UNDERREPORTED HISTORY: The Lost Opportunity to Terminate the Kim Il Sung Dynasty.
This is a slightly longer piece, but definitely of interest.
Archive for 2017
October 18, 2017
DON SURBER: NFL Cash Cow Dries Up.
#METOO: Stephanie Gutmann: Seeing sexual harassment everywhere. “The Weinstein scandal is giving rise to a frenzied climate.”
IT HELPS WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO WIN: Investor’s Business Daily: Trump Defeats ISIS In Months — After Years Of Excuses From Obama.
OH: Doctor accused of bribing Menendez met with other politicians too.
A wealthy West Palm Beach eye doctor accused of bribing Sen. Bob Menendez wined and dined other politicians, including former Florida governor Charlie Crist, it emerged in Newark federal court on Tuesday.
Flor Melgen, the wife of Dr. Salomon Melgen, testified Tuesday about a weekend in October 2010 when Crist showed up at her house unexpectedly, ate dinner — consisting of Capital Grille takeout — and stayed the night.
He then handed Flor a $100 check for the cost of the meal and his stay.
“He knew that my husband was Bob’s [Menendez] friend and he was wondering if he might be with him,” Flor told the jury about the surprise visit.
The defense said the purpose of the testimony was to illustrate to the jury that Menendez, who flew Melgen’s private jet that same weekend, was in Florida for an official political function.
As such, the flight on Melgen’s private jet as well as a leg on a commercial flight Melgen paid for should have been reimbursed for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — not Menendez, according to Melgen’s lawyers.
The Garden State Democrat stands accused of accepting all-expense-paid trips and private jet flights from Melgen in exchange for political favors, including help with the doctor’s $8.9 million Medicare bill and in obtaining visas for the ophthalmologist’s young girlfriends.
Amazing how little coverage this trial is getting, isn’t it?
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: The Most Powerful Journalist In Hollywood Protected Harvey Weinstein For Years.
IN THE MAIL: From Scott Adams, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
HARDBALL: McConnell Floats Names of Failed Tea Party Candidates in Response to Bannon Threat. “What do they all have in common? They’re in private life, and a Democrat is in the Senate.”
YOU DON’T SAY: Neolithic Feasts at Stonehenge Were Not Vegan-Friendly.
HOW DUMB DO YOU HAVE TO BE AS A COLLEGE ADMINISTRATOR TO PUT YOURSELF IN THIS SITUATION? Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain is planning to sue Texas Southern University after administrators refused to prevent students from shouting him down during a recent event on campus.
The administrators are more afraid of their own students than of the legislature. I predict that will change.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Snapchat Video Gets California Teacher Arrested For Alleged Sexual Relation With Student.
According to Patch.com, a high school student at Beaumont High School in California, spotted the Snapchat video in August and approached the student, who had reportedly posted it and asked if it was “Mrs. Ciotta.”
“Yes…Bro, I’m getting in deep…been f—–g (Ciotta) and getting threesomes for the past couple weeks (at her house),” the student reportedly responded, according to the documents obtained by Patch.com, a local news organization in New Jersey.
Police have been investigating if the teacher had inappropriate sexual contact with more than just one minor Beaumont High School student, according to Patch.com. Ciotta is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 3.
Beaumont Unified School District officials had been made aware of the video on Sept. 1 and they then contacted the police about the rumors alleging Ciotta appeared half-naked with the alleged victim and other underage students, according to the documents obtained by Patch.com.
Where are the cries about “rape culture” in our high school teaching staffs?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Evergreen State banned criticism of Black Lives Matter through its bias response team. “A campus spokesman did not respond to repeated recent email and phone call requests for comment from The College Fix to weigh in one whether the team had made a mistake in its determination and if the school would continue to banish public criticisms of Black Lives Matter.”
ISIS IN THE CONGO: Video Calls Jihadists to New Turf in Central Africa.
MARK JUDGE: Hollywood’s Sex Abuse Cover-Up.
Plus, seen on Facebook:
I think the Oscars ceremony should be canceled this year, in recognition of Hollywood’s shame.
UPDATE: Why Hollywood Is The Perfect Hunting Ground For Pervs.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “DESPITE?” UnitedHealth Revenue Grows Despite ACA Exit.
The latest quarterly results from the nation’s largest health insurer come as the market is facing policy changes related to the ACA. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order seeking to provide lower-cost plans in the individual insurance market, and he has said his administration will end payments to insurers that offset subsidies to low-income consumers.
Guiding the company through the shifting landscape is David Wichmann, the former UnitedHealth president who took the reins as chief executive Sept. 1. Former CEO Stephen Hemsley now serves as executive chairman.
During a call with analysts, Mr. Wichmann said UnitedHealth has “a great deal of experience in the areas covered” in the president’s executive order, which are short-term health policies, association plans and health-reimbursement arrangements. UnitedHealth said it has around 300,000 people currently enrolled in association plans and the “performance is strong.” The insurer also said it was seeing an “incredible increase in the growth” of short-term plans before the Obama administration capped their duration at three months, and the company would be “excited” to see the Trump administration expand the length again, as the executive order suggested.
Counting on illegal subsidies to sell people plans they don’t want was never a good business model, and UnitedHealth and others were right to exit the ObamaCare faux-marketplaces.
MICHAEL BARONE: Dignified silence is the proper response on presidential condolence calls.
As I recall, former President George W. Bush came under criticism, from journalists and Democrats, for supposedly not calling family members of military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a decade ago. The subtext was that he was callous about the tragic human cost of the military actions he ordered. It turned out that Bush did communicate and even meet with family members, only without any public mention.
It is only because the number of deaths in military action are an order of magnitude lower than in previous American wars that this question could even be raised. Something like 450,000 American military personnel died in World War II. By my calculation, if Presidents Roosevelt and Truman had made consolation calls to family members, they would have had to make a call every 4.3 minutes, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, in the 1,371 days between Pearl Harbor and V-J Day.
Even now, with far fewer deaths, it surely is, as Trump said, a difficult duty making such calls. He, like his two predecessors, knows these men and women died carrying out their orders. You have to be very cynical—more cynical than I am—to think that Bush, Obama, and Trump would not find these conversations emotionally draining.
So let’s allow this president, as most of us allowed or should have allowed his two predecessors, write these letters and make these calls in private. Let journalists and others quit bombarding him with questions about whether he’s done so.
THAT, AND STATUS ANXIETY:
The thing is, Trump was elected by people who think our public life was already hopelessly degraded. It’s easy to see why that’s hard for Kristol to accept. More on status anxiety here.
Related: Put Up or Shut Up: Bill Kristol in 2018.
UPDATE: From the comments: “Just as Scott Adams predicted, he’s made it all the way to ‘I like his policies but I hate him’ status.”
ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION CONTINUES TO BEAR FRUIT: It’s just getting worse for “Megyn Kelly Today.”
TROLLMASTER: White House Places CNN, MSNBC In The Back Row Of Presser.
The White House placed CNN and MSNBC in the last two rows of the foreign press section during Tuesday’s joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
CNN political analyst and Sentinel editor Brian Karem tweeted Tuesday complaining about the situation.
“I am not saying that they are punishing MSNBC and CNN,” he wrote. “What I am saying is that they are in the last two rows of the foreign press section.”
Maybe the Trump White House really is biased against foreigners.
WHAT DO YOU WANT HIM TO DO? BLAME A YOUTUBE VIDEO? Dem Senator: Trump Hasn’t Been Forthcoming Enough About Attack On US Soldiers in Niger.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Tax Reform, Weinstein Fall Out, Vegas Security Guard Surfaces and Much, Much More.
I KNOW YOU’RE ALL SHOCKED TO HEAR THIS: The results are in…D.C. has a lot of STDs. To be fair, they’ve been screwing the whole country for years, so, well. . . .