MORE: Austin already linked to the latest China-India border clash, but it’s both less and more than it seems. Yes, there was some fighting, but it was more of a playground scuffle than a deadly clash of mechanized forces:

PTI quoted army officials as saying that in the latest confrontation, soldiers had to form a human chain to prevent an incursion by Chinese forces into territories claimed by India and located near the country’s Ladakh region. China claims the territories as its own.

An Indian official told the BBC that he could neither confirm nor deny media reports, but said “such incidents do happen,” adding that “this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened.”

Indeed. The two countries fought a monthlong border war in 1962, back before either country had the logistical wherewithal to do too much damage to each other in such a remote region. China won that war, but not decisively. Almost 60 years later, both sides still occupy bits of land claimed by the other in the Sino-Indian borderland. But in recent years China has been working to gain a strategic advantage in the highlands, building new roads and rail lines through Tibet, and also prepositioning military hardware.

So this week’s scuffle might just be a preview of a bigger and badder sequel to the ’62 war.

PATRICK POOLE: Dallas ISIS Recruiter Gave Green Light to Manchester Suicide Bomber: ‘Kill Them and Show No Mercy.’ Plus, “Even more remarkable, U.S. authorities knew about the conversations months in advance of the terror attack and cited them in court document this past March when they charged the ISIS recruiter — 40-year-old Said Azzam Mohamad Rahim of Richardson, Texas — for lying to FBI investigators.”

Read the whole thing.

TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Is Right on Confederate Monuments: Where Does It Stop?

RELATED: Vigilante protesters start DIGGING UP body of Confederate general and KKK leader Nathan Forrest from his grave.

Are they aware that he was a Democrat?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: If you got a call offering a free cruise, you might be entitled to at least $300.

You can check your own phone number here to see if you might be eligible for a settlement.

REPORT: Trump to Name Hope Hicks White House Communications Director.

Hicks, currently the White House director of strategic communications, will be taking over the role that Anthony Scaramucci held for just ten days before being fired by Trump, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported:

Hicks has been close by Trump’s side since the early days of the campaign and is one of his most trusted staffers. She has been serving on the press team in more of a behind-the-scenes role as the director of strategic communications.

Hicks seems like she has the right experience and skillset for the job, but she’d better not wear high heels.

CHARLIE MARTIN: Robespierre’s Warning.

Don’t lose your head over this one.

ROBERT KAPLAN: America’s Darwinian Nationalism.

Ironically, the human-rights community understands a basic truth about the American historical and spiritual condition that too few others do—which is that while other states have survived and even prospered by a ruthless realpolitik of sorts, America, because it was born as a geographic bounty and also as an ideal, is nothing without both. Other nations may only represent themselves. But America must, to a certain reasonable extent, represent humanity—or at least aspire to. There have been periods where America has not done so, and there have been periods where it has tried too hard to do so. But what counts is the preservation of the tension between those two extremes. If the United States ever truly decided that its own good was no longer bound up anymore with the good of the world, then America’s reputation for power would begin to disintegrate in a way that it would not for another country. This is why the liberal world order that the United States has built in Europe and Asia since the Second World War signifies the culmination of the American experience. Though extending that world order much further might be beyond the capacity of the United States, simply retreating from it must lead to American decline. For while the interests of state, properly defined, lead to peace by respecting the interests of other states, alliances are much harder to maintain without declared values, and thus our values themselves are part of our strategic advantage.

That’s not a bad one-paragraph definition of American Exceptionalism — and there are other worthwhile bits in the rest of Kaplan’s (lengthy) piece.

THEY DON’T MAKE ‘EM LIKE THAT ANYMORE: A-10 Pilot Lands With No Canopy, Gear After Gun Explodes.

Two thousand feet up and flying over the forests of Alpena County, Capt. Brett DeVries was running through his mental checklist and most of the options were bad. With his wingman flying just feet away and an Air Force maintenance specialist patched in via a radio set up next to a speaker phone, DeVries made the decision to land his badly-damaged A-10 Thunderbolt II on the runway at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

Despite the fact that his landing gear wouldn’t come down. And the canopy had blown off the aircraft 25 minutes before. And his main radio stopped working. Along with the first back-up.

There’s an old saying in the Air Force: Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

In this case, DeVries expeditiously exited the aircraft – gulping deep breathes until he was certain there would be no explosion. But yes, it was a very good landing.

Impressive photo at the link.

During the first Gulf War, CNN talked to an A-10 pilot who had safely landed back in Saudi with, at a guess, maybe 60% total of both his aircraft’s wing remaining — and he didn’t seem to think it was a such a big deal. I’m not sure that particular A-10 ever flew again (although I wouldn’t be surprised if it had), but the pilot certainly did.

As the Air Force continues its hunt for a light attack plane to replace the A-10, let’s hope they’re keeping survivability from ground fire very much in mind.

I DO NOT TRUST THE INTERNET OF THINGS: Update gone wrong leaves 500 smart locks inoperable.

Hundreds of Internet-connected locks became inoperable last week after a faulty software update caused them to experience a fatal system error, manufacturer LockState said.

The incident is the latest reminder that the so-called Internet of Things—in which locks, thermostats, and other everyday appliances are embedded with small Internet-connected computers—often provide as many annoyances as they do conveniences. Over the past week, the Colorado-based company’s Twitter feed has been gorged with comments from customers who were suddenly unable to lock or unlock their doors normally. Complicating the matter: the affected LockState model—the RemoteLock 6i—is included in an Airbnb partnership called Host Assist. That left many hosts unable to remotely control their locks.

IoT is fine for fun things, like giving even middle class Americans mood lighting options previously only available to the rich. But giving web-enabled devices the power to control ingress to your home or business didn’t seem like such a good idea even before this incident.

POTUS PRESSER GONE WILD: That and much more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.

CORN, POPPED: Democrats Fret as Clinton Book Rollout Looms. “The losing presidential candidate wants to talk about what went wrong. Her party wishes she wouldn’t.”

Can you blame them?

Clinton has promised to “let my guard down” in the book, “What Happened,” explaining her shocking loss to Trump in November. She has already offered up several explanations, blaming Russian interference, former FBI director James Comey, and misogyny, while also acknowledging tactical errors by her campaign.

Many Washington Democrats, though unwilling to criticize her in public, wish she’d “move on,” as Senator Al Franken has put it. They fear that her complaints help Trump make his case that the controversies surrounding him flow from the Democrats’ bitterness about their 2016 loss.

They prefer the approach taken by Al Gore after his equally controversial loss in 2000.

That’s not going to work, because Clinton scammed her way to riches before losing a presidential election.

BURN THE WITCH: Dr. Judith Curry Explains The Reality Of Bad Climate Science And Bad Politics.

Regarding the role that human greenhouse gas emissions play in driving the earth’s climate Dr. Curry concludes that:

“On balance, I don’t see any particular dangers from greenhouse warming. {Humans do} influence climate to some extent, what we do with land-use changes and what we put into the atmosphere. But I don’t think it’s a large enough impact to dominate over natural climate variability.”

Regarding the politically contrived climate “consensus” arguments put forth by climate alarmists she concludes:

“The collapse of the consensus on cholesterol and heart disease – that one collapsed overnight. I can only hope that sanity will eventually prevail with the climate problem as well.”

There’s a lot less money to be grifted out of cholesterol than there is out of “saving the planet.”

AN IMPORTANT LESSON FROM MICHAEL WALSH: This is how the Compromised Media™ creates and propels its own Narrative.

WHY DUE PROCESS REMAINS AS IMPORTANT AS EVER: Students ‘Routinely Accused of Crimes They Didn’t Commit,’ Prof Says.

College kids can be just as foolish as any other young people, but today’s campus environment fuels their emotionalism rather than helping them master it.

DRAIN THE SWAMP: IRS Rehires 213 Employees Ousted for Falsifying Documents, Avoiding Taxes, Other Offenses.

FUTURE CONTENDER FOR BEST REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE OF THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Jennifer Lawrence asks fans to help identify white supremacists at Charlottesville rally.

PLUS:

RELATED: They learned it by reading you, Gray Lady.

HEALTH: Senate Tries to Close Gap in Cancer Research That Leaves Kids Behind.

HMM: ‘Unite the Right’ Organizer Jason Kessler Was Obama Supporter Involved With Occupy Movement.

HEH: Millennials Finally End The Civil War.

OOPS: Guam radio stations spark terror by ACCIDENTALLY broadcasting nuclear missile warning.

PARENTING: I Gave My Kid PTSD by Making Her Wear a ‘Get Along Shirt’ (Not Really).

I’ve found that threatening (and occasionally delivering on the threat) to take away whatever they’re fighting over usually turns my warring sons into Metternich-level diplomats, without the need for any comical outerwear.

CIVIL RIGHTS: The Onerous, Arbitrary, Unaccountable World of Occupational Licensing.

In theory, such licensing protects consumers from being harmed by incompetent or fraudulent providers. (No one wants to get deep into labor only to discover that her midwife can’t tell an umbilical cord from a baby toe.) In practice, however, the process has sprawled far beyond questions of public health and safety, morphing into an onerous, arbitrary, unaccountable mess that, in far too many cases, is less about consumer protection than about economic protectionism.

How does a state decide to license a particular occupation? Typically, workers in that field lobby legislators to establish such a system. Licensing requirements are then determined, and the system is overseen and enforced by a licensing board dominated by practitioners of said field. Any newcomer who attempts to enter that field without a proper license can be shut down by the board.

It’s not hard to spot the potential conflict here.

Indeed. Most licensing exists to promote practitioners’ paychecks, not consumers’ safety.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Our Homes May Get Smarter, But Have We Thought It Through?

MCKAY COPPINS PROFILES AJ DELGADO: From Trump Aide to Single Mom.

OH: The Iranian Parliament Chanted ‘Death to America’ as they voted to spend $800 million on ballistic missiles.