DOD REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON MILITARY SERVICE BY TRANSGENDER PERSONS:  An interesting read.  I doubt many who are talking about it in the media have read it.

NATIONAL FELONS’ LEAGUE: NFL’s Michael Bennett Indicted For Shoving Elderly Paraplegic Woman At Super Bowl 51. “On Friday, a Harris County grand jury indicted Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Michael Bennett on a felony charge of injuring an elderly person for his actions after Super Bowl 51 in 2017, when he allegedly pushed a 66-year-old paraplegic woman out of the way to he could gain access to the field after the game. Bennett was not playing in the game; his brother Martellus Bennett was playing for the New England Patriots.”

CELEBRATE HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT TONIGHT: Every year the environmental scolds ask us to sit in the dark contemplating our sins against Mother Earth for what they call “Earth Hour.” Instead, you could join us in celebrating Human Achievement Hour. As well as keeping the lights on, you could be:

• Watching your favorite TV show or movie thanks to satellite technology
• Participating in the craft brewing revolution with a cold drink
• Facetiming or Skyping with far-off friends and family
• Traveling home from a night out with a rideshare driver
• Relaxing at home with plenty of food, heat, and hot water for your family

Celebrate just how far we’ve come from the preindustrial age and, if you’d like, use the hashtag #HAH2018 and tweet examples and photos at @ceidotorg.

(Bumped.)

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: 12 Horrible Messages Hollywood Sends to Americans.

GAY COUPLE FACES DEATH THREATS FOR BACKING TRUMP:

To unpack this, let’s start with Cody Moore and Dewey Lainhart. On. Oct. 21, Jason Bellini, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, posted a video interview he conducted with the gay couple at a Trump for President rally in the swing state of Ohio. Recently engaged, the guys said they planned to vote for Trump, primarily on the issues of trade and jobs. Lainhart, 31, a steelworker, said: “I’m tired of the bulls— government. … It’s time for a change. Trump’s the man for it.”

Bellini’s video quickly went viral in the LGBT community. Moore and Lainhart were called out on Facebook as “idiots” and “rednecks”; they were even compared to Jews who supported Hitler. One commenter urged “two bricks directly into their faces,” and the couple told Bellini they’d been getting death threats. Lainhart’s response to those threats: “It doesn’t concern me. I look over my back because I do carry (a gun), because I love the Second Amendment.”

Most visible of all of Trump’s gay supporters has been Republican Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who endorsed Trump at the GOP convention this summer. Two weeks ago, Thiel doubled down on Trump, saying he planned to donate $1.25 million to his campaign. Thiel has also been tarred and feathered online, called everything from “a traitor and a disgusting pig” to “an atrocity” and just plain “pathetic.”

It’s obvious that Thiel’s stratospheric socioeconomic status is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Moore and Lainhart’s working-class wages, but they have this in common: Other issues – jobs and immigration, for example – clearly trump their identity as gay men. And many in the LGBT community don’t seem to know how to respond to that in anything but the most venomous of terms.

Yep. It’s pathetic.

JANN WENNER SAYS #METOO SUFFERS FROM ABSENCE OF DUE PROCESS.

The University Virginia chapter of Phi Kappa Psi could not be reached for comment.

ATLAS IS SHRUGGING: South Africa Could Face Food Shortage If White Farmers Leave.

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KURT SCHLICHTER: Don’t Go To College.

THIS IS INTERESTING: Dietary supplement reversed vascular aging in mice, study says.

I already take Niagen and resveratrol, so I’m most of the way there. Hope it’s working!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY HOUDINI:  I wish he could get us out of the budget deal.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: These Are The Only Things That Can Cure Baldness, According to Science.

ROGER SIMON: Could France’s Islam Problem Happen Here?

YOU WANT TO BE A SHITHOLE COUNTRY? THIS IS HOW: More Racist Rhetoric From South Africa: Whites ‘Must Leave Everything;’ ‘Not calling for the slaughter of white people‚ at least for now.’

This sort of sentiment dominated Zimbabwe for decades as it went from breadbasket to, well, shithole. Over a decade ago, Nick Kristof reported that Zimbabweans were nostalgic for the old days of Rhodesia:

The hungry children and the families dying of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is this: Many, many ordinary black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the white racist government that oppressed them in the 1970’s.

“If we had the chance to go back to white rule, we’d do it,” said Solomon Dube, a peasant whose child was crying with hunger when I arrived in his village. “Life was easier then, and at least you could get food and a job.”

Mr. Dube acknowledged that the white regime of Ian Smith was awful. But now he worries that his 3-year-old son will die of starvation, and he would rather put up with any indignity than witness that.

An elderly peasant in another village, Makupila Muzamba, said that hunger today is worse than ever before in his seven decades or so, and said: “I want the white man’s government to come back. Even if whites were oppressing us, we could get jobs and things were cheap compared to today.”

His wife, Mugombo Mudenda, remembered that as a younger woman she used to eat meat, drink tea, use sugar and buy soap. But now she cannot even afford corn gruel. “I miss the days of white rule,” she said.

Nearly every peasant I’ve spoken to in Zimbabwe echoed those thoughts.

You’d think that Zimbabwe would be a cautionary example for South Africa, but it seems to be more of a how-to guide. And hey, the political insiders got rich.

CHANGE: University turns frat into ‘safe space for black students.’

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KOREAS PREPARE FOR MOON-KIM SUMMIT:

Negotiators for North and South agreed Saturday on a plan to meet again Thursday inside the Demilitarized Zone — a buffer area separating the two countries — to continue refining the agenda for next month’s historic, top-level summit between their respective leaders. [[President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un]

MORE:

The likelihood of any Kim-Trump summit remains unknown, as does the agenda, and the North hasn’t publicly acknowledged its invitation. But some preliminary talks appear to have occurred in recent days as North Korean diplomats traveled to Finland and Sweden for talks. The latter is an occasional intermediary for matters involving the North and the United States.

Here’s the diplomatic background, including the Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” timeline.

VOTER FRAUD IS A MYTH: THE GUYS AT THE CHICAGO BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS TOLD US SO: Last week the Chairman of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the Civil Rights Commission presented his committee’s report to the Commission. The following transpired at the end:

Commissioner Kirsanow: Thanks very much for your presentation, it was very informative. …. I think you said that you didn’t find any evidence of voter fraud in Illinois?

State Chairman: That is correct …

Commissioner Kirsanow: And how did you make that determination?

State Chairman: … [W]e had government officials including those with Cook County Clerk’s Office, which administers voting, and those with the Chicago Board of Elections. [Muffled but audible gasp in the room]. …

Commissioner Kirsanow: Oh, well, thank you. It may in the future, if you look at this again, be a good idea to look at some media reports … that cite a number of individuals who’ve been convicted of voter fraud including Mahmoud Vakili, an Iranian citizen who was convicted and sentenced to prison for voting while he was not eligible to vote, Steveland Kidd who CBS says was sentenced for voting fraudulently pursuant to absentee ballot, Brian McDouglar two years in prison for falsified absentee ballot, Audrey Cook, Augustus Stacker, Pamela Brant, Monica LaPlant. Sometimes the media has information that maybe Cook County doesn’t.

Peter Kirsanow is a gem.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: De Blasio Donor Says He Steered Thousands in Bribes to Mayor’s Campaigns. “Mr. Singh also suggested for the first time that Mr. de Blasio not only knew of the illegal arrangement, but that the mayor encouraged it and actively helped the restaurateur.”

MUST-SEE TV: Actors at Casting Call Are Surprised by Real Gun Facts They’re Asked to Read.

IT’S NICE TO BE WANTED: Demand for American Sperm Is Skyrocketing in Brazil; Explosive growth spurred by more wealthy single women and lesbian couples turning to U.S. donors.

With “jewel-tone eyes,” blond hair and a “smattering of light freckles,” Othello looks nothing like most Brazilians, the majority of whom are black or mixed-race. Yet the “Caucasian” American cashier, described in those terms by the Seattle Sperm Bank and known as Donor 9601, is one of the sperm providers most often requested by wealthy Brazilian women importing the DNA of young U.S. men at unprecedented rates.

Over the past seven years, human semen imports from the U.S. to Brazil have surged some 3,000% as more rich single women and lesbian couples select donors whose online profiles suggest they will yield light-complexioned and preferably blue-eyed children.

Everyone wants a “pretty kid” and for many parents in Brazil, where prejudice often runs deep, that means “the white biotype—light-colored eyes and skin,” said Susy Pommer, a 28-year-old data analyst from São Paulo who decided to get pregnant last year after a breast-cancer scare left her eager to raise a child right away with her partner, Priscilla.

The preference for white donors reflects the persistent racism in a country where social class and skin color correlate with glaring accuracy. More than 50% of Brazilians are black or mixed-race, a legacy of Brazil having imported more than 10 times as many African slaves than the U.S.; it was the last Western country to ban slavery, in 1888. The descendants of white colonizers and immigrants—many of whom were lured to Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the ruling elite explicitly sought to “whiten” the population—control most of the country’s political power and wealth.

In such a racially divided society, having fair-skinned offspring is often viewed as a way to provide a child with better prospects, from a higher salary to fairer treatment by the police.

I can remember when Brazil was held up as a post-racial ideal, though to be fair, that was by American lefties who knew nothing about it.