JAVELIN LIVE FIRE: 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment troopers in Iraq fire a Javelin anti-tank missile during a training exercise.
Archive for 2018
November 16, 2018
CHANGE: Mattis, Polish leaders talk possibility of ‘Fort Trump.’
The details of Poland’s offer are still being worked out, Mattis said. He noted that officials are looking at what can best contribute to the NATO alliance’s unity and security, not just the U.S.-Poland bilateral relationship.
“We strongly appreciate the U.S. forces’ presence in Poland, strengthening deterrence and defense of Poland and the whole NATO alliance,” Blaszczak said after meeting with Mattis. “I hope it will transform in the coming years into an even more robust and long-term commitment.”
Trump showed interest in the idea of a permanent U.S. base in September, particularly because of Poland’s financial contribution to it.
It isn’t a bad idea.
RICHARD VEDDER: Can Public Universities Compete With The Ivies?
HERE’S HOW THE FORD FAMILY LOST CONTROL OF THE FOUNDATION BEARING ITS NAME: Can you guess which member of the Ford family said this? “I was young, inexperienced, and stupid. I just muffed it. It got out of control and stayed out of control. And now it’s gone, of course.”
Those words were spoken by Henry Ford II in the 1980s, according to Ken Braun, writing in an excellent analysis of the Ford Foundation recently published by the Capital Research Center.
Old Henry Ford put middle America on affordable, versatile wheels. Sadly, the foundation he began as a hospital has in the decades since devoted hundreds of millions of dollars from his enterprise’s profits to putting Middle America into the poor house. Braun’s analysis is part of the essential background for knowing why we are where are as a nation.
SMART: Girl, 10, Stopped Her Potential Kidnapping by Asking for ‘Code Word.’
Arizona-based mom Brenda James and her daughter Maddison Raines opened up to Good Morning America Tuesday about the incident that transpired last week, when Maddison and a friend were walking near a park and a stranger approached the duo in a white SUV.
According to the little girl, the man shielded his face while telling Maddison that her brother had “been in a serious accident” and he had been instructed to come pick her up. Maddison immediately asked him what the family’s code word was.
When the stranger didn’t know the answer, he blanked and immediately drove away, prompting Maddison to run home immediately and tell her grandmother what had happened.
I’m surprised neither my wife or I thought to do this with our kids, but we’ll be talking to them about picking a code word at dinner tonight.
WOW, WHO SAW THIS COMING? Man Who Shouted ‘Heil Hitler, Heil Trump’ at Play Actually an Anti-Trump Activist.
HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ON ACCOUNT OF GENDER: Texas university: ‘Toxic masculinity’ ‘plagues’ society. “I definitely think that this was an attack on men.”
Related: Title IX enforcers need to fix the toxic environment they have created for men.
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LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Counting ‘Til They Turn Blue and Much, Much More. “I don’t even know what is going on in Florida it’s such a hot mess.”
They don’t know in Florida. They just know to keep counting until they get the desired result.
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MICHAEL BARONE: Amid Your Complaints, A Reason To Give Thanks. “In many ways, today’s troubles look like miniature versions of the woes of the 20th century.”
THE PROBLEM ISN’T REVENUE, IT’S SPENDING: Feds Collect Record Taxes in October; Still Run $100B Deficit.
HE’S FLAILING: Zuckerberg says he learned of Definers through NYT story.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that he was unaware that his company hired a right-leaning political consulting firm to stave off its opponents while voicing his respect for Democratic mega-donor George Soros.
Zuckerberg spoke hours after the tech giant cut ties with Definers Public Affairs, a political consulting firm that The New York Times reported Wednesday had accused Soros of funding a group of Facebook’s progressive opponents.
The Facebook chief said during a conference call with reporters that he learned about Facebook’s relationship with the firm through the Times report the previous day.
“I have tremendous respect for George Soros,” Zuckerberg said, adding that he would not want his company to be associated with a firm that deploys those tactics.
“This type of firm might be normal in Washington but it’s not the kind of thing that I want Facebook associated with, which is why we’re no longer going to be working with them,” Zuckerberg said during the call.
What’s really interesting is that even the once much-more-respectable The Hill frames it as some kind of sin to hire a right-leaning firm.
ACCUSATIONS WITHOUT EVIDENCE: Burned to death because of a rumour on WhatsApp.
Sighted near an elementary school in a nearby community called San Vicente Boqueron, Ricardo and Alberto became the child abductors conjured up by collective fear, and news of their arrest spread just as the rumours of the child abductors had.
The crowd that descended on the police station was whipped up in part by Francisco Martinez, a long-time resident of Acatlán known as “El Tecuanito”. According to police, Martinez was among those who spread messages on Facebook and Whatsapp accusing Ricardo and Alberto. Outside the police station, he began to livestream events on Facebook via his phone.
“People of Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla, please come give your support, give your support,” he said into the camera. “Believe me, the kidnappers are now here.”
As Martinez attempted to rally the town, another man, identified by the police only as Manuel, climbed up onto the roof of the colonial-style town hall building next to the police station, and rang the bells of the government office to alert locals that the police were planning to release Ricardo and Alberto.
A third man, Petronilo Castelan — “El Paisa” — used a loudspeaker to call on the citizens to contribute money to buy petrol to set the two men on fire, and he walked through the crowd to collect it.
Related: Social Media As Social Disease.
SHOCKER: After Winning Election, Democrat Ilhan Omar Now Says She ‘Supports BDS Movement.’
Omar, a Muslim Somali-American elected last week to replace outgoing Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) in the House, fought accusations that she held anti-Israel views during her campaign. As part of that effort, she told a group of Jewish voters in the state that she opposed the economic boycott of Israel, calling it “counteractive” and “not helpful in getting that two-state solution.”
But Omar’s tune has changed since winning the election. In an interview published Sunday by MuslimGirl, Omar said she “supports the BDS movement.”
“Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized,” her campaign told MuslimGirl, which said Omar had been criticized for coming out against BDS. Omar’s campaign also pointed MuslimGirl to her vote against an anti-BDS bill in Minnesota’s state legislature and her argument that boycott movements were successful in South Africa.
The comment is seen as a complete reversal by members of the Jewish community in her district.
Well, they were suckers.
FRAUD: GoFundMe campaign to help homeless vet was ‘predicated on a lie,’ prosecutor says.
Every shred of the trio’s story, including the part that Bobbitt used his last $20 to help McClure out of a roadside jam when she ran out of gas, was all bogus, Coffina said.
“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “Less than an hour after the GoFundMe campaign went live McClure, in a text exchange with a friend, stated that the story about Bobbitt assisting her was fake.”
In one of the texts read by Coffina, McClure allegedly wrote to a friend, “Ok, so wait, the gas part is completely made up but the guy isn’t. I had to make something up to make people feel bad. So, shush about the made up stuff.”
Caveat emptor. And if you are conspiring to commit a crime, don’t do it on your smartphone.
JIM TREACHER: What’s the Italian word for schadenfreude? I’m pretty sure it’s “Avenatti.”
Throughout the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation debacle, anybody who presumed the man was innocent until proven guilty in the court of public opinion was branded a “rape apologist” by angry feminists and other Democrats. We were supposed to take the accusations at face value, even though there was absolutely no evidence to support them. The mere presence of the accusations was enough to decide the matter. Guilty until proven innocent, that was the new standard.
One man who did a lot to promote that point of view was cable-news fixture and purported attorney Michael Avenatti. He trotted out a woman named Julie Swetnick to accuse Kavanaugh of being part of some sort of gang-rape ring. Her accusation was completely unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, but it was good enough for the people who wanted to bring down Kavanaugh by any means necessary. And her attorney insisted we believe the tale, because it was told by a woman. If you’re skeptical of a woman’s accusation, that means you hate women. That’s what we were told.
Avenatti is singing a different tune today, isn’t he?
Heh.
FLORIDA, MAN: Officer in Parkland shooting fights subpoena and refuses to testify. “The school resource officer, criticized for not entering the building to confront the Parkland shooter, will not testify in an investigation of the shooting. Scot Peterson’s lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo III, told CNN that the former resource officer was subpoenaed to testify before a state commission investigating the February school shooting that left 17 people dead. DiRuzzo filed a three-point suit on Thursday to fight that subpoena and keep his client from having to appear at this week’s hearings.”
GOOD, BECAUSE EVEN FILING THESE CHARGES WAS INEXCUSABLY STUPID: Jury acquits Sevier County man accused of causing then-deputy’s panic attack.
A Sevier County jury has acquitted a man in the state’s first ever assault by panic attack case.
Jurors in Sevier County Circuit Court deliberated roughly three hours before acquitting Brian Mullinax, 41, of assault, on Thursday evening.
Mullinax was unarmed, brandishing a cellphone and saying he was recording with it when now-former Sevier County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Justin Johnson opened fire without warning and — four minutes later — suffered a panic attack.
Mullinax was 20 yards away from Johnson and face down on the ground when Johnson, his gun still in hand, began suffering a panic attack. . . .
The incident, which occurred in a mobile home neighborhood on Sharp Road in December 2016, was captured on Johnson’s body camera. That footage was repeatedly played for jurors during the two day trial. It captured Mullinax saying he was “recording” when he brandished the cellphone, contradicting an initial claim by Johnson and testimony from two paramedics that Mullinax threatened Johnson.
Really, that these charges were brought is just embarrassing. Sevier County — a major tourist destination — needs deputies who don’t panic at the drop of a hat, and prosecutors who know the difference between recording and assault. Of course, the deputy had already been fired elsewhere for misconduct:
Johnson is no longer with the sheriff’s office. He was forced to resign earlier this year after USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee revealed he failed to list his 2013 employment with the Johnson City Police Department on his Sevier County job application.
Records obtained by the news organization showed Johnson was fired from that agency for misconduct, including fanning his gun over an officer’s head and lying to his chief.
Johnson admitted in testimony Thursday that he hid that past record from the Newport Police Department when he took a job there after being forced to resign from the Johnson City agency and from SCSO when he applied there in June 2016.
“The reason I omitted it was I did not want to disclose that I resigned from there in lieu of termination,” Johnson testified.
But justice hasn’t been done: “Mullinax and Cody spent 42 days in jail on felony aggravated assault charges filed against them by SCSO and directly accusing them of causing Johnson’s panic attack.” They deserve compensation for that. Charged with causing a panic attack on the part of a man licensed to carry a gun in the name of the state. This was disgraceful.
WHY ARE LEFTY-DOMINATED INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF ABUSE? Lawsuit: ‘Predatory’ Dartmouth professors plied students with alcohol and raped them.
NOT EXACTLY AN EXCULPATORY STATEMENT: Michael Avenatti Blames Pro-Trumper for Arrest: ‘I Am Coming for You Jacob Wohl aka Surefire.’
ILYA SOMIN: Is Originalism a Theory? Is Living Constitutionalism? “Legal scholar Eric Segall argues originalism doesn’t qualify as a constitutional theory because originalists disagree on too many things. His case is overstated. But if it’s correct, the same criticisms applies to living constitutionalism.”
Give Trump two more Supreme Court appointments, and Segall will be all-in for preserving the Framers’ intent.
Flashback: A Living Constitution On The Right? Be careful what you wish for, lefties.
UPDATE: I have some thoughts on what originalism is, and isn’t, here.