BYRON YORK: On Trump-Russia, too much secrecy keeps public in dark.

“Secrecy is a mode of regulation,” Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote in 1997, when the congressionally-created board he headed, the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, released a report. “In truth, it is the ultimate mode, for the citizen does not even know that he or she is being regulated.”

Moynihan hoped that a “culture of openness” would develop to balance the culture of secrecy. It didn’t happen. A dozen years later, in 2009, the New York Times editorialized that the federal government’s creation of “107 different categories of restricted information … seems designed not to protect legitimate secrets but to empower bureaucrats.” Still more recently, when the House held hearings on secrecy in 2015, the journalist Terry Anderson testified, “The Moynihan commission recommended some changes in the law, including an office of declassification. Nothing was acted upon.”

Today, the culture of secrecy is keeping the public from learning some basic facts about the Trump-Russia affair, even as newscasts and newspapers are filled with reporting, speculation, and debate about it. When it comes to allegations that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to fix the 2016 election, the Justice Department and other agencies have withheld information from the public because such information is classified, or because it is purportedly critical to an ongoing investigation, or because officials just want to keep the Department’s secrets secret.

P.J. O’Rourke quipped back in the mid-’90s, about that book allegedly authored by Hillary Clinton, that “You’re the child and Washington is the village.” Nothing’s changed since then.

SPACE FORCE: Pentagon Plans to Deploy Space-Based Missiles. “Orbiting missile defenses to counter Chinese, Russian hypersonic, ballistic missiles.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Illegal immigrant students now allowed positions on California college boards.

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Plus, Hot New Releases, Updated Every Hour.

And, save Big on Clearances, Overstocks, and Markdowns at the Amazon Outlet Store.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Kavanaugh, Big Tech on the Hill and Much, Much More. “The media was also excited to announce that Kavanaugh refused to shake the hand of a Parkland shooting victim’s father. I have a feeling he didn’t know who this gentleman was but who cares because it makes a great story. Sure, there were people screaming like maniacs, I don’t know why Mr. Kavanaugh would not want to touch some friendly, crazed strangers.”

Such an amazing circus but I never seem to get any bread.

END IT DON’T MEND IT: Obamacare Requirement Blamed For Doctor Burnout.

The report published in the American Journal of Medicine found that the electronic health records (EHR) is destroying the relationship between doctors and patients. The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom charges the Obamacare requirement that doctors use electronic health records has caused a surge of burnout in the medical profession, explains Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. “The EHR is causing doctors to leave their patients,” said Twila Brase, the president of CCHF and the author of “Big Brother in the Exam Room: The Dangerous Truth About Electronic Health Records.”

“Congress forced doctors to buy and use computerized record systems to collect and report patient data to the government. And it’s wreaking havoc on their practices and their patients,” said Brase according to WND. Brase’s book is opening eyes to the problems of government interference in markets – especially the healthcare market.

More at the link.

CHANGE: Trump breaks 20-year ‘fouled up’ budget gridlock, scores big wins.

President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan have teamed up this summer to do something that hasn’t happened in two decades — write and pass department spending bills instead of lumping everything into a massive package.

The House and Senate are moving at a brisk pace to pass the appropriations bills, with the Senate leading, approving nine of 12.

What’s more, the Trump administration has pushed through key priorities on wall and Pentagon spending, as well as curbing wasteful programs, though still ending up with a more expensive budget than they wanted by over $50 billion.

And while Congress has taken the votes, many on Capitol Hill are giving Trump and his team the credit for breaking the 20-year log jam. They cite his refusal to sign another massive “omnibus” spending bill that ignored his priorities, even if it means shutting down the government.

“This is all driven by the president,” said a key congressional insider. “It’s a win for the president. For 20 years this system has been busted.”

Nobody is as pleased as McConnell. Last week he said that the passage of department spending packages was a huge achievement, “given how completely fouled up the government funding process has been for 20 years, 20 years.”

I’d be happier if spending were going down, not up.

WITH ALL THE HATE SPEECH DIRECTED AT FOX BY DEMOCRATS, THIS WAS INEVITABLE: Pickup truck ‘intentionally’ crashes into Fox 4 studio in Dallas.

NOW OUT FROM LARRY CORREIA: Target Rich Environment.

BLUE WAVE: Democrats surge in new midterm election poll.

But it doesn’t matter what the polls say. If you care, you should be out volunteering and donating.

MAYBE I’M WRONG, BUT THIS LOOKS LIKE A CAVE TO ME: Report: Mueller will accept written answers from Trump on Russia collusion.

EMILY YOFFE: Reining In the Excesses of Title IX: The Department of Education’s proposed rule changes aren’t without their flaws—but they move the policy in a more just direction.

THIS IS FINE: Venezuela Vice-President: Migration levels are normal.

UN figures suggest that 2.3 million people have fled Venezuela’s economic and political crisis since 2014.

Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez said the figures had been inflated by “enemy countries” trying to justify a military intervention.

She spoke as officials from 13 Latin American countries were meeting to find a way to deal with the mass influx.

Venezuela has lost 7% of its population to this “normal” migration of happy workers satisfied with life in the socialist republic.

BEN SASSE EXPLAINS THINGS.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Mass. AG Faces More Legal Pressure Over Unilateral Gun-Ban Expansion.

The Massachusetts attorney general’s decision to unilaterally expand the state’s ban of certain semiautomatic firearms is facing a new round of filings in state and federal court this month.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) announced on Wednesday a collection of gun-rights groups had filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in Worman v. Healey. That case challenges the decision in the First U.S. Court of Appeals.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) announced earlier this month it would be supporting Baystate Firearms and Training, LLC and Downrange, Inc. in their effort to fight the action in state court. The retailers petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County to have the action invalidated under state law.

I’m in this case as an amicus with Randy Barnett, Joyce Malcolm, Bob Cottrol, and numerous other lawprofs.

FIVE WAYS DEMS WILL ATTACK KAVANAUGH TODAY: It’s going to get rough on Hearing Day Two for the judge. Here are five lines of attack Senate Democrats will pursue in their efforts to discredit Brett Kavanaugh (and the president who nominated him).

DEEP STATE: Papadopoulos Court Docs Provide More Evidence Russiagate Was A Setup To Get Trump.

In the memo, Papadopoulos’s lawyers detailed the FBI’s January 27, 2017, questioning of their client, explaining that for two hours, Papadopoulos answered questions about professor Joseph Mifsud, Carter Page, Sergei Millian, the “Trump Dossier,” and others on the campaign. According to Papadopoulos, “[t]he agents asked George if he would be willing to actively cooperate and contact various people they had discussed.” Papadopoulos said he would be willing to try.

Yet when Mifsud—the Maltese professor who in late April 2016 told Papadopoulos that the Russians had “dirt on Hillary” in the form of “thousands of emails”—visited the United States just two weeks later to speak at a State Department-sponsored conference, the FBI didn’t even bother to have Papadopoulos reach out to his former colleague.

Instead, the FBI questioned Mifsud, then in the special counsel’s sentencing memorandum blamed Papadopoulos for the government’s inability “to challenge the Professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States.” According to Mueller’s office, Papadopoulos’ “lies also hindered the government’s ability to discover who else may have known or been told about the Russians possessing ‘dirt’ on Clinton,” and prevented the FBI from determining “how and where the Professor obtained the information [and] why the Professor provided information to the defendant.”

I previously explained why the special counsel’s claim that Papadopoulos’s lies impeded the FBI’s investigation doesn’t fly. Papadopoulos’s attorneys similarly argued in their memo that their client’s lies did not actually harm the FBI’s probe, adding significantly that “George was still a cooperating source in their investigation” at the time investigators questioned Mifsud.

That final point and the revelation in Papadopoulos’ sentencing memo that the FBI had asked the former Trump advisor if he would be willing to contact Mifsud—and Papadopoulos’ agreement to do so—exposes the FBI’s purported investigation into Russia as a sham.

Who does our counterintelligence agency work for, anyway?

GOOD TO KNOW: “If you want to save the world, veganism isn’t the answer.”

You can do your bit to save the planet by grilling a ribeye tonight.

YOU SPELLED “SUCKERS” WRONG: Men Pay $895 at ‘Male Feminism Camp’ to Cope With Their Own Toxicity.

STEPHEN GUTOWSKI: Levi Strauss Forms Gun-Control Group with Bloomberg, Pushes Employees to Donate.

The clothing company said it would be partnering with Everytown for Gun Safety and Michael Bloomberg to form Everytown Business Leaders for Gun Safety in a blogpost on their website. It also said it would set up the Safer Tomorrow Fund, which Levi Strauss said would direct more than $1 million over the next four years to “fuel the work of nonprofits and youth activists who are working to end gun violence in America.” The company went on to say it would begin doubling the amount it matches for employee donations to gun-control groups aligned with the fund and pushed employees to use their five hours a month in paid volunteer time at the gun-control groups.

Levi Strauss said while they had already requested customers not carry firearms in their store in 2016 and had supported gun-control initiatives in the past, they felt they needed to become more politically involved in the issue.

I can no longer even imagine going into a Levi’s store.

VIDEO: Linda Sarsour Arrested at Kavanaugh Hearing: ‘This is a Mockery and Travesty of Justice!’

Exit Question: Did she break Sharia law by doing this?

GEORGE KORDA: Single payer health care: it’s … wait for it … a waiting game.

START A FIRE IN THE DARK OF NIGHT:  Light One Candle, Write one Book.

JUDGING BY EVERY LEFTIST I KNOW, THAT THE BOOT WOULD NEVER BE ON THE OTHER FOOT:  What was Harry Reid thinking when he ended the Senate filibuster for federal judge appointments?