SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

OH, ANOTHER ONE – FROM BREITBART:   The Associated Press is at it again, pushing more fake news. Sadly, the once-great news wire service is trying to cover up its mistake—nearly the exact mistake that cost three editorial staffers at CNN their jobs in a scandal that first exploded a week ago today.  A Breitbart News investigation has led to the correction by the Associated Press–which originally resisted–of the fake news it printed as deeper questions of responsibility, accountability, and journalistic ethics consume the AP heading into Fourth of July weekend.  This time, the Associated Press invented an imaginary meeting 
between EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, and then alleged that some kind of impropriety happened as a result.  This is exactly the same mistake CNN made a week ago, when it alleged that Anthony Scaramucci—the founder of SkyBridge Capital and an associate and ally of President Donald Trump—held “meetings” with Russian investment fund leaders and was under investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee and Treasury Department as a result.  I hate to see this.  The mainstream media must get a grip and start insisting on fundamental journalistic standards.  Otherwise, it will pass into history.  Readers and viewers today have many choices in getting the news.  Names like AP and CNN are not written into Scripture.

ADVICE – FROM BBC:  Nigerian Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, has advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women. The former teacher and Muslim preacher, who lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, says he is able to cope only with the help of God.  "A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC.  He says his wives have sought him out because of his reputation as a healer.  "I don't go looking for them, they come to me. I will consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry them."  I've always felt that stopping at 70 wives is a good idea.  I see that others disagree.

NOT EXACTLY THE LAND OF LINCOLN – OBAMA MAYBE – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  CHICAGO — Road construction and bridge repairs may come to a halt.  At least one agency has threatened to downgrade Illinois’s credit rating to junk, a crippling borrowing position no state has ever seen.  And in perhaps the most visible and immediate sign of the pressure on Illinois leaders to solve their budget standoff at long last, the multistate lotteries — Mega Millions and Powerball — are to be suspended.  With hours left before Illinois begins an unprecedented third year without a full budget, warring leaders were still trying to strike a deal in a political and fiscal crisis that has engulfed the state since 2015.  After two years without a budget, many people who depend on state services — public university students, drug addicts, troubled teenagers, the elderly — have already felt the repercussions.   The states around Illinois are doing just fine.  One, Indiana, was run until recently by Mike Pence, now vice president of the United States.  But Illinois is sinking.  Nothing like a Democratic train wreck like Chicago to destroy a state.

June 30, 2017