NEWS YOU CAN USE. PETA: ‘You Can’t Be a Feminist and Buy a Dog.’

There are plenty of good breeders who care very much about their animals, and a little research can help you find one. It’s only right to make sure you’re not furthering the mistreatment of dogs by buying one. But equating someone who buys a dog from a respectable breeder with an anti-feminist supporter of sex slavery is obviously insane.

I’m pretty sure Mike Judge didn’t intend for Idiocracy to be a how-to guide for life in the 21st century.

HMM: Fighting FBI corrupt/discrimination.

This is a GoFundMe for and by Robyn Lee Gritz:

I lost everything including my house fighting corruption in the FBI. I was an honest agent that knew the American people were my boss. Current FBI management seems to have forgotten that. I was targeted and pushed out. I continue to fight corruption in the FBI and expose those who are unethical. This account will be for travel and lodging expenses etc for myself and my attorney (which I’m responsible for) when we have to go to court and/or DOJ/FBI for my case. The FBI drags this process out because they know victims can’t afford all of this.

John Cardillo describes Gritz as a “rockstar former FBI counter terror agent whose life and career was destroyed by McCabe because she challenged his inner circle.”

And this is from a recent Fox News story:

Robyn Gritz, who said she served 16 years with the bureau fighting terrorism, told “Fox & Friends” that she celebrated McCabe’s dismissal and that it brought back memories of how he allegedly mistreated her.

Gritz said that she began working with McCabe in 2005 until she ultimately resigned several years later.

She said McCabe retaliated against her for filing a harassment claim against one of her supervisors.

Gritz said that, while working as a “detailee” to the CIA, her boss began “scrutinizing [her] work and asking questions” about her purportedly being “fragile” after her divorce.

“He made some discriminatory comments about why I was traveling and such,” Gritz said of her boss at the time, who was not McCabe.

When she heard that the boss was making similar comments to a black coworker, Gritz said she decided to file a complaint against him.

Gritz said when she filed the suit, McCabe signed off on an internal investigation against her, adding that “he know that I was either filing or going to file the [case].”

“I went through hell for a year and a half,” she said. “Andy made sure I couldn’t get out of the division.”

Gritz said that McCabe additionally made “nasty, false” comments about her in a meeting — “lying,” she said. “which is why he just got fired.”

Her story does seem to fit a pattern at the Bureau.

NOW THIS IS A 21ST CENTURY HEADLINE: Scientists mix the unmixable to create ‘shocking’ nanoparticles.

CHANGE: EPA Prepares to Gut Obama’s Signature Move on Autos.

The Obama-era rules would have required cars and SUVs to hit 55mpg by 2025, but Trump and EPA chief Scott Pruitt, both of whom have voiced public doubts about climate change, think the mark is too high and therefore problematic for manufacturers. The revised standards are still being worked out, but the Los Angeles Times notes that the move sets up a huge fight with California, which has a waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act to set its own standards. Another dozen states, including New York, typically follow California’s lead, which the NYT notes raises the possibility of the US essentially having two auto markets, with some states—say, those on the coasts—abiding by tougher emission rules.

It’s called federalism.

WHOM THE GODS DESTROY THEY FIRST MAKE NIXONIAN: When does reporting become breaking and entering?

You probably recall this story from February, though it didn’t seem to have much of a lifespan in the mainstream press. New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi was found to have gone into the home of Corey Lewandowski when he wasn’t there and taken a picture as part of a story she was working on. There may be a lawsuit or criminal trial coming out of that as a result, but the details remain unclear. It should seem obvious to one and all that Nuzzi did something wrong, but precisely how wrong was it?

That’s the question Joan Vennochi at the Boston Globe is tackling this week, and to my great surprise, she appears to find some sort of gray area. Sure, it was a crime. But was it a crime crime (to adapt a phrase from Whoopi Goldberg about rape)? She’s even able to find some experts to back up the idea that there might be a different, more flexible standard of justice for special people like reporters.

I’m old enough to remember when a “third-rate burglary” was the stuff of impeachment, if it benefitted a Republican. In contrast, “Liberals need to stop trying to get us to call them ‘progressives’ or whatever word it is this week,” Kathy Shaidle once wrote. “They should just get brutally honest with themselves and with the rest of us and rename themselves the ‘It’s Different When We Do It’ Party.”

As Glenn noted last month, “Trump’s superpower is his ability, just by existing, to bring out the deep and pervasive rot in America’s institutions and the people who run them.”

LARRY O’CONNOR: What did Comey know about Pulse Nightclub terrorist, and when did he know it?

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: It’s Official: A British Man Has Contracted The First Case of Untreatable ‘Super-Gonorrhea.’

“NOT USING GUNS OR KNIVES BUT THEIR FISTS AND FEET:” Group of “Teens” Randomly Beats New Jersey Man To Death. Too bad he didn’t have a gun.

JAYVEE: ISIS Needles France for Having Trèbes Terrorist on Watchlist Before Attack. “This operation comes despite the claim of the Crusaders that the brother… was monitored by her organs [and] despite all the strict security measures,” terror group says of “growing tide.”

If counterintelligence services don’t want to get needled, maybe they should do a better job.

WE DON’T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL: Seventh-Grade Assignment: Write Letters to Lawmakers Begging for Gun Control.

“I looked at it, and I told my son, ‘No, you’re not doing that assignment,’” Lee said. “Then I emailed his teacher the next day and told him that my son would not be writing that.”

Blue Lives reports that the teacher agreed to exempt Lee’s son from the assignment without penalty. According to Lee, there were other parents in the class who had issues with the homework, but they didn’t find out about it until after their children had already turned it in.

It’s not clear whether the teacher intended to actually mail the letters — but the truth is, it doesn’t really matter. Either way, this homework was straight-up propaganda, and it has absolutely no place in our schools. It was obviously the right decision for the teacher to have excused Lee’s son from the work, but propaganda should never have been given as a homework assignment in the first place.

I’m going to ask my sixth-grader — and budding target shooter — what he’d do in this situation.

“NOBODY WANTS TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY”: Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Suggests Repealing the Second Amendment.

The chairwoman’s comments put Louisiana’s incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in a precarious situation. Edwards, one of the deep South’s lone Democrats in statewide office, was elected in 2015 in part because he emphasized his pro-Second Amendment views. Since taking office, Edwards has walked a tightrope on the topic, expressing limited support for banning bump stocks and strengthening background checks.

If Edwards hopes to be reelected next year, he will need to continue distinguishing himself as someone who is in some ways antithetical to the national Democratic Party, especially on the issue of gun control, in a state that President Donald Trump carried by over 20 points in the 2016 presidential election.

The governor’s office did not return requests for comment.

On Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican Party slammed Peterson on social media for expressing “radical” views on gun policy that are out of the political mainstream. The party urged voters to contact Peterson and let her know that they do not agree with her sentiments.

It’s telling that the Louisiana Democratic Party has yet to make such a call on Peterson.

GREAT MOMENTS IN OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM: “What kind of dumbass colleges don’t want you?,” Alisyn Camerota asks David Hogg.

Related! CNN lost its way in struggle to find an audience.

Regarding a large chunk of that audience, I’m fine with CNN morphing into MSNBC as long as it discloses its biases and stops pretending to be “objective.” But why does it still have a near-monopoly on airport TVs?

“WHY DID I BECOME A MASS KILLER? TO GET CHICKS.” Florida School Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Has Been Getting Piles of Fan Mail. “The newspaper obtained copies of letters, including one from a woman who called Cruz ‘beautiful’ and others with suggestive photos.”

Related: Why Some Women Are Attracted To Serial Killers. “Ted Bundy, the notorious serial killer who raped and murdered more than 30 women, received tons of fan mail from female admirers while in jail. In 1980, while still on trial, Bundy married one of his admirers, twice-divorced mother of two Carole Anne Boone.”

BREAKING: Widow of Pulse nightclub gunman acquitted.

ROGER SIMON: First Investigate, then Dismantle, the FBI.

The FBI, in sum, no longer looks out for the American citizen.  It looks out for itself or the leaders it chooses.  It deserves to be dismantled and a new FBI built from the ground up.  An entirely new system must be devised.  As perspicacious as the Senate and House committees have been, they are not enough.  Congresspeople alone cannot oversee this, nor should they have to.

After the IG reports have all been published, as suggested by Alan Dershowitz, an independent commission should be convened to review what has happened, devise these systems, and reconstitute a new FBI that  is organized differently and directly responsible to the citizenry.  This will not be easy.  Bureaucracies abhor transparency.

Read the whole thing.

GUESS THAT PARTY, PART DEUX: “Judge accused of breaking into home, swiping ‘soiled’ women’s panties.” Hint.

Gotta be fair…

WHO CHECKS THE FACT-CHECKERS? Facebook Quietly Begins Fact-Checking Political Photos and Videos.

WELL, GOOD: Saudi Prince Calls for Stepped-Up Pressure on Iran. “An opponent of the nuclear deal with Tehran, Crown Prince Mohammed cautions that the alternative to pressure is military conflict.”

Saudi Arabia has been a fierce critic of the deal the Obama administration and other world powers made in 2015 to lift some crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

Under Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic ties with Iran and pressured countries in the Middle East and Africa to curtail their relationships with Tehran, accusing it of meddling in Arab affairs.

“We have to succeed so as to avoid military conflict,” said Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler. “If we don’t succeed in what we are trying to do, we will likely have war with Iran in 10-15 years.”

Iran has emerged as a more potent force in the Middle East following the nuclear deal and the dismantling of Islamic State, building its influence in Syria and Iraq, and allegedly supplying Yemeni rebels with weaponry used against Saudi Arabia in a three-year war.

Gee, whatever happened to those “snapback provisions” John Kerry promised in case Iran got frisky after the deal was signed?

I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE, HE’S NOT WRONG: Trump warns Putin: We can have an arms race if you want, but I’ll win.

STOP ME IF YOU THINK YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE: Russia Employs New ‘Hybrid War’ Methods Against Georgia.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Why I Cancelled My NFL Season Tickets—by Congressman Diane Black, Republican Candidate for TN Governor.

MISS LIBERTY REVIEWS BITTER HARVEST, a love story set during Stalin’s forced famine of Ukraine.

The film is remarkable for its accurate portrayal of the blunt truth – no major narrative film of which I am aware has ever told this story (there have, however, been several documentaries). Ukrainian farmers did indeed resist Soviet collectivization, often heroically, but they were a largely unarmed population facing armed troops, with predictable results.

The DVD is available for rent at Netflix or purchase on Amazon, but there doesn’t seem to be a Blu-Ray release yet.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Flyers have been popping up in various locations around campus falsely accusing a Florida Atlantic University professor of being a “white supremacist” with ties to a neo-Nazi organization.

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