NORTH KOREA AND SYRIA: Two hereditary dictatorships.
RELATED: “China is increasingly angry at Koreans in general for not showing sufficient respect.”
Archive for 2017
April 12, 2017
RUSSIA DENIES SYRIA USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS: The U.S. blasts Russia’s denial.
A question CNN will never ask: “Why is Putin covering for Obama?”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Amidst 71% Enrollment Decline, Florida Coastal Seeks To Avoid Fate Of Its Sister Law Schools Arizona Summit And Charlotte.
IT’S ALWAYS THE RUSSIANS WITH THESE PEOPLE: Foreign hacking during Brexit referendum can’t be ruled out, report says.
BUT WHAT ABOUT HILLARY’S NARRATIVE? Putin says trust between the U.S. and Russia “has not become better but most likely has degraded” since Trump became president.
THIS. IS. CNN. Mainstream Scream: CNN talker compares Assad to Cheney.
It came from Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill who was on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday talking about Assad’s use of poison gas and the media coverage of the U.S. military strike. He ripped the media, even CNN talking heads, then ended with this:
“Bashar al-Assad was a brutal thug when he was torturing prisoners on behalf of the CIA. Saddam Hussein was America’s friend when he was using chemical weapons. We need to have more than just the immediate crisis memory. We need to understand the historical context of how a butcher like Assad actually has more in common with someone like Dick Cheney than he does with the average Syrian or the people that are on these airwaves as brave reporters.”
What a putz.
THE HILL: Clinton campaign plagued by bickering.
She’d been humiliated in the Michigan primary the night before, a loss that not only robbed her of a prime opportunity to put Bernie Sanders down for good but also exposed several of her weaknesses. How could she have been left so vulnerable? She knew — or at least she thought she did. The blame belonged to her campaign team, she believed, for failing to hone her message, energize important constituencies and take care of business in getting voters to the polls. And now, Jake Sullivan, her de facto chief strategist, was giving her lip about the last answer she’d delivered in the prep session.
“That’s not very good,” Sullivan corrected.
“Really?” Hillary snapped back.
The room fell silent.
“Why don’t you do it?”
The comment was pointed and sarcastic, but she meant it. So for the next 30 minutes, there he was, pretending to be Hillary while she critiqued his performance.
Every time the Yale lawyer and former high school debate champ opened his mouth, Hillary cut him off. “That isn’t very good,” she’d say. “You can do better.” Then she’d hammer him with a Bernie line.
Read the whole thing.
AT AMAZON, Deals in Office Products.
WHY ARE LEFTIST INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF CRUELTY AND BULLYING? University Of Wisconsin Faculty Survey Finds Widespread Bullying: Does Reward System Breed ‘Academic Assholes’?
A HANDSOME APOLOGY FROM DANIEL DREZNER: I was wrong about Jeff Sessions. “The context is clear: Sessions was going to use ‘filth’ to describe MS-13 and drug cartels, not all illegal immigrants crossing the border. One might think, like I do, that the language is hyperbolic, but in context it did not imply what I thought it implied in my tweet. Furthermore, as it turns out, Sessions didn’t even say the word ‘filth’ in his speech.”
When you start with the assumption that your political opponents are, well, filth, it’s easy to make errors like that.
THE NATION HEADLINE: A Big Win for Voting Rights in Texas and a Big Loss for Trump.
ALTERNATE HEADLINE: Obama Judicial Appointee Frustrates White House Attempt to Clean Up Texas Voter Fraud.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, EXPLOITATION EDITION: You won’t believe how much money colleges make on rejected applications. “Harvard alone makes nearly $3 million in gross profits off of rejected applications each year, according to a new study conducted by UCEazy, a company that assists first generation immigrants with the college application and admission process.”
SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE PRICIEST WORD: Melania Trump Wins Payout and Apology From U.K.’s Daily Mail.
The August 2016 article entitled “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump” contained untrue allegations “which questioned the nature of her work as a model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling,” John Kelly said reading a statement in a London court Wednesday. “The allegations “strike at the heart of the claimant’s personal integrity and dignity,” he said.
The First Lady is understood to have won a payout close to $3 million, according to a person familiar with the settlement, who asked not to be named because the amount isn’t public. The Guardian newspaper reported the damages figure earlier.
President Donald Trump’s spouse filed a suit against the British newspaper in the U.S. for $150 million alleging the article caused “tremendous harm” to her reputation and making it almost impossible to take advantage of “major business opportunities” available “for a multi-year term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.”
“The defendant acknowledges that these claims about the claimant are untrue, and we retract and withdraw them,” Catrin Evans, a lawyer for Associated Newspapers, said in court. Associated Newspapers is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust Plc.
HOW CAN WE MISS HIM IF HE WON’T GO AWAY? Obama fingerprints at DNC?
Former President Obama’s White House political director is informally providing strategic advice to leaders at the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
David Simas, who is now CEO of the Obama Foundation, is close with DNC Chairman Tom Perez and has been in regular contact with Sam Cornale, a top adviser to Perez.
A source who has been involved in the transition said Simas has provided strategic advice on hiring decisions.
The new chairman has asked for resignation letters from most DNC staff as he begins the process of building his own team, although so far the DNC has only unveiled its communications team.
The talks with one of Obama’s most prominent political aides underscore the delicate line walked by the DNC as it charts a way forward after a divisive presidential primary battle last year.
Any conversations between Perez and political figures who are viewed as being part of the establishment can be greeted with suspicion by liberal Democrats, who want to see the DNC stocked with progressives after the organization tilted the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last year during the presidential campaign.
Perez, Obama’s Labor secretary, was seen as the former president’s favored candidate in the race for the chairmanship earlier this year. Progressives were disappointed when he defeated Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who ran with the support of Sanders.
It’s Obama’s personal party.
MICHAEL GOODWIN: Trump won’t definitively say he still backs Bannon.
“I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary.”
He ended by saying, “Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will.”
That’s the same thing Trump said to Beijing about North Korea.
MORNING BRIEF: Liz Sheld has you covered at Hot Mic.
MAY I DRAG YOU FROM YOUR SEAT? “It’s time that corporate executives do some self-examination into their own role in losing public trust. The customer isn’t always right. But an airline that assaults a customer is always wrong.”
April 11, 2017
SPECIAL ELECTION: Republicans hold Kansas House seat with late Trump support.
AT AMAZON, deals on Wine.
THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED: Bed bugs resistant to more pesticides, study finds. Funny, bedbugs had been eradicated when I was a kid. What happened?
IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE: 6 things you should know about boob jobs — from women who’ve had them.
MYRON MAGNET: Did a Revolution Just Occur? Thoughts on the Gorsuch confirmation. This was more of a successful holding action. It won’t really be a revolution until Ruth Bader Ginsburg is replaced by Eugene Volokh.