ANTIFA MOB VICIOUSLY ASSAULTS JOURNALIST ANDY NGO AT PORTLAND RALLY: At Reason, Robby Soave writes:

Throwing milkshakes at right-wing politicians is a tactic of British progressive activists that recently traveled to this side of the Atlantic. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R–Fla.) was hit with one earlier in June. The tactic has its defenders in mainstream left-of-center media as well: Vox‘s Carlos Maza tweeted “milkshake them all” after a British activist hurled a milkshake at Nigel Farage.

Portland police have claimed that some of the milkshakes thrown by the antifa activists on Saturday contained quick-dry cement. That may or may not be true. What is true is that an antifa mob beat up a journalist—one who is harshly critical of them, to be sure, but who posed no physical threat to them and was only there to document their activities—on a public street. This is indefensible, and yet there are tons of progressive-leaning people currently defending it, or at the very least rationalizing and making light of it.

“One gets the impression that Antifa rules Portland with the same impunity that the Ku Klux Klan ruled Birmingham in the 1960s. Do they actually have police in Portland? Do they have functioning government there?”, Rod Dreher asks. As PJTV alum James Poulos tweets, from Portland City Hall’s perspective, it’s working perfectly:

THE PROBLEM WITH CAPITALISM IS THAT IT MAKES SOCIETIES RICH ENOUGH TO INDULGE REALLY STUPID IDEAS: Global Capitalism Makes Your Hipster Minimalism Possible.

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OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED POLITICAL VIOLENCE:

In the attack, Andy received cuts and bruises to his face and head, including a torn earlobe, and had thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment smashed or stolen. He was taken to the local hospital, where it was discovered he had a small bleed to his brain and, as a result, he was kept in overnight. His friend Michelle Malkin has set up a Gofundme page where well-wishers can make donations to pay for additional security, his medical needs and to replace his camera equipment.

The protest in Portland last night was billed by the organisers as ‘milkshake themed’ and one of the most sinister aspects of the attack is that milkshakes thrown at the event contained quick-drying cement, a chemical substance that can cause serious harm, including severe burns.

For months, critics of milkshake-throwing – a trend that began in England – have warned that it will inevitably lead to escalation, while left-wing journalists like David Aaronovitch have defended the practice. Earlier this month, the comedian and Women’s Equality Party supporter Jo Brand joked about protestors who’d thrown milkshakes at Ukip and Brexit Party candidates in the European Election. ‘Why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid?’ she said on a BBC Radio 4 comedy programme. This led to no disciplinary action by the BBC, even though it immediately sacked the Radio 5 Live presenter Danny Baker for making an inappropriate joke the month before. On the contrary, the BBC came to her defence.

But the real enablers here are the politicians and journalists who’ve championed Antifa, such as the CNN presenter Chris Cuomo, as well as the Portland authorities who have consistently turned a blind eye to the criminal behavior of the group. Indeed, Andy himself was assaulted by an Antifa activist at his gym last month and the Portland Police took no action. And he was punched in the stomach while covering an Antifa May Day protest in Portland while a police officer stood by and did nothing.

Let’s hope this sickening attack finally shames the Portland authorities into taking action against the group. Beating up a journalist because he or she criticises your political ideology is what the Nazi party did in Germany in the 1930s.

And they, too, had political sanction from sympathetic officials when they did so.

PRETTY SURE I SAW THE GAY PENGUINS OPEN FOR DURAN DURAN AT THE TLA IN PHILLY IN ’83: London Zoo Having a Pride Party for Its Gay Penguins.

JUST SAY NO: Broke Gen X to inherit cost of Gen Z’s unrealistic dreams.

As Democratic candidate after Democratic candidate continues to find things to make “free,” there’s the inevitable question of who will pay for it. Free health care, free college, reparations for African Americans, back taxes for married gay people, canceling student loans — there are few proposals among the Democratic presidential field that don’t involve someone paying up.

While the candidates defer to a generic “the rich” or “the millionaires and billionaires,” it’s actually Generation X, currently around 40- to 54-years-old, who is poised to pick up the tab for all the “free” stuff.

Every proposal to make something “free” will involve plans to raise taxes and is aimed directly at the pockets of that generation. With the boomer generation largely retired, it’s Generation X who will see their taxes spike if plans to cancel all student loans or create Medicare for All see fruition.

In a time of obsessive “fairness,” this seems pretty unfair.

Talk of “fairness” is generally just a cover for theft.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: It’s AOC versus former Obama flack Jay Carney, who’s now a senior vice president at Amazon: Grab The Popcorn — Amazon Fact-Checks AOC And Her Claims About Their Warehouse Workers.

“PROGRESSIVISM:” WHERE TIME STANDS STILL: 2020 Dems Want to Bring Back Forced Busing; What Parents (of All Races) Really Want Is School Choice.

BLUE ON BLUE: NeverTrumper Bret Stephens writes a column saying that the left is scaring away voters the Dems need to win. Gets called a white supremacist. Sorry, Bret: As noted below, the “respectable” left and center pundits allowed this kind of atmosphere to grow because Orange Man Bad, and now it’s out of control. The Girondists always fall to the Montagnards.

IT WOULDN’T HAVE GONE WELL FOR THEM: A jury was set to hear this accused student’s story. Yale settled to avoid it.

NOTICE ANYTHING MISSING?: Latest Suicide Data Show the Depth of U.S. Mental Health Crisis.

Mental health problems manifest in a number of ways and encapsulate a wide range of conditions, including substance abuse disorders, crippling anxiety, schizophrenia, and suicidality. A person’s susceptibility depends on genetic, social, and environmental factors. These contributors are believed to be intertwined; psychological stressors can activate a genetic predisposition, so life circumstances matter a lot. And the U.S. is home to some particularly challenging ones: stagnant wages; rising health-care costs; the proliferation of highly addictive opioids after a marketing push from major drug companies; the disappearance of well-paid blue-collar jobs and the emergence of the gig economy; the lack or limited availability of treatment and services. The destructive powers of technology, be it in the form of social isolation or cyberbullying, have been cited in the rising number of teens killing themselves. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for 10- to 34-year-olds. Then there’s the prevalence of guns, which are used in half of all suicides. 

These articles (this one is from Bloomberg Business) almost always leave out the most obvious psychological stressor in the U.S., the breakdown of the family.  We have a 40% divorce rate and a 40% out of wedlock birth rate, each significantly higher among those with fewer economic resources. There seems to be a tacit conspiracy of silence among the journalistic elite and the “experts” to not mention that this may have something to do with the feelings of desperation of loneliness and desperation that could lead to mental health crises (including substance abuse).

WELL, GOOD: University admits it shouldn’t ‘shield’ students from ‘offensive’ ideas.

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SUDDENLY, NICHOLAS KRISTOF IS WORRIED. Stop the Knee-Jerk Liberalism That Hurts Its Own Cause. A thoughtful friend on Facebook comments: “A good article. But I fear it is too late for the old liberals. They let things go too far and they went too far themselves, virtually creating the successor generation of illiberal, authoritarian progressives. Increasingly, that generation has contempt for them and their old-fashioned liberal values. People like Kristof, whose honesty and basic decency I admire, sowed the wind. Now they reap the whirlwind. They are the Girondins who now face the fanaticism and ruthlessness of the Montagnards.”

Yep.

UPDATE: From the comments: “Kristof is wrong that Trump created liberal intolerance. His ascendency is the reaction against it.” Yes. In fact, Trump supporters should thank Antifa, et al., as they are terrific motivators for Trump’s voters, and, in fact, recruiters for the Trump coalition. It’s already reached the point where Trump, once considered a crazy man, now looks like the reasonable adult in the room.

READER BOOK PLUG: From Dr. Insensitive Jerk, Dandelion Slap.

FLASHBACK:

If we want to solve the very real problem of excessive student-loan debt, college costs need to be brought under control. A 2010 study by the Goldwater Institute identified “administrative bloat” as a leading reason for higher costs. The study found that many American universities now have more salaried administrators than teaching faculty.

Another way to approach costs is to remove the incentives for universities to accept government-subsidized student-loan money regardless of a student’s prospects of graduation or gainful employment. Under the current setup, incentives run the other way: Schools get their money up front via student loans; if students are unable to pay the loans back, the burden falls on taxpayers (if the loan was “guaranteed” by the federal government), and the students themselves, while the schools get off scot-free.

A serious student-loan fix would change this incentive. First, federal aid could be capped, perhaps at a national average, or simply indexed to the consumer-price index, making it harder for schools to raise tuition willy-nilly. Second, schools that receive subsidized loan money could be left on the hook for a percentage of the loan balance if students default. I would favor allowing students who can’t pay to discharge their loan balances in bankruptcy after a reasonable time—say, five to seven years, maybe even 10—with the institutions that got the money being liable to the guarantors (i.e., the taxpayers) for, say, 10% or 20% of the balance.

You can bet that under this kind of a rule, universities would be much more careful about encouraging students to take on significant debt unless they are fully committed first to graduating, and second to a realistic career path that would enable them to service that debt over time. At the very least, schools would be more likely to warn students of the risks.

Even thinking about the impact of such a “skin in the game” rule for colleges helps to illustrate the irresponsible—even, in Elizabeth Warren’s words, “immoral”—way that colleges up to now have dealt with costs and with debt. If lawmakers were serious about helping students pay for college, Congress would be considering more than simply continuing low interest rates on ever-higher student-loan balances.

Still true.

DIPLOMACY: Trump pays a spontaneous visit to Kim Jong-Un, who, with one day’s notice, comes to meet him at the DMZ. “As I watched, I noticed that I was smiling.”

IT MAY TAKE FEDERAL TROOPS TO RESTORE ORDER. . .

Related: Just days after Eric Trump spat upon by waitress, WaPo publishes op-ed justifying harassment of restaurant customers over politics.

Meanwhile, the NYT promotes the doxxing and harassment of customs workers. The left-dominated media is deliberately encouraging political violence.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Progressives Don’t Care if the Poor Get Poorer, So Long As They Gain Power.

GREAT AGAIN: U.S. Oil Output Tops 12 Million Barrels a Day for First Time.

COME AND SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Journalist Andy Ngo Milkshaked and Beaten Up at Portland Antifa Rally.

FIGHTING BIGOTRY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Education Department Will Review Anti-Male Bias At University Of North Carolina.