IT CONTINUES: An update on the North Korea denuclearization waltz. My latest Creators Syndicate column. Mattis’ tidbit about the sanctions patrols is particularly interesting.
RELATED: A report on a South and North Korean demining operation in the DMZ’s Joint Security Area. This was a limited operation — something of an experiment in military relations. South Korea found no land mines and North Korea found five.
DISPATCHES FROM THE PARTY OF SCIENCE: Witches to ‘hex’ Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh; exorcists pray in response.
Curiously, the Washington Post didn’t assign Sally Quinn to cover their take on the story, which is written from the “Republicans pounce” angle.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Greatest American Rock Bands of All Time.
I admit to being biased on this one — because I grew up listening to the Beatles, the Who, the Stones, Zeppelin, Floyd, and honorary Brit Jimi Hendrix, when it comes to classic rock, for my ears, “if it’s not British, it’s krrrrepppp,” to mash-up Mike Myers and James Lileks.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Seven Things From Your Twenties You’ll Regret When You’re Older.
I LIKED IT BETTER WHEN WOMEN JUST BLAMED THEIR “GLANDS:” Annals of feminist science: Microaggressions give women higher blood pressure and make them get fat.
DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY:
● Shot: The Daily Dot asks, What are NPCs, the popular new far-right meme?
● Chaser: An article on the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group in an upcoming issue of the New Yorker and their promotional tweet:
When did the New Yorker join the alt-right?
Related: Why the NPC Meme Crashed Twitter (Video). Saul Alinsky smiles.
Update: Creating A-Plus Conformists.
PREDICTION: BASICALLY ZERO PRESS COVERAGE. Uh oh: Woman claims “unwanted” sexual advance by Senate Dem in “late 1980s.” “Shall we go by the old rules or the new rules? Rep. Jim Renacci’s (R-OH) Senate campaign has highlighted a claim by an anonymous woman that incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) might have sexually harassed or assaulted her in the late 1980s. The Renacci campaign has released a statement from the woman’s attorney, who says the victim has indirect support of her claims.”
I’M GONNA GO WITH “BECAUSE HE WAS MALE AND THEY’RE ICKY:” Jury will hear why university expelled disabled male after female admitted sexually assaulting him.
WOOING SINGAPORE: Seeking to create a united front in the South China Sea, SecDef Jim Mattis goes to the ASEAN defense ministers conference in full diplomat mode.
Mattis wrapped up his first day attending the ASEAN defense ministers’ meeting with private time with Singapore defense minister Ng Eng Hen. The meeting was to thank Ng for overall support of U.S. efforts to keep freedom of navigation vibrant as well as to urge a strong statement from ASEAN -which Singapore chairs this year – against China’s militarization of the South China Sea.
More:
Mattis needs the smaller nations of southeast Asia to speak more loudly their concerns about China and, ideally, join the U.S., U.K. and French efforts on freedom on navigation efforts.
“In some instances, other countries may not have the confidence given China’s strength to always speak up.. so we can represent that view is not only a U.S. view but really an international view,” Randall Schriver, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters Thursday. “But again as we discussed the other day it’s sovereign decisions on how they approach China bilaterally.”
Note Schriver’s careful diplospeak. The U.S. is seeking allied support, but saying if you want our backup, we’ll help. China is violating territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. Chapter Three of Cocktails from Hell, addresses Beijing’s South China Sea misadventures. The book comes out in December.
ROLLING AIRFRAME MISSILE LAUNCH: The amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington fires a rolling airframe missile (RAM) during a live-fire missile exercise. Here’s some background on the RAM and its anti-ship missile capabilities. Note that in 2011 China “introduced what appears to be a RAM clone.”
JUNK SCIENCE NEWS: My colleague Angela Logomasini has some potentially good news about a trial concerning the essential weedkiller Roundup, where the judge looks likely to toss an award of damages by a lower court that ignored the scientific evidence. Meanwhile, the Junkman himself, Steve Milloy, has a new report out that debunks false claims that the Trump administration plan to scale back government fuel efficiency mandates poses an offsetting risk of deaths from increased tailpipe emissions.
AT AMAZON, Save on Leather Shoes and Boots.
WANNA GO FULL MCCARTHY? DO IT ON YOUR OWN DIME, HARVARD: “The proposed amendment would prevent any ‘institution of higher education that receives funds’ under the Higher Education Act from punishing students for joining any ‘constitutionally protected’ group — whether or not that group is affiliated with the school.” Harvard currently blacklists students for joining officially disfavored off-campus groups, and FIRE sees no reason taxpayers should have to pay for this.
IT SHOULD HAVE COME RIGHT AFTER THE HITLER BIRTHDAY BASH: NYU hosts Marx birthday bash…during the wrong month.
BYRON YORK: Rosenstein talks to press, but not to Congress; Republicans irate.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein doesn’t give many press interviews. But he did, on Wednesday, invite a Wall Street Journal reporter to the Justice Department for what the Journal called an “expansive” conversation.
Rosenstein talked about the Robert Mueller Trump-Russia special counsel investigation, calling it “appropriate and independent.” He stressed that he serves at the pleasure of the president. He said he tries to avoid media speculation about both the investigation and his job.
Rosenstein had time to discuss a lot of things. One thing apparently not mentioned in the interview was the fact that, at that very moment, Rosenstein was putting off appearing before the House Judiciary-Oversight task force that wants to question him, not just about the Trump-Russia investigation, but about reports that he last year suggested wearing a wire to secretly record President Trump in the White House and that he also discussed invoking the 25th Amendment in an effort to remove the president from office.
Republicans thought that Rosenstein had agreed to talk with them last week. Then they learned he would not show. That prompted House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to threaten a subpoena.
Once Congress let people get away with ignoring subpoenas in the Obama Administration, they set themselves up for this kind of problem. And with the precedents that have been set, the Dems’ hoped-for investigations if they take the House may fizzle.
LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THEY HAVE INDIAN ANCESTORS BUT DON’T. HER SIN IS DOUBLING DOWN AND EXPLOITING IT FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT: One of Elizabeth Warren’s Harvard Law Students Explains Why Her Native-American Gambit Matters. “You have to understand the climate at Harvard at the time.”
THERE ARE FEW INSTITUTIONS MORE DISHONEST THAN THAT OF “NONPARTISAN” BIG-MEDIA FACT-CHECKING: PolitiFact is forced to retract a story claiming Claire McCaskill didn’t say what she definitely said. “At some point, we may have to consider the possibility that certain media fact-checkers are not so dispassionate and free from partisan biases as they’d like us to believe. PolitiFact has already stepped in it twice this week, publishing two false stories favoring Democratic candidates, and I suspect the rate of errors favoring Democrats isn’t going to decline the closer we get to the November midterm elections.”
WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE IT WAS ILLEGAL: Emails Show Obama FDIC Struggled With Legal Basis For Operation Choke Point.
NEW YORK POST: Twitter has a huge Louis Farrakhan problem.
EUROPEANS FIND AMERICAN SPACE SCARILY SUCCESSFUL: How American Space Launch Left Europe in the Dust: The view of the resurgent U.S. spaceflight is raising alarms across the Atlantic.
And by way of I-told-you-so, a piece I wrote on this ten years ago.
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