GREAT MOMENTS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS: Mandalay Bay Owners Sue Vegas Shooting Victims to Avoid Liability.
As Iowahawk tweeted, “Might have considered running this one by the marketing department first.”
Archive for 2018
July 17, 2018
PERHAPS WE SHOULD GIVE THEM NUCLEAR WEAPONS AS A DETERRENT: Russia still can overrun the Baltic NATO countries in about 60 hours.
SETTING A BLOODY CENTURY IN MOTION: One hundred years ago, the Bolsheviks’ slaughter of the Romanovs prefigured seven decades of Communist tyranny.
Read the whole thing.
SEA STORY: USS Harry S. Truman Now Operating in Cold War Era Submarine Hot Spot.
A mere three months after deploying from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., a portion of the carrier strike group is now operating in the area of operations of U.S. Fleet Forces Command – which will soon be the territory of the reestablished U.S. 2nd Fleet – closer to Canada than to Europe. The region is where the Atlantic Ocean is its most deep and used to be a Cold War stalking ground for U.S. attack boats on the hunt for Soviet submarines.
U.S. Fleet Forces Command did not directly answer USNI News questions regarding Truman‘s activities so far west in the Atlantic, but the command did issue a statement late Monday.
“The National Defense Strategy directs us to be operationally unpredictable while remaining strategically predictable. As such, select units from the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) will return to Norfolk, Virginia, this week – a direct reflection of the dynamic force employment concept, and the inherent maneuverability and flexibility of the U.S. Navy,” commander of Fleet Forces Command Adm. Christopher Grady said in a statement.
The Navy had its size cut in less than half since 1989, in part on the dangerous assumption that no one would contest the Atlantic again.
OUCH: New Poll Suggests Dems Turn Against Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders for 2020. “73 percent want ‘a fresh face’.”
TYLER O’NEIL: Trump Attacked NATO Allies, Fist-Bumped Turkey’s Authoritarian Leader Erdoğan. “Leader of the free world says of authoritarian, ‘He does things the right way’.”
PRIME DAY: 25 percent off select Raleigh Bikes.
TAMARA KEEL: What They Think Of You.
The thing is, the Senate Majority Project has received a couple million from Bloomberg, as well as at least $10M from Newsweb Corp, which is Chicago billionaire Fred Eychaner’s company.
So an ad complaining about out-of-state billionaires buying ads was paid for by out-of-state billionaires.
But they think you’re too dumb to know that. You know how I know this? Well, this ad was no doubt produced by some LA or NYC agency, and look at who they think will convince those on-the-fence blue collar union worker* Hoosiers who voted for both Obama and Trump, Lugar and Donnelly. They assembled this People of Walmart cast of Totally Not Actors to convince us confused hilljacks of flyover country that people just like us were standing up for Indiana Joe.
There’s a tiny chance I’d vote for Braun, because the dude’s SoCon mouth noises he made for the primary seemed about as convincing as the visual effects in the original Star Trek series, but I’m insulted enough by this ad to guarantee it’ll be a cold day in hell before I vote for Joe Donnelly.
Ouch.
PERHAPS HE CAN FIND NEW WAYS TO MOTIVATE THEM: Kim Jong Un ‘extremely enraged,’ berates North Korean officials for unfinished projects.
Flashback: Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things.
SOCIALIST “IT GIRL” PAYING UNEXPECTED DIVIDENDS: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the best thing to happen to the GOP all year.
Related: “Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs.”
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Pitt Study Finds “Beer Goggles” Are Real.
WHAT THE HELL? Day care worker who tried to kill toddler by hanging him avoids prison as judge cites ‘perfect storm’ of events.
Nataliia Karia avoided prison time despite pleading guilty to attempted murder, third-degree assault and criminal vehicular operation for hitting a pedestrian, a bicyclist and another driver as she fled from her home in November of 2016.
A father was dropping off his son at Karia’s home when he found a toddler hanging from a noose in the basement. He released the child, and the 16-month-old boy survived.
Karia fled in her vehicle, striking a bicyclist and dragging another motorist 10 blocks after striking his car, according to the Star Tribune. The bicyclist needed a rod inserted in his leg to avoid amputation, according to the newspaper.
She would also hit a vehicle driven by a pregnant woman. Karia threatened to jump off an overpass before she was taken into custody.
Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam sentenced her to 10-years probation on Monday after agreeing with doctors that she was a “low risk” to commit more crimes. Judge Quam said her actions were “the perfect storm of factors unlikely to ever be repeated,” according to the Star Tribune.
What’s the risk of her hanging any more toddlers from prison?
IN THE MAIL: From S.M. Stirling, Black Chamber (A Novel of an Alternate World War).
ROGER SIMON: Putin Summit May Prove to Be Trump’s Finest Hour.
Read the whole thing.
BAKE THE CAKE, HATER: Uber Driver Boots Group of NC Young Republicans From Vehicle, Dumps Them at Gas Station. “Welcome to the resistance.”
EVERGREEN HEADLINE: Rand Paul: “Trump Derangement Syndrome” Has Gone Over The Top And People Have Lost The Big Picture. Yep. People can’t just make a legit criticism and stop. They have to “bury it in crazy” talking about Trump being a Russian agent and assorted other BS. You saw some of this crazy on the right under Obama, but it got a lot less media support and amplification for obvious reasons.
UPDATE: Also evergreen:
WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS HACKED OUR WEB SERVERS ON PEARL HARBOR? Politico: Russian election meddling in 2016 is ‘our Pearl Harbor, our 9/11.’
“We’re old enough to still consider 9/11 our 9/11,” Twitchy responds. And as Twitter user Jason Beale wrote yesterday, “all they have to do is not be insane. This Pearl Harbor, 9/11, ‘attack’ and ‘war’ stuff is nuts — Trump opened himself up to legit criticism today, and they can’t help but to bury it in crazy.”
HEALTH: Weight loss surgery may affect the risk of cancer.
This national population-based cohort study used data from the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England collected between 1997 and 2012. A total of 8794 obese patients who underwent gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy were matched with 8794 obese individuals who did not have surgery.
Patients who underwent surgery had a 77% decreased risk of developing hormone-related cancer (breast, endometrial or prostate cancer) when compared with patients who did not have surgery.
Gastric bypass resulted in the largest risk reduction (84%) for hormone-related cancer but was associated with a greater than twofold increased risk of colorectal cancer.
Hmm.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Public school enrollment is plummeting in North Carolina because of school choice.
If you want to see how parents act when the government stops forcing an educational monopoly on them, look to North Carolina.
Nearly 20 percent of students are attending something other than a traditional public school, where attendance is falling “rapidly,” according to The News & Observer.
The rush toward charter, private and even home schools is largely due to the Republican takeover of the Legislature in 2010.
Lawmakers have since removed the 100-school cap on charter schools (it’s up to 185 as of this fall), created a $4,200 voucher for low-income families and two programs for special-needs kids to get out of public schools (where they are often treated poorly), and even made it easier for non-parent adults to teach homeschoolers.
Charter schools have grown by twice as many students as public schools have lost since the 2014-15 school year, The News & Observer reports.
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
GREAT NAME: U.K. Introduces New Fighter Jet: The Tempest.
The British government says the fighter should be ready for service by 2035.
U.K. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson introduced a full-sized model of the new Tempest multi-role fighter today at the Farnborough Air Show. The Tempest incorporates a host of new technologies that would surpass what’s in the F-35, meaning the British plane would join the growing group of “sixth-generation” fighters now on the drawing board.
One of Tempest’s most important technologies is optional manning, meaning it will be able to fly with a human pilot or without one. Tempest also would be able to direct a group swarming drones, complicating the enemy’s defense and enhancing the plane’s survivability.
It’s been a long time since the storied British aircraft industry produced a world-leading plane, but they’re certainly aiming high with this one.
YOUR 21ST CENTURY DYSTOPIAN HEADLINE OF THE DAY: A College Apparently Tried To Reject A Student Because Of China’s “Social Credit System.” But here’s the bright spot: “People in China are criticizing the college, saying that it was unfairly punishing a high school student over his father’s actions.”