NEWS OF ANOTHER ELECTION: For UN Secretary-General. Handicappers favor former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres and former Slovenian president Danilo Turk. There is a serious effort underway to elect a woman secretary-general.

NO WIMPS: No confirming trace of “weakly interacting massive particles” turned up in this experiment, conducted from October 2014 to May 2016 in a mine in South Dakota’s Black Hills. The search for dark matter remains, for the most part, in the dark.

ANTI-POLICE PROTESTORS: Blue Lives Murder. Painted on a concrete barrier in Cleveland, along with other typical hard left slogans. Great photos. Someone is doing a good job of documenting the belligerent stupidity. I’ve previously linked to my Observer essay on the subject but it’s still relevant. As Police Chief Brown said in Dallas “All I know is this, this must stop, this divisiveness.” Unfortunately sir, the political left thrives on divisiveness.

TRUMP’S GREAT SERVICE: He refuses “to capitulate to mainstream media narrative frames which not only cripple free speech and the open exchange of ideas by free people, but insult human intelligence.”

MICHAEL BARONE: A quick historical look at opposing your own party’s candidate. In the course of the essay he reminds everyone that Jimmy Carter was once a segregationist. It’s something of an incidental comment, but The Democratic Party was the party of slavery and segregation.

NEWT GINGRICH EXPLAINS TED CRUZ: An interesting take.

LAURA INGRAHAM POINTS TO THE OBVIOUS: Yes, this is a contentious subject. It is a necessary and important debate. But the consequences matter, and the choice is stark. Laura’s post indicates she lives in GetRealLand.

YES, LOCK HER UP: Mollie Hemingway:

…mobs shouldn’t be forced to cry out for justice because their institutions are doing such a horrible job of applying law fairly.

Ouch. Well, the FBI Director sold out the rule of law, and Hillary’s criminality has put national security at risk.

NEW “TERRITORIES” IN THE BRAIN IDENTIFIED: Research has identified 97 new “cortical territories” and provided “finer grain details” of four properties of the human brain: architecture, function, connectivity and topography. Most of these newly identified territories “reside in regions of higher cognitive function,” which means these newly identified regions play absolutely no role in formulating the Democratic Party’s sub-reptilian politics of hate or informing editorial decisions at the ameoba-level propaganda sheet published under the name Rolling Stone.

Here’s the NATURE MAGAZINE pdf.

TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN HAS GONE TOO FAR: When I wrote my weekly Creators Syndicate column yesterday I thought he might. The column concludes with this line:

…Erdogan retained his power because the Turkish people believe in their democracy. If he has any sense of his duties and his place in history, he will curb his quest for personal power and commit himself to protecting the system that saved him.

In the last 24 hours, he has done just the opposite. When I wrote the column the 6,000 figure for security personnel actually under arrest was the firmest figure I could find. The total number under arrest was believed to be over 8,000. According to this CNN report those numbers are up a bit (9,400 in the CNN report). Most news reports say Erdogan has purged 50,000 to 60,000 people — ie, fired people from their jobs. The purge figure includes suspended police and other security personnel.

Here is a Turkish news website (in English) I read: hurriyetdailynews.com

A current article says the government has arrested two people for praising the coup on social media.

IRS WORKER COMMITS IDENTITY THEFT: Hack theft, not hacking. In the sense Lois Lerner was an Obama-Clinton political hack. Also an IRS worker nabbed on bribery charges and another on defrauding the government. OK, just three crimes (just three!), but the IRS is in desperate need of reform. Here’s the Inspector General Report for complete details (July 20 section of the report).

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: My take on the Republican split over Donald Trump.

CHARLIE ROSE IS ASKING HILLARY IF TRUMP IS DANGEROUS? Just read Ed’s post (below). Hey Charlie, Crooked Hillary’s the one who combines a salacious scandal sheet with a criminal rap sheet.

MORE ON THE ATTEMPT TO KILL TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN: Hurriyet (English language page) reports that “pro-coup soldiers, who attacked a hotel which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family were vacationing in during July 15 deadly coup attempt, said they were ordered to “capture an important terrorist leader.”” The attack killed two of Erdogan’s bodyguards. RELATED: Turkish and American diplomats will discuss Gulen extradition request. Gulen lives in Pennsylvania.

MORE ON BATON ROUGE: Local authorities say the murderer “deliberately ‘targeted and assassinated’” police officers. According to the Dallas Morning News, on July 9, two days after the slaughter in Dallas, the Baton Rouge murderer (Gavin Long) entered a Dallas barber shop. Long began ranting about “knowledge and power” and said he had been affiliated with the Black Panthers.” Let’s see. It was about a month ago, wasn’t it, that you were a despicable racist if you said Blue Lives Matter?

BBC – COALITION AIRSTRIKES IN SYRIA RESULT IN HIGH CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL: That’s the claim. 56 civilians killed in US-led strikes. The airstrikes are supporting operations by an “alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters called the Syrian Defence Forces (SDF).” The area is held by Islamic State fighters. Will we hear “peace activists” accuse the Obama Administration of murder? I doubt it. Dissent is no longer the highest form of patriotism.

PHILIPPINES REJECTS CHINA TALKS: The link goes to a Reuters report. Why reject bilateral talks? China demanded an unacceptable condition: the Philippines couldn’t mention the The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision that nixed most of China’s claims in the South China Sea. This morning StrategyPage’s Jim Dunnigan was a bit pithier: “…the Philippines does not consider the situation a dispute but rather a case of unwarranted Chinese aggression. Now the Philippines has international law on its side.”

PETER PAN REPUBLICANS AND CAPTAIN CROOK: Crooked Hillary in NeverTrumpLand.

FBI WILL GIVE THE STATE DEPT RECOVERED HILLARY EMAILS: It ain’t over. These were “deleted” emails. Congressional investigators will demand State provide them with copies. For good reason– loose lips do sink ships.

ANOTHER ACQUITTAL IN BALTIMORE’S FREDDIE GRAY CASE: From the Washington Examiner’s summary:

“Baltimore Police Lt. Brian Rice was acquitted of all his charges stemming from the April 2015 arrest and death of Freddie Gray. On Monday, Circuit Judge Barry Williams acquitted Rice of all three charges he faced: involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.”

Here’s the Baltimore Sun’s in-depth report.

Four trials, one hung jury, three acquittals. Why were felony charges levied against the police? I think when violence erupted after Gray’s arrest and death, leaders in “…Baltimore were confused, lacked decisiveness and feared their own people. They also feared the accusation of racism and fascism from radical activists.”

CHINESE PIRATES: StrategyPage looks at the China-Indonesia Fishing War.

China and Indonesia are unofficially, but very visibly, at war with each other over illegal fishing. China has been stealing fish (poaching) from offshore areas where the fishing rights belong to other countries. This poaching has been going on with increasing frequency since the 1990s.

The Hague’s UNCLOS arbitration panel found that China has been waging a “fishing war” against the Philippines. I mentioned that in last week’s Creators Syndicate column.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE SENATOR GEORGE MCGOVERN AND THE USDA DAMNED BUTTER– AND THEY WERE WRONG: They decided the science was settled enough to demonize butter.

Congress, of course, is an inherently political entity. And so when it — or any other government-appointed body — privileges one theory over another, it creates bias that trickles down to the research community. The problem is not simply that the government makes decisions on the basis of imperfect information, but that government intervention, itself, can distort the development of research. For example, the theory that dietary fat plays a large role in cardiovascular disease was controversial in the scientific community, even as the government began relying on it to develop the first federal nutritional guidelines. In fact, a lot of the existing research contradicted it. Nevertheless, the theory flourished. Why? In part, no doubt, because researchers — many of whom rely on government grants — faced risks associated with bucking the new zeitgeist created by the government.

QUANTUM EFFECTS IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND THE SENSE OF SMELL?: Photosynthesis works very well — almost too well. The process exhibits “quantum effects.” The article discusses new theories and research. “The next step will be having some quantitative results saying that the efficiency of this biological machine is this due to quantum phenomena.”

GLENN HAS POSTED ON THIS BUT I’M GOING THERE ‘CAUSE I WENT THERE LAST WEEK: I’m referring to the murder of Officer Montrell Jackson in the Baton Rouge atrocity. Blue Lives Matter, people. Officer Jackson was a Blue Life and beloved in his community. Get this quote from Officer Jackson: “These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart….I’m working in these streets so protesters, officers, friends, family, who whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.” These are the words of a public servant of the highest order, a man of service before self and beyond self. According to Officer Jackson’s uncle, he was the backbone of his family. What a loss. Yes, The Ferguson Effect is real. The Black Lives Matter movement has backfired. Why? From the get go it was organized to be divisive in order to manipulate. “Harsh rhetoric to enthuse supporters and thrill media and sharp, partisan divisiveness are the tactical tools of ‘community organizing’ as practiced by the American Left.”

WE’D BE HEARING HYSTERICAL CRIES OF HORROR AND ANGUISH ABOUT ALEPPO’S HUMANITARIAN NIGHTMARE IF A REPUBLICAN WERE IN THE WHITE HOUSE: Medical aid group says 300,000 people face starvation in Aleppo, Syria. Remember Responsibility To Protect (R2P), hyped once upon a time by Obama Administration UN Ambassador Samantha Power? She used R2P as a media-academic weapon, portraying President George W. Bush as a benighted racist cowboy dummy for failing to intervene in Sudan’s Darfur war. Bush failed to lead and look at the disaster!!!!

At the link you’ll find a Samantha quote that the mainstream media appear to have forgotten:

In what perhaps could be seen as a preview of coming Obama administration policy was revealed during Samantha Power’s U.S. Senate confirmation hearing of July 17 (2013) when she stated, “We see the failure of the UN Security Council to respond to the slaughter in Syria – a disgrace that history will judge harshly.”

300,000 about to starve in Aleppo, Samantha, perhaps 400,000 already dead in the Syrian mess. Last month 51 US diplomats filed a dissent cable — perhaps they’ve seen enough history to feel the disgrace?

Forces loyal to the Assad dictatorship, supported by Russian strike aircraft, are attacking Aleppo. Recall in August 2013 the Assad regime attacked civilian neighborhoods with nerve gas, despite Obama’s “red line” warning. A motley collection of rebel groups is defending Aleppo. Some of the rebels have links to Islamist extremist organizations. However, VOA reports: “…Western-backed nationalist insurgents loosely grouped under the banner of the Free Syrian Army say they control the rebel-held part of the city.” Note that the VOA report quotes Samantha power as telling the UN Security Council that the attack by pro-Assad forces could have “potentially devastating consequences”…”Russia, as a co-sponsor of the cessation of hostilities, should use its influence on the regime to help stop these attacks,” Power said.”

In 2004, when you were bashing Bush about Darfur, you sure talked a big game, Samantha. US leadership! Bush must lead! It’s there, in print. Pretty harsh, huh?