THEY’VE ALL GONE CRAZY: Guardian reporter screams at ‘anti-Semite’ Salena Zito for causing synagogue shooting by reporting on Trump.
Though in my experience, the Guardian folks are generally fine with actual anti-semites.
POINT TO REMEMBER: So far terror attacks tied to Obama Chicago pal Bill Ayers have killed more people than the evil bombs mailed by Cesar Seyoc. And the unrepentant Ayers had the rampant stupidity to say he should have detonated more bombs. (The New York Times, September 11, 2001: No Regrets For A Love of Explosives. This is 100 megaton irony.)
Alan Dershowitz has noticed this absolutely essential point:
The entire episode [[Seyoc’s bombs]] brings back painful memories of the Weathermen and other radical left wing organizations that planted bombs in the 1970s. The Weathermen and other radical leftist groups targeted universities, army bases, police officers, banks, and other establishment places and people. The death toll was considerable, and the fear was palpable. At about the same time, the Black Panthers, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and other radical leftist groups terrorized the United States.
So far no one has tried to glorify the arrested person responsible for the recent pipe bombs. Although President Trump has condemned the alleged perpetrator, it would not be surprising if some right wing extremists took perverse pleasure and pride in the attacks on the left wing icons. This is different from how some liberals glorified the Weathermen, Black Panthers, and other hard left terrorists. Left wing lawyers, who would never defend an accused right wing terrorist, rushed to represent these radical groups, while prominent liberals contributed to defense funds and attended fundraising parties. Films, books, plays, and articles sought to understand the motives of these young murderers.
Years later, Barack Obama befriended Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who had been active members of the Weathermen and supporters of violent terrorism. Both Ayers and Dohrn were invited to teach at well known American universities, as was Kathy Boudin, who had served a long prison term for participating in a terrorist inspired robbery that resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one armored guard and seriously injured another guard.
MORE:
The Ku Klux Klan was a violent radical group with significant support from political figures and ordinary citizens. During the first decades of the 20th century, left wing anarchists planted bombs and engaged in other forms of violence that killed many innocent people.
The Ku Klux Klan was a Democrat terrorist organization created after the Civil War — to RESIST!. In the 20th century the KKK was the militant wing of the Democratic Party, mostly in the South but not solely. It existed to intimidate — like Antifa. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), a Democrat lion of the Senate beloved by Bill Clinton, was a KKK grand kludge benighted fleagal frothing whatever. (If you recall his actual title, mention it in the comments.)
As for the Dershowitz essay — read the whole thing.
WELL, I’LL BE WAITING UNTIL I’M OLD ENOUGH: Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Sign Up For Medicare Part B. “He should have signed up for Medicare Part B three years earlier when he turned 65. By delaying, he had missed the best window — the so-called Initial Enrollment Period — to apply for Part B, which covers much of what we consider health care: doctor visits, tests, injectable drugs (including chemotherapy), ambulances, physical therapy and other non-hospital services. As a result, he has to pay permanently higher premiums, and he had to endure an unsettlingly long period — from December to July — before the coverage actually kicked in.”
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JOHN PODHORETZ ON THE SLAUGHTER IN PITTSBURGH:
In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. In a classic act of anti-Semitic violence, which is what this is, Jews hear the echoes of every violent anti-Semitic act that has preceded it in history. And we hear those echoes because they are there. That which motivates Jew-hatred today is what has motivated it from time immemorial—the poisonously attractive idea that Jews need to be extirpated because our existence is an offense or a threat to an existing larger order. The blessing of Jewish life in America is that this notion has largely been consigned to the dregs from which today’s human malignancy rose. Despite the fact that most hate crimes in America are aimed at Jews, the actual number is vanishingly small—especially compared to France, from which Jews are now fleeing, and England, whose Labour Party is in the hands of an actual Jew-hater.
Because we are obliged by the sickness of our political culture to analyze every despicable event in a manner designed to confirm our priors, we have already, mere hours after the barbarity, sunk into a nauseating discussion about how much blame to assign to the president for this unspeakable act. The obvious answer is: None. Donald Trump should be assigned no such blame, even if the shooter were the president of the Donald Trump Fan Club, because he pulled no trigger and committed no crime. Period. To do that, to assign blame, is to whitewash the crime itself and the criminal’s responsibility for it. He becomes a cultural robot, seized by an evil collective unconscious that drove him to his crimes.
Read the whole thing.
PHILIP WEGMAN ON WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO GO AFTER AVENATTI’S LIES:
Working to clear Kavanaugh’s name, Grassley is also working to protect the names of future nominees. It is an effort to reestablish precedent in the nomination process through deterrence.
Grassley just referred Julie Swetnick and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, to the Department of Justice for possible criminal investigation. Swetnick made allegations that Kavanaugh was present at a party where she was “gang raped,” and further that he habitually attended such parties and even had a hand in drugging girls so that they could be assaulted in this way. Although her accusations were so incredible that only a few Democrats dared talk about them at Kavanaugh’s hearings, they were brought up — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was among those to mention them as Democrats worked to kill Kavanaugh’s nomination and reputation. . . .
More than control of the court was at stake during the Kavanaugh hysteria. It wasn’t just about the reputation of one man. It quickly became a referendum on what political tactics would and wouldn’t fly in future confirmations. At stake was whether or not Democrats, with their all-out assault on Kavanaugh, would be allowed to rewrite the confirmation playbook for the future.
Grassley and company succeeded in getting Kavanaugh confirmed. But now Grassley is addressing the second issue by meting out consequences. Future nominees, Democrat and Republican both, can expect a crucible of a confirmation. But if Grassley is successful and the DOJ takes action, those nominees can take limited comfort in the fact that witnesses against them will be held responsible for egregious lies.
It is a small step, and it is up to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to decide what to do next. But it is an important step toward cleaning up the mess that was made of the confirmation process.
This is exactly right.
SCIENCE MARCHES ON: ‘The Blowjob Paper:’ Scientists Processed 109 Hours of Oral Sex to Develop an AI that Sucks Dick.
But laugh at your peril. Organic evolution has done all it can in the short term to make people attractive; humans aren’t going to improve significantly in our lifetimes. Mechanical evolution is moving much faster, and sexbots are improving at a rapid clip.
GEORGETOWN PREP: THE MEDIA CIRCUS IS GONE, BUT THE DAMAGE IS DONE.
Journalists phoned us by the dozens, mostly demanding to know how long we had presided over a circus of drug and alcohol abuse, misogyny, and criminality. At least these reporters gave us the courtesy of a call. Many other national media outlets simply ran archly critical stories without bothering to contact us at all.
This was all necessary for American democracy, some of them explained, since one of our graduates had become a Supreme Court nominee. In a sense, that’s understandable. But as I learned firsthand, the lens trained on Georgetown Prep was warped, obscuring details that ran counter to preferred narratives, and the resulting portrait of our community was grossly distorted.
We were garishly described as an institution that “celebrated heavy drinking,” “a troubled, morally questionable symbol of a snobby elite [where] alcohol was an integral part of the school’s identity,” and a place where “disregard or mistreatment of women [was] widely accepted.” A “debauched . . . scene of cloistered young men.” And those are just a few such insults from the more than 60 articles that appeared about Prep in the Washington Post alone.
Democracy dies in demonization.
More here: Post Truth.
YIKES: IVANKA TRUMP CONDEMNS SYNAGOGUE ATTACK, TRIGGERS AVALANCHE OF BLUE-CHECK TDS ON STEROIDS. “The replies are something else. The left is irreparably damaged.”
CALIFORNIA-BASED COMPANY OFFERS PAID PROTESTING SERVICES:
A California-based public relations firm is offering paid protesting services to its clients.
Crowds on Demand, out of Beverly Hills, offers “protests, rallies, flash-mobs, paparazzi events and other inventive PR stunts,” according to their website. “We provide everything including the people, the materials and even the ideas.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the company hired protestors to lobby the New Orleans City Council on behalf of a power plant operator, however the operator claims it only hired Crowds on Demand to bring supporters to the meetings, but did not know paid actors were involved. Each actor was reportedly paid $60 to attend the meetings, and $200 to speak on behalf of the power plant.
Actors were also hired to protest a Masons convention in San Francisco, and to act as paparazzi and fans for an L.A. life coaches conference.
The late Andrew Breitbart could have gotten hours of YouTube clips dunking on a lefty rent-a-crowd.
(Via SDA.)
LEARNING TO LOVE the counter-depth fridge. We have one. It’s fine. It’s true that the extra depth in a standard fridge is mostly just space to accumulate stuff you never use, and eventually throw out. Of course, we have a second refrigerator-freezer in the utility room, where we can stage party supplies, etc. when needed.
ILYA SOMIN OF THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY: Mail Bomber Cesar Sayoc Threatened Me on Facebook.
STAY THIRSTY, MY FRIENDS: US Troops Deploy ‘Overwhelming Force’ Against Iceland’s Beer Supplies.
KIMBERLY LEONARD AND SALENA ZITO: 11 shot dead in Pittsburgh synagogue, 4 police wounded. Suspect shouted: ‘Jews need to die.’
As we all know, this shooting is Trump’s fault because he moved the embassy to Jerusalem.
LACK OF SELF-AWARENESS DEPARTMENT: Below is someone who works for the Intercept and Al Jazeera blaming anti-Semitism on *other* people promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Let me repeat, the Intercept and Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, this is as good a time as any to tell the anti-Semites who I’ve heard sometimes infest our comments section to get lost, you aren’t welcome here.
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WELL, ALSO IT WAS A CRAPPY VACCINE THAT YEAR: Did low vaccination rates help make the last flu season so deadly?
NEWS YOU CAN USE: These are the bad things about early retirement that no one talks about.
(Via Newsalert.)
BLUE WAVE? Flop Sweat: Democrats Pour Nearly Three Million More Dollars Into…New Jersey.
Don’t get cocky.
MORE ON PITTSBURGH: Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Allegedly Entered Shouting “All Jews Must Die.”
Meanwhile, the brave moral arbiters of the press are here to tell us that Jews kinda deserve it, since Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem or something.
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THIS WEEK IN MEDIA BIAS HISTORY: Then-ABC News President David Westin Can’t Say If Pentagon Attack Was Wrong.
NOBODY’S PERFECT: U.S. Air Force Accidentally Drops Humvee on Civilian Neighborhood. “An Army spokesman said that the airdrop had been conducted by the service’s Operational Test Command as they tested a new parachute system for heavy equipment. The three parachutes designed to gently lower the Humvee to the ground worked, he said, and the test ‘went as planned—except for the early release.'”
IF YOU LIKE YOUR PLAN, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR PLAN: Obama Says Politicians Lying Is Something ‘We Have Not Seen Before.’ Here Are Three Of His Biggest Whoppers.
Of course, we’re dealing with the guy who was quoted as saying, “I actually believe my own bullshit,” so perhaps he’s living out George Costanza’s belief that “it’s not a lie, if you believe it.”
MEGYN KELLY IS BEING FIRED BECAUSE SHE SHONE TOO MUCH LIGHT ON NBC’S #METOO PROBLEM:
But most damningly, Kelly has made it clear that she will not welcome back abusers. When asked about Matt Lauer, NBC’s lovely, $20 million anchor who had a door lock on his desk to more easily prey on female subordinates, Kelly minced as few words as she could without condemning her employers for their complicity in Lauer’s persistent harassment.
“I know too much that others don’t know,” Kelly said when asked about the allegation. Kelly interviewed his accusers on her morning show, sending a public warning shot not just to Lauer, but to his many remaining NBC loyalists, that a remorseful comeback would not be tolerated.
Hollywood gossip giants have known of the tension between Kelly and NBC News chairman Andy Lack due to her reporting for half a year. But beware of the all-too convenient narrative that Kelly’s demise would come from a since-rectified gaffe. NBC knew they bought an anchor used to Fox News prime time rather than the ease of morning shows. But Kelly also fought a president and a prime-time guru. No doubt Andy Lack underestimated her potential to doggedly cover her own company’s malpractice.
Gentlemen (and ladies), you can’t do journalism here — this is NBC News!
IN THE MAIL: From Bill Lee, This Road I’m On: The Power of Hope in the Face of Adversity.
“IN TIMES LIKE THESE, IT IS HELPFUL TO REMEMBER THAT THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TIMES LIKE THESE.” – Paul Harvey. “Yes, things are going crazy. Someone in an article on a news site commented that this year has been tumblr fan fiction weird. It has. Yet this has not been the first crazy year ever — or necessarily the craziest year.”
Read the whole thing.
IT’S COME TO THIS: HBO To Have An ‘Intimacy Coordinator’ On Set For All Sex Scenes Now.
AMERICA’S 18 MOST DANGEROUS VOLCANOES: Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea is number one. Seattle and Portland are uncomfortably close to two others on the list, Mount Rainier and Mount Hood, respectively.
TODAY IN HISTORY: On October 27, 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers (this one written by Alexander Hamilton) was published and handed out on street corners in New York. Over the course of the next 10 months, 85 short little essays were hastily written by Hamilton, John Jay, or James Madison and distributed. Each explained some aspect of the proposed Constitution and advocated for its ratification. They weren’t written for the ages, but a few of them nevertheless became classics of political theory. And they are worth reading as a group.
I once wrote a paper that asked whether law professors were following in the footsteps of the authors of the Federalist Papers by blogging instead of writing battleship law review articles that hardly anybody reads. But upon reflection … I must have been on drugs.
SWEDISH ROYAL NAVY CORVETTE KARLSTAD: Docks in Trondheim, Norway. Swedish forces are participating in NATO’S Exercise Trident Juncture.
IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME SHE CUTS A DUET WITH THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS CAT STEVENS. Singer Sinéad O’Connor Becomes A Muslim: ‘All Scripture Study Leads To Islam.’
MEDIA WHIPLASH ALERT: Time magazine asks, “Why Are We All Having So Little Sex?,” just a few weeks after the DNC-MSM scolded Brett Kavanaugh en masse about his sex life 35 years ago.
Earlier: The Sexual Revolution Is Over.
WE KNOW WHY: Why Did NBC News Sit on Evidence Discrediting a Kavanaugh Accuser for Weeks?
The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee recommended anti-Trump attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges on Thursday. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley noted that in multiple public statements, Swetnick and Avenatti contradicted the sworn statement they provided claiming that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ran a gang-rape-party ring in high school.
What was a very bad day for Avenatti got worse when NBC News reported hours later that “NBC News also found other apparent inconsistencies in a second sworn statement from another woman whose statement Avenatti provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a bid to bolster Swetnick’s claims.”
It was very good reporting by NBC News. But it was also reporting based on interviews conducted three weeks ago, with no clear indication of why the outlet chose to sit on it. . . .
But per the newest story, these are the details NBC News knew for a fact during the Kavanaugh debate, and chose not to report:
On September 30, Avenatti forwarded an anonymous woman (I’ll call her Woman B) to NBC claiming she could corroborate Swetnick’s story. On the contrary, she said of the punch spiking “I didn’t ever think it was Brett” and when asked if she ever witnessed Kavanaugh act inappropriately towards women replied, “No.” On October 2nd, Avenatti publicized a sworn statement from an unnamed woman claiming she had “witnessed firsthand Brett Kavanaugh, together with others, ‘spike’ the ‘punch’ at house parties I attended with Quaaludes and/or grain alcohol” and he engaged in “inappropriate physical contact with girls of a sexual nature.” The same day, Avenatti confirms to NBC News that the woman is Woman B.
On October 3rd, Woman B tells NBC she only “skimmed” the statement she made to Congress.
The same day, when asked about the discrepancies, Avenatti suddenly backtracks and claims the woman is not Woman B.On October 4th, Woman B texts NBC: “It is incorrect that I saw Brett spike the punch. I didn’t see anyone spike the punch … I was very clear with Michael Avenatti from day one.” The same day, when asked about her denials, Avenatti responds, “I have a signed declaration that states otherwise together with multiple audio recordings where she stated exactly what is in the declaration. There were also multiple witnesses to our discussions.” Five minutes later, Woman B texts NBC: “Please understand that everything in the declaration is true and you should not contact me anymore regarding this issue.” Minutes later, NBC calls again, and Woman B again reiterates she never saw Kavanaugh spiking punch or being sexually inappropriate. On October 5th, she texts NBC: “I will definitely talk to you again and no longer Avenatti. I do not like that he twisted my words.” Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed October 6th. At the time of his confirmation, there was a sworn statement before Congress indicating that the Supreme Court nominee was a sexual assailant and drugged women. As far as the Senate and public knew, there was nothing indicating that statement was false.
NBC News knew that it was false. Four days earlier, they at least had enough to report that Woman B had changed her story. And days before that, they knew that one of the witnesses that Swetnick alluded to could not “attest to the truthfulness” of her allegations as she claimed in her sworn statement.
What gives? One gets the impression that had Grassley not moved to recommended Avenatti for criminal charges, NBC News would have continued to sit on the story.
UGLY HISTORY: On this day in 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Executive Order 44, calling for the extermination of Mormons. The order read in part: “The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary.” (Boldface added.)
WHAT DESPERATION LOOKS LIKE: Biden to campaign for Heitkamp days before North Dakota election.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will campaign in North Dakota alongside Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D) on Nov. 1, as the senator fights to hang onto her seat in a deep-red state.
Biden will kick off the “Bring it Home, Heidi!” five-day statewide tour in Fargo next Thursday in the final days of the midterm elections.
His visit comes as the race has been trending more towards Republicans, which improves GOP chances of hanging onto their slim 51-49 seat majority.
Heitkamp faces a tough reelection race against Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) in a state that President Trump won by nearly 36 points in 2016. Recent public polls show Heitkamp trailing Cramer by double-digit margins.
Hmm.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: UN report calls Bay Area homeless crisis human rights violation — Special rapporteur cites SF and Oakland along with worst slums in the world.
Found via “Comfortably Smug,” who tweets, “We need a coalition of the willing to go into San Francisco for regime change.”
Earlier: California Ranks as Poorest State, One of the Worst for Income Inequality. “Want a liberal utopia? This is what it looks like.”
IT DOESN’T MATTER, THEY CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES: Blaming Trump, GOP could backfire for Dems.
MEDIA MAN TELLS WOMAN SHE’S PAID TOO MUCH: CNN’s Stelter: Megyn Kelly Was ‘Paid Too Much’ at NBC.
ABOUT TIME SOMEONE DID THIS: Tech Community Outraged after SQLite Founder Adopts Benedictine Code of Conduct. Stop the SJW onslaught on our places of fun and our places of business. Don’t give them an inch. Not one. They’re parasites who produce nothing and destroy every field they infect.
AREN’T THEY NOW? IF REPORTS ARE CORRECT, THEY ARE PIPE BOMBS PACKAGED IN PLASTIC AND ATTACHED TO A DIGITAL CLOCK THAT HAS NO ALARM AND THEREFORE NO WAY TO DETONATE. IN FACT, THE ONLY WAY THOSE “BOMBS” ARE DANGEROUS IS IF THE RECIPIENT DETONATES THEM ON PURPOSE AND THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN IS GETTING AN EYE POKED OUT BY A PIECE OF PLASTIC. THE FBI EITHER LACKS AN UNDERSTANDING OF RUDIMENTARY PHYSICS OR IS NO LONGER SERIOUS: Wray on Package Bombs: ‘These Are Not Hoax Devices’.
I BELIEVE THEY CALL THIS DHIMMITUDE: Insulting Islam Now Illegal in Europe.
CONTRARY TO WHAT THE MEDIA AND THE DEMS (BIRM) WILL TELL YOU THE MOST SALIENT THING ABOUT THE CRAZY IN FLORIDA WHO SENT THE DUD BOMBS IS NOT THAT HE’S A TRUMP FAN OR A REGISTERED REPUBLICAN. IT’S THAT HE’S A KNOWN WOLF: Our under-incarceration problem, explosive packages edition. Even if he’s apparently too insane to do any damage, he should have been somewhere he couldn’t even attempt it.
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: Buyers Remorse? NBC And CNN Suddenly BackPedal On Michael Avenatti.
CORRUPTION AND INSANITY, THAT’S WHAT: What hath #MeToo wrought?
October 26, 2018
BUT THEY FIRED JAMES DAMORE FOR MAKING TRUTHFUL GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: Google reportedly paid Android creator millions after sex misconduct claim. “Google is about to pay Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, the last installment of his $90 million exit package — a golden parachute he received despite his being credibly accused of coercing a female employee into performing oral sex, it was revealed on Thursday.”
Don’t be evil. Unless, you know, it pays.
DON’T BUY INTO THE NARRATIVE: Don’t let the media and Democrats get away with it.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Insulting Islam Now Illegal in Europe. “Europe does not stand with Charlie Hebdo and never did. It was a pathetic lie and they all know it. #LEuropeNestPasCharlie.”
JERRY HENDRIX: THE NAVY WE NEED.
Everyone seems to remember Ronald Reagan’s 600-ship Navy from the 1980s, but few understand how precipitate the decline was following the demise of the Soviet Union. First the Bush/Clinton “peace dividend,” and then the nation’s focus on its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saw the Navy fall from 592 ships in 1989, to 350 in 1998, to its nadir of 271 in 2015. While this was playing out, both civilian and uniformed leaders made the argument that the Navy did not require large numbers of ships so long as the ships it retained were of the most advanced designs. This answer appeared valid, in theory, but the reality was that a smaller fleet simply could not be everywhere we needed it to be at once.
The result has been a slow unraveling of the maritime order of free trade and free navigation that the United States and its Navy struggled so hard to build over the previous 70 years. The current situation recalls the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement first advanced by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in the early 1980s. The theory took its name from the phenomenon wherein an unrepaired broken window acts as a psychological invitation to break other windows. Kelling and Wilson argued that police could control crime by maintaining a general sense of order in their communities, with cooperation from the communities themselves. This entailed patrolling on foot rather than by car — so that officers would be seen as part of the neighborhood — and by taking “quality of life” offenses seriously.
Between 2001 and 2016, when the Navy was shrinking rapidly, the United States’ strategic focus was firmly locked on its counterterrorism wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. Most of the Navy’s deploying ships were either moving towards those conflicts or returning home from them, leaving entire maritime “neighborhoods” unpatrolled — and windows started to break.
I had some related thoughts in this column.
IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Mind’s quality control center found in long-ignored brain area.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: FBI undercover agent billed for food, drinks at Andrew Gillum fundraiser, documents show. “The Forward Florida PAC would eventually become the war chest for Gillum’s gubernatorial campaign. It is the first piece of evidence linking an ongoing FBI probe to Gillum’s broader campaign for statewide office. The emails and receipts released Friday as part of a supplemental records request from the Florida Commission on Ethics show that the agent, Mike Miller, was invoiced $4,386 by 101 Restaurant and Mint Lounge, a restaurant owned by lobbyist Adam Corey at the time. An email exchange shows that Miller paid the bill and that Gillum sent him a personal thank you note for the food.”
ANDREW GILLUM: WHEN POLICE REACH FOR A WEAPON, THEY’VE ALREADY HAD TO GO TOO FAR.
In 2016 Trump had Rick Scott working hard on his behalf as governor and he ended up winning the state by 1.2 points. In 2020 it’s likely the Democratic nominee will have Gov. Gillum in their corner plus a whole lot of Puerto Rican voters displaced from the island after Hurricane Maria. That’s 29 electoral votes hanging by a thread. And that thread might fray if Gillum himself ends up the VP nominee, with Democrats counting on him to deliver his home state. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Florida gubernatorial may be the single most consequential election in the country next month.
Read the whole thing.
JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: NBC Knew That Third Kavanaugh Accuser’s Claim Was Trash In September.
Related: “Oh cool — TIME sat on that Avenatti ‘white male’ quote since June 25.”
STACY MCCAIN ON “THE ULTIMATE ‘FLORIDA MAN:’” “[A] Filipino-American who pretended to be a Seminole, worked as a male stripper for a fake Chippendales company, used steroids, suffered from mental illness, hated his mother and terrorized the country by sending fake bombs through the mail. We’re living in Heinlein’s ‘Crazy Years’ . . .”
And from Twitchy, another example of peak 2018 reached: Cesar Sayoc is the third stripper-related political story of 2018.
THAT ADVANCES IN DETECTION HAVE OUTRUN OUR THRESHOLDS: Microplastics Have Been Found in People’s Poop—What Does It Mean?
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“THE DEVIL IS IN OUR PHONES:” Silicon Valley People Keep Their Kids Away From Screens. “I am convinced the devil lives in our phones and is wreaking havoc on our children.”
Related: Social Media As Social Disease.
JOHN HINDERAKER: “I am in Washington to attend Turning Point USA’s first-ever Young Black Leadership Summit. Today’s highlight was a visit to the White House, where President Trump addressed the group in the East Room.” “Trump got a rapturous reception from the Turning Point audience, which sometimes bordered on the rowdy, to the president’s evident delight. . . . The crowd at the Turning Point summit is the Left’s worst nightmare–hundreds of young, articulate, thoughtful African-American conservatives. We chatted with some of them, mostly students from colleges across the country–a math major from Stanford, a filmmaker from Columbia, a political science major from DePaul. They sounded like pretty much any group of conservatives at a Trump rally: ‘USA! USA!’ ‘Build that wall!’ ‘Trump! Trump!’ In short, it was fun.”
POSTMODERN FEUDALISM: California Ranks as Poorest State, One of the Worst for Income Inequality. “Want a liberal utopia? This is what it looks like.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Self-Defense Against a Knife: Tips & Tactics from an Expert.
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RICK MORAN: Does Violent Rhetoric Beget Violence? Only if the Victims are Democrats. “The notion that rhetoric leads to violence has little basis in science and is not proved by the facts.”
FIVE DEMS WHO DON’T HAVE A CLUE ON THE CARAVAN: I know this will come as a shock to many of you but there are some major Democratic national leaders who really could use some tutoring on the national security aspects of the migrant march headed our way. If you see one of them on the street, please give them a hand.
GIVING FLORIDA MAN A RUN FOR HIS STOLEN MONEY: Wisconsin man “Segway Boy” accused of attempting to buy radioactive material with intent to kill.
Justin Tolomeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Milwaukee Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a news release Jeremy Ryan, 30, of the Town of Madison has been charged with attempted possession of radioactive material with intent to cause death.
Ryan allegedly attempted to buy the lethal dose in March and October of 2018. He was arrested on Tuesday.
Ryan, who was dubbed “Segway Boy” faced multiple felony drug charges in 2016. He got the nickname after he was seen riding a Segway around the state capitol in 2011 taunting Republican lawmakers.
He also attempted a congressional run against Paul Ryan in 2012.
This one is actually a couple of days old, but seems to have gotten lost in the flood of pipe “bomb” stories.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Primary care doctors ‘not doing enough’ to curb STDs. “Nationally, reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are at an all-time high, CDC data show. In one year, from 2016 to 2017, nationwide rates of chlamydia rose by 7 percent, gonorrhea by 19 percent and syphilis by 11 percent.”
Joseph Shepard’s Sugar Creek Capital, a company he founded, was listed in 2013 as an “Equity Investor (State)” and was the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) syndicator for the Salvation Army St. Louis Garrison Residence in Missouri.
The development, designed specifically for homeless veterans and dubbed a “permanent solution” to the problem, received $815,000 in federal LIHTCs and $250,000 in state LIHTCs.
But the residence attempted to evict at least five former homeless veterans between 2015 and 2016 for owing rent, according to documents obtained by Fox News.
In April 2016, the Salvation Army St. Louis Garrison Residence filed an eviction lawsuit against Raymond Black for failing to pay $233.25 in rent.
In the same month, another veteran, Raymond Godfrey was sued for failing to pay $1,065 in rent. In July 2016, Henry Goss was threatened with eviction from the apartment for owing $290 in rent.
That’s not going to play very well with Missouri voters.
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HMM: ACE inhibitors linked to increased risk for lung cancer. “After accounting for factors that might influence the findings, such as age, gender, weight, smoking, drinking and history of lung disease, Azoulay’s team found that ACE inhibitors were tied to a 14 percent increased risk for lung cancer. The risk for lung cancer was seen after five years of taking these drugs. For those who took them for more than 10 years, the risk increased to 31 percent, the researchers found. A specialist not involved with the new study said patients taking ACE inhibitors should not worry because the benefits of these drugs far outweigh any risk for lung cancer.”
DIVERSITY IS THEIR STRENGTH: Italy in shock as third African migrant arrested in gang rape and homicide case of teen girl.
STILL SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES ON AMAZON: Militant Normals: How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy.
THAT’S A RELIEF: Go Ahead and Dress Up Your Chickens for Halloween, CDC Says.
I WAS WARNING ABOUT THIS AS FAR BACK AS 1988: Oops! Civilian Satellite Data Inadvertently Pinpoints Military Radars.
PRIVACY: Apple Reportedly Blocked Police iPhone Hacking Tool and Nobody Knows How. Say what you will about Apple and Tim Cook — no, really, go ahead — but they’re much better on privacy than Google/Android.
COLD WAR II HAS INTERESTING NEW PARAMETERS: China to U.S.: My Tax Cut Is Bigger Than Yours. “China is turning to its consumers to boost growth this time around— not just buildings and bridges.”
It’s a moral imperative that America doesn’t get left behind in the race to cut taxes.
ROGER KIMBALL: Bombgate and the new species of political theatre.
THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP: Liberal Darlings Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel And Sarah Silverman All Wore Blackface.
THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR: How A KGB Double Agent Saved Britain And Won The Cold War For The West.
In his new book The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, veteran espionage historian Ben MacIntyre confirms a troubling decision—or lack thereof—that some had suspected for years. This is the fact that in 1983 the man overseeing both British spy services MI6 and MI5, head of British Civil Service Robert Armstrong, knew that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s main opponent in the upcoming election was a KGB agent and did not tell her.
Labor Party leader, member of Parliament, and former employment secretary Michael Foot had been a paid KGB agent for decades, and was still on the KGB books as an agent of influence when he headed the British Labor Party and ran against Thatcher for leadership of England in 1983. Foot would have become prime minister if Labor had won.
MI6 told MI5, its domestic sister agency, and MI5 told Armstrong, but Armstrong kept Foot’s duplicity to himself. Nobody informed Thatcher.
James Comey, call your office.