NOTHING IS HER FAULT: Clinton rips DNC: I inherited nothing.

Hillary Clinton blasted the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday, saying that she “inherited nothing” from the party after winning its presidential nomination last year.

“So I’m now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party,” she said during a question and answer session at Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

“I mean, it was bankrupt. It was on the verge of insolvency. Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong,” she recalled. “I had to inject money into it.”

Weird, because all I heard during the election was how Hillary was running a well-oiled, unbeatable machine and Trump was a flailing, clueless loser.

THE OBAMA LEGACY: Russia escalates spy games after years of U.S. neglect.

In the throes of the 2016 campaign, the FBI found itself with an escalating problem: Russian diplomats, whose travel was supposed to be tracked by the State Department, were going missing.

The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA. One was found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both seemed to be lingering where underground fiber optics cables tend to run.

According to another U.S. intelligence official, “They find these guys driving around in circles in Kansas. It’s a pretty aggressive effort.”

It’s a trend that has led intelligence officials to conclude the Kremlin is waging a quiet effort to map the United States’ telecommunications infrastructure, perhaps preparing for an opportunity to disrupt it.

“Half the time they’re never confronted,” the official, who declined to be identified discussing intelligence matters, said of the incidents. “We assume they’re mapping our infrastructure.”

Obama thought he’d be the one to have more flexibility after his reelection, but the Kremlin knew better.

PAY-TO-PLAY: Business license required for teens to cut grass in Gardendale, Alabama.

Teenagers have been threatened by officials and other lawn services to show their city issued license before cutting a person’s lawn for extra summer cash.

Cutting grass is often one of the first jobs many have in the summer. But a business license in Gardendale costs $110. And for a job, just for a couple of months, that can be a bit extreme.

“I have never heard of a child cutting grass had to have a business license,” said Elton Campbell.
Campbell’s granddaughter cuts grass around the neighborhood.

“She charges one lady $20, and another lady $30, and another girl $40 besides what we pay her,” said Campbell.

For her, this was the perfect summer gig!

“Just helping out and raising money for admissions and trips,” said Alainna Parris.

But now, it’s becoming a hassle.

“One of the men that cuts several yards made a remark to one of our neighbors, ‘that if he saw her cutting grass again that he was going to call Gardendale because she didn’t have a business license,” said Campbell.

Tar, feathers.

(Hat tip, Michelle Rey.)

WELL, TO BE FAIR, THAT’S WHY SHE DOES MOST THINGS: The Hill: Clinton defends Goldman Sachs speeches: ‘They paid me.’

GOOD MORNING: Try Liz Sheld’s morning brief with your coffee.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Is Arizona Summit’s $36k Stipend To Defer Bar A Lifeline For At-Risk Students Or Ploy To Disguise Abysmal 25% Pass Rate?

BILKED: Taxpayers may have overpaid by more than $1 billion for Mylan’s EpiPen, senator reveals.

That amount is nearly three times the $465 million that EpiPen’s owner, the big drugmaker Mylan, last October said it agreed to pay the federal government to settle claims that it overcharged the government-run Medicaid system for the devices.

“The fact that the EpiPen overpayment is so much more than anyone discussed publicly should worry every taxpayer,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley said he learned of the large disparity between Mylan’s settlement amount and the potential overpayment by taxpayers from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General after asking officials for an accounting of EpiPen overcharges.

Mylan for years classified EpiPen as a generic drug for the purposes of Medicaid’s drug rebate program, and as a result paid a lower rebate rate to Medicaid than did sellers of brand-name drugs. Officials have said that EpiPen, which is used to counteract a potentially fatal allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis, should have been treated as a brand-name product for Medicaid’s rebate program.

Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that provides health-care coverage to primarily low-income Americans.

Why are Democrat-run corporations such cesspits of greed and exploitation?

I’M NOT SURE HOW WISE THIS IS: GOP Launches Major Offensive Against Elizabeth Warren to Take Her Out Before 2020.

It might be smarter to concentrate on a young up-and-comer or two, assuming the Democrats have any left.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Real Collusion:

Maybe it will be remembered as the weekend when, at long last, the media-Democrat complex overplayed its hand on the “Collusion with Russia” narrative. They are still having so much fun with the new “Jared back-channel to the Kremlin” angle, they appear not to realize it destroys their collusion yarn. . . .

There is abundant cause for concern that the Obama administration tore down the wall between the missions of law-enforcement and foreign-intelligence, on one side, and partisan politics, on the other. The White House and its politicized security services wanted Hillary Clinton to become president, and they do not want to let Donald Trump be president.

There’s a collusion story here, but it’s got nothing to do with Russia.

I want a special counsel to investigate that. Maybe Rudy Giuliani?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: A Law School Should Not Impose Its Faculty’s Social Justice Views On Students Through Mandatory Pro Bono Or Clinics (Unless There Is A Sufficient Variety Of Clinical Offerings).

Mandatory pro bono is just do-good posturing at someone else’s expense. Which, to be fair, is how most do-good posturing works.

ALIENATING MERKEL SHOULD MAKE US A LOT OF OTHER FRIENDS: Is the war of words really Trump’s fault? I don’t think so.

THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH: Notes of a Reformed News Weasel: Understanding the Vacuity …

STOUT FOR DARK HAIR? Beer shampoo and stars’ other unusual beauty tricks.

YOURS, MAYBE. MINE IS A GOURMET: Your brain may eat itself when you’re overtired: study.

ABOUT TIME: School to student: Enough with the gender flip-flopping.

WHY DOES STACY MCCAIN INSIST ON BRINGING THESE THINGS TO MY ATTENTION? Feminist Insanity at Taxpayer Expense: ‘Intersectional Quantum Physics’.

YEP, THIS HAS BEEN DAWNING ON ME FOR A WHILE: The True Feminist Message: Don’t Hire Women.

FINDING THE BOUNDARIES IN THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY:In her bubble, Kathy Griffin thought nothing was out of bounds in mocking Trump.

THE DEATH OF A MYTH: Scientists Map The Genome Of Ancient Egyptian Kings, And They Weren’t From Africa.

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO CRUEL TO CHILDREN? Rosie O’Donnell attacks Barron Trump for being frightened that his father may have been killed.

NOW OUT FROM KURT SCHLICHTER: Indian Country, the prequel to his really excellent first novel, People’s Republic.

STACY TABB, WHO DID THE INSTAPUNDIT SITE DESIGN, HAS ANOTHER BUSINESS, BOONDOCK STUDIOS. Here’s the video.

FLORIDA HE-MAN. ‘He-Man’ qualifies for special Florida Senate election ballot:

“In rugby tradition, we have nicknames. Your teammates usually give it to you,” Schlaerth said, recounting when he joined the University of Miami’s college team in 2005. “I showed up to practice, and I was the biggest, strongest guy on the team at the time.”

And so, “He-Man” was born.

As evidence that his nickname existed before the election, as required by Florida law to be on the ballot, Schlaerth provided the state with a copy of a May 2017 newsletter for the German American Social Club which lists “Christian ‘He-Man’ Schlaerth” as a candidate for the board.

* * * * * * *

Schlaerth, an adjunct sociology professor at Barry University, Miami Dade College and the University of Miami, is running without party affiliation to replace Sen. Frank Artiles, a Republican who resigned last month. Schlaerth is a registered Democrat, though he said he is disillusioned with the party following President Donald Trump’s win last November.

By the Power of Grayson, he has the Power!

WELL, JOURNALISTS ROLLED OVER WHEN OBAMA DID THIS, SO. . . . The government is spying on journalists to find leakers.

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Why You Should Chew Gum Until You Fart After a C-Section.