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UH-HUH: Group Calls for UN To Ban ‘Cultural Appropriation’

English appropriated “appropriation” from Latin.

EXPERTS AT WORK: More Economic Malpractice at the IMF.

Dan Mitchell:

In a perverse way, though, I admire their brassiness. They’re now arguing that higher taxes are good for growth.

This isn’t a joke. They never offer any evidence, of course, but it’s now routine to find international bureaucrats asserting that there will be more prosperity if more resources are taken out of the private sector and given to politicians (see the 3:30 mark of this video for some evidence).

Christine Lagarde, the lavishly paid head of the IMF, is doubling down on this bizarre idea that higher tax burdens are a way to generate more growth for poor nations.

Read the whole thing. And remember: If they’re brazen, it’s because they expect to get what they want.

BMI SUCKS: We could save lives by getting rid of BMI. “Accidentally telling obese people who have healthy cardiovascular systems to lose weight can only do them good. But failing to realize that a person with a normal BMI is at risk for serious health problems is potentially dangerous. And that’s not to mention the fact that we financially penalize people who are ‘obese’ according to their BMI, even when their metabolic indicators are fine. Insurance companies are legally allowed to charge them extra. A committed weightlifter with gobs of muscle might have the same BMI as a guy who eats junk food for every meal and has been obese his whole life—and he could have a higher BMI than a naturally skinny man with terrible exercise habits and an ever-growing belly from too many beers. That’s not just unfair, it’s absurd.”

BMI was never meant to serve as a measure of individual fitness. But as I said before, “An easy-to-get number that’s bogus will nonetheless be widely used, because it’s an easy-to-get number.” More here.

I SUPPOSE THAT’S CLEAR ENOUGH:

UPDATE: I’m getting comments that this is a troll account, but haven’t been able to confirm or deny.

I would certainly hope it’s a troll account.

MORE: This exchange sums it up well.

In either case, the photo and the sentiment are both real enough.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Emergency drones rush life-saving help to simulated cardiac arrest cases.

SCALISE SHOOTING: Live updates all day long at PJM’s Hot Mic.

(Bumped.)

ROGER L. SIMON: Baseball Shooter a Big Wake-Up Call for the Left.

Just read it.

IS THERE ANY WAY ALL THE NETWORKS CAN GO OUT OF BUSINESS? TV Cord Cutting Poised To Smash Records During Second Quarter.

CLAIM: London High-Rise Fire Accelerated by Grenfell Tower Building Materials.

PRESIDENTIAL: Trump delivers message of unity in response to shooting. “We can all agree that we are blessed to be Americans, that our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace, and that we are strongest when we are unified and when we work together for the common good. Please take a moment today to cherish those you love and always remember those who serve and keep us safe. God bless them all. God bless you and God bless America.”

FLASHBACK: Thousands will die if House bill becomes law, Bernie Sanders says.

SENDING A STRONG SIGNAL on global Internet freedom.

I think Theresa May’s “censor the Internet” talk hurt her badly.

EVERGREEN COLLEGE STUDENTS “NO MORE TOLERANCE!” Video here.

DECENCY: Bernie Sanders “sickened” by James Hodgkinson.

GOOD IDEA: Rep. Chris Collins says he will start carrying a gun, after baseball practice shooting.

BASEBALL GUNMAN WAS A BERNIE BRO WHO HATED REPUBLICANS.

The shooter who was killed during gunfire at practice for a congressional baseball game Wednesday morning was from Belleville.

The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, who belonged to a number of anti-Republican groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

President Donald Trump said Hodgkinson died during gunfire exchanged with congressional security workers.

Hodgkinson, 66, owned a home-inspection business. Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector from 1994 to 1997, when his license expired, according to records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He also held a license from 2003 to 2016, but it was not renewed.

Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.

“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an ass hole you are Truly the Biggest Ass Hole We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hodgkinson is a member of a number of anti-Republican groups on Facebook, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

▪ “The Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans”

▪ “Donald Trump is not my President”

▪ “President Bernie Sanders”

▪ “Illinois Berners United to Resist Trump”

▪ “Boycott the Republican Party”

▪ “Expose Republican Fraud”

▪ “Terminate the Republican Party”
…

Hodgkinson took a Democratic ballot in the primary election in 2016.

The climate of hatred and violence that the Democrats and media have fostered has claimed more victims.

UPDATE: Thoughts from John Hinderaker.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Michigan Health Chief Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter For Flint Water Crisis.

THE NEW NORMAL? Lousy Pay Raise? That May Be as Good as It Gets.

First, the bad: Unemployment may be at a 16-year low and the economic expansion may be third-longest on record, yet wage growth is miserable, clocking in between 2.5% and 3% for the past year. When unemployment was this low in the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, wages grew 4%.

Now, the worse: If a labor market this tight can’t generate better pay, quite possibly it never will. In Japan and Germany, where unemployment is plumbing generation-lows, wages are moribund. This suggests the problem transcends borders: Minimal corporate pricing power, lackluster productivity growth and an aging workforce have all undercut employers’ ability to pay better.

This threatens to throw a wrench into the Federal Reserve’s plans. It is likely to raise interest rates at its meeting Wednesday and plans to keep doing so gradually over the next two years.

Yet its longstanding assumption that a fully employed economy would eventually nudge prices and wages higher looks shakier by the month.

Our political class is quickly running out of options other than “Get the hell out of my way!” But that’s the one option they’ll never willingly take.

OH: GOP considers keeping ObamaCare taxes.

Republicans are looking to slowly phase out extra federal funds for Medicaid expansion, beef up the new tax credits for buying insurance and add money for opioid abuse treatment — but they’ll have to pay for it to ensure the bill passes muster.

That’s because the Senate healthcare bill must save at least as much money as the House’s legislation. Some senators are interested in additions to the healthcare bill that could cost the government, and savings would have to be found elsewhere, perhaps in some of the taxes, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chamber’s No. 3 Republican, said.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is heavily involved in the healthcare discussions as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that his preference is to repeal all of the taxes but that senators would “look at everything.”

“We’re not going to ignore anything,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to have to really look very carefully.”

The full repeal promised in every election since 2010 would sidestep the problem.

DID THE GUNMAN TARGET REPUBLICANS?:

It appears he did.

The suspected gunman is James T. Hodgkinson III, 66, from Illinois, according to multiple law enforcement sources. President Trump announced that the gunman, who was wounded in a shootout with officers, has died at an area hospital.

…As people offered prayers for the victims, a profile of Hodgkinson began to emerge. A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and rhetoric against President Trump.

MORE:

Anger about his own colleagues being attacked was evident in the words of Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who, suit in tie, stopped by the crime scene to pray, was viscerally angry about his own colleagues being attacked.

“America has bene divided,” he said, “and the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.” Kng did indicate it was impossible to separate the hyperpartisan climate in Washington — especially people protesting President Trump — with Republican members of Congress being gunned down at a baseball scrimmage.

“The divisions within the country, people that can’t accept the results of the election that are determined to try to take this country down, take this organization down,” King said. “This city was filled up with demonstrations the day after the inauguration, where you couldn’t drive down the streets.”

All the spelling errors (Kng, etc) are in the Washington Post story. It was written quickly — like a blog post.

Remember, Paul Krugman salaciously politicized a similar homicidal attack on Democrat representative Gabrielle Giffords. He politicized the crime with the intention of smearing Republicans. We are now in a world where leftist Democrats ritually call for the death of President Trump. Krugman and his ilk are a cult of media liars and frauds.

RELATED: Don’t get politicized, says E. J. Montini at The Arizona Republic. Tell it to Paul Krugman first, pal. And we didn’t come together in the Giffords shooting, sir. Refresh your memory. Krugman and his klan separated us.

BREAKING: Shooter ID’d, appears to be a Bernie Bro.

ONLY FIVE? Here Are Five Fake Stories CNN Pushed.

USA TODAY: Robert Mueller should recuse himself from Russia investigation: Former FBI director is too close to his successor, James Comey, to be impartial. That does seem to be the case.