IT’S COME TO THIS: Sidewalk Chalk: The New Campus Contraband. “It began at Emory University, but has quickly spread across the country like a calcium carbonate plague. #TheChalkening has now terrorized college students from the University of Michigan to Arizona State, with temporary, hand-scrawled messages of support for Donald Trump on public sidewalks and stairways. While various campuses have dealt with the scourge in different ways—some creating safe spaces for the triggered teens, some encouraging the free exercise of ideas in temporary outdoor media—one school, DePaul University in Chicago, is turning to extreme measures. They’re banning chalk. Or, at least, they’re banning the use of chalk. Whether the campus intends on performing door-to-door dorm searches for paraphernalia remains to be seen.”

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1078.

GOSH, DOESN’T EVERYONE? ‘Ugly Betty’ Star America Ferrera Wants to ‘Snuggle in Onesies’ With Hillary. Seriously.

INTRODUCING Ted Cruz’s best friend.

PEOPLE ARE ENJOYING THIS:

Related:

And:

BILL WHITTLE GOES INTO THE LION’S DEN:

Now, just before I started, as I was sitting down, one of these four Republican kids came up to me and said, “You know we’re so happy to have you here.  When we heard that you were coming one of our counselors said it’s like inviting Hitler.”  I said, “Did she really say that?”  He goes, “Yeah.”  “Are you sure?  You heard it with your own ears?”  “I heard it with my own ears twice.”  At the same time, they got me a birthday cake. I couldn’t be happier. They were lovely people. They really were. But I mentioned at the beginning that I’d been compared to Hitler and I said, “This is essentially what we have to start from, is this belief that we’re these evil guys.  Essentially I’m not different from Adolf Hitler, with the minor exception that I didn’t start a world war or kill 6,000,000 Jews.  Otherwise we’re virtually identical.”  And it’s startling the amount of prejudice that’s in the air. Forgive me if you’re a smoker. It’s like being around a smoker. There’s this constant sort of a bias. It’s like an odor that lingers with them and you can’t really shake it.  So I told that business about Hitler because that’s going to come back.

It sure does. The transcript to the 38-minute long video is understandably lengthy, but worth it for the kicker at the end.

(Via Maggie’s Farm.)

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: It Takes Exactly Four Tweets From Non-Eyewitnesses to Tar a City as Racist. “As we keep learning, the evidentiary bar for calling people racist is appallingly low, even among institutions that are supposed to be in the corroboration business. Thank Buddha there’s a universe of smartasses ready to use the BS detector that newspapers once prided themselves on.”

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BIGGEST IMPACT OF “CLIMATE CHANGE” IN AMERICA SO FAR: Better weather. “Virtually all Americans are now experiencing the much milder winters that they typically prefer, and these mild winters have not been offset by markedly more uncomfortable summers or other negative changes.”

Wait, I thought even Michael Mann agreed that we’re in a global-warming pause.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Lawsuit: Woman Swears ‘I Wasn’t Raped,’ University Kicks Out Male Student Anyway.

As with the absurd destinations that zero-tolerance education policies can lead grade schools, higher education’s blind allegiance to political correctness is a dangerous thing.

STOP AND IMAGINE WHAT A HYPERSENSITIVE MAN LIKE TRUMP MIGHT DO WITH THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY.

Just imagine it: a hypersensitive man in the White House might start off his administration by flipping off the opposition with the words “I won.” He could tell intransigent fellow party members, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” He could “joke” about auditing his enemies, and then look away when the IRS does just that. He could singlehandedly abandon a war his predecessor had won, purely out of partisan spite. He could rearrange the Middle East and then set it alight, to better match his socialist Ivy League faculty break room worldview. He could shaft Israel and hand Iran — Iran! — the Bomb. He could let Vladimir Putin overrun much of his neighboring countries and wide swatches of the Middle East. He could ignore a terrorist attack to go play golf. He could gin-up race riots in America.

Yeah, I know that all sounds like science fiction, but just stop and imagine with a hypersensitive man could do with the power of the presidency.

STATE FEMINISM SAYS WOMEN ARE TOO DUMB TO KNOW WHEN THEY’VE CONSENTED: She said she wasn’t raped, but the school expelled him anyway.

It no longer seems to matter what the woman involved in a sexual encounter says. Schools are so hell bent on proving to the federal government that they take sexual assault accusations seriously that they’ll expel someone based on a third-party accusation – even if the alleged victim says there was no rape.

This is the exact scenario that played out at Colorado State University-Pueblo, according to a lawsuit filed by the accused student, Grant Neal. Now, in a first for accused students, Neal is suing not only his school but also the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, whose overzealous attention to the issue of campus sexual assault by way of non-binding but consequence-heavy “Dear Colleague” letters has created a culture where accusations equal guilt and due process rights barely exist, if at all.

Neal, a member of the football team and pre-med student, met a woman referred to in the lawsuit as Jane Doe in the fall of 2014, while she participated in the school’s Athletic Training Program. The two became close, according to the lawsuit, but did not pursue a romantic relationship because Jane thought it would jeopardize her position in the program.

The two became closer and eventually went to see a movie together. When they returned to Neal’s car, they began to kiss. The two engaged in digital and oral sexual activity before Neal drove Jane back to her home. The next day, the two attended a party with other members of the football team and began to flirt. They avoided public displays of affection and left the party separately.

The following day Neal had decided to host a barbeque party at his home. An hour-and-a-half before the party was scheduled to start, Jane texted Neal and invited him to her house. Jane was home alone. The two went into her bedroom to discuss their relationship, but decided it was too dangerous for them to be in a relationship at that time. Regardless, the two began to kiss and remove their own clothing. The two eventually had sex.

When Neal tried to leave, Jane repeatedly tried to get him to stay, according to the lawsuit. Neal said he didn’t want to give Jane a “hickey” because other players would see it and perhaps think that it was from him. Jane told him to kiss her neck anyway and said she would wear a hoodie the next day to avoid suspicion.

Neal left Jane to return to his own party. He and Jane traded friendly text messages later that evening.

But the next day, one of Jane’s peers noticed the hickey and asked her about it. Jane admitted to the sexual activity with Neal. Despite no indication from Jane that the sex was nonconsensual, the peer reported the incident to the school’s director of athletic training. She accused Neal of raping Jane.

It’s the “peer” who should be disciplined.

ALL YOU NEED IS CORPORATISM: Have You Considered a Bernie Sanders/Donald Trump Ticket?

YOU DON’T HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE, YOU JUST HAVE TO FALL IN LINE: The Democratic Party Now Belongs to Hillary Clinton.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Federal Park Ranger Mocks Founders, Constitution … While Leading Tour of Independence Hall!

(Bumped.)

THAT’S UNFAIR — IT’S JUST THOSE DR. EVIL TUNICS THAT MAKE HER LOOK SO HIP-Y: Hillary Clinton Is Too Big To Fail.

WATCH AS ABC JOURNALIST IS MISTAKEN FOR A HILLARY SUPPORTER BY ‘BERNIE BRO.’

Huh. Why would an employee of the House of Stephanopoulos be mistaken for a Hillary supporter?

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Author: U.S. Official Who Issued Visas to 9/11 Hijackers Still Works for State Department.

CAMILLE PAGLIA: Enough with the Hillary cult: Her admirers ignore reality, dream of worshipping a queen.

As a lifelong Democrat who will be enthusiastically voting for Bernie Sanders in next week’s Pennsylvania primary, I have trouble understanding the fuzzy rosy filter through which Hillary fans see their champion. So much must be overlooked or discounted—from Hillary’s compulsive money-lust and her brazen indifference to normal rules to her conspiratorial use of shadowy surrogates and her sociopathic shape-shifting in policy positions for momentary expedience.

Hillary’s breathtaking lack of concrete achievements or even minimal initiatives over her long public career doesn’t faze her admirers a whit. They have a religious conviction of her essential goodness and blame her blank track record on diabolical sexist obstructionists. When at last week’s debate Hillary crassly blamed President Obama for the disastrous Libyan incursion that she had pushed him into, her acolytes hardly noticed. They don’t give a damn about international affairs—all that matters is transgender bathrooms and instant access to abortion.

As always with Paglia, read the whole thing.

UPSTATE NEW YORK WAS PREDICTABLE TRUMP COUNTRY. IT’S DYING: “It’s no wonder Donald Trump won big in New York’s Republican primary on Tuesday. It wasn’t just that he’s a native New Yorker and a celebrity Manhattan businessman. The rest of his home state is a living testament to the plight of the white working class, whose anger and frustration with the political establishment have sustained Trump’s campaign. Take a close look at upstate New York and you’ll see a region slowly dying. Its decline over the past thirty years is staggering. Blue-collar communities from Binghamton to Buffalo that were built on manufacturing plants and steel mills have simply been gutted. The jobs have gone overseas—or to neighboring states or to the Sun Belt—and the towns and smaller cities are gradually emptying out. A shocking number of those who stay behind are succumbing to opioids and other drugs. Unemployment is up, workforce participation is down, and crime is worse in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, and Syracuse than it is in New York City.”

Fundamentally transformed, to coin a phrase.

AND THEN RUN AS AN INDEPENDENT IF THINGS GO WRONG AT THE CONVENTION: Sanders defiant: ‘We still have a path to the nomination.’

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Wednesday expressed optimism over his campaign’s chances to win to win the nomination, despite having lost the state of New York Tuesday night to front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“We still have a path to the nomination, and our plan is to win the pledged delegates in this primary,” the Vermont senator said in an email to his supporters.

“Next week five states vote, and there are A LOT of delegates up for grabs. I am going to keep fighting for every vote, for every delegate, because each is a statement of support for the values we share.”

Sanders followed up with a fundraising pitch, asking supporters to chip in $2.70. Also included was a message he had sent out to supporters when he launched his campaign in April of last year.

Sanders currently trails Clinton in pledged delegates, 1,428 to 1,151. The count increases to 1930 to 1,189 when including unbound superdelegates. The former secretary of State needs just 435 more delegates to secure the nomination before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia at the end of July.

In the short time since its Empire State win Tuesday night, the Clinton campaign has been trumpeting the message that Sanders now has no shot at becoming the nominee.

“I don’t see a clear path for them at this point. The numbers are pretty daunting,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in an interview with Yahoo on Wednesday.

Never give up — never surrender!

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM: Gay Person + Cake = News, Even If It’s a Hoax.

Related: A New Detail Has Emerged About the Pastor Suing Whole Foods, And It’s Not Helping His Case.

CHOOSE YOUR HISTORICAL TRUMP METAPHOR:

● Donald Trump is the next Wendell Willkie! — says Scott Johnson of Power Line. 

● Donald Trump is the next Oswald Mosley! — says Terry Teachout of Commentary.

● Donald Trump is the next Roderick Spode! — says Roger Kimball at PJ Media.

● Donald Trump is the next Barack Obama! — says Angelo Codevilla at the Federalist. 

A a wise community organizer seeking an employment promotion once told his media supporters, “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Why should his potential successor be any different?

CHANGE: The $2 Trillion Project to Get Saudi Arabia’s Economy Off Oil.

On April 25 the prince is scheduled to unveil his “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” an historic plan encompassing broad economic and social changes. It includes the creation of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which will eventually hold more than $2 trillion in assets—enough to buy all of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway, the world’s four largest public companies. The prince plans an IPO that could sell off “less than 5 percent” of Saudi Aramco, the national oil producer, which will be turned into the world’s biggest industrial conglomerate. The fund will diversify into nonpetroleum assets, hedging the kingdom’s nearly total dependence on oil for revenue. The tectonic moves “will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil,” the prince says. “So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn’t depend mainly on oil.”

If $2 trillion isn’t enough for Prince Mohammed bin Salman to end his country’s dependence on oil, American frackers will be happy to do it for him for free.