MISTER, WE COULD USE A MAN LIKE RONALD REAGAN AGAIN: Here’s how a president really pushes tax reform.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: A Guide to “Offensive” Statues.

CRACKING DOWN ON DISSENT IS EXCESSIVE: U.N. cites systematic use of excessive force in Venezuela crackdown on dissent.

DAVID FREDDOSO: Why you should never use the term ‘anti-fascist.’

CREEPY: Facebook Figured Out My Family Secrets, And It Won’t Tell Me How.

The People You May Know feature is notorious for its uncanny ability to recognize who you associate with in real life. It has mystified and disconcerted Facebook users by showing them an old boss, a one-night-stand, or someone they just ran into on the street.

These friend suggestions go far beyond mundane linking of schoolmates or colleagues. Over the years, I’d been told many weird stories about them, such as when a psychiatrist told me that her patients were being recommended to one another, indirectly outing their medical issues.

What makes the results so unsettling is the range of data sources—location information, activity on other apps, facial recognition on photographs—that Facebook has at its disposal to cross-check its users against one another, in the hopes of keeping them more deeply attached to the site. People generally are aware that Facebook is keeping tabs on who they are and how they use the network, but the depth and persistence of that monitoring is hard to grasp. And People You May Know, or “PYMK” in the company’s internal shorthand, is a black box.

Would you hand the White House keys to someone with that much data on everyone?

WAIT… WHAT? L.A. Mayor: Repealing DACA Would Hurt Hurricane Harvey Recovery.

PREDICTION: Hard Brexit.

THINK BEFORE TWEETING: University fires professor who called Harvey ‘karma’ for Texas GOP.

“I dont believe in instant Karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesnt care about them,” Kenneth Storey reportedly tweeted Sunday.

The tweet, which was met with instant backlash, led Storey to be fired two days later, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The university rebuked Storey’s remarks in a statement Tuesday, saying the comments Storey made on his private Twitter account to not align with the views or values of the school.

“We condemn the comments and the sentiment behind them, and understand the pain this irresponsible act has caused,” the school’s statement read in part. “As Floridians, we are well aware of the destruction and suffering associated with tropical weather. Our thoughts and prayers are with all impacted by Hurricane Harvey.”

Storey, who appears to have deleted his Twitter account, tweeted an apology a day later, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The rush to be clever on social media seems to result in a lot of public stupidity.

BLUE ON BLUE: All White People Are Socialized to Be Racist & Tina Fey Made That Clear.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS — NOT JUST FOR GRADUATES ANYMORE: Due Process for Sexual Assault Charges Is Returning to Georgia Campuses.

FASTER, PLEASE: German Students Hit 201 MPH in SpaceX Hyperloop Contest.

LARRY O’CONNOR: Why Won’t Media Demand Dems Condemn Antifa?

Democrats have been all over cable and network news over the past several weeks as they participate in the tag team pile-on of any Republican who dares to show the slightest support of President Trump. Where are Wolf and Mika and Don and Anderson and George and Chuck and all the rest confronting these Democrats, boxing them in and challenging them to condemn, in no uncertain terms, the Antifa thugs once and for all?

Think of them as Democratic operatives with bylines providing cover for Democratic operatives with baseball bats, and it all makes sense. Although to be fair, more Democrats (the kind with D after their names) are coming around to condemning Antifa all own their own.

TRUTH IN LABELING: Berkeley Mayor Wants Antifa Classified as a Gang After Assaulting Trump Supporters.

Last night’s flashback from Glenn might just become evergreen: Berkeley Mayor Is Member of Antifa Facebook Group that Organized Riots.

Democrats must have gotten the word that the party’s vigilante wing is polling terribly.

SCOTT GREER: It’s Not Trump Supporters Who Are Beating Journalists.

At two different demonstrations in the California Bay Area, Antifa made sure that anyone who recorded their activities and looked like “Nazis” would face serious consequences.

On Saturday, a man simply recording a demonstration by leftists against a cancelled pro-Trump rally resulted in protesters surrounding him and forcibly taking his phone from him.

He had to plead he was just a reporter and that he was definitely not a Nazi in order to persuade organizers to try to retrieve his phone.

Worse things happened for a photographer at the Antifa riot in Berkeley the following day. As black-clad anarchists swarmed the city to attack anyone they thought might be a Trump supporter, they set their sights on a cameraman for the offense of taking their picture.

Antifa chased the man down and beat him bloody with clubs. Police eventually came to his aid and had to help him stand up and walk after the thrashing.

The two incidents both arose over the fact that the target of abuse was recording Antifa. That alone justified violence against both reporters.

Democracy dies in darkness, I’m told.

GOOD QUESTION: For years, engineers have warned that Houston was a flood disaster in the making. Why didn’t somebody do something?

Harvey poured as much as 374 billion gallons of water within the city limits, exceeding the capacity of rivers, bayous, lakes and reservoirs. Experts said the result was predictable.

The storm was unprecedented, but the city has been deceiving itself for decades about its vulnerability to flooding, said Robert Bea, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and UC Berkeley emeritus civil engineering professor who has studied hurricane risks along the Gulf Coast.

The city’s flood system is supposed to protect the public from a 100-year storm, but Bea calls that “a 100-year lie” because it is based on a rainfall total of 13 inches in 24 hours.

“That has happened more than eight times in the last 27 years,” Bea said. “It is wrong on two counts. It isn’t accurate about the past risk and it doesn’t reflect what will happen in the next 100 years.”

The city chose to spend its money… poorly.

KTVU ANCHOR: ‘I experienced hate firsthand’ at Berkeley rally.

And as you’re reading this keep in mind that they were yelling at me and their words were filled with venom, anger, hate and intolerance. There’s just no other way to describe it. I was stunned.

Them: Hey! No pictures or we’ll take your phone!

(At that point I’d already taken these shots)

Me (In calm voice): You’re on public property and I can take a picture if I want to.

Them: Oh, so you’re a big man with a camera?

Me: No I just wanted to take a picture and talk with you.

Them (rushing toward me): We outnumber you and we will take your camera!

Socialism, distilled.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Harvey Storms On, Melania’s Shoes, Transgender Military Ban and Much, Much More.

PENTAGON: U.S. warship successfully shoots down missile in test off Hawaii.

Nice practice. Time for the real thing.

SULTANS GOTTA SULTANATE: Erdogan Expands Powers over Intelligence Agency.

Ankara- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tightened his grip on Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization on Friday after issuing a decree that said the MIT, which was previously under the prime minister, would now report to the president.

The decree gave the Turkish intelligence agency the power to investigate the defense ministry and Turkish armed forces personnel.

I can’t imagine Erdogan won’t find spies, traitors, and coup-plotters everywhere he looks.

DAILY CALLER EXCLUSIVE: Imran Awan Has Still-Active Secret House Account, And It’s Tied To An Intelligence Staffer.

Imran Awan’s still-active email address is linked to the name of a House staffer who specializes in intelligence and homeland security matters for Indiana Democratic Rep. André Carson. Court documents and emails obtained by TheDCNF show Awan used the address in addition to his standard account.

He and two of his Pakistani-born brothers, as well as his wife, are at the center of an FBI investigation over their IT work with dozens of Democratic congressional offices. Authorities shut down Awan’s standard email account Feb. 2, and he was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport trying to board a flight to his native Pakistan on July 25.

Authorities apparently did not realize Awan has a second account that is not linked to his identity. While his main email address began rejecting mail after it was shut down, the 123 address was still accepting mail Tuesday.

Mail sent via Gmail fills in the name of the account-holder of 123 as Nathan Bennett, whose LinkedIn profile says his individual legislative portfolio covers “national security and foreign affairs” and includes work on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Well.

I THOUGHT WOMEN NEVER LIED ABOUT RAPE: Woman Who Falsely Accused 15 Men of Rape Sentenced.

RIGHTSIZING STATE: Tillerson to abolish most special envoys, including climate.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: All clear for the decisive trial of ecstasy in PTSD patients.

One of the main targets in the war on drugs could well become a drug to treat the scars of war. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), better known as the illegal drug ecstasy, a “breakthrough therapy” for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a status that may lead to faster approval.

The agency has also approved the design for two phase III studies of MDMA for PTSD that would be funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit in Santa Cruz, California. MAPS announced the “breakthrough therapy” designation, made by FDA on 16 August, on its website today; if the group can find the money for the trials, which together could cost an estimated $25 million, they may start next spring and finish by 2021.

That an illegal dancefloor drug could become a promising pharmaceutical is another indication that the efforts of a dedicated group of researchers interested in the medicinal properties of mind-altering drugs is paying dividends. Stringent drug laws have stymied research on these compounds for decades. “This is not a big scientific step,” says David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London. “It’s been obvious for 40 years that these drugs are medicines. But it’s a huge step in acceptance.”

Indeed. Not a few PTSD sufferers risk breaking the law on street-quality MDMA (cut with who-knows-what), because the drug allows them to examine and process their experiences with a feeling of well-being — instead of with a panic attack.

Yes, MDMA abuse and harm are both possible, as with any other psychoactive drug. But medically controlled therapeutic use could help an awful lot of veterans.

CLAUDIA ROSETT: North Korea, Unrestrained.

To be fair to Tillerson, he joins a long roster of American diplomats who over the years have tried to cope with the intractable problem of North Korea by seeing (or at least professing to see) what they want to see. Going back at least to the early days of the Clinton administration, Washington has developed rituals in which American officials proclaim that North Korea’s regime has a choice: to continue its rogue pursuit of nuclear weapons and suffer various penalties, or give them up and enjoy the many perquisites of life as a conventionally armed murderous totalitarian state.

It seems reasonable by now to say that North Korea’s regime made its choice decades ago, and has stuck with it — cheating its way out of a series of nuclear deals reached under Presidents Clinton and Bush, and availing itself of President Obama’s passive”strategic patience” to complete a transition of power from the late tyrant Kim Jong Il to his son, the current tyrant, Kim Jong Un, and accelerate its nuclear missile program.

Nor, despite the occasional week or so of apparent restraint, is there any sign that North Korea’s Kim regime intends to restrain itelf.

We’re out of easy outs.

SUSTAINABILITY: Home Prices In 80% Of US Cities Grow Twice Faster Than Wages… And Then There’s Seattle.

A quick look at US housing shows that while wages may be growing at roughly 2.5%, according to the latest Case Shiller data, every single metro area in the US saw home prices grow at a higher rate, while 16 of 20 major U.S. cities experienced home price growth of 5% or higher: double the average wage growth, and something which even the NAR has been complaining about with its chief economist Larry Yun warning that as the disconnect between prices and wages become wider, homes become increasingly unaffordable.

And while this should not come as a surprise, one look at the chart below suggests that something strange is taking place in Seattle, which has either become “Vancouver South” when it comes to Chinese hot money laundering, or there is an unprecedented mini housing bubble in the hipster capital of the world.

The thing about bubbles is, they always pop — which is why many of us warned back in 2007-08 that it would be a mistake to pursue policies that would re-inflate housing prices.