The ongoing struggle

Zero Hedge: "19-Year Old Sets Own Ferrari On Fire Because He Wanted A New One."

Plot twist: not an American!

The FBI has Hillary's server

I'm thinking the drip-drip-drip is going to open up to a rivulet of scandal.  Fox News: "FBI has Hillary Clinton emails from home server, official says."

The FBI has taken possession of thumb drives containing Hillary Clinton's emails, some of which have been deemed to contain highly sensitive classified information, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter.

Not just classified but Top Secret:

The inspector general for the Intelligence Community notified senior members of Congress that two of four classified emails discovered on the server Clinton maintained at her New York home contained material deemed to be in one of the highest security classifications – more sensitive than previously known.

And I've noted this before: Hillary was receiving emails from the CIA, NSA, and various intelligence sources that don't even want the public to be aware they exist.  Why wouldn't you automatically assume that these messages were classified?  That's what Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III said: these emails were classified at the time of reception, time of retention, and time of transmission.  Which means that Hillary broke the law:

"Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."

Hillary should be in prison.

I did it for you, America

The Corner: "This is really the spin on the e-mail scandal now?"  "Hillary Clinton’s campaign is now resorting to the defense that her using a personal, private e-mail server in contravention of government rules was a good idea because . . . sometimes government servers get hacked, too."

Unpatriotic traitors who only want war

Now with more Democrats!  Federalist: "Shock Poll: Only 41% Of Democrats Want Congress To Approve Obama’s Iran Deal."  So much common cause with the hardliners.

Free speech Seattle

The Hill: "Protesters shut down Bernie Sanders rally."  "Protesters who claimed affiliation with the Black Lives Matter movement stormed the stage during a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Seattle on Saturday, taking over the microphone and forcing Sanders to leave without ever speaking."

The people there to listen to Sanders seemed paralyzed to stop three protesters, for fear of being accused of racism.

Extra - Maggie's Farm: "Good grief."  The video is something to behold.

Amy is late

This always makes me laugh:

Happy warriors

I wasn't going to watch the GOP debate tonight but the Red Sox lost in record time, so I turned it on.  It was much better than I thought it might be.  The candidates were on-point and good-natured towards each other, less so towards Hillary.  There was a lot of "I'm the only man on this stage..." but Ben Carson stole the night when he said "I'm the only man on this stage to separate Siamese twins."

Extra - Matt Continetti says "Rubio wins."  Yeah, he was good.

George Will was wrong

This past Sunday, Will said that Senator Chuck Schumer would make a public display of appearing anguished over the Iran deal just before he falls in line behind Obama.  HuffPost begs to differ: "Chuck Schumer Planning To Break With Obama, Oppose Iran Deal."

Prediction: Obama will characterize Schumer as just reacting to AIPAC since nobody in Obama's world could disagree with him in good faith.

Extra - From Twitchy.

Awaiting the coronation

Me, two months ago: "This is a genuine question: does Hillary intend to participate in Presidential debates?"

Answer: yes, but just the bare minimum head-nod to democracy.  Weekly Standard: "O'Malley blasts Democrats for limiting debates."

Baltimore mayor isn't going to let the unfolding disaster get her down

C'mon everybody, get happy!  Breitbart: "Baltimore mayor says 'I'm not going to resign' despite city's most violent year."

But the mayor then complained that too many citizens were “harping on the negative.”

That would include requesting federal intervention to quell the spiraling violence, the largest drop in housing prices among the country's top 100 metro areas, and a steady erosion of jobs.  But hey, there's going to be lots of money for "recreation centers" because they're fun.

Here come the Obamacare rate hikes

Hit and Run: "Why the Obama Administration’s Latest Gambit to Keep Health Insurance Rates Down Won’t Work."

Extra - From Instapundit.

The government is here to help

Hit and Run: "Study: Yes, Student Loans Are Making College More Expensive."

America on Iran deal: it sucks

Hot Air: "New Q-poll shows Americans oppose Iran deal 2:1."

The more that the American people get a chance to look at the nuclear deal with Iran, the less they like it.

I'm not sure that's the issue at all.  Instead, I think it's the very fact that Americans have no idea what kind of a rotten deal we're getting mixed up in, and are justifiably repulsed at a secret deal with a regime that still calls for the destruction of America and Israel.

Gas makes a car go

I know that NASCAR isn't everybody's cup of tea, but today's race at Pocono was both exciting and hilarious.  Brad Kesolowski ran over his pit crew, Kevin Harvick exploded his engine, and Kasey Kahne hit a pit road wall, sending helmets flying into the air.  In the final three laps, the top drivers ran out of gas - one by one - leaving the field open for Matt Kenseth and his slightly-better fuel-saving strategy.

Double-dipping and time-card punching

Huma was on the Clinton gravy train, natch.  Powerline: "Clinton aide and confidante was overpaid at State department."  So was Hillary, amirite?

But it's the happiest place on Earth!

Pretty funny trip report: "Disney World is the worst thing ever.  You should definitely go."

How do you solve a problem like DWS?

Debbie Downer answers exactly one question from Chris Matthews in this interview: Bernie Sanders will be allowed to speak at the DNC convention.  Otherwise, she won't answer anything else including "what's the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?"

This is an interesting theory

In the Washington Times, Monica Crowley says the bad blood between Hillary and Obama will lead to a Joe Biden campaign:

So here’s the likely plan: Mr. Biden will announce that he is running for president (the reported dying wish of his late son, Beau). After a respectable amount of time, Mr. Obama will announce that while he admires all of the Democratic candidates, Mr. Biden has earned his particular loyalty.

Crowley flatly states that "Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee for President" and the Obama coup de grace could be getting his Justice department to investigate Hillary's classified emails.

What else is in the news?

It seems like every time I check the news it's either Trump or Planned Parenthood videos.  I guess I'll link to this article on Social Security sitting on the top of the Drudge page:

I could not believe I was seeing the equivalent of what I was just thinking, but with a new twist, “If I like my Social Security, I can keep 77 percent of it.”

A program so good they had to make it mandatory.

There are no dealbreakers!

Fox News: "On their terms? Iran wants to take own soil samples at suspected nuclear site."

Anything you want, mullah dear, anything you want.

America wants war - the only option

Hot Air: "CNN poll: Majority rejects Iran deal, 44/52."

Are we there yet?

We have to give Iran the nukes before we find out what's in the agreement

What fresh hell is this?  Washington Post: "Obama’s secret Iran deals exposed."  "President Obama promised that his nuclear deal with Iran would not be “based on trust” but rather “unprecedented verification.” Now it turns out Obama’s verification regime is based on trust after all — trust in two secret side agreements negotiated exclusively between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that apparently no one (including the Obama administration) has seen."

Extra - Vodkapundit: "John Kerry: Rube of State."

More - Breitbart: "Monday on  MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said it is a “big assumption” to think the Iranians will comply with the restrictions and inspections in the nuclear deal recently announced by the Obama administration."  Why do you want war!?!

Great news: no Olympics in Boston

Boston Globe: "Boston’s bid for Olympics is withdrawn."  Here in Western Massachusetts, the desire for the Games ranged from cold to tepid.

Stonewall

The Daily Signal: "The Clinton Emails: Will DOJ Conduct a Real Investigation?"  Can anybody seriously dispute this:

Any other federal employee found to have discussed high-level, sensitive government business in her personal emails, including possibly classified materials, would not have been treated with such kid gloves.

I heard on NPR this morning that some of the emails reviewed by the State Department IG were from either the CIA or the NSA.  Wouldn't any federal employee reasonably assume that anything from these intelligence agencies involve classified data?  They're not exchanging recipes.

Here come the entitlement cuts

WashPost: "A cut to Social Security disability benefits may be around the corner."

The disability trust fund will be depleted by the fourth quarter of 2016, leaving the administration with enough income to pay 81 percent of benefits, according to the report, which is updated annually.

The health of the Social Security program didn’t change by much, and the cut to disability benefits has been expected for years. But now that Congress has still not come up with a compromise for boosting the funding, the shortfall is more imminent.

Yes, there have been some bloggers who have pointed out for years now that automatic cuts are baked into the cake once the various "trust funds" run dry.  I can't wait to hear all the great solutions to be proposed by the Democrats, since Republicans would be crazy to put out proposals just so they can be accused of pushing Granny over a cliff.

For all the world to see

Found this on Voat: "Why the Hillary Clinton email server scandal is a BFD"

If I was able to find all of this out within 20 minutes of passive probing, imagine what someone could do with that was an IT major league all star and had the resources of a government agency behind them. I would be freaking amazed if that server was not compromised within a few weeks of it going online.

That is why it is a BFD.

Basically, this IT guy says that the security on Hillary's private server was shoddy and you can safely conclude that any classified information sent to it was Hoovered up by the Chinese.

Let's see if Loretta Lynch pulls an Eric Holder

NY Times: "Criminal inquiry is sought in Clinton email account"

WASHINGTON — Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.

The request follows an assessment in a June 29 memo by the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence agencies that Mrs. Clinton’s private account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.”

I look forward to the affected insouciance of the NY Times editorial page over Hillary's crimes.  Yes, crimes.

Conspiracy theory

I was at a concert tonight so i'm just going to throw up this Ask Reddit thread: "What is your favorite conspiracy theory?"

I had not heard the one about Michael Jordan.  Hmmm.

Many guesses will be offered

Maggie's Farm: "How Did Rich Connecticut Morph Into One Of America's Worst Performing Economies?"

Inspirational. And - c'mon - kinda funny.

MassLive: "560-pound Eric Hites, riding bike across US to lose weight, delayed over bent rim."

Get your money for Hezbollah and your nukes for free

Power Line: "Iran: Of course we'll continue to support terrorists!"  I mean, what's an Islamic state supposed to do with $100 billion?

Race relations meeting goes about as expected

About a week ago, a series of roundtable discussions on race issues held in Worcester under the guidance of the Department of Justice wrapped up.  It was a train wreck:

WORCESTER – "Dear white people," started Joyce McNickles, a local activist who was allowed to share her reflections on the city's seven discussions on race at Monday night's final meeting. "I want you to know the most frustrating thing about these dialogues about race was the reluctance to admit that racism actually exists."

It seems that some of those crackers had the white-privilege nerve to disagree:

Etel Capacchione described mixed reactions with many "painful moments" when comments from people of color were "dismissed, attacked or redirected."

"How can you have a dialogue if you can’t speak open and honestly?" Questioned Wanda Alvarado-Eaton.

Let’s have an open discussion about your hateful comments, whitey.

But wait: it gets better and/or worse depending on your viewpoint.  In 2015, the great threat to civil rights is anonymous bloggers:

In talking about her reactions to Worcester's series of talks on race, Wanda Alvarado-Eaton talks about being attacked online by anonymous blogger Turtleboy Sports.

"We need to address issue of this blog," Alvarado-Eaton said. "The people associated with the blog need to be addressed. He and anyone associated with it need to be prosecuted for libel, defamation of character and inciting a riot or race war, as many of his commenters have talked about. It's inappropriate and ultimately a hate crime."

Uh-huh.  Well, I would dispute that but I don’t want to cause “painful moments.”

After seven meetings of fruitless and circuitous chatter, a big flipboard was set up asking this question: “What action will you take as a result of these dialogues?”  Virtually every answer was some variation of “more dialogue” except for one honest soul who wrote “go on vacation.”

A brief moment of glory

I got a kick out of this: top 10 ball boy/girl catches:

Chicago-style accounting

Zero Hedge: "Pension Shocker: Plans Face $2 Trillion Shortfall, Moody's Says."

The nut root nation

WashPost: "Activists disrupt forum featuring candidates O’Malley, Sanders."  The Black Lives Matter crew wasn't having any of it.  This is my favorite part:

The Vermont senator faced chants and heckling as well, but Sanders continued talking. Asked what he had done in the Senate to benefit black Americans, he started to talk about the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

“We can’t afford that!” heckled Elle Hearns, a 28-year-old Ohio-based coordinator for the LGBT rights group GetEqual.

When you're to the left of Bernie Sanders...wow.

Another day at the office

Washington Free Beacon: "Clintons Facilitated Donor’s Haiti Project That Defrauded U.S. Out of Millions"

A federal agency rushed to approve funding for a Clinton donor’s sham Haiti recovery project that ended up defrauding the U.S. government out of millions, according to court transcripts and internal government documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Miami businessman Claudio Osorio, who is currently serving 12 years in federal prison on fraud charges, leveraged his relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton to help his company InnoVida obtain a $10 million loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) for a Haiti housing project in 2010.
OPIC is an independent government agency that submits its annual budget requests through the State Department and works closely with the agency.
Bill Clinton helped arrange for a high-powered Florida law firm to represent Osorio during loan negotiations with OPIC, according to court testimony. An internal OPIC memo said Hillary Clinton was prepared to marshal State Department resources to assist with the donor’s project.

Now we know what motivates Hillary to marshal resources in a crisis.

That guy's a real pistol

Tonight we saw "The Merry Wives of Windsor" at the Hampshire Shakespeare Company.  I hadn't read or seen this play before and there's a comic relief character in it named "Pistol."

I was wondering if this was the origin of the word that has come to mean a "jokester" - a funny guy.  I can't seem to find confirmation on the web but it seems as good an explanation as any.

Man, I hate the mainstream media

Why do they do stuff like this?  Ace: "CNN "Analyst" Wasn't Sure if "Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez" Was a Muslim Name."  Sounds Dutch.

America in retreat

Here's Dana Milbank in the WashPost: "Obama’s news conference was a case for American weakness."  "This was an undercurrent of the whole news conference Wednesday afternoon, and of Obama’s overall defense of the Iran deal. He was tough and strong, but in service of the argument that American power is limited — that this is the best deal we could get with our declining leverage. His defenders call it realism; it also may amount to ratifying retreat."

Expensive and ineffective - what a deal

Hot Air: "Just your daily reminder that Medicaid is a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’."

It's a good thing you got coverage for the doctors that won't see you.

Queen of hedge

Some have timeshares there https://t.co/1mCJRh8ZwG

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 14, 2015

Hot Air: "Hillary starting to inch away from Obama’s terrible Iran deal?"

PJ Media: "She dodges an answer on everything."

A sham of a farce of an "agreement"

Well, they wanted a deal badly and they got a bad deal.  I skimmed down this Fox News story until I hit this precious section:

The last major sticking point appeared to be whether international weapons inspectors would be given access to Iranian nuclear sites. The deal includes a compromise between Washington and Tehran that would allow U.N. inspectors to press for visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties. However, access at will to any site would not necessarily be granted and even if so, could be delayed, a condition that critics of the deal are sure to seize on as possibly giving Tehran time to cover any sign of non-compliance with its commitments.

Ridiculous.  Inspections was the only part of the deal with any meat on the bone and now that's gone.  Oh, but we have the paper-mache "snap back" sanctions, which nobody believes will stick.  John Kerry and Barack Obama wanted to believe and that bit of self-delusion was good enough.

Congratulations, Iran.

Extra - On the other hand, like a Red Sox batter on a bad hitting streak, maybe Obama is due for a foreign policy success:

And how can we doubt the wisdom and judgment of the man who described ISIS as the "junior varsity"? Who assured us in December 2011 that in withdrawing US troops he was leaving behind a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq"? Who held up Yemen as a model of US backed counter-insurgency, until the Iranian-sponsored rebels overthrew the government? Who famously said in 2011 that Assad of Syria must go, although with continued Iranian backing, Assad hasn't? Who agreed to overthrow Qadaffi in Libya, with no credible plan to win the peace?

I suppose supporters of this deal can argue that Obama can't be wrong about everything, but I think he is on a roll.

Peace in our time.  I hear Obama's going to speak this morning; hope he has a paper to wave over his head.

If you like your talking points, you can keep your talking points

The same ones that crash against the rocks of reality.  WSJ: "The Unaffordable Care Act - Premiums are spiking around the country. Obama is in denial."

He's not the only one.

The Greek deal

Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution is not impressed:

I’ll stick with my Twitter prediction that yes there will be another “deal” of sorts, but it will break down rather rapidly, leading to true Grexit.

Can the Greeks agree to this austerity plan, which is much more biting than the one they walked away from, when they just voted overwhelmingly against more austerity conditions?  They may have no choice since they're broke, which is a terrible position to negotiate from.

Extra - Megan McArdle: "That suggests to me that we are now at the make-or-break moment for the Greek-Euro relationship. Either Greece will succeed with a fairly brutal austerity plan to the satisfaction of its euro-zone partners, or the next time they come to the table, the Greeks will be signing divorce papers."

Pension reform or GTFO

Zero Hedge: "The Greek "Choice": Hand Over Sovereignty Or Take Five Year Euro "Time Out"."

The recently-resigned Greek Finance Minister was allegedly an expert on game theory.  How did that big bluff work out for you?

Back from Vermont

Went camping this weekend and the weather was just perfect: warm during the day and just a little cool at night.  The campground is in a valley with no cell phone coverage or WiFi, so I'm just getting caught up with all the latest news.  Instead of news, I read the new Neil Stephenson book and learned how to play pitch, which was fun.

Waiting for the press to do its job

Commentary: "Hillary Clinton's lies"

At some point, the political press has to tire of being used and underestimated by Hillary Clinton. Until that time, she will continue to flagrantly mislead the press and the public, making a mockery of the journalistic profession in the process.

And it's not so hard if you ask Hillary "yes or no" questions.  Did you get a subpoena?  No?  Oh, well, look at this.  Oh, a personal email server is permitted?  Let's see what the State Department guidelines say.  And so on.

Dixieland

Daily Caller: "Republican Governor To Take Down The Democratic Party’s Battle Flag."  "This is a striking rebuke to the Democrats, the party of slavery. Say goodbye to your beloved symbol of hatred, Democrats. The rest of us have moved on."

No place for the lukewarmers

Coyote Blog: "What the climate wars did to science."

Prepare to be shocked: Hillary lied

Wall Street Journal: "A Fact-Check of Hillary Clinton’s CNN Interview on Her Personal Email."

I didn't see the interview - and don't plan to - but by all accounts it was a train wreck for both Hillary and the CNN reporter, who didn't follow up and challenge Hillary's falsehoods.  Somebody like Tim Russert would have had the facts ahead of time and pushed back against the predictable and shop-worn responses.

Speaking of the media, here's Patterico:

Democrats think Republicans can’t see media bias unless Republicans are the target. Oh, we can see it. We’re used to seeing it. And on those rare occasions when the bias is directed against a Democrat? I’m not gonna lie. It’s sweet payback.

Oh, yeah, it's great.  I wonder if this is a backlash from the Great Journalist Roundup in New Hampshire.

Extra - Via Moe Lane: "Trey Gowdy: Hillary Clinton is flat-out lying about us not subpoenaing her."  Once again, I don't blame Hillary for prevaricating - fish gotta swim.  I do blame the media for letting her get away with repeated mendacity like the "one device" lie.  Do your jobs, for once.

More - Powerline: "It’s a shame that Keilar doesn’t keep up with the news. She might have been able to ask a follow-up question or two."  Exactly.

You want it? You got it.

Megan McArdle: "Greece hits the self-destruct button."

This just in, via the WashPost: "Europe gives Greece 5 days to avoid bankruptcy."

One of these states is not like the other

Kentucky!  What are doing hanging around with that riff-raff?  Mercatus Center: "Ranking the states by fiscal condition."

Delay of game

The Hill: "Obama administration likely to block new Redskins stadium."

This is not a trick question

The Atlantic: "Why Won't Hillary Clinton Talk to Reporters?"

Because she has nothing to say.  Duh.

Update:

Demographics is destiny: Greek edition

Here's Jim Geraghty: "I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts."

Take a good look, young people. This is where quasi-socialism, with unaffordably generous pension programs and early retirement, runaway borrowing and spending, and a kleptocratic unenforced system of tax collection leaves you: helpless, penniless, and crying in the streets.

Geraghty points out that about 75% of Greeks go on pensions by age 61, which puts a tremendous strain on the government:

Greece is still near the top, though it’s not so far from the eurozone average. Moreover, Greece’s high spending is largely the result of bad demographics: 20% of Greeks are over age 65, one of the highest percentages in the eurozone.

So there a lot of not-so-old pensioners in Greece.  Who is going to pay for this?  As Mark Steyn notes, not Greeks:

The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1 — or just over two kids per couple. Greece, as I pointed out in America Alone, has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet - 1.3 children per couple, which places it in the "lowest-low" demographic category from which no society has recovered and, according to the UN, 178th out of 195 countries. In practical terms, it means 100 grandparents have 42 grandkids – ie, the family tree is upside down.

As Steyn concludes: "how likely is it that the debts run up by 100 people will be paid off by 42?"  It's not and a responsible government would have trimmed sails a long time ago.  But, as we know from American entitlement reform (or lack thereof), it's much easier to keep the checks printing and pass the debt on to future generations.

"What violations?"

That's literally a section title in this Reuters report on the Iranian nuke negotiations.  The Obama administration cares far more about getting a legacy-building deal than keeping the Iranians from getting nuclear weapons. That's a problem for other Presidents.

Extra - The Corner: "Beware the legacy seeker."

Drachma bound

Fox News: "Greece enters uncharted territory after referendum 'no' vote."  Not even close.  Everybody is saying that this will roil financial markets tomorrow, but hasn't this scenario been "baked into the cake"?  I mean, I thought the Grexit was inevitable months ago.

Hiding the bad news, New York Times-style

"Hey chief, we have to report that Obamacare premiums are going to soar."
"Let's dump it on the Saturday edition."
"Plus, it's a holiday weekend!"
"Score."

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

America!  I love this place.

Legacy shopping

Charles Krauthammer on Iran nuclear negotiations: "The worst agreement in U.S. diplomatic history."

Redacted

Kimberly Strassel: "Hillary’s Email Story Unravels - Now that we know she edited the emails before turning them over, the entire record is suspect."

She should be in prison.

Extra - Vodkapundit: "...not one damn thing Hillary as said about her private email server has turned out to be true."

"Wet streets cause rain" logic

Hit and Run: "New York Times: Shout Loudly Enough, and We Will Succumb to Your Heckler’s Veto - Why will the Paper of Record publish a condom-Pope but not a Mohammed statue? Catholics aren’t loud (or scary) enough."

The NY Times here is suggesting that - all things being equal - it's the nature of the artwork that engenders protests instead of the nature of the protesters.

My favorite part of the Times' specious argument is that, gosh darn it, some people think that Condom Pope is "a piece of significant artwork."  So c'mon artists, let's get some quality paintings of Mohammad and the New York Times will happily share the culture.

Fun new prediction game

Hot Air: "Time to start a pool: When will Bernie Sanders pass Hillary in Iowa or New Hampshire polling?"

I've always said that Hillary's support is a mile wide and an inch deep.  That puddle is drying.

Drip drip drip - more Hillary lies

So many to choose from.  Let's start here: Washington Examiner: "Yes, Clinton lied about her emails."  They were altered by her staff before the paper copies were turned over to State:

But the proof of intent to deceive comes in the fact that Clinton or her staff actually edited some of the emails and turned over censored versions to State before destroying her copy of the originals.

Why paper copies instead of electronic?  Because there are ways to tell if an electronic document has been altered.  Bonus: it slows down the disclosure process.

Next: remember how there were concerns about sensitive State secrets on an unsecured private server?  Well, we were told - relax! - no worries.  And then: "NYT Reporter: State Dept. Redacted Two-Dozen Clinton Emails Despite Her Saying There Was No Classified Information On Them."

Finally, recall how Hillary deleted all the "private" emails, leaving behind only the important work-related emails from her tenure in State?  Well, those printed out pages full of relevant disclosure include decisions over luxury jet rides and requests for iced tea.

That religious figure is totally kosher

DC Trawler: "The NYT Doesn’t Publish Religiously Offensive Images, Except When They Offend Christians."  "Baquet can rationalize it all he wants, but he allowed terrorists a veto. He allowed murderers to dictate the content of his newspaper. And once the coast was clear, he forgot all about his high-minded excuses."

Hahahahaha....no

Hot Air: "Giant new Obama lie: I’m prepared to abandon these Iran nuke negotiations if we can’t get a good deal."

Nobody's buying it, chief.  Know why?  As is your wont, you've consistently characterized anybody who thinks these negotiations a sham as "wanting war."  Do you want war?  Why do you want war, Mr. Nobel Peace Prize?

Tip of the iceberg

You're not going to believe this but Hillary lied about her emails.  I know!  Ace: "Hillary Clinton, Get This, Edited the Emails She Turned Over to State to Delete Embarrassing References to Oil, Terrorism."

In other news, the Obama administration is committed to transparency; this is not one of those times: "Benghazi night call between Clinton and Obama withheld, documents show."

What's going on in Greece

Reddit has a great sub-reddit called "Explain Like I'm Five" (ELI5) where they try to simply explain complex issues.  This one is good: "The Financial Crisis in Greece."

Stop calling it a "deadline"

Fox News: "Deadline likely missed in nuclear deal - Hayden says Iran has 'upper hand'."  There is no deadline, only John Kerry's perpetual search for a "historic" deal.  Snap inspection of nuclear installations was once the only non-negotiable requirement of this deal; watch it disappear.

Obvious footnote is obvious

From the Eurogroup statement on Greece:

[1] Supported by all members of the Eurogroup except the Greek member.

Yes, thank you.

The Supreme Court's voting bloc

Andrew McCarthy: "Let’s Drop the Charade: The Supreme Court Is a Political Branch, Not a Judicial One."  On the Court's liberal members:

And it is not so much that they move in lockstep. It is that no one expects them to do anything but move in lockstep — not their fellow justices, not the political branches, and certainly not the commentariat, right or left.

It is simply accepted that these justices are not there to judge. They are there to vote. They get to the desired outcome the same way disparate-impact voodoo always manages to get to discrimination: Start at the end and work backwards. Guiding precedents are for the quaint business of administering justice. In the social justice business, the road never before traveled will do if one less traveled is unavailable.

I was thinking about this too: didn't a single one of these justices, just one out of four, look at the text of the Obamacare law and say: "gee, it says State and 'State' is defined as one of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  Maybe there's something to this case."  But no.

What's perhaps worse, they didn't even feel like they had to explain themselves:

In the plethora of opinions generated by these three cases, there is not a single one authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, or Sonia Sotomayor.

And why should they?  As McCarthy writes: they're there to vote, not to provide judicial reasoning.

Extra - From Power Line.

Late night withdrawals in Greece

After the Greek Prime Minister called for a national referendum on Euro membership, they started lining up at ATMs at two in the morning.

One of my favorite things

Every summer the Hampshire Shakespeare Company puts on a great outdoor play.  Last weekend, they opened the season with "Romeo and Juliet" but I didn't go because it rained.  And tonight?  Heavy rain.

If I were them, I'd move the 7:30pm performance to 3pm today.  Well, hopefully we can catch "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in July.

The Purge

Powerline: "The Democrats get their crazy on"

The Democrats, having sown the wind, may reap the whirlwind. After all, they are the party of slavery and Jim Crow. Every one of the the Confederates now being scrubbed from memory was a Democrat. And Thomas Jefferson was a slaveowner who, unlike George Washington, never did free his slaves. Andrew Jackson, the real founder of the Democratic Party, makes Phil Sheridan look like a multiculturalist. But we don’t have to go back into our nation’s history for embarrassing Democrats: Robert Byrd, who served as an honored Democrat in the United States Senate until 2010–two years into the Obama administration!–was an Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan. Just about every federal building and highway rest stop in West Virginia is named after Byrd. I look forward to the day when they are all renamed or torn down.

My wife has family around Gettysburg, PA which, as you might expect, pulls in significant tourism dollars from visitors to the Civil War battle site.  She tells me they are not going to sell Confederate flags in the souvenir shops anymore - which I just can't believe.  Look, I understand removing a reviled symbol of the Confederacy from state houses, but doesn't this tip the balance into scrubbing history?  The Civil War happened and the two sides carried different flags.

The great show "Community" is set in a community college and the mascot is the amorphous "Human Being" - a vaguely human shape of no identifiable color.  This is the future:

I wonder how long the University of Massachusetts Minuteman - a white guy with a GUN! - can survive in this environment.  They're coming for you, Ole Miss, UNLV and Washington Redskins.

Banana for scale

Sounds to me like somebody was making up a really bad excuse to get out of work.  MassLive: "Westfield man hospitalized after saying he was struck in groin by banana."

The man was taken to Noble Hospital on his request, after saying he was in pain and needed a doctor's note for his work the next day.

Officers could not find evidence to support his story; in Mazza's words, the search for the offending banana was "fruitless."

Bravo.  [golf clap]

Candy-O

Something funny that happened during my commute: the Cars song "Let's Go" was on the radio while I was stopped at a red light.  Then the part where it goes clap-clap-clapclapclap-clapclapclapclap "Let's Go!" played and the light turned green in perfect synchronicity.

Heretics, all of them!

Daily Caller: "Dem. Senator Hopes The DOJ Sues Global Warming ‘Deniers’."

Jiggery pokery and pure applesauce

Plaintiffs in King v. Burwell may have lost in the Supreme Court today, but at least we'll have the comic, literary stylings of Justice Scalia.

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "The Humpty Dumpty Court."

So that happened

I avoid talking about my professional life because there have been stories about people revealing too much information and getting in trouble.  That said.....

I've never - ever - been let go from a job in my life. But today I was informed that our whole company will be relocated and merged into a sister branch.  What this means is that at some time in the near future, I'll be getting an envelope along with some "job transition" counseling.

I suppose I could fall into the Elizabeth Warren mindset and blame the "rigged" system that is crushing my future, but that's not how I roll.  Instead I'm going to blast out my resume and hope for the best, secure in my belief that some corporate entity will trade my talent for cash.  Which helps when you have several degrees in engineering.  Score!

Passive voice follies

Mistakes were made.  Ace: "You're Going to Be Stunned By This, But An Obama Hack Says, Get This, That No Government Workers Are Actually Responsible for the Latest Obama Administration Catastrophe."

No one ever is to blame.  Except for Bush and maybe Congress.

Oh no she di'nt!

Has it come to this that I need to defend Hillary?  Hillary!?!  Well, the most pandering panderer who ever pandered committed the unforgivable crime of telling the truth.  Twitchy: "Racist! Hillary Clinton commits unforgivable outrage: Saying ‘all lives matter’ in a black church."  I mean, the poor woman can't win.

Extra - From Gateway Pundit.

Forget it, Jake, it's Portlandia

This story is crazy.  CNBC: "Oregon dumps cold water on low Obamacare rates."

They wanted their Obamacare prices to be low—but the state said "no."

The state of Oregon reportedly has ordered a number of insurers to raise proposed Obamacare premiums for 2016 after some of those companies asked for rates that were only moderately higher, if not lower than this year.

Now, many Obamacare customers there are looking at likely double-digit percentage rate increases after having experienced some of "the lowest premiums in the nation," the Oregonian noted.

Too low, it turns out, and now the state is insisting higher premiums to keep the insurance companies from going insolvent and hitting up Salem for the shortfall.

Now let's watch the pretzel logic they'll use to keep this "deal" alive

Those are our ironclad, drop-dead, non-negotiable requirements!  And if you don't like them, we have others.  Fox News: "Iran parliament votes to limit inspections vital to nuclear deal, with deadline looming."

Also: why do you want war?

Things that can't go on....don't

Washington Examiner: "Pension tidal wave is about to crash down on taxpayers."

Note this line: "At the root of the trouble are government pension systems, which today differ vastly from the way they looked when many were created about 100 years ago."  That's what drives me crazy in the debate over Social Security reform: retirement ages, the nature of work, worker-to-retiree ratios, and life expectancy have changed radically since the 1930's but touching a hair on the head of Social Security is considered heresy.

Hillary literally steals money from disadvantaged kids

Moe Lane: "Moral of the story: get Condoleezza Rice for events, not Hillary Clinton."

The Boys and Girls Club invites speakers and pays a fee for a charity fundraiser.  It seems expected that the invitee will return a certain amount to the Club as a charity gift, after travel expenses.  Hillary kept the cash and her fundraiser pulled in the lowest amount in 25 years, much less than her fee:

So Condi Rice took $60,000 and donated it back. Greedy Grandma kept the $200,000 and donated it to her own Clinton Crime Family Slush Fund. Swell.

Related from the Weekly Standard:

The Hillary Paradox consists of two perceptions that are irreconcilable. The first is that Hillary Clinton is a person of uncommon decency, compassionate and deeply committed to justice. The second is that many of her actions over many years are the work of a person who couldn’t possibly be uncommonly decent. How could someone with a wonderful reputation so often behave disreputably?

I'll give you three gue$$e$ why.

Panic on the streets of Athens

Hit and Run: "Heading Into Weekend With No Deal, Greeks Rush to Withdraw Cash - This is what a bank run looks like."

Cruel and unusual

Fox News: "Charleston church massacre suspect caught, but answers elude victims' loved ones."

Put down that latte

Maggie's Farm: "The FDA and nanny laws."

Sure, let's expand Social Security

Hill: "CBO: Debt to hit 101 percent of GDP by 2039."  "The harmful effects that such large debt would have on the economy would worsen the budget outlook,” the report said. “At some point, investors would begin to doubt the government’s willingness or ability to meet its debt obligations, requiring it to pay much higher interest costs in order to continue borrowing money."

Everybody owes

Zero Hedge: "We might as well face it - America is addicted to debt."  "Corporations, individuals and the federal government continue to rack up debt at a rate that is far faster than the overall rate of economic growth.  We are literally drowning in red ink from sea to shining sea, and yet we just can’t help ourselves."

Vote the way I want, stupid

George Will on Fox News Sunday, discussing Obama's attempt to get Democrats to vote for the trade bill:

And he told them, he hoped they would play it straight. That's exactly the language he used speaking in Germany about the Supreme Court on the Obamacare, that he hopes the Supreme Court will play it straight. It's not just a verbal tick of his. It's his way of saying that if you don't agree with me, you're not straight, you're crooked. That is, you have bad motives. It's been his theme all along, to insult people by saying you cannot disagree with me honestly and intellectually.

And here's Politico on that same meeting:

But by Friday morning, there was the president, walking into a closed-door meeting in the Capitol Visitors Center to try to rally House Democrats. Pelosi was by his side. Inside, he implored lawmakers to “play it straight” on the vote.
“We’re not the other party, we’re not the tea party,” Obama said, according to sources in the room. He took no questions, Pelosi said nothing and the pair left the room together.
Once Obama left, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told fellow Democrats that he “was offended by what the president said” in suggesting TAA opponents weren’t playing it straight. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and others echoed Ellison.

Then they voted "no" - just like a Tea Partier would.

It's the same as Elizabeth Warren's

Hit and Run: "Hillary Clinton's Dangerous Student Loan Rhetoric - Bill Clinton offered a tradeoff, while Hillary Clinton may be offering a handout."

Related from Zero Hedge: "Should Students Voluntarily Default On $1.3 Trillion In Debt?"  In the logic of Warren and deadbeat Lee Siegel, yes, because they were duped or something:

So according to Siegel, because the free market doesn’t value (in monetary terms) writers as much as it does say, petroleum engineers, that means writers shouldn’t have to repay their loans.
But there’s no inherent injustice in the fact that writers are not, on average, paid as much as petroleum engineers. It is Siegel’s right to choose what he wants to study and thereby what vocation he wants to dedicate his life to. If that’s writing, so be it. That’s great.
It is however, society’s right to determine how much Siegel’s writing is worth. If that determination leaves Siegel unable to service his debt, he does not have the right to punish society for how they valued his work by forcing taxpayers to take a loss on his student loans.

This is part of the reason why I loathe Elizabeth Warren's rhetoric of victimology: it absolves the true believer of any personal responsibility.  Everybody's getting "hammered" and the "game is rigged" so - of course - I don't need to repay my loans for that degree in gender studies.

Meanwhile, as Greece's deeply dysfunctional government heads towards default, they've decided it's a good idea to prod Germany for World War II reparations.  Because, really, isn't it their fault?

Extra - Kevin Williamson: "Student loan deadbeats: fashionable theft."

Old woman cites the Beatles

Philip Klein: "If Republicans can't beat Hillary, they should disband the party."

Hillary Clinton certainly has a flair for the ironic. "There may be some new voices in the Republican presidential choir," Clinton observed in Saturday's re-annoucement that she was running for president. "But they're all singing the same old song — a song called 'Yesterday.'"

Clinton was accusing Republicans of being trapped in the past in the same speech that she began by referencing a speech Franklin Roosevelt gave in 1941. And in doing so, she quoted a song the Beatles released in 1965 — before Republicans Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal had even been born.

Speaking of ironic, I liked her populist criticism against hedge-fund managers as (presumably) her hedge-fund manager son-in-law sat nearby.  Of course the only thing keeping his hedge fund afloat is support from Clinton pals, because Clintons.

Spot the staffer

The Hillary people set up a "watch party" for people in Iowa to see the nominee announce her nomination again.  Althouse: "A wan watch party."

A grand total of five people showed up.  Well, six if you include the Clinton staffer.  Can you spot him in the CNN video?

Pundits agree: Obama only calls when he wants something

I don't know what to say about the vote on Trade Promotion Authority.  As a free-trade guy, I suppose I should be for it but the whole secretive nature of the process was disturbing.  Still, Obama wanted it and all his efforts were for naught.  I heard on the radio that Nancy Pelosi pretty much yeah-yeahed Obama until the time of the vote whereupon she torpedoed the whole thing.

Before the vote, VodkaPundit wrote the following:

The first is that Obama is unique in my political lifetime of having no real friends on Capitol Hill. He has ideological allies, in as much as progressives have an ideology beyond legislatively taking whatever they can get their hands on, but he has no friends. Thanks to Obama’s “my way or the highway” attitude, there’s no one in Congress he can call on the phone and say, “This is important to me. This is important to the country. How can we get this passed?” Obama has never cultivated those relationships, and now when he needs friends he finds there’s no one there to take his call, and he has to make an unscheduled appearance at a baseball game just to get some attention.

What makes this insight interesting is that a couple hours later, lefty pundit E.J. Dionne said almost the exact same thing on NPR - something like "you can't just go to a group of people when you want something and say 'I need you now'."

Oh thank you, nanny state overlords

WashPost: "Md. officials: Letting ‘free range’ kids walk or play alone is not neglect."

Here's a new law I can get behind

NBC News: "Pay Up, Slowpokes: More States Fine Drivers Who Dawdle in the Left Lane."

Pioneer valley update

I had not heard about this story but it evokes Rolling Stone and "Jackie".  Minding the Campus: "Amherst College's version of Kafka's 'The Trial'."

That's my uncle's boat

When I first heard this NY Times story about Marco Rubio's "luxury speedboat" I assumed it was along the lines of Al Czervik's boat from "Caddyshack"

Instead it's a fishing boat, the exact same kind my uncle had.  Who knew that my uncle - an insurance salesman from New Jersey - was living in the lap of "luxury"?  Ah, I remember the glamorous days of pumping gas from a red can on the floor and the long journey from stem to stern, all five steps.

This is a couple days after the Times called an F-150 truck an "SUV."  It's not: it's the classic American pickup.  I don't think the crowd at the Times has the slightest idea what happens out in flyover country.