TO BE FAIR, THEY DON’T MESS AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO PUSHING ILLICIT POLYPROPYLENE IN SAN FRANCISCO: If This Bill Passes, Possessing Pot in Texas Will Be Treated Less Harshly Than Distributing Straws in San Francisco.
Archive for 2018
November 13, 2018
WITH HILLARY PLANNING TO RUN AGAIN, THIS JUST MAKES SENSE: Cassette Tapes Are Back.
UPDATE: Dry-Dock Sinking Could Accelerate the Russian Navy’s Decline.
It could take years for the Kremlin to make up for PD-50’s loss. In the meantime, the Russian fleet will lack a floating repair facility for the 60,000-ton-displacement Kuznetsov and potentially other large warships of Cold War-vintage.
Dry docks lift ships out of the water, allowing workers to access their lower hulls for deep maintenance.
Even before PD-50’s sinking, the Russian fleet was slowly replacing big, old ships with much smaller new ones that can’t sail as far or carry as much weaponry, but which are cheaper and easier to operate and repair than the old vessels are.
Plus: Russian officials: Nope, we can’t finish fixing the carrier Kuznetsov.
LIKE BLOOD FROM A STONE: Trump Attorney Breathes Fire in Latest Attempt to Get Avenatti and Stormy Daniels to Pay Up in Full.
WTF? Illinois security guard saved bar patrons’ lives; then police showed up and shot him to death. “Bar security guard Jemel Roberson subdued the alleged shooter, whose name has not yet been released. According to witness statements provided to WGN, Roberson had the shooter detained face down on the ground with his knee in the shooter’s back and a firearm pointed at the shooter, telling him, “Don’t move!” When police arrived at the scene, however, they opened fire on Roberson.”
More: “Witnesses say Roberson was wearing his uniform, including a hat emblazoned with the word ‘security,’ and was holding a firearm he was licensed to carry.”
This is inexcusable, and the officers should be charged. There’s also a training issue here. As I’ve said before, the shift is encapsulated in the Hill Street Blues catchphrase change from “let’s be careful out there” to “let’s do it to them before they do it to us.”
KABUKI: Cummings urges reluctant Dems to back Pelosi for speaker if she wins caucus vote.
Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who has represented a Baltimore district since the 1996 elections, offered a preview of how Pelosi’s allies will attempt to counter arguments that she’s overstayed her welcome as Democratic leader — she’s led the party in the House for 16 years — and has become a divisive figure that has jeopardized Democratic gains in swing House districts.
A slew of Democratic victors in last week’s elections vowed to oppose Pelosi in a House floor vote, imperiling her bid for a second stint as speaker. But no alternative candidate has emerged yet, and Pelosi’s allies are beginning to mount a forceful campaign suggesting that Pelosi’s leadership and experience is necessary to guide the new Democratic majority.
The suspense isn’t exactly killing me.
MONICA LEWINSKY: “If you want to know what power looks like, watch a man safely, even smugly, do interviews for decades, without ever worrying whether he will be asked the questions he doesn’t want to answer.”
Just think of the media as Democratic operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.
SHENANIGANS: Brenda Snipes Says Boxes Found in Rental Car at Ft. Lauderdale Airport Contained Blank Ballots. “The rental car had been driven by a Democratic Broward supervisor of elections employee.”
WEIRD HOW WHEN YOU IMPORT A BUNCH OF ANTI-SEMITES YOU GET MORE ANTISEMITISM: Merkel condemns resurgence of anti-Semitism on 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Unexpectedly!
IN THE MAIL: From Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering.
NEW HILL REPORT TO SAY XI, COMMUNIST PARTY STRONGER THAN EVER: When veteran national security reporter Bill Gertz leads a story like this, pay close attention:
“China’s Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping is expanding control over the Chinese government while increasing the use of covert action influence operations, according to a forthcoming congressional report,” Gertz writes today on Washington Free Beacon.
The forthcoming report, which Gertz obtained under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, is being prepared by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Among much else, Xi is also cracking down on China’s growing Christian population, forcing church leaders to submit to state supervision and censorship, just as the Soviet Communist Party did in Soviet Union.
“The expanded party controls also have led to an increase in Chinese influence operations conducted through a party organ known as the United Front Work Department,” according to Gertz.
The report will say the “‘As the CCP has consolidated power over many aspects of Chinese society, President Xi has expanded the role of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a powerful party entity responsible for securing the political support of or otherwise co-opting non-CCP entities within China and among the Chinese diaspora in foreign countries, including the United States,'” Gertz reports.
“Xi elevated the department by declaring its covert and overt operations as important for the party and to be used as a ‘magic weapon’ in advancing Chinese strategic objectives,” Gertz continued. Somehow I doubt Xi had disappearing bunny rabbits in mind.
IF WE HAVE TO HIRE ON MERIT, HOW CAN WE HIRE WHO WE WANT? University of Texas says ‘meritocratic’ hiring is a ‘problem.’
A MUDPOT CRAWLS ACROSS CALIFORNIA: I don’t think it’s trying to go to Texas.
Scientists do not yet know why the Niland Geyser is creeping across California. They can, however, say with certainty that it is not being driven by surges in seismic activity. Ken Hudnut, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, tells Andrews that the San Andreas Fault is heavily monitored, and there are no signs that a large earthquake is brewing. Californians, in other words, can rest assured that the Niland Geyser’s crawl is not an indication that the “Big One” quake is imminent.
In spite of the potential damages it may cause, the mud pot has been given a much less ominous nickname: the “Slow One.”
Stay tuned.
JON GABRIEL: 5 Reasons Why Republicans Lost Arizona.
LEGAL PROFESSION UPDATE: ‘Big Law Killed My Husband’: An Open Letter From A Sidley Partner’s Widow.
COSMIC JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH?: He was born in a crossfire hurricane. This article says our solar system will soon encounter a dark matter hurricane.
Last year, the motions of nearby stars in the solar neighbourhood were measured by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite and a previously unknown stream, dubbed S1, was detected – the telltale remains of a smaller dwarf galaxy cannibalised by the Milky Way. Now a study published in the journal Physical Review D, led by Ciaran O’Hare from the University of Zaragoza in Spain, finds that 10 billion solar masses worth of dark matter from that galaxy is travelling along S1, directly towards the Sun.
This dark matter should strike the Sun – and any detectors on Earth – at speeds of 500 kilometres per second – much faster than the standard dark matter wind. O’Hare and colleagues call it a “dark matter hurricane”.
I link, you decide.
THEY TOLD ME IF TRUMP WERE ELECTED, AMERICA WOULD DESCEND INTO PLUTOCRACY. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Are Democrats Now The Party Of The Rich? The Trump rebranding of the GOP as a working class party coincides with a number of super-rich Democrats winning high-profile elections.
HIGHER EDUCATION AS DEMOCRAT SUPER PAC: Did college admins, faculty help swing midterm results?
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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Arizona Has the Blues and Much, Much More. “Yes, Democrat Sinema has won the election after ‘all the ballots were counted’ or whatever the Democrats say when magical boxes of votes materialize. For Democracy.”
Yes, but it’s a dry cheat.