SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET: 

BREXIT – FROM REUTERS:   LONDON (Reuters) - Anger at established elites and irritation at the interventions of leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama will help to push British voters to opt for an exit from the European Union on June 23, the head of the Vote Leave campaign said.  With a team of about 60 full-time staff in a tower block across the River Thames from Parliament, Matthew Elliott is plotting what he describes as a revolution: Brexit.  A British exit would rock the European Union -- already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone -- by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial center.  I favor Brexit.  The European Union has become a menace to Western democracy – a bureaucratic mess handing down edicts on how every citizen of every member state should live their lives and fold their napkins.  Out now.  Save Britain.

THE PRESIDENT'S HOME TOWN – FROM THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES:   A city employee caught in gang crossfire was among five people killed and 32 more wounded in shootings across Chicago since late Friday afternoon, police said.  Chicago Police issued a statement Sunday in the middle of one of the first consistently warm weekends of the spring, as intensified city gun violence typically accompanies rising temperatures.  “As we look toward the summer months, Superintendent Johnson has made it very clear that the violence will not be tolerated – period,” the statement said. “The cause of the violence traces back decades, and everyone has a role to play in fixing it – police working with parents, judges, residents, clergy, community leaders, and others. Put simply, we need more values, fewer guns and stronger sentences against violence offenders.”  What we need is some truth-telling about crime – that social breakdown and lax law enforcement are the keys.  New York largely solved its violent-crime problem under Rudy Giuliani by modern police tactics and a refusal to kowtow to the "inner city" leadership.  Not so in Chicago.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM REDALERTPOLITICS.COM:  Student demands now have an effect on tenure and promotion Pomona College professors. As The Claremont Independent reported, the faculty voted last week to for a professor’s “attention to diversity in the student body” as criteria for promotion and tenure.  The vote came after an open letter was circulated by the student body, which referenced a Fall 2015 demand to do with “a commitment to amending the wording of the Faculty Handbook to include a faculty member’s support of a diverse student body as a criteria considered in reappointment, tenure, and promotion.”   The letter also noted how the students “voiced our pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments and the negative effects of those environments on students’ well-being and everyday lived experiences.”   At Pomona College, however, students have expressed their “pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments” by creating less than ideal situations for others. Stephen Glick, a junior, felt forced to resign from the writing center due to his political beliefs. Minority students were also labeled as “Shady Persons of Color” (SPOC) if they didn’t agree with the demands as tactics.  The new fascism on American college campuses.  This kind of intimidation should be abhorrent to the academic world, but it really isn't.  Maybe it will convince the American people that a "college education" isn't what it's cracked up to be.

May 22,  2016