiscal prudence, the creation of unsustainable state and local retirement systems was a thoroughly bipartisan affair. It wasn’t until the Great Recession forced pensions to the top of the agenda that the parties’ stances began to meaningfully diverge. . . .

Why didn’t Republican lawmakers do more to protect the solvency of state pension systems in the 1990s and early 2000s, before disaster struck? The study notes that Republicans had little incentive to pick a fight with unions before conservative activists made belt-tightening a priority in the wake of the Great Recession. Moreover, Republican politicians relied on the votes of pensioners, who are older than the general population. Finally, the logic of defined-benefit pensions—make promises now, pay later—always encourages politicians to kick the can down the road.

Republican politics at the state level—at least when it comes to pensions—appears to have been driven less by limited government ideology and more by interest group maneuvering and self-interested political calculation. Both parties have powerful incentives to adhere to blue model thinking.

Buying votes with other peoples’ money — or better yet, the promise of other people’s money — is so tempting that politicians need to be structurally prevented from doing so.

DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY: Emanuel responds to broadside from Jesse Jackson Sr. “Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday vehemently denied that he sat on the Laquan McDonald shooting video until he was safely re-elected after the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. accused the mayor of a cover-up in his most blistering attack on the mayor to date.”

ROGER SIMON: Bernie the Faker Sells Out to Goldman Sachs.

My apologies to the ghost of Orson Welles for satirizing the poster for his surprisingly watchable last film.

DID OBAMA REALLY CALL FOR ANGER AT DALLAS POLICE OFFICERS MEMORIAL?: Yes, he did. Righteous anger, he said. Kind of a tweener, perhaps. But given the tragic circumstances, where anger spilled blood, wouldn’t an appeal to a righteous unity of purpose have been more responsible? More presidential? But for community organizers, anger’s a knee-jerk tool: “Harsh rhetoric to enthuse supporters and thrill media and sharp, partisan divisiveness are the tactical tools of “community organizing” as practiced by the American Left.” RELATED: According to the Daily Caller, in yesterday’s speech Obama mentioned himself 45 times.

FORGET IT, HE’S ROLLING: No, President Obama, It’s Not Easier To Buy A Glock Than A Book.

TRAINWRECK UPDATE: The 15th Obamacare Co-Op Has Collapsed. Here’s How Much Each Failed Co-op Got in Taxpayer-Funded Loans.

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FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Has America reached a point of no return?, asks Victor Davis Hanson.

OLD LADY TALKS TO CLOUDS: Woman who invented “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy” Complains That Politicians ‘Get Away’ With Saying ‘Nonsense.’”

In her defense, perhaps she was in some ways tired when she said it.

Related: Video purporting to show Hillary Clinton lying for 13 minutes straight.

POLITICO: Swing-state stunner: Trump has edge in key states. “New swing-state polls released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University show Trump leading Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania — and tied in the critical battleground state of Ohio. In three of the states that matter most in November, the surveys point to a race much closer than the national polls, which have Clinton pegged to a significant, mid-single-digit advantage over Trump, suggest.” Trump’s not a typical GOP candidate, which means that traditional election models won’t work very well.

YOUR OBAMACARE FAIL OF THE DAY: Ayn Rand got it right again.

HE CHOSE POORLY: Man threatens Dana Loesch: ‘You’re going to learn your lesson.’

Read the whole thing.

Related: Man who convinced police to send SWAT team to NRA head’s home sentenced to two years.

THREE TAKEAWAYS FROM Attorney General Lynch’s Congressional Testimony.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. asked Lynch directly what the difference was between the term Comey used to describe Clinton’s conduct — “extremely careless” — and the “gross negligence” standard under which the relevant statute says she could be prosecuted. Lynch, like Comey, was unable to give a coherent answer. Lynch didn’t even try, she just repeated how she accepted the recommendations of Comey to not indict Clinton.

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio and others raised similar questions. Time and time again, Lynch referred to the statute and refused to give an explanation.

Also, Republicans don’t know how to ask questions.

UNEXPECTEDLY. Harvard study: As Trump won, media coverage turned sharply negative.

Other than pretty much everyone, who saw this coming?

SOMETHING THAT CAN’T GO ON FOREVER WON’T: California in the red by $127.2 billion, state auditors say.

Why are Democrat-controlled institutions such cesspits of fiscal profligacy?

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Video: Barack Obama, The Iraq War President. “Obama is the longest serving war-time president in American history.”

FEMINIST PROFESSOR TRIES TO GET TRUMP ELECTED: “Electing Trump would strike a major blow for patriarchal restoration.”