JOHN PODHORETZ: The liberal establishment’s Clinton obsession is blowing up in its face:

Trump wasn’t defeated in his quest for the nomination, but it wasn’t because the party or the conservative movement lay down and rolled over for him. Indeed, all the lines of attack being raised today by Hillary Clinton against him, from Trump’s footsie-playing with racists to his foundation’s high jinks to Trump University, were introduced into the national discussion and aired out on the Right for months.

Democrats and liberals, by contrast, did not adjudicate the matters now dogging Hillary’s candidacy during the primary season. Instead, they left all opposition to the ministrations of a 74-year-old socialist who wasn’t even a Democrat until 2014.

And his surprising strength in running against her — Sanders ultimately secured 44 percent of the Democratic primary vote — should have made clear that whatever the mainstream Democratic view, ordinary Democrats did see her as shifty, untrustworthy and someone they did not wish to vote for.

Well, here we are. And here you are, Democrats and liberals. There will be a lot of blame to go around if Trump wins. But a significant share will go to you, because you live in a bubble so impervious to reality, you didn’t realize that nominating a widely disliked person with legal and ethical problems might come to bite you in the ass in the end.

Naturally of course, Podhoretz’s warnings will go unheeded inside the DNC-MSM. Which brings us to this bit of eye-rolling hagiography: “It might be time for our media to take a breather from non-stop praise of Hillary Clinton,” Mollie Hemingway similarly warns at the Federalist.  “The Washington Post just called her a style icon. Really.”

Atop Mollie’s post? Hillary’s recent Pittsburgh Steelers horizontal striped bumblebee throwback jersey look – which makes for a nice contrast with her silver United Federation of Planets galactic ambassador togs, I guess.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The newest excuse for shutting down campus speech: ‘Security.’

As always, IowaHawk has it nailed:

MAYBE AMERICANS SHOULD EMULATE OBAMA AND JUST IGNORE RULES THEY FIND INCONVENIENT: Roll Call: GOP Mostly Powerless in Stopping Obama ‘Midnight’ Regulations.

A simple amendment to the Administrative Procedure Act, providing that no regulation shall take effect until it shall have been passed into law by Congress, would solve this. But it would require Congress to take responsibility.

HIDDEN CAMERA: University of Houston Facilitates “Emotional First Aid Kits” for Students.

FACED WITH AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT AGAINST ITS VERY WAY OF LIFE, FRANCE DOES NOT MESS AROUND: France bans plastic knives and forks to fight global warming.

What, you thought this was going to be a post on the French finally getting tough on Islamic terrorism? Now who’s being naïve, Brigitte?

STROKE THE PEN, LAW OF THE LAND – KIND OF COOL. Forget the 3 am Phone Call: Watch Midnight Regs Instead.

(Classical reference in headline.)

DRIP, DRIP. House panel looking into Reddit post about Clinton’s email server.

The House Oversight Committee is reviewing a Reddit post that alleges an IT specialist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private server sought advice on how to alter the contents of “VERY VIP” emails, according to Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.).

Meadows is the chairman of the panel’s Government Operations subcommittee.

“The Reddit post issue and its connection to Paul Combetta is currently being reviewed by OGR staff and evaluations are being made as to the authenticity of the post,” Meadows told The Hill.

Reddit users appear to have uncovered a two-year-old post from an account believed to belong to Combetta, an engineer with Platte River Networks. The Denver, Colo.-based firm managed Clinton’s private server.

The post, which has been deleted but can be read in images archived by Reddit users, coincides with the discovery of Clinton’s use of the server.

“I may be facing a very interesting situation where I need to strip out a VIP’s (VERY VIP) email address from a bunch of archived email… Basically, they don’t want the VIP’s email address exposed to anyone, and want to be able to either strip out or replace the email address in the to/from fields in all of the emails we want to send out,” reads the post, by a user called “stonetear.”

“Does anyone have experience with something like this, and/or suggestions on how this might be accomplished?”

Combetta is currently one of the targets of a broader Oversight investigation on whether Clinton ordered the destruction of emails that had been subpoenaed by the Benghazi Select Committee.

“If it is determined that the request to change email addresses was made by someone so closely aligned with the Secretary’s IT operation as Mr. Combetta, then it will certainly prompt additional inquiry,” Meadows told The Hill. “The date of the Reddit post in relationship to the establishment of the Select Committee on Benghazi is also troubling.”

The Reddit message was sent on July 23, 2014, according to an archive of the page saved by other users. The day before, the Benghazi Committee had reached an agreement with the State Department on the production of related records, according the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of the server.

If there’s a coverup, it means something’s being covered up.

IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO SEE COLLEGE STUDENTS STANDING UP AGAINST PC BULLYING. At Clemson, Coach Dabo Swinney invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. in duscussing Colin Kaepernick and the National Anthem.

This led Clemson Prof. Chenjerai Kumanyika to invoke Black Privilege and write: Take MLK’s name out your mouth: An open letter to Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney. “Coach Swinney, based on your statements, I think that maybe you would not have liked Dr. King if you had known him. Dr. King worked closely with Jackie Robinson, whose presence and success on the field was a protest.”

Then Clemson Student Mitchell Gunter responded: We Won’t Take Your Class: An Open Letter to Chenjerai Kumanyika.

I cringed when you, a non-Muslim, wore a traditional, Islamic head scarf to the Donald Trump rally last year. Talk about cultural appropriation. Given your status as a professor at Clemson, the selective video editing to make it appear as if you were being removed for “your religion” is staggering and troubling.

To your credit though, your “test of our rights to practice the democratic process”, was well-intentioned as you nobly blocked the view of those sitting behind you, a statement of solidarity for groups that sometimes feel marginalized by campaign rhetoric.

You acknowledged that you don’t think that ALL Trump supporters are bigoted, and you merely wanted to start a conversation about equality for all. For a moment there, although you attempted to use me as political fodder to further your narrative of a “racist, backwoods Clemson,” I felt tempted to take one of your classes.

But then I read your “Rate My Professor profile.”

Dr. Kumanyika, I really wish I hadn’t done that.

In your Rate My Professor profile, you have an overall quality score of 1.8 out of 5. One student opines that you’re the “Worst professor I have ever had.” Grading is described as “unnecessarily tough and completely arbitrary” and your classroom habits include “cutting students off before they can finish a sentence, which scares most students into silence.” As a communications professor, I was very surprised to see one student say “Also never answers emails.” I thought that came with the territory.

The two comments that stuck with me were “Terrible. Worst class ever. Very condescending.” and “inside the classroom it’s as if he finds joy in making you feel stupid.” Perhaps you should take some of this feedback to heart.

Your open letter to Dabo indicated that much of this student criticism is true. At the Sikes Sit-In, you talked to me about compassion, yet the level of condescension in your writing is unbearable.

Ouch. To be fair, the last time I looked most of my Ratemyprofessors comments were from people who obviously hadn’t taken any of my classes, but were just goofing via the Internet. I doubt that Prof. Kumanyika is in the same situation, though I suppose I could be wrong. But read the whole thing, which goes well beyond student comments.

Plus, as noted in the comments here, Jackie Robinson was a Republican who voted for Nixon.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Which comes first, the duck or the chicken? As Shakespeare might have written, had he been so privileged as to live now “there are stranger things in the poultry yard, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your Women’s Studies programs.”

INCLUDING SABRINA CHASE: Light in the Darkness: A Noblebright Fantasy Boxed Set.  It’s 99c. 

FROM THE ANNALS OF THE HIGHLY CONFUSED: Or, I checked three times, and this isn’t a joke blog. I’m a feminist who’s attracted to ‘manly men’.

JUST WHEN I WAS SURE IT HAD BEEN THE RADICAL ANGLICANS: New York Bombing Suspect Rahami Captured After New Jersey Shootout.

INCONCEIVABLE!  ISN’T GENDER JUST A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT? In Men, Depression is Different.  It’s almost like people who think it is just a construct ignore what doesn’t fit their delusion.

DECLAN FINN: A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller (The Pius Trilogy Book 1) – on sale for 99c.

YEAH, AND GIVEN ALL THE PROOF WE HAVE OF HIS ‘AMAZING INTELLECT’, I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Obama led the world downward into chaos.

WHEN DID ‘INTERNET’ BECOME A RIGHT FOR THOSE WHO DON’T EVEN ATTEMPT TO PAY FOR IT: The shuttering of those internet kiosks is another tale of two cities.  Sometimes I think I woke up in another reality.  So people who pay for what they want/need are privileged are they?  I’d think it’s those receiving the handouts who have all the privilege.  I must be old-fashioned.

A CONSUMMATION DEVOUTLY TO BE HOPED FOR: Will Trump Target the Times the Way Hulk Hogan Wrestled With Gawker.com?

I REMEMBER THOSE DAYS: Andrew Sullivan: I Used To Be A Human Being.

ROGER KIMBALL: Is Twitter Really Censoring National Review? Sadly, it’s entirely plausible.

JOURNALISM: The Hill: CNN falsely adds “racial” to Trump vetting comments. In a million tiny ways, we see that Hillary is worried about Trump making inroads into the black vote.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “These pressure cooker bombs are terrorism, and it does not matter whether it’s home-grown terrorism or foreign terrorism. It’s terrorism, Mr. De Blasio.” That’s from the top-voted comment on the New York Times story about the Chelsea bombing. Althouse comments:

What “conclusions” did Trump rush to? There was a big explosion and he called it “a bomb.” He didn’t say it was “terrorism” or what terrorist group he thought it was. He only said “bomb,” and, we’re told, the authorities hadn’t yet “made any determinations” and things were “still in flux.” Was that a “conclusion”? He said “nobody knows exactly what’s going on,” so where’s the conclusion?

It seems as though the NYT and Hillary Clinton are just trying to find something to smack him around about. Who’s really stooping here — Trump or the NYT and Hillary Clinton? Trump’s remark didn’t attack Clinton. It just addressed the immediate event and may have said “bomb” before other things that could cause an explosion were ruled out. Hillary Clinton and the NYT were the ones who rushed to find something to use in a direct attack on their opponent.

Notice how closely Trump’s response relates to the way the NYT readers reacted, up-voting the comment I put in the post heading.

Well, he’s a New Yorker, too. Obama isn’t, and Hillary isn’t, though she pretended to be to take a Senate seat. But what does it say for Hillary’s situation, when the commenters at the New York Times are sounding more like Donald Trump than like Hillary?

AT AMAZON, save up to 40% on Columbia Clothing.

Also, deals on Dockers For Men.

THE HILL: How ‘Birtherism’ became Hillary’s Waterloo.

Hillary Clinton had a rough week. From collapsing into a vehicle to her collapsing poll numbers, the Democratic darling is steering her campaign into an iceberg. Put simply, she’s losing.

On Friday, Hillary hit rock bottom. In order to turn the tide in the final weeks of the campaign she resurrected an issue that had long disappeared from the 2016 campaign — birtherism. It was a move that will prove to be her Waterloo.

“For five years [Republican nominee Donald Trump] has led the birther movement to delegitimize our first black president,” Hillary said. “His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie.”

The “birther movement” of which Hillary speaks dealt with the issue of whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Because the President failed to release his birth certificate when asked, some began to question what the President was hiding. After Trump brought the issue to the forefront, Obama finally release a birth certificate showing he was born in the United States.

To Hillary, though, Trump’s attachment to the birther movement was much more nefarious. In fact, it was racist.

“He is feeding into the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country,” the Democratic presidential nominee proclaim. “Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple, and Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.”

Hillary’s motivations were clear. She flunked her first pseudo debate with Trump on NBC’s Commander in Chief forum earlier this month, placed herself in hot water when she declared half of Trump’s supporters were in a basket of deplorables, and further sowed seeds of mistrust when she lied about her health. She had to change the narrative.

“Hold out baits to entice the enemy,” wrote Sun Tzu, “feign disorder, and crush him.” Hillary, by baiting Trump with the birther controversy, was hoping the outspoken candidate would respond in a manner than that was undisciplined and unpresidential. She was hoping Trump would be Trump. It was a gamble she lost.

“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Trump said in response. “Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”

Trump’s response — short and simple — showed a candidate who was not only more disciplined but a candidate who understood he was in the lead. It showed a candidate that was willing to shrug of a desperate attack in order to stay on a script that has brought Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and Colorado back in play.

Moreover, Trump turned the issue back on Hillary. In laughing off the attack, Trump reminded America that the so called seeds of birtherism were planted by Team Clinton during her rough and tumble primary with Obama in 2008. He also reminded the American people that he was the one who settled the issue, thus removing the cloud hanging over Obama’s head.

“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy,” Trump said. “I finished it.”

Related:

AT AMAZON, the DIY Sale: save on Lutron Dimmers & Sensors. Plus, deals on Kwikset Door Hardware. And, Delta Faucet Products.

Also, deals in Office Supplies & Electronics.

SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL, HILLARY’S BIRTHER CONSPIRACIST PROPAGANDIST: Ole Sid’s doing the deny deny deny shuffle, but McClatchy has the email trail. Get this: “McClatchy has not been able to reach Blumenthal for comment. He worked for both President Bill Clinton and more recently for the Clintons’ charitable foundation.” You mean the Clinton State-Foundation? The end of this essay narrows the Grail Quest for the Ur-Birther to two suspects.