WELL, IT’S NOT LIKE THERE’S ANY PENALTY: The Tactic of Floating Outrageous BS.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE:  When you think that “hands up, don’t shoot” is for real, and you never talk about the Infield Fly Rule, well, this is what happens.

Linda Cohn, one of ESPN’s most prominent female anchors, in April 2017 gave a radio interview opining that ESPN’s politics were pushing away viewers and the network had overpaid for NBA rights. Mr. Skipper called to berate her on both counts, people familiar with the call said.

Hell, I’m still trying to come to terms with the Designated Hitter.

OPEN THREAD: Got anything to talk about?

ART OF THE DEAL: BREAKING: North Korea says it’s willing to meet with the U.S. at any time.

Well:

A tweet for every occasion.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Great German Meltdown.

Every 20 to 50 years in Germany, things start unraveling. Germans feel aggrieved. Ideas and movements gyrate wildly between far left and far right extremes. And the Germans finally find consensus in a sense of victimhood paradoxically expressed as national chauvinism. Germany’s neighbors in 1870, 1914, 1939—and increasingly in the present—usually bear the brunt of this national meltdown.

Germany is supposed to be the economic powerhouse of Europe, its financial leader, and its trusted and responsible political center. Often it plays those roles superbly. But recently, it’s been cracking up—in a way that is hauntingly familiar to its European neighbors. On mass immigration, it is beginning to terrify the nearby nations of Eastern Europe. On Brexit, it bullies the British. On finance, it alienates the southern Europeans. On Russia, it irks the Baltic States and makes the Scandinavians uneasy by doing business with the Russian energy interests. And on all matters American, it increasingly seems incensed.

Nothing to worry about here. Nothing at all.

IT’S A DAY ENDING IN “Y.” James Clapper Deceives Again.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, CLASSED AS ONE OF THE “SEVEN WONDERS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD,” OPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1883: The brainchild of German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, it took 14 years to build, and Roebling himself died as a result of an on-the-job injury before the project was completed. Instead, it was his son, Washington Roebling, who saw the bridge to completion.

The old line about “if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you” is based on truth. At least two con men—George C. Parker and William McCloundy—did time in Sing Sing for “selling” the Brooklyn Bridge to naïve purchasers.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: This Soccer Star Is About To Marry Two Women — See Them Here.

Groucho Marx, call your office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ust6bUwqqUc

I SAY, WHY TAKE CHANCES: How sleeping in this weekend may protect against early death.

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MICHAEL WALSH: Naked is the Best Disguise: the Bipartisan Deep State.

The deep state looks after its own. And this is why—whether “Republicans” or “Democrats”—the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party hates Donald J. Trump.

Read the whole thing.

I WAS GOING TO DO A POST ON THE WHOLE NFL-KNEELING THING, BUT THEN I SAW THIS:

So there’s the First Amendment, which limits what government can do, and there’s the broader social norm of “free speech,” which traditionally said things like it was wrong to go after people’s jobs for their political and social views. But there’s been a concerted effort to weaken the latter (and, really, the former) and now some people are unhappy with the result. Too bad nobody warned them this might happen. Sometimes, it’s you being shown the door, and in fact the “woke” and their views constitute a minority in our society, so they’re more likely to experience this than, say, people who want to stand for the national anthem. If you live in a media bubble, it’s easy to get the relative numbers wrong and think that the woke have the bigger battalions. I assure you this is not the case, and you should address issues like free speech with that in mind.

UPDATE: Some related game-theoretical insights, which I generally endorse. And let me add that I learned a lot from Robert Axelrod.

WELL, GOOD: Good News: Sitting All Day Isn’t As Bad For You If You’re Fit.

SEX WORKERS: It’s amazing how lonely and vulnerable so many men are.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Reduce Healthcare Costs by 92%.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! My weekly column is up at The Daily Caller. This week we take a look into the reporting out of Gaza, and find it’s much more complicated than you might think:

Many of the scenes propagated by mainstream media range from selective editing to outright falsity. It seems to me that the real question is whether such deception is a function of inherent bias, a conspiracy of sorts, or instead, the attention-grabbing motive best described as “if it bleeds, it leads.”

*Bumped from this morning* (NB: Some thoughtful commentators suggested I use the word “and” instead of “or” in the above graf. Point well taken

JUSTICE: Harvey Weinstein to Be Arrested on Friday in New York.

STICKING IT TO THE MAN: Convenience stores work around cold beer prohibition by offering ‘Chill Indiana bags.’

Gas stations will be selling reusable “Chill Indiana bags” that will make beer cold “by the time that customer reaches their destination.”

For years, gas stations have been pushing for lawmakers to update Indiana’s code, allowing them to sell cold beer with their alcohol licenses. And for years, they have been thwarted by liquor stores unwilling to share their cold beer profits.

Currently gas stations and grocery stores can only serve room temperature beer.

What a stupid law.

SO MAYBE DON’T DO THAT: Use of ‘Chemsex’ Ups Risk of HIV Dx Among Gay and Bisexual Men: New fad combines drug cocktail with condomless anal sex.

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THAT’S WHAT SKYNET TOLD HIM TO SAY: Mark Zuckerberg Warns Elon Musk: More People Will Die if We ‘Slow Down Progress’ on AI.

CHANGE: President Donald J. Trump is Reforming and Modernizing American Commercial Space Policy.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE KENTUCKY INQUISITION: But they probably should. Fox News reports on the University of Kentucky’s Bias Incident Response Team, whose rules FIRE declared to be the Speech Code of the Month for May. Mock the wrong person, even unintentionally, and a panel (including police) may be having a word with you. And before people complain about my comparison (yes, I know UK doesn’t kill anyone), give a listen to Episode 8 of the excellent podcast Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech, where Danish free speech advocate Jacob Mchangama reminds us that the Inquisition was first and foremost dedicated to “correcting” “errors” of belief and speech. Punishment was for the stubborn and recalcitrant.

GOOD NEWS FOR DRUGMAKERS: One-third of adults may need blood pressure drugs under new guidelines.