OH: Moms Demand Action’s Shannon Watts Mum About Member Who Bullied Teenage Girls.

PRIVATIZING OPERATION CHOKEPOINT: Bank of America will no longer lend to companies that make ‘military-style’ weapons.

Flashback: Wells Fargo Resists Union Threats Aimed at Getting It to Drop Gun Manufacturer Clients.

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: Los Angeles paints its streets WHITE to beat sizzling summer heat as part of 20-year plan to combat the effects of climate change.

REVEALED: China’s Nuclear-Capable Air-Launched Ballistic Missile.

According to U.S. government sources with knowledge of the latest intelligence assessments on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, China has conducted five flight tests of the unnamed missile. The U.S. intelligence community is calling the new missile the CH-AS-X-13.

The missile was first tested in December 2016 and was most recently tested in the last week of January 2018, according to one source. In recent years, the directors of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have made reference to this nuclear-capable ALBM in their two most recent on-record worldwide threat assessments.

The two most recent tests of the system involved aerial launches off a modified H-6K strategic bomber capable of being refueled while in the air.

The new bomber, dubbed the H6X1/H-6N by the U.S. intelligence community, has been modified from standard variant H-6s for the ALBM delivery mission. The modifications have been made by Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, the manufacturer of all H-6 bomber variants since the late-1950s. The H6X1/H-6N may have been the subject of speculation in August 2017, when an image of an unidentified H-6 variant appeared on Chinese social media.

The CH-AS-X-13, meanwhile, is a two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile with a 3,000 kilometer range; it is likely a variant of the DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile.

That’s a potent combination with a lot of reach.

BRUCE BAWER: The Insanity of Open Borders.

THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA: Cynthia Nixon Is Ripping The NY Democratic Party Apart.

Jazz Shaw:

Unless there’s a radical change in the polls over the next month or two, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in little danger of being booted to the curb by Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon. But even if she doesn’t manage to take the Governor’s office, it’s looking more and more as if Nixon will have a lasting effect. The Empire State’s Democratic Party is currently undergoing an identity crisis as some of the most vocal and established activist groups square off against one another in a fight to see whether they should veer further to the left or stick with mainstream, machine politics which have kept them in power. And some of those voices are already picking sides, seeing something in Nixon which rings a chord in their Berniecrat hearts.

Read the whole thing.

(Classical reference in the headline.)

UH-HUH: Zuckerberg tells Congress ‘we didn’t do enough’ to prevent privacy crises that rock Facebook.

Zero privacy is Facebook’s entire business model.

REPORT: Lindsey Graham, Cory Booker to introduce bipartisan bill that would protect Robert Mueller’s job.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Zuck on the Hill, Mueller Mania Strikes Again and Much, Much More. “The media has been slobbering all over Zuck. Why? Because Zuck has the power to hide their content from Facebook readers.”

HMM: Minister Reveals Cyber Attack On Iranian Data Centers, Blames Foreign Hackers.

Iran’s Telecommunications Ministry revealed on Saturday that ten days ago CISCO, the US company that manufactures network equipment had warned about the vulnerability of the router switches that were attacked Friday night.

The ministry said that many companies freeze their networks’ settings during holidays, and that the companies did not update their settings as MAHER failed to inform them of the imminent attack. Friday is a weekend day in Iran.

A number of Iranian websites were reportedly “down” for several hours following the Friday night attack.

The Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology says that 35 thousand router switches have been attacked by hackers.

The data companies Respina, ISIRAN, and Shuttle were most seriously affected by the attack, said the ministry.

Explaining about the origin of the attack, the ministry said, “An image of the US flag that was used in hacking with a slogan about intervention in US elections, as well as the timing of the attack indicate that it has not originated in the Middle East.”

While I don’t believe a word that comes out of official Iranian channels, I certainly hope patriotic Americans were involved in discomfiting the mullah’s regime.

WHOSE DNA IS IT, ANYWAY? Consumers don’t need experts to interpret 23andMe genetic risk reports.

My company, 23andMe, recently received FDA authorization for the first ever direct-to-consumer genetic test for an inherited risk for cancer. Specifically, it tests for variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes known to significantly increase chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Historically, access to this type of testing has been gated by insurance companies and couldn’t be obtained without an order from a physician or genetic counselor. Making this kind of test directly available to consumers is a huge milestone in empowering people to be in control of their own health information.

I was disappointed to see that some of the initial reaction to this FDA authorization had a similar tone as the early reaction to at-home pregnancy tests. Some critics believe that people can’t handle this kind of information on their own, and that learning about a genetic cancer risk should be conveyed only by medical professionals.

I disagree.

Nannystaters withhold important information from people, and then ridicule them for making uninformed decisions — thus requiring further nannystatism.

NOT BEFORE A DEMOCRAT IS SWORN IN. NEXT QUESTION? When Will The Media Finally Get Over The 2016 Election?

David Harsanyi:

I bring this up, because this week, a new Politico piece theorizes that a lack of “trusted news sources” in rural areas, rather than any particular issues, gave Donald Trump victory in 2016. It is perhaps the most unconvincing, inference-ridden, self-aggrandizing piece in the entire “What Went Wrong?” genre. The premise, basically, is that a lack of local media sources left a void that was filled by Donald Trump’s tweets and unreliable conservative sites, and that factor turned the 2016 election, “especially in states like Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania,” where hapless Americans were unable to make educated choices without proper guidance from journalists.

“The results,” Shawn Musgrave and Matthew Nussbaum write, “show a clear correlation between low subscription rates and Trump’s success in the 2016 election, both against Hillary Clinton and when compared to Romney in 2012.” Setting aside the problem of correlational/causation and all that, every one of these stories is driven by the unstated notion that Clinton was predestined to win the 2016 election, and any other outcome means something went wrong. There’s simply no way, a year into Hillary’s presidency, that major outlets would be doing a deep dive into the viewing habits of urbanites to try and comprehend how they could have been crazy enough to elect her.

The bitterly clinging deplorable irredeemables have been losing interest in the Mainstream Media’s shoddy product for a lot longer than they’ve been voting for Trump.

TENSE: Donald Trump warns Putin his missiles are coming ‘fast and smart’ after Russia vowed to bomb US sites if it strikes Assad.

JON GABRIEL: Yes, Anti-Trumpism Is a Failure — And It Was Always Destined to Be One.

As any longtime reader knows, I was a Never Trumper throughout the election. But when the nation selected him, I laid down that label and accepted reality. Trump was my president for the next four to eight years, I earnestly hoped for his and my country’s success, and I would praise or criticize him based on his actions.

But if I were one of those dead-enders who kept fighting reality, the last thing I’d do is rehash the same failed strategy that didn’t stop him in 2016. What is obvious to any Army captain or novice entrepreneur was utterly lost on several of our most celebrated pundits and political strategists.

With Trump’s election, the political landscape changed, just as it did when Obama was elected. Declaring either presidency invalid — due to a Russian conspiracy or a forged birth certificate — was doomed to failure since the voters chose both of them. And mocking a president is easily blurred with mocking the millions who selected him.

It isn’t so much that the line is blurred, as it is that there is no line. Obama denigrated many who would become voters as “bitter clingers.” Clinton spoke openly of “deplorables” and “irredeemables.” And the chattering classes largely share those assessments.

The difference between Obama and Clinton is that he had the political skills to ride it out, and she did not.

PRIVACY: How Pizza Night Can Cost More in Data Than Dollars. “Even a low-key evening at home can mean handing over a trove of personal information to high-tech companies.”

Sally and Kristen haven’t hung out in forever, so Sally suggests taking a selfie.

After Sally uploads the photo to Facebook, the app suggests she tag Kristen based on its facial-recognition system, which Kristen has given permission to use.

Facebook could collect Sally’s location based on the IP address used to upload the photo, which it could use to suggest local events that might interest her or show her ads targeted at people near a specific place. Its system also analyzes the photo as it does with all images to make sure there’s no inappropriate content.

The rest of the unsettling details are behind the WSJ paywall, but you might find a backdoor here.

MOLON LABE: Comic Fan on Second Amendment: ‘Throw It Out.’

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Mark Zuckerberg predicts AI tools that will catch ‘hate speech’ before it’s posted.

I, for one, welcome our new Facebook overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

HOW MANY SIGNS IS THAT NOW? Sign of the Apocalypse? Trumpet-Like Sounds Recorded on Video in Hawaii.

BLUE WAVE? Historic youth wave coming in 2018, Dems outnumber GOP 2-1.

ACTUAL XX WOMEN MIGHT AS WELL SKIP THIS FROM NOW ON: Boston Marathon will allow transgender women to compete as women this year.

DAVID STEINBERG: Social Justice for Diamond and Silk! “Will the Women’s March and BLM give it to Zuckerberg?”

In Diamond and Silk’s case, just simple, plain-old real justice would suffice.

CHANGE: Trump administration issues rule further watering down Obamacare.

FALLEN ANGELS WAS JUST A NOVEL — RIGHT? Mid-Ocean Seismicity Portends Global Cooling.

Scott Adams tweets: “How many heads would explode if global temperatures head lower during the Trump administration?”

DON’T DARE LEAVE THE LIBERAL PLANTATION: Black NRATV Host: Left-Leaning Media Labeled Me a ‘Token’ Because of My Race.

JEFF REYNOLDS: Leftist Double Standards: Bashing Scott Pruitt While Ignoring Obama’s EPA Scandals. “Pruitt’s transgressions pale in comparison.”

Double standards must be twice as good as regular standards, right?