METAPHOR ALERT: Rio officials had to open Olympic Stadium with bolt cutters after losing key.

JONATHAN RAUCH: How American Politics Went Insane.

What we are seeing is not a temporary spasm of chaos but a chaos syndrome.

Chaos syndrome is a chronic decline in the political system’s capacity for self-organization. It begins with the weakening of the institutions and brokers—political parties, career politicians, and congressional leaders and committees—that have historically held politicians accountable to one another and prevented everyone in the system from pursuing naked self-interest all the time. As these intermediaries’ influence fades, politicians, activists, and voters all become more individualistic and unaccountable. The system atomizes. Chaos becomes the new normal—both in campaigns and in the government itself.

Read the whole thing.

The insanity is merely a symptom of a deeper illness: That our constitutional republic has become popular democracy, now entering the inevitable end-phase of a positive feedback loop.

DIEORAMA: Hold These Tiny Crime Scenes in the Palm of Your Hand.

Creepy, but I can’t stop looking.

THE END OF KEMALIST TURKEY: Turkish ruling party purges US-based cleric’s followers.

The Anadolu Agency says the Justice and Development Party, founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issued a circular Friday asking members to “immediately start efforts to purge those linked to the (Gulenmovement) or who gave support to the reprehensible coup.” It also called on local branches to avoid “agitation and gossip” during the purges.

The government has branded Gulen’s movement a terrorist organization and has launched a sweeping crackdown on its alleged followers since the attempted coup.

It wasn’t a failed coup; it’s a successful purge.

REAPING THE WHIRLWIND: Support for Germany’s Merkel plunges after attacks.

The survey for public broadcaster ARD showed support for Merkel down 12 points from her July rating to 47 percent. This marked her second-lowest score since she was re-elected in 2013. In April last year, before the migrant crisis erupted she enjoyed backing of 75 percent.

Merkel’s open-door refugee policy has come under attack from critics after five attacks in Germany since July 18 have left 15 people dead, including four assailants, and dozens injured.

Two of the attackers had links to Islamist militancy, officials say.

Support for one of Merkel’s fiercest critics, Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer, who has called for restrictions on immigration to increase security, jumped 11 points to 44 percent.

Over a million migrants have entered Germany in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Merkel repeated her claim that Germany could manage to successfully integrate the influx of refugees last week and vowed not to change her refugee policy.

She’s been a total disaster.

ANOTHER UNFORCED ERROR: Trump backs off false Iran video claim.

CLAIM: In endorsing Clinton, ex-CIA chief says Putin made Trump his ‘unwitting agent’

And Clinton, with Wikileaks holding her emails and acting as a Kremlin front, isn’t?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. ObamaCare Is Failing Exactly The Way Critics Said It Would.

The only part of ObamaCare which has “worked” (fiscal responsibility be damned!) is the massive Medicaid expansion — and that could have been accomplished without ruining millions of private plans and all the other resulting messes.

DEFEAT HAS A HUNDRED FATHERS: Trump’s Enablers Will Be Responsible for His Epic Defeat in November.

DENIAL: Hillary’s campaign denies FBI, IRS investigations into Clinton Foundation.

“There’s no basis to believe that. I have no knowledge of that,” Brian Fallon said Wednesday evening during an appearance on Fox News.

“There’s no evidence to that effect,” he added, calling reports about the investigation “baseless.”

FBI Director James Comey dodged questions last month about whether a reported probe of the Clinton Foundation had concluded with the investigation into Clinton’s private emails, which closed on July 6 without yielding criminal charges for anyone involved.

“You can’t read anything at all into Director Comey’s inability to answer that question,” Fallon said.

You can’t?

QUESTION ASKED: If it wasn’t a ransom payment, why did Obama keep it secret?

UH-OH: Clinton pauses ads in Virginia in sign of confidence.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has left Virginia off its upcoming battleground-state television ad buy beginning next week — the second state to be dropped in recent weeks as Clinton holds a significant lead over Donald Trump nationally and in key states.

The campaign’s new television ad buy, which begins next Tuesday, consists of Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The reservations, which could easily be amended in the future, run through Labor Day.

The second state Clinton doesn’t feel any need to advertise in is Colorado.

PROCUREMENT: Operational Assessment of the F-35A.

It’s late and it cost too much, but it’s finally getting there:

The F-35A Lightning II’s sensors, stealth, and overall capability have been defended by the government and industry, while pundits and politicians have concentrated on developmental issues, cost overruns, and maneuverability limitations. The F-35A is a generational leap beyond other multirole fighters, and thanks to concurrent development, its technology will be the freshest ever fielded. Its performance in an air-to-surface (attack) mode has been well accepted, but many have questioned the Lightning II’s performance in aerial combat. Only the pilots who have flown the fighter actually know how well the Air Force version of the F-35 can perform, and the 31 who were surveyed for this paper expressed a high degree of confidence in this extraordinary fighter.

My father-in-law flew F-4s over Vietnam and F-16s over Europe and the Middle East says there’s “no question” which plane he’d prefer to fly today.

CHANGE: South Africa’s Ruling Party Suffering Biggest Electoral Blow.

With 95 percent of votes counted Friday in municipal elections, South Africa’s ruling party appears to be headed for its biggest electoral blow since it won power at the end of apartheid 22 years ago.

The results remained too close to call in the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, and the Tshwane metropolitan area around the capital, Pretoria. The opposition Democratic Alliance was challenging the African National Congress in both municipalities. Neither party appeared to be winning a majority in those two cities that would allow it to govern alone, raising the possibility of coalition governments.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters it was too early to analyze the election results, saying it would be like reading “somebody’s tombstone before they die.”

The ANC lost a key municipality named after its star, Nelson Mandela Bay, to the Democratic Alliance. The DA already runs the city of Cape Town, the only major South African city where blacks are not in the majority, and has been pushing hard to win supporters in other regions.

The ANC has become as corrupt and as crazy as any other corrupt and crazy Third World party. It’s good to see South African voters push back.

MAILBAG: From longtime Instapundit/VodkaPundit reader Max Kohnke:

This is not a joke nor even an exaggeration. I just found out that my sister in law’s other brother-in-law was arrested in Venezuela at the airport while trying to leave the country. His crime, he was an employee for a company that went out of business. Waiting for more? There isn’t any. Maduro has decreed that any business that goes out of business has committed economic treason and its employees are subject to arrest. They had already arrested numerous owners and managers but this is the first time they went after rank and file worker bees.

Socialism is about caring.

BUT OF COURSE: Clinton repeats debunked claim about FBI email investigation.

“As the FBI said, everything that I’ve said publicly has been consistent and truthful with what I’ve told them,” Clinton said in an interview with KUSA’s Brandon Rittiman on Wednesday.

Clinton made a similar claim — which was widely debunked — in an interview last weekend on “Fox News Sunday.”

“(FBI Director James Comey) said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails,” Clinton said.

The Washington Post’s fact checkers gave the statement “four Pinocchios,” their worst possible rating.

But can it be made to stick?

QUESTION ASKED: What Does a Beer Historian Do?

I don’t know, but I’m willing to find out.

FLORIDA MAN: Pro-Trump Husband Arrested for Attacking Pro-Clinton Wife After Election Feud.

FASTER, PLEASE: Human trials begin for Zika vaccines.

Sure would be nice if Democrats weren’t objectively pro-Zika.

THIS IS EXACTLY THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS PROMISED: Google’s so much closer to delivery by drone.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Wearing “Don’t Tread on Me” insignia could be punishable racial harassment.

On January 8, 2014, Complainant filed a formal complaint in which he alleged that the Agency subjected him to discrimination on the basis of race (African American) and in reprisal for prior EEO activity when, starting in the fall of 2013, a coworker (C1) repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag, which depicts a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.”

Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a “slave trader & owner of slaves.” Complainant also alleged that he complained about the cap to management; however, although management assured him C1 would be told not to wear the cap, C1 continued to come to work wearing the offensive cap. Additionally, Complainant alleged that on September 2, 2013, a coworker took a picture of him on the work room floor without his consent. In a decision dated January 29, 2014, the Agency dismissed Complainant’s complaint on the basis it failed to state a claim . . . .

Complainant maintains that the Gadsden Flag is a “historical indicator of white resentment against blacks stemming largely from the Tea Party.”

I seem to recall the Tea Party being founded to protest taxes and spending, not as a racial grievance group.

YOU ROLL THE DICE AND TAKE YOUR CHANCES: Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal Is Closing After ‘Losing Multimillions a Month’

Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal casino and hotel will close its doors permanently after Labor Day, less than seven months after the establishment exited bankruptcy as a subsidiary of billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Management at the casino, which is now a unit of Icahn Enterprises IEP -4.87% and is run by the Icahn-owned gaming company Tropicana Entertainment TPCA 0.00% , cited massive financial losses and a recent workers’ strike as the reasons why the Trump Taj Mahal will soon be closing. Tropicana’s president and chief executive, Tony Rodio, said in a statement, “Currently the Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now with this strike, we see no path to profitability.”

Previous bankruptcies had whittled Trump’s stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts down to just 10%.

EDUCATION APOCALYPSE UPDATE: College Students Wear ‘Three Blind Mice’ Halloween Costumes, Bias Response Team Leaps Into Action.

The incident took place at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, according to records reviewed exclusively by Heat Street. The offending students had posted pictures of themselves in costume on Facebook.

The documents, which Heat Street obtained under open records laws, reveal that a member of the Bias Incident Team reported the students herself: “There was concern about their choice as it makes fun of a disability,” says the team’s meeting minutes.

The Bias Incident Team decided to follow up directly with the costume wearers, noting that “this incident is being considered a personnel issue in Residence Life” because the students were also staffers.

What would we do without Bias Response Teams?

WYCLEF JEAN: Bernie Sanders Will Become ‘Most Powerful Senator’

ASIA PIVOT: Combat-tested U.S. bombers headed to Pacific.

The B-1B Lancer bombers from the 34th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron dropped more than 2,000 “smart bombs” during more than 630 missions over Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan from January to July of 2015, officials at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam said. Those missions covered more than 7,000 hours of flight time.

“The B-1 units bring a unique perspective and years of repeated combat and operational experience from the Central Command theater to the Pacific,” said a statement from Pacific Air Forces headquarters in Hawaii.

Guam is a U.S.-controlled island territory in the western Pacific, some 1,550 miles east of the Philippines.

“With a large weapon capacity and exceptional standoff strike capability, the B-1 will provide U.S. Pacific Command and its regional allies and partners with a credible, strategic power projection platform,” the statement said.

Good.