WELL, THAT’S HOW HE WAS SOLD, BUT IT’S NOT HOW HE HAS RULED: “Why is racial discord the problem of the summer 2016? If anyone has what it takes to unify the country over race it is Barack Obama, who is President right now and who had been President for 7 1/2 years. If it makes any sense to be deciding the current presidential election on this issue, if this longed-for capacity is something that can possibly exist, then Barack Obama would be doing it now and would have been doing it for years.”

President Chaos Umpire has no interest in racial healing. Obligatory:

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FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: “This growing military weakness versus China has become more of an issue in Taiwan and there was growing pressure to improve training and reduce corruption within the military before it was too late. Yet many Taiwanese prefer to believe that the United States will protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression. That is no longer a sure thing either.”

DALLAS SHOOTER MICAH X. JOHNSON Was Kicked Out of the Army for Stealing Panties. “When he was cornered, Johnson told the police that his aim had been to kill white people, especially police officers. He mentioned his military service, but made no reference to the circumstances in which that ended.” Well, can you blame him?

COLLION NOIR: Media Fan The Flames of Racism.

THIS STORY SEEMS VERY WEIRD: Texas governor burned in accident; could miss GOP convention.

DON SURBER’S TRUMP THE PRESS gets a positive review from Steven Hayward. “I repeat that I think Trump is a high-risk proposition to win the election, and I am doubtful about his ability to govern if he does. But Surber’s book is a very useful collection of the cluelessness of the political class, along with a worthy analysis of how the conservative establishment needs to do some serious rethinking whatever the outcome in November.”

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FRIGHTENINGLY PLAUSIBLE: FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States.

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WELL, THERE’S ALWAYS @LYFT: Uber Forces Customers to Take One Minute to Think About Gun Violence. “This is exactly the type of thing I expect from smug, self-righteous, millennial tech millionaires.”

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: The FDA Just Approved a New Device That Literally Sucks Food Out of Your Stomach. “Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new device that would help obese people absorb fewer calories — by draining a portion of their undigested stomach contents directly into the toilet. The AspireAssist is basically a small pump that attaches to a hose surgically implanted in a person’s stomach. Twenty to 30 minutes after every meal, they’d open the port valve, turn on the device, and pump out about 30 percent of the food they ate. The process takes five to ten horrifying minutes. In a yearlong clinical trial, people treated with an AspireAssist device and nutrition and exercise counseling lost an average of 12.1 percent of their body weight versus 3.6 percent in a control group that received the counseling alone.”

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I’M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN SHE WAS AWESOME, BECAUSE SHE WAS A WOMAN: Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos Is Barred From Running Lab for 2 Years. I suspect all that gender-based hype slowed down scrutiny of what seems to be somewhere between a failed company and a scam.

THIS ISN’T REALLY NEWS: The Feds Own (Maybe 6) Secret Medical Warehouses: The Strategic National Stockpile is designed to counter threats to America’s health.

LIFE IN A FUNDAMENTALLY-TRANSFORMED AMERICA: Bahamas Issues Travel Advisory Over US Police Shootings.

WHY ARE COMPANIES RUN BY NANNY-STATE PROMOTING LEFTIES ALWAYS DODGING TAXES? IRS Sues Facebook For Billions In Undervalued IP Assets In 2010 Irish Transfers.

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HOW THE FOUR SEASONS SAVED NYC DURING AN ERA OF GRAFFITI AND GUNFIRE: The legendary restaurant, “which will serve its last meal on July 16 after 57 years in the Seagram Building, is the most important restaurant in the history of New York City,” Steve Cuozzo writes in the New York Post.

Having dined there many times, including multiple birthday parties when I was as a kid, and with my parents, Nina and her mother, on the night before Nina and I married, I will miss it immensely.

I THINK IT’S BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE TAKING A LOT OF IBUPROFEN AND ASPIRIN: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline.

Something strange is going on in medicine. Major diseases, like colon cancer, dementia and heart disease, are waning in wealthy countries, and improved diagnosis and treatment cannot fully explain it.

Scientists marvel at this good news, a medical mystery of the best sort and one that is often overlooked as advocacy groups emphasize the toll of diseases and the need for more funds. Still, many are puzzled.

“It is really easy to come up with interesting, compelling explanations,” said Dr. David S. Jones, a Harvard historian of medicine. “The challenge is to figure out which of those interesting and compelling hypotheses might be correct.”

Well, I’m just the idea man here. I’m sure you bright scientist-types can find out if I’m right.

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JOHN HINDERAKER: Are Blacks Disproportionately Involved In Police Shootings?

What was the racial breakdown of those who were shot by police in 2015? The largest number, 494, almost exactly half, were white. 258 were black, 172 were Hispanic, and the remaining 66 were either “other” or unknown. (Interestingly, Asians are rarely shot by police officers.)

The 258 blacks represent 26% of the total. That is about double the percentage of blacks in the American population. Is that prima facie evidence of racism on the part of law enforcement? Of course not. It is common knowledge that blacks have an unusually high rate of contact with the police, both as victims and as perpetrators. In 2012-2013, the Department of Justice found that blacks were the perpetrators of 24% of all violent crimes where the race of the perpetrator was known (in 7.8% of violent crimes, it was unknown).

So the percentage of blacks fatally shot by police officers (26%) is almost exactly equal to the percentage of blacks committing violent crimes (24%). Indeed, given that the black homicide rate is around eight times the white rate, it is surprising that the portion of blacks fatally shot by policemen is not higher.

I believe that Heather Mac Donald has a lot more on this in her new book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe. Remember that all the noise about this is just a cynical effort to boost black turnout in November. They create a new cause celebre the summer before every election.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL MICHAEL FLYNN SCORNS OBAMA’S WAR RECORD: As well he should. Obama’s Smart Diplomacy has a losing record. Media speculate LTG Flynn (ret) is on Trump’s VP list. From Flynn’s essay in The New York Post:

We’re in a global war, facing an enemy alliance that runs from Pyongyang, North Korea, to Havana, Cuba, and Caracas, Venezuela. Along the way, the alliance picks up radical Muslim countries and organizations such as Iran, al Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamic State.

That’s a formidable coalition, and nobody should be shocked to discover that we are losing the war.

If our leaders were interested in winning, they would have to design a strategy to destroy this global enemy. But they don’t see the global war. Instead, they timidly nibble around the edges of the battlefields from Africa to the Middle East, and act as if each fight, whether in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya or Afghanistan, can be peacefully resolved by diplomatic effort.

This approach is doomed. We have real enemies, dedicated to dominating and eventually destroying us, and they are not going to be talked out of their hatred. Iran, for example, declared war on the United States in 1979 — that’s 37 years ago — and has been killing Americans ever since. Every year, the State Department declares Iran to be the world’s primary supporter of terror. Do you think we’ll nicely and politely convince them to be good citizens and even (as President Obama desires) a responsible ally supporting peace? Do you think ISIS or the Taliban wants to embrace us?

I’ll wager LTG Flynn also fully understands the operational and strategic damage done to US national security by Hillary’s criminal mishandling of classified information.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1158.