RASMUSSEN POLL: Trump Now In Dead Tie With Hillary. “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds Trump and Clinton tied at 38% each. But 16% say they would vote for some other candidate if the presidential election comes down to those two, while six percent (6%) would stay home. Only two percent (2%) are undecided given those options.”

21ST CENTURY PARENTING: Thais adopt life-like baby dolls, take them everywhere.

A HILLARY ADMINISTRATION WILL DO FOR GENDER WHAT OBAMA HAS DONE FOR RACE RELATIONS: Elizabeth Warren Wants Men to ‘Share the Pain.’

YOU CAN HAVE MY KAPPA MAKI WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD CHOPSTICKS: Missouri Students’ Latest Target: The Campus Sushi Restaurant.

NO SECRETS: Child porn suspect jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives. “The government successfully cited a 1789 law known as the All Writs Act to compel (PDF) the suspect to decrypt two hard drives it believes contain child pornography. The All Writs Act was the same law the Justice Department asserted in its legal battle with Apple, in which a magistrate ordered the gadget maker to write code to assist the authorities in unlocking the iPhone used by one of two shooters who killed 14 people at a San Bernardino County government building in December. The authorities dropped that case after they paid a reported $1 million for a hack.”

Carly tried to warn America about the coming surveillance state years ago, but we were . . . distracted.

TECHNOLOGICAL SELF-REPLACEMENT: Are Engineers Designing Their Robotic Replacements? The profession could be putting itself out of work.

AFTER HAVING MADE OBAMA IN 2008, THE POLITICO HAS CHOSEN THE FORM OF THEIR DESTRUCTOR.

Shot:

There was a telling confrontation on Obama’s third day in office, when he visited the West Wing pressroom to say hi, then bristled when a Politico reporter asked why he had nominated a Raytheon lobbyist to a Pentagon job despite having recently banned lobbyists from top posts in his administration. “I can’t end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I’m going to get grilled every time I come down here,” Obama complained. When the reporter tried again, Obama told him to save his questions for a news conference. Politico’s headline: “Obama Flashes Irritation in the Press Room.” To the president, it was an example of no good deed going unpunished—not just that he was grilled when he was trying to be polite, but that he was grilled over an exception to his rule against hiring lobbyists instead of credited for the groundbreaking rule. To the reporters, it was an early example of Obama feeling entitled to avoid probing questions about matters of public importance. They wouldn’t see much more of him in the press room.

— “The Selling of Obama — The inside story of how a great communicator lost the narrative,” Michael Grunwald, the Politico, today.

Chaser:

Still, the baseline hostility between campaign and press corps was dictated by the candidate himself, and from the start Trump, often through his alter ego Lewandowski, sought to dominate and demean us. And besides, it quickly became clear that the campaign didn’t need more conventional tools of media management, given that its messaging operation primarily consisted of Trump’s mouth—and he often said outrageous and provocative things that guaranteed negative coverage.

* * * * * * *

For all its brass, though, the New York tabloid environment is insular, small and transactional, with an established set of protocols and a relatively limited cast of characters. Trump has a great instinct for what will hit, and has always served as his own publicist, cultivating relationships with reporters who play ball, planting tips, navigating negative stories through sheer bombast, ditching anyone who causes too much trouble—often by feeding scoops to competitors at their own organizations.

But the national press is much, much bigger and much harder to control. And it probably doesn’t help that, at 69, Trump faces a press pack chock full of millennials he’s never dealt with before. Ali Vitali at NBC, Sopan Deb at CBS, Jeremy Diamond and Noah Gray at CNN, and Kevin Cirilli at Bloomberg are all around my age—a few years out of college. It makes for a volatile mix, and might help explain Trump’s zigzag path between flattering and threatening, avoiding and bulldozing reporters as he searched out the elusive route to controlling our message.

Which is why if there’s one consistent theme to what I’ve experienced covering Trump, it’s the unpredictability. The handshakes sometimes come after the hardest slaps, and the doghouse is a short elevator ride away from the penthouse.

— “Inside Trump’s Press Pen — A reporter’s first campaign job blows up into the biggest story in America,” 26 year old Ben Schreckinger, in way too deep at the Politico and apparently forgetting Saul Alinsky’s Rule #5, Rule 12, and a few other Rules for Radicals as well.

(Classical reference in headline.)

LAW’S FINAL FRONTIER: Marc Randazza Wrote An Amicus Brief About Klingon, And It’s Magnificent.

OUT: DOGWHISTLES. In: Black Maryland Democrat Accuses Party of Sounding Racial ‘Foghorn.’ Why are Democrat-run institutions — like, you know, the Democratic Party — such cesspits of racism?

WHAT HATH TIM COOK WROUGHT: iPhone Slump Means Apple Must Compete Harder with Amazon and Google.

TED CRUZ PICKS UP BEST ENDORSEMENT YET: John Boehner Calls Cruz ‘Lucifer in the Flesh,’ Praises Obama:

Former House Speaker John Boehner reminded conservatives why they hate him at a speech at Stanford University Wednesday night. He vilified Ted Cruz while praising Barack Obama, accepted Donald Trump as the “presumptive nominee,” and had some of the kindest words for self-described socialist Bernie Sanders.

Unbelievably, Boehner compared Cruz to Satan himself. Granted, the former House speaker set a “joking, yet blunt” attitude, but he reserved no such vitriol for prominent Democrats like Obama, Sanders, and presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Lucifer in the flesh,” the former speaker said when asked his opinions on the Texas senator.

To be fair, Cruz certainly knows how to make Rules for Radicals, the political how-to guide Obama/Hillary guru Saul Alinsky dedicated to Lucifer work for him as well…

THE EX-SPEAKER SPEAKS: Boehner Uncorks on ‘Lucifer’ Cruz, Says He Wouldn’t Back Him in Fall.

“Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner called Cruz on Wednesday during a talk at Stanford University, the student newspaper reported. “I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b—h in my life.”
…
This isn’t the first time Boehner has unleashed on Cruz: He’s previously called him a “jackass” and a “false prophet,” and his loathing of Cruz is legendary inside the Capitol.

Boehner always worked better alongside Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

EDIT: Ed Driscoll is apparently reading my mind…

DON’T TELL THAT GUY WHO SAID “FIRST THING WE DO IS KILL ALL THE LAWYERS” ABOUT THIS! Federal taxpayers spent $26.2 billion between 2007 and 2014 on more than 25,000 lawyers working for Uncle Sam, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Ethan Barton.

Barton’s story is based on a new report from Open The Books, the nonprofit watchdog that tracks spending at all levels of government. Open The Books’ founder and report author Adam Andrzejewski said the highest paid lawyer in the federal establishment in 2014 received $266,649. Andrzejewski also found that more than 50 attorneys on the federal payroll got more than $250,000 during the period.

“The lawyers aren’t the problem per se,” the report said. “They simply serve at the pleasure of entrenched politicians and bureaucrats. Federal spending on attorneys both reflects and perpetuates the size, scope, expanse and inertia of today’s federal government.”

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED:

Shot:

It’s no secret that Belgians are passionate about cycling – among their local heroes, they count the greatest cyclist of all time in Eddy Merckx. But in the Flanders region of the country, enthusiasm for the sport borders on fanaticsm. So it’s fitting that when the Wielermuseum (cycling museum) in Roeselare, West Flanders, closed for lengthy renovations in 2015, they rented a nearby deconsecrated church to host an exhibition… The centrepiece of the altar, spotlighted by shafts of light streaming through stained glass windows, is a huge iron cross welded together from old bike components – the Croix de Fer, representing the cross at the Col de la Croix de Fer in the Alps, featured in the Tour de France 16 times.

— “Cycling is religion in Flanders, Belgium,” London Guardian photo spread, today.

Chaser:

The number of Muslims in Brussels—where roughly half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live—has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled ‘Capital of Europe’ is now one of the most Islamic cities in Europe.

— Soeren Kern, “The Islamization of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2013,” the Gatestone Institute.

Hangover:

Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries. There’ll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands–probably–just as in Istanbul there’s still a building called St. Sophia’s Cathedral. But it’s not a cathedral; it’s merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon Western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the West.

— Mark Steyn, in a January post titled “It’s Still the Demography, Stupid,” quoting the introduction to his original magnum opus Wall Street Journal/New Criterion article a decade ago that became the core of his best-selling book, America Alone.

RECIPE: Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce.

I’M NOT SAYING THAT IT’S ALIENS, BUT IT’S ALIENS. KIC 8462852 Star Mystery Just Got Even Deeper. “Earlier this month, the world’s top alien-hunting astronomer refused to rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial megastructure orbiting KIC 8462852 star. Also at that time, SETTI’ researchers states that they were unable to disprove the theory that a massive artificial structure is causing the mysterious light patterns spotted around the distant star.”

WALLS WITH FRICKIN LASER BEAMS: India Installs ‘Laser Walls’ at Border With Pakistan.

India is setting up the laser walls to “plug the porous riverine and treacherous terrain and keep an effective vigil against intruders and terrorists” in Punjab state, the state-run Press Trust of India reported.

Earlier this year, peace talks were suspended when India accused Pakistan of allowing militants to cross over and attack an Indian air force base in Pathankot on Jan. 2.

According to the PTI report, around 45 laser walls will be installed in Punjab state.

Nothing deadly — the lasers merely trigger an alert.

HOW AUDREY MUNSON, “NEW YORK’S FIRST SUPERMODEL,” WAS AIRBRUSHED FROM HISTORY.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1085.

WHAT BEYONCE THINKPIECES TELL US ABOUT THE DEATH OF THE HIGHBROW:

I don’t say this to disparage popular music, even though I suspect that in a hundred years, most of it will be remembered about as widely as Mairzy Doats. (Look it up, kids.) A simple and catchy tune is perfectly valuable on its own merits, and not every piece of music or television show or movie has to engage the brain at full capacity.

But the middle-brow cultural establishment is determined to freight the flotsam and jetsam of popular culture with more intellectual weight than it can carry, sinking it under a lot of pretentious commentary about its very great significance.

I remember when “middlebrow” used to mean something very different than Beyonce. To understand how quickly a culture can change, here’s what then-Washington Post-owned Newsweek was writing about the Beatles when they touched down at JFK in 1964.

ELIANA JOHNSON: The Story Behind The Cruz/Carly Alliance.

IF YOU GIVE A DICTATOR THE RIGHT TO SILENCE CRITICS, HE’S GOING TO ASK FOR MORE: Erdogan Goes After Geneva.

Two weeks after the Turkish government prevailed upon Germany to prosecute a comic for an insulting poem directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it’s now demanding that the Swiss remove a picture displayed at an art show that criticizes him. . . .

This latest piece of news is the third in a row. The German comic, whose prosecution for his offensive poem has made him a cause celebre, was himself reacting to the Turkish government protesting an inane little song called “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” (Erdo-how, Erdo-where, Erdogan) aired on a rival show. Sounds like a certain thin-skinned President is paying a lot of attention to European social commentary!

After Germany agreed to indict the comic, we wrote that, as with the mouse who’s given a cookie, Erdogan was likely to want more if given his way. And lo and behold, here we are.

Who does Erdogan think he is? This is who:

UMass Amherst students throw temper tantrum at free speech event: https://t.co/3402H4dEwR pic.twitter.com/hYfHUYOvPk

— Campus Reform (@campusreform) April 26, 2016

CHARLES MURRAY: Lessons from the Bubble Quiz #4: Wrapping up.

JOHN KERRY LAUDS RENEWABLE ENERGY BUT HIS FAMILY TRUSTS INVEST IN FOSSIL FUELS: Dozens of major oil and natural gas firms are recipients of multi-million dollar investments by the family trusts for the Secretary of State and his wife, Heinz heiress Teresa Heinz-Kerry, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Richard Pollock.

“The investments contradict Kerry’s public comments only a week ago at a United Nations’ signing ceremony for the new Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which is designed to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. At the ceremony, Kerry promised the 175 nations in attendance, ‘we will do our part – we will live up to our responsibility to future generations and together, citizens of the world, we will work to save our planet from ourselves,’” Pollock reports.

Apparently what Kerry meant to say is “we will work to save you from yourselves (but don’t even think about us and divestment!).”