IF YOU’RE A CONSERVATIVE TWEETER, YOU MAY BE ON TWITTER’S ‘BAD ACTORS’ LIST: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devon Nunes is making waves with his Sunday oh-by-the-way about bringing legal action against Twitter for censoring him and three other conservative Republican members of the House. (Gaetz, Jordan and Meadows).

Twitter has been trying to finesse the censorship issue for months but it appears to this observer that the effort is failing because of the opacity of the company’s explanations for what it’s doing to deal with “bad actors,”  combat “uncivil discourse” and police “echo chambers.” Based on my analysis here, I’m not optimistic that Twitter will be a more friendly place for the First Amendment in six months, and frankly, it could be a good bit more hostile.

AT AMAZON, Best Sellers in Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry.

BUT OF COURSE: Comics, Reporters Rally to Protect Ocasio Cortez.

CAN’T WE DO YOUNG REYNOLDS INSTEAD? A World with Successful Reversal of Aging will first see twenty year old mice and young Stallone.

HEH: This One Weird Trick Will Save You Trillions on Healthcare!

So the Sanders “Plan” is going to save money. And all we need to do to get to that happy state of affairs is:

• Force every doctor and hospital in America to accept Medicare reimbursement rates for all patients — these are 40 percent lower than the rates paid by private insurance — while assuming that this would have absolutely no effect on their capacity or willingness to provide services

• Raise taxes by 10 percent of GDP — overnight

• Explain to the 150 million people with private insurance that the rules have been changed so dramatically that (a) they can no longer keep their plans, and (b) henceforth, tens of millions among them will be paying more in taxes than they were previously paying in both premiums and out-of-pocket costs

Easy!

To be fair, at least this time no one lies that everyone would get to keep their plan.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 8 Next-Level Lawn Care Tips.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: ISIS Claims Attack on Tajikistan Cycling Tour; 2 Americans Among Those Killed.

CHANGE: Worker pay and benefits climbing at fastest pace in 10 years, ECI finds.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Cory Booker Trying To Out-Crazy Maxine Waters?

If so, you certainly have to admire his ambition.

TRUMP BUMP: Legal Education Gets Its Mojo Back: Fall 2018 Applicants Are Up 8%, June/July LSAT Test-Takers Surge 30%. You’d think legal academe would be more grateful. . . .

SNOWFLAKES: Hire of former Trump aide prompts Miller Center resignations.

Imagine, if you will, a world in which people had to work with other people they didn’t entirely agree with or quite like.

KATHLEEN McKINLEY OF THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Twitter Banned Me For ‘Hate Speech’ When I Opposed Trans Troops, Honor Killings. 

Remember how much fun Twitter was in 2009? For few years there you could chat back and forth with your favorite senator or member of Congress. Politicians and reporters started to tweet things they believed, and you could ask them about it. Reporters started revealing personal political beliefs, and you could ask them about it.

You could direct-message news anchors. I remember the first time Jake Tapper direct-messaged me about something I had tweeted regarding one of his tweets. Twitter seemed like the most fascinating place on the Internet, a place where regular Americans could engage in real time with those who affect policy or report news. Trolling was minimal. You could speak your mind.

That was then. This is now.

Read the whole thing. Though to be fair, our forefathers saw this coming and tried to warn us.

DON’T BE UPSET. IT WAS A MERCY KILLING. Comedy is dead.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: STUDY: Open Office Plans Increase Employee Stress, Reduce Productivity.

THAT’S NOT FUNNY: The Strange Death of Comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFIBNwrEl_0

Classical reference in headline:

ROGER SIMON: Trump Should Meet with Khamenei, not Rouhani.

Read the whole thing.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: While Everyone Is Distracted By Russia, Chinese Spying And Influence Runs Wild.

NEED A RIDE? Uber Takes Regulation Fight to New York City Council with ‘App Takeover.’ “Arriving now: Higher prices and increased wait times.”

OORAH: Marines lead all services in binge drinking, sex partners.

Dr. Sarah Meadows, a senior sociologist at RAND who helped lead the study, said although it is useful in making policy decisions at the Department of Defense, people should be careful when drawing conclusions or casting judgement on one branch or another.

“We’re not trying to blame anyone for this, but the Marine Corps does tend to stand out,” she said. “Each of the services has their own culture.”

Meadows said one of the reasons the Marines stand out is simple demographics.

“Marines tend to be young men,” she said. “Compared to young men on college campuses, it’s pretty similar.”

They’re going to want some of that toxic masculinity, next time they need a beach stormed.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Harvard study: Trigger warnings actually harmful to students.

DRAIN THE SWAMP: Follow the Money in Florida: 34,873 Public Employees with $100,000+ Salaries Cost Taxpayers $5.5B.

When our team of auditors at OpenTheBooks.com reviewed the most highly compensated employees at every level of government in Florida, we found more than 35,000 state and local government employees brought home six and seven-figure salaries, costing taxpayers $5.5 billion annually.

Since last year, the headcount of these high-compensated Florida government workers jumped by nearly 4,000 employees.

The list of high earners includes an airport director accepting retirement payments and a working salary; a city attorney making $436,918; a junior college president making $386,578; and a county administrator making $346,722. There are even 26 small-town, village, and city managers out-earning every governor of the 50 states.

I know the argument is that local governments want to attract the “best people,” but does anyone believe that they do?

ON THIS DAY IN 1912, MILTON FRIEDMAN WAS BORN: Here is something I find interesting about his birth:

The hand that rocks the economist’s cradle rules the study of economics for generations. His mother—Sarah Ethel Landau Friedman—emigrated from Carpathian Ruthenia (a flea-bitten part of what was then considered the Kingdom of Hungary) when she was 14. She started out working as a seamstress in a sweatshop—an opportunity she was delighted to have. She later went into business with her husband in a dry goods store and an ice cream parlor (both of which she ran). Contrast that with John Maynard Keynes’s upbringing in a prominent British family.   His mother, Florence Ada Keynes, who, like Sarah, was a formidable woman, is most often referred to as a “social reformer” or a “politician.”

It’s fun to imagine how the study of economics (and maybe the world’s economy) would have been different if Sarah had gotten her first job with the government (or if the Keynes family’s fortunes had gone seriously south, forcing Florence to open a rooming house).

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: A Reminder That Newsweek Is Very, Very Bad News Site.

Though their headline on the Virgin Galactic space plane doing twice the speed of light is big, if true. Zefram Cochrane, call your office!