BUFF OVER THE PACIFIC: A B-52H on a training mission over the Pacific Ocean.
Archive for 2018
September 10, 2018
FLASHBACK: Byron York: When a foreign adversary meddled in a presidential election.
The country doing the meddling, of course, was China, and the presidential candidate was Bill Clinton, who was already in the White House and seeking re-election in 1996.
Looking back on press accounts from the era, it’s striking how brazen a number of the players were as they went about the task of funneling illegal foreign donations to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The names have been mostly forgotten now — Charlie Trie, John Huang, Johnny Chung — but the record remains.
Chung, for example, who was born in Taiwan and became a U.S. citizen, was a prolific Democratic fundraiser. Between 1994 and 1996, he gave $366,000 to the DNC and visited the Clinton White House more than 50 times.
In 1995, Chung gave a $50,000 check to First Lady Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at an event on the White House grounds. His memorable explanation: “I see the White House is like a subway — you have to put in coins to open the gates.”
In May 1999, Chung testified before the House Government Oversight Committee. He said that in 1996, during the Clinton re-election campaign, he met with the head of Chinese military intelligence in the basement of a restaurant in Hong Kong. “We really like your president. We hope to see him re-elected,” the Chinese spy, Gen. Ji Shengde, told Chung, according to Chung’s testimony. Gen. Ji continued: “I will give you 300,000 U.S. dollars. You can give it to the president and the Democratic Party.”
That’s different because shut up.
Related: While Everyone Is Distracted By Russia, Chinese Spying And Influence Runs Wild.
SULTANS GOTTA SULTANATE: Turkey jails filmmaker for movie portraying execution of Erdogan.
Ali Avci was arrested last year after the release of a trailer for his film “Awakening”, based on a failed military putsch in 2016 in which more than 250 people were killed.
The trailer caused public uproar with sequences showing Erdogan’s family, including his son-in-law, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, shot dead, and an army officer pointing a gun at the back of the president’s head as he prayed.
An Istanbul court sentenced Avci to 6 years and three months in jail for belonging to the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey. Gulen denies Turkey’s accusation that he masterminded the coup attempt.
Yet another example of the differences between a genuine authoritarian and a fake one.
I’M NOT SURE ABOUT THE ACCURACY OF THIS HEADLINE, BUT THE REPORT IS INTERESTING: Tesla “Aggressively” Trying to Offload Model 3 Inventory As Demand Fades.
Tesla is taking their delivery proactivity one step further: they are offering “immediate delivery” of Model 3s on a first come first serve basis. It was also reported that the company was sending out emails to Model 3 reservation holders who have been in line since day one, trying to entice them to come in and take delivery of vehicles that are apparently sitting around with nowhere to go.
According to the report, Tesla is emailing current reservation holders telling them the following:
“We have a limited number of Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive vehicles on display that are available for immediate delivery.
As a first day reservation holder, you’re invited to take advantage of this opportunity on a first-com, first-served basis.
We will be extending this invitation to addition Model 3 reservation holders on Monday, September 10.”
In other words, Tesla appears to be dealing with the “leftovers” from batch productions and trying to entice reservation holders to take a vehicle that they may not have ordered or want, to help them move stagnant inventory.
Additionally, according to the report, many of the people that received this email from Tesla are people who have been waiting for the $35,000 version of the Model 3. This follows a report that we posted last month highlighting that Tesla’s bottleneck had ominously gone from production to delivery, or from supply to demand.
One major challenge in mass production is guessing the correct product or feature mix to meet market demand. But given that Tesla is still trying to fulfill existing pre-orders for Model 3s, it’s difficult to understand why the company is producing large numbers of cars which aren’t tailored for existing, deposit-paying, and perhaps increasingly impatient customers
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Mathematics Paper Two Math Journals Were Mau-Maued into Suppressing: Academic discourse is increasingly under threat from activist professors.
When taxpayers grow tired of subsidizing this clown show, we’ll be told it’s because of “anti-intellectualism.” Meanwhile, the paper they were trying to suppress is here. Abstract:
An elementary mathematical theory based on “selectivity” is proposed to address a question raised by Charles Darwin, namely, how one gender of a sexually dimorphic species might tend to evolve with greater variability than the other gender. Briefly, the theory says that if one sex is relatively selective then from one generation to the next, more variable subpopulations of the opposite sex will tend to prevail over those with lesser variability; and conversely, if a sex is relatively non-selective, then less variable subpopulations of the opposite sex will tend to prevail over those with greater variability. This theory makes no assumptions about differences in means between the sexes, nor does it presume that one sex is selective and the other non-selective. Two mathematical models are presented: a discrete-time one-step statistical model using normally distributed fitness values; and a continuous-time deterministic model using exponentially distributed fitness levels.
This is what some professors thought too right-wing (or whatever) to be published. Because punch Nazis.
HMM: Marijuana-Research Applications Go Nowhere at Justice Department.
The future of the initiative ultimately rests with the DEA’s parent agency, the Justice Department, and officials under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime critic of marijuana use, aren’t eager to advance the applications, these people said. Mr. Sessions has stated publicly he is open to research on the drug but has offered for no timeline for processing the applications.
The applicants include a variety of entrepreneurs, as well as a university professor and a former Navy SEAL who wants to study how marijuana might help veterans suffering from chronic pain and post-traumatic stress.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voiced frustration at the delays, saying Mr. Sessions has repeatedly avoided questions about the status of the applications. The inaction, they say, is stalling much-needed research into the potential health benefits of marijuana as society takes a more tolerant view of its use.
The story goes on to report that 26 research applications have been filed since August, 2016, but not one has “been approved or rejected, and applicants say they have seen little sign of any movement.”
THE CRIPPLING PARADOX AT HEART OF DEMS’ KAVANAUGH CASE: It’s not immediately obvious but LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby brings it out with a clarity that would make a Supreme Court justice grin.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: UCLA Confirms Hosting of National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference.
MARK PERRY: “Over the last 12 years, I’ve probably created and posted more than 3,000 graphics on CD, Twitter, and Facebook including charts/graphs, tables, figures, maps and Venn diagrams. Of all of those graphics, I don’t think any single one has ever gotten more attention, links, re-Tweets, re-posts, and mentions than the one above (and previous versions), which has been referred to as ‘the Chart of the Century.'”
Heck, I got a whole book out of it.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm.
“As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control … not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” said Justin Sanchez, who directs DARPA’s biological technology office, at the Agency’s 60th-anniversary event in Maryland.
More importantly, DARPA was able to improve the interaction between pilot and the simulated jet to allow the operator, a paralyzed man named Nathan, to not just send but receive signals from the craft.
“The signals from those aircraft can be delivered directly back to the brain so that the brain of that user [or pilot] can also perceive the environment,” said Sanchez. “It’s taken a number of years to try and figure this out.”
In essence, it’s the difference between having a brain joystick and having a real telepathic conversation with multiple jets or drones about what’s going on, what threats might be flying over the horizon, and what to do about them.
The potential applications extend far beyond the military.
PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1859:
● Atlanta Mayor Signs Order Banning ICE Detainees
● ‘Not Here, Not Now’: Gov. Brown Signs Bill Blocking Trump’s Offshore Drilling Plan.
● Cities defiant after Justice Department’s threat on ‘supervised injection sites.’
Old and busted: Confederate-era Democrats believe they can pick and choose which federal laws they wish to enforce.
The new hotness? Err, pretty much the same in the Trump era.
LOCK HIM UP FOR CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: ‘Beto O’Rourke’ Was ‘Rob O’Rourke’ When He Captained Rowing Team at Ivy League School.
STEVE BANNON: Trump Facing a ‘Coup.’
CASS SUNSTEIN: The Echo Chamber Is the Enemy of Democracy: Wisdom on free speech from Justice Brandeis and William F. Buckley.
The decision of David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, to rescind Steve Bannon’s invitation to speak at the magazine’s festival next month has created a storm of protest. Those who abhor Remnick’s decision point to similar controversies on university campuses, where a pervasive question has been whether to host people whose statements or actions seem abhorrent to many people.
Disturbingly, most of the controversies involve people whose views are to the right of center.
Let’s step back from the details and ask some bigger questions: Which ideas, if any, are beyond the pale? Is it a mistake to “normalize” some speakers? When?
To get some guidance, we would do well to look to the example of William F. Buckley Jr., one of the most influential conservatives of the last 60 years. For decades, Buckley was the host of a television show called “Firing Line.”
Buckley hosted plenty of conservatives. But he was more than willing to provide a forum for people whose leftist ideas he despised, a group that included Noam Chomsky, Muhammad Ali, Saul Alinsky, Allen Ginsberg and John Kenneth Galbraith.
Buckley relished disagreement and debate. He was committed to the marketplace of ideas. He acted in accordance with the words of Justice Louis Brandeis, writing of the importance of freedom of speech:
Those who won our independence . . . believed liberty to be the secret of happiness, and courage to be the secret of liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; that, with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.
Buckley seemed to agree with Brandeis’ claim that “the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.”
Yes but he was a decent person, not a virtue-signaling lemming.
“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND THEY ARE OURS”: On this day in 1813, American naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeated British commander Robert Heriot Barclay (no relation) in the Battle of Lake Erie. His dispatch to Major Gen. William Henry Harrison ranks up there with “Veni, vidi, vici” for succinctly, yet dramatically, reporting a military victory.
(And, yes, there was also Pogo’s variation on Perry’s theme.)