IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT “the bureaucracy is the front line of defense against executive abuses,” then I think you should favor a Trump presidency, as the bureaucrats — allied with the press, of course — will do more to check misbehavior by Trump than they’ll ever conceivably do to check misbehavior by Hillary. And certainly much more than they’ve done with Obama, who has weaponized the IRS, the EPA, the Department of Justice, and a host of other federal agencies, all the way down to the Park Service, with barely a peep from within the bureaucracy.

So what people worry about with Trump has already happened under Obama. And that’s part of the problem. Obama broke down and devalued a lot of political traditions in this country, to very little objection from the parts of the political class that matter. That opened up a hole for Trump. My main positive expectation for a Trump presidency is that he will remind people of why those political traditions were important.

DEMOCRATS REBUFF SANDERS SUPERDELEGATE PLAN: “The Democratic Rules Committee voted down an effort to abolish the role of unbound superdelegates, dealing a blow to Bernie Sanders supporters, many of whom see the superdelegate system as unfair.”

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Why Are Voters So Angry? They want self-government back, Myron Magnet, the founder of City Journal writes.

Read the whole thing.

THESE DAYS IT’S MORE LIKE GALLOPING: A Very Depressing Chart on Creeping Cronyism in the American Economy.

Related (From Ed): White House pumps $4.5 billion into electric car charging amid sales slump.

IN KNOXVILLE: Prayer Vigils held for Knoxville law enforcement. “Groups gathered outside the Knoxville Police Department and the Knoxville Sheriff’s Department for the public vigils, holding signs that read ‘Pray for KPD.’ At these events, civilians stood shoulder to shoulder with police officers as they shared a moment of prayer.”

Related: City of Knoxville unveils mosaic honoring Zaevion Dobson.

IT’S MORE OF A GLEEFUL LEAP THAN A “SLIDE,” REALLY: Erdogan’s Putsch: Turkey’s Post-Coup Slide into Dictatorship.

HILLARY’S NOT ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING, DUDE: Bernie Sanders Campaign Chief Says Someone Must Be ‘Accountable’ for What DNC Emails Show.

I THINK WE SHOULD CALL IT “GOLD-PRESSED LATINUM.” Physicists Combine Gold with Titanium And Quadruple Its Strength.

JOHN HINDERAKER: On Violence, Obama Obfuscates As Usual. “The violent crime rate has been falling since it peaked in the 1990s, and it continued to fall during the early years of the Obama administration. What is causing concern, however, is that after decades of decline the homicide and violent crime rates are rising again. What Obama fails to mention is that the homicide rate jumped alarmingly in 2015–up by 6.2% over 2014, according to the FBI. So this year’s “uptick”–the homicide rate is increasing again–is on top of that jump last year. And it isn’t just in “some cities,” the national rate is up significantly during the last year and a half. . . . But those bare numbers aren’t the real point. Ten years ago, there was not a movement dedicated to attacking, and sometimes killing, police officers–worse, a movement supported by the President of the United States himself. Ten years ago, police officers were sometimes killed in shootouts with felons, but we didn’t have ideologues hunting police officers on the streets, and shooting them en masse.”

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WELL, THEY SHOULD: Wikileaks: DNC Fretted Over Proposed POTUS Host’s Ties to Sex Offender Jeffrey Epstein.

I’M WITH THE BANNED: “What my evening with Milo told me about Twitter’s biggest troll, the death of reason, and the crucible of A-list con-men that is the Republican National Convention,” from leftwing British journalist Laurie Penny:

Milo is excited. This is his night. How does he feel about his suspension?

“It’s fantastic,” he says, “It’s the end of the platform. The timing is perfect.”

He was planning for something like this. “I thought I had another six months, but this was always going to happen.”

Milo shows no remorse for the avalanche of misconduct he helped direct towards Leslie Jones, who is just the latest victim of the recreational ritual abuse he likes to launch at women and minorities for the fame and fun of it. According to the law of the wild web, the spoils go to those with fewest fucks to give. I have come to believe, in the course of our bizarro unfriendship, that Milo believes in almost nothing concrete—not even in free speech. The same is reportedly true of Trump, of people like Ann Coulter, of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage: They are pure antagonists unencumbered by any conviction apart from their personal entitlement to raw power and stacks of cash.

Milo puts on a bulletproof jacket before his big entrance. He does this “because it’s funny,” although he worries that it may be insufficiently flattering. “I’m going to send it to my guy at Louis Vuitton.” It’s all an act. A choreographed performance by a career sociopath who will claim any cause to further his legend. Milo Yiannopoulos is the ideological analogue of Kim Kardashian’s rear end. Trickster breaks the internet.

As Glenn has noted in regards to Milo, “to survive in an outrage culture, it helps to be outrageous.” It’s the sort of behavior that the American media rewards greatly – wait ‘til Penny discovers Obama’s shtick in 2008.

WIKILEAKS FLASHBACK: ‘Guccifer 2.0’ Is Likely a Russian Government Attempt To Cover Up Their Own Hack.

ANALYSIS TRUE, ALAS: When It Comes to Islam, Western Leaders Are Liars or Idiots.

As Mark Steyn has written, “‘Why do they hate us?’ was never the right question. ‘Why do they despise us?’ is a better one.”

SCREAMING CAMPUS GARBAGE BABIES DON’T EMERGE FROM A VACUUM. The School that Banned Clapping:

A school in Sydney [Australia] has banned clapping at assemblies in favour of “silent cheering”, “excited faces” and “punching the air”.

The rule was introduced to respect a teacher with a hearing condition that causes sensitivity to noise, said New South Wales education officials.

The school has said the practice also “reduces fidgeting” in assemblies.

The NSW Education Department said clapping was still allowed at other school events.

‘Wriggle on the spot’

Elanora Heights Public School, on Sydney’s northern beaches, announced the no-clapping policy in its latest newsletter.

“If you’ve been to a school assembly recently, you may have noticed our students doing silent cheers,” it said.

“Instead of clapping, the students are free to punch the air, pull excited faces and wriggle about on the spot.

“The practice has been adopted to respect members of our school community who are sensitive to noise.

Thus dovetailing perfectly with the infamous Yale kids and their “jazz hands” last year:

When a Yale student’s angry meltdown at a professor went viral, viewers may have noticed the crowd gathered and some students snapping their fingers. It’s the currently preferred method of showing approval in some circles, given complaints that traditional clapping can be “triggering,” or even painful to hands unaccustomed to work. Although the curious digital trend is catching fire with the college crowd, it is not new or confined to the U.S.

Colleges, understandably, tend to get most of the blame for creating what Iowahawk brilliantly dubbed “screaming campus garbage babies,” But it’s a safe bet they arrive there with a few excesses already programmed in via their high school teachers, and left-leaning parents as well.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Ugly Truth Behind a College’s “Diversity” Requirement.

CAN POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH OVERCOME POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS?

This reads a bit like the late Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics, which has been in print since 1960, and is a fascinating look at reprogramming your brain to overcome its own sort of “repetitive stress injuries.”

STAY SAFE IF YOU’RE IN L.A.: Sand Fire Grows to 11,000 Acres in Santa Clarita Area, Is 10% Contained; Evacuations in Effect.

“The Sand Fire continues to burn part of the Angeles National Forest near Santa Clarita Saturday morning causing much of the Los Angeles Sky to look orange and cloudy,” the Los Angeles Daily News adds. A DJ on Sirius-XM broadcasting from L.A. mentioned how darkened much of the L.A. sky is today. It’s certainly ominous looking in this AP wire photo taken today:

THE NEURAL UNDERPINNINGS OF VOLITION? This