IN THE MAIL: The Imprint of Congress (The Henry L. Stimson Lectures Series).
Plus, today only at Amazon: Up to 50% off select Logitech PC Accessories.
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JOHN KIRBY: Calling Manchester Attackers ‘Losers,’ Won’t ‘Resonate With Jihadis’
But the Koran says otherwise.
THE BATTLESHIP TEXAS OF 1898: This is a color photo, or what passed for a color photo in the late 19th century. The process was called photochrom.
Per the caption, the USS Texas was the sister ship of the ill-fated USS Maine. Of course you remember the Maine.
CHANGE: Moody’s Cuts Its China Rating for the First Time Since 1989.
Moody’s Investors Service cut China’s sovereign credit rating for the first time in nearly three decades, citing expectations that the country’s financial strength will deteriorate in the coming years as debt keeps rising and the economy slows.
In a Wednesday statement, Moody’s said it downgraded China’s rating to A1 from Aa3, while changing its outlook to stable from negative. In March of last year, it cut China’s outlook to negative from stable. Moody’s last cut its China credit rating in November 1989, not long after the bloody crackdown on mass protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square rocked the nation. Moody’s now rates China’s credit alongside that of countries such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Nobody really knows what’s going on in China’s economy, not even Beijing.
CUOMO’S GONNA CUOMO. Even after Manchester, Cuomo’s dodging on marching to honor a terrorist.
WHERE AMERICA IS HEADED UNDER OUR FECKLESS POLITICAL CLASS: The Noose Tightens In Brazil.
To lose one President to a corruption scandal may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two in a row begins to look like carelessness.
The leadership crisis is both an internal problem for Brazil—where important reforms to its destructive pension system may well fail thanks to the latest Presidential scandal—as well as an international issue. As Venezuela edges toward a total breakdown with the potential of civil unrest and even civil war, a strong and calm Brazilian presence on the scene could help resolve things while keeping the U.S. in the background. That would be good for everyone. But a divided Brazil, turning inward and dealing with yet another outbreak of scandal, cannot play that role.
On the other hand, if the Lava Jato (Car Wash) scandal has shown us anything, it is that the political class in Brazil is rotten to the core, and that more and more Brazilians are sick of it. Inconvenient as it may be, it’s important that Brazil continue to hammer away at the corruption of its government, parties, and state-aligned companies.
Stay tuned.
AFTER MANCHESTER: Three more arrests in bomber investigation.
Police arrested the three in the city on Wednesday. Abedi’s 23-year-old brother was arrested on Tuesday.
Abedi killed 22 and injured 64 when he blew himself up outside an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.
The UK terror threat level is now up to its highest level of “critical”, meaning more attacks may be imminent.
It means military personnel are being deployed to protect key sites.
The Palace of Westminster has been closed to the public following police advice, and will not re-open until further notice, a statement on its website said.
And the Changing the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been cancelled on Wednesday to allow for the redeployment of police officers, the Ministry of Defence said.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “[Monday’s attack] was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely – possible – that he wasn’t doing this on his own.”
More to come.
CURVEBALLS: The pitch hitters hate.
Terrifyingly beautiful, like summer thunderstorms and whitewater rapids, the curveball of Astros pitcher Lance McCullers can be found at the intersection of violence and wonder. It is a demon he unleashes on hitters, especially with two strikes, when he throws it 68% of the time.
More:
The legend of the first curveball starts like this: In the summer of 1863 a 14-year-old boy named William Arthur Cummings experienced a eureka moment one day while tossing clamshells along a Brooklyn beach with some buddies. “All of a sudden it came to me that it would be a good joke on the boys if I could make a baseball curve the same way,” Cummings later wrote.
Four years of practice later, Cummings, then pitching for an amateur Brooklyn team as a 5’ 9″, 120-pound righthander, broke out his new pitch in a game against Harvard University on Oct. 7, 1867. Harvard won 18–6, but Cummings rejoiced in the success of his curveball, later writing, “I could scarcely keep from dancing with pure joy.”
The article is entertaining and packed with interesting stats.
MORE FOR US! Kuwait says OPEC, non-OPEC could deepen oil cuts.
The top oil producer in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, favors extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, to speed up market rebalancing and prevent crude prices from sliding back below $50 per barrel.
OPEC members Iraq and Algeria as well as top non-OPEC producer Russia also said they support a nine-month extension.
As ministers gathered in Vienna for informal consultations, Saudi OPEC ally Kuwait said discussions included the possibility of deepening the cuts or prolonging them by 12 months.
“All options are on the table,” Kuwaiti oil minister Essam al-Marzouq told reporters.
Unless they bring American frackers to the table — and they can’t — all these talks amount to is how how much marketshare OPEC/non-OPEC is willing to cede to us in order to stabilize prices.
TOM SHATTUCK: The enemy is here. Destroy them.
RACISM, MISOGYNY, AND HATE — THE FACE OF THE MODERN LEFT: Linda Sarsour Lies About Misogynistic Tweet, Calls Questioner a ‘White Man.’
MY USA TODAY COLUMN OFFERS HELPFUL TIPS FOR THIS SUMMER’S COLLEGE DIVERSITY TRAINING WORKSHOPS: Bros are people, too: Title IX enforcers need to fix the toxic environment they have created for men. I take a bold stand against “hormone shaming” and the gendering of rape. Weirdly, some of the commenters at USA Today deny that there’s anti-male sentiment at colleges.
FASTER, PLEASE: FCC Begins Rolling Back Obama’s Net Neutrality Rule.
NORTH AMERICA’S OIL WEAPON: My latest Creators Syndicate column.
Sophisticated American and Canadian energy industries have given the Free World an economic boost and a powerful diplomatic weapon.
The North American “fracking” revolution — hydraulic fracturing to tap vast reservoirs of “tight” natural gas and oil — has altered the world’s strategic calculus.
Yes, hug a fracker.
JERRY POURNELLE: Opinion/analysis on Comey and draining the swamp.
UPDATE: From the comments: “If we didn’t have such a useless Republican Party, many of these points would be raised by congressman when Comey is testifying before Congress.”
SUPER ZEPPELIN: The Airlander 10 is 302 feet long and undergoing flight tests.
Though it looks like a massive blimp, the Airlander 10 combines technology from airplanes, helicopters, and airships. It is designed to stay aloft at altitudes of up to 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) for up to five days when manned…
According to the chief test pilot, it flies “superbly.”
NEWT GINGRICH AND PAT NOLAN: Opioid Addictions Won’t be Cured by Tough Sentences.
One of the most important promises President Trump made during the campaign was his pledge to end the opioid epidemic – and he has taken some strong steps toward making good on that promise, including the creation of a commission and almost a half billion dollars in new funding. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s announcement last week that federal prosecutors should “pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” when dealing with drug crimes has us concerned.
While the memo does allow for some prosecutorial discretion, we are troubled because this directive could potentially slow progress fighting the opioid epidemic and work against other efforts by the Trump administration to do so.
Frankly, putting people battling opioid addiction in jail rather than in treatment programs could lead to more opioid-related deaths.
A huge body of evidence shows opioid addiction is a chemical brain disease – not a behavioral or lifestyle decision. Because of this, many people who are chemically predisposed to opioid addiction become hooked after taking lawfully prescribed opioid-based painkillers following a surgery or an accident. Once the prescription runs out, they turn to the illegal market to feed their addiction. These are not people with malignant intentions, they are suffering from an addiction – a medical condition.
Read the whole thing.
LEFTIST PRIVILEGE: Middlebury completes disciplinary process over Charles Murray protest with wrist slaps for implicated students.
Hey, it’s not like a professor was sent to the Emergency Room or something . . . oh, wait.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Duterte Declares Martial Law in Southern Philippines.
Duterte declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire southern Mindanao region, the restive third of the Philippine archipelago, Tuesday evening to try to crush Muslim extremists who have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group and occupied a hospital, jail and other buildings and battled troops in an audacious attack in Marawi City.
Martial law could be extended for a year depending on how long the problem could be quelled, Duterte said on board a plane en route to the Philippines.
“I said I would be harsh and I warned everybody not to force my hand into it,” Duterte said. “I have to do it to preserve the republic.”
I’m so old I can remember when ISIS was still the junior varsity.
GROUND SUPPORT: The A-10 Warthog Isn’t Going Anywhere — Yet.
The service recently solicited defense contractors to participate in the OA-X light-attack aircraft experiment at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico this coming July to “augment” the A-10. So far, the A-29 Super Tucano, Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine, and AirLand Scorpion are set to compete at OA-X.
While observers speculate that one of those warplanes may eventually replace the A-10 upon retirement, the DoD’s 2018 budget proposal seems to suggest the service is no longer itching to retire the legendary aircraft.
The DoD’s budget proposal is just that: a proposal. And a spokesman for Air Combat Command threw cold water on the idea that the budget request is a firm pledge to modernize and maintain the A-10 indefinitely.
“Any questions about the president’s budget proposal fall to the president,” Maj. Andrew Schrag, a spokesman for Air Combat Command, told Task & Purpose. “Congress debates and adjusts and manages all of these proposals, and months from now, we may or may not have the budget, and then we start making adjustments, and even those adjustments occur at a DoD level.”
“It’s a Russian nesting doll,” Schrag added. “We’re talking about hypotheticals on hypotheticals, and we’re talking about tactical- and maybe operational-level conversations about airframes that fall so far below items in a line item budget that haven’t even been voted on yet.”
Amazing planes, but those airframes aren’t getting any younger or cheaper to maintain.
RECIPES: Made the poached salmon for the first time in a while last night. It was very well-received.
AT AMAZON, Best Sellers in Fitbit Technology.
JOHN HINDERAKER: CNN’s Political Hit Job on Sheriff Clarke.
Who does Clarke think he is, Larry Tribe?
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