WINNING: U.S. Economy Grew At 3.5% Rate In Third Quarter. Plus: “A measure of overall inflation moderated from the second quarter. The price index for personal-consumption expenditures increased at a 1.6% pace in the third quarter. Core prices—which exclude food and energy–rose at 1.6% rate too.”
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Somebody Set Us Up the Bomb and Much, Much More. “These pseudo-bombs, coupled with the clumsy “targeting” of lefty political celebrities and washed up politicians makes me think this was done by someone really, really dumb or a leftist who thinks that its an October surprise to turn the narrative to Trump’s ‘violence’.”
ROGER KIMBALL ON SOCIALISM: The Eternal Return Of A Malevolent Charade.
CONRAD BLACK: Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Coming Into Focus.
NOT STORMY DANIELS: Trump-Hating Former Porn Star Engages In Shootout With Cops.
Jonathan Oddi, 42 can be seen in the footage dragging a large American flag with him and holding a gun. He unfurls the flag on the resort’s concierge desk and angrily shoves a cannister off the end of the desk.
The footage then shows him leaning against that desk and putting on socks before spreading out the flag and attempting to reach the security camera. Oddi unfurls the flag some more and smashes the resort’s front desk computers before police arrive outside.
At first, Oddi puts the gun down and puts his arms in the air, but then picks the gun up and begins shooting at the officers, using the desk as cover. After some back-and-forth shooting, Oddi takes off into the hotel, still firing. He briefly slips on the hotel’s floors as officers pursue. He then runs up a flight of stairs and knocks over some furniture before an officer is able to arrest him.
Video at the link, but Ashe Schow’s description of it is somehow more fun.
MICHAEL BARONE: Will ‘burly men’ stop the Democrats’ blue wave?
Do they live in two different worlds? White college graduate women favor Democrats over Republicans in House elections, 62 to 35 percent. White noncollege-graduate men favor Republicans over Democrats in House elections, 58 to 38 percent.
Those results are from a Washington Post poll conducted only in 69 seriously contested congressional districts, 63 of them currently held by Republicans. The numbers in other polls are only slightly different for these two groups.
They all tell the same story. These Americans live in the same relatively small slices of America (average population about 750,000), not many miles away from each other. But they take very different — often angrily different — views of where the nation is headed and on sensitive issues. . . .
It’s not that white college women are diehard Keynesians and white noncollege men supply-siders. People tend to tailor their economic theories to partisan preference, not vice versa. But the economic policies of the last two administrations and concurrent trends have had — and were intended to have — very different effects on white college women and white noncollege men.
President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package was heavily tilted toward college women. As my American Enterprise Institute colleague Christina Hoff Summers wrote in The Weekly Standard in June 2009, the Obama economic team’s original idea was to finance infrastructure, construction, and manufacturing, sectors which lost 3 million jobs in 2007-09.
But feminist groups objected. Obama economist Christina Romer, Summers wrote, recalled that her first email “was from a women’s group saying, ‘We don’t want this stimulus package to just create jobs for burly men.’” So Obama ditched his “macho” stimulus plan for one stimulating creation of jobs in government and especially in education and healthcare, which had gained 588,000 jobs during the 2007-09 recession. Forget the bridge-building and electric grid modernization; let’s subsidize more administrators, facilitators, liaisons.
The results were disappointing. Sputtering growth nudged up toward 3 percent and down toward zero, which is what it was during the last quarter of the Obama administration. Administrators outnumbered teachers in higher education but added little value; government payrolls were sheltered from cuts, temporarily. There was little recovery in blue-collar jobs, and millions of men lingered on the disability rolls. Life-expectancy fell among downscale groups amid a rise in opioid dependency and deaths.
The trajectory of the economy — and the beneficiaries — seem different in the Trump presidency so far. Growth is more robust, obviously, though some economists thought this was impossible, and the the biggest gains are, in contrast to the last 30 years, in blue-collar jobs and downscale earnings.
Yep. You know, if Obama had stuck with his instincts on infrastructure, he could have cemented Democratic rule for a generation. But when he caved to the feminists, he planted the seeds for the Trump revolution.
THAT WOULD BE NICE BUT I’LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT: In 2 years, renewables will be cheaper than fossil fuels.
HMM: “That rationale has heightened suspicions among congressional investigators that the special counsel is being used to prevent the disclosure of possible FBI abuses and crimes committed during the Russia probe.”
THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Only university in UK with men’s officer scraps role after its sole candidate ‘suffers harassment.’
PROCUREMENT BLUES: Air Force puts the kibosh on the $1,300 coffee cup.
The Air Force has used the hot cups — which have an internal heating element to warm up liquids such as water, coffee or soup and are specially manufactured to plug into aircraft systems — for decades, since the KC-10 Extender tanker was introduced in 1981.
But their problem lay in a faulty plastic handle that easily broke when dropped. And because replacement handles weren’t available, that meant Air Force units ordered entirely new hot cups. That was expensive enough in 2016, when they cost $693 apiece. But the price tag has now swelled to $1,280 apiece, drawing the ire of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The Phoenix Spark innovation program at Travis Air Force Base in California earlier this year began looking for a cheaper way to deal with broken handles, and figured out a way to 3-D print replacement parts for 50 cents apiece. Travis posted a release online July 2 about the 3-D printing solution and said it “could save thousands.”
Nice.
BUT OF COUSE: CNN Host Says ‘No One’s Blaming the President’ for Pipe Bombs Before Panelist Blames Trump.
Usually there’s at least a brief turnaround time before the double standard comes into effect.
JEFFREY HARDING: California’s Feminist Corporate Coup.
The law’s goal is gender parity, but it is couched in financial terms suggesting that companies with women on their boards do better than those that don’t. Several studies are cited to back this claim (UC Cal, Credit Suisse, and McKinsey). Catalyst, a nonprofit that promotes women in the workplace, did a widely quoted study that claimed:
• Return on Equity: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 53%.
• Return on Sales: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 42%.
• Return on Invested Capital: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66%.This claim doesn’t meet the smell test and the overwhelming conclusion of scientific research in the field says that women directors have little or no effect on corporate performance. Much of the data supporting the feminist theory lacks empirical rigor and is coincidental (A happened and then B happened, thus A caused B).
“Party of Science.”
JOHN HAWKINS: So What if the Saudis Killed Jamal Khashoggi? “The Trump administration should be exactly as upset about this as it takes to best represent our interests.”
WE FEW, WE HAPPY FEW, WE BAND OF BROTHERS: This is the Feast of Crispin.
IT’S NOT JUST ON THE BOMBING STORY. IT’S ON EVERYTHING: Why no one trusts the media to get the bombing story right.
I contend this started with their going all in to elect an untried, unprepared Barrack Obama, and showing absolutely no curiosity about things like his grades or even what courses he took or of course the fact he was a third generation red diaper baby. It continued with the demonizing of the tea party which many of us were involved in and knew was not how it was being described. Then there was the summer of recovery… eight times reported unironically in all major newspapers, including those that should know better. Why, yes, I am looking at you WSJ. The spectacular all-in for Hillary and it’s more spectacular backfire.
Now? If the media tells me it’s raining, I go outside to verify. And I don’t take an umbrella.
Part of the tension right now is that we’re flying by instruments and the instruments are broken.
AS ALWAYS, THE LEFT’S NOBLE SAVAGES ARE ALWAYS MORE SAVAGE THAN NOBLE. REMEMBER THAT AS WE DEAL WITH THE INVADING FORCE CARAVAN: It’s become more dangerous for gay people in Western Europe.
AND REMEMBER MEXICO’S PRESIDENT COMMIE ELECT HAS PROMISED US A LOT MORE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, INCLUDING AS A CONDUIT FOR OTHER COUNTRIES. DEAL OR DIE: Caravan, or Invasion?
AS I SAID, STINK OF DESPERATION: Get the Information OUT There!
THERE’S A STINK OF DESPERATION TO THIS WHOLE MONTH: Letterbomb Campaign Bombs.
SOUNDS DISTURBINGLY PLAUSIBLE: Urgent Strategy Session at the Democratic Party Dirty Tricks Office.
WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG? Arizona Troopers Association withdraws Sinema endorsement.
IF THEY DIDN’T HAVE DOUBLE STANDARDS THEY WOULDN’T HAVE STANDARDS AT ALL: Of bombs and responsibility.
MAKE THE (SOCIALIST) RABBLE BOUNCE: Dear Americans, You’re Breaking Socialist Hearts!
October 25, 2018
ROGER SIMON: Does It Matter Which Crazy Sent the Bombs?
Even if Brennan was misspelled, Occam’s Razor is beginning to spell “HOAX” correctly. But by and for whom? Here as well we don’t know, but again followers of William of Ockham would tend to point you toward the left wing – a single leftie nutcase or some Antifa types, perhaps. After all, cui bono? With Kavanaugh and the caravan, things were not looking good for the Democrats. The subject had to be changed before it was too late and the blue wave turned red. So far, however, it’s not working.
No wonder the reliably left-leaning Chuck Todd is suddenly pointing toward Russia, not some MAGA-hatted redneck with a Confederate flag tattooed on his chest, as the perpetrator. It’s a dead giveaway. He’s probably hoping for the Russians now. Because if it goes as it’s currently looking, it’s bad news for his team.
Read the whole thing.
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ANOTHER 2020 CANDIDATE EXPLODES ON THE LAUNCH PAD. Creepy Porn Lawyer Michael Avenatti: 2020 Dem. Nominee ‘Better Be a White Male.’
THE U.S.ARMY: Ordered to grow again.
NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT: MSNBC’s Katy Tur Explodes On Guest Who Points Out Violent Left-Wing Rhetoric.
I WONDER IF TWITTER WILL CALL THIS ‘TARGETED HARASSMENT’:Russian trolls get DM from US Cyber Command: We know who you are. Stop it
SO, LIKE LIFTING WEIGHTS, YOU NEED RECOVERY DAYS? Skin tans the most when spending every other day out of the sun.
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THE TECHIES AND NERDS ARE GOING TO SAVE US FROM THE SJWS: Tech Community Outraged after SQLite Founder Adopts Benedictine Code of Conduct.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Breathing through your nose can boost memory consolidation.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How much a pint of beer costs around the world.
A NEW EFFORT TO “CHANGE THE TERMS” TO FIGHT ONLINE “HATE”: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some serious and valid concerns about this effort, saying, “Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate.” It’s difficult to think of any question for which “corporate speech police” will be a good answer.
THE DEFENSE INNOVATION ADVISORY BOARD STRIKES BACK AT LAZY BUREAUCRATS: Detecting Agile BS is the document cleared for publication. Warning: the Defense Innovation Advisory Board’s uses the acronym DIB. Why? Good question. Here’s Breaking Defense’s take on the pamphlet and description of the advisory panel.
CHRIS QUEEN: The 10 Most Bizarre Hits of the ‘70s.
I still have a small soft spot for Sweet’s “Love Is Like Oxygen,” which is either too awful or not quite awful enough to make the list.
ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS REALLY SEEM TO HAVE GROWN A PAIR: Chuck Grassley Asks the Justice Department to Investigate Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick for False Statements: “The obvious, subsequent contradictions along with the suspicious timing of the allegations necessitate a criminal investigation.”
In the old days, once the story died down they would have let bygones be bygones. Now they’re out to teach a lesson.
MEH, FEW OF MINE HAVE BEEN: Your Next Car Salesperson Won’t Be a Car Person, and Here’s Why. Many of them barely knew anything about their own merchandise — you’d think they’d at least read the brochures.
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BLUE WAVE? Republican Patrick Morrisey Takes Lead Over Sen. Manchin in West Virginia. “Morrisey, the state attorney general, leads Manchin 44 percent to 42 percent in new poll.”
CONRAD BLACK: About That ‘Blue Wave.’
Those repelled by Trump will not soften until he has retired as president, as with those who hated Franklin D. Roosevelt for spurious ideological or mythic reasons (such as that he gave Eastern Europe to Stalin); or those who disparaged Reagan as “an amiable dunce,” in the words of Clark Clifford, the ageless and elegant Washington fixer and an unsuccessful defense secretary. It would be at least premature, and perhaps wildly optimistic, to compare Trump to FDR and Reagan, the two greatest presidents since Lincoln, but as the voters proceed to the polls in two weeks, they will have to reflect on the indisputable fact of President Trump’s successes. He took a sluggish economy where GDP growth per capita had declined from 4.5 percent under President Reagan to 1 percent under President Obama, under whom federal debt increased by 233 percent in eight years. He has focused attention on the unutterable scandal of the steady influx of millions of illiterate peasants, including many violent criminals, across the southern border, and is the enemy of the permissiveness of “sanctuary” and the prohibition of constitutionally mandated census-takers to ask respondents’ citizenship. Trump has made himself the sole possible agent of enforcement of nuclear nonproliferation by his actions to prevent North Korea and Iran from becoming nuclear military powers, a status that his predecessors effectively conceded to them.
Obama said 2 percent economic growth is the “new normal,” as poverty, food-stamp use, and violence increased. Trump has created a full-employment economy and generated the first increases in purchasing power and job security in this millennium for the lower third of Roosevelt’s “forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” I don’t believe that most pollsters have adjusted their techniques to allow for a higher voting turnout from what used to be the white working class, or to allow for the reluctance of many Trump voters to identify themselves.
As I was saying earlier, there’s a big gap between the polls and how it feels like this election ought to go.
B-52 OVER THE INDIAN OCEAN: The photo was taken in June by an airman in a USAF KC-135 Stratotanker that’s refueling the bomber.
“THE FEDERAL HATE CRIMES LAW IS BOTH UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND UNWISE”: In today’s Washington Post, George Will urges the Supreme Court to review Metcalf v. United States.
This is the case for which Peter Kirsanow and I filed an amicus brief. Indeed, Will quotes our brief in his column. In a nutshell: Congress claims to be using its power to outlaw slavery in prohibiting hate crimes. And … well … hate crimes are bad things, but they aren’t slavery.
REFUGEE WAVES VERSUS MIGRANT MARCHES: My latest Creators Syndicate column. (bumped)
OIL FROM A STONE: Conoco Is Collecting $2 Billion From Venezuela—One Barrel of Oil at a Time.
Conoco has received an initial payment of $345 million in the form of “cash and commodities” from Venezuela’s state-run oil company, the Houston-based company said on Thursday. The remittance helped allay fears the cash-strapped nation wouldn’t be able to pay off the award in a long-running dispute over asset seizures.
Conoco didn’t provide more details in its statement, but people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News on Wednesday that the company loaded about 1.5 million barrels of Venezuelan crude from terminals in the Caribbean run by Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Conoco resold the cargoes to refineries in the U.S. and Asia, the people said.
It will be interesting to see which winds down first: Venezuela’s debt to Conoco, or Venezuela’s ability to barter it down.
FASTER, PLEASE: FDA approves first new flu drug in 20 years. “Xofluza is unique in that it acts to inhibit replication of the flu virus in the first place, at a step much earlier than the current medications available, such as oseltamivir or zanamivir, which only block release of virus that has already been produced from a host cell.”
SHOT: Trump tries nicer tone after bomb threats.
CHASER: Democratic Leaders Reject Trump’s Call For Unity After Bomb Scare.
Trump didn’t win by playing nice, and there probably is no playing nice (and winning) with today’s Democrats.
NUMBERS OR FEELINGS? Over at VodkaPundit, a few thoughts on how the contest for the House feels, versus what the polls say. “The numbers all say that the Dems take the House with a slender majority, and they’ve said that to varying degrees for months now. But it just doesn’t feel that way. A booming economy, wage growth, tax cuts… are American voters really willing to risk all that by giving the House to a party which promises to undo those things?”
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JOHN LOTT: The Problem With the FBI’s ‘Active Shooter’ Data.
The FBI’s first report claimed that only once from 2000-2013 did a concealed handgun permit holder stop one of 160 reported “active shooter” attacks. These active shooter attacks include any time a gun is fired in a public place, even if no one is injured or killed. They exclude gang fights or attacks that arise out of other crimes such as robberies.
The report got massive news coverage on the front pages of such newspapers as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as well as all of the TV news networks. Gun control activists have frequently cited the report in court cases and in political debates to claim that civilians rarely use guns to stop public shootings.
Unfortunately, the problems with the reports have continued during the Trump administration. The latest FBI report, released in May, misses still more cases. The FBI claims that from 2014 to 2017 there were 90 active shooter cases and only seven where permit holders stopped these attacks.
In all, the FBI claims that concealed handgun permit holders have stopped 3.2 percent of active shooter incidents.
But the bureau misses at least 23 cases where permit holders saved the day. That means they stopped 11.5 percent of active shooter incidents from 2000 to 2017. We at the Crime Prevention Research Center are more confident that we have all of the cases from 2014 to 2017, when 16.5 percent of attacks were stopped.
I don’t trust much of anything coming out of the FBI these days.
BREAKING: Megyn Kelly out at NBC, will likely walk with $69 million.
I’d not work for NBC for half that much, if they’re looking for somebody.
COOL: Long lost, 1930’s novel that inspired ‘The Thing’ discovered and set for publication.
Before taking over editorial duties on the magazine and publishing seminal works by authors like Isaac Asimov, Jack Williamson, Robert A. Heinlein, A.E. van Vogt and others, Campbell himself was a writer, and the last major piece of fiction he published was “Who Goes There?”, in which a team of researchers stationed in the Antarctic battle the shape-shifting occupant of a crashed alien ship.
But now, according to The Verge, a longer version of that story may be coming to light decades after being locked away. While researching his new book, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, author Alec Nevala-Lee learned that Campbell had actually written a novel-length version of the story, which he cut down for publication in the magazine.
I hope there’s enough there-there to make a solid, longer story, but I’ll read it regardless.
HILARIOUSLY AWFUL CLAIRE MCCASKILL RADIO AD: SHE’S ‘NOT ONE OF THOSE CRAZY DEMOCRATS.’
Narrator Voice: She actually is one of those crazy Democrats.
BIPARTISANSHIP: Sens. Ted Cruz and Doug Jones have introduced a Civil Rights cold case bill that is both righteous and politically clever.
“[I]n many cases,” Sens. Jones and Cruz write, “witnesses were intimidated into silence and evidence was intentionally brushed under the rug by corrupt officials. Victims and their families were often afraid to pursue justice against their attackers. And despite the best efforts of law enforcement in many cases, they did not have access to modern forensic methods, and trails went cold.”
They add: “Records and evidence from many of these cases sit locked away in files and vaults, outside of the public eye. As memories fade and witnesses, victims and perpetrators of decades-old crimes pass away, our window to solve these cold cases shrinks.”
The proposed legislation would require that the cold case files be made available at the National Archives and Records Administration. The idea here is that NARA would then create a “collection of documents that would be publicly disclosed, although for certain reasons disclosure of some information may be postponed.” The bill is also careful to take steps to provide identity protections where requested and/or necessary.
As Jones and Cruz explain it, the bill aims mostly to make the information available to “private detectives, historians, victims and victims’ families,” with the ultimate goal being that some of these cases be solved finally.
That would be nice.
TIM BLAIR: IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH, IT TAKES A TRAIN TO TEACH.
Don’t worry about that massive caravan of Guatamexicans or whatever they are. The real problem is refugee locomotive homelessness:
Thomas the Tank Engine is to introduce a “homeless” Kenyan train to teach children about refugees.
Oh good — kiddies’ TV shows about anthropomorphized toy trains really need to become much more woke.
RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: New ISIS Threat of Knife, Gun Attacks to ‘Terrorize the Crusader Nations.’ “Days ago, media group released a poster with shadowy imagery of the Pulse nightclub attack, along with images of a soldier and an explosive device.”
They might find America a harder target than disarmed Britain or France.
IN THE MAIL: From John F. Carr, War World: Falkenberg’s Regiment.
SHARYL ATTKISSON: How the Russia Collusion Story Revealed a Scandal to Obstruct President Trump. “Taken together in context, the evidence points to two important findings. First, U.S. government insiders, colluding with numerous foreign citizens and governments, conspired to interfere in the 2016 election. Second, after the election, these figures conspired to undermine, oust, and perhaps even frame Trump and some of his associates.”
PROGRESS: SpaceX official says company about to launch a Falcon 9 for the third time.
SpaceX has since flown a handful of Block 5 rockets twice, but it has not taken the step of flying one of these rockets for the third time. However, that may happen quite soon, according to Lars Hoffman, senior director of government sales for the California-based rocket company.
“We’ve launched Falcon 9 over 60 times,” Hoffman said at the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve landed our first stage booster 30 times now. And relaunched 16 times. We’re about to relaunch a booster for the third time. So we’re turning this into routine access to space. High-reliability, higher-performance, lower-cost access to space; that opens it up to everybody.”
The company has not officially confirmed its plans, but at present SpaceX intends to reuse a Falcon 9 rocket for the third time to launch a rideshare mission of dozens of small satellites for Spaceflight. This Spaceflight SSO-A mission currently has a launch date of November 19, according to a calendar maintained by Spaceflight Now. An earlier report in The Space Review previously indicated this mission may involve the third flight of a booster.
What a ride.
OBAMA: “YOU WOULDN’T LET YOUR GRANDPARENTS PICK YOUR PLAYLIST, WHY WOULD YOU LET THEM PICK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE WHO’S GOING TO DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE?”
James Lileks: “Youth is already besotted by its certainties — and simultaneously insecure about itself and its abilities and stature, for which they compensate by fervent embrace of Causes. (It’s been my experience that people on the left are more likely to extend this condition into adulthood, but I could be wrong.) Grandma probably saw a few of those in her time, and might have something to say about the ephemeral passions of the day and the odd way they end up burning underneath society like a coal seam fire.”
Read the whole thing.
ISN’T IGNORING MEN A TITLE IX VIOLATION? Hundreds of sex toys doled out to coeds as university hosts ‘Free Vibrator Day.’
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: FDA Approves ‘Novel’ Single-Dose Flu Drug — The First Of Its Kind In 20 Years.
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: NY AG Files Ridiculous Climate Change Lawsuit Against Exxon Mobil.
(Classical reference in headline.)
HEATHER MAC DONALD: Identity Politics in Overdrive. “From the Kavanaugh hearings to a lawsuit alleging that Harvard discriminates against Asian-Americans, the Left sees “white supremacy” at the heart of everything.”
The core premise of academic victimology is that whites game the system to disable non-whites. The effort seems to have failed miserably. But rather than acknowledging the implications of Asian success for the narrative of systemic pro-white bias, the proponents of identity politics simply trot out the “white supremacy” mantra as if doing so routs any countervailing evidence. That some left-wing Asians adopt the same rhetoric is a testament to the status accorded to alleged victims of white privilege and to the lure of oppositional identity politics in elite circles.
The use of “white supremacy” to characterize the Harvard racial-preferences lawsuit is a model of lucidity, however, compared with its deployment in the final days of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process. Categories of privilege and oppression shifted, recombined, and split apart, highlighting internecine tensions within the intersectional Left.
Read the whole thing.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, ADMINISTRATIVE REVENGE EDITION: Professors fired for creating “distress in workplace” were actually fired for disagreeing with administrators.
TOM MAGUIRE: Flashback: Mass Murder Mailing of 2005. “Back when this story broke in 2006 some lefty bloggers promptly blamed an Ann Coulter ‘joke’ about poisoning Justice Stevens for this attack. OK, the timing was backwards since her joke followed the attack (but preceded the publicizing of it). And the sentencing memorandum explaining the motivation was available in the public record. But there were political points to be scored, so whatever.”
HE’S AN AMAZING MAN WHO WAS HORRIBLY SMEARED: Petition supporting Clarence Thomas gets 10 times more signatures than opposition. “A Change.org petition calls for the Savannah College of Art and Design to keep the name of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on one of its buildings. The petition was launched three weeks after a separate petition called for the Georgia college to remove Thomas’ name from the building, labeling the Supreme Court Justice a ‘sexual predator.'”
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Bombs Away and Much, Much More. “Two things drive the news cycle: when the media can make itself the story (CHECK!) and when the media can use the news to beat up on President Trump (CHECK!). Yesterday was a jackpot.”
Indeed.
YOUNG-ADULT INFOTAINMENT SITE VOX: Fight Suicide By Adding Lithium To Drinking Water. It’s actually not a bad piece, but I couldn’t resist using Stephen Green’s Vox tagline.
WHY TRUMP IS GETTING MORE POPULAR.
AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Arizona state troopers withdraw Kyrsten Sinema endorsement after members object.
Related: “‘It was Rousseau,’ writes Frank M. Turner in European Intellectual History from Rousseau to Nietzsche, ‘who made the hatred of one’s own culture the stance of the cultivated person.’ The Rousseau of Arizona is the alternately contemptuous and clownish Kyrsten Sinema, who is trying to persuade Arizonans to overlook her well-documented contempt for the state and tap her to be one of its two U.S. senators.”
FLOTUS: Melania Invited Ellen Producer to Kindness Event After His Cynical Tweets.
After Andy Lassner, a producer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, tweeted the other day that he’s “way more afraid of another Melania getting in to this country than” he is of the thousands of migrants in the caravan marching towards the U.S. border.
First Lady Melania Trump’s office tweeted him an invite to her gathering of children at the White House to talk about kindness and screen the movie Wonder.
You can guess how this man child responded.
The First Lady deserves far more positive press than she’ll ever receive.
IT IS A RIDDLE, WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY, INSIDE AN ENIGMA; BUT PERHAPS THERE IS A KEY: California Has a Housing Crisis and Can’t Figure Out How to Solve It.
INTERESTING: Forget the A-10 Warthog: The Army Wants the F-35.
“When you are in a firefight, the first thing infantry wants to do it get on that radio to adjust fire for mortars and locate targets with close air support with planes or helicopters. You want fires. The F-35 has increased survivability and it will play a decisive role in the support of ground combat,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters at the Association of the United States Army Annual Symposium.
Gen. Milley’s comments are quite significant, given the historic value of close air support when it comes to ground war. His remarks also bear great relevance regarding the ongoing Pentagon evaluation assessing the F-35 and A-10 Warthog in close air support scenarios.
Over the years, close-air-support to Army ground war has of course often made the difference between life and death – victory or defeat. The Army, Milley said, wants next-generation close-air-support for potential future warfare.
To be clear, the Army doesn’t want its own F-35s, which it doesn’t have the logistical tail to support:
“We fight with the Navy, Marines and Air Force. Our soldiers have never heard an Air Force pilot say ‘I can’t fly into that low-altitude area,’ These guys take incredible risk. If there are troops on the ground, they are rolling in hot,” Milley said.
Good to know.
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I HAD BEEN ASSURED BY MANY PROMINENT DEMOCRATS THAT VOTER FRAUD WAS A MYTH: Former Democratic Party leader paid women in alleged Tarrant voter fraud ring, AG says.
A Fort Worth woman recently indicted on voter fraud charges paid others involved in the scheme with funds provided by a former Tarrant County Democratic Party leader, court documents filed this week show.
After learning about a state investigation, Leticia Sanchez — one of four women arrested and indicted on voter fraud charges — allegedly directed her daughter to send a text message to others in the scheme, urging them not to cooperate with investigators, state officials say.
The allegations are made in a state’s notice of intent to introduce evidence in Sanchez’s criminal case, where state officials say she was among those who collaborated to vote for certain down-ballot candidates on a number of north side residents’ mail-in ballots.
Sounds to me like a criminal conspiracy to disenfranchise legally registered voters.