AT AMAZON, save in Health and Personal Care.
WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-DOMINATED COMPANIES SUCH CESSPITS OF RACISM? Women say they quit Google because of racial discrimination: ‘I was invisible’.
I really think we need a federal investigation of Google’s employment practices. They sound like a terrible place to work. On the other hand, if the most important thing about a job to you is that you “belong” and that you don’t “have to prove yourself,” maybe you need to rethink.
LESS-THAN-SHOCKING NEWS: A Shot of Caffeine May Speed Wake-Up After Anesthesia.
PROCUREMENT: Northrop, Boeing Win Initial Deal to Replace Land-Based Nuclear ICBMs.
After the 36-month risk reduction phase, a single company will be chosen for the engineering and manufacturing development in 2020.
“We are moving forward with modernization of the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad,” said Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said. “Our missiles were built in the 1970s. Things just wear out, and it becomes more expensive to maintain them than to replace them. We need to cost-effectively modernize,” she said in the release.
“As others have stated, the only thing more expensive than deterrence is fighting a war. The Minuteman III is 45 years old. It is time to upgrade,” added Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein.
The Air Force is responsible for two out of the three legs of the nuclear triad. It expects to deploy GBSD in the late 2020s.
There’s some debate on whether we still need a land-based ICBM force when our submarine-based SLBM nukes are nearly as accurate, but advances in computing technology could rob our “boomer” fleet of its invisibility.
IT’S ON: Breitbart Slams Trump ‘Flip-Flop’ on Afghanistan.
Gail Wynand could not be reached for comment.
TRUMP’S AFGHAN STRATEGY: New essay by Jeff Goodson, this one in The Hill.
President Trump’s deliberative approach to formulating a new Afghanistan strategy has drawn fire from every corner of the political spectrum. That ended Monday night, when he announced a new long-term approach to Afghanistan and South Asia designed to achieve an ‘honorable and enduring outcome.’
In a major break with the past, Trump’s ‘principled realism’ strategy, is conditions-based rather than driven by arbitrary timelines. It will employ military, diplomatic and economic instruments of power, but eschews nation-building and curtails the pursuit of democracy as an end in itself.
It will aggressively ramp up pressure on Pakistan, develop a strategic partnership with India on economic development in Afghanistan and greatly strengthen counterterrorism operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre of the Islamic holy war. The government of Afghanistan will, conditionally, be required to carry its share of the economic, military and governance burden.
Note Goodson’s bio — between 2006 and 2012 he spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. That gives this line extra bite: “Political snipers will re-focus on the substance of the strategy, but for the first time in years, there is a blueprint for moving forward in Afghanistan that makes strategic sense.”
Read the whole thing.
SPOUSAL ABUSE: Spouse Criticism May Worsen Chronic Low Back Pain.
BIG WORDS: Taliban Vow Jihad with ‘Lofty Spirits,’ ‘Graveyard for the American Empire’ After Trump Speech.
If Trump is serious about really loosening up the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan, then maybe the old Mike Tyson quote is apropos here: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
U.S. IMPOSES NEW NORTH KOREA-RELATED SANCTIONS ON CHINESE AND RUSSIAN COMPANIES: And on some individuals as well.
The United States is imposing new North Korea-related sanctions, targeting Chinese and Russian firms and individuals for supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programs, U.S. officials announced on Tuesday, but stopped short of an anticipated focus on Chinese banks.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated six Chinese-owned entities, one Russian, one North Korean and two based in Singapore. They included a Namibia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company and a North Korean entity operating in Namibia.
Six individuals including four Russians, one Chinese and one North Korean were targeted, the Treasury Department said.
It’s coercive diplomacy, with the goal of squeezing the nukes out of North Korea.
AT AMAZON, save on Women’s Lingerie & Sleepwear. Including the Amazon Personal Bra Boutique.
DAVE MAJUMDAR: The U.S. Navy’s Greatest Enemy Might Be Exhaustion.
“The U.S. combat fleet is already over-stretched,” Seth Cropsey, director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute told The National Interest.
“Being short of two Aegis-equipped DDGs that provide ballistic missile defense while North Korea is threatening to launch ballistic missiles at local U.S. targets or allies is deeply unhelpful and regrettably timed. The overall impact on the Navy should be measured not only in the loss of sailors’ lives and unavailability of the ships as they are repaired but in the possibility that requirements have exceeded capabilities so far that the training needed to avoid such accidents has been impaired.”
Bryan McGrath, managing director of the naval consultancy FerryBridge Group, agreed with Cropsey’s assessment.
“Two fewer DDGs—I believe both of which are BMD equipped—leaves a sizable hole in a fleet that is already too small for what is being asked of it in the Western Pacific,” McGrath told The National Interest.
“I imagine that the Navy will have to move ships out of their regular cycles from Hawaii and CONUS [continental United States] to cover down on Pacific requirements.”
It will not be easy to cover for the loss of the two destroyers, explains Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
“With two FDNF (Forward Deployed Naval Forces) DDGs out, the Navy would either need to forego some operations, work the remaining 10 cruisers and destroyers harder, or bring ships from Hawaii or CONUS to cover for them,” Clark told The National Interest.
Indeed, the fact that the Navy is forcing its fleet to do more with fewer ships to perform its global mission might have contributed to both collisions.
The value of our seaborne trade increases every year, but the oceans remain the same size and our Navy has shrunk considerably.
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Vague Yet Imminent Malaise. “If leaders have been kicking the can down the road the palliative benefits of altering the database, fudging the reports, cooking the books, cheating the tests and cultivating the Narrative only guarantee that the dam when it bursts will release a flood, not a trickle. Eventually the self deception fails and fails big time. Sooner or later the filter clogs up and Narrative is propelled face first into the 100 million ton iceberg of reality.”
JOURNALISM AS NARRATIVE CONTROL: James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History.
We’ve been hearing a lot about “right-wing violence” lately. If we’re to believe our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters, there’s a Klansman on every street corner and a Nazi under every bed. There’s nothing more terrifying than a “white nationalist” who lives in his mom’s basement, which is why it’s okay for feral Antifa children to beat these guys up and drench them with balloons filled with piss. It’s “self-defense.”
But what happens when an act of violence is irrefutably motivated by left-wing ideology? What happens if, for example, a Bernie Bro named James T. Hodgkinson shoots at a bunch of congressmen for the explicit reason that he hates Republicans and wants them dead? How do we fit that into the preferred narrative?
We can’t. There’s no way. So we just leave it out entirely.
Well, for certain values of “we.” But it’s sad to see this even from the WSJ. Plus:
If James T. Hodgkinson had been a Trump supporter who shot and almost killed a Democratic congressman for political reasons, he’d be the most infamous man in America. But now, just two months after his attempt to murder a group of Republican lawmakers, he’s not even worth mentioning.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think the press is sad that Hodgkinson didn’t succeed.
Think of them as Democratic Party operatives with bylines and you won’t go far wrong. Even at the WSJ, it seems.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Nazi-Hunting Fantasies Have Unhinged The Left: After Charlottesville, the Left’s tendency to smear anyone who disagrees with them as a Nazi is spiraling to the point of paranoid insanity. “Believe me, the arguments about how Nazis don’t have free speech rights and how it’s okay to punch them sound much more ominous if anyone has ever called you a Nazi just because he doesn’t like your stand on single-payer health care.”
Remember, the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. Plus, an important Twilight Zone reference.
EVERYTHING IS NOT PROCEEDING QUITE AS ARTHUR C. CLARKE HAS FORESEEN: Scientists Say It’s Raining Diamonds on Neptune and Uranus.
(Classical reference in the headline.)
AT AMAZON, on sale, Rain-Mate Compact Travel Umbrella – Windproof.
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS: Cancer, Herpes, Metformin and the FDA. More breakthroughs, please.
AFGHANS ENCOURAGED BY TRUMP SPEECH, PAKISTANIS STUNG BY CRITICISM: Well, providing safe havens for the Taliban rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
PERHAPS SARAH HOYT WILL LET ME BORROW HER SHOCKED FACE: Renewable Energy Is Not as Clean as You Think.
Solar and wind combined account for barely a fifth of electricity generation define as renewable. More than 70 percent of it comes from hydropower.
That’s according to International Energy Agency numbers for 2015, the latest figures available. Hydro isn’t the only surprising energy source dominating renewable energy stats: In the U.S., Canada, the EU and China, as well as the global average, more power is generated from biofuels (such as the combustion of wood pellets in power plants or burning off landfill gas) than from solar panels.
So when talking about renewable power, the media might need to change their stock images from turbines and panels to hydroelectric dams and burning logs.
Save the planet. Build a dam.
JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES, THEY SWEAR: Wake Up — Mitch & Paul! Stop Snoozing, Keep Your Promises.
ANOTHER OBAMA MISTAKE WITH DIRE CONSEQUENCES: Iran says it can produce enriched uranium within days.
Obama’s nuclear arrangement (very bad deal) with the ayatollahs didn’t force them to give up capabilities and it imposed no penalties on the regime for belligerent misbehavior — like playing speedboat bluff with the U.S. Navy. Thank goodness for the USS Thunderbolt and her sharp crew.
GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK MOSTLY: Who Owns the Internet?
THEY DO NOT HOLD TO THAT: Joss Whedon fan site shuts down after ex-wife’s critical essay.
The popular Joss Whedon fan site announced Monday it is “closing down” and will become a read-only site “at some stage” in the future. The site was a discussion board hub for all things related to The Avengers director and Firefly showrunner, who has inspired a passionate and loyal fan community that few writer-producers in Hollywood can match.
Recently, Whedon — who has supported and espoused feminist causes and created strong female characters throughout his career — has been under fire among some fans after his ex-wife, Kai Cole, wrote a guest blog for The Wrap alleging her former husband is a “hypocrite preaching feminist ideals.”
The two were married in the 1990s, separated in 2012 and finalized their divorce in 2016. Cole accused her ex of a “secret affair” on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and claimed Whedon “hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans, and friends.” Cole said she wrote the blog “to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be.” Whedon issued a statement saying the blog “includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations,” but also that he won’t comment “out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife.”
Whedon is a talented writer and director of female-empowerment and libertarian themes, but that’s all fantasy and science fiction.
DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Erdogan to German Turks: German Politicians Are The Enemy.
The past year has seen the relationship between Europe and Turkey grow increasingly toxic. Turkey’s President Erdogan repeatedly used Europe as a foil during his presidential powers referendum. When the Netherlands forced Turkish campaigners out of the country, Turks responded by stabbing and squeezing oranges. . . .
But much of that animus seemed to be directed at achieving a specific political goal. Now, ahead of the German elections, Erdogan is taking aim at Germany, and by extension Europe, more generally.
It’s like they don’t intend to assimilate themselves to Germany, but rather to assimilate Germany to themselves.
WELL, WHY WOULDN’T THEY? Homeland Security secretary: Border walls work. Yuma sector proves it. People have been building walls for thousands of years for a reason.
FRED KAPLAN: Killing Terrorists Is Not a Strategy.
For now at least I’ll defer to Gen. George S. Patton: “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week,” and hope that Ralph Peters is wrong — even though on these things he usually isn’t.
SO CHANGE THE LAW. WHAT ARE THOSE REPUBLICAN MAJORITIES FOR? ‘You’re Fired’ may be harder than Trump thinks when it comes to federal workers.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Mizzou suffering brutal long-term impacts of 2015 protests. “As classes begin this week, freshmen enrollment is down 35% since the protests, according to the latest numbers the university has publicly released. Mizzou is beginning the year with the smallest incoming class since 1999. Overall enrollment is down by more than 2,000 students, to 33,200. The campus has taken seven dormitories out of service.”
AT AMAZON, fresh New Releases, updated hourly.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump Hysteria and An Eclipse: Welcome to the “Crazy Years.”
UNWRITING HISTORY: Kasich Administration Quietly Removes Painting of Confederate General from State Park.
General John Hunt Morgan was memorialized for his failed raid into Ohio, which for thinking Ohioans might be something to celebrate.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION, ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN EDITION: EXCLUSIVE: Anti-Trump AG Raked In Campaign Donations From An Oil Tycoon With Ties To Putin.
AUSTRALIAN ALLY IN ACTION: An Australian Air Force KC-30A Voyager refuels a USAF C-17 Globemaster III. Australia also flies the C-17.
SEMPER FORTIS, BUT NOT TODAY: Navy to Pause Operations, Review Collisions, With 10 Missing.
Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, made the announcement about the operational pause during a nearly four-minute video message posted on Facebook Monday morning. Adm. Richardson said he also ordered a broader investigation.
“I directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world,” Adm. Richardson said. “I want our fleet commanders to get together with their leaders and their commands to ensure that we are taking all appropriate immediate actions to ensure safe and effective operations around the world.”
Such a pause applies to operations and patrols of the Navy’s six fleets. Specifics of the pause are at the discretion of fleet commanders, officials said.
The loss of ten sailors and the disabling of a warship is serious. An “operational pause” for the entire US Navy is more serious — and lends some credence to theories that the Navy’s recent mishaps might be the result of a sort-of dress rehearsal for a digital Pearl Harbor.
LIKE ME, RALPH PETERS WAS UNDERWHELMED BY TRUMP’S AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY: I hope Trump is right (and I’m wrong) on Afghanistan.
SALENA ZITO ON TWITTER: “NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE I WROTE THIS PIECE A YEAR AGO.” Stumped by Trump’s success? Take a drive outside US cities.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I KIND OF WANT TO BE NORMAL: Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill thinks ‘normal people can afford’ private planes.
Sen. Claire McCaskill thinks that owning a private jet is “normal.” So put your tray tables up, because her comment to that effect could cause significant turbulence for the Missouri Democrat’s re-election campaign.
When a constituent noted that affordable air travel and the American dream are intertwined, McCaskill replied “will you remind that when they come after me about my husband’s private plane? That normal people can afford it.”
But most of Missouri can’t jet set like the senator. The average household earns about $50,000 per year. Accustomed to the finer things, McCaskill used to fly home on the weekends on an eight passenger Pilatus PC-12/45, a turboprop plane retailing around $2 million.
And as the well-heeled McCaskill busies herself with rebranding as a hard-nosed watchdog, her recent private jet comment ensures she’ll catch populist flack.
Republicans won’t let voters forget that the senator was forced to pay $300,000 in state property taxes on her private plane. The electorate will be reminded about the fact that their senator had to repay $88,000 to the Department of Treasury for her fuel and pilot fees.
Me, I want a G5.
THIS SEEMS WISE: Bergdahl Chooses to Have Trial Heard by Judge and Not Jury.
Bergdahl’s lawyers told the court in a brief filing last week that their client chose trial by judge alone, rather than a panel of officers. He faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy at his trial scheduled for late October at Fort Bragg. The latter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Defense attorneys declined to comment on the decision. But they previously questioned whether Bergdahl could get a fair trial by jury because of negative comments President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail.
Earlier this year the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance rejected a defense request to dismiss the case over Trump’s criticism of Bergdahl.
Potential jurors had already received a questionnaire including questions about their commander in chief, but defense attorneys weren’t allowed to ask jurors if they voted for Trump.
There don’t seem to be many skulls left where Trump isn’t living rent-free.
ON CHARLOTTESVILLE, TRUMP, AND ANTI-AMERICANISM, Jonah Goldberg writes:
Andy [McCarthy] writes, if you “dare notice the radical Left, you are not an observer of objective fact, you are a neo-Nazi sympathizer. If you dare notice that many of the ‘peaceful protesters’ were swinging batons and spraying chemicals, you need a re-education course in ‘unconscious racism.’”
* * * * * * * *
The funny thing is that if you actually read or listen to antifa, or virtually any of the radical groups today or in the past – ANSWER, Black Lives Matter, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers et al. – they make it quite clear that they want to be an alternative to mainstream or “corporate” liberalism. Even peaceful radicals of the Bernie Sanders stripe make that clear. They really are an “alt left” in a meaningful sense because to one extent or another they hate the market system, revile free speech and find common cause with anti-American forces here and abroad.
The problem is liberals don’t want to acknowledge it. They love the popular front logic. They celebrate the passion and will of everyone from Occupy Wall Street types to Antifa. Remember how hard it was for mainstream liberals to say anything bad about Bill Ayers?
Why is that?
Read the whole thing.
GOOD ADVICE: If you’re going to punch Nazis, first make sure they’re actually Nazis.
Want even better advice? Going around punching people, even strenuously bad people, just because you disagree with them, is kinda fascist.
CONDENSED TRAVEL EDITION: Liz Sheld’s morning brief.
I’M SO OLD I CAN REMEMBER WHEN “LOYALTY OATHS” WERE BAD: Clemson RAs ‘must demonstrate commitment to social justice.’ Given all the PC nonsense at Clemson lately, I’m surprised that the South Carolina legislature has shown so little interest.
IF IT IS, I DOUBT WE’LL HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT: Is Obamacare Fueling the Opioid Overdose Death Rate?
FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S THE TIMES: Red Century story makes me see red.
“Depending on whom you ask today, my grandfather’s story is that of a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy. The revolution asked a terrible amount of those who served it. Those who resisted paid a similarly awful price. It left in its wake countless lives, like my grandfather’s, that cannot be compassed by a single line.”
Such a statement doesn’t make up for the many facts omitted from his story, starting with the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed on Aug. 23, 1939, which directly led to Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1. A secret protocol of the treaty called for the partition of Poland, with Germany getting the western portion and the Soviets the east. The Soviets invaded on Sept. 17 to grab their half of the spoils.
Also left out is what happened to Poland in the roughly 21 months of Soviet rule. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported to Kazakhstan, Siberia and other points east during the occupation. Even worse, more than 22,000 military officers, politicians, professors, priests and other civic leaders were executed in what is collectively known as the Katyn Forest massacres.
Mikanowski writes that the Nazis in 1939 captured his grandfather, then a Polish soldier, but he escaped and made his way to Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Curiously, he doesn’t explain why Jakub didn’t halt his flight in Soviet-occupied Poland instead of going hundreds of miles to the east. Maybe Mikanowski didn’t want to bring up all that awkward partition business and Nazi-Soviet hanky panky.
So Mikanowski says it depends on your perspective whether Jakub, a Soviet pawn, was “a partisan, a traitor, a hero or a spy.”
The Times won’t stop running Communist sympathizer pieces until they stop being sympathetic to Communists.
THE HILL: Left-wing assassination fantasies spill over into real violence.
“I hope Trump is assassinated!” soon-to-be former State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote on Facebook.
She is now being investigated by the Secret Service. Even some Democrats are calling for the lawmaker to resign. Unfortunately, her remarks are just the tip of the left-wing meltdown that is turning into real and worsening violence.
Don’t believe me? Then you haven’t been paying close enough attention.
Police indicted more than 200 rioters from the violent protests surrounding President Trump’s inauguration. The riots injured six police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage. Some of the protesters face felony charges and covered their faces to hide their identities. Good ideas flourish in the sunlight. You don’t need a black mask if you have a point.
We’re dealing with cowards that deserve our scorn, not World War II vets who defeated the Third Reich.
I don’t think that “I hope Trump is assassinated” counts as a true threat, or a crime. But it’s certainly an “extremist” sentiment, and we’re supposed to be okay with violence against extremists now, right? At least I think so. Things are kind of confusing on that front. . . .
SCENES FROM RAHM EMANUEL’S CHICAGO: 63 Shot, 8 Dead In Chicago’s 2nd Most Violent Weekend Of 2017.
At least 63 people were shot in the city, and eight of them were killed, police said. More than half of them were wounded over 13 hours from Saturday to early Sunday. At least 16 more people were shot through the day Sunday, including three on the same street in South Austin.
The level of violence exceeded the 52 shot on the three-day Memorial Day but fell short of the 102 hit by gunfire over the long Fourth of July weekend, according to Tribune data. Still, fewer people have been shot in Chicago this year than at this time last year: 2,435 compared to 2,710.
So they’ve got that going for them.
DISPATCHES FROM THE JOHN BIRCH LEFT. When Every Republican Is a Crypto-Nazi:
The New York Times is engaged in an ongoing effort to rehabilitate Communism. For some inscrutable reason, it has published a series of articles nostalgic for the Soviet Union’s Gulag-filled past, most recently explaining “Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism” in East Germany.
So when I write that Lindy West — who did not author any of those articles — is becoming the craziest writer at the Times, I understand the gravity of the claim I am making.
Read the whole thing.
ANDREW MCCARTHY: The Very Strange Indictment of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s IT Scammers. “It leaves out a lot of pertinent information.”
Plus: “There are grounds to suspect blackmail, given (a) the staggering sums of money paid to the Awans over the years, (b) the sensitive congressional communications to which they had access, (c) the alleged involvement of Imran Awan and one of his brothers in a blackmail-extortion scheme against their stepmother, and (d) Wasserman Schultz’s months of protecting Awan and potentially impeding the investigation. There are also, of course, questions about stolen information. And there is, in addition, the question I raised a month ago: Why did the FBI and the Capitol Police allow Hina Alvi to leave the country on March 5 when there were grounds to arrest her at Dulles Airport? Why did they wait to charge her until last week — by which time she was safely in Pakistan, from which it will likely be impossible to extradite her for prosecution?”
It’s almost like they don’t really want to turn over this rock, because they know what’s under it.
Related: House Democrat’s Office Approved $120k Write-off Linked To Awan Brothers.
Flashback: House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data.
NEW ISIS THREAT TO SPAIN: ‘War Has Not Been Fought and Gone.’
WEIRD HOW THIS NEVER HAPPENED AT TEA PARTY RALLIES: In Charlottesville and elsewhere, U.S. journalists are being assaulted while covering the news. Note the Stockholm Syndrome though.
FROM AMANDA S. GREEN:Nocturnal Rebellion (Nocturnal Lives Book 5).
REMEMBERING HISTORY: Winning the peace.
FORGETTING HISTORY: Catalonia and terrorism; Spain and Moroccan immigration.
TOTALITARIANS GOT TO TOTALITARIAN: Internet free speech threatened.
PARENTS WHO THINK ATTRIBUTING THEIR INFANTILE THOUGHTS TO THEIR KIDS MAKES THEM MORE PROFOUND! No One Wants to Hear About Your Woke Elementary-Schooler.
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: Estimated $72 Million in Medicaid Payments Made to Ineligible Beneficiaries.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Trendy copper water bottles can make you sick.
IN DC? WHY ARE PROGRESSIVE-CONTROLLED CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF DISCRIMINATION AND ABUSE? Waiter won’t let gay couple share dessert because it doesn’t ‘look right’.
PAGING SENATOR MCCLUELESS: Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill thinks ‘normal people can afford’ private planes.
August 21, 2017
IF TRUMP’S SO UNPOPULAR, why haven’t Democrats capitalized on it?
AT AMAZON, save in Storage and Home Organization.
ANTIFA BOMBER arrested in Houston.
FULL TEXT OF TRUMP’S SPEECH. My own take: Go big or go home. 4,000 extra troops is an Obama-like approach.
BOB MCMANUS: Trouble Again at Sea: The collision of the USS John S. McCain is more evidence of a beleaguered Navy. “The idea that two Navy destroyers—the legendary greyhounds of the sea, lean, swift, and agile—could be run down and severely damaged by lumbering merchant vessels within two months is preposterously unlikely. Yet it has happened.”
Plus: “Considering the Navy’s current state, it should perhaps not be as surprising as it is. Today’s Navy has far fewer ships than it needs to carry out its assigned duties; its sailors are over-deployed and under-rested; its equipment is often obsolescent, and it is emerging from eight years under the leadership of a Navy secretary, Ray Mabus, whose social-justice priorities almost always took precedence over tradition, morale, training, and operational readiness.” Less of that, please.
BECAUSE PENN STATE’S UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION HAS PROVEN ITSELF SO GOOD AT HANDLING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT? Penn State president: ‘Self-governance’ for fraternities and sororities needs to end.
HOW MANY NURSES DOES IT TAKE to change a patient’s blood. “The rising demand for dialysis has led to a boom in outpatient clinics that specialize in it. Two companies in particular — DaVita, which operates 286 dialysis centers in California, and Fresenius Medical Care, which operates 127 — have captured 70% of the market nationally, turning the decline in kidney health into billions of dollars in annual profits. Those centers and their profits are now the subject of a pitched battle in Sacramento over proposals to supplement federal regulations on the centers with new state requirements. Unfortunately, the proposals would raise the cost of dialysis without necessarily improving it.” Shocking, that.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump Hysteria and An Eclipse: Welcome to the “Crazy Years.”
I THOUGHT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED: Pets may not improve kids’ health despite previous findings, according to new study.
THIS IS A BOON FOR DRUGMAKERS, I GUESS: Many more children will suddenly be diagnosed with high blood pressure. “The guidelines include updated blood pressure tables based on normal-weight children for more precise classifications of hypertension. As a result, more children will be categorized as needing treatment.” Plus: “The new recommendation is that ambulatory blood pressure should become standard practice in children after any abnormal in office reading, Flynn said.”
THIS IS TRUE FOR EVERYTHING EXCEPT TULLAMORE DEW, WHICH IS DEFINITELY BETTER NEAT: Chemists confirm that whiskey really does taste better with a splash of water.
ATTACK INTO THE AMBUSH: Ohio Judge Returns Fire After He Is Ambushed on Way to Court.
A judge in Ohio who was shot and injured in an ambush-style attack outside of a courthouse early on Monday managed to return fire with his own handgun before the suspect was shot dead by a probation officer nearby, officials said.
“This was ambush or attempted murder on our judge,” Sheriff Fred J. Abdalla said in an emotional interview with reporters that was broadcast on television.
The shooting took place just after 8 a.m. at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville when Judge Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr. was walking toward the building, the city manager, James Mavromatis, told a news conference.
Two suspects were waiting for the judge in a car at a bank parking lot, he said. One of the men got out of the car and opened fire, hitting the judge, Mr. Mavromatis said in a news conference that was broadcast live on WTOV.
The judge returned fire, and a probation officer nearby also opened fire at the attacker, killing the man, Mr. Mavromatis said. The other suspect was taken into custody.
The motive “was not immediately clear.”
REMEDIAL HUMANITY 101: Evergreen State College Adds Required Workshop on Civil Disagreement.
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: One Statistics Professor Was Just Banned By Google: Here Is His Story. “Fear is running wild about who is next and on what other social media platforms.”
I really think we need more antitrust scrutiny of these tech giants.
CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Democrats Need a Message, Not a Program.
HEADLINES FROM 2011: It’s Time To Take Bitcoin And Blockchain Technology Seriously.
Going back two decades, James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg predicted cryptocurrency (and much more) in their fin de siècle peek into the future, The Sovereign Individual. Much of their work has held up frighteningly well.
AT AMAZON, on sale, Nature Made, Vitamin D3 2,000 I.U. Liquid Softgels, 250-Count.
IN SOME CASES MORE THAN OTHERS:
● Shot: Charlie Daniels: Removing Confederate Statues Is Like ISIS Wrecking History.
—The Daily Beast, Friday.
● Chaser: Houston man charged with trying to plant bomb at Confederate statue in Hermann Park.
—The Houston Chronicle, today.
More on the suspect involved in the Chronicle’s story from Ken White of the Popehat legal blog at the PJM Hot Mic today, including this possibility: “That scenario — we gave dudebrah a break and he showed up later with explosives — is culturally a top prosecutorial fear.”
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Elon Musk backs call for global ban on killer robots.
AT AMAZON, save in Health and Personal Care.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Trump Hysteria and An Eclipse: Welcome to the “Crazy Years.”
BLUE ON BLUE: BLM member tells Antifa to take their masks off and get out of his city. They punch him and accuse him of being a cop.
Video at the link.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:
● Shot: Why can’t tech firms shut down terrorists as fast as they do Nazis?
—New York Post editorial, yesterday.
● Chaser: ‘No Enemies on the Left’ Is Still the Mantra of Too Many Liberals.
—John Fund, NRO, today.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING IN PERSONAL MED-TECH: Fitbit May Have a New Way To Detect an Irregular Heartbeat.