THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Near ‘Collapse,’ Minnesota to Raise Obamacare Rates by Half.

DEBATE COMMISSION: Actually, there was a problem with Trump’s microphone.

Somewhere, the ghost of Don Hewitt smiles knowingly.

MASCOTS OF THE ANOINTED: Alicia Machado Is 2016’s Sandra Fluke, A Democratic Public Relations Scam.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Hold a conservative view, get ratted out to your university’s administration.

If you have conservative thoughts, you’d be wise not to voice them if you’re on the Grand Valley State University campus.

Two professors at the school, which is located in Michigan, were reported to the school’s bias response team (it’s exactly what you think it is) by their students for voicing conservative viewpoints, according to documents obtained by the College Fix.

One of the professors stated he or she (the report does not indicate how the professor self-identified) believed there were only two genders and wouldn’t use alternate pronouns like ze or zir. The other professor said he believed children should be raised by a mother and father. The second professor was required to have a conversation with his department chair about the “incident.”

It is a silly place.

CALIFORNIA’S MORAL SUPERIORITY COMPLEX: “Jerry Brown this week signed into law Assembly Bill 797, which gives anyone the ‘right’ to smash a stranger’s car window to rescue animals that might be in distress from heat or cold. In a sane society, I suppose such a rule would be fine. But in a state filled with busybodies, this one will get weird. Think of Nick Lowe’s song, ‘I love the sound of breaking glass’… The legislation epitomizes much that’s wrong with California’s Capitol and with capitols across the country. Legislators are eager to push ‘Nanny State’ bills — and California is ahead of the curve in this and (most other) bad trends. But, in reality, the bigger problem is our people. It’s tough to maintain any semblance of a free society when citizens are eager to catch each other doing something wrong — or to report others to government officials.”

But on the flipside, once every California citizen has turned himself and his neighbor in for thoughtcrime, they can now all vote from behind bars, the L.A. Times reports: “Despite widespread opposition from law enforcement, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a bill that will allow thousands of felons in county jails to vote in California elections as part of an effort to speed their transition back into society.”

Huh – layers and layers of fact checkers and editors, and the L.A. Times still managed to spell “to ensure Sacramento’s permanent Democrat majority” wrong.

HEY, EVEN OBAMA’S A BIRTHER* THESE DAYS. White House ‘Corrects’ Press Release and Strikes ‘Israel:’ Obama administration says Israeli founding father was not buried in Israel.

* But then, he always was.

REMEMBER, VOTER FRAUD IS A MYTH: Virginia Young Democrat Caught Registering Dead WWII Veteran to Vote.

AT LONG LAST, THAT MYSTERIOUS PERSON WHO’S FOREVER PREVENTING OBAMA FROM BEING CLEAR WILL BE VANQUISHED: Obama implies he’ll be more vocal about issues after he leaves office.

As foreshadowed by the scowling Rev. Wright-esque photo of Obama atop the article, his inner MSNBC anchor will finally be unleashed.

I AGREE, I’D TAKE SUMMER YEAR-ROUND IF I COULD. Well, I’d take a week of nonstop snow between Christmas and New Year’s, with a week of fall before, and a week of Spring after. For variety.

AND THEY’RE JUST CRAZY ENOUGH TO TRY IT: FEC Dems lay groundwork to ban Fox, WSJ political coverage.

CAPITALISM, YOU IS DOING IT WRONG: How corporations can be a force for good.

Corporations should be encouraged and rewarded for stepping up to solve society’s problems. That will require a change in mind-set. Today, corporate leaders are graded on stock price, not on the amount of good their companies do. We must broaden our evaluation of corporations beyond share prices to provide space, light and water for their role to grow.

How… ridiculous.  Also insane.  (Yeah, I could say other words, but not PG ones.) Commerce and social policy are totally different things, and when you mix them neither turns out particularly well.  But statists got to control.

FROM SEAN GOLDEN: Warlord (The War Chronicles Book 3). 

COMING SOON TO A USA NEAR YOU: Threat of Canadian Tyranny Against Catholic Hospitals.

NEW BOOK FROM STEPHANIE OSBORN:Fear in the French Quarter (Displaced Detective). 

HILLARY COULDN’T BE PROVEN GUILTY, WITHOUT PROVING THE PRESIDENT GUILTY ALSO: I have a vague memory of something called “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”  I SWEAR I remember it existing. Must be in a different universe.  One where laws still mean something. VIDEO: Why the FBI Let Hillary Clinton Go Free.

BACK WHEN WE HAD FRIENDS:

At 10:45 a.m. on 9/11 — minutes after the North Tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed — New York’s cellphone service was almost nonexistent. Yet, as I walked up Third Avenue, my phone rang. Peres was on the line.

“You OK?” he asked. “You know where Don Rumsfeld is? Talk to me.”

“Shimon,” I answered, “I’m the consul general in New York. Rumsfeld runs the Pentagon. How the hell do I know where he is?”

Fine, Peres said. “These sh-ts hit New York! New York! Do you get that? I’m coming over.”

Read the whole thing: Remembering Shimon Peres — the Israeli leader who saw it all.

THE GAME CHANGER: I linked to this earlier today but I’m going to bump it. Bet Campaign 2016 histories will discuss it.

THIS JUST GETS WORSE: Zika-related birth defects likely higher than anticipated: panel.

Earlier this year, a U.S. analysis estimated the risk of microcephaly following a mother’s infection with the virus during the first trimester of pregnancy at between 1 percent and 13 percent.

That figure does not include the overall risk of risk of birth defects, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a panel discussion on Zika.

“If you’re talking about any congenital defect I think it’s going to be much higher than 13 percent,” he said. “I think we’re going to see something very disturbing.”

The panel was presented by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with Reuters.

Seems like only a vaccine can really control this problem: Mosquito control is just a stopgap.

2016 IN A NUTSHELL: Jerry Brown Just Signed a Tough-on-Rape Bill That’s So Bad, Even Feminists Hate It.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE WATCH: Three Understandable (But Untrue) Assumptions About Teachers.

WHY CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL: Because teenagers enjoy violence. “Living in the mean streets makes you tough and tough is what 15-year-olds want to be seen as, especially by other 15-year-olds. Chicago is a bit like a real life horror movie where every moment could be your last. But people, especially teens, like horror movies.”

Gangs of young men strutting and killing people is the default state for humanity. Civilization is what puts that under control. Until it doesn’t.

WAPO: It turns out Donald Trump was right about his defective microphone. Vindication?

THEY BREAK YOUR LEG, THEN HAND YOU A CRUTCH AND EXPECT YOU TO BE GRATEFUL: Did landmark laws from Congress enable high drug prices? “Lawmakers are venting outrage over high prescription drug costs, but lawmakers and presidents of both parties may have set the stage for the startling prices that have consumers on edge. As the proverb says: Physician, heal thyself. In the last 13 years, Congress passed major legislation that expanded taxpayer-financed coverage for prescription drugs but lacked explicit mechanisms for dealing with costs, instead relying mainly on market forces. Lawmakers look like unwitting enablers in the eyes of some experts.”

Yes, who could have imagined that uncontrolled subsidies could lead to huge price increases as sellers try to capture as much of the subsidy as they can? Next you’ll be telling us that happens with college tuition!

CRIME OF THE CENTURY: Man steals $220 worth of tequila by hiding bottles in shorts in Manchester.

It’s my experience that tequila and pants have never gone together well.

FLU SHOTS IN, nasal spray out.