ROGER SIMON: Trump, Ryan and the Islam Problem — Our existential threat: Will we be America or will we turn semi-Islamic like France?

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1103.

RON RADOSH: The New York Times Takes on The Donald—and Falls Flat On Its Face:

Nothing Trump has done comes close to what these women accused Bill Clinton of doing, including while he was president of the United States. At the time, liberal Democrats and prominent feminists said not one thing in these women’s defense, since as they often said—Bill is on the right side of the issues, especially abortion. Indeed, one famous female journalist wrote that she would sleep with him anytime, just to thank him for supporting abortion.

Read the whole thing.

POTEMKIN PUTIN: More show than go:

Vladimir Putin held a press event at his residence in Sochi on Thursday to show off a brand new military-grade version of a Russian-built UAZ Patriot truck. In the course of the inspection, Putin tried to open the front passenger-side door, but the door wouldn’t budge. The head of the Main Armor Office of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant-General Alexander Shevchenko, stepped up to help the President. The Russian General pulled on the door handle and it gave away, coming off in his hand. The nervous-looking general then proceeded to demonstrate the other strong points of the new UAZ: the back door still opens, and the vehicle can be fitted with a 12mm machine gun. The Patriot’s designers tried to explain away the incident: the handle did not work because the vehicle was “blocked” since the engine was not running.

It was by no means the first time Putin’s staged attempts at burnishing his country’s resurgent superpower status ran headlong into technical difficulties. Two weeks ago, Putin arrived at the newly-constructed Vostochny Cosmodrome to witness the launch of a Soyuz rocket. What was supposed to be a bold display of Russia’s prowess ended in debacle: the first launch failed to get off the ground due to “technical glitches”, and Putin had to stay in Blagoveshchensk, in Russia’s Far East, a second day for the rocket to finally take off.

A year ago a brand new next generation battle tank, the T-14 Armata, stalled in middle of the Red Square during a military parade rehearsal, two days before Putin’s favorite national holiday, Victory Day.

He’s good at spying and direct measures and other Chekist stuff, though.

BIBLE-WAVING MOTHER PARADES THROUGH TARGET WITH HER CHILDREN TO PROTEST TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS.

For the Obama administration, it’s far more important to wage war against this woman than ISIS. (Just ask them.)

HOPENCHANGE: Despite $10B ‘Fix,’ Veterans Are Waiting Even Longer To See Doctors.

This part is instructive:

Congress and the VA came up with a fix: Veterans Choice, a $10 billion program that was supposed to give veterans a card that would let them see a non-VA doctor if they were more than 40 miles away from a VA facility or they were going to have to wait longer than 30 days for a VA provider to see them.

There was a problem, though. Congress gave the VA only 90 days to set up the system. Facing that extremely tight time frame, the VA turned to two private companies to administer the program and help veterans get an appointment with a doctor and then work with the VA to pay that doctor.

Although the idea sounds simple enough, the fix hasn’t worked out as planned. Wait times have gotten worse — not better.

You don’t fix a broken program by putting it in charge of a new program.

FREE SPEECH UPDATE: University of Kansas Forms Free Speech Committee. Well, the example of what happened next door at Mizzou has to be making people think twice about the dangers of giving into campus activists.

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KURT SCHLICHTER: Clinton’s Crimes And Comey’s Choice.

FLASHBACK 2008: Christopher Hitchens: The Case Against Hillary Clinton: Why on earth would we choose to put the Clinton family drama at the center of our politics again?

SALENA ZITO interviews Donald Trump.

BRITISH BUSINESS BACKS BREXIT: “It is business – not government – which generates wealth for the Treasury and jobs for our communities. Outside the EU, British business will be free to grow faster, expand into new markets and create more jobs. It’s time to vote leave and take back control.”

WHEN THE SENSIBLE CENTER STOPS BEING SENSIBLE, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS: Political Polarization Proceeds in Europe.

‘WE NEED A MEDIC!’ Hillary, Bernie delegates clash at NV Dem convention.

Also in keeping with the left’s century old organizational theme of socialism as “the moral equivalent of war,” a Sanders supporter “tweeted a photo of the police lining the front of the room. She referred to them as ‘brown shirts.’”

NEW YORK SUN: The Shelter Of Federalism.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Venezuela Is Falling Apart.

The entrepreneur is one of the real people behind those zany “there’s no toilet paper in Venezuela” stories that play up the crisis for laughs, and clicks. But to Venezuelans like the present writers, and the entrepreneur, there’s nothing funny about the dark turn our country has taken. The experiment with “21st-century socialism” as introduced by the late President Hugo Chavez, a self-described champion of the poor who vowed to distribute the country’s wealth among the masses, and instead steered the nation toward the catastrophe the world is witnessing under his handpicked successor Maduro, has been a cruel failure.

Socialism always is a cruel failure. But it enriches and empowers the people at the top. All in the name of equality!

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Mike Bloomberg, Charles Koch team up to deride ‘safe spaces.’

AS VENEZUELA COLLAPSES, IT’S WORTH REVISITING THIS 2013 SALON PIECE: Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle: The Venezuelan leader was often marginalized as a radical. But his brand of socialism achieved real economic gains.

It’s easy to look good when you haven’t run out of other people’s money yet.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Why Are There So Few Conservative/Libertarian Law Profs, Even Though They Are More Productive Scholars Than Liberal Law Profs?

SHE’LL CHEAT THE OTHER GUY, AND PASS THE SAVINGS ON TO YOU! Penn Jillette on the psychology of HIllary’s followers.

We have Hillary Clinton — while you were alive, while you were sexually active, three years ago — saying marriage is just between a man and a woman. …

And yet many people in [the gay community] are supporting Hillary, and their reason for supporting her is that “she was always in favor of gay rights, but she had to say what she had to to be elected.” …

She came out in favor of the pacific trade deal, very strongly in favor of it, and now she’s against it.

And that’s not seen as flip-flopping, it’s not really seen as a revelation or learning something — it’s seen as “she is politically expedient, and we want someone who is politically expedient.”

The followers of Hillary Clinton seem to think they have a secret deal with her — where they understand what she really believes, what she’s really going to do — and they are willing to support her as she bends the truth in order to be elected. …

Why do the people who support Hillary think that what she’s saying is to manipulate other people and not to manipulate them?

Because they’re suckers. But they’re not the only politician’s supporters who think this.

IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER STRAITJACKET: The Craziest Writings Of Social Justice Warrior Academics.