DON’T EVER CHANGE, GRAY LADY: New York Times Axes Local Arts Coverage To Free Up Resources For New ‘Gender Editor’

Who needs cultural reporting when there’s more important work to be done, keeping the outrage machine churning?

REAGAN’S ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN TO BE RELEASED: Hinckley starts full-time life in Va. Sept. 10.

Friedman’s ruling says Hinckley will have to live for at least a year with his mother, Jo Ann, in her house in the gated community of Kingsmill. After that, he could move out and live on his own, with a roommate or in a group house.

Hinckley, who has been occasionally trailed by the Secret Service while in Williamsburg, must also find at least part-time employment or volunteer work. He will also have to participate in individual and group therapy, and he’ll have to return to Washington at least once a month so doctors can evaluate his mental state. He is also limited in where he can travel. The conditions of his leave will be re-evaluated in 12 to 18 months and some requirements could be modified or dropped.

At the time of Friedman’s ruling, Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis wrote in an article in The Washington Post that she was “not at all comfortable with the decision” to let Hinckley live full-time in Virginia but she was resigned to it. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty, who were injured in the shooting, expressed similar resignation to the decision in interviews with the AP in July.

I can only imagine.

BUT OF COURSE: A Democratic Senate Might Need to Curtail Filibuster, Harry Reid Says.

“Unless after this election there is a dramatic change to go back to the way it used to be, the Senate will have to evolve as it has in the past,” Mr. Reid told me, referring to a former tradition of rarely mounting filibusters. “But it will evolve with a majority vote determining stuff. It is going to happen.”

He has condemned Republican reliance on the filibuster to impede President Obama. Mr. Reid’s frustration ultimately led Senate Democrats in 2013 to weaken the minority party’s ability to block most executive branch nominations. But he won’t be in office to challenge the filibuster. He is retiring.

However, he is the first to publicly express what other lawmakers and aides have talked about more quietly: the possibility that Democrats will take drastic action if they are triumphant at the polls only to be blocked by the gridlock that has plagued Washington in a new Clinton administration.

“What choice would Democrats have?” asked Mr. Reid, who lamented the inability of a stalemated Congress to take on big issues. “The country can’t be run this way, where nothing gets done.”

Stalemate is a feature, not a bug.

AFTER ALL, IT WAS YOU AND ME: Guess Who Paid for Hillary’s ‘Private’ Server? Look in the Mirror!

PLEASE HEED THE CALL: Ahead of Massive Protest March, Venezuela Opposition Demands Change.

Americo de Grazia, an opposition congressman in the National Assembly for Bolívar state, told NBC News Venezuelans from all parts of the country are traveling to join the march and show the government their “discontent in a peaceful, constitutional and democratic way.”

Venezuelans have vowed to take to the streets to pressure the electoral body, known as the CNE, to move along the recall referendum to oust President Nicolás Maduro. The referendum started earlier this year with the collection of the signatures of 1 percent of the electorate. It’s a process that the coalition of opposition parties, the MUD, says has been marred by a series of setbacks imposed by the president of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena.

This new protest grows out of a frustration at the ravages of the deteriorating economic and political situation.

I probably don’t have to tell you that this NBC News report omitted the word “socialism.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Court Upholds Ban on Gun Sales to Marijuana Card Holders.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came in a lawsuit filed by S. Rowan Wilson, a Nevada woman who said she tried to buy a firearm for self-defense in 2011 after having obtained a medical marijuana card. The gun store refused, citing the federal rule banning the sale of firearms to illegal drug users.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told gun sellers they can assume that a person with a medical marijuana card uses the drug.

The 9th Circuit said in its 3-0 decision that Congress reasonably concluded that marijuana and other drug use “raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated.”

The 9th Circuit would probably give its judicial blessing to most any reason to stop the sale of even a single firearm, but that’s not what’s interesting about this ruling.

Smokers with a “legitimate” need for THC in California and other medical marijuana states lose their 2nd Amendment rights simply for having a doctor’s prescription. But in states like Colorado and Washington, there would seem to be no similar infringement on recreational users who just enjoy getting high.

UH-OH: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just exploded at Cape Canaveral.

According to numerous eyewitness reports, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just exploded while resting on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. This rocket was set to launch on Saturday, September 3 on a mission to deliver Facebook’s first satellite to orbit.

The Associated Press is now stating that the rocket exploded during a test.

We reached out to SpaceX for confirmation and details of the explosion. They have yet to release a statement or respond.

BREAKING: A #SpaceX rocket, due for launch Saturday, just exploded in Cape Canaveral, according to reports. https://t.co/tEfuRUv6El

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) September 1, 2016

More to come.

DOWNBALLOT BLUES:

Our new Senate ratings map. 50 Safe/Likely/Lean D, 49 S/L/L R, and one toss-up https://t.co/FIyAYworjL pic.twitter.com/aCi17R4PmX

— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) September 1, 2016

iLEAVE: Apple and the Irish Example.

We could decry overseas tax shelters for the next decade or two, and change absolutely nothing, or we could — here’s a crazy idea — be the tax shelter. You know what Ireland, Norway, and Sweden all have in common? Within living memory, all were desperately poor. That’s why there are more Irish Americans than Irish nationals, more Norwegian Americans than Norwegians, and more Swedish Americans than Swedes. Hunger will make you get on a boat. Sweden grew wealthy under a form of laissez-faire capitalism strikingly different from the EU norm today, with lower taxes and a smaller public sector than its European counterparts. Norway did much the same thing, helped along by a great deal of oil (which can be both a blessing and a curse). Ireland eventually got sick of being poor and followed a similar program.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if that strategy were followed by a very rich nation — one that accounts for something like a quarter of the economic output of the entire human race.

Low taxes and laissez-faire capitalism don’t provide enough opportunities for graft.

THIS DEAL KEEPS GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME: U.S., others agreed to ‘secret’ exemptions for Iran after nuclear deal.

The United States and its negotiating partners agreed “in secret” to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year’s landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a report reviewed by Reuters.

The report is to be published on Thursday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said the think tank’s president David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and co-author of the report. It is based on information provided by several officials of governments involved in the negotiations, who Albright declined to identify.

Reuters could not independently verify the report’s assertions.

“The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran,” Albright said.

Maybe Sarah Hoyt can help me find my shocked face.

AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD: Apple travesty is a reminder why Britain must leave the lawless EU.

Europe’s Competition Directorate commands the shock troops of the EU power structure. Ensconced in its fortress at Place Madou, it can dispatch swat teams on corporate dawn raids across Europe without a search warrant.

It operates outside the normal judicial control that we take for granted in a developed democracy. The US Justice Department could never dream of acting in such a fashion.

Known as ‘DG Comp’, it acts as judge, jury, and executioner, and can in effect impose fines large enough to constitute criminal sanctions, but without the due process protection of criminal law. It misused evidence so badly in pursuit of the US chipmaker Intel that the company alleged a violation of human rights.

Apple is just the latest of the great US digital companies to face this Star Chamber.

The EU is so mired in laws that it’s practically lawless — which was probably the goal from the start.

YES, BUT: With Impeachment Over, Brazil’s Next Challenge Is Its Flailing Economy.

Mr. Temer first took over the presidency on an interim basis in May, when Ms. Rousseff was suspended to face impeachment charges. But even with broad support in a fractious Congress, the early results of Mr. Temer’s ambitious agenda have been underwhelming, perplexing some who had expressed support for his new economic team.

“Temer’s government is requesting sacrifice from the population, but has pushed for wage increases for public servants who already enjoy job stability,” said Marcos Lisboa, the president of Insper, one of Brazil’s top business schools.

After the move drew criticism from allies seeking to curb public spending, Mr. Temer suspended the wage increases. But some analysts still expect the plan to advance at some point because it enjoys support from many legislators in the president’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

Brazil has gotten rid of a leftist politician, but the country is still steeped in leftist politics.

WHY NOT, EVERYBODY ELSE DOES: Did Turkey outmaneuver the US?

Washington can’t overlook the fact that the Turkish military and its allies in the Free Syria Army (FSA) have the potential to deal ISIL a serious blow. It is no secret that it wanted the Turkish military to get actively involved in Syria against ISIL a long time ago.

That is happening now, but not the way it wants.

Meanwhile President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on record saying the US has to choose who its ally is, Turkey or the [Kurdish] PYD/YPG. This approach is not alien to Washington. Former President George W. Bush used a similar phrase after 9/11 and said “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

The balance Washington is trying to maintain between Turkey and the PYD/YPG is tantamount to supporting terrorism for the Turkish political and security establishment, as well as most Turks. That is why Washington’s call on Ankara not to move against the PYD/YPG will most likely go unheeded.

All is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen — which makes you wonder why the Obama Administration couldn’t see this coming.

I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO ELIMINATE FRAUD AND WASTE: Obamacare’s Death Spiral of Consumer Choice.

In 2016, 85 percent of all Obamacare enrollees had three insurers from which to choose. In 2017, that number drops to 62 percent. This year, an estimated 300,000 enrollees had only one insurer available to them, which comprised only 2 percent of overall enrollment. Next year, 2017, that number will grow to 2.3 million – an estimated 19 percent of all enrollees, an eightfold increase. The same percentage will only have two choices, up from 12 percent in 2016.

The figures look worse from a geographical perspective. Thirty-six percent of all counties in the United States will have two or fewer insurers for consumers to choose. Many counties in the South and Interior West will have only one insurer for 2017. For those living in rural counties, which already have a provider crisis, the news is particularly harsh.

People in those regions don’t vote for many Democrats.

SCIENCE: Pea-size brain structure may make beer cravings.

The findings suggest that if you really want a drink right now, the source of your craving may be a pea-sized structure deep inside the right side of your brain.

After tasting the beer the participants reported increased desire to drink beer, whereas the sports drink did not provoke as much desire for beer.

In addition, PET and fMRI brain scans showed that the beer flavor induced more activity in both frontal lobes and in the right ventral striatum of the subjects’ brains than did the sports drink. More specifically, both methods of brain imaging showed increased activity in the right ventral striatum, a deep structure inside the brain that is linked to motivated behavior and reward.

Beer is its own reward. And its own motivation, too.

BILL WHITTLE: Black Lives Matter Kills People.

MICHELLE BACHMANN: ‘God Raised Up’ Donald Trump, Only Candidate Who Could Win.

I don’t think God takes part in partisan politics.

CHANGE: First U.S. commercial flight in 5 decades lands in Cuba.

To be fair, America’s posture towards Cuba has changed. The Castro Brothers’ Cuba hasn’t changed at all.

CYBERSECURITY: FBI wants ‘adult conversation’ on device encryption.

Perhaps first the FBI should have adult conversations with other federal agencies about keeping their own data secure, before demanding backdoors into our devices.

FREE MARKETS, IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN’T DO? Markets Are Breaking Down India’s Caste System, Turning Untouchables into Millionaires.

There is a new heartwarming trend of entrepreneurship and self-help among Dalits [the political name for India’s “untouchable” castes] since the liberal reforms in India, especially in urban areas. A visit to the Dalit Chamber of Commerce website (see also the Facebook page) reveals slogans such as “Fight Caste with Capital” and “Be Job givers, not Job seekers” as well as a spokesperson who favorably cites the invisible hand, a la Adam Smith! This voluntary Chamber of Commerce, set up in 2003 to bring Dalit entrepreneurs together, currently has 5,000 members whose enterprises jointly boast over half a billion dollars in sales revenue. The actual number of entrepreneurs in the population is much higher.

To what do they owe their success? Fascinating new qualitative research that tracks the life stories of several of these Dalit entrepreneurs reveals a common thread. The opening up of production processes to market forces created new opportunities like never before. Starting small and scraping together resources and capital, many of these Dalits now run business empires that actually provide employment to upper caste members.

Read the whole thing.

ANALYSIS: FALSE. Modesty Could Have Averted the Anguish of Obamacare.

Megan McArdle writes:

The weakness of the mandate, like other flaws in the law, was politically necessary because the law was already quite unpopular, and its supporters couldn’t afford to alienate a single other voter. So they passed what they could and hoped to fix it later. However, the unpopularity of the law meant that there was a strong risk that they wouldn’t be able to fix it later, and indeed that is where we now find ourselves.

I don’t mean to suggest that the law has been an utter failure by the standards of its architects. They have not achieved anything close to universal coverage, but they did manage to reduce the number of uninsured people by somewhere between a quarter and a third. However, I think that if they had been a little less stuck on the idea of attacking every problem at once, they might have passed a less ambitious plan that would nonetheless have expanded coverage substantially, with far fewer risks to either the system or the Democratic Party.

It isn’t so much that McArdle is wrong on the facts, it’s that “modesty” and the “comprehensive reform” (to say nothing of “fundamental transformation”) desired by Progressives are mutually exclusive.

I KNOW HOW THEY FEEL: New Poll Shows Clinton Disliked by Record Number of Americans.

BUH-BYE: Dilma Rousseff Ousted in Historic Brazil Impeachment Vote.

Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges that she used illegal bookkeeping maneuvers to hide a growing budget deficit, deemed an impeachable crime in a nation with a history of hyperinflation and fiscal mismanagement. Two-thirds of Brazil’s 81 senators, or 54 votes, were needed to remove Ms. Rousseff from power.

The outcome was widely expected, though only partly because of the legal evidence marshaled against her. Well before the trial’s final phase opened last week, Ms. Rousseff’s administration had been upended by a brutal recession and a massive corruption scandal at the state oil company that splintered her political base and devastated her popular support. Her departure marks a humiliating end for Brazil’s first female president, and closes 13 years of rule by her leftist Workers’ Party.

Must be nice, holding one of these SOBs accountable.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN… Turkey’s deputy PM encourages Apple to move in wake of EU tax ruling.

If Apple thinks the EU acted lawlessly by unilaterally overriding Irish law to retroactively coerce $14 billion out of Cupertino, wait until they try Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey.

JUSTICE: The most absurd Internet privacy class-action settlement ever.

In 2013, Yahoo announced that it would begin scanning its users’ e-mail for targeted advertising purposes—just as Google does. As is par for the course, class-action lawsuits were filed. The Silicon Valley media giant, according to one of the lawsuits, was violating the “personal liberties” of non-Yahoo Mail users. That’s because non-Yahoo Mail users, who have sent mail to Yahoo mail users, were having their e-mail scanned without their permission.
…
The suit, which was one of six that were co-mingled as a single class action, demanded that a judge halt the scanning and award each victim “$5,000 or three times actual damages” in addition to “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”

Fast forward three years. The case is now closed. Days ago, a Silicon Valley federal judge signed off (PDF) on a settlement (PDF). The lawyers won, they were awarded $4 million (£3 million), and the public got nothing. What’s more, the settlement allows Yahoo to continue to scan e-mails without non-Yahoo users’ consent.

It’s almost as though class-action suits have become nothing more than shakedown operations for lawyers.