THE NEW YORK TIMES: Right-wing hate machine.

OK then.

WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO ADOPT ROBERT HEINLEIN’S “FAIR WITNESS” INSTITUTION: New Tools Allow Voice Patterns To Be Cloned To Produce Realistic But Fake Sounds Of Anyone Saying Anything.

CHANGE: Trump expected to sign religious liberty executive order.

WAIT… WHAT? FDA May Make Too Many Pizza Toppings a Crime.

The rule will require, among other mandates, that all restaurants and other retail food outlets, such as movie theaters, operating as one brand with at least 20 stores display a calorie count in addition to other nutritional information for all standard menu items on the establishment’s “menus and menu boards.”

To demonstrate the potential scope of that provision, Lynn Liddle, a former executive vice president at Domino’s Pizza, said, “‘Menu’ can refer to any writing that [is] ‘used by a customer to make an order selection at the time the customer is viewing the writing’”—possibly including flyers and other advertisements.

“We no longer know what a menu is,” Liddle said, to point out how confusing the rule is.

When an executive of a major national corporation can no longer ascertain the meaning of the word “menu,” a rule has problems.

During the rule’s notice-and-comment period, some food purveyors raised concerns “that restaurants that ‘unwittingly misbrand their menu offerings’ will be held liable for their food that is misbranded under this rule and related provisions of the FD&C Act.”

The FD&C Act makes misbranding a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment up to one year and a fine of up to $1,000, with more severe sanctions for repeat offenses (21 U.S.C. § 333).

Imagine a mom & pop operation trying to comply with these regulations.

HANDS-ON WITH THE NEW MICROSOFT SURFACE: Microsoft has built what many were hoping it would.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE, PART DEUX: Democrat operative with a mic line Bruce Springsteen didn’t pay taxes for many years.

LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE, PART I: Comey Tells Congressional Panel: Classified Emails from Hillary’s Server Were Forwarded to Anthony Weiner.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Ouster Of Molina Family May Be Bad For Insurer’s 1M Obamacare Patients.

The surprise ouster of the top two executives at family-run Molina Healthcare could bring to an end the commitment the insurer has had to the individual business under the Affordable Care Act.

About 9% of all Americans enrolled in the ACA’s public marketplaces are enrolled in Molina health plans, and departing chief executive Dr. J. Mario Molina was outspoken for the business, most recently chastising Congress and the Donald Trump White House for not funding cost-sharing reductions for ACA patients.
…
“In light of the Company’s disappointing financial performance, the Board has determined to change leadership in order to drive profitability through operational improvements,” said Dale B. Wolf, a board director who was named non-executive Chairman of the Board on Tuesday.

The Molina brothers’ devotion to ObamaCare cost them their jobs.

ENGINEERING: The Legend of Ludgar the War Wolf, King of the Trebuchets.

It was even bigger than this one.

ANALYSIS: FALSE. Venezuela Is Heading for a Soviet-Style Collapse.

It’s too late for Venezuela to disintegrate as quietly as the U.S.S.R. did.

SYLVIA PLATH: KING KONG IN REVERSE.

BAN GLUE GUNS: We Must Stop the Gun-Panic Epidemic.

OUCH: David Axelrod to Hillary Clinton: Jim Comey didn’t tell you not to campaign in Wisconsin.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIP: Iceland’s casual sex culture is the most liberal in the world, but it comes at a cost.

LOST AND FOUND: Sarah Hoyt’s short story “prequel of sorts” to her new novel, Darkship Revenge.

I haven’t started reading Revenge yet, but love the other books in the series.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Barack Obama Is Using His Presidency to Cash In, But Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter Refused.

Another argument for my revolving-door surtax.

THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Long-Buried Studies That Found That Replacing Saturated Fat With Vegetable Oil Increased Death Risk.

“SHUT UP,” SHE EXPLAINED. Wasserman Schultz: Public should mind your own business on Obama $400K speaking fee.

“Of all people to question … their commitment to getting money out of politics, to really making sure we restored integrity to political finance process, President Obama couldn’t have done more,” Wasserman Schultz told CNN host Erin Burnett on Tuesday evening.

Wasserman Schultz, who was ousted as Democratic National Committee chairwoman last summer for colluding with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, said Obama has a history of fighting “against the big banks,” despite his decision to now accept a large sum of money to address the Wall Street group.

“Look, it is none of anyone’s business what someone who is a member of the private sector decides to accept in terms of compensation,” Wasserman Schultz added. “With all due respect to anyone who chooses to comment publicly on what Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or anyone earns as a member of the private sector, it’s just MYOB.”

To translate into ObamaSpeak, “If you like your opinion, you can keep it to yourself. Period.”

WAITING TO INHALE: American Airlines Will Shrink Legroom in Coach — Again.

An American spokesman said Tuesday that the carrier’s Boeing 737 Max jets, the first of which should arrive later this year, will have only 30 inches of seat pitch in most coach seats, giving passengers an inch less space than in the airline’s older model 737s.

Worse, “up to three rows” will have 29-inch pitch, roughly equivalent to what ultra low-cost carriers, including Frontier Airlines, give passengers. Except for the discounters — they generally have 28 or 29 inches of pitch — U.S. airlines have been reluctant to shrink standard pitch below 30 inches. (Pitch is the distance from any spot on a seat to the same place on the seat in front of it.)

American did not say how it will decide which passengers sit in the rows with the least legroom. But the spokesman said passengers will hardly notice having less room.

Uh-huh.

Smaller seats also mean smaller tray tables — and some are already too small to hold a cocktail and a 10-inch tablet at the same time.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: “In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director James Comey offered an impassioned defense of his decision to announce an additional investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails at the end of October.”

Read the whole thing.

ROGER SIMON ON COLBERT, TRUMP, AND THE ROOTS OF LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE RAGE:

BIG: Puerto Rico To Request Bankruptcy Protection.

TIPPING POINT? Most of Aetna’s revenue now comes from government programs.

Here’s a nugget that encapsulates the health insurance industry, despite all the noise surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act: In the first quarter of this year, Aetna collected more premium revenue from government programs (namely Medicare and Medicaid) than it did from commercial insurance for the first time ever.

Why this matters: Most people get their health coverage from their employer, and that historically has been the bread and butter of the insurance industry. But the aging population and expansion of Medicaid managed care means insurers are investing more time and money in the lower-margin (but still lucrative) government programs. Aetna, in particular, has invested heavily in Medicare Advantage.

I’m old enough to remember when ObamaCare was going to take down those blood-sucking insurance companies.