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June 2017

Social media took off late Tuesday night after video caught a helicopter circling Venezuelan government buildings, including the Supreme Court. Reports indicate that the helicopter "fired 15 shots at the Interior Ministry, where scores of people were at a social event, and dropped four grenades on the court, where judges were meeting." President Nicolas Maduro immediately slammed the attack, which he called a coup attempt. But other theories have come to light with the opposition saying Maduro staged the coup attempt as a way to crackdown on his opponents and grab more power.

The Petya ransomeware took off yesterday across the globe, affecting state-owned and private businesses in Russia, Europe, and the U.S. The BBC has now reported that it "may have started via corrupted updates on a piece of accountancy software." The ransomeware hit Ukraine hardest since it attacked the country's "power grid, banks and government offices" and disrupted some flights at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport. Other companies hit included pharmaceutical giant Merck and Russia's state owned energy company Rosneft.

How to become an MSM hero? Publicly confront the Trump administration. At yesterday's White House briefing, Playboy White House correspondent Brian Karem got into a testy exchange with Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over CNN's fake Russia story and the broader issues involved. Appearing on Morning Joe today, Karem received a hero's welcome. As he was introduced, someone exclaimed "well done!" and there was even a smattering of applause. At the end of the segment, after Karem pleaded for the media to "stand up" to the Trump admin, Mika Brzezinski concluded, "and stand with you. Brian Karem: amen—to everything you said."

In March of this year, the sociologist and writer Charles Murray visited Middlebury College to deliver a lecture. Before he could even begin, the event was set upon by a mob of students who shut it down and ultimately sent a professor to the emergency room. Students who participated in the mob received no real punishment but the incident drew national attention to the issue of free speech on college campuses. Last night, Murray made his first televised appearance since then on Tucker Carlson's show. He described the scene at Middlebury as the opposite of what higher education should be.

Legal Insurrection readers will recall that the Environmental Protection Agency under Obama enacted one of the most flagrant regulatory power grabs in American history with the Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS). WOTUS redefine how "waters of the United States" are subject to federal regulations under the Clean Water Act. Attempted enforcement of these rules led to farmers being fined astronomical amounts after installing stock pods that had no potential impact on navigable waters, nor posed any other significant environmental threat to the community.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the meeting on an airplane on a tarmac in Phoenix between then Attorney General and Bill Clinton, the husband of the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Hillary Clinton. Hillary was under investigation, at the time, by the FBI and Justice Department for her home email server used to handle official State Department business, including as we now know, classified information. The meeting was not announced. It was discovered. By a local news crew. Only then was the meeting officially disclosed. Lynch said they mostly discussed grandchildren.

Occupy Democrats is a progressive group who claim they provide "a counterbalance to the Republican Tea Party."  They are best known for creating "click bait" memes on Facebook that the left eats up. Occupy Democrats keeps Snopes.com busy writing reports on their false, or "mixture" of fact and fiction, claims. Their latest false claim is getting widespread attention; however, its premise is a complete, and easily-debunked, fantasy.  They declare that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had polio as a child (true) and that all of his medical care was paid for by the government (false).  McConnell's care was paid for by the March of Dimes, a private, nonprofit charity.

Tennis legend John McEnroe caused quite a stir during his NPR interview when he said Serena Williams would only be ranked 700 if she played on the men's circuit. Williams hit back, but McEnroe refuses to apologize for his statement. From The Los Angeles Times:
McEnroe said he had been asked why he called Williams the best women’s tennis player of all time rather than simply the best tennis player of all time. “And so then I felt the need, however unfortunately probably, to defend myself,” McEnroe said Tuesday. “I don't know, just say what I really felt, which is about what I think she would be."

James O'Keefe's Project Veritas released the first video in a series they claim will expose the bias of mainstream media outlets. The video released Tuesday shows an investigator questioning CNN producer John Bonifield about the President Donald Trump-Russia narrative that has dominated the news cycle. Bonifield admitted to the investigator that Trump "is probably right to say, like you are witch hunting me" and that the narrative is "mostly bullsh*t right now" and the network doesn't "have any giant proof."

The progressive city of Seattle pushed its minimum wage up to $15 dollars an hour but a new study from economists at the University of Washington suggests the measure is hurting the very people it was intended to help. This is an issue the left often refuses to understand. If you force a higher wage than the market demands, employers are forced to adjust in ways that are less favorable. Ben Casselman and Kathryn Casteel report at FiveThirtyEight:
Seattle’s Minimum Wage Hike May Have Gone Too Far As cities across the country pushed their minimum wages to untested heights in recent years, some economists began to ask: How high is too high?

Combatting Islamist terror was high on the agenda when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White House on his first official visit since President Donald Trump took office. "We are both determined to destroy terrorist organizations and the radical ideology that drives them. We will destroy radical Islamic terrorism," President Trump said in his joint statement with the Indian Prime Minister at the Rose Garden. "We discussed the serious challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalisation, which are the major challenges facing the world today.  And we have agreed to enhance our cooperation in fighting against these scourges," Prime Minister Modi said.