AND THIS IS WHY SERIOUS PROBLEMS SHOULD BE HANDLED BY OUTSIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT, NOT CAMPUS AUTHORITIES: UT athletics accused of influencing student discipline.

ROLL CALL: Republicans Not Rushing to Criticize Menendez.

Sen. Mark S. Kirk became the latest Republican to suggest reports of corruption charges against Sen. Robert Menendez are the result of “politically motivated” leaks by the Justice Department.

Echoing speculation from Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Kirk told reporters Monday night that timing of the news about a pending indictment for the New Jersey Democrat could be related to efforts by Menendez to rally support within his party for an Iran sanctions bill.

“Bob Menendez has been an excellent partner for me on the Iran stuff, and I’m worried now by leaking stuff [from] Justice it’s politically motivated to silence Bob for his work on Iran, which he should be praised for,” said Kirk. The pair introduced the Iran Nuclear Weapon Free Act of 2015, a measure that would impose sanctions on Iran only if the nation fails to reach an agreement by deadline.

Asked if he suspected political motivation, Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain said, “I’d love to assume it, but I really don’t know it. I honestly don’t know enough, I just can’t comment on it.”

The Arizona Republican said he admires and respects Menendez for the way he conducted his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. McCain said the leak reminded him of the scandal that forced decorated Gen. David Petraeus to resign as head of the CIA.

When you’ve got a politicized Department of Justice, everything about the Department of Justice is political.

DON’T LIKE NEWS? Crowdsource your own. Ezra Levant is the Andrew Breitbart of Canada. “All of this should scare the heck out of the mainstream media, in any country. Here in America, we are seeing the dinosaur media with record low viewership, while alternative online news sources are thriving. No longer do people have to rely on the traditional gatekeepers of media. And as The Rebel in Canada is showing, people will help pay for quality, accurate journalism. This is a fantastic thing that should, and will, be replicated, a lot.”

YA THINK? Poll: Voters see Hillary and Jeb as old hat. And some GOP news:

The poll also showed largely positive perceptions of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Fifty three percent of voters said they could back Walker, compared to only 17 percent that said they could not. Fifty six percent said they could support Rubio, while 26 percent could not.

Those two candidates sported the largest margins of potential support. Bush had only seven percentage points between those who said they could support him and those who couldn’t. Donald Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) all had significantly more voters say they could not back them.

Stay tuned. And, of course, all is proceeding as I have foreseen.

WHEN THEY WROTE CALIFORNIA MAN, I DON’T THINK THIS GUY WAS WHO THEY HAD IN MIND: Calif. man arrested after reportedly seeking entry at Y-12, ORNL.

A 24-year-old California man was arrested Friday evening after reportedly seeking entry to a Y-12 facility and then later at a security portal at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

According to a report released by the Oak Ridge Police Department, Rishi Chatterjee Malakar of Fremont, Calif. was detained by police for investigation and subsequently interviewed by special agents of the FBI and the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General. He was arrested on a charge of driving on a suspended license.

Police responded to a call at Y-12’s New Hope Center at about 6:22 p.m. Friday “after a male was found attempting to enter the building via a rear door,” the report stated.

Though to be fair, Oak Ridge is a place where the jive is really cool.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE NARRATIVE: NBC News Reporter Maria Shriver Lies about Lack of GOP Leadership at Selma.

HE’S WHERE BUSH WAS IN 2007, BASICALLY: Even a plurality of Democrats want to move on from Obama. By 2023, will the New York Times be cropping Obama out of front-page photos? “Democrats ages 18 to 29, surprisingly, tend to disagree that the next Democratic nominee must pledge to continue down the course set by Obama. Those ages 30 to 44 strongly disagree with this assertion. Only 33 percent of Democratic voters in their 30s and early 40s think the next Democratic nominee must be an Obama Democrat. Similarly, voters who make less than $50,000 are not thrilled about a third term for Obama.”

CHRIS WALLACE TO LANNY DAVIS: Do You Ever Get Tired Of Cleaning Up Clinton Messes?

IT’S A POTEMKIN CANDIDACY ALL THE WAY DOWN: “She took no questions. When she sat down to lead more informal conversations with invited speakers, participants appeared to be reading from teleprompters.”

Where’d she get the Chairman-Mao-Meets-Star-Trek outfit?

UPDATE: From the comments:

Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates are giving advice to young girls on how to become successful, independent women?……

So, did they make a joking reference to “Marry the right guy” or did everybody just agree to totally ignore that, and how could anyone read the teleprompters with that giant elephant in the room blocking the view?

Heh.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: The Law Schools That Most Goosed Their U.S. News Ranking With School-Funded Jobs.

HE’S SO UNHIP, WHEN YOU SAY DYLAN, HE THINKS YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT DYLAN THOMAS. Whoever he was.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: States Are Slashing College Budgets and Raising Tuition.

The proposals are part of a decades-long shift of making students pay for an increasing share of postsecondary education, leading to tuition increases at public institutions that outpace those at private schools. They come as a diploma, a driver of social and economic mobility that fueled the country’s post-war boom, is more important than ever to both individual and state prosperity.

“When we’re saying more and more Americans need to have this education, we’re pricing it so that the vast group that has never had it before can’t afford it,” said George Pernsteiner, president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers association.

Two-thirds of the 165 million U.S. jobs in 2020 will require education beyond high school, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. In 1973, fewer than a third did.

Students and families are shouldering a bigger share of the burden. Tuition accounted for about 48 percent of public higher-education revenue in 2013, the latest year for which data are available, according to Pernsteiner’s organization, which is based in Boulder, Colorado. That’s double what it was in 1988.

The process has gone on for decades, driven largely by the fact that entitlement and wealth-transfer programs (ironically, overwhelmingly supported by the professoriate) get higher priority with politicians than higher education spending because they’re more effective vote-buying tools. By supporting a welfare state, academics created budgetary competition that they can’t beat.

FASTER PLEASE: Arming the Immune System Against Cancer.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Atomically precise manufacturing as the future of nanotechnology.

21ST CENTURY HOUSING: Stylish Low-Cost Houses Designed for Singles.

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ONE REASON WHY SUPERBUGS ARE OUTRUNNING ANTIBIOTIC DEVELOPMENT: “In 2002, the FDA established new rules for the clinical trials used to test new antibiotics—doubling the number of patients required, thus making drug development harder and more expensive.”

SPYING: Look At This Tiny Drone: This would mean the end of privacy, if wind didn’t exist.

FASTER, PLEASE: Peer-to-Peer Wireless Is Increasing Competition Worldwide.

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NEWS YOU CAN USE: An Easier Way to Brown Meat.

WEAPON OF MASS INSTRUCTION: A Bookmobile Tank.

WELL, IT’S A BETTER FACE THAN RON PAUL’S, YOU HAVE TO ADMIT: Will Belle Knox really be the face of Libertarian victory? “I, for one, would be interested to hear her thoughts on Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek.”

CRONY CORPORATISM: Mark Cunningham: Clinton, Inc. Is What’s Wrong With America. “It’s about getting stinking rich from the inside connections forged in a life of public service. It’s about using your ‘charity’ and your high government office as adjuncts of your political machine. It’s about refusing to play by the rules even as you want to set the rules for everyone else. . . . The great irony here is last month’s news from the Washington Post: Hillary’s consultants are busy working out her themes for 2016. Apparently, a big one is going to be ‘pushing for economic fairness.’”

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Prosecutors protect themselves first: When prosecutors lie and falsify evidence, ‘absolute immunity’ protects them from justice.

IN THE MAIL: From Vincent L. Inserra, C-1 and the Chicago Mob.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 669.

BYRON YORK: Does Hillary email flap mean trouble ahead for White House? “So: Obama didn’t know, even though White House officials exchanged emails with Clinton. Is that possible?”

ROGER SIMON: Glaciers at the NYT: The Democrats’ War on Women and Blacks.

WELL, YES: The Modern Education System is Anti-Boy:

Perhaps because they can be so insufferable, teenage boys are often marked down. The OECD found that boys did much better in its anonymised tests than in teacher assessments. The gap with girls in reading was a third smaller, and the gap in maths—where boys were already ahead—opened up further. In another finding that suggests a lack of even-handedness among teachers, boys are more likely than girls to be forced to repeat a year, even when they are of equal ability.

What is behind this discrimination? One possibility is that teachers mark up students who are polite, eager and stay out of fights, all attributes that are more common among girls.

That’s why we need my proposed Title-IX-style legislation to impose gender parity among K-12 teachers.

IT’S POTEMKIN BIOS ALL THE WAY DOWN: Flashback: Obama claims 1965 Selma march led to his birth . . . in 1961. My dad was there marching at Selma in 1965. Mitt Romney’s dad was there too, marching alongside MLK. Where was Barack’s dad in 1965?

And for that matter, why were Bill and Hillary Clinton no-shows at Selma this weekend, choosing instead to party with Pussy Riot in Miami?

FOLLOWING OBAMA’S LEAD BY IGNORING LAWS THEY DON’T LIKE: Sledding as a Revolutionary Act: The children who defied the rules to play in the snow on Capitol Hill stand in a grand American tradition. Actually, of course, it’s different when people entrusted with political power break the laws.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Prosecutors protect themselves first: When prosecutors lie and falsify evidence, ‘absolute immunity’ protects them from justice.

KURT SCHLICHTER TO UNHAPPY REPUBLICANS: Knock Off The Loser Talk. This Fight Hasn’t Even Begun.

RELAX. WE HAVE TOP MEN ON THIS. TOP. MEN. Austria is fast becoming Europe’s latest debt nightmare. No problem. Just kick that can down the road again.

#WARONMEN: Prof. Starr’s research shows large unexplained gender disparities in federal criminal cases.

If you’re a criminal defendant, it may help—a lot—to be a woman. At least, that’s what Prof. Sonja Starr’s research on federal criminal cases suggests. Prof. Starr’s recent paper, “Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases,” looks closely at a large dataset of federal cases, and reveals some significant findings. After controlling for the arrest offense, criminal history, and other prior characteristics, “men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do,” and “[w]omen are…twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted.” This gender gap is about six times as large as the racial disparity that Prof. Starr found in another recent paper.

You would have thought that such a huge gender disparity would have gotten more attention. Well, no, not really . . .

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Banning the American flag? Why UC Irvine flap might be glimpse of future.

A decision by the student body government of the University of California at Irvine to ban the display of all flags – including the United States flag – has been vetoed.

According to the Associated Press, the university’s executive cabinet has voted to overturn the ban, which prompted outrage nationwide and led one state legislator to consider an amendment to the California constitution to ensure the American flag could be flown on the campuses of state schools.

On one hand, the now-vetoed decision to ban the American flag had the feel of student government run amok, as budding iconoclasts tried to make a statement about the moral complexities they’re learning in History 101. Flags are “flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism” and they “serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism,” the statement explaining the original ban noted.

Yet the move, short-lived though it was, speaks to more than an only-in-California spasm of 20-something intellectual angst. More broadly, it points to a generational shift in the notion of what patriotism is.

To the extent — probably small — that this is true, it’s the Gramscian Long March bearing fruit. But I think that when people don’t like things that happen on campus, they should feel free to go to the campuses and protest them. Burst the bubble: The protest thing works both ways. I think a nice Rolling Thunder-style flag-decked motorcycle protest through the UC Irvine campus would send the message that there are a lot of people who feel differently than the SJW-dominated student government. As our President says, get in their face.

BOYS TODAY: Struggling To Cope In A Female-Dominated Environment.

FRONTIERS IN GENDER FLUIDITY: Planet Fitness cancels woman’s membership after her complaints of transgender woman in locker room.

A Midland County woman’s gym membership was canceled after she refused to stop telling fellow gym members “a man” was using the woman’s locker room.

Yvette Cormier said the incident occurred Saturday, Feb. 28, when she entered the women’s locker room at the Planet Fitness location at 701 Joe Mann Boulevard in Midland.

“I was blocked, because a man was standing there,” Cormier said. “It freaked me out because, why is a man in here?”

Cormier said an employee at the front desk told her that the individual identifies as a woman.

After taking her complaints to Planet Fitness’ corporate office, Cormier said she was told that the gym was a “no judgement zone” and they would not tell the individual in question to stay out of the women’s locker room. The person has not been identified.

The slogan “Judgement Free Zone” is regularly used by Planet Fitness.

A statement released by McCall Gosselin, public relations director for Planet Fitness, states that members can use the locker room corresponding with their personal gender identity.

Since gender identity is fluid nowadays, I guess I’ll just use the women’s locker room on days when I feel like a woman, and the men’s on days when I feel like a man. Who are you to question me, bigots?

THE HILL: 2016′s most vulnerable senators. Most of them are Republicans, which is why the GOP is playing it so safe now. Not clear, though, that playing it safe is smart.

AMY OTTO ASKS THE KEY HILLARY QUESTION: “What glass ceiling did she crack?”

Plus: “Seriously. Women have been lawyers, 1st ladies, Secretary of State and Senators before. Hardly a trailblazer.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: ABA May Prohibit Reporting Law School-Funded Jobs as Full-Time, Long-Term Bar Passage-Required Jobs. That makes sense, though I’m sure people will find another way to cheat.

ED DRISCOLL: ‘In The Land Of Faust, They Eagerly Followed A Faustian Script.’

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Prosecutors protect themselves first: When prosecutors lie and falsify evidence, ‘absolute immunity’ protects them from justice.

STEALTH GUN CONTROL: LaPierre: ‘Next 700 days are the most dangerous’ for 2nd Amendment.

Maybe we should all just do like Obama — ignore laws we don’t like, and then viciously attack anyone who tries to enforce them.

SHOCKER: ‘Huge gaps’ in Clinton emails: Chairman of House Benghazi Committee.

UH OH: Did Attorney General Eric Holder Use Personal Email Address? Much more here.

WHY DOES SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND hate young men?

ED DRISCOLL: Peak Millennial Narcissism Reached. That said, it’s a pretty good diagnosis of current media culture. . . .

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CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Judge Denies Request to Remove DA From Rape Case Over Allegations of Bias.

Allegations of bias and misconduct on the part of Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller have not convinced a judge to remove her from a felony rape and trespassing case.

In court documents filed yesterday, defense attorney Sean McGraw accused Parks Miller of creating “a grave appearance of bias” by exchanging hundreds of text messages with Centre County Judge Bradley Lunsford over the past several months. He claimed the texts reflect an unprofessional relationship that prejudiced the court against his client Justin Blake, who faces felony charges of rape, assault, trespassing and burglary.

McGraw asked visiting Clinton County Judge J. Michael Williamson (who is now presiding over the case) to remove Parks Miller as the lead prosecuter, to force Lunsford and Parks Miller to have their phones inspected to determine the contents of the text messages, to dismiss the rape and sexual assault charges, to lower Blake’s bail and to allow Blake a new preliminary hearing. . . .

In an unrelated story, Parks Miller has been accused of forging a judge’s signature on a fake court order, which she denies. The forgery allegations were made through an affidavit signed by Michelle Shutt, a former paralegal to Parks Miller. McGraw, in addition to his role in the Blake case, also serves as one of Shutt’s attorneys.

Multiple sources say the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General is investigating the forgery allegations, but the OAG has repeatedly declined to comment on the status or existence of any investigation.

I’m beginning to feel skeptical of our justice system.

2016: Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson Enters the 2016 Presidential Race. “Mr. Everson will have to overcome a tawdry sex scandal that resulted in his firing from his position as President and CEO of the American Red Cross.”

I’m waiting for the Ross Perot-type who’s supposed to siphon off votes from gullible disenchanted Republicans and hand the election to Hillary, but I don’t think this is the guy.

WELL, THAT’S WEIRD. I WONDER WHAT COULD EXPLAIN IT? An incredibly shrinking Firefox faces endangered species status. “Just two weeks after Mozilla’s top Firefox executive said that rumors of its demise were “dead wrong,” the iconic browser dropped another three-tenths of a percentage point in analytics firm Net Applications’ tracking, ending February with 11.6%. That was Firefox’s lowest share since July 2006, when the browser had been in the market for less than two years. . . . In the last 12 months, Firefox’s user share — an estimate of the portion of all those who reach the Internet via a desktop browser — has plummeted by 34%. Since Firefox crested at 25.1% in April 2010, Firefox has lost 13.5 percentage points, or 54% of its peak share.”

It’s a mystery, I guess.

SILICONE: A SAFER ALTERNATIVE TO WEDDING RINGS?

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WELL, YOU KNOW, NOT EVERY STARTUP WORKS OUT. First Groupon Founder, Now Tour Guide.

ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: A Better World, Run by Women: Male biology has brought the world war, corruption and scandal. Women are poised to lead us to a better place.

I know this is just more pro-Hillary battlespace prep — but Hillary herself is the best argument against this gauzy, dishonest thinking. And for that matter, it takes a peculiar sort of person to look at America today and conclude that its problem is too much testosterone.

READER BOOK PLUG: From John Reisinger, The Confessions of Gonzalo Guerrero, based on the true story of the first European to “invade” Mexico.

BUT CAN YOU FIGHT WITH IT? What are the benefits of practicing tai chi?

“NEW MODEL” MENTORING: I think the drinks and the cigars are key.

IN THE MAIL: Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 668.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:

And don’t forget the self-described “bacon-eating vegan” who was left shocked and tearful upon discovering that her degrees in “social justice studies” and “gender studies” have zero value in the job market. “My degrees mean NOTHING,” tweeted she. “I don’t even know how to process the reality that is my life now.”

Sorry, they took your money and left you with nothing. It happens.

UM: CNBC bubble madness! ‘Advice’ to consumers: take out seven-year car loan, invest down payment in stocks instead.

Think stocks haven’t gone high enough? Then you perhaps you should consider becoming one of the dwindling number of regular CNBC viewers, the network that’s never met a bubble it thought it couldn’t pump just a little bit more (and there’s a political component- see below).

Flying in the face of NBC’s frenzied buying panic push is a new warning from billionaire Mark Cuban: he sees the current situation as “worse than the tech bubble of 2000.”

That’s why yesterday’s segment imploring consumers to take out seven-year auto loans instead of a more typical duration and use the down payment to instead buy stocks seems especially brazen. Are there enough suckers willing to take this “advice”?

Well, we’ll know that there aren’t when the market starts to plunge.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 7 Steps to Living a Bill Murray Life, by Bill Murray.

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TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Woman Sentenced to 30 Years For Forcing Children into Sex Acts.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Huma Abedin: Clinton’s Unindicted Email Co-Conspirator.

DO TELL: We were wrong to try to ban racism out of existence, says former equality chief.

A former equality chief has branded his years working to stamp out racial discrimination as ‘utterly wrong’.

Writer and broadcaster Trevor Phillips said efforts made under the Blair government turned anti-racism into an ‘ugly new doctrine’.

Mr Phillips is the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and has waged a 30-year campaign to tackle issues around discrimination and equality.

In an upcoming Channel 4 documentary, called Things We Won’t Say About Race That Are True, he says attempts to stop prejudice instead encouraged abuse and endangered lives as well as contributed to the rise of parties like Ukip.

Well, they also contributed to Labour’s ability to remake Britain’s immigration laws — and thus electorate — while silencing critics with cries of racism. Which, I suspect, was the main point.

THIS WHOLE “CHOREPLAY” THING IS BASED ON IGNORANCE, as science indicates that only “manly” chores get you laid. The science is settled: “The less gender differentiation, the less sexual desire.” You don’t want to be a science-denier, do you?

I think that what we’re seeing with pieces like this one by Sheryl Sandberg and LeBron James is foreplay for a Hillary campaign, science be damned. Meanwhile, guys, do you want to support a candidate for President who will have you washing dishes instead of getting laid? If you do, then Hillary’s your gal!

But, like Chelsea Clinton says, if you want true equality, you need to put a man in charge, not her mom. . . .

UPDATE: From the comments: “Excuse me but why is the COO of a major tech company taking to the pages of the New York Times to tell the opposite gender how to get laid? Why is this appropriate at all?”

IT’S ALL ABOUT OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRAFT AND POWER: Fresh Out of Bankruptcy, City Announces Multimillion-Dollar Housing Project. Public housing projects are just Democratic Party voter-farms whose construction allows contracts to go to favored players. Of course they’re a priority.

FLASHBACK: Comparing Japanese-Americans’ protestations of loyalty in World War II with Muslim-Americans post 9/11. To be fair, the America of the World War II era expected more in the way of patriotism.

HOLMAN JENKINS: How the Oil Export Ban Chokes the Fracking Boom: The energy renaissance was fun while it lasted, but age-old Washington laws and lobbyists may finally prove its undoing.

Oil is overflowing U.S. storage facilities partly because of the 40-year-old export ban. The wave of bankruptcies and layoffs that many have predicted for the U.S. energy sector may finally be coming, but less because of the distressed price of oil than because producers will have to stop producing if they have nowhere to send their output. Today’s oil export ban was part of a spasm of nonsensical responses to the 1970s, all of them producing disasters on their own different schedules. Price controls on gasoline, the first stooge, quickly failed amid long lines at gas stations. Fuel-economy rules for auto makers, the second stooge, persist to this day, and played an unsung role in driving the auto industry into bankruptcy by forcing it to lose billions trying to compete in the small-car market with the Japanese.

The third stooge of 1970s energy policy, the ban on U.S. oil exports, is now getting ready to produce its own unique pratfall. Thanks to the fracking boom in Texas and North Dakota, America is producing more light sweet crude than domestic refineries can handle. Oil producers were already being denied a premium of $12 a barrel by not being allowed to export this oil. Soon the only option may be to shut down production altogether.

Oil has been one of the few boom industries in Obama’s America, creating a disproportionate share of new jobs. Among many stupidities, very light petroleum known as a condensate can be exported if it happens to come out of a gas well. If the same material comes out of an oil well, it can’t be exported without special permission. Ultra-light crudes account for a high proportion of booming Eagle Ford Shale production in Texas. Such crudes are especially coveted by Asian refiners, which means domestic producers are leaving a large premium on the table.

Who wins? Domestic refiners get artificially cheap oil to run their plants. An industry mythology claims consumers also benefit thanks to cheaper gasoline. Don’t buy it. Gasoline flows freely in and out of the country, so its price is set by the world market.

Clearly, comrades, rather than opening up crude oil exports, we must close the Gasoline Export Loophole!

ON THE ETHANOL STANDARD, TED CRUZ GOES TO IOWA AND HAS A SISTER SOULJAH MOMENT. Good. It’s a pathetic payoff.

SARAH HOYT CONTINUES: Cake Or Death?

ED DRISCOLL: Not Anti-War, Just On The Other Side.

WILL ROBOTS KILL LABOR UNIONS? Possibly in the private sector. But the main area of union growth in recent decades has been in the public sector, where efficiency doesn’t matter, and maintaining an army of reliable voters on the public payroll is key. Robots don’t help there.

LOOKING AT HEALTH BENEFITS OF BLOOD DONATION: I generally give twice a year. I hope that it’s good for my health, but that’s not really why I do it.

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A CROSSFIT-LIKE WORKOUT ROUTINE FOR FIREMEN:

We work 24-hour shifts. You could be here at the station and go from a dead sleep state to running into a burning building. The National Fire Protection Association says that we have to be at a fire within five minutes of the alarm. So you go from a resting heart rate to about 150 beats per minute in five minutes.

When you go to a regular gym and do 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill and then do a back and biceps routine, your heart rate is never really climbing. But functional fitness training involves full body movements and it involves an up-tempo. About halfway through our workouts, your heart rate is at max effort level. But you still have to dig deep to finish. It’s just like in a fire. We max our heart rates when we’re fighting a fire, and even when your body is telling you to stop, you have to keep going if the fire’s not out. . . .

When we go to a fire scene, everything is a full body motion. There are no bicep curls or triceps kickbacks at a fire ground. But there’s a lot of squatting. There’s a lot of farmer’s carries with ladders and different tools. There’s a lot of bear crawling when the heat drops us to the ground. So all these functional-fitness-style full body exercises mimic what we’re doing in fires.

The story has links to their workout, if you’re interested.

BLUSTER: Mom of UFC Champion Ronda Rousey Has Advice for Daughter Who Boasts She Could Beat ‘100%’ Of Men.

SKIN IN THE GAME: How to Stop Overzealous Prosecutors: Make them answer for the cost of incarceration.

THIS HAS BOTH UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES: Scientists Can Now Read Your Memories: Researchers have mapped rats’ memories, and humans could be next. Upside: Mind-uploading. Downside: Mind-rape.

NEUROMUSCULAR EFFICIENCY for the Strength-Lifter.

SEE, I WAS EXPECTING THAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY, PICKUP TRUCKS WOULD COME WITH DEATH LASERS. AND FLY: When Lockheed Fired Its Death Laser at a Pickup Truck, This Happened. But, then, the 21st Century is disappointing me in a number of ways, so far.

SPACE: NASA’s Dawn Probe Enters Orbit Around Ceres.

I SUSPECT THE POWDERED SUGAR IS MORE DANGEROUS: Dunkin’ Donuts to remove nanomaterial from powdered doughnut recipe. But hey, it’s supporting a “non profit” based on pressuring companies to remove things.

FLASHBACK: Want true equality? Support Gender Tax Parity!

IN THE MAIL: Eating People Is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine, Its Past, and Its Future.

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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 667.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: The New, Scary Question Facing Democrats: If Not Hillary Clinton, Then Who?

That’s a question that Democrats may have to begrudgingly ask themselves in the coming weeks, as a New York Times story about Clinton’s email use during her time as secretary of state—compounded with earlier reporting on the Clinton Foundation—roil Clintonland.

Clinton’s allies are already insisting the email story—that Clinton exclusively used her personal email address while at the State Department—is a nothing-burger. It isn’t news. It will blow over after conservatives have had their 48 hours of outrage. After all, it’s unclear whether Clinton actually violated any rules! Move along, nothing to see here.

But the story doesn’t make the Democrats’ only current hope look good. The news fits perfectly into the narrative that Clinton’s opponents are already trying to create: that she and her husband are secretive, less-than-scrupulous career politicians who are more interested in preserving their own power than being held accountable to American voters. In other words, that they are a real-life Frank and Claire Underwood.

But less competent, and less charming.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Indictment: Mendham teacher had sex with 1 student, ‘improper’ relationships with 3. “Nicole McDonough, 32, of Mount Olive, who is also known as Nicole L. Howell, is accused of having a “physical sexual relationship” with one student, and having improper ‘communication’ and ‘fraternization’ with all three, according to a statement issued by Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp and Mendham Borough Police Chief Pasquale Libertino. McDonough has been suspended from her job since her arrest on Dec. 30 during the school’s holiday break. At that time, she was charged with just one count of official misconduct for allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse with one student in May and June of 2014, according to a criminal complaint signed by Morris County Prosecutor’s Detective Bruce LaFera. . . . McDonough did this, the indictment says, ‘with the purpose to obtain a benefit for herself, specifically emotional, mental and/or physical sexual gratification.’”

I blame today’s pervasive culture of female sexual entitlement.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U. California students remove offensive American flag from ‘inclusive’ space.

IT’S COME TO THIS: Chelsea Clinton: Men must ‘lead the way’ to gender equality.

During an interview with Fortune, Chelsea Clinton (daughter of Bill and Hillary, interviewer of computer-animated geckos) claimed that around the world men must be the ones to lead the way to gender equality.

“We’ve seen some real cultural normative shifts — and candidly it often has to be men who lead the way,” Clinton said when asked specifically about gender equality in Japan. “In countries where we’ve seen real declining rates in child marriage, of female genital mutilation, it has always been the result of a real cross-sector coalition [with men leading].”

Sorry ladies, it is not you who can bring about the change we need. It’s time for you to get out of the way and let the menfolk take over.

As always with the politics of the era of Hope & Change, The Onion got here first: Man Finally Put In Charge Of Struggling Feminist Movement.

After decades spent battling gender discrimination and inequality in the workplace, the feminist movement underwent a high-level shake-up last month, when 53-year-old management consultant Peter “Buck” McGowan took over as new chief of the worldwide initiative for women’s rights. . . .

McGowan claimed that one of the main reasons the movement enjoyed so little success in the past was that the previous management was often too timid and passive and should have been much more results-focused.

“You can’t waste time pussyfooting around with protests and getting all emotional about a bunch of irrelevant details,” McGowan said. “If you want to enjoy equal rights, you have to have a real man-to-man chat with the people in charge until you can hammer out some more equitable custody laws.”

“And don’t get me started on how disorganized and scatterbrained their old fundraising methods were,” McGowan added. “Let’s just say the movement never really had a head for numbers.”

The Onion: Not actually parody, so much as prescience.

EXPIRATION DATE, REACHED: 20 Times Obama Administration Officials Said No Iran Deal Is Better Than a Bad Deal.

THE EMILY LITELLA PRESIDENCY: Obama: DOJ right not to charge Ferguson cop.

President Obama on Friday defended the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot dead Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014.

Obama said during a town hall in South Carolina that he had “complete confidence and [stood] fully behind” the DOJ’s decision regarding Wilson, whom said he killed Brown in self defense.

“We may never know exactly what happened, but Officer Wilson — like anyone else who is charged with a crime — benefits from due process and a reasonable-doubt standard,” Obama said, fielding a question about why the DOJ didn’t charge Wilson.

“If there is uncertainty about what happened then you can’t just charge him anyway, just because what happened was tragic,” Obama added, noting that it was “an objective, thorough, independent federal investigation.”

The case, which sparked national protests, fueled concerns over use of force by police and raised debates about racially charged policing tactics.

The whole “hands up, don’t shoot” thing was a lie.

BRIDGET JOHNSON: Days Before News of Corruption Charges, Menendez Warned of Political Foes Trying to ‘Break’ Him Over Iran Resolve.