AMERICA’S SLANTED MAINSTREAM MEDIA: A brief survey.

A MIXTEC CODEX REVEALED? Has hi-tech imaging discovered a pre-Spanish codex? The Mixtec lived in what is now the Oaxaca region of contemporary Mexico.

JOHN OLIVER TELLS TRUMP TO DROP OUT: But of course – he’s a spokesman for Time-Warner-CNN-HBO, which is one of Hillary’s top ten financial contributors, according to Open Secrets.org.

WHILE HILLARY WAS SECRETARY OF STATE HER OFFICE DISCUSSED STATE DEPT BUSINESS WITH CLINTON FOUNDATION EXECS:

Call logs from the office of Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, show Mills had frequent contact with top executives at the Clinton Foundation. The logs, which were obtained by Citizens United through the Freedom of Information Act, indicate the foundation’s chief operating officer, Laura Graham, called Mills often to discuss State Department business.

Call it what it is. Crooked.

CHANGE: Western Leaders Want Islamic Terror to Seem ‘Normal.’

SIGN ME UP: You Can Now Get Paid To Travel Europe And Drink Gin.

Don’t even ask if there are benefits — did you read the job description?

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Plus, save on Guitars.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Lessons From The Cajun Navy: Don’t Wait For Help. Be The Help.

MY EARLIER POST ASKING WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE EVAN MCMULLIN CANDIDACY PRODUCED A LOT OF DISCUSSION IN THE COMMENTS, and this email from Jim Bennett:

He’s a stalking horse for Romney. The scenario would be, McMullin takes Utah, and maybe Idaho. Then, before Dec. 15, he publicly instructs his electors to vote for Romney. Some other GOP electors may follow suit, since they are nominated by the state parties, not the Trump campaign.

Then, assuming a lack of Electoral College majority, the House chooses among Hillary, Trump, and Romney. Romney’s 2012 vote total may well be larger than either Hillary’s or Trump’s 2016 vote, which has no legal meaning but shows that he’s not an absurd choice. Plus he was right abut Russia, etc. Whereas if Romney ran openly, people would only look at his 2016 vote which would be minuscule, And he wouldn’t want to put his family through a campaign being trashed by both the Hillary andTrump machines. This way he gets to be the white knight.

I expect a whispering campaign letting folks in Utah know this is the scenario might be going on soon.

The biggest flaw is the requirement that Hillary not get an outright Electoral College majority.

Yeah, it’s going to take more than one state to ensure that, probably.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Massachusetts Will Tax Uber to Subsidize Taxi Industry. That’s Absurd.

The state’s “MassDevelopment” agency—a crony-corporatist sinkhole of misappropriated funds, if ever there was one—will be responsible for figuring out how to spend the money to best help the taxi industry. One idea is to help taxis “adopt new technologies,” which probably means using an app to hail a cab. So Massachusetts is robbing Peter to pay Paul so that Paul can learn how to do the thing Peter already does.

Ride-sharing services have little choice but to accept the fee: indeed, they practically have to thank the government for going easy on them. The new law is apparently some sort of compromise—taxi lobbyists wanted Uber banned outright.

The bill was signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who is apparently the kind of blue-state Republican that Democrats can count on to “do the right thing.”

But the question remains: Why are blue state governments so hostile to emerging industries patronized by (and provide jobs to) technologically savvy young people?

MOST OF THIS WAS LEFT OUT OF THE PRESS COVERAGE: A Gawker Post-Mortem: The inside story of the trial, its dirty PR campaign and the Russian oligarch who sponsored Nick Denton’s legal case.

20TH CENTURY CRIME: Antlers Hunter S Thompson stole from Hemingway’s home returned to family.

This might be the most Hunter S Thompson story ever.

IF YOU GAZE INTO THE COOKIE JAR LONG ENOUGH, THE COOKIE JAR GAZES BACK AT YOU. Cookie Monster Searches Deep Within Himself and Asks: Is Me Really Monster?

WAIT, I THOUGHT EUROPEANS WERE OUTRAGED AT AMERICAN SPYING: Belgium Called In The NSA To Help Catch Paris Attacker.

AT AMAZON, save on Point & Shoot Digital Cameras. Which have gotten, as you can see, amazingly good and surprisingly cheap.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Lessons From The Cajun Navy: Don’t Wait For Help. Be The Help.

IF ONLY THERE WERE SOME WAY TO KILL LARGE NUMBERS OF MOSQUITOES INEXPENSIVELY: New York City Wages War on the Zika Virus. Though to their credit, they’re spraying.

YES, EVEN IN WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia University Offers Students Guide On “Using Gender Neutral Pronouns Such As ‘Ve,’ ‘Ver’ And ‘Vis’”

These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.

WHEN DO WE FIND OUT HE PUT A DOG CARRIER ON THE ROOF OF HIS CAR?

Shot: WashPost Expose: A Young Trump Pulled on Pigtails, Threw Rocks.

—NewsBusters, today.

Chaser:  Romney hair-cutting prank: School leaders say similar incidents today would bring punishment.

—The Washington Post, May 11th, 2012.

I always enjoy NFL games where they break out the old throwback uniforms, so it’s nice to see the Washington Post still using the same playbook from the days of leather helmets and the single-wing formation.

EW: Birthday present: Hillary teases Bill by dressing as Dolly Parton.

Could be worse. She could have worn a blue dress.

CLARIFICATION? Donald Trump: ‘I’m not flip-flopping’ on immigration.

“I’m not flip flopping,” the Republican presidential nominee told Fox News on the issue Monday. “We want to come up with a fair but firm process. Fair but firm.” He did not, however, provide any specifics or elaborate on his position further.

When asked by repeated questioning by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday whether Trump stood behind the idea of a deportation task force, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s new campaign manager, responded, “to be determined.”

Conway was responding to reports about what was said in a meeting Trump held on Saturday with a Hispanic advisory council. Sources in the room told BuzzFeed that Trump spoke about a “humane and efficient” way to work with undocumented immigrants in the country currently, which was characterized by BuzzFeed as a way to legalize some and let them stay.

A muddled response to an anticipated question on a potential wedge issue is just one reason why solid and consistent messaging is vital to any winning campaign.

LIE OF THE DECADE: Obama’s ransom payment to Iran out-lies Hillary and even his own Obamacare mendacity, Jed Babbin writes at the American Spectator:

Obama has said repeatedly that the deal blocks all of Iran’s paths to nuclear weapons, which is precisely the opposite of the truth. Hillary won’t disturb Obama’s lies about the Iran deal because it’s as much a part of her legacy as it is a part of his.

Obama’s lies — on Islamic terrorism, Iran, Syria, Russia, China and the rest — will remain undisturbed if, as seems likely, America elects the woman Safire labeled congenital liar as president. On Iran, Obama’s lies deserve the label “historic” because they will shape our history, and those of our allies.

When presidential lies are synonymous with policy, our nation is in great danger.

Indeed™. Or as Glenn warned in 2011, “Up to now, comparisons with Carter were a tool of Obama’s critics. From now on, they’re likely to be a tool of his defenders. Because as bad as Carter was, Obama is shaping up to be worse. Much worse.”

Of course, Carter hasn’t lacked for leftwing apologists to spin even his most embarrassing moments. The scrotal torque-inducing spin to defend his successor’s myriad disasters will be astonishing to witness in the coming years.

DEALS IN Amazon Instant Video.

MERKEL’S MIGRANT POLICY not polling so well.

WHITE HUNTER, BLACK MARKET: Save the Rhino by Privatizing It.

(Classical reference in the headline; poachers come in all colors.)