BUT OF COURSE: Russian opposition leader ‘found guilty’

Russia’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been found guilty of embezzlement, local media report.

A judge is still reading the verdict in the city of Kirov, but news agencies said it was clear in his remarks that Mr Navalny had been convicted.

Even a suspended sentence would bar him from running for president next year.

An outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, Mr Navalny has denied the accusations, saying the case is politically motivated.

Show trials for political troublemakers (or even those suspected of merely harboring anti-Party leanings) have been a staple of Russian “justice” since the 1930s.

MSNBC’S KATY TUR: Like Putin, Trump Might Kill Journalists.

How does anyone on the Left sleep at night?

BUFFS WITH FRICKIN LASER BEAMS: Air Force Laser Weapons to Defend B-52 Bomber.

Offensive and defensive laser weapons for Air Force fighter jets and large cargo aircraft have been in development for several years now. However, the Air Force Research Lab has recently embarked upon a special five-year effort, called the SHIELD program, aimed at creating sufficient on-board power, optics and high-energy lasers able to defend large platforms such as a B-52 bomber.

“You can take out the target if you put the laser on the attacking weapon for a long enough period of time,” Air Force Chief Scientist Greg Zacharias told Scout Warrior in an exclusive interview.

Possibly using an externally-mounted POD with sufficient transportable electrical power, the AFRL is already working on experimental demonstrator weapons able to bolt-on to an aircraft, Zacharias added.
Given that an external POD would add shapes to the fuselage which would make an aircraft likely to be vulnerable to enemy air defense radar systems, the bolt-on defensive laser would not be expected to work on a stealthy platform, he explained.

However, a heavily armed B-52, as a large 1960s-era target, would perhaps best benefit from an ability to defend itself from the air; such a technology would indeed be relevant and potentially useful to the Air Force, as the service is now immersed in a series of high-tech upgrades for the B-52 so that it can continue to serve for decades to come.

Classical reference in the headline.

AGENDA: 5 Great Reforms Betsy DeVos Will Bring to the Department of Education.

I’d be happy with just one reform — abolishing the department.

STUDY: 92% of ‘Anti-Fascist’ Protesters in Europe Still Live With Their Mom.

They’re venting their frustration at their parents for having made their lives too easy.

WHEN YOU’RE A DEMOCRAT WHO SAYS SOMETHING NICE ABOUT NEIL GORSUCH, the smears are pretty much inevitable. Not so much to discredit you in particular, as to encourage others to toe the line.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Abortion And The Rise Of Extremism.

But when the Supreme Court exempted abortion from the legislative process, it also exempted political figures — and voters — from having to actually think through what abortion law should look like. The legislative action moved to secondary and tertiary and quaternary issues: spousal and parental notification, health code standards for clinics, whether the federal government should give any funding to organizations that performed abortions, even if the money was tied to some other activity the government wanted to promote.

When a court has precluded making actual policy, talk is cheap and extreme opinions abound. Placing the question of abortion beyond normal politics allowed voters and politicians to declare themselves to be for “life” or “choice” while rarely thinking hard about which choices should be made about which lives, and by whom. If conservatives got their wish and saw Roe struck down tomorrow, they would probably be surprised by how painful and unsatisfying they’d find the legislative process that followed. The pro-choice side, meanwhile, might discover that blue states weren’t quite as blue as they’d fancied, when legislators could no longer justify later-term abortions on the grounds that the Supreme Court had left them no choice.

But is repealing ObamaCare really the same kind of thing?

NOT SMART: Open-Carry Stunt in Police Station Ends with Arrests.

It could have ended with a lot worse than arrests.

THIS IS SPINAL TAP: Spinal Tap creators aim to ‘go to 11’ with $400m lawsuit.

The off-screen reunion brings together the characters of bassist Derek Smalls (played by Shearer), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead vocalist and guitarist David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), as well as director and narrator Rob Reiner.

They claim Vivendi manipulated accounting data, while ignoring contractually obligated accounting and reporting processes, to deny them their rightful stake in the film’s profits.

The complaint alleges that between 1989 and 2006, Vivendi reported that the total income from soundtrack music sales was just $98.

It also claims that Vivendi reported that the four creators’ share of total worldwide merchandising income between 1984 and 2006 was $81, despite music and merchandise linked to the film racking up “tens of millions of dollars” in revenue.

Guest said: “The deliberate obfuscation by Vivendi and its subsidiaries is an outrage. It is vital that such behaviour is challenged in the strongest way possible.”

That’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Curt Schilling Slams Liz Warren: Senator ‘Lieawatha’ Represents ‘Everything We Hate About Politics.’

AT AMAZON, Hot New Releases – Updated Every Hour. Plus, Hourly-Fresh Deals on Best Selling Products.

Also, shop today’s Kindle Daily Deals.

Plus, today’s Digital Deals.

And don’t miss today’s deals in Grocery and Gourmet Food.

THE U.S. ARMY MOVES BACK TO THE FUTURE: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: Why Did The Dems Go To The Mattresses Over DeVos, Rather Than Sessions or Tillerson? It’s About The Money.

During the 2008 Democratic primary, Obama gave an off-the-record speech to a group of Wall Street financial executives in which he shared his frustration with the sclerotic and bureaucratic state of American education, and declared that he was close to publicly endorsing a nationwide school-choice program. (This is according to one of those in attendance.) The moneymen were enthused by this, but nothing ever came of it. In fact, Obama went hard in the opposite direction, working to gut the school-choice program in Washington, D.C., a popular program, which benefited urban black families almost exclusively. You don’t have to be a hard-boiled cynic to suspect that this has to do with the manpower and money-power of the teachers’ unions, who could have done a great deal more than they did to elevate Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama that year.

Think about that: If you are the candidate of the Left running in the party of the Left, you could, in 2008, run against equal rights for gay people — but you could not, if you had any sense of self-preservation, run in favor of school choice.

Justice is one thing, but getting paid is the real issue. That probably explains why Betsy DeVos is getting the business and Jeff Sessions really isn’t.

And the hell with poor kids. Related: The Democratic party has lost its mind — and its soul. “Democrats claim to stand for the poor, immigrants and nonwhites. Yet given a chance to actually support someone who is dedicated to improving education for all America’s children, especially those trapped in urban failing schools, the Dems’ said no, hell no. . . . Trump has made rookie errors, but his resolve in picking DeVos and sticking with her proves he is deadly serious about fixing what’s broken in American education. What, pray tell, are Democrats serious about?”

Money and power.

BIG BROTHER: Vizio Caught Spying on Customers Through Their TVs.

The popular TV maker Vizio began in 2014 to incorporate software into its TV sets to collect information about our viewing habits on a second by second basis. Then, working with a data analytics company, they were able to associate that data with very detailed and specific personal information of the viewers. Yes, Vizio sold you a TV set and turned around and spied on you as a thank you for your business!

Vizio installed the software on 11 million TV sets without ever asking for permission or informing their owners that they were collecting the data. After a lawsuit was filed by the FTC and the State of New Jersey, Vizio settled and paid a fine of $2.2 million.

We have one of those so-called “smart” TVs, but Samsung is crazy if they think I’m ever going to give it the password to my WiFi.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: The Crisis At Charlotte Law School. Takeaway quote: “It would require an income of over $122,000 to be able to afford just the interest on a student loan of that size. Most North Carolina lawyers don’t earn that much.”

Plus: “A recent review of the 205 accredited law schools, by the nonprofit Law School Transparency, found that 51, including Charlotte Law, were in the ‘extreme risk’ or ‘very high risk’ category for graduate success. Still, the A.B.A. has been reluctant to clamp down on schools. On Monday, its delegates defeated a measure that would have required law schools to shorten the period that graduates have to pass the bar.”

If only someone had issued a warning, years ago.

THE END OF KEMAL’S TURKEY: Turkey dismisses 4,400 public servants in latest post-coup attempt purge.

Erdogan has had a busy week, consolidating his power.

THEY TOLD ME IF TRUMP WERE PRESIDENT, VIOLENT THUGS WOULD FILL THE STREETS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! ‘Leftist Fight Club’ trains UCF students to fight Republicans.

The “Knights for Socialism” group at the University of Central Florida (UCF) held a workshop Sunday to teach left-wing students how to “BASH THE FASH” with a “Leftist Fight Club” open to everyone but Republicans.

“In response to the record number of hate crimes against Latinxs, Immigrants, Muslims, Women, the LGBTQIA+ community, Jews, African Americans and other minorities since the rise of Donald Trump and other Alt-Right Neo-Nazis, Knights for Socialism has decided to host a series of self-defense clinics for anyone that wants to learn how to BASH THE FASH,” asserts the Facebook event page for “Leftist Fight Club: The Rumbles at Lake Claire.” . . .

Scott Benton, a UCF College Republican, told Campus Reform that he considers the impulse toward violence to be a natural consequence of the intellectual indefensibility of leftists beliefs, saying, “If you can’t hang with someone on a debate stage, then you resort to other means to try and justify your cause.”

Other students, however, say they feel less safe on campus because of the event.

Well, I might if it weren’t Pajama Boy types.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: Neil Gorsuch Needs 60 Votes.

FLASHBACK:

They don’t call it “the Reid Option” for nothin’.

GOOD ADVICE, BUT THEY WON’T TAKE IT: I Helped Create the Milo Trolling Playbook. You Should Stop Playing Right Into It.

In 2009, I helped sketch out a marketing campaign for an internet personality and blogger named Tucker Max. With a very limited advertising budget available for the independent movie he had written and produced, we had few options for getting the word out.

Maybe it was crazy but my thinking was that one of the best ways to get young men to go see a movie was to tell them they should not be allowed to see it. What ensued was several months of chaos and controversy that ultimately drove Tucker’s book to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list, sold out a multi-college bus tour and ultimately sold millions of dollars worth of tickets, dvds and books.

It was a masterful bit of trolling that admittedly felt a lot more meaningful and exciting when I was younger than it does to me today: We encouraged protests at colleges by sending outraged emails to various activist groups and clubs on campuses where the movie was being screened. We sent fake tips to Gawker, which dutifully ate them up. We created a boycott group on Facebook that acquired thousands of members. We made deliberately offensive ads and ran them on websites where they would be written about by controversy-loving reporters. After I began vandalizing some of our own billboards in Los Angeles, the trend spread across the country, with parties of feminists roving the streets of New York to deface them (with the Village Voice in tow).

But my favorite was the campaign in Chicago—the only major city where we could afford transit advertising. After placing a series of offensive ads on buses and the metro, from my office I alternated between calling in angry complaints to the Chicago CTA and sending angry emails to city officials with reporters cc’d, until ‘under pressure,’ they announced that they would be banning our advertisements and returning our money. Then we put out a press release denouncing this cowardly decision.

When your personal morality is defined by your ability to be seen being outraged, you’ll fall for these methods every time. Milo creates extra outrage because he’s conservative, white, and gay.

HEH:

THE DEMS ARE SOLIDIFYING TRUMP’S COALITION: GOP warns: We’ll stay in session 24-7 to confirm Trump nominees.

SO MY PAPER ON MILITARY COUPS WILL BE COMING OUT SHORTLY IN THE COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW, and I’ve uploaded the near-final PDF version to SSRN. The changes are modest (among others, reflecting the election, and the installation of General Mattis as Secretary of Defense), but it’s nicely typeset and easy to read now. (Bumped).

TODAY’S HEADLINE: Warren Silenced For Reading Coretta Scott King Letter at Sessions Debate.

FLASHBACK: Senate Dems planning “unprecedented” obstruction of Cabinet nominees.

UPDATE: Don’t miss the video of Warren.

ENDORSED: Stop Putting TVs In Every Bar.

It’s enough to make you want to whip out your TV-B-Gone. Well, maybe for the airport CNN, anyway.

UPDATE: As proof that nothing is new, see this 1953 article by my old law professor (though he was young when he wrote it) Charles L. Black, Jr.: He Cannot Choose But Hear: The Plight of the Captive Auditor. With a bonus footnote to Fred Pohl & Cyril Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants. And as proof of just how cool Charlie Black was, he wrote this article (and read The Space Merchants in pulp serialization) at pretty much the same time he was writing the brief in Brown v. Board of Education with Thurgood Marshall. Because that’s how Charlie rolled. (Bumped).