JOE SAUNDERS: 2 Of The Biggest Names In Media Just Spilled The Beans…Trump Was Absolutely Right.

There’s more than one way to rig an election.

With the pack-mentality newshounds in the American media baying for Donald Trump’s blood during the dog days of August, the sheer brazenness of the mainstream’s efforts to carry Hillary Clinton to victory in the November general election is passing all bounds.

And partisans passing themselves off as journalists are barely pretending anymore.

The column focuses on Chris Cuomo and Jorge Ramos, but if you think of most any of them as Democratic operatives with bylines, you won’t go wrong.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Does Black Success Matter?, asks Thomas Sowell. Not to those who wish to create as many mascots of the anointed* as possible, Milwaukee’s Sheriff David Clarke responds:

Clarke has appeared numerous times on the Fox News Channel, but not so much in other media. On Monday, The Washington Post carried a story about the riots and ignored Clarke, choosing instead to quote Milwaukee’s chief of police, Edward Flynn. I suspect that’s because Clarke speaks some hard truths, which many liberals do not want to hear.

In an appearance Monday on Fox, Clarke, who is African-American, offered his explanation for the major cause of riots in Milwaukee and other cities: “You know what encourages this? The growth of the welfare state. These are underclass behaviors. Seventy percent of the kids born in Milwaukee are born without an engaged father in their life. So I look at the progressive policies that have marginalized black dads. They push them to the side and say ‘you’re not needed.’ Uncle Sam is going to be the dad, he’s going to provide for the kids, he’s going to feed the kids. Uncle Sam has been a horrible father. Uncle Sam does not love these kids. He might keep a little food in their mouths and that is about it. But we all know the importance of an intact family, what it can do to shape the behavior of kids.”

Clarke called progressive policies “a total disaster,” not only in Milwaukee, but in Chicago, Baltimore, New York and elsewhere. “These progressive policies have hit the black community like a nuclear blast and until we reverse this government dependency, that’s what creates all of this and it encourages it by the way, along with some questionable lifestyle choices.”

Read the whole thing.

* Classical reference.

SAVING SCIENCE: Science isn’t self-correcting, it’s self-destructing. To save the enterprise, scientists must come out of the lab and into the real world.

CRAZY THEORY: THIS YEAR THE RIGHT IS WINNING THE CULTURE WARS.

I think it’s more of a case of the cultural left being exhausted and having overreached on a variety of issues that have badly cheesed off the American public, but hey, even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers eventually turned the corner on their 0 and 26 record. But let’s check back in November before getting too excited on this one.

In the meantime though, note this item in Jim Geraghty’s post:

Enrollment at the University of Missouri is expected to decline by 2,600 students in the fall, aggravating a bad budget situation and making it likely the pain will extend for several years as the shrunken fall freshman class filters through to graduation.

Vice Chancellor of Finance Rhonda Gibler, in an interview ahead of a campus budget forum Wednesday, said campus divisions have been told to plan for 2 percent cuts to general fund budgets for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 in addition to 5 percent cuts ordered for the year that begins July 1…

The latest enrollment figures point to a decline of 1,400 first-time freshmen, to about 4,800, and 1,200 other students, Gibler said. For every 100 fewer Missouri undergraduate students who are on campus, the university loses $1 million in tuition revenue. That rises to $2.5 million for 100 fewer undergraduates from outside the state.

Unexpectedly.

IT’S WORSE THAN YOU KNOW: Dehumanization and Murder in Assad’s Prisons.

ROGER KIMBALL: Was Last Night the Turning Point in Trump’s Campaign?

Last night’s speech was significant for several reasons. Substantively, it hammered home a truth that is as uncomfortable as it necessary to acknolwedge: that the dreadful plight of Black Americans is largely the creation of Democrats.

Aside: in a rare obeisance to political correctness, Trump consistently referred to “African-Americans.” Perhaps that is politically expedient. But I believe it is patronizing. As Teddy Rooseventl observed, “hyphenated-Americans” are a threat to the integrity of the country. We are not Irish-Americans or German-American or African-Americans (a term that is especially bizarre because it is applied indiscriminately to certain dark-skinned people: Jamaica, for example, is not part of Africa). We are simply Americans whose ancestors happen to be from Ireland, Germany, Kenya, or wherever.

But back to that perhaps startling claim about Democrats being largely responsible for the plight of Black Americans. Donald Trump is quite correct: “Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have taken African-American votes totally for granted.” Until now, anyway, the Black vote has run according to the Democratic script.

What is that script? Lyndon Johnson articulated it in its purest, as well as its crassest, form when, in 1964, he remarked to two like-minded Democratic governors that with his Great Society programs, “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.”

It hasn’t been 200 years, yet, but for the last fifty years, as patronizing Democratic programs stifled freedom and individual initiative and erected an increasingly burdensome (and expensive) governmental cocoon around their minority charges, the Black vote has been largely in the pocket of its new plantation owners.

The “Great Society” did not abolish poverty. That was never the intention. It institutionalized poverty, creating along the way an engorging bureaucracy that was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic party. As Trump pointed out in his speech in Milwaukee earlier this week, all of the nation’s failed cities–Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, Memphis, Milwaukee itself–have been under Democratic control for decades. Milwaukee, for example, has been Democratic since 1908. Do you suppose that there is a connection between the disasters—the poverty, the crime, the corruption—that have engulfed these cities and the political complexion of their leadership? Or is it merely fortuitous? To ask the question is to answer it.

Regular readers know that I have found find a lot to criticize about Donald Trump. I stand by those criticisms. But I also acknowledge a new note in Trump’s campaign. His speeches of the last couple of weeks have outlined with clarity and conviction that he is serious about bringing about significant change.

Well, stay tuned. The addition of Kellyanne Conway seems to be making a difference.

KNOWN WOLF ALERT: Man Who Stabbed Rabbi In Strasbourg Shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ Involved in Prior Stabbing.

PIVOT: Manafort Out after Trump Campaign Shake-Up.

WELL, SHE SHOULD BE: Merkel under pressure over 43,000 Islamist lunatics on the loose.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1098.

QUESTION ASKED: Is the mafia fighting ISIS and keeping them from attacking Italy?

SMALL WARS JOURNAL: Explaining the Obama Administration Overlooking Iran’s Cheating on the Nuke Deal.

There might be good reasons for the administration officials to overlook the facts. First, a public acknowledgement of Iran’s cheatings would unravel the agreement. Second, the unraveling of the agreement would result in Iran expelling the IAEA inspectors and expedite the nuclear weapons program. There is not enough time to utilize economic sanctions to stop the break out. Clearly, the Obama administration lacks credibility in making threats of military strikes after the administration’s refusal to enforce its red lines when Assad used chemical bombs against civilians. With the evaporation of Obama’s military deterrence, the actual use of military strikes is the only option left to stop Iran’s nuclear bomb, an option President Obama does not wish to use. Thus, by ignoring Iran’s violations, it is hoped that Iran would proceed slowly which would allow the Obama administration to postpone a forceful response to the next president. The next president’s threat of force might be the only option other than actual military strikes to convince Ayatollah Khamenei to stop going nuclear.

President Obama made a huge gamble. The evidence clearly shows that he lost the gamble.

I’ve been forced to conclude that a nuclear-armed Iran, welcomed back into the “community of nations,” may be exactly what Obama wanted all along.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Black Families in Georgia Are Rejecting Public School:

During the 1950s and 60s, America’s black families fought a difficult battle to integrate the public schools, hoping to give their children a better education. Because of this hard-won victory, many black parents have been strong supporters of public schools in the subsequent decades.

But that support may be changing.

According to a recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, an increasing number of black families are leaving public schools for the same reason they once embraced them, and are instead gravitating to homeschooling.

Quoting a former public-school-teacher-turned-homeschool-mom named Nikita Bush, The Monitor explains this movement:

“Despite the promises of the civil rights movement, ‘people are starting to realize that public education in America was designed for the masses of poor, and its intent has been to trap poor people into being workers and servants. If you don’t want that for your children, then you look for something else,’ she says.” . . .

What’s clear is that parents – even traditional public school supporters – are growing tired of their children coming out of the system with subpar educations.

Is it possible that homeschooling – and the higher academic achievement which seems to accompany it – might be more accessible to more families if other states adopted Georgia’s model and enabled parents to band together and lead their children to success and a bright future?

Why yes, yes it is.

CHANGE: Clinton Foundation to Limit Foreign Donations if Hillary Wins Presidency.

And a reminder from last year:

The Federalist looked at the Clinton Foundation’s IRS filings for the period between 2008 and 2012. According to its analysis, only 15 percent of the $500 million raised during that span when towards grants for other organizations.

Nearly $110 million was paid out in the form of salaries and benefits while $25 million went towards travel expenses. Almost 60 percent of the organization’s disclosed revenue — or $290 million — was listed under the category of “other expenses.”

That pattern continued into 2013, The Post notes. Of the $140 million in money the Clinton Foundation received in 2013, only $9 million was given out as charity to other groups.

In general, groups that monitor charities’ activities say a good charity spends at least 75 percent of its income on causes related to its core mission.

Limiting foreign donations won’t fix what’s wrong with the Clinton Foundation.

GLUT: Even Warning of Full-Out War in Ukraine Can’t Faze Gas Traders.

Cheap energy doesn’t just hit Putin right in the coffers, it also reduces his ability to economically blackmail western Europe.

ROGER SIMON ASKS Will National Security Finally Bring Warring Republicans Together?

Read the whole thing.

WELCOME TO POST-KEMALIST TURKEY: Dozens of Turkey academics held in post-coup crackdown.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 academics nationwide, the private Dogan news agency reported, while the state-run Anadolu agency said Istanbul authorities were separately hunting 62 academics from the city’s main university.

A total of 74 scholars had been detained so far in both operations, media said.

A large majority of the suspects in the nationwide raids were from Selcuk University in Konya, central Anatolia — a conservative bastion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) — including the university’s former rector, Professor Hakki Gokbel.

It wasn’t a failed coup; it’s a successful purge.

FLASHBACK: Obama Promises No Vacations For Himself As President.

AT AMAZON, fresh deals on bestselling products, updated every hour.

Also, coupons galore in Grocery & Gourmet Food.

Plus, Kindle Daily Deals.

And, Today’s Featured Digital Deal. The deals are brand new every day, so browse and save!

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Free Speech in the 21st Century: Speech is Freer, But People Are Not.

LOADS OF COMMENTS ON last night’s post on Trump’s pivot speech.

FIVE WEEKS AFTER THE TURKISH COUP: More teachers and professors arrested. It’s a full court purge.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Crony Capitalism is a Feature (Not a Bug) of Obamacare.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study estimates that 664 counties will only feature one single insurer on Obamacare exchanges in 2017. In 2016, it was 225. Four entire states will have only one Obamacare insurer. In one Arizona county, there may be none. Since Obamacare, in effect, solidified in-state insurance cartels, the exchanges are starting to look very much the same. But opening markets up across state (and national) lines is a silly idea, I bet.

At first, Aetna denied that its move was connected to the Justice Department’s merger decision. Even in the most generous reading, this turns out not to be exactly true. At The Huffington Post, Jonathan Cohn and Jeffery Young have gotten their hands on a letter from Aetna’s CEO that critics seem to believe catches Aetna threatening the administration.

The correspondence has gotten Democrats very agitated, even though their policies are creating the problem.

“Free markets” will take the blame for ObamaCare’s failures, because the only Progressive cure for crony capitalism is fatter cronies.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER:

Trump runs first general election ad.

NEW: @realDonaldTrump's first general election ad. Hits Clinton on "rigged system," touts Trump on immigration –> pic.twitter.com/oJrKgQIH8o

— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) August 19, 2016