WOMEN GENERALLY WANT TO MARRY MEN WHO MAKE MORE THAN THEY DO, SO THE MORE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES THERE ARE FOR WOMEN, THE FEWER “ELIGIBLE” MEN THERE ARE: Shortage of eligible men has left women taking desperate steps to preserve their fertility, experts say.
Related thoughts from the InstaWife: The Cost of Missing Men.
LOOKS LIKE SOMEBODY GOT A GOOD TALKING TO FROM HIS LAWYERS: CNN’s Cuomo Deletes Tweet Threatening Reddit User Who Posted Trump Video.
And BuzzFeed might be getting into another kind of hot water.
SO ALL THE JOURNOS ARE SAYING TRUMP’S WRESTLING GIF MIGHT INCITE VIOLENCE, BUT CNN AND BLACK LIVES MATTER WILL GET A PASS FOR THIS: NYC Officer Shot in the Head in Ambush-Style Attack in the Bronx. “A New York City police officer was shot to death while sitting with her partner in a parked police vehicle in the Bronx early Wednesday in an apparent ambush attack. The suspect, a cop-hating parolee, was shot and killed by responding officers about a block away from the crime scene.”
STEP ON THE GAS: Volvo is first major carmaker to forgo traditional engines.
YEAH, THAT’S TOUGH TO CLAIM, NOW THAT THE “REFEREES” ARE BUSY OUTING THE IDENTITIES OF THE BLEACHER BUMS: MSNBC Panel Bemoans ‘Impartiality’ as ‘Mistakes of the Past,’ a ‘Disservice:’
MSNBC’s self-crowned political referee, Chuck Todd, appeared to throw in the towel on enforcing D.C.’s political rules, or at least the journalistic ones. During the first segment of Monday’s MTP Daily, Todd and two of his panelists, Brian Karem and David Folkenflik, whined about how the media was expected to be impartial with President Trump attacking them. “But look, two generations of us as reporters. We’re trained and conditioned to don’t show emotion, we’re the umpires and the referees.” Todd claimed. “When somebody is insisting on making you the story, what do you do? … I struggle with it.”
It was clear that Todd didn’t know how to be an unbiased reporter as he opined about how he and other journalists weren’t trained to deal with Trump’s “moral failings.” “Somebody tweeted that journalists today were never trained to cover moral failings very well. And in some ways, this is what makes this more difficult,” he told his fellow partisans. “We’re not good with having to say what’s right and wrong sometimes because again, we have been trained to be dispassionate and the umpire.”
Of course, when dealing with the previous president’s moral failings and lack of empathy, Todd had no problem justifying them away:
CHUCK TODD: I would say the real danger for the president on issues like this, is less about this, and more about — Paul Begala one time said this to me — he said, you know, the guy really is his mother’s son sometimes when it comes to studying society. He’s anthropoligcal about it. Remember that time when he was studying people in Pennsylvania, and he said to that fundraiser in Pennsylvania, you know they cling to their guns. He wasn’t meaning it as demeaning in his mind, but it came across that way.
ANDREA MITCHELL: It’s intellectualized.
TODD: He’s the son of an anthropologist, and I think sometimes he goes about religion that way, almost in this, as I said because he’s very well studied on, not just Christianity but on a lot of religions, but in that, frankly, anthropological way, and that can come across as distant.
Trump’s excesses, and the media’s obvious boiling anger that Hillary lost, are simply the latest excuses for the DNC-MSM to drop the mask and claim that objectivity is unwarranted – not that they ever need much of excuse:
— Big Journalism, September 28th, 2013
— Column in liberal MSM industry house organ Editor & Publisher in 2007.
— Twitchy.com, July 13, 2013.
— Ed Driscoll.com (aka, me) June 25th, 2013.
— The Daily Caller, April, 2013.
— Twitchy, April, 2013
— Newsbusters, February of 2010.
— Newsweek cover headline, February of 2009.
— Ed Driscoll.com, February 24, 2012.
Nobody believes the MSM is objective anymore (not that they ever really were) – and their insanity is, ironically, the best thing that could happen to Trump. As Glenn quipped earlier today, “This is the point where the Wilford Brimley character turns and says ‘Mr. Trump, I seem to want to ask if you set all this up. But if I do, you ain’t gonna tell me, are you?’ No.”
LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: I just caught the Least Trusted Name in News in another sloppy, Google-induced error.
RETAIL BLUES: I Am a Millennial Who Just Went to Kmart for the First Time Ever and Couldn’t Believe This Place.
Most of the report is a clickthru set of ever-more-depressing photos from her journey through a K-Mart, but the real story of K-Mart’s (and parent Sears’) woes might be that Millennials won’t go in one unless their job requires it.
WHAT CNN’S THREAT TO DOX A REDDITOR TELLS US ABOUT THE STATE OF JOURNALISM:
Should HanA**holeSolo ever revert to his nefarious meme-making ways, “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.”
This is a threat. There is simply no other way for an open-minded person to comprehend the meaning of the line. I’ve read thousands of news stories and written a bunch of them, and I can’t think of a single instance I’ve ever run across a similar disclaimer. CNN has absolved the man of his sins. For now. I guess if HanA**holeSolo does anything they deem ugly, the network reserves the right to put him in “danger”?
In a now-deleted tweet, CNN’s oft-confused Chris Cuomo asks: “Should CNN reveal name of Reddit user who made trump wrestling video? Had a lot of bigoted and hateful material on page and website.”
Let’s chew on this question and assertion for a moment: For one thing, although Cuomo happens to be correct in this case, I don’t trust his definition of hate or bigotry. Moreover, are journalistic standards contingent on the target’s political views? If HanA**holeSolo had the wrong opinion on gay marriage or affirmative action, would that be enough to ruin his life?
In the DNC-MSM’s mind that’s an emphatic yes, particularly given the symbiotic relationship between old media and social media. Two words: Memories Pizza.
TOP HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE DEMOCRAT: Russia, China ‘Spectacularly Disingenuous’ on North Korea.
Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) doubted that Tillerson’s vow would put pressure on North Korea.
“If there is an idea floating around out there for how we can remove that threat, I’m open to it. But we have been circling around this discussion of what we want China to do and what we want sanctions to do and all these other different pieces,” Smith said. “The bottom line is, what we need against North Korea, we need to put the best economic sanctions we can. I think it’s perfectly appropriate for the secretary of state to try to put pressure on other nations to do the same. But the most important thing we need is a credible military deterrent, so that whatever North Korea does in terms of building a missile, they know that if they act against South Korea or against Japan or against us, we will obliterate them.”
“That’s why THAAD [missile defense system] is important. That is why our alliance with South Korea and Japan is important, to have that credible military force, because what’s been proven — and all of the options have been discussed with your previous guests — is that North Korea is going to do it. They want to build nuclear weapons. They want to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile. And short of an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula, we don’t really have an option for stopping them.”
China and Russia issued a joint statement calling Pyongyang’s ICBM test “unacceptable.”
Of the two, China could, if they so desired, apply enough pressure to rein in Li’l Kim’s nuclear ambitions.
If they so desired.
LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS AND EDITORS: CNN Just Published A Fake Quote From Abraham Lincoln.
Bang-up work, CNN. Brilliant journalisming.
UPDATE: Heh, indeed:™
UH OH: If BuzzFeed is correct, it appears CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski outed the wrong guy. “According to an analysis by BuzzFeed, the CNN–WWE GIF that President Donald Trump tweeted last week was not the same as the one created by HanAssholeSolo, which means CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski outed the wrong guy.” A guy who is not a public figure, so traditional libel rules — not the “actual malice” standard of New York Times v. Sullivan — apply.
This is the point where the Wilford Brimley character turns and says “Mr. Trump, I seem to want to ask if you set all this up. But if I do, you ain’t gonna tell me, are you?” No.
UPDATE: From the comments:
Then again, there is high liklihood that actual malice is behind the misidentification. The guy they wrongly fingered had a bunch of politically incorrect stuff on his account that CNN used to smear the guy as a bigot, thereby discrediting not just the video-maker but Trump for retweeting it. CNN clearly found this highly advantageous because they made a big stink about it. If that advantageousness is what prompted CNN to finger the wrong guy then that is actual malice of an extreme degree and they can be sued into oblivion.
Mr Wrong Guy should come out of his Chicken Little spider hole and realize that the sun is shining and he is holding a winning Super-Lotto ticket in his hand. Shameful for him to have apologized in the first place but perk up buddy, winning Super-Lotto tickets can cover a multitude of sins. Just think, if you had not said those politically incorrect things you would never have been maliciously targeted by CNN in the first place and would not now be holding that winning Super-Lotto ticket. Ummm, say it again: winning Super-Lotto ticket.
Well, I think it will withstand summary judgment, which gets you lots of discovery, which gets you — if CNN is smart, so uh oh — a big settlement. Will Hulk Hogan’s lawyer take the case? If I were Peter Thiel, I’d finance it. . . .
IF TRUMP DID THIS, HE’D BE HITLER, BUT SINCE IT’S THE GERMANS — HEY, WAIT: Germany Officially Gives Up On Free Speech: Will Fine Internet Companies That Don’t Delete ‘Bad’ Speech.
I HATE TO PILE ON, BUT THIS REALLY IS CNN:
For what it’s worth, a quick look at Stelter’s Twitter timeline shows he hasn’t publicly engaged much at all today, which seems wise.
THE HILL: Cruz plan could be key to unlocking healthcare votes.
The Texas Republican is pushing for a provision that would allow insurers to sell plans that do not comply with ObamaCare insurance regulations, so long as they also sell plans that comply with those rules. Cruz says giving insurers a path around the regulations should allow them to offer some plans at a lower cost.
It’s unclear whether the amendment will be added to the Senate bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, or even whether it will pass muster under budgetary rules.
But the amendment could be the key to ensuring that the legislation passes both the House and the Senate.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) indicated he could support the Senate bill if the Cruz amendment is included. That’s different from a little more than a week ago, when Meadows said the Senate’s legislation lacked enough conservative support to pass the House.
“If the Cruz consumer choice amendment gets there, yes I can support it without the MacArthur amendment in there because I think it gives everybody some options,” Meadows told reporters late last week.
It’s a radical idea, allowing insurers to sell plans that people want to buy — but it just might work!
I THOUGHT THEY WERE HARMLESS INNOCENTS CRUELLY DESTROYED BY RAPACIOUS EUROPEANS: Aztec tower of skulls turns out to be no myth.
CLAUDIA ROSETT: North Korea’s Fireworks.
Enough, already. There is no safe way to end the North Korean menace, but the threats from Kim Jong Un’s regime are amplifying at a clip that suggests it is even more dangerous to allow the Kim regime to carry on. While the world has watched, for years — and while the United Nations Security Council has passed one sanctions resolution after another — North Korea has not only been carrying out ballistic missile and nuclear tests, but enriching uranium and reprocessing plutonium to amass ever more bomb fuel. As the Journal editorial also notes, North Korea by now “has an estimated 20 nuclear warheads as well as chemical and biological weapons.”
The threat is not solely that North Korea — well versed in shakedown rackets — could target the U.S. with nuclear-tipped ICBMs, or that North Korea can add nuclear weapons to the massive arsenal with which it has long threatened Seoul.
A further danger is that North Korea could proliferate its advancing nuclear missile technology, or even the weapons themselves, to other rogue states, such as Iran — with which Pyongyang has trafficked and cooperated for decades in missile development, and according to some press accounts (please see my discussion of reporting by Douglas Frantz), in nuclear weapons development as well.
Enough, already, indeed.
MORE THAN A NAME CHANGE: Bring Back the Carrier Battle Group.
Why? Because the strike group is a concept designed for safe seas, where U.S. Navy forces can venture close to land with little fear of encountering opposition. Such hospitable surroundings prevailed for ten, maybe fifteen years after the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991. No more. The world’s oceans and seas are less and less hospitable by the day, as “peer competitors” build up imposing navies and back them with shore-based missiles and aircraft. As its moniker implies, the battle group is a concept fitting for the embattled age now taking form. And martial sages—the Niccolò Machiavellis and John Boyds of the world—remind us how crucial it is to keep pace with changing times.
Fail to keep up, and you court defeat and disaster.
Think about what a carrier strike group is, and does. Relative to brawny Cold War battle groups, it’s a lean, lightly defended force that operates from waterways where antagonists pose a nuisance at best. Fewer escorts accompany it. The carrier air wing, or aircraft complement, falls far short of the flattop’s carrying capacity. Nowadays the air wing numbers about sixty warplanes, while the ship’s flight and hangar decks, maintenance shops and other infrastructure can accommodate over eighty. Fewer warbirds and escort ships, less firepower. Less firepower, less capacity to duel a peer fleet for mastery of the waves.
The Carrier Strike Group also signals a lack of serious commitment to freedom of the seas, which only further encourages bad actors.
LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Pro-Maduro groups burst into Venezuela congress.
Rowdy groups of government supporters burst into Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly on Wednesday, injuring several lawmakers and journalists, witnesses said.
The fracas came after an assembly session to mark Independence Day at the building in downtown Caracas. Various small explosions were heard, possibly from fireworks thrown into the legislative compound, witnesses said.
Television images from the scene showed two opposition lawmakers with blood running down their faces.
This is the same opposition-held Congress which President Maduro has been trying to shut down or constitutionally circumvent.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: My husband loves being a stay-at-home dad, but our friends make fun of him. Well, if you’re asking Laurie Penny for advice you’re already in trouble.
SNL’S CHE: Trump’s Right, Media Make Sh** Up.
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