CHANGE: California To Give Online Bar Exam On Oct. 5-6, Permanently Lower Cut Score, Provide Provisional Licensure For Class Of 2020 Grads.

Related: New York Cancels September Bar Exam, Provides Provisional Licensure For All First-Time Takers.

Related: The Diploma Privilege Manifesto.

I think a temporary diploma privilege is going to be the answer a lot of places, but the inevitable CYA must take place first. But I would oppose making it permanent. The bar exam is a barrier to entry, but I think it helps keep legal education at least somewhat grounded that our students eventually have to pass an exam that we legal academics neither write nor grade.

MINXIN PEI: China’s Deepening Geopolitical Hole.

China is fast losing friends just when it needs them most. In the last few months alone, China’s relations with India have suffered a devastating blow after a bloody border clash left at least 20 Indian soldiers (and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers) dead. To punish Australia for daring to call for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, China imposed tariffs on Australian barley and threatened other punitive measures. On July 14, China’s foreign ministry denounced Japan’s recent Defense White Paper in unusually harsh language, raising doubts about the rapprochement Xi has been trying to engineer with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Chinese leaders have only themselves to blame for their growing international isolation. With an inflated sense of their power, they have overplayed a weak hand and driven friendly or neutral countries such as the UK, Canada, India, and Australia into the arms of the US, now China’s principal geopolitical adversary.

Read the whole thing.

I wrote here and at VodkaPundit years ago that China’s neighbors in East and South Asia and the Pacific would naturally gravitate towards the US as Beijing’s power grew — but that was an exceptionally easy call.

What was impossible to see ten years ago was that Xi’s haste and ruthlessness would frighten countries as distant from Beijing as the UK and Canada.

VIA SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: An “Amicus” filing in the Roger Stone matter. “Can a represented ‘party’ do that—serve a document by e-mail—and, thereby, avoid the federal courts’ electronic CM/ECF filing system?”

Plus: “Does Mr. Fein expect that there is some reasonable likelihood that his motion will be granted? Or is this filing just a media event and fund raising opportunity for his organization?”

SOONER OR LATER, THE FRITZ MONDALE STRATEGY HAS TO WORK, RIGHT? Cutting taxes key to most voters, and majority see Biden raising them.

NON-SHOCKING HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Silicon Valley pours money into Biden’s campaign — and snubs Trump’s.

RUSSIANS SELLING OUT TO CHINA: StrategyPage discusses reports of Chinese spying in Russia. The bottom line is that money buys secrets. But then China has been doing that in the U.S., too, hasn’t it? China’s pervasive spying and buying targets American creativity.

‘STRONGER TOGETHER’: Look at the Evidence: Democrat Lawmakers Pick the Targets for Antifa and BLM Rioters.

FIGHTING THE BONHOMME RICHARD FIRE: Another Navy photo taken July 12. This one shows a line of fireboats operating at Naval Base San Diego.

REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Mueller and Weissmann Op-Eds Greatly at Odds With Their Report and Evidence. To be fair, they’re lying political hacks who expect to get away with lying, because they have. Repeatedly. But maybe they’ll be questioned under oath: “In response, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham has said that he will seek Mueller’s testimony. If Weissmann is summoned as well, this would be a critical opportunity, through sworn testimony under penalty of perjury, to get to the bottom of claims about the Russia investigation – although perhaps not the ones that the prosecutors behind it want the public to focus on.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Budget ‘Bloodbath’ As University Of Akron Lays Off 23% Of Full-Time (Including Tenured) Faculty Due To COVID-19.

GORGEOUS: Scientists marvel as closest pics ever taken of sun show it is covered in flares. “So-called ‘campfires’ are ‘literally everywhere we look,’ say awed experts, suggesting they could be mini-explosions but admitting they don’t know exactly what to make of them.”

LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES:

FREE ON HBO UNTIL AUGUST 4: ‘Welcome to Chechnya.’ “An underground railroad in the Russian republic of Chechnya risks all to protect gay people from the government’s official policy of torture and extermination.”

I WAS BLOGGING ABOUT THE COMING GLOBAL BABY BUST WHEN INSTAPUNDIT WAS SHINY AND NEW: Fertility rate: ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born.

Related: The Parent Trap.

I AM SHOCKED AND APPALLED…  OKAY, MOSTLY I’M LAUGHING. FUNNY ITEMS ARE TO BE TREASURED THESE DAYS:  Body found by railroad tracks in Liberty Co. turns out to be sex doll.

DON’T YOU DARE BE THE FIRST TO STOP CLAPPING AFTER STALIN’S SPEECH:  Theater Prof Faces Termination Petition for Allegedly Falling Asleep During Online Anti-Racism Meeting.

Thought crime? So 2019.  Sleep crime is the new hotness.

WHAT A GRIM CAROL OF THE BELLS:  Cornell University takes a major step towards compulsory racial activism for faculty and students.

And yes, this is for you and you and you and you.  Come out, come out wherever you are. Because the longer you stay quiet, the further we slide into the abyss.

When will you stand up for truth? How late will you be?

ALSO A SANITY THREAT:  Twitter is a security threat.

SPEAKING TO AN ITEM I LINKED EARLIER… THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET YOUR CULTURE BE TAKEN BY PEOPLE WHO HATE THE COUNTRY:  Smithsonian Museum Hosts Anti-Black Racism.

That bell?  As someone or other said, it tolls for you.

BENEDICT ARNOLD WAS PRINCIPLED …  ‘Principled conservative’ Lincoln Project is paving the way for Pelosi and Schumer to overhaul the economy.

FRANKLY, THE USDA TRACK RECORD DOES NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE:  USDA issues new dietary guidelines for babies, pregnant women.

WELL, IT’S NOT A SURPRISE TO ANYONE INVOLVED IN JOURNALISM, FICTION WRITING, NEWS OF ANY SORT, ENTERTAINMENT OF ANY SORT, HIGHER EDUCATION. WE ALL KNOW THAT WHEN WE STEP OUT OF LINE, WE’RE DOING WHAT ROGER SIMON SO APTLY CALLED “BLACKLISTING OURSELVES.”  AND YET, THE TIME HAS COME.  FOR A LOT OF US IT CAME A WHILE BACK. OTHERS ARE HEARING THE BELL TOLL LOUD AND CLEAR NOW: Bari Weiss’ unconscionable treatment at NYT no surprise.