Archive for 2016

SHELDON ADELSON: I Endorse Donald Trump For President. “After the 2012 election cycle, I was asked frequently what I would look for in a future presidential contender. While I had some personal preferences because of friendships with some of the 2016 candidates, I kept coming back to the issue of executive experience. . . . It turns out that is exactly what we are getting in Trump. He is a candidate with actual CEO experience, shaped and molded by the commitment and risk of his own money rather than the public’s. He is a CEO success story that exemplifies the American spirit of determination, commitment to cause and business stewardship.”

THEY HATE US, THEY REALLY HATE US! “On Wednesday, CBS News announced that Morley Safer, 60 Minutes’ longest-serving correspondent, will officially retire this week.” Geoffrey Dickens writes at NewsBusters. Among the 84 year old’s many punitive liberal utterances, Safer ”denigrated the United States ‘as the most ill-informed nation about the rest of the world’ and deemed the phrase ‘God bless America’ was really just ‘code’ for ‘God bless us and screw you.’”

Related: Jon Stewart: ‘When Was America Great?’

Apparently, just as Safer tacitly states that his industry has failed in its role to inform the nation, Stewart similarly believes that FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton and Obama are all failed presidencies — both of which are awfully harsh assessments of your fellow leftists, fellas.

ASHE SCHOW: A Rift At The American Law Institute.

A large group of member of the American Law Institute have written a letter in opposition to an upcoming vote that would vastly expand the definition of sexual assault in the legal system.

The letter, signed by nearly 120 members, including lawyers, judges and law professors, highlights several concerns regarding a draft model penal code that ALI members will vote to adopt on May 17. I previously wrote about issues with the draft, but was assured by an ALI member that many of my concerns have been addressed in the current version.

The ALI members who signed this letter have copies of the draft that will be voted on this month, and it turns out there are still dangerous issues that have not been addressed that will turn every sexually active American into a criminal overnight.

For starters, the draft has rebranded the “affirmative consent” standard previously criticized as “communicated willingness.” Whatever you want to call it, it requires each person involved in sexual activity to essentially treat sex like a question-and-answer session, with each party asking question after question and receiving a clear reply before escalating the activity. This is not how sex works, and the signers of the opposition letter write that such language creates a starting presumption that sex is a crime.

If the ALI passes this, the Institute, and the drafters, should be shamed and shunned by all decent people.

HUH, I THOUGHT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE WASN’T A REALITY TV SHOW: “‘There’s Donald Trump’s plane at Reagan National Airport and we’ll continue to monitor the takeoff of that plane.’ — Wolf Blitzer just now.”

Trump and an airplane and an airport – we may have just reached peak CNN.

THE GUARDIAN WAS RIGHT: Facebook’s Curators Shape ‘Trending’ News Feature.

Facebook Thursday published the 28-page editorial guidelines for the trending feature, hours after the Guardian published a similar document. Disclosing the guidelines, and an accompanying blog post, marked Facebook’s latest effort to quell concerns that it manipulates the trending feature for political purposes.

Together, the documents underscored tensions between Facebook’s view of itself as an open platform for the exchange of ideas and the way it often functions as a traditional publisher, by selecting and highlighting certain news stories over others.

In a blog post, Justin Osofsky, vice president of Facebook’s global operations, said the trending topics team is guided by principles that are “consistent with Facebook’s deep commitment to being a platform for people of all viewpoints.”

Then why go to such lengths to pretend otherwise?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Could Facebook Swing An Election?

SPENDING: Apple invests $1B in Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing app.

In an interview with Reuters, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We are making the investment for a number of strategic reasons, including a chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market. Of course, we believe it will deliver a strong return for our invested capital as well.”

Didi Chuxing told Reuters that this is its single largest round of funding so far. It claims to currently complete more than 11 million rides a day and have over 14 million drivers on its platform. The company’s other major investors include Tencent and Alibaba, two of China’s largest Internet companies, and SoftBank.

You have to wonder if this is the best time to be sinking that much money into China.

FUNNY, I DON’T RECALL SIMILAR HEADLINES REGARDING THE WAPO AND KERRY, OBAMA AND HILLARY: Washington Post assigns army of 20 to dig into ‘every phase’ of Trump’s life.

“Notice how they didn’t do this earlier when Trump first started doing well in the polls. And I wonder how many reporters they have on the Clintons,” Betsy Newmark adds.

Related: Yes, Trump’s butler sounds like a flaming racist nutjob, but why no MSM freakout over THESE guys?

NO. NEXT QUESTION?

Shot: GOP, Chamber of Commerce and Fox News: Did They Play a Role in the Fertilizer Plant Deaths?

—The Huffington Post, April 26, 2013.

Chaser: “Today, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives made a mockery of all of that, for it announced that it had concluded that the explosion was ‘a criminal act.’ Not an accident, not an example of insufficient regulation, but arson, murder, and possibly terrorism.”

Blueberry Town, Wednesday.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Former Colorado teacher sentenced to 7 years for sex with boy. “Tuesday afternoon Katerina Bardos, a former fourth-grade teacher at Frontier Academy, was sentenced to the seven years in the department of corrections followed by five years of parole as a part of a plea agreement. . . . Weld District Judge Marcelo Kopcow said Tuesday Bardos had admitted to having sex with the child between 40 and 50 times over the course of a year.”