ALL-TOO-OPEN CARRY: Texas students fight new campus gun law with sex toys.

Let the hand-wringing begin:

To my European-born mind, the idea of putting guns into the hands of the immature, excitable and perhaps alcohol-addled borders on madness.

Imagine a professor who gives a student an F and is confronted by an irate individual who might be packing a pistol.

It seems not everyone in Texas is in favor of the idea.

On Wednesday, some students organized an imaginative protest by asking their fellow students to make love not war.

The campaign name is a touch imaginative: Cocks Not Glocks. As the campaign’s website explains, this is all about “Open (Dildo) Carry.”

The tagline is “Fighting Absurdity With Absurdity.” Might it also be, in quite an artistic thrust, a way of confronting America’s tight embrace of guns and tightly wound skittishness toward sex?

I’d guess the Venn overlap between people who embrace guns and those who are tightly wound about sex is slim indeed.

For what it’s worth, concealed carry has been permitted on all the campuses of all 37 Colorado state schools since 2003, with nary a single incident involving a licensed carrier.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Clinton Is Making Her Trust Problem Worse.

Bloomberg’s left-leaning Al Hunt:

Her inadequate response to the conflicts of interest inherent in the Clinton Foundation,” the influential liberal columnist Jonathan Chait wrote last week in New York magazine, shows she “has not fully grasped the severity of her reputational problem.” He added, “If the Clinton Foundation is not leveraging the Clinton name, it has no purpose.”

At the same time, I spoke with a prominent Clinton insider, a person of integrity and high ethical standards. He said shutting the Clinton Foundation would hurt millions of people around the world and would be giving in to right-wing critics who will find something else to seize on.

I agree that right-wingers like Representative Jason Chaffetz, Senator Tom Cotton or former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — who seemed to grant himself a medical degree last week when he ludicrously diagnosed Clinton with health problems — will find something. Much of it will be phony.

That is no reason to give them ammunition. Politifact and Jonathan Chait are not part of what Clinton once famously called the “vast right wing conspiracy.”

It’s a safe prediction that Clinton will continue to hand out ammunition.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Trump vs Clinton — The Race of the Cripples.

CHICKENS, ROOST: Obamacare sticker shock hits key Senate races.

Senate Democrats might yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

NO: Whiskey’s Next Wave Is Lighter, Mellower, Made for Millennials.

NOBODY TELL NOTORIOUS ROBOPHOBE MATTHEW YGLESIAS ABOUT THIS: Squishy “Octobot” Heralds New Era of Soft Robotics.

Interest in soft robots has taken off in recent years, as engineers look beyond rigid Terminator-type machines to designs that can squeeze into tight spaces, mould to their surroundings, or handle delicate objects safely. But engineering soft versions of key parts has challenged researchers. “The brains, the electronics, the batteries—those components were all hard,” says roboticist Daniela Rus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “This work is new and really exciting.”

The octobot is made of silicone rubber. Its ‘brain’ is a flexible microfluidic circuit that directs the flow of liquid fuel through channels using pressure-activated valves and switches. “It’s an analogy of what would be an electrical circuit normally,” says engineer Robert Wood at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the study’s leaders. “Instead of passing electrons around, we’re passing liquids and gases.”

The prototype in the video doesn’t do much, or do it quickly. But it’s a fascinating proof-of-concept.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Can porn star-turned-Bollywood actress Sunny Leone teach India to be cool about sex?

JOHN SCHINDLER: Hillary’s Secret Kremlin Connection Is Quickly Unraveling.

As part of the reset, Hillary encouraged and enabled American and European investment in Russia, particularly in high-tech firms. A key role was played by the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a sprawling complex in Moscow’s western suburbs that was established in 2009 as Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley. With encouragement from the State Department, American companies jumped aboard. Cisco pledged $1 billion of investment in Skolkovo in 2010, and Google and Intel quickly joined the bandwagon. All three “just happened” to be major investors in the Clinton Foundation too.

This was the consistent pattern. As Schweizer explained, “Of the 28 U.S., European and Russian companies that participated in Skolkovo, 17 of them were Clinton Foundation donors” or had hired former President Clinton to give speeches. How much money these Skolkovo benefactors gave to Clinton, Inc. cannot yet be determined, but Schweizer concluded that it’s somewhere between $6.5 million and $23.5 million, with the proviso that since the Clinton Foundation has yet to reveal all its donors, the true figure could be much higher.

Then there’s the matter of what Skolkovo actually is. In truth, it’s nothing like Silicon Valley except in outward appearance. It’s a fully state-driven enterprise—funded largely by the Kremlin and acting on its orders. It does the bidding of the Russian government, and President Putin has taken intense interest in his high-tech complex, understanding its value to the country’s defense and security sector.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Western intelligence considers Skolkovo to be an extension of Russia’s military-industrial complex—and its intelligence services.

Smoke, meet fire.

Just earlier today, Ruth Marcus had the gall to write that “Obliging a Donor Is Not Necessarily Criminal” in her latest gambit to help circle the wagons for Clinton.

Anyway, read the whole, sordid thing.

THAT WAS FAST: Trump-Pence now on the Minnesota ballot.

Ryan Furlong, a spokesman for Minnesota’s secretary of State’s office, said that Trump’s filing is completed and the GOP ticket will appear on the office’s website listing those on the ballot soon.

He noted that major party candidates have until Monday to file for ballot access.

Minutes after The Hill spoke to Furlong, Trump and running mate Mike Pence’s names were on the secretary of State’s website.

NBC affiliate KARE11 in Minneapolis reported earlier in the day that the state’s Republican Party hadn’t filed paperwork for Trump to get on the ballot.

I wonder what happened to the state GOP’s legal requirement to “officially elect alternate electors” outlined last night by Michael Brodkorb.

(Hat tip, Glenn!)

SAINT ATILLA RAISED RAISED THE HAND GRENADE UP ON HIGH: Crusader-era hand grenade surprises archaeologists.

AN ALTERNATE THEORY: Berkeley’s Soda Sin Tax Seems to Be Working, But Probably Just Because It’s Berkeley.

Makes sense to me.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: The world’s first network of fully self-driving taxis is up and running.

NuTonomy, a self-driving company that spun out of MIT and is based in Singapore and Cambridge, Mass., has just launched the first-ever public test of a commercial fleet of fully self-driving cars.

The company, which will be testing its ride-hail service in a Singaporean business district called 1 North, has been testing its self-driving technology in the area since April and was chosen to be the Singapore government’s official partner in the development of this technology earlier this month. NuTonomy plans to deploy a full fleet of vehicles — at least 1,000 — in Singapore by 2018.

Through the test, a select number of people will be able to hail one of six nuTonomy cars — either a Renault Zoe or a Mitsubishi i-MiEV that the company has retrofitted with sensory and self-driving technology — using the company’s proprietary ride-hail app. A nuTonomy engineer will remain on board to ensure the system is working properly and to take over if needed.

The real test will be if passengers are still willing to enter cabs without a nuTonomy engineer.

UNSETTLED: Supposed ‘Ground Breaking’ Study Only Proves Warming Proponents Have Jumped The Shark.

They called it a “ground breaking study,” I call it rubbish. This new study claims that global warming began in 1830 just when the industrial revolution began to pick up steam (no pun intended). What they didn’t take into account was just around the same time the Earth was coming out of an unusually cold 40-year period caused by low sunspot activity called the Dalton Minimum (no relation to Timothy Dalton).

Read the whole thing.

AT THIS POINT, PROBABLY: Is Doomsday Inevitable For Venezuela?

The problems could grow worse. Several oil service companies suspended or slowed operations in Venezuela this year due to difficulties in obtaining payment from the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Contractors have cut back on drilling in Venezuela amid rising unpaid debt, which threatens to take Venezuela’s output down even further.

On June 28th 2016, Baker Hughes reported that the number of oil rigs in Venezuela dropped from 69 to 59 in May of this year. The CEO of the Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem SpA said that in April the company had suspended 89 percent of its operation rigs in Venezuela (25 of its 28 rigs). Other companies as Schlumberger or Halliburton Co are reducing their activities in Venezuela because of unpaid services bills. Venezuela’s active rig count, a good indication of future production, fell from 71 to 49 in July according to Baker Hughes, the lowest since the end of 2011.

That’s some bad luck, eh?

The author adds, “Even if oil prices increase, the situation is very complicated for Venezuela’s economy.” Those “complications” can be reduced to just three words: Chavez, Maduro, and socialism — but you won’t find those words anywhere in this report.

UM: Trump, Pence not yet on MN ballot.

Tuesday was the deadline for non-major party candidates for President and Vice President to file the necessary paperwork to be on the ballot in Minnesota. There is no filing fee for presidential candidates, but non-major party candidates must submit a 2,000-signature petition.

According to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website, these are the candidates who have filed to be on the ballot…

The list doesn’t include Donald Trump or Mike Pence.

The deadline for major party candidates to file isn’t until August 29, but there’s a hitch.

Again: Process for Trump to be on MN ballot. #MNGOP didn't officially elect alternate electors – trouble ahead? Yep. pic.twitter.com/oaEZQEw3AA

— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016

The cleanest way for #MNGOP to solve mess is to call state convention to elect alternate national delegates – but they can't, no time.

— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016

It isn’t as though Trump has a serious shot at Minnesota, but this doesn’t look good for the state GOP.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Trump’s on the ballot now.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: The real scandal of EpiPen pricing.

Bernie Sanders doesn’t have the first clue how an EpiPen works or what went into developing it, but he’s sure he knows what one should cost, and he’s sure who should decide — him. You know what Bernie Sanders is? He’s a bum. He was damn near 40 years old before he ever found his way into a full-time job, and that was in elected office; before that, he collected benefits, sold his creepy rape fantasies for left-wing newspapers at $50 a pop, and never lifted a finger toward any genuinely productive enterprise. He’s been suckling greedily at the public teat since way back when he could remember where his car keys are. Funny thing, though: Now he’s a bum with a third home on the waterfront of a Vermont island worth the better part of a million dollars. Every good apparatchik eventually gets his dacha.

Mrs. Clinton is a bum and a crook who used the State Department as a funnel to guide the money of favor-seeking business interests at home and abroad into the Clinton Foundation, a sham charity that exists to pay six-figure salaries to Clintons (Chelsea is full-time executive there) and their courtiers.

These people are parasites. They make: nothing. They create: nothing. They produce: nothing. But they feel perfectly justified — they positively glow with moral frisson — standing between the people who create and build and the people who benefit from those creations.

Besides, the money to pay for ObamaCare’s medical device tax has to come from somewhere.

COULTER TURNS ON TRUMP: Woman Who Wrote ‘In Trump We Trust’ Goes on Tweetstorm About Why We Can’t Trust Trump.

She’s also threatened to cancel her book tour.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: U.S. Army Fears Major War Likely Within Five Years — But Lacks The Money To Prepare.

Senior Army officials are circumspect about discussing the danger in open forums — they don’t want to advertise U.S. vulnerabilities — but it seems clear that the Obama administration’s “pivot to the Pacific” announced in 2012 has created a geopolitical vacuum stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Persian Gulf that Russia and Iran are trying to fill. Meanwhile, the unpredictable government of North Korea continues its bellicose behavior toward the South, which the U.S. is pledged to defend.

The “pivot” hasn’t amounted to much, but the vacuum left in Europe and the Mediterranean is quite real.

ONE MAN’S HEADLINE WRITER IS ANOTHER MAN’S TERROR-EXCUSING ANTISEMITE:

Palestinian attacks Israeli soldiers from car, then gets out, stabs one, and is shot. This is @Reuters' headline. pic.twitter.com/QhN21QMpvz

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 24, 2016

GULP: Illinois submits Obamacare insurance premium increases to feds.

The Illinois Department of Insurance said Wednesday it has submitted rate increases to the federal government that for some types of plans average 43 percent to 55 percent.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will decide rates. But the numbers released Wednesday confirm the fears of consumers, who’ve already watched a number of insurance companies withdraw from the Obamacare exchange because of financial losses, limiting choices as people prepare to enroll for 2017.

Rates could increase by an average of 44 percent for the lowest-priced bronze plans, 45 percent for the lowest-priced silver plans and 55 percent for the lowest-priced gold plans, according to a preliminary analysis released by the state Wednesday.

That means it’s working.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: I-35 bridge collapse survivor becomes 11th Twin Cities man charged with supporting ISIL.

Mohamed Amiin Ali Roble, the young I-35 bridge collapse survivor thought to have used thousands of dollars in settlement money to travel to Syria and join ISIL, has become the 11th Twin Cities man charged with providing support to the terror group.

Roble was 10 years old when he became one of 145 people injured in the August 2007 bridge collapse. He collected $91,654 in settlement money on his 18th birthday. According to federal charges filed Wednesday, those funds financed his 2014 travel to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and helped pay for cars and weddings for fellow jihadists in Syria.

Federal authorities believe that Roble, who previously lived in south Minneapolis, is still alive in Syria.

Whatever happened to young men blowing easy money on cars and women for themselves?

NO. WAY. Clinton Foundation Rethinks Changes; Chelsea to Stay.

As recently as this summer, the foundation was discussing with some allies plans for Chelsea Clinton to leave the board, along with former President Bill Clinton, if Mrs. Clinton should win. But on Wednesday, foundation spokesman Craig Minassian said Chelsea Clinton plans to stay on the board. Mr. Clinton told donors he still plans to leave.

While the parent Clinton Foundation will stop accepting money from foreign governments and corporations, the foundation’s largest project, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, might continue to accept foreign government and corporate funding, Clinton health initiative officials said Wednesday.

At the Clinton Foundation, the back door is always open.

BIDEN TO KURDS: GO HOME. US-backed Kurds pulling back in north Syria as Turkey continues anti-ISIS operation.

A day after Turkish tanks crossed the border into northern Syria, a US-backed largely Kurdish army has moved east of the Euphrates River on Thursday, according to a U.S. military spokesman.

Turkey and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had called on the Kurds to leave Arab lands in Syria and return east of the Euphrates to traditional Kurdish territory.

Biden threatened to cut off supplies to the Kurds if they didn’t fall back.

The Kurds really don’t want to give Turkish President Recep Erdogan any excuses.

BULLETS FOR BALLOTS: Colombians celebrate as peace deal is reached with FARC rebels.

The announcement was broadcast live on Wednesday from Havana, Cuba, where peace talks have been held for more than two years.

The conflict has killed an estimated 220,000 people and displaced millions.

President Juan Manuel Santos called the deal “the beginning of the end to the suffering, pain and tragedy of war”.

“The Colombian government and the Farc announce that we have reached a final, full and definitive accord,” Colombian government and Farc negotiators said in a joint statement.

Left unsaid? FARC was a “people’s army” founded by local Communists with support from Cuba and the Soviet Union. Having failed to inspire a revolution, FARC turned to narco-terror and kidnapping. The group’s strength today is estimated at no more than ten thousand.

Colombia is now one of the freest and richest countries in South America.

Next door in Venezuela, hardcore leftists hold complete political power, and the results speak for themselves.

SERIOUSLY OLD STYLE BEER: Craft Beer Made With Prehistoric Yeast Is T-Rex Approved.