LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Over half of young Venezuelans want to flee as economy Collapses, poll find.

Once Latin America’s richest country, Venezuela’s economy is now collapsing and it is battling hyperinflation at levels unmatched anywhere else in the world. The IMF projects inflation will reach 13,000% this year and the economy will shrink 15%.

For Venezuelans between 15 and 29, the crisis has escalated to a point where they have lost confidence in their home, according to a poll carried out by the US firm Gallup and shared exclusively with the Guardian. Some 53% would like to move abroad permanently.

One of the most painful effects of the current crisis has been widespread hunger. In 2015, when inflation and food shortages were well below current levels, nearly 45% of Venezuelans said there were times when they were unable to afford food; in the latest study, that figure had risen to 79% – one of the highest rates in the world.

The irony of this “teachable moment” is that young people tend to be more susceptible to socialism’s alleged charms.

And the obligatory COMMAND-F search result:

Just bad luck then, I suppose.

AUTOMATION: Flippy the Burger Flipping Robot Is Now Cooking at the CaliBurger Fast Food Chain.

Flippy is a brand new, burger flipping robot now cooking at a chain called CaliBurger, which serves up California style burgers and fries.

“The key to success in the restaurant industry is consistency. So anytime you go to a CaliBurger anywhere you know that the patty will be cooked exactly the same,” said John Miller, CEO of Cali Group, the company that runs the chain.

The robot was developed by a subsidiary called Miso Robotics.

So how does it work? Before Flippy can get started, it needs a little human help. A co-worker puts raw patties on the grill.

“The kitchen of the future will always have people in it, but we see that kitchen as having people and robots,” said David Zito, co-founder and chief executive officer of Miso Robotics.

“This technology is not about replacing jobs – we see Flippy as that third hand,” said Zito.

That’s a nice thing to say, but the minimum wage in California was just raised to $11, and is set to rise to $15 for large companies like CaliBurger in just four years.

BUSTING A POPULAR MISCONCEPTION: Mass Shooters Aren’t Disproportionately White.

YES, PLEASE: Bill to expand wine, liquor sales to Sundays in Tennessee.

SHE WASN’T UP TO HER JOB: Broward sheriff’s captain who gave initial order to ‘stage’ not enter Stoneman Douglas is ID’d. “The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has identified to Fox News the captain who, according to sources, directed responding deputies and units to ‘stage’ or form a ‘perimeter’ outside Stoneman Douglas High School, instead of rushing immediately into the building, as the mass shooting unfolded there.”

WILL SWEDEN BE NEXT TO INVESTIGATE CLINTON FOUNDATION? President Donald Trump meets today at the White House with Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. Both men’s countries would be better off, according to Charles Ortel, without the long string of globalist abuses by the Clinton Foundation.

HMM: New Gun Bill Would Mandate Reporting of Buyers Blocked by Background Check. “Senators argue that those who fail the background check and violate the law when trying to get a gun — such as convicted felons and domestic abusers — are rarely prosecuted.”

#TIMESUP: Nashville’s Democratic Mayor Megan Barry Is Expected To Resign Today.

UPDATE: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry pleads guilty to theft charges, resignation imminent.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mayor Megan Barry thanks Nashville as she resigns from office. This is hard for Tennessee Democrats, as she was going to be their great female hope for winning statewide office again, especially with an expected wave of #MeToo enthusiasm from women voters. Instead, well . . .

THIS DOESN’T ACTUALLY SURPRISE ME: Law Professors Are Paid Less, Work As Hard As Lawyers Do. When I left law practice for law teaching, my hours actually went up.

WINTER MEDEVAC: A winter field training exercise in North Dakota. Yes, it’s cold.

LONG, HARD SLOG: Janus Case Only Beginning for Forced-Dues Fights. “Labor watchdogs expect unions to continue collecting from unwilling members.”

Ron Conwell expected to sever his ties to the National Education Association after Gov. Rick Snyder enacted right to work in 2013. One of the first things the Army veteran had to do when he took a job as a teacher in 2001 was sign up for the local union. He grew up in a union household, the son of a UAW-member father. The idea of automatically signing up, rather than opting in, rubbed him the wrong way.

“I would have rather researched it first because I didn’t want my voice commandeered,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with a local union—it makes sense for a group of people to get together and take a collaborative approach to negotiating, but I found some of the things contrary to my fundamental beliefs.”

He vowed to withdraw his financial support of the union upon the enactment of labor reforms but claims in a lawsuit that he has been blocked from doing so by the union. The Clarkston chapter of the NEA and school district negotiated the extension of mandatory agency fee payments until 2016—even after the original contract expired in 2014. Right-to-work laws allow the enforcement of forced-dues clauses negotiated prior to their enactment, but workers should be allowed to opt-out as soon as existing contracts expire. Conwell said the union’s use of extensions violates his rights as a worker.

“It was all a concerted effort on their part to maintain their membership even after right to work. It was very disheartening for me as someone looking to exercise my rights,” he said. “They’ve shown a dogged resistance to accepting the law.”

The state teachers’ union did not respond to request for comment.

Other states have seen similar instances of unions attempting to undermine worker opt-out clauses in the wake of legislative labor reforms or adverse court rulings.

Where’s DOJ on this?

K.C. JOHNSON: A SHAMELESS TITLE IX BUREAUCRAT POSES AS A CHAMPION OF DUE PROCESS.

During her nearly four years running Barack Obama’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Catherine Lhamon was nothing if not consistent. She sought to use the power of her office—chiefly by threatening to withhold federal funds—to force colleges and universities to change their campus sexual assault policies. Every substantive change demanded by the Obama administration made it more likely an accused student would be found guilty.

So it’s been rather startling in recent days to see Lhamon claim that defending the fair treatment of accused students was a cardinal principle of her OCR tenure. On February 17, she tweeted, “The OCR I led insisted on a rigidly fair process for all parties involved in sexual violence investigations. Resolution agreements demonstrate that, notwithstanding baseless claims to the contrary. Fairness to all involved is essential to justice.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s comments that she agreed with some of the complaints about the unfairness of Title IX tribunals prompted Lhamon to tweet, “I agree. That’s one among many reasons why we need aggressive federal enforcement of law to ensure fair process to all parties.” As proof, she cited two (Wesley and Minot State) of the scores of resolution letters issued by OCR during her time in office, but no policy document from OCR.

We live in an era of political shamelessness. But Catherine Lhamon positioning herself as someone who demanded fair treatment of accused students is nonetheless remarkable.

Lhamon ran a gender-based inquisition against male students. She should be charged with human rights violations, not celebrated.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT! Metaphor Alert: ‘Young Karl Marx’ Loses Tons Of Money.

WHAT DO YOU CALL BLACKSHIRTS WHO USE VIOLENCE TO STIFLE DISSENT? Antifa mob shuts down Yaron Brook event at London college.

Violent protests also erupted outside the event hall, which led the college to bar all non-student ticket holders from attending the event. The Ayn Rand Institute estimates the hosting student group, King’s Libertarian Society, was forced to turn away roughly 200 external ticket holders.

“I was told that due to a ‘risk assessment’ that it was only open to students. So I just huffed and went home! I’m not surprised it’s just an underhand tactic to effectively censor ideas they dislike. Which is fine I just wish they were more honest about it,” one individual who was turned away told Red Alert Politics, who commented anonymously.

John Switzer Haagensen, another non-student ticket holder, told Red Alert Politics, “it was somewhat chaotic at the campus. We were all their [sic] hopeful to get in but the university wouldn’t botch claiming security concerns … we were outside in the hallway prevented from entering, the antifascists aggressors arrived with smoke bombs.”

“I strongly feel the university caved into the antifa protesters. They need to protect free speech and not prevent people from joining peacefully. They changed criteria just 2.5 hours prior to the event despite it having been scheduled for months. I am very disappointed in an institution a top university in the world acting cowardly like this,” Switzer Haagensen continued.

Video at the link.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Miami University paying students to promote ‘radical feminism.’

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MARK PULLIAM: “The Bubble” and the Judiciary: Is There a Solution?

It’s a review of my The Judiciary’s Class War. “Thin but highly readable” — my greatest aspiration!

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Strzok Ignored Clinton Server Hack and Much, Much More. “What ARE they doing at the FBI? ‘What would you say you do here?’ They aren’t following up on tips of a possible school shooter, they aren’t following up on foreign hacking of the Secretary of State’s illegal email server, so what?”

WEIRD, JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO ALL THE SMARTEST PEOPLE WERE TELLING ME THAT TRUMP’S TWEETS WOULD PRECIPITATE WORLD WAR III: North Korea Open To Denuclearize If Regime Safety Guaranteed.

IF THE VIDEO MADE HIM LOOK GOOD, HE’D HAVE RELEASED IT BY NOW: Miami Herald: If Sheriff Israel is the ‘amazing’ leader he says he is, he will release videos of his deputies’ actions during Parkland shooting.

It’s thus reasonable to infer that it makes him look bad — probably horrible — and he’s trying to run out the national-attention clock.

IT’S ALWAYS NICE to make Twitchy.

IT’S A LONG LIST: This is one of the reasons America hates the media. Our entire industry lit itself on fire because a troubled Trump hanger-on made an ass of himself — live.

A DOSSIER PLOT TO GET TRUMP TO RESIGN?

The week before Thanksgiving, Wood briefed McCain at the Halifax International Security Forum. McCain was deeply concerned. He asked a former aide, David Kramer, to go to England to meet Steele. Kramer, a Russia expert who had served at the State Department, went over the dossier with Steele for hours. After Kramer promised to share the document only with McCain, Steele arranged for Kramer to receive a copy in Washington. But a former national-security official who spoke with Kramer at the time told me that one of Kramer’s ideas was to have McCain confront Trump with the evidence, in the hope that Trump would resign. “He would tell Trump, ‘The Russians have got you,’ ” the former official told me.

Unfortunately, everyone knew about the dossier — except, I guess, McCain — and had dismissed it as bogus.

HMM: DOJ Is Sued For Records Of Official Linked To Dossier.

Judicial Watch seeks records of Ohr’s contacts with Steele as well as with employees of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier. Fusion worked during the presidential campaign for the Clinton campaign and DNC.

Ohr’s links to Steele and Fusion GPS are one of the strangest wrinkles in the saga over the salacious and unverified dossier.

In September 2016, while serving as associate deputy attorney general, Ohr met with Steele to discuss his investigation of Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. He also met with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson several weeks after the election at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop.

Ohr was also connected to the dossier through his wife, a Russia expert named Nellie Ohr. She worked on the Fusion GPS research team investigating Trump.

The Ohrs’ connection to the dossier was kept secret for nearly a year after the dossier’s publication. Bruce Ohr also failed to disclose Nellie’s work for Fusion on his annual financial disclosure forms.

Let the sunshine in.