Archive for 2017
May 10, 2017
MY GOD, WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE HIM? Obama: You get the politicians you deserve.
PERSPECTIVE: Mexico’s drug-war death toll in 2016 reportedly exceeded murder levels in many countries mired in war.
With nearly 23,000 intentional homicides in 2016, Mexico’s murder tally was second only to war-torn Syria’s 60,000, said Antonio Sampaio, one of the authors of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ “Armed Conflict Survey 2017.”
The report deals a blow to to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s efforts to end Mexico’s deadly drug war, which has dragged on for more than a decade.
Iraq had roughly 17,000 murders, while Afghanistan had 16,000 last year, Sampaio added, noting that Mexico’s militarized drug battle increasingly resembles an armed conflict.
Good lord.
CLEMSON: Student gov to pursue mandatory LGBT ‘ally training’ for faculty. They told me if Trump were elected, we’d have mandatory political indoctrination sessions at colleges and universities. And they were right!
YESTERDAY, I had a Very Important Meeting with media law expert, jazz guitarist, and classic car restorer Charles Glasser.
ANALYSIS: EVEN TRUER. Donald Trump is turning liberals into conspiracy theorists.
CHANGE: South Korea’s Moon Jae-in sworn in vowing to address North.
South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in has been sworn in, vowing to address the economy and relations with the North in his first speech as president.
He said that he would even be willing to visit Pyongyang under the right circumstances.
Mr Moon took his oath of office in Seoul’s National Assembly building a day after his decisive win.
The former human rights lawyer and son of North Korean refugees is known for his liberal views.
The only suspense is over how much Kim Jong-un will take him for.
MICHAEL GOODWIN: Why James Comey had to go.
The suddenly-former FBI boss was long cavalier about making enemies among both Democrats and Republicans, as if going rogue repeatedly proved his rectitude. On occasion it did, but Comey increasingly wore his self-righteousness on his sleeve, confident he was too big to fire.
That was his fatal mistake. And it’s why Trump made the right decision to show him the door.
Comey’s power-grabbing arrogance is why I called him “J. Edgar Comey” two months ago. His willingness to play politics, while insisting he was above it all, smacked of Washington at its worst. He was the keeper of secrets, until they served his purpose.
As such, the president did to Comey what no president had the courage to do to J. Edgar Hoover. Five presidents wanted to fire Hoover, with Harry Truman accusing him of running a police state and of blackmail. But all were afraid of Hoover, so he died in office.
Trump acted before Comey could get that kind of lifetime protection, which has no place in American democracy. At our best, we are a nation of laws, not of people who accumulate power and ruthlessly wield it without accountability.
The president didn’t have just one good reason to act. He had a choice among many.
The proximate cause was lying to Congress, which isn’t just enough to be shown the door — it’s nearly obligatory.
BRENDAN O’NEILL ON FACEBOOK: “One minute Labour is wanging on about food banks and the rise of hunger in 21st-century Britain and the next it is promising to ban junk-food ads during X Factor and Hollyoaks. This is a party that can’t decide if the plebs are starving creatures in need of a middle-class pat to the head or burger-stuffed blimps who have no self-control and thus must be protected from ads showing chips and Coke; tragic people who need our tears or slovenly lumps who must be saved from themselves. ‘Wait, should we pity the poor or hate them?’ — the dilemma of the modern-day Labourite.”
HMM: Senate Intel Chairman ‘Troubled by Timing and Reasoning’ of Comey Termination.
Developing, as they say.
IF THEY’D DONE THAT FROM THE BEGINNING IT NEVER WOULD HAVE PASSED: ‘Lie of the Year’ Winner Barack Obama Admonishes Congress to ‘Speak the Truth’ About Obamacare. If you like your shameless hypocrisy, you can keep your shameless hypocrisy.
R.I.P. TO MY FORMER TENNESSEE LAW COLLEAGUE Neil Cohen. A tidbit: With a couple of other lawprofs also named Neil Cohen, he formed the NCAA — the Neil Cohen Association of America. They printed up NCAA letterhead (President: Neil Cohen; Vice President: Neil Cohen; Secretary: Neil Cohen) and had “meetings” at conference hotel bars. He was a fun guy, and he’ll be missed.
POLITICS HAS TAKEN THE PLACE OF RELIGION ON THE LEFT FOR DECADES; WHAT WILL THINGS LOOK LIKE IF IT DOES THE SAME ON THE RIGHT? White Working-Class Millennials Are Less Christian, More Republican Than Their Elders.
CNN PLAYS “NAME THAT PARTY!:” Seattle mayor Ed Murray drops re-election bid amid sexual abuse claim scandal.
The mayor was accused in a lawsuit by Delvonn Heckard, now 46, who said the mayor “repeatedly raped” him when he was a 15-year-old boy and the mayor was 32. Heckard says Murray, now 62, also paid him for sexual acts.
The lawsuit also alleges that Heckard was not the only child abused by the mayor. “On at least one occasion, D.H. was at Mr. Murray’s home when another apparently under aged boy was at the apartment. D.H. was of the understanding that Mr. Murray was having sex with the other boy for money at the same time,” the complaint reads.
Murray’s missing party affiliation? Democrat.
IT’S COMPLICATED: Trump to Arm Syrian Kurds, Even as Turkey Strongly Objects.
American military commanders have long argued that arming the Y.P.G., a Kurdish militia fighting alongside Syrian Arab forces against the Islamic State, is the fastest way to seize Raqqa, the capital of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.
And Mr. Trump, who made fighting Islamist militants a priority during his campaign, again showed the high regard he has for Pentagon generals by endorsing their advice when faced with a policy dilemma.
Turkey has objected vociferously to such a move, raising fears of a backlash that could prompt the Turks to curtail their cooperation with Washington in the struggle against the Islamic State.
A high-level delegation of Turkish officials was informed of the decision by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, when they visited the White House on Monday, and the Pentagon announced the move on Tuesday.
Ankara objects to armed Kurds under most any circumstance, and anyway has recently been more cooperative with Moscow than with Washington.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Donald Trump is turning liberals into conspiracy theorists.
GOOD MORNING: Liz Sheld’s Morning Brief has your Hump Day covered.
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS: That Store Mannequin May Be Anorexic.
WE WERE JUST DISCUSSING AMONG FRIENDS HOW TO DETERMINE WHEN HUMAN THINKING SET IN: Apparently there is a way to tell. Maybe. ‘Humanlike’ ways of thinking evolved 1.8 million years ago.
HE COULD TRY TO LEVITATE THE DENVER MINT. IT’S SANER:Michael Moore Thinks a Broadway Show Will Restore Americans’ Faith in the Democrats. IOW Reason a million and fifty five thousand why Trump won.
A FATAL CASE OF MUNCHHAUSEN BY PROXY SYNDROME:Mom pretended her kid was disabled — until the girl rebelled with murder.
IT’S NOT BLINDERS, IT’S OBFUSCATION WITH A SIDE OF CRONY CAPITALISM: The Blinders are Still in Place.