AS USUAL, THE SPLC IS HACK-TASTIC: Jesse Walker: The Southern Poverty Law Center Strikes Again: What should we make of the SPLC’s annual count of “hate groups” and “anti-government groups”?

FIRE’S 10 WORST UNIVERSITIES FOR FREE SPEECH (2016): This week FIRE revealed our annual list of the 10 worst colleges and universities for free speech in the nation. Tragically, competition was stiff this year. Check out the whole list, but I wanted to reprint one case where readers can still fight back and make a difference. The blowup over Wesleyan University’s student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, was the first round in the often anti-free speech student activism that went on to dominate the headlines last fall. Whether you are a tweeter or a donor, let Wesleyan know that you think its so-called “commitment to the free exchange of ideas and pursuit of knowledge” is empty when it suppresses open discussion, especially from its own student press:

Wesleyan University

It’s been a rough year for the student press, and at few institutions has that been more evident than at Wesleyan University. Wesleyan was plunged into controversy last fall after its main student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, published a student column critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. Students mobilized in opposition to the column’s publication, circulating a petition calling for Wesleyan’s student government to defund the Argus unless specific demands were met. Among the petitioners’ plans to get its demands met was a movement to support “recycling” the Argus — another way of saying they would round up and destroy copies of the newspaper if their demands went unmet. Indeed, the Argus reported that several hundred copies of the paper were stolen in the midst of the controversy.

Wesleyan’s student government then took up the issue, voting last fall to approve a dangerous resolution that could turn free speech at Wesleyan on its head. Under the new resolution, which may take effect this fall, the Argus could see $17,000 in funding — more than half its budget — revoked and reallocated to other student publications. Worse, the proposal would allocate funding in significant part based on a popular vote of the whole student body, an open invitation to viewpoint discrimination if ever there was one. If Wesleyan doesn’t wise up to the dangerous flaws in the new funding scheme, an already chilled atmosphere for free speech will turn truly frosty.

MICHAEL LEDEEN EMBRACES THE HEALING POWER OF ‘AND:’ Idiocy AND Ideology? What Really Drives Obama?

FRACKING PRESENTS THE SAUDIS AND RUSSIANS WITH A PRICING SWORD OF DAMOCLES: “U.S. shale producers won’t have to go to great lengths to restart production. After all, they’ve been drilling but not yet fracking wells for months now, producing what’s come to be known as a ‘fracklog,’ which is set to flood the market with new supplies just as soon as market prices make it profitable to restart operations.”

COVERING THE IMPORTANT STORIES: “Sports Illustrated Fat Chicks and #SJWs… No Thanks!”, says Steven Crowder.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: “Trump is way ahead — for many reasons, but the most important is obvious and virtually ignored,” David Gelernter writes in the Weekly Standard. “Political correctness. Trump hasn’t made it a campaign theme exactly, but he mentions it often with angry disgust. Reporters, pundits, and the other candidates treat it as a sideshow, a handy way for Trump (King Kong Jr.) to smack down the pitiful airplanes that attack him as he bestrides his mighty tower, roaring. But the analysts have it exactly backward. Political correctness is the biggest issue facing America today.”

Indeed.™

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: DNA nanotechnology cages localize and optimize enzymatic reactions. “The technique involves the design of specialized, nanometer-scale cages, which self-assemble from lengths of DNA. The cages hold enzyme and substrate in close proximity, considerably accelerating the rate of reactions and shielding them from degradation.”

THE GOOD NEWS JUST KEEPS ON COMING: Zika May Increase Risk of Mental Illness, Researchers Say.

BERNIE’S BROTHER: MEDIA CAN’T DECIDE IF CLINTON IS ‘TERRIBLE RAPIST’ OR ‘NICE RAPIST.’

Really? Because I don’t see the DNC-MSM as being too upset with the former president’s crimes these days.

TO BE FAIR, SO DO QUITE A FEW EIGHTH-GRADERS: The Best AI Program Still Flunks an Eighth-Grade Science Test.

A QUESTION FOR THE ATLANTIC: Is the AR platform an underpowered jammomatic, like you had Major General Scales write? Or is it a nearly-automated, death-spraying killing machine, like you had Mark Obbie write? It’s whatever The Narrative needs it to be, of course.

21st CENTURY PROBLEMS: How To See Who Is Using Your Netflix and Messing Up All Your Recommendations.

MICHAEL TOTTEN: Moscow on the Tigris: Russia Joins the Terror Nexus.

HOPE: Joe Biden “could live with” Clinton or Sanders.

“I could live with either one of them,” Biden said. “I could support either one of them. I just have a different political sense of how we should be talking about the issues that face us, to enhance the possibility that we [the Democrats] keep the White House.”

Politico noted Biden extended his support “without much enthusiasm.”

Run, Joe, run!

EVEN A BROKEN CLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY: Charles Koch has an oped in the Washington Post, “This is the One Issue Where Bernie Sanders is Right.”

As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) often sounds like he’s running as much against me as he is the other candidates. I have never met the senator, but I know from listening to him that we disagree on plenty when it comes to public policy. . . .

Democrats and Republicans have too often favored policies and regulations that pick winners and losers. This helps perpetuate a cycle of control, dependency, cronyism and poverty in the United States. These are complicated issues, but it’s not enough to say that government alone is to blame. Large portions of the business community have actively pushed for these policies. . . . 

Whenever we allow government to pick winners and losers, we impede progress and move further away from a society of mutual benefit. This pits individuals and groups against each other and corrupts the business community, which inevitably becomes less focused on creating value for customers. That’s why Koch Industries opposes all forms of corporate welfare — even those that benefit us. (The government’s ethanol mandate is a good example. We oppose that mandate, even though we are the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the United States.)

It may surprise the senator to learn that our framework in deciding whether to support or oppose a policy is not determined by its effect on our bottom line (or by which party sponsors the legislation), but by whether it will make people’s lives better or worse. . . .

Our criminal justice system, which is in dire need of reform, is another issue where the senator shares some of my concerns. Families and entire communities are being ripped apart by laws that unjustly destroy the lives of low-level and nonviolent offenders.

Today, if you’re poor and get caught possessing and selling pot, you could end up in jail. Your conviction will hold you back from many opportunities in life. However, if you are well-connected and have ample financial resources, the rules change dramatically. Where is the justice in that? . . .

At this point you may be asking yourself, “Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern?”

Hardly.

I applaud the senator for giving a voice to many Americans struggling to get ahead in a system too often stacked in favor of the haves, but I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government’s control over people’s lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place. . . .

I don’t expect to agree with every position a candidate holds, but all Americans deserve a president who, on balance, can demonstrate a commitment to a set of ideas and values that will lead to peace, civility and well-being rather than conflict, contempt and division. When such a candidate emerges, he or she will have my enthusiastic support.

I’ve always thought it was strange for Democrats to spend so much energy demonizing the Kochs who are, after all, libertarians who agree with the left on many social issues. Most of their non-profit spending goes to educational efforts aimed at enhancing individual liberty (which explains why they are the functional equivalent of Lucifer to liberals/progressives/totalitarians).

I guess the left needs to have its base hate someone specific who is really rich–their anti-Soros, if you will. Most of the other mega-wealthy Americans either try to stay out of the political spotlight, or they become supplicants to the political left (e.g., Bill Gates or Warren Buffett) in their attempt to ward off its ire. Just ask Chick-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, Cracker Barrel, Whole Foods, Exxon, and many other businesses that have been the subject of negative publicity and boycotts (largely unsuccessful) after they dared to defy the political left. 

SNAP BACK: Obama Admin Could Halt New Iran-Russia Weapons Deals.

Could, but won’t:

The United States has the authority to block new multi-billion dollar arms deals between Iran and Russia though the administration is not expected to exercise this authority, which was granted under United Nations Security Council resolutions pertaining to the recently implemented nuclear agreement.

Senior Iranian and Russian officials held discussions this week about inking a new arms pact expected to be worth about $8 billion. Iran has reportedly sent Moscow a “shopping list” of various arms and military hardware it is seeking to purchase.

Blocking these sales would be an easy card for the White House to play to wring a concession or two out of Moscow and Tehran, but clearly the Administration has no interest in doing so.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1016.

ROGER KIMBALL: “Yesterday, Adam Falk, the president of Williams College, disgraced himself, the college that he leads, and the institution of free speech that he has claimed to support.”

NO SURPRISE: BLUE-MODEL GOVERNANCE LENDS ITSELF TO CORRUPTION. The Most Trusted State Governments Are Red.

Bad news for the blue model at the state level: According to a recent Gallup poll, red states are home to some of the most trusted state governments in the country, and blue states are home to some of the least. The four states whose governments have the highest “confidence” ratings—North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Montana—are all red, while the four states whose governments have the lowest ratings—Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey—are all deep blue. (Note: The terms red and blue refer to governing models, not partisan affiliation of the current state leadership; blue New Jersey has a Republican governor, and red Montana has a Democratic governor). . . .

Three of the four blue states most facing a confidence crisis are suffering from acute blue model decay in the form of runaway public pension costs. Illinois, according to the New York Times, is “facing one of the worst fiscal crises of any state in recent decades, largely because it has mismanaged its pension system.” Connecticut, despite being the wealthiest state per capita in the union, “has roughly half of what it needs to pay future retirement benefits for its workers,” according to the Wall Street Journal. And Moody’s recently warned New Jersey that it could face yet another credit downgrade if it loses a forthcoming pension lawsuit. (Rhode Island’s situation is less urgent, but still worrisome). Meanwhile, of the red state governments topping the list, all are comparatively fiscally healthy.

Is there a national lesson?

ROGER SIMON: Trump for President and National Talk Show Host.

KELSEY RUPP: Bernie Sanders Differentiates Himself in a Big Way from Hillary When it Comes to Assisted Suicide.

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BERNIE SANDERS, ‘HONORARY WOMAN.’

Speaking of ’70s TV, I thought Alan Alda had the lock on that title.