ISSUE 5! The American Original, the McLaughlin Group, is back. . . . Or is it? And while John McLaughlin has left the earth, a new pilot episode has just been released with our Washington Examiner colleague Tom Rogan as host. Rogan, a former panelist, considered McLaughlin a mentor . . . but didn't seem to take on the good Doctor's trademark style. Which is a good thing. It's impossible to replicate without being . . . John McLaughlin. Speaking of which, take a trip down memory lane with Andy Ferguson, who famously recounts his brief tenure working with McLaughlin.

Nobody likes Martin Shkreli: The controversial investor and drug baron faces sentancing for securities and wire fraud. The jury selection transcript, published by Harper's is downright hilarious: "I’m aware of the defendant and I hate him." "Is he stupid or greedy? I can’t understand." ". . . . he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan." It's also a little sad if you read the whole thing, that jurors are seemingly unaware of the actual case at hand. Hey, at least they're honest!

Republicans need to stand up against both-sidesism: At Politico, Matt Latimer asks why large swaths of the GOP have remained silent about President Trump's insufficient response to Charlottesville:

For several days, I’ve tried to wrap my head around those defending the president on this. Or remaining silent, which is its own form of defense. Yes, the media has been biased. Yes, they have gone after Trump with a determination and fury that Barack Obama never faced. Yes, other presidents have been slow to respond to various events. Yes, they have far too freely labeled every Republican from Ronald Reagan to both Bushes to Mitt Romney a racist at one point or another. Yes, there are people with debatable concerns about erasing parts of American history. But who cares?"

A Reagan Snipe Hunt: Contributing editor Steven F. Hayward reviews Henry Olsen's new book, The Working Class Republican, at the Claremont Review of Books. Were Reagan and other GOP presidents "casual backers" of FDR and the New Deal? "By degrees, Olsen figured out that the interpreting Reagan was like viewing an Impressionist painting: only by stepping back could we see the picture correctly. Virtually all Republicans today represent themselves as Reaganites, but what if they are looking only at narrow brushstrokes?"

Banished from the digital public square: It's been a rough few days for White Nationalist bloggers, who have seen their websites evicted from various internet companies. Now we have Leonid Bershidsky arguing at Bloomberg View that anonymous accounts should be banned by Twitter and Facebook. "There's plenty of anonymity to be had on the internet for those who need it," Bershidsky argues.

It's a bit much, though, to make individuals go through the arduous process of verifying their identity for social media, and quite unlikely the largely-advertising based behemoths would agree, though it'd be within their rights to do so.

The response to Charlottesville from corporate America has been quick and consistent: We don't want to be affiliated with racists. Cloudflare, a DDoS protection firm, terminated its agreement with the racist Daily Stormer webpage. “Is this the day the Internet dies?”an employee asked the CEO, who made the decision on a whim. The discussion that resulted is worth reading. Other firms have acted similarly, and the Washington Post is keeping a running tally. Google, GoDaddy, PayPal, Uber, and Wordpress have also joined in as well. Which of those companies has nothing to do with hosting websites? Hmmm.

Is Uber using the Charlottesville terror attack for beneficial PR? Hate to be a cynic here, but it appears that they are. Lots of people hate Uber, and they've been deluged by bad PR for months. Here's what happened: An Uber driver in D.C. realized she was driving three deplorable alt-right racists: Baked Alaska, James Allsup, and Millennial Matt. Apparently, they made racist comments in her car, and she kicked them out. The three racist amigos claim they only called the National Museum of African American History and Culture "ugly" but the driver claims there was more . . .

Pay attention to these lines from the Post tally of post-Charlottesville corporate virtue signallers. "Uber executives personally thanked and honored a driver who kicked three far-right celebrities out of her vehicle before the rally, accusing them of racist comments, someone with the company told the Washington Post." And: "The company permanently banned Allsup, invited the driver to give a speech to thousands of other employees this week, and defended her in a statement to the Washington Post."

—Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor

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