A SHIFT IN NORTH KOREAN DOMESTIC PROPAGANDA:

…the new posters are just as much propaganda as the old ones, but they highlight different themes: reunification of the Koreas, economic progress and scientific achievement.

The change follows an internal logic: if talks with the South and the US are being reported as the beginning of possible future co-operation then the two former adversaries have to be displayed in a more neutral and less threatening way.

Why else would Kim Jong-un otherwise sit down for talks with those countries’ leaders?

I link, you decide.

SARAH HOYT: Is Everyone Just Like Hitler?

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Four Reasons Roseanne Spinoff May Be Doomed Already.

Many “Roseanne” viewers cheered the reboot for giving President Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. That angle is nowhere to be found in most scripted fare. The combination of ABC sacking Barr while TBS let liberal comic Samantha Bee survive despite making similarly foul comments (in a pre-planned segment, to make matters worse), enraged conservative fans.

The double standard never seemed so clear, so ugly and so intractable. Think those fans will eagerly accept the new Roseanne-free show? Unlikely.

Read the whole thing.

THE ART OF ALTERNATE HISTORY: Book Plug Friday is on Friday this week!

GHASTLY TRAGEDY– 9,000 LOST: Overcome by the magnitude, I staggered to the cabinet to pour a reviving shot of Woodford Reserve.

OPEN THREAD: Cut loose and comment like there’s no tomorrow.

DISAPPOINTING: New flu vaccine only a little better than traditional shot.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: In Philadelphia, the Far Left Bullies the Left.

DOUBTFUL, BUT WORTH A TRY, I GUESS: Stephen Moore: A Trump 2020 Win Would Spell End of Democratic Party.

AT AMAZON, save in Arts, Crafts, and Sewing.

Plus, summer savings in Car Care.

JIM TREACHER: I, For One, Welcome Our New Burger Robot Overlords.

ORIN KERR ON THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION THAT YOU NEED A WARRANT FOR CELLPHONE TRACKING.

HOT NEW LEFT-WING PROTEST IDEA: Let’s Occupy Fox News And Shut It Down.

Amazing, not least of which that it’s being floated almost exactly one year after CNN doxxed a previously anonymous 4chan member for creating an anti-CNN GIF that was retweeted by Trump.

CALL ME CRAZY, BUT I DON’T THINK TENNESSEE NEEDS A SEVENTH LAW SCHOOL: MTSU, Valparaiso discuss transfer of law school to Tennessee. “Middle Tennessee State University and Valparaiso University announced Friday that it has entered into a non-binding letter of intent to transfer Valparaiso’s law school from Indiana to the Murfreesboro campus, according to an MTSU news release.” Valparaiso Law went belly-up last year, but is looking for a new home.

But hey, more jobs for law professors, right?

WHEN PUSHY MARKETING BACKFIRES. Okay, I’ve known Tam for a long time. But 5 minutes of scrolling through her blog would have been enough to make clear that — even if you were dumb enough to think this approach was good in general — this was a terrible, terrible place to try it.

STRONG PUSHBACK FROM MCCAIN’S OFFICE on Judicial Watch’s claim that it was involved in pushing IRS Tea Party targeting.

THE FBI HAS FLUSHED ITS REPUTATION: YouGov: FBI’s Popularity Plunges Since February As Plurality Of Independents Now View Agency Unfavorably. “It’s not just that the FBI’s favorability has declined, it’s that it sunk from a 52/29 majority in favor of the agency in February to a narrow 43/35 plurality now. It’s no longer the case that most Americans view the federal government’s chief law enforcement arm, which presents itself as the consummate by-the-book professional police force, in a positive light. And as I note in the headline, it’s not just Republicans who feel that way.”

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Belgian city to turn abandoned hangar into ‘mega-brothel’ for sex workers. “The brothel will be known as ‘Hangar d’amour’ and will be run by the same company that manages a 51-bedroom in Antwerp called Villa Tinto.”

YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID: $30M Pledged in Effort to Remake ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi.’

BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY: When Trade Shows Sold the American Dream.

Bathtubs Over Broadway begins as a snarky joke at the expense of a square, bygone America—after all, [Steve] Young’s discovery began with David Letterman, the gap-toothed king of irony. But something amazing happens about halfway through the documentary: it turns into something  surprisingly sincere and uplifting. Young’s obsession with collecting the records leads him on a detective search for the talent behind the industrials. He travels around the country meeting some of the performers and composers. They include composer Hank Bebee, actor Peter Shawn, and Patt Stanton Gjonola and Sandra Geller, two women who performed in the shows and who attended the American Film Institute screening of Bathtubs Over Broadway.

We watch as the writer becomes immersed in his research at the same time, 2014, that his job gets eliminated when Letterman decides to retire from television. “I had to find a job after having the same job for 25 years,” he says. A directionless Young finds himself taking solace in the un-ironic sunniness of the industrials. “The process of doing this made me a better person,” he told me. “It made it easier for me to connect with people in ways that I didn’t before.”

Bathtubs Over Broadway moves from camp and irony to depicting what became a second family for Young; and what began as a joke winds up saving a man in a mid-life crisis. He begins to appreciate that, as the film reminds us, Americans in the mid-20th century endured the Great Depression and World War II, and after these trials they were happy to have stable, lifelong jobs. They took pride in their work. Suddenly the cheering audiences in the vintage clips about toilets and Big Macs don’t seem like unhip dupes, but human beings who had good reason to love the companies that enabled them to advance up the economic scale from humble beginnings and achieve the American dream.

That puts him far beyond Letterman, who rarely if ever dropped the mask far enough to see humanity in middle America.

GOOD LORD: 13-Year-Old Charged with Felony for Recording Conversation with School Principal. “If I do go to court and get wrongfully convicted, my whole life is ruined.”

The incident took place last February at Manteno Middle School, which is about an hour outside of Chicago. Young Paul Boron was arguing with Principal David Conrad and Assistant Principal Nathan Short.

About ten minutes into the meeting, which was held with the door open, Boron told the men he was recording it. At that point, the principal told Boron he was committing a felony and ended the conversation. But then, according to the Illinois Policy Center:

Two months later, in April, Boron was charged with one count of eavesdropping – a class 4 felony in Illinois.

“If I do go to court and get wrongfully convicted, my whole life is ruined,” said Boron, who lives with his mother and four siblings…”I think they’re going too far.”

…. Members of the Manteno Community Unit School District No. 5 board, Conrad and Short have not responded to requests for comment on the incident.

Unfortunately for Boron, there is a law against recording people without their consent in Illinois. There’s even a rule against it in the student handbook. But the handbook also says that it is fine for the school to have video cameras monitoring the public areas of the building. In other words, it’s fine to keep the kids under constant surveillance, just not the administrators.

You don’t ruin a kid’s life over anything so trivial. You erase the recording and send him back for extra detention.

Unless of course you’re less interested in educating children and more interested in establishing authority over them.

JASON WHITLOCK: Conservative Voices at ESPN Intimidated Into Silence.

“Celebrate diversity” morphed into “Conform, proles” so slowly that I hardly even noticed.

DON’T TEST STUFF LIKE THIS WHILE WEARING IT: Sadly Predictable: Man fatally stabs self demonstrating “stab-resistant” vest. “There is no such thing as a ‘stab-proof’ vest. Even full suits of plate mail can be penetrated at specific points, and bodkin arrows and various hammers and spikes were designed to foil even the most armored of knights. We have seen multiple examples of modern vests failing when actually faced with a penetrating blow. Joerg Sprave got in all sorts of hot water by demonstrating this fact in a video, with some even accusing him of making instructional videos for terrorists. An Israeli journalist needed a visit to hospital after someone demonstrated a stab-resistant vest that wasn’t.”