Archive for 2018
February 7, 2018
CNN COMPARES TRUMP’S MILITARY PARADE IDEA TO NORTH KOREA.
So they’re in favor of it, I take it?
Besides, just think of what adopting the Juche idea could do for America’s obesity issues.
THERE’S SOMETHING ROTTEN IN ROME: ‘China is the best implementer of Catholic social doctrine,’ says Vatican bishop.
Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, praised the Communist state as “extraordinary”, saying: “You do not have shantytowns, you do not have drugs, young people do not take drugs”. Instead, there is a “positive national conscience”.
The bishop told the Spanish-language edition of Vatican Insider that in China “the economy does not dominate politics, as happens in the United States, something Americans themselves would say.”
Bishop Sánchez Sorondo said that China was implementing Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ better than many other countries and praised it for defending Paris Climate Accord. “In that, it is assuming a moral leadership that others have abandoned”, he added.
He accused US president Donald Trump of being “manipulated” by global oil firms, and said that, as opposed to those who follow “liberal thought”, the Chinese are working for the greater good of the planet.
I’m not Catholic, but most of the Catholic laypersons I know have been worried about this Vatican for a while now.
WHERE WE’RE GOING, WE DON’T NEED ROADS: Watch a Live Video of Elon Musk’s Roadster Flying Through Space: Starman, a dummy in a SpaceX space suit, is behind the wheel.
SPEIER ON TRUMP’S DESIRE FOR MILITARY PARADE: ‘WE HAVE A NAPOLEON IN THE MAKING.’
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) on Tuesday ripped reports that the Pentagon is organizing a military parade at President Trump’s direction, comparing the president to French leader Napoleon Bonaparte.
“I was stunned by it to be quite honest. I mean, we have a Napoleon in the making here. And I believe that we have so many issues around the world in terms of preparing for wars that are ongoing, and wars that may be in the offing because of what’s happening in North Korea, that I would say that it’s really a waste of money,” Speier told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“I think everyone should be offended by his need to always be showing. He’s truly Napoleon-like,” she added, referring to Bonaparte, who led France’s military in the French Revolution before becoming the country’s emperor.
Why would the left be upset about that?
EASY? YOU CALL THAT EASY? How VW Paid $25 Billion for ‘Dieselgate’ — and Got Off Easy. “Volkswagen has been hit with huge penalties in the U.S. for the emissions scandal, but not in Europe.”
GANGSTER STATE: North Korea Might Be Behind The World’s Largest Crypto Heist.
Reuters reported that the statement given by the unnamed source echoed an earlier report made by South Korea’s Channel A news. The news report said that there was a high probability that the Coincheck hack was a North Korean crypto heist.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told South Korea’s parliament Monday that the North Korean crypto heist last year was on the scale of tens of millions of dollars, according to parliamentary sources.
Sources also told the press that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service had also informed the National Assembly that it was investigating the possibility of the January 26 hack being a North Korean crypto heist.
The National Intelligence Service also said that tens of billions of won in virtual currency were stolen from South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges last year. The hacks, which were most likely North Korean cyber heists, involved the sending of hacking emails to members of the exchanges.
Doesn’t anyone important take cybersecurity seriously?
SJWS RUIN EVERYTHING: Formula One Bans Sexy Grid Girls Over SJW Objections, Grid Girls Hit Back.
ADAM SCHIFF, MEET ADAM SCHIFF: Hypocrisy is traditionally understood to be the compliment vice pays to virtue. With the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, however, it’s hard not to see mendacity, pure and simple. LifeZette’s Jim Stinson looks into Schiff’s shifting.
IN THE MAIL: From Joseph Tartakovsky, The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
YAKOV SMIRNOFF COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Roger Simon asks, Did Russian Comics Write the Dossiers?
DON’T BE EVIL (CONT’D): YouTube Still Censors PragerU Videos.
TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1735: The End Of IRS Targeting? “During the Obama administration, the tax agency targeted conservative organizations for exceptional scrutiny and even harassment. Last year the IRS settled lawsuits brought by organizations that had been mistreated simply because they advocated for limited Constitutional government. The government shelled out millions of dollars to settle one suit involving 428 organizations, according to an October report in the New York Times. In a separate case brought by different organizations, an apology for the IRS’s egregious conduct was enough to resolve the litigation. . . . While Mr. Obama did force the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner in the wake of the scandal in 2013, he made no serious effort to reform the agency and proclaimed that the targeting had involved “not even a smidgen of corruption” long before his government had finished investigating. Mr. Obama also placed John Koskinen atop the agency. Mr. Koskinen’s failures to comply with subpoenas and to report accurately to the Congress inspired an effort to impeach him in 2015.”
SHARYL ATTKISSON: “I’VE NEVER SEEN JOURNALISTS SO UNCURIOUS ABOUT SPYING” On Tucker Carlson’s show last night, Attkisson pointed out that in her extensive experience as a political and investigative journalist, she has never seen reporters so obliquely refuse to read — let alone report on — a government document. Carlson nails it when he says it’s stunning to hear reporters (who by trade are trained to seek out as much information as possible) say “tell me no more.”
Now you may believe that Nunes is a dope, a stooge, a liar, crazy (or in the fevered mind of Representative Schiff, a Russian agent). But that sidesteps the real issue for me as a journalist and media ethics specialist. As Attkisson points out, our newsrooms have never been so heavily populated with political operatives, and I would add that too many reporters are so saturated with fear and loathing of Trump that committment to their core principle (“Seek Truth and Report It“) has been swept aside. Read the documents, evaluate them for their probity and *then* decide what is and isn’t reportable. To go backwards and discredit anything because of Nunes’ shortcomings (which are many) is a public disservice.
EVERGREEN HEADLINE: ‘Bats–t crazy’ Newsweek staff meeting quickly goes off the rails.
No word how much tentacle porn was explored during the meeting.
WE NEED TO START ADDING ZEROES TO THESE PAYOUTS: Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville has agreed to pay $10,000 to settle a First Amendment lawsuit filed by the school’s College Republicans chapter.
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville has settled a lawsuit with the College Republicans, agreeing to pay the group’s attorney fees and revise its unconstitutional speech policies.
According to NBC affiliate KSDK, the university will pay $10,000 for attorney fees and has already eliminated its speech zone after the College Republicans, with help from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), challenged the constitutionality of the school’s free speech policy in October. . . .
According to the lawsuit, the university restricted its free speech zone to “less than 0.0013% of the entire SIUE campus” and did not “provide any alternative locations for student speech outside the Speech Zone.”
“Defendants’ Speech Policies and their practice of limiting students’ and student organizations’ expressive activities to a single Speech Zone at SIUE facially violates the First Amendment because it prohibits students and student organizations from engaging in speech in public areas of the campus other than the limited area of the Speech Zone,” the lawsuit argued.
As previously reported by Campus Reform, conservative students at the university were confronted in September by a campus police officer, who told them that their free speech ball was “scaring” classmates and that they had failed to secure the proper permission to hold the demonstration.
When the students objected that they were simply exercising their First Amendment right to express themselves in a public place, the officer rejected their contention, arguing that the state university campus is not public.
This sort of thing is so clearly wrong, it shouldn’t even get qualified immunity.
VIETNAM WAR RETROSPECTIVE, THE 1968 TET OFFENSIVE: Marines advance in Hue City, February 1968.
MATTIS TO CONGRESS: I’m wasting my time if you don’t pass budget.
Mattis made the comment while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on the recently released National Defense Strategy and nuclear posture review.
“Congress mandated, rightfully mandated this National Defense Strategy — the first one in a decade — then shut down the government the day of its release. Today, we are again operating under a disruptive continuing resolution,” Mattis said in his opening statement. “I regret that without sustained, predictable appropriations, my presence here today wastes your time because no strategy can survive, as you pointed out, chairman, without the funding necessary to resource it.”
Congress’ primary function is spending other people’s money, and they can’t even do that on time.
HMM: Democrat Flips Deep-Red House Seat in Missouri. “Democratic pick Mike Revis turns a heavily GOP state legislative district blue.”
Revis defeated GOP candidate David C. Linton in the special election to replace Rep. John McCaherty, who left the office to focus on his run for Jefferson County executive.
President Trump won the heavily Republican district by a 61-33 margin in the 2016 election. There were three other special elections in the state on Tuesday night, all of which the Republican party defended. However, there were major net swings towards Democrats.
Revis’ win is likely welcome news for Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), thought to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents facing reelection this year in a state that Trump won by over 18 points.
Plus: “This marks the 35th legislative seat nationwide that has flipped since Trump’s inauguration and the second just this year.”
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Va. Father and Biological Daughter Charged With Incest After Allegedly Having Child Together.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Blumenthal?, Schiff Punked by RUSSIANS, Clock Ticking on DACA and Much, Much, More. And Trey Gowdy says, “I’m not saying it was Clinton associate Sidney Blumenthal feeding info to Chris Steele, but it was Clinton associate Sidney Blumenthal feeding information to Chris Steele.”