WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: “Honda has demonstrated technology that enables cars to see through and around buildings. Just as capabilities are growing, after all, so are highest goals. Talk is in the air of a zero-collision society. Sounds ambitious but automobile technologists are trying to move in a direction of making a very positive impact on safety.”

WAR ON THE PRESS (CONT’D): ‘Chilling message’: Hong Kong refuses to explain FT journalist visa denial.

The unprecedented denial of a visa to a Financial Times journalist “sends a chilling message to everyone in Hong Kong,” the paper said Sunday, as press groups and politicians in the city continued to denounce the move.

Asia news editor Victor Mallet was informed Friday that his visa renewal — usually a procedural matter — had been refused, weeks after he hosted a controversial pro-independence activist in his role as vice president of the city’s Foreign Correspondent’s Club (FCC).

“No criticism has been offered of his work as a journalist,” the FT editorial board said. “In the absence of any proper explanation for the decision, it is therefore hard to resist the conclusion that it amounts to retribution for his role as (FCC vice president).”

A huge amount of pressure was applied to the FCC by both the Hong Kong and Chinese governments to cancel the talk by Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party in August.

The Hong Kong National Party has since been banned — itself an unprecedented move — though it was completely legal at the time of his speech.

Over the last couple of days we’ve had an (allegedly) murdered Saudi journalist at a Saudi consulate in Turkey, a murdered Bulgarian journalist in Europe, and now this.

It’s almost as though the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands anywhere else.

WELL, THAT’S NICE, BUT ETHANOL FUEL IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, SO. . . Virgin 747 Completes Transatlantic Flight With Fuel Made Partly From Industrial Waste. Though better from industrial waste than, you know, food. But this seems like a publicity stunt at best.

YOU DON’T SAY: Some anti-Kavanaugh protesters were paid to help make ‘viral moments,’ Vice News editor says.

NEWS FROM GOOGLE TO ME:

COCAINE MITCH DOUBLES DOWN: McConnell Open to the Possibility of Filling Supreme Court Vacancy in 2020. I notice that a lot of Dems on Twitter are saying this violates the “Garland principle” — they can’t call it the “Biden Rule,” which would be historically accurate, for obvious reasons — but that’s wrong. The rule’s based on a president and senate of opposite parties.

WILL THERE BE #METOO PROTESTS AT EACH EVENT? Hillary and Bill Clinton to go on tour this year.

MAKE THEM PLAY BY THEIR OWN RULES: “Believe Survivors” Democrat STILL silent about donor arrested for sexual assault.

THIS REVIEW OF ANDREW YARROW’S MAN OUT puts me in mind of another book.

WARMONGERING, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG: Mike Pompeo Says ‘Significant progress’ in denuclearization talks with North Korea.

BRENDAN O’NEILL: Hating White Women: The New York Times is now publishing racist articles.

I think that White Women Are Awful! is a great 2018 slogan for the Democrats. Just run with that, guys! What could go wrong?

TRIGGER WARNING: Trump Celebrates Christopher Columbus On Columbus Day.

GOOD LORD: The body of a Bulgarian journalist investigating EU corruption has been found dumped near the Danube River. “Prosecutors said she was raped, then beaten and suffocated. Marinova had been investigating an alleged corruption case involving EU funds. Bulgaria’s interior minister said there was no evidence to suggest that her death was linked to her work as a journalist. But European officials are urging Bulgaria to conduct a fast investigation into the murder, which is the third murder of a journalist in the EU this year.”

PARTISAN TECH: Apple workers funnel cash to Democrats. “The vast majority of political contributions from Apple employees are directed to liberal candidates or Democratic Party-aligned organizations, according to a report released Thursday amid growing Republican concern over anti-conservative bias. From 2014 through 2018, some 91 percent of overall donations from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s employees went to Democrats, research firm GovPredict found. Nearly 96 percent went to local Democratic committees, while 100 percent of the contributions went to liberal organizations.”

BLUE WAVE? Multiple pollsters now warning Dems they may fall short of winning the House.

Nobody should get cocky in this election cycle.

SPACE: SpaceX Completes First Ever Falcon 9 Launch and Landing on the West Coast.

ROBERT SPENCER: Wisconsin Student Outraged Because Terrorism Course Discusses Jihad.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Boys More Likely to Be Victims of Dating Violence than Girls.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Elites are the ones who are dividing America.

Salina Zito:

Darcelle Slappy says Democrats and Republicans who live in places like this part of Western Pennsylvania are a lot closer than how they’re portrayed on TV.

“Unlike Washington, we are all just a few notches from each other in either direction. We have much more that draws us together than divides us,” Slappy says.

In fact, she says the divide in this country isn’t Republican versus Democrat. “The real division is between the elites and us.”

In a New York Times column last weekentitled “The American Civil War, Part II,” Thomas L. Friedman stated that “he began his career covering a civil war in Lebanon” and that he’d never thought he’d end it “covering a civil war in America.”

“Across the land, before dinner parties or block parties, the refrain ‘I hope none of them will be there’ is uttered with increasing frequency, referring no longer to people of another race or religion — bad enough — but to people from a different political party,” he wrote.

But Slappy, who is attending the annual Heritage Festival at the state park, doesn’t see her community that way. The Democrat, along with her husband, Tony, their 14-year-old son, Damani, and their infant granddaughter, Ivy, is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with words: Darcelle Slappy, Green Party Candidate, PA State Representative, District 10.

Slappy was forced to run on the Green Party ticket because the current incumbent, Republican Rep. Aaron Bernstine, won the general election nomination as both a Republican and a Democrat — a common move that should have assured himself no opposition.

Read the whole thing.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student of color risks wrath of campus mob by defending armed campus police.

WELL, GOOD: Pro-Choice Man, Who Allegedly Kicked Pro-Life Woman, Is In More Trouble Than We Thought.

Hunt is charged in this case with eight counts of assault and seven counts of mischief under $5,000 for this allegation, cops said. This isn’t the only claim he faces.

Police said they responded to a call for an assault back on August 2 at about noon. It was claimed that a man on a bicycle approached a group of anti-abortion protesters. He allegedly tried to grab one of their signs, and then he pushed a woman into a pole, police said. This attacker fled the scene.

Hunt has been charged in this incident: one count of assault.

And if you missed it over the weekend, here’s the video of the more recent attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7SqtIe5rZQ

It’s the New Civility — in action.

BUT OF COURSE: A University of Texas at Austin law professor and postgraduate fellow argued that Brett Kavanaugh should not have been confirmed if he will not support affirmative action in university admissions.

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