STEPHEN L. CARTER: My Predictions for 2017 Are Looking Pretty Good.
Archive for 2017
December 31, 2017
HUMAN-POWERED TOOLS FOR MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION.
I have this one. It’s formidable.
VIRTUALLY EVERY DAY OF 2016, SOMEBODY IN DOJ DC WAS GIVING MONEY TO HILLARY: More than 2,600 individual donations were to the Clinton campaign by donors who listed the Department of Justice or one of its elements, like the FBI, as their employers. Their contributions totaled more than $416,000. Trump got a little more than $20,000 from a mere 61 such employees.
Only 268 of them lived in the Washington, D.C. but their combined total of more than $242,000 was half of all the DOJ/FBI donors to Clinton. That’s a drop in the bucket of $1.2 billion that Clinton spent in losing to Donald Trump but the huge gulf between DOJ backers of Clinton and Trump sheds additional light on why congressional Republicans are raising a growing stink about partisan bias in DOJ and the FBI.
IS ONE OF THEM BILL CLINTON? Your Itchy Vagina Might Be Caused By One Of These Hidden Culprits.
2018: “HOLD MY BEER!” Dave Barry’s 2017 Year in Review: Did that really happen?
IN THE MAIL: The How Not to Die Cookbook: 100+ Recipes to Help Prevent and Reverse Disease.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
And you can still shop shop the Twelve Days of Deals! We appreciate your patronage very much. Especially this time of year!
STEPHEN L. CARTER: 13 Things to Look Forward To (or Fear) in 2018.
1. Sometime in the autumn, special counsel Robert Mueller will conclude his investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government. There will be one or two additional indictments, but only for lying to investigators. No one will be charged with a substantive offense related to the reason Mueller was appointed in the first place. (As I’ve noted before, where special prosecutors are concerned, this is lately the rule, not the exception.) Mueller will wait until after the midterm election and then issue a scathing report about the Trump campaign but add that he could find no evidence of criminal violations.
2. By a vote of 6-3, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the Masterpiece Cakeshop case against the baker who is violating Colorado law by refusing on religious grounds to custom design a cake for a same-sex wedding. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, will quote liberally from the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in Employment Division v. Smith (1990), which denied a request for a religious exemption to drug laws — a decision that President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore tried hard to overturn. Justice Neil Gorsuch will author the principal dissent.
Much more at the link.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Academic: Teachers must prevent ‘assimilation’ of ‘whiteness.’ “Without active, ongoing efforts to cultivate ethnic pride, the paper warns, immigrants and students of color will ‘begin to see how society works’ and learn to emulate those ‘whose behavior is acceptable and rewarded.'”
AT AMAZON, Hot New Releases, Updated Hourly.
Plus, new Kindle Daily Deals.
SPECIAL FORCES FIFTY CALIBER MACHINE GUN TRAINING: In southern Syria.
BRET STEPHENS IN THE NYT: “I admit it gives me pause. I agree with every one of the policy decisions mentioned above. But I still wish Hillary Clinton were president. How does that make sense?”
It makes sense in a world in which educated-class tribal loyalties outweigh policy. And, as James Taranto noted:
There’s a big status anxiety component, too.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Five Things to Know About the Iranian Protests: Protesters bypass demands for reform, call for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down.
During some demonstrations, crowds chanted “Seyed Ali shame on you, let go of power” and “Sorry Seyed Ali, it’s time to go.” In Tehran, protesters faced a mural of Mr. Khamenei and shouted “Death to you.” Openly targeting Mr. Khamenei, who is considered God’s representative on Earth, is a crime that carries the death penalty.
In a number of cities, demonstrators have expressed nostalgia for the last monarchical rulers of Iran, the Pahlavi dynasty, by evoking the name of its founder Reza Shah. Many Iranians consider Reza Shah to be the father of modern Iran and his era is associated with a time of economic prosperity. . . .
Here are some slogans being chanted at the protests, translated into English:
“We don’t want an Islamic Republic, we don’t want it, we don’t want it.”
“They are using Islam as an excuse to drive people crazy.”
“Independence, Freedom, Iranian Republic.”
“Reformists, hard-liners, Game is over.”
“We are all Iranians, we don’t accept Arabs.”
“We are getting poor and clerics are driving fancy cars.”
“Reza Shah, Rest in Peace.”
“We will die but we will take Iran back.”
“Come out to the streets Iranians, shout for your rights.”
“Death to the Revolutionary Guards.”
I wish them a successful and complete revolution.
#NARRATIVEFAIL: In surprise, Trump maintains many Obama-era Russia policies.
PATTERICO: LAPD MAKES AN ARREST IN THAT DEADLY WICHITA SWATTING.
A 25-year-old California man was arrested in connection to an online quarrel between two “Call of Duty” gamers that prompted a hoax call and led to a man being killed by police in Kansas.
Los Angeles police on Friday arrested Tyler Barriss, who law enforcement claimed is the “prankster” who called 911 and made up a story about a kidnapping in Wichita, ABC 7 reported.
Barriss reportedly gave police the address he believed the other gamer lived.
In the audio of the 911 call, the caller claimed his father had been shot in the head and that he was holding his mother and a sibling at gunpoint. The caller added that he poured gasoline inside the home and “might just set it on fire.”
. . . .
Dexerto, an online news service focused on gaming, reported that the series of events began with an online argument over a $1 or $2 wager in a “Call of Duty” game on UMG Gaming, which operates online tournaments including one involving “Call of Duty.”
According to multiple articles, such as this one at Fortune, Barriss’ Twitter handle was “SWAuTistic,” and Twitter has since suspended that account. According to Fortune, Barriss “has been previously arrested for making hoax calls to police, including two bomb threats in 2015. More recently, he may have been responsible for a bomb threat that disrupted the FCC’s vote to repeal net neutrality rules.
FLASHBACK: Whopper of the Week: CNN’s Eason Jordan. Oh, those neglected stories about Saddam’s horrors. Iraq then, Iran now.
SWAMP DRAINING: How the Trump era is changing the federal bureaucracy.
Nearly a year into his takeover of Washington, President Trump has made a significant down payment on his campaign pledge to shrink the federal bureaucracy, a shift long sought by conservatives that could eventually bring the workforce down to levels not seen in decades.
By the end of September, all Cabinet departments except Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Interior had fewer permanent staff than when Trump took office in January — with most shedding many hundreds of employees, according to an analysis of federal personnel data by The Washington Post.
* * * * * * *
“Morale has never been lower,” said Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 federal workers at more than 30 agencies. “Government is making itself a lot less attractive as an employer.”
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the funereal tone of this Washington Post article.
SOME ALMOST-SELF-AWARENESS APPEARS: Taking Out the Trash? That’s Still a Man’s Job, Even for the Liberal Coastal Elite. “There’s no acknowledgment of the obvious inequity. No you-do-it-next-time admonishment. He accepts his role without a hint of bitterness. (In a way I do not when it comes to, say, driving car pool or coordinating play dates.) Every Monday around 9 p.m., I feel a tinge of guilt, except … not really. Almost every woman I know who lives with a man shirks this chore. It’s as if all hard-won equality in the home is tossed on trash night. It may be the last bastion of accepted 1950s behavior. And in this case — and this case alone — women are fine with that.”
Actually, there are a few others.
WELL, THE WOMEN’S STANDARDS ARE RIGHT AND THE MEN’S STANDARDS ARE WRONG BECAUSE THAT’S HOW IT WORKS: Number 1 in 2017: His Standards or Hers? How Men and Women Define Success.