THE MARCHING MORONS: Shattuck: Social justice at Fenway, or a special kind of stupid? Embrace the healing power of “and.”

BAD HUMA: It’s Bad: New Emails Show Huma Abedin Mishandled Classified Info on Barrage of Sensitive Issues.

THAT’S GOOD, BECAUSE THE WHOLE “FELLOW” THING WAS MISGENDERING: Harvard Withdraws Chelsea Manning’s Visiting Fellow Invitation.

The dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government said the college was withdrawing its invitation for Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow and apologized for extending the offer, which prompted a former CIA director and the current one to distance themselves from the university.

Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell earlier Thursday announced his resignation as a senior fellow at Harvard over its decision to invite Manning. Mike Pompeo, the agency’s current director, also canceled a speaking engagement there Thursday night.

“I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a visiting fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility,” Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf said in a statement posted on the university’s website early Friday. “I still think that having her speak in the Forum and talk with students is consistent with our longstanding approach, which puts great emphasis on the value of hearing from a diverse collection of people.

“But I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations,” Elmendorf added.

Uh huh. As Noah Rothman says about Harvard’s statement: “It’s really a disgraceful statement. Entirely passive aggressive, unrepentant, and fails to address the issue.”

HEH: Portland probe finds Uber used software to evade 16 government officials.

When Uber began operating in Portland in December 2014, it did not have any permits, so it used a software tool it had created called Greyball to block regulators from booking rides. Uber stopped using the software after it received approval to operate its service in Portland in April 2015.

The city imposed no fines or other penalties but transportation officials have recommended that the city ramp up enforcement efforts.

“We have ensured that no attempts to evade regulators or deny service to riders” will be allowed in the future, Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said in a statement.

You have to wonder if Portland authorities understand that the app economy allows for almost endless ways to avoid overbearing regulatory schemes.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Trump condemns Rice’s unmasking: ‘What she did was wrong.’

Poll: Nearly 4 In 10 Americans Can’t Name Any First Amendment Rights: Local CBS affiliate distills a recent UPenn poll that sadly, isn’t shocking. Some snippets from the poll:

Nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) say that freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. But, unprompted, 37 percent could not name any First Amendment rights. And far fewer people could name the other First Amendment rights: 15 percent of respondents say freedom of religion; 14 percent say freedom of the press; 10 percent say the right of assembly; and only 3 percent say the right to petition the government.

At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I remember when they used to teach “civics” in elementary and high schools, and today — if at all — they are taught “feelgood” material out of social engineering textbooks. Fortunately, there’s a cure for that. Check out actor Richard Dreyfuss’ Civic Initiative:

“Despite having a political system that highlights individual freedom and responsibility, we fail to provide individuals with the skills they need to successfully fulfill the role of citizenship.  It is quite apparent that civic values have been absent in certain events of our country’s recent history.  We have experienced conflicting political parties unable to compromise, violent protests that have showcased a government unable to foster peace, and new generations that are falling behind its peers in education rankings. Extremism has plagued our government and caused shutdowns, fostered resentment between political parties, and generally caused inefficiencies.  The lack of civility in debate that has been seen in our political bodies is destructive and needs to be addressed.  On top of that, the average American citizen has a poor understanding of civics and the nuances of our political structure.  Civics must be taught so that our future leaders have the skills they need to run our country effectively, and future generations have the skills they need to be informed, active citizens.  This foundation of properly educated students will help address the problems we are experiencing today and begin to create the successful future we desire for our posterity.”

It’s surprising that Dreyfuss hasn’t been run out of Hollywood for using words like “responsibility.”

GOOD LUCK: Implementing the New Afghanistan Policy.

The U.S. approach needs to address: 1) the situation in Afghanistan itself (political, economic, development and military); 2) the role of Pakistan as an enabler of the Taliban and other violent groups and as a possible facilitator of peace; 3) the regional context: other neighbors and key players who can help or hinder a peace process and the India-Pakistan rivalry, which adds a nuclear dimension; 4) the important role of U.S. allies and partners in Afghanistan and in forging a path to peace; and, 5) the objective of achieving a negotiated political settlement which incorporates the Taliban.

American officials stress that the United States is not going to set “artificial” deadlines but will focus on achieving desired conditions on the ground. They also highlight that this strategy integrates Afghanistan into an overarching policy for the region. This will include intense engagement with Pakistan so that it takes decisive action against terrorist groups and helps get the Taliban to the negotiating table. The regional approach will also involve efforts reduce Pakistan-India tensions, including trying to lessen nuclear dangers from that rivalry. This is no easy task set.

Difficult — or impossible?

RESCUE IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS: A Navy Seahawk performs a rescue mission on St. Thomas.

RELATED: A more detailed photo of a Seahawk and background on the helicopter.

JUST PART OF LIVING IN A BIG CITY, SAYS LONDON MAYOR SADIQ KHAN: Explosion Rocks London Underground During Rush Hour Commute.

SO I GUESS WE SHOULD REPEAL THE 19TH AMENDMENT, SINCE WOMEN ARE TOO WEAK TO EXERCISE THE FRANCHISE: Hillary Says Women Who Voted Against Her Caved To Pressure From Fathers, Husbands. I mean, isn’t that the logical implication here?

JONATHAN TURLEY IN THE HILL: Whistleblower or wrongdoer? White House correct on Comey violations.

This week’s press conference has caused a media frenzy after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that former FBI director James Comey committed federal violations in his leaking of memos related to the Russia investigation. The press and various politicians were aghast at the very suggestion that Comey could have violated the law. As I have previously observed, it is a serious mistake for the president and his staff continue these ad hoc comments about the investigation and its key figures. However, Comey has taken on an inviolate image in the media that ignores glaring questions over his own misconduct, an important story that has been largely ignored in most of the coverage.

At the heart of the alleged violations are a series of “memos to file” about Comey’s meetings with President Trump. Comey now admits that he gave at least one of the memos to a friend to leak the information to the media. He insists that he was merely trying to disclose material information to the public. However, when he was fired, it was clear that Comey would be asked to speak to congressional investigators in addition to FBI investigators. Moreover, many of us were already calling for the appointment of a special counsel, which seemed all but certain. In other words, Comey knew that both congressional and federal investigators would be obtaining the memos in short order.

There was, however, an obvious personal benefit to releasing the information. Before he was fired, both Democratic and Republican leaders, as well as former FBI officials, denounced Comey’s prior conduct as director. In addition, Rod Rosenstein, the respected and nonpartisan deputy attorney general, had already concluded that Comey should be fired due to his record at the FBI. That is not the narrative that Comey relished after being fired by President Trump. So he changed the narrative.

Read the whole thing.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: London Terror, NorK Missile, Free Speech and Much, Much More.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT MONOPOLY ORGANIZATIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF ANTISEMITISM? Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach ‘Jew Haters.’ “Until this week, when we asked Facebook about it, the world’s largest social network enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of ‘Jew hater,’ ‘How to burn jews,’ or, ‘History of ‘why jews ruin the world.’’ To test if these ad categories were real, we paid $30 to target those groups with three ‘promoted posts’ — in which a ProPublica article or post was displayed in their news feeds. Facebook approved all three ads within 15 minutes.”

LEMMINGS: Democrats Follow Bernie Sanders Off a Cliff.

Matthew Continetti:

The “Medicare for All Act of 2017” would repeal Obamacare, along with most other private and public insurance, and replace it with a government-run, one-size-fits-all, centrally directed system of reimbursement for medical expenses. Sanders, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, holds the same opinion of health insurance as he does antiperspirants: “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different sneakers when children are hungry in this country.”

Senators Harris, Booker, Gillibrand, and Warren, who in addition to cosponsoring the bill may soon be fighting each other, as well as Sanders, for the Democratic nomination, are generals re-enacting the last war. They saw how well Sanders did against Clinton, they have marched in the anti-Trump “resistance” movement, and they want to inoculate themselves from accusations of ideological heresy.

Which is why they embrace the thin-skinned and irritable senator whose wife is under federal investigation. What the copycats forget is the future in politics is never a straight-line projection of the present, much less of the bizarre circumstances surrounding the 2016 Democratic primary. “Medicare for All” might strike Warren &co. today as legislation worthy of support for reasons both moral and self-interested. In time, however, palling around with Bernie Bros may become a liability.

For one thing, the policy is remarkably vague. “Mr. Sanders did not say how he would pay for his bill,” writes Robert Pear of the New York Times. “Aides said he would issue a list of financing options.” The “options” are not included in the bill—but they are enough to raise the hair on the back of one’s neck.

The experiences of Vermont, whose single-payer system collapsed several years ago, and of California and New Jersey, whose true-blue legislatures can’t carry single payer across the finish line, and of Colorado, which voted overwhelmingly against a similar plan last year, suggest the tax increases necessary to sustain expanded coverage frighten even Democrats.

Nancy Pelosi won’t be seen anywhere near Sanders’ bill, and whatever else you might say about her, her political instincts are still sharp.

ELIZABETH AMES: Liberals sick of the alt-left are taking ‘the red pill.’ In the 1960s it was fun to be on the Left. Not so much anymore. That’s gonna drive some people out.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOL FOR ZERO:

Carbon dating of the Bakhshali manuscript, a sole surviving copy of a mathematical text, has pushed back the time of origin to between 224 to 383 AD, rather than the 9th and 12th centuries as previous research had suggested. The Bakhshali manuscript is littered with a symbol for zero, as conveyed by a solid black dot, making it the oldest known example of the symbol that would later evolve into a number in its own right.

Yes, Mayans and Babylonians also had the concept of zero as a placeholder.

HOW’S THAT SWAMP DRAINAGE COMING ALONG? Census Bureau: D.C. Suburbs Remain Nation’s Richest Counties.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: It’s Tough Getting Crude Oil From an Italian Olive Grove.

Val d’Agri — more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Eni’s Rome headquarters — has the potential to become Western Europe’s biggest onshore field. But output was shut for seven of the past 18 months amid a probe into allegations of illicit waste-water disposal and a subsequent crude leak.

To help get Val d’Agri back on track and to more effectively tap its 1 billion barrels of reserves, Eni dispatched a 56-year-old veteran of the company’s drilling campaigns in Libya and Kazakhstan. One of Walter Rizzi’s main jobs is to win back public support in the mountainous region of Basilicata, where some locals aren’t convinced the economic boost from oil royalties is worth the environmental risk.

“Being here is strategic for us for several reasons,” said Rizzi, vice president of Eni’s special project for Val d’Agri. “The oil quality is extremely high, meaning the refinery cost is low, and the potential is huge.”

It wasn’t so long ago that the world was about to run out of oil, and now it seems there’s virtually nowhere that isn’t awash in the stuff. So much so that Italian mountaindwellers can afford to turn their noses up at low royalty payments for sitting on what might be Western Europe’s “biggest onshore field.”

NO FELLOW: Chelsea Manning Disinvited as Harvard Fellow After Protest from CIA Officials.

1913: THE TURNING POINT.

In 1913, Woodrow Wilson was the newly elected president. Wilson and his fellow progressives scorned the Constitution and the Declaration. They moved swiftly to replace the Founders’ republic with a new regime.

There is widespread agreement that Wilson did not always show good judgment – for example, in his blunders in international relations – but in the project of overturning the Founding, he and the movement he led selected their targets shrewdly. By the time he left office, the American republic was, as they say, history. The fundamentals of the new regime were in place, and the expansion of government under FDR, LBJ, and Obama was made easy, perhaps even inevitable.

Nineteen-thirteen gave us the 16th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution. That year also saw the creation of the Federal Reserve. This burst of changes marks the effective beginning of the Progressive Era in American politics, the era in which we now live. Wilson was to do much more that would once have been considered out of bounds, but these three changes were enough to change everything. In 1913, the fundamental agreement the Founders made with the American people about the relation of the states and the federal government was broken.

There will be a reckoning, I’m afraid.

IN THE EMAIL FROM KARL K GALLAGHER:  Torchship Captain.

HAIR CLUB  FOR MEN WORST HURT:  Here’s what women really think of bald men.

MY FRIEND BRAD TORGERSEN ON FACEBOOK:

THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE:  Jennifer Lawrence’s new film has a hidden message that shouldn’t surprise audiences by now.

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