Archive for 2017
October 27, 2017
THE BIGGEST KILLER OF THEM ALL: What Exactly Does It Mean to Die from ‘Natural Causes’?
TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1632: Department Of Justice Settles Tea Party Targeting Cases For Millions And An Apology. I remember when other tax professors were shamefully criticizing Paul Caron for paying attention to what they called a fake scandal.
NEWSWEEK: Why Are All the Conservative Loudmouths Irish-American?
The author, Van Gosse, “teaches history at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.”
MATCH-MATCH-MATCH-MATCH.COM: About 100k Brits Have Profiles on Muslim Polygamy Site.
SEA STORY: Two women and their dogs rescued after 5 months adrift in the Pacific.
The group had left Hawaii in the spring, bound for Tahiti, but ran into trouble on May 30 when bad weather damaged their sailboat’s engine. The women decided to keep sailing, but strayed off course, according to the Navy.
After two months — past the time they estimated they would arrive in Tahiti — the Honolulu residents began sending out daily distress calls, the Navy said.
But they were too far away from other boats and shore stations to be heard.
“You can’t get any help at all because you’re in the middle of nowhere,” Fuiava said in the call.
Appel and Fuiava survived on a year’s worth of dry goods including oatmeal, pasta and rice, the Navy said. They also had a water purifier.
Sounds like they were prepared for the worst.
WE DON’T NEED NO STEENKING CONSTITUTION: Robert Hanrahan shows how the federal government’s reliance on contractors is both inefficient and unlawful.
IT’S NO WONDER, GIVEN ALL THE SUBSIDIES THEY TAKE FROM EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY: Renewable energy is creating US jobs twice as fast as any other industry.
Other people’s money is not a renewable resource, as Margaret Thatcher might say today.
IN THE MAIL: Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms (Expanded Edition).
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
BRUCE BAWER: Mute Inglorious Meryls?
ONCE UPON A TIME YOU DRESSED SO FINE. THREW THE BUMS A DIME IN YOUR PRIME, DIDN’T YOU? Harvey Weinstein tried to buy Rolling Stone.
While recent reports said disgraced Weinstein landed a $4 million crisis mortgage on his $15 million Manhattan townhouse to fund his brewing legal battles — sources tell us that the money was actually arranged months before his scandal hit as he was putting together funds and a consortium to buy Rolling Stone.
But the Weinstein Rolling Stone bid was dropped once accusations against him started piling up after the bombshell pieces in the New York Times and New Yorker.
Considering Rolling Stone’s standards these days, that really is “unexpectedly.”
GOVERNMENT IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR THE MEAN THINGS WE CHOOSE TO DO TO EACH OTHER: Another Move Against Vaping Hurts Smokers Trying To Kick The Habit.
Quitting smoking is difficult but very good for you. Vaping makes it easier.
UH HUH: Former DNC, Clinton Campaign Chairs Deny Knowledge of Payments to Firm Behind Trump Dossier.
Two of the most prominent Democratic Party leaders in 2016 told congressional investigators they were ignorant of plans to pay for the salacious dossier connecting President Donald Trump to Russia.
Three sources familiar with the matter told CNN of the denials, which came amid reported moves by both former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to fund the dossier’s research.
Those denials came from the chairs of those two organizations — John Podesta (Clinton campaign) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (DNC) — who said they didn’t know where intelligence firm Fusion GPS obtained funding to conduct the research.
“I didn’t have any awareness of the arrangement at all,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Through the end of 2016, the Clinton campaign and DNC allegedly funded the dossier through a law firm, Perkins Coie, which approached Fusion GPS about researching Trump.
Nobody knew anything, it just sort of happened. No one would accept that excuse from a fraternity president, but hey.
The deplorable bunch in Hollywood is bigger in number than many think, but bullying tactics and blacklist fears have kept most in the closet. As a result, conservatives in Filmville seem as uncommon as a George Clooney hit movie…rarer than an unpilfered joke in Amy Schumer’s standup set. And believe it or not, in some Hollywood circles, being a conservative is more toxic than a grown man spooning in bed with other people’s kids.
If you think I’m exaggerating, you don’t know this town.
Indeed.™ It’s the first of a three-part series; read the whole thing.
CLIFFORD D. MAY: The Kurdish test. “Iran’s mullahs are betting that Trump, like Obama, will choose appeasement.”
Now the Kurds are imperiled. Here’s what’s happened: On Oct. 13, President Trump announced his Iran strategy. He declined to recertify the nuclear arms deal concluded by his predecessor. Among the reasons: Iran’s compliance cannot be verified so long as international inspectors are barred from the regime’s military facilities.
The president also is unwilling to turn a blind eye to Iran’s continuing development of missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads, the “sunset” clauses that legitimize the mullah’s nuclear weapons program over time, and the terrorism that those mullahs sponsor. Notably, he designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
The Iranian response has been more than merely rhetorical. On Oct. 16, Iraqi forces, over which Iran’s rulers now exercise considerable influence, and Shia militias, many of them Iranian-backed, drove Kurdish troops out of oil-rich Kirkuk. According to credible reports, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of foreign operations for the IRGC, was on hand to personally coordinate the operation.
Though Kirkuk is beyond the de facto borders of the KRG, Kurds have long viewed it as the Jerusalem of their homeland. It was a Kurdish-majority city until the Saddam regime determined to “Arabize” it, not least through population transfers.
In 2014, however, when the Islamic State was on the march, Iraqi government forces abandoned Kirkuk. The Peshmerga quickly filled the vacuum, defending the city and holding it ever since.
By orchestrating the taking of Kirkuk, Iran’s rulers are testing Mr. Trump. They are betting that, despite the tough talk, he won’t have the stomach to do what is necessary to frustrate their neo-imperialist ambitions.
Lending full material support to the Kurds is the best and fastest way to check Iran’s territorial ambitions.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: USC professor defends tweet promoting violence against whiteness.
Related: KU hires Black Lives Matter activist banned from campus building for threatening dean.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Halperin Allegations, JFK Files, and Much, Much More.
OCEANIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH TEDDY ROOSEVELT:
● Shot: “I think that Teddy Roosevelt was a great American.”
—Hillary Clinton in a May 1, 2008 interview with Bill O’Reilly.
● Double-Shot: “It’s time to take a page from Teddy Roosevelt’s book and get our economy working for Americans again. That’s what I’ll do as president.”
—Hillary, as quoted in an October 28, 2015 Dow Jones Marketwatch.com article titled “Hillary Clinton wants to be Teddy Roosevelt.”
● Chaser: “Red paint was splashed at the statue of Theodore Roosevelt on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History early Thursday, according to cops.”
—The New York Post, yesterday.
As a prominent, albeit fictitious member of the news media would say:
NASTY, BRUTISH, AND NOT VERY SHORT: This Is What a NATO vs. Russia War over the Baltics Would Look Like.
Unless it were to go nuclear. That would bring about a speedier solution — for everybody.
ROBERT TRACINSKI: Everyone is so distracted by the drama on the President Trump’s Twitter feed that they’re not paying attention to his crackdown on runaway regulation. Good.
Are President Trump’s constant Twitter fights a distraction from his failures, or from his successes?
The answer is a little of both. While everyone is preoccupied with the latest culture war skirmish started or inflamed on the president’s Twitter feed, their rage and concern is being directed away from some notable failures to achieve his promised agenda. Yet this also makes people less likely to notice the part of his agenda that succeeds best when no one is paying much attention: the Trump administration’s crackdown on runaway regulation.
I would almost say this strategy is deliberate, if not for the random and uncalculated way it is carried out.
Hmm.
BYRON YORK: Looking at dossier itself, sure seems Kremlin-linked Russians were participating in anti-Trump effort.
Related: How Team Hillary played the press for fools on Russia. To be fair, the press was happy to play along.