Мошенники: In an unprecedented punishment, the international governing body of the sport has banned the entire Russian track and field team from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer. Sebastian Coe, the former middle distance runner who heads the international track association said, “Politics was not playing a part in that room today, it was unambiguous.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the ruling was unfair and that Russian athletes who didn’t dope shouldn’t be punished. Of course his saying that was a tacit admission that a lot of Russian athletes were performing better through chemistry.

Russia won 18 medals in the last summer games, eight of them gold. But the World Anti-Doping Agency says Russian athletes cheated in both the summer Olympics in Beijing and London, and in the winter games in Sochi, Russia. In Sochi the lab techs who were supposed to keep things on the level were part of the scheme.

Permawar: The Iraqi military says it has re-taken most of the city of Fallujah after Islamic State occupiers collapsed. The commanding general says his soldiers control 80 percent of the city.

Fallujah, the major city in the heart of western Anbar province, has been warred over and bombed to rubble since 2004, and occupied by the Islamic State for the past two years.

Even with this major victory, CIA Director John Brennan said this week, “Despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism and global reach.”

Political Darwinism: It’s every Republican for himself. House Speaker Paul Ryan told NBC News in an interview to air tomorrow that Republican politicians have to follow their own conscience when it comes to supporting Donald Trump. “The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan told Chuck Todd. “Of course I wouldn’t do that. Look, believe me, Chuck. I get that this is a very strange situation. [Trump is] a very unique nominee. But I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party. Because you know what I know that’ll do? That’ll definitely knock us out of the White House.”

Ryan speaks as though the “chasm” is not Donald Trump himself. The Republicans with Trump at the wheel are speeding toward losing the presidential election and possibly even the Senate. Matthew Continetti writes for FreeBeacon.com that the Republican Party should be given a Darwin Award for eliminating itself from the gene pool of politics. Self-selection is at work here,” Continetti writes. “Trump’s supporters are choosing their party’s demise.”

Carpet Bombing: It seems a little early, but Hillary Clinton has been flooding the airwaves with $17 million worth of commercials in the so-called “battleground states.” That’s Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.

While Clinton spends money, Trump is spending time in Republican enclaves like Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas trying to raise it. The once proudly self-financed candidate is banging the tin cup.

Now You Tell Me: The Walt Disney Company has built a fence around the alligator-infested lagoon where a two-year-old boy was snatched and killed by an alligator. Workers also put up a sign saying, “Danger. Alligators and snakes in area. Stay away from the water. Do not feed the wildlife.”

Shoot, Grieve, Repeat: Last night on the CBS Evening News Correspondent Steve Hartman interviewed Malcolm Graham, whose sister was killed in the Charleston church shooting one year ago. The conversation turned to how mass shootings, the mourning, and forgetting have become routine.

“Do you remember Roseburg, Oregon?” Hartman asked.

“No,” Graham said.

“Herkimer County, New York?”

“I don’t.”

“Eventually, I’m going to say to somebody, ‘Charleston.’ And they’re going to say, ‘I don’t remember it.'”

Graham said, “Yeah.”

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