DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY: The Hill: Dems call for unity as Sanders fuels intraparty fighting.

The call for unity comes as tensions escalated at the recent Nevada Democratic convention. The Vermont senator’s supporters were largely blamed for the convention chaos where Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was booed, and in the days after, the chairwoman of the Nevada state party received death threats and obscene voicemail messages.

Wasserman Schultz called on Sanders to get his supporters in line. Sanders was defiant and defended his supporters. While he criticized any violence in Nevada, he blamed much of the trouble on the Democratic Party.

That provoked more criticism from Wasserman Schultz, who called Sanders’s response “anything but acceptable.”

Sanders and the DNC have had a strained relationship throughout the primary season. He has criticized the party for the number and timing of debates and also the use of superdelegates, which has given Clinton a large lead over him.But the chairwoman has reiterated that she and the DNC have remained neutral in the primary and note that the rules have been in place since before the cycle began.

This weekend, Sanders said he was throwing his support behind Tim Canova’s congressional campaign against Wasserman Schultz in the August Democratic primary in Florida. He also said if elected president, he would effectively terminate Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the DNC.

Stand strong, Bernie. Don’t let them intimidate you!

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Obama Raided $500M for Zika to Finance UN’s Green Climate Fund.

TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT:

ED MORRISSEY ON THE JEFFERSON INVESTIGATION and the lame response from the Congressional leadership:

This can’t be the same Congress that issues subpoenas for all sorts of probes into the executive branch and the agencies it runs. Does Congress really want to establish a precedent that neither branch has to answer subpoenas if issued by the other, even if approved by a judge — which this particular subpoena was? . . .

Congress already has enough problems with corruption and scandal without adding even more arrogance to top it. If the leadership wants to argue that their status as elected officials somehow gives them the ability to disregard subpoenas and court orders, then the American people may want to trade that leadership to ensure that Congress understands that it operates under the same laws as the rest of us. Hastert and Boehner do not argue against an imperial presidency, but rather they are arguing for an untouchable political elite, where our elected officials risk nothing by taking bribes and selling their votes to the highest bidder. After all, the evidence of those transactions will almost always reside in their offices — and if they can ignore duly executed subpoenas and search warrants, then they can sell themselves at will.

This whole “cut their pay and send them home” thing is sounding better and better . . . .

Of course, if Hastert thinks the Democrats may take the House in November, this may be exactly the kind of precedent he wants to establish!

UPDATE: Jim Hoft doesn’t think that Hastert is that smart. Neither do I.

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Podhoretz:

There is every reason to believe that a member of the House of Representatives was using his physical office on Capitol Hill to hide evidence of massive bribe-taking — bribe-taking that has been caught on tape, by the way. That Congressman is a figure in the Democratic party. The Republican party has been reeling from bribery and corruption scandals of its own. So the Speaker of the House, the leader of Republicans in the House, actually complains to the president that the raid on the Democratic congressman’s office is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. In so doing, he reinforces the image that Congress, which almost never polices itself, cares less abou corruption than it does about its prerogatives. It also steps on the very important political story that might help diffuse the image of specifically Republican corruption. I don’t know how to put this any other way, and I’m sorry if it sounds insulting, but: Whether you consider him the leader of an institution whose standing among the public is at historically low levels and in need of drastic moral renovation or a leading partisan official whose team is in pretty bad shape and could use a bit of a boost, Denny Hastert is a blithering idiot.

It sure looks that way.

MORE: More unhappiness here. Really, are the Congressional Republicans trying to throw the 2006 race?

___

In 2016, of course, I wonder if Hastert was being blackmailed. And I think the answer is “yes.”

THIS TOO IS EVERYWHERE AND A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME: The Power Of Technical Disruption.

JUST ANOTHER OF THOSE SIGNS AND PORTENTS: The Next Revolution in China.

CREATING YOUR OWN SAFETY: SJW Immunity.

NEARER MY GOD THAN THEE: The Left Is Now Targeting Christian Schools In Its Potty Crusades.

TAKING OUT THE TRASH: Only fitting de Blasio could be taken down by trash bags.

AND EVERY OTHER DANGER TOO: The Cyber Threat: Obama’s Diplomacy-Dominated Policy Ignores Growing Russian Danger.  I believe the Obama doctrine is “Speak annoyingly and carry no stick.”

GIVING POWER TO AN UN-ELECTED BUREAUCRAT IS LIKE DANCING WITH THE DEVIL.  NO MATTER HOW FAST YOU SPIN, SOONER OR LATER, HE’S GOING TO HURT YOU: Rule of law under threat: Poland in the EU pillory.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A RAT TO LEAVE A SINKING SHIP: Bridgestone abandons crisis-wracked Venezuela after 62 years.

OKAY, IT’S EARLY IN THE NIGHT, BUT WHY NOT?  THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: Elijah Wood Says Hollywood Has a Pedophilia Problem.

GIVEN WHAT CUBANS DID IN MOZAMBIQUE THEY ARE A COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA WHO KNOWS A LOT ABOUT IMPERIALISM: But of course that’s not what they mean! Fidel Castro, Evo Morales discuss ‘imperialist efforts’ in Latin America.  I mean, Fidel could teach a master class about the how tos of kleptocracy, tyranny and imperialism.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Understanding Societal Collapse: Warnings From Venezuela’s Crisis. “Sadly, collapse is not just a theoretical worry for a growing number of people around the world. They’re living within it right now.”

The guy interviewed is the author of The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse.

REMINDER: IN 2009, BARACK OBAMA “JOKED” ABOUT AUDITING HIS ENEMIES.

Now: IRS Employee Admits He Would Go After, Target, and Try to End Conservative Groups.

BREAKING BAD’S Bryan Cranston: ‘Most Bizarre’ Election Season Reducing ‘Level of Apathy:’

PJM mentioned that the turnout among GOP voters in the primary election has been record-high. Cranston was asked if he would be supporting the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

“No. I have no problem and no hesitation in announcing I would not support Donald Trump. I can’t even keep a straight face when I say it. The man has tremendous ambition but I find little behind the ambition. In fact, it appears to me it’s the emperor wearing no clothes. I don’t see anything behind it,” Cranston said.

“He just keeps the demagoguery going on and on, mentioning a problem in a generality and telling people that he’s going to fix it. It’s like, ah, that’s no policy. Let’s hear what you have to say specifically – and he’s very, very short on that so, no, he won’t be getting my support.”

That’s pretty rich coming from a guy who (presumably) thinks that Dalton Trumbo was one of the good guys.

NOW OUT FROM SARAH HOYT: Through Fire (Darkship Book Four).

ON FACEBOOK, Brendan O’Neill has this to say about Austria’s election: “Extraordinary: 72% of working-class voters in Austria voted for Hofer, the far-right candidate, and only 5% of them voted for Van der Bellen, the green. This is the real story of the Austrian election: the left in Europe, and the European Union, now have no connection whatsoever with working-class people. The left is celebrating Hofer’s defeat, seemingly unaware that the more profound defeat is theirs. The rupture between the left and the working class in Europe is now complete.”

As in the United States, the Left is the party of the apparatchiks, not the workers.

THAT’S GOOD, BECAUSE MINE IS USUALLY A BALANCE NUTRITION BAR OR SOMETHING SIMILARLY UNMAGICAL: Sorry, there’s nothing magical about breakfast.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Amputee Gamer Gets A Bionic Arm With an Interactive Screen, Charger, and Drone.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: DYSFUNCTIONAL FEDERAL POLICIES ACCELERATE FLIGHT TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Gosh, who could have seen this coming?

AT AMAZON, Father’s Day Deals in Lawn & Garden.

Plus, the Kindle Kids’ Bundle, $89.99.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: When leaders cheat, followers … follow: The trust that underlies a law-abiding society is rotting away thanks to double-dealing in Washington.

YES. NEXT QUESTION? The year of the unlikable candidate?

BORN ON DATE 3000 BC: 5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe Revealed.