JONATHAN TASINI: America needs higher wages, not lower taxes.

An easy way to raise everyone’s wages would be to cut everyone’s taxes.

WHY ARE LEFTY MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT? Lockhart Steele Fired From Vox Media.

EXPOSURE TO IDEAS? WHAT IS THIS, COLLEGE? The Daily Signal reports today that two Ohio legislators are introducing a bill to prevent publicly funded colleges in that state from disinviting speakers based on the content of their speech. The text says in part that:

“It is not the proper role of a state institution of higher education to shield individuals from expression protected by the United States … including, without limitation, ideas and opinions that the institution finds unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

The article goes on to detail that the bill is based on the Goldwater Institute’s Campus Free Speech Act, designed with Stanley Kurtz of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which says that state universities should allow anyone who is lawfully present on a public campus to demonstrate or protest in public areas, like sidewalks and spaces outside of buildings. It also says colleges should make clear during freshman orientation that they are in favor of free speech and eliminate restrictive speech codes and so-called “free speech zones” on campus.

The Daily Signal piece also details recent activity in the creation of “Bias Response Teams”, which is the subject of an earlier post below by Sarah Hoyt.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Purge: Scott Yenor and the Witch Hunt at Boise State: A political science professor at Boise State writes a piece about transgenderism and the university tries to tie him to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

When funding for these institutions is slashed due to plummeting public support — and it will be — they’ll blame “anti-intellectualism.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Budget Passes, Phonecall-Gate, Vegas Update and Much, Much More.

CHARLES BLOW’S NOVEL IDEA: TRUMP IS LIKE HITLER!

I heard something unusual when I logged on to the New York Times this morning. It seemed to me a dire, authoritative, even apocalyptic sound. It was as if a gigantic clap of thunder had been produced by an immense boot of truth.

Allow me to explain. On my screen appeared a think piece comparing Adolf Hitler with Donald Trump. “Trump Isn’t Hitler. But the Lying . . . ,” by op-ed columnist Charles Blow, advances a breathtaking claim that has never, to my knowledge, appeared in any media outlet before: That though Trump isn’t Hitler, he’s actually pretty close, when you really think about it.

I was gobsmacked. My mind reeled. I can’t emphasize enough how fresh, how novel, how utterly without precedent this Hitler-Trump comparison is. Blow further clarifies that the first three words of the title of his column are something of a ruse, because in fact Trump is Hitler in important respects. Furthermore, to drop this knowledge on the public was to Blow a duty of such moment that it drove him to carry out a godlike act of slamming his truth-boot down through the firmament upon our benighted planet. If, Blow says, some might be shy about comparing Trump to Hitler, “I have neither time nor patience for such tiptoeing. I prefer the boot of truth to slam down to earth like thunder, no matter the shock of hearing its clap.”

Heh. Of course, Charles Blow himself is a mile-marker on the road to Trump. When faced with Mitt Romney in 2012, as decent a guy as can be found standing at the intersection of business and politics, the DNC operative with a byline tweeted this:

And Romney took it without exactly punching back twice as hard, to borrow a favorite saying of a legendary former community organizer:

Asked about the comments on the radio, Romney responded with something resembling sarcasm: “That is a little surprising, I must admit. I guess we’re finding out for the first time that the media is somewhat biased,” he said, without addressing Mormonism head-on. He added, “I think it’s going to wear very badly and the American people are not going to line up for that kind of, if you will, divisiveness and demonization of their fellow Americans.”

Think Trump would have been as milquetoast in response? Me neither. As Glenn has written, “Trump, as I keep saying, is a symptom of how rottenly dysfunctional our sorry political class is. Take away Trump and they’re just as awful and destructive. He just brings their awfulness to the fore, where it’s no longer ignorable. Now they’re willing to play with fire, risking the future of the polity over little more than hurt feelings, in a way that would have been unthinkable not long ago.”

HMM: Wal-Mart’s Answer to Amazon? Its Own Web Mall.

The world’s biggest retailer is near a deal with Lord & Taylor that would give the department store dedicated space on walmart.com, according to a person familiar with the matter. Such an agreement would be the first step in creating an online mall that shoppers could access from Wal-Mart’s website, this person said.

Additional brands that could eventually be included in the project are men’s clothing company Bonobos and online retailer Jet.com, both of which are owned by Wal-Mart, as well as other traditional chains, this person said. Financial terms of the potential Lord & Taylor partnership couldn’t be learned.

Wal-Mart is seeking to build an anti-Amazon coalition as it begins to ramp up e-commerce sales after several years of sluggish growth. Last year Wal-Mart bought Jet, placing its founder Marc Lore at the head of U.S. e-commerce operations. Then Wal-Mart made a series of smaller e-commerce purchases including Moosejaw, Bonobos and ShoeBuy, both to expand its online selection and gain give it access to brands built online, executives have told investors.

Now Wal-Mart aims to make walmart.com more attractive to premium brands and high-income shoppers, an area Amazon has also pursued in recent years.

Higher-end brands have been reluctant to work with Amazon because of its reputation as a discount e-outlet. So why would a higher-end department store like Lord & Taylor partner with Walmart? Best guess: Amazon has grown so large that everyone else is frightened of being consumed by Bezos’s beast.

IT’S HARD NOT TO ANGER PEOPLE WHOSE PURPOSE IN LIFE IS BEING ANGRY: How to anger a feminist: Criticize Harvey Weinstein the wrong way.

PETER FERRARA: Economic Growth Is Not a Mystery, Yet It Eludes Democrats.

Obama fundamentally transformed America by following the opposite of every Reagan pro-growth policy:

Raised the top tax rate of every major U.S. tax, except the corporate rate, which was already the highest in the developed world;

Imposed draconian regulation on health care, finance and most importantly energy, just when America was emerging with the resources for energy independence to lead the world in production of oil, natural gas and coal;

Raised federal spending, deficits and debt to highest in American history by far;

Supported the Fed in wildly destabilizing monetary policy, with near zero interest rates for nearly a decade, and a flood of money held back by the Fed for now, which only further discouraged global investment in America.

This is why the economy never recovered from the 2008-09 financial crisis, and why instead we got the worst economic recovery from a Recession since the Great Depression, with only 2 percent economic growth. America’s historical record is that the worse the recession is the stronger the recovery, as the economy grows faster than normal for a couple of years to catch up to where it should be on the long-term trendline. That is why we should have come out of the financial crisis in a long-term economic boom, potentially stronger than even Reagan’s.

But to this day, eight years later, that still has not yet happened. Instead, we are still $2 to $3 trillion below where we should be.

This is why Democrats lost the 2016 election. Trump promised to restore Reagan’s pro-growth policies. Hillary promised more of the same Obama failure.

Democrats have yet to catch up with the rest of the world in realizing that socialism does not work. That Bernie Sanders’ throwback silliness continues to spread throughout the Democratic Party is costing it big time.

The difference between 4 percent real growth and 2 percent after 50 years is the difference between America and Third World stagnation.

They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.

JOHN HINDERAKER: The Uranium One Scandal Is Exploding. “In the immortal words of IowaHawk, journalism is all about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving. This story has legs, and the cat is out of the bag. It isn’t going to stop moving any time soon.”

GOP CONGRESSMAN: ‘There’s Nothing Wrong with Lowering Taxes for Rich People.’

“THIS IS REALLY SOMETHING:” John McWhorter goes on an epic tirade against Ta-Nehisi Coates (and the white people who make a show of embracing him).

KURT SCHLICHTER: Liberals Try To Connect With Normal Americans And It Goes Poorly.

YES? BUT IT’S STILL INTERESTING:  Blade Runner 2049: Is Bondage Immoral?

LEFTISTS ALWAYS PROJECT. LOOK AT WHAT THEY ACCUSE OTHER PEOPLE OF AND THEY’RE DOING IT:  Barrasso Seeks Documents Related to Russia Uranium Investigation.

NO! AMAZE ME!   Study Finds ‘Bias Response Teams’ Have Difficulty Balancing Duties and Free Speech.

OF ALL THE THINGS WE DON’T NEED:  Northwestern University Continues Efforts To ‘Deconstruct Masculinity’.

OF COURSE THEY DO:  Uranium One: Media Scrambles To Protect Obama, Hillary And Russia Trump Narrative!

WHEN NARCISSISTS ATTACK:  Frederica Wilson Uses Death of Soldier to Call Herself a Rock Star.

THE MOBS COME FOR WALTER WILLIAMS:  White privilege and other fables.  (Either it’s my browser, or you need to page down quite a lot to the article.  Do it, it’s worth it.)

NEO-NEOCON MADE A DISCOVERY WORTH SHARING:  Jordan Peterson on leftists: “Well, think again, Sunshine!”

LIKE SHAVING THE BARBER:  Who controls society?

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FLASHBACK: Tucker Carlson to DC Republicans on Trump: “He Exists Because You Failed.”

SO ONE OF OUR FRIENDS WAS SINGING THE PRAISES OF this “maze” dog bowl. Her dog typically wolfs down his food, and frequently gets sick. This slows down the eating process, and prevents that. She especially likes it on trips, as pictured here at a rest stop en route to Florida.