THE AL CAPONE’S VAULT OF AMERICAN HISTORY: “When people embarrass themselves, I tend to cringe and look away. I turn off talk radio when callers make a stupid point. I feel queasy when a colleague misspeaks in a public forum. And when reading Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, which was one of five finalists for the National Book Award for nonfiction, I felt nauseated. I was embarrassed for the author, embarrassed for Duke University and MacLean’s colleagues in its history department, embarrassed for the liberal reviewers who lauded such obviously shoddy and dishonest work, and most of all embarrassed for the prestigious National Book Award for having given it their imprimatur…. Throughout Democracy in Chains I kept waiting for the big reveal that would show the secret details of Buchanan and Koch’s far right takeover—and was left disappointed. The book is the historian’s equivalent of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault.”

JAZZ SHAW AND THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: ICE Is Demonstrating The Fruits Of “Sanctuary” Policies In Los Angeles.

If you happened to be in or around Los Angeles this week you may have seen some new visitors in town wearing ICE/Police body armor. They’ve been paying visits to a number of businesses and residences, rounding up illegal aliens and scheduling them for deportation hearings. Their primary targets are those with known criminal records, but since they have to go out into the community to locate these criminals (rather than picking them up from local law enforcement when they get picked up for other crimes), they’re encountering and arresting some with little or no criminal records as well.

That’s quite some sanctuary California has provided.

JOSH BLACKMAN: The Judiciary Learns To Equilibrate Between the President and the Legal Resistance.

AMERICAN TROOPS IN EUROPE MUST ADJUST TO “THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF WAR”: I’m not sure war’s fundamental “character” has changed much in the last 30,000 years, but I believe General Scaparrotti is referring to innovative technologies and new tactical and operational wrinkles. He’s also preparing for full-spectrum combat (to include mechanized combat) against a near-peer adversary. And in eastern Europe who might that near peer be?

A new cyber center, intended to bolster defenses against Russian intrusions and misinformation campaigns, also will be formed at Scaparrotti’s NATO headquarters in Mons, Belgium.

The moves coincide with a push by the U.S. to rejuvenate EUCOM into a warfighting headquarters capable of commanding troops in a crisis. Military officials have said such high-end command and control skills languished during the post-Cold War era, but EUCOM has sought to bring them back.

EUCOM war games now focus on confronting a “peer competitors” and sophisticated military threats that weren’t a priority during the previous 15 years, when military attention was on counterinsurgency campaigns in the Middle East.

“We had to reorganize some of our staff to be able to work in this environment,” Scaparrotti said. “We’ve done that. We’ve tested ourselves.”

In Russia, Scaparrotti said he sees a military that also is evolving. Moscow’s interventions in Ukraine and Syria have been a “testing ground” for regular Russian forces. Meanwhile, Russia’s military buildup in Kaliningrad, a fortified enclave with sophisticated Iskander missiles, also is an area of concern, Scaparrotti said.

Article’s worth the read.

AT AMAZON, save on Men’s Athletic Shoes.

THEY’VE BEEN WORKING HARD AND SMART AT THIS: China will soon have air power rivalling the West’s.

GOOD NEWS FOR MICE: Another cancer vaccine shows promise in mice.

THE CRAZY YEARS: Ohio Christian Parents Lose Custody of 17-Year-Old Daughter For Refusing Her Transgender Drugs.

WE’LL HAVE PLENTY MORE DIFFERENCES IN THE FUTURE: Turkey and the U.S. agree to move forward, not dwell on past differences.

WHY PAPER CUTS hurt so damn much.

WHITE HOUSE: Russia’s Cyber-Attack on Ukraine Most ‘Destructive and Costly’ in History.

The Office of the Press Secretary’s statement echoes the conclusion of British intelligence, as the U.K. earlier on Thursday declared Russia responsible for the attack, the BBC reported. The 2017 attack was known as “NotPetya” and targeted companies conducting business with Ukraine, a country with which Russia has been in conflict since its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“In June 2017, the Russian military launched the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history,” the White House statement reads.

The statement goes on to say that the economic damage—which resulted from attacks on shipping giant FedEx, drugmaker Merck, and others—has reached billions of dollars. The White House maintains the attack was part of the Kremlin’s campaign against Ukraine.

“The attack, dubbed ‘NotPetya,’ quickly spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas,” the statement reads. “It was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia’s involvement in the ongoing conflict.”

It might be worth revealing some of the West’s methods if we turned off the lights in Moscow for 24 hours — and put an end to this Kremlin BS.

THE HILL: Mueller indicts 13 Russians for interfering in US election. “Special counsel Robert Mueller has brought charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups for interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections, the Department of Justice announced Friday. The charges allege that the Russians posed as U.S. people, created false U.S. personas and stole the identities of real U.S. people.”

NICE JOB, FELLAS: WaPo: “The FBI said Friday that a month before the shooting rampage at a South Florida high school, the bureau received a warning that the 19-year-old charged in the massacre might carry out such an attack — but then investigators failed to act on it. . . . While this should have been investigated ‘as a potential threat to life … these protocols were not followed,’ the bureau said in a statement.”

FLASHBACK: I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.

21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: How to Stop Your Browser From Secretly Mining Cryptocurrency.

WHEN THEY GO LOW… THEY GO VERY LOW: Gun Control Advocates Bully Shooting Victim’s Father Because He’s a Trump Supporter.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How Much Money Does It Take to Be Happy?

As I’ve told my sons on more than one occasion, money can’t buy you happiness, but it can forestall an awful lot of misery.

WORLD WAR III BEGAN WHEN ALBERT SHANKER GOT HOLD OF A NUCLEAR WARHEAD: Terrorist Plot Involving Bomb Making Teacher Foiled In New York City.

(Classical reference in headline.)

THEY MUST HAVE STUDIED LAW UNDER PROFESSOR CHRIS CUOMO: “CIA Argues The Public Can’t See Classified Information It Has Already Given To Favored Reporters.” The Daily Caller reports that:

In a motion filed in New York federal court, the CIA claimed that limited disclosures to reporters do not waive national security exemptions to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies frequently deny records requests on the basis of protecting sensitive national security information, one of nine exemptions written into the federal FOIA law…“In this case, CIA voluntarily disclosed to outsiders information that it had a perfect right to keep private,” [the Judge] wrote. “There is absolutely no statutory provision that authorizes limited disclosure of otherwise classified information to anyone, including ‘trusted reporters,’ for any purpose, including the protection of CIA sources and methods that might otherwise be outed.”

Here’s Chris Cuomo’s “legal reasoning” via Prof. Volokh. (Cuomo: “remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you learn about this, you’re learning from us.”).
EXTRA IRONY BONUS: CNN — that same defender of transparency and the public’s “right to know” — forced YouTube to remove the video clip of Cuomo’s inanity.

WILL IT BE WIRED WITH SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT 6? The quantum internet has arrived (and it hasn’t).

This is a deep read, but fascinating stuff.

FLASHBACK: There’s a Way to Stop Mass Shootings, and You Won’t Like It.

You’re not going to like it because it’s going to require you to do something personally, as opposed to shouting for the government, or anyone to “do something!”

You ready? Here it is:

“Notice those around you who seem isolated, and engage them.”

If every one of us did this we’d have a culture that was deeply committed to ensuring no one was left lonely. And make no mistake, as I’ve written before loneliness is what causes these shooters to lash out. People with solid connections to other people don’t indiscriminately fire guns at strangers.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s never going to work because no one is going to make the effort to connect with the strange kid sitting by himself at lunch each day. No one is going to reach out to the gawky, awkward guy at work and ask him about his weekend.

You’re probably right and that’s an absolute shame.

Indeed.

THE RUSSIANS DID IT: CNN viewership collapses 23%, 30% in primetime.

AVNER ZARMI: The Netanyahu Recommendations: What Happened, What’s Next.

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM: The New York Times Wonders ‘Can White Kids Dress As Black Panther?’