GOOD LORD: Reno gunman opens fire at high-rise with links to Las Vegas shooter.

A gunman with a hostage opened fire from the eighth floor of a luxury high-rise condominium in Nevada onto the streets below, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The man died Tuesday after a SWAT team descended on him while he was barricaded at the Montage, Reno police Deputy Chief Tom Robinson told reporters. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was killed by police gunfire or his own. No one else, including the hostage, was hurt.

Well, good — but the disappearance of the Vegas shooter from the media’s consciousness, when so little is still understood about him, remains a mystery.

FLASHBACK: How Democrats Left Us Vulnerable To North Korea’s Nukes.

With last weekend’s surprise nuclear test, North Korea has reached final stage of its crash course to develop thermonuclear weapons that can reach and destroy U.S. cities. So why are we not on a crash course to protect our cities from North Korean nuclear missiles?

Answer: Because for more than three decades, Democrats have done everything in their power to prevent, obstruct or delay the deployment of ballistic missile defense.

Opposition to missile defense has been an article of faith for Democrats since President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Sen. Edward M.Kennedy led the early opposition to what Democrats derisively labeled “Star Wars,” denouncing missile defense as a “mirage” and “a certain prescription for an arms race in outer space.” Running against Reagan in 1984, Walter Mondale called it a “dangerously destabilizing” and unworkable “hoax.” . . .

If we had continued the Bush program over the past eight years, we would now have a robust array of defenses against any North Korean ICBM. We would be able to target a North Korean missile in the boost phase, and if that failed we would have 44 ground-based interceptors armed with hundreds of warheads that could be fired to take it out in mid-course.

But we did not continue the Bush program. President Barack Obama slashed funding for ballistic missile defense by 25 percent. As part of his failed “reset” with Russia, he scrapped Bush’s agreement with Poland and the Czech Republic. He reduced Bush’s plan from 44 ground-based interceptors to just 30. (He belatedly changed course in 2012 after North Korea tested the Taepodong missile, but the United States still has not recovered from the delay.) And he cancelled the Airborne Laser, Kinetic Energy Interceptor and Multiple Kill Vehicle programs. As a result, North Korean now has eight minutes of unchallenged flight during which their missiles are most vulnerable, and we have dramatically reduced the chances of hitting a North Korean missile as it descends on a U.S. city.

Thanks, Democrats.

Related: The Unexpected Return of ‘Duck and Cover.’

MORE ON MATT LAUER: “Apparently he was not terribly popular at NBC.”

Even less so this morning, I’d wager, as the network struggles to put on a show.

CHANGE: NBC News fires Matt Lauer after alleged ‘inappropriate sexual behavior.’

THE LEFT RUINS EVERYTHING: Even sex is in crisis in Venezuela, where contraceptives are growing scarce.

When she couldn’t renew her supply of birth control pills, Gutierrez and her husband made a choice. Long-term abstinence was not an option, they agreed.

They tried to be careful, but soon she was pregnant with her second child.

“We barely eat three times a day now,” said a distraught Gutierrez, a former hair washer in a beauty salon who lost her job because of the economic crisis. “I don’t know how we’re going to feed another mouth.”

While the Maduro-neé-Chavez regime is busy rehashing Soviet policy, maybe they can keep the populace amused with rehashed Soviet humor.

IS CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS A SECRET LIBERAL?

JACOB T. LEVY: The Limits of Legalism. I don’t think Robert Mueller and the FBI have been playing much of a role in defending the rule of law.

#BELIEVEALLWOMEN: Why Won’t Al Franken Say Whether He Believes His Accusers?

The answer seems clear: Franken is trying to rewrite the playbook for successfully surviving a sexual harassment scandal in our newly conscious post-Weinstein culture. Where the politicos of yesteryear would have issued a terse, blanket denial before sweeping the accusations into the past, Franken is trying a new tactic: the terse, blanket apology, followed by sweeping the accusations into the past. He seems to have deduced—probably correctly—that the damage his admission will do his career is less than the damage done by appearing to silence his accusers.

“What I’m going to do is I’m going to start my job, I’m going to go back to work, I’m going to work as hard as I can for the people of Minnesota, and I’m going to start right now,” Franken said abruptly, ending his Monday conference. He vanished back into his office, ignoring the shouted questions that followed him.

Whether Franken’s political career will survive this scandal is anyone’s guess.

He’ll survive as long as his fellow Democrats believe he can win reelection, and not one minute longer.

EARLY WARNING: North Korea’s latest missile launch appears to put Washington, D.C., in range.

The missile traveled some 620 miles and reached a height of about 2,800 miles before landing off the coast of Japan early Wednesday local time, flying for a total of 54 minutes. This suggested it had been fired almost straight up — on a “lofted trajectory” similar to North Korea’s two previous ICBM tests.

If it had been flown on a standard trajectory designed to maximize its reach, this missile would have a range of more than 8,100 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“This is significantly longer than North Korea’s previous long-range tests, which flew on lofted trajectories for 37 minutes and 47 minutes,” Wright said. “Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C.”

It’s past time to employ Austin Bay’s “return of serve” option for neutralizing North Korea.

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YET ANOTHER REASON TO CONFIRM HIM:

THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Cornell University Is Investigating Brian Wansink’s Controversial Research On How We Eat.

Cornell University has launched an investigation into the work of Brian Wansink, the food behavior and marketing expert who has come under fire for scientific misconduct allegations over the last year, BuzzFeed News has learned.

“An internal investigation by the University is underway, in compliance with our internal policies and any external regulations that may apply,” Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina said by email on Tuesday.

The school declined to share any more details, including exactly when the investigation began, how many papers are being reviewed, or whether the investigation involves the federal Office of Research Integrity.

It’s not the first time Cornell has looked into Wansink: In April, after critics publicly questioned four of Wansink’s papers related to pizza consumption, the university said it had found no scientific misconduct related to those papers.

Wansink did not immediately return a request for comment about the investigation.

Overall, critics have raised red flags about at least 50 of Wansink’s studies. The high-profile professor has retracted four articles — most recently one last week — and has at least eight corrections published or forthcoming. (That total doesn’t include yet another problematic paper about vegetable-naming that stands to be corrected or withdrawn.)

And yet we make policy based on this kind of science all the time.

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CAITLIN JOHNSTONE: Fascism Came To America Wrapped In A Rainbow Flag And Wearing A Pussyhat.

But it’s a quote from a bygone age. Christianity and flag-waving patriotism still hold value in red states, but they’ve become largely invisible to the major culture factories of New York and Los Angeles, and thus to the dominant culture of the greater United States. If fascism came to America wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross today, it wouldn’t have enough broad public support to implement its agendas, because crosses and flags don’t hold that much sway over America’s dominant value system. In order to rope in those who don’t value the old cultural value symbols, something more is needed.

So when fascism came to America, it came wrapped in a rainbow flag, and wearing a pussyhat.

Yeah, pretty much. And calling itself “anti-fascism.”

YES, IT IS:

Here’s the story:

A government watchdog who played a central role in the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the Obama administration told Fox News that he, his family and his staffers faced an intense backlash at the time from Clinton allies – and that the campaign even put out word that it planned to fire him if the Democratic presidential nominee won the 2016 election.

“There was personal blowback. Personal blowback to me, to my family, to my office,” former Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough III said.

The Obama appointee discussed his role in the Clinton email probe for the first time on television, during an exclusive interview with Fox News aired on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” McCullough – who came to the inspector general position with more than two decades of experience at the FBI, Treasury and intelligence community – shed light on how quickly the probe was politicized and his office was marginalized by Democrats.

Read the whole thing.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: A media controversy ignites over the case of Tawana Brawley.

It took until 2013 for this CNN headline, however: Tawana Brawley starts paying man she falsely accused of rape in 1987.

And since 2011, NBC and Comcast have kept Al Sharpton on the payroll, likely as both self-protection and as payback for supporting their merger.

21ST CENTURY SOLUTIONS: Will Stress-Busting Vagus Nerve Gadgetry Be a Game Changer? Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation reduces “fight or flight” responses.

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FLORIDA MANNEQUIN: “Rick Scott Consultant Denies He Used Ice Penis to Hump Mannequin.”

As Neo-Neocon writes, “He can deny it all he wants, but the mannequin says he did it!”

All inanimate objects must be believed.

2000: MOBIUS DICK RELEASES ROBOSEXUAL. (The guitar is from Skunk Baxter, under license.)

2017: Sex robots spark rise of men who will only sleep with dolls. Well, the robots improve every year.

OUT: JERSEY SHORE. In: Floribama Shore. “Taking the hook-ups, punch-ups and booze-fueled mayhem down south, MTV’s new reality show is set in the Florida Panhandle along the beach that stretches all the way to Alabama, known as ‘Floribama’.”

OUR SOURCE WAS THE NEW YORK TIMES:

● Shot: NY Times ‘Angry Hannity’ Photo Select Confirms Host’s Belief of ‘Liberal Bias.’

—Mediaite, today.

● Chaser: ‘THE PUBLIC EDITOR; Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? OF course it is.’

—Daniel Okrent, then the Times’ public editor, July 25, 2004.

Related Flashback: Atlantic Editor Apologizes For Greenberg’s McCain Photos; Considers Lawsuit.

LIFE IN THE TIM COOK ERA: Huge security flaw lets anyone log into a High Sierra Mac.

(Classical reference in headline.)

OUR NONPARTISAN BUREAUCRACY: Consumer Bureau execs, workers gave 593 donations to Democrats, 1 to GOP. We should bring back the Spoils System. It would be more honest.

SAD! Requiem For The Mall.