HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Colleges Face A No-Win Dilemma: To Cut Or Not to Cut Tuition?

ALL YOUR PLAN BELONG TO US: What Would A Joe Biden Presidency Retirement System Look Like? Farewell, 401(k), For Starters. “The promises to “equalize” tax breaks refers to longstanding complaints that, so long as 401(k) plans provide for the deferral of taxes on income saved for retirement, this tax break, or forgone tax revenue, primarily benefits relatively higher earners. Biden promises instead to ‘equalize benefits across the income scale’ and there’s no clear manner in which this lines up with a particular Sanders or Warren proposal, but progressives have been advocating for changes here for many years, for example, in this 2011 Brookings proposal in which tax deferral is replaced by a 30% federal match up to a cap, or other proposals with federal contributions to retirement accounts to be made on a flat per-person basis. Which of these Biden has in mind is unclear.”

I doubt we’ll see any clarity before election day.

Although I do get the feeling that the 30% carrot would quickly be turned into a stick. “Nice ‘match’ you’ve got there. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it.”

TERRORISM, INSURRECTION, WHATEVER: DHS’s Ken Cuccinelli: ‘It’s terrorism’ in Portland, ‘not peaceful protests.’ The press, of course, got more agitated about Tea Party protesters who cleaned up after themselves, but that’s just a function of whose side the press is on.

MATT TAIBBI: The Left is Now the Right. We laughed at the Republican busybody who couldn’t joke, declared war on dirty paintings, and peered through your bedroom window. Now that person has switched sides, and nobody’s laughing.

This isn’t all that new a development, but it’s good that some on the left, like Taibbi, are finally noticing.

PROF. JACOBSON: Harrison Bergeron University. “I mentioned in that regard that this overt intent to discriminate was, in campus-speak, called ‘equity,’ which is the opposite of equal opportunity.”

LAND OF LIBERTY: Kentucky couple forced to wear ankle monitors after wife tests positive for COVID.

THIS IS ACTUALLY BIG: Kanye West Collects Enough Signatures To Make Illinois Presidential Ballot. Imagine if the Democrats have to actually work for the black vote in a big blue state.

THE BABYLON BEE IS SAVAGE: Not Satisfied With Just Having Summers Off, Teachers Push For Fall, Winter, Spring.

JOHN FUND:  Could Tennessee Soon Have a Physician Senator Who’s the Son of Indian Immigrants?  The GOP primary race looks close.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This race looked like a runaway for Hagerty, but I’m seeing Sethi signs everywhere all of a sudden and the polls are closing up. I donated to Sethi and went to one of his events back in the fall, mostly at the behest of a former student, but I found him impressive. I believe that Sethi is stronger with the evangelical community than some might have expected. Hagerty makes a big deal about his Trump endorsement — “Endorsed by Trump” is on most of his signs — and if he loses the press will make it a defeat for Trump, but in actuality I don’t think Sethi would be any less supportive of Trump if elected. He’s an immigrant son, but he’s careful to note that his parents were legal immigrants.

ON THE DEATH OF PORTLAND: There was a time when Portland, Oregon, was known as “The Rose City,” a civilized, pleasant and prosperous place to live in the American Northwest. In its heyday, Portland had an annual rose festival and it even had an annual Indy car race!

But no more. As the Issues & Insights gang points out today, the city has become Mecca for every bomb-throwing, liberty crushing, lunatic Left-wing group:

“This is part of a pattern of how the Left works: Destroy the rule of law, the backbone of our free republic. Intimidate ordinary citizens into silence. Then support and elevate rule by power of unelected street thugs in Antifa and BLM. The meek may inherit the earth, but they won’t get the big cities.

“None of what we’re seeing should be viewed as a surprise or some sort of accident. Far from it. The city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, and Portland’s far-left city council, have not only permitted the violence, but enabled and encouraged it – just as mayors in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have done.”

Now, people and businesses are fleeing Portland. At least for now, they still have some place to go to escape the Hell the Left has brought into their lives. But, as Ronald Reagan so often warned, what happens when there is nowhere left to escape to?

A FRIEND IN CHINA IS SUFFICIENTLY WORRIED TO BE TELLING ME TO STOCK UP ON PHARMACEUTICALS: China Flood Calls Into Question Sustainability Of Massive Three Gorges Dam. I don’t know if it’s that serious, but some folks in our comment section here have been concerned for a while.

HOT: BadPower attack corrupts fast chargers to melt or set your device on fire. “The BadPower technique works by altering the default charging parameters to deliver more voltage than the receiving device can handle, which degrades and damages the receiver’s components, as they heat up, bend, melt, or even burn.”

To be clear, a bad guy needs physical access to a charger to make this happen.

CHINA SYNDROME: US accuses supplier for Amazon, Apple, Dell, GM, Microsoft of human rights abuses: The company, whose tech helps power phones, tablets and wearables, is accused of helping China’s campaign against Uighurs.

CORONAVIRUS DATA IN TEXAS & FLORIDA PROVE HOW DISASTROUSLY NEW YORK HANDLED PANDEMIC.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This bit is worth breaking out: “Florida and Texas are on track to have the same number of confirmed cases as the state of New York — which has more cases than anywhere in the country. Yet, Texas and Florida will have 1/10th of the death rate of New York.”

WELL, YES. IT WAS A SEDITIOUS POLITICAL CONSPIRACY, NOT A SERIOUS INVESTIGATION: FBI knew ‘collusion’ was a nothing-burger, but kept fake scandal alive anyway.

REMEMBER JOEL KOTKIN’S WARNING: The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class.

PURGING THE WOKE: LET’S HOPE THIS SPREADS: Red Bull Just Purged High-Level Execs Who Pushed for ‘Diversity and Inclusion.’ “Not only were the top two North American executives fired, but so were entire marketing teams and ‘culture’ teams that were dedicated to pushing the lie of systemic racism.”

Plus: “Have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘get woke, go broke?’ It turns out there is a simple way to prevent this, and it involves firing people indiscriminately, until the rest of the employees realize that the only way they are going to be able to keep their jobs is by being professional, and keeping their kook politics out of the workplace. Pour encourager les autres.”

I believe I have heard that phrase somewhere. (Bumped).

WHY IS THE NEW YORK TIMES SUCH A CESSPIT OF OFFICIALLY TOLERATED HATE? NY Times writer Wajahat Ali makes eyebrow-raising claim about ‘many’ White GOP voters.

AMERICA CAN STILL WIN THIS THING: Marin research center explores fat as coronavirus weapon. Actually, it suggests that the keto diet might be helpful.

TONY KATZ: The Secret Trump Voter is Not A Secret. “The polling out of Pennsylvania backs up why polling right now should not be trusted. In a Monmouth University poll, Biden topped Trump by 13 points in the Keystone State. But, when people were asked who would win the state, they broke almost dead even. Why? Secret Trump Voters, of course.”

SUMMER’S HERE, AND THE TIME IS RIGHT, FOR THE LEFT’S DOXXING IN THE STREET: Tucker Carlson Closed Monday’s Show With a Blistering Word to the New York Times.

Flashbacks, in addition to the examples in Bryan Preston’s article above:

● New York Times threatens to out science blogger after protecting identities of White House turncoats and Chapo Trap House podcasters.

● In 2014, the Times published Officer Darren Wilson’s address at the height of the Ferguson riots.

VANGUARD OF THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION: Portland Mayor Sets the Stage for Never-Ending Riots. “In Friday interview, Wheeler tipped his hand, revealing that his ‘plan’ to get Portland reopened hinges on the federal law enforcement officers leaving town. That’s right—Wheeler won’t lift a finger to enforce the law and stop the riots until President Trump withdraws the feds.”