I DON’T BELIEVE IN NO-DRINK SCENARIOS: James T. Kirk Bourbon Unveiled As First In New Line Of Star Trek Branded Spirits.
(Hat tip, Charlie Martin, who knows me too well.)
Archive for 2018
June 28, 2018
DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: ABC Frets, ‘Country Is Going to Change Profoundly’ over Trump SCOTUS Pick.
Meanwhile, at Time-Warner-CNN-HBO, “Jeffrey Toobin: ‘Roe v Wade is doomed’”
Over at Comcast, “Chris Matthews on SCOTUS vacancy: ‘This is the time for vengeance’ (Update: Matthews yells at MSNBC host).”
And finally in Hollywood, Bette Midler dusts off her comedic chops to inadvertently remind us once again that Trump is the worst power-mad dictator ever: “Every single institution or agency in our government is being dismantled by this administration. Congress, gone, SCOTUS, gone, the Executive branch, in the hands of a madman, the FBI, DOE, EPA, etc. etc. etc. And you thought it couldn’t happen here.”
A government that leaves us alone? Calvin Coolidge smiles.
As Adam White of the Hoover Institute tweets, “When a single judge’s retirement turns the entire political world on its ear, we ought to consider that perhaps the Supreme Court has claimed too much power in our republic.”
ANALYSIS: TRUE.
IN THE MAIL: Bulletproof Confidence: The Art of Not Caring What People Think and Living Fearlessly.
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
ROGER SIMON: The Democrats Go Full Venezuela.
What could go wrong?
HE WAS MERELY CAUGHT PROMISING TO STOP A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHILE POSSESSING ENOUGH LEGAL AUTHORITY TO TRY AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT: Peter Strzok Grilled for Hours Behind Closed Doors on Capitol Hill, Denies He Was Politically Biased.
JOURNALISM: No space for Trump supporters in country’s biggest newspapers. “Now that Charles Krauthammer is gone, that leaves the country with exactly no columnists of influence who don’t begin each day thinking, ‘What do I hate most about President Trump?'”
SMALLER GOVERNMENT: Scott Pruitt Is Rolling Back One Of The EPA’s Most Expansive Powers.
A section of the Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA to interfere with the permitting process for waste dumping projects managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. EPA officials can “preemptively veto” projects before a permit is officially applied for or “retroactively veto” a permit any time after its approval, according to the EPA.
“Today’s memo refocuses EPA on its core mission of protecting public health and the environment in a way that is fair and consistent with due process,” Pruitt said in a statement. “We must ensure that EPA exercises its authority under the Clean Water Act in a careful, predictable and prudent manner.”
The power is rarely used but remains one of the most expansive in the EPA’s arsenal. It acts as a fail-safe to catch and discontinue environmentally dangerous projects, supporters say according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I am concerned that the mere potential of EPA’s use of its … authority before or after the permitting process could influence investment decisions and chill economic growth by short-circuiting the permitting process,” Pruitt wrote in a Tuesday memo reviewed by WSJ.
Excellent.
What other bureaus, agencies, or departments could Pruitt be put in charge of?
A SMALL DEFEAT FOR BIGOTRY: University of Kentucky bends to Betsy DeVos: ditches double jeopardy, adds unanimity in rape cases.
CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Large-scale media mergers will lead to more blockbuster content, says Imax CEO.
“The middle companies are going to compete with the streaming companies, companies like Lions Gate LGF.A ,” Gelfond said on CNBC’s ” Closing Bell .” “And I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them get sold as these streaming companies pick up more of that service.”
“On the high end, you’re definitely going to see Netflix NFLX and Amazon AMZN and Hulu and Apple AAPL go toward creating big blockbuster content,” he said.
Gelfond called an acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox FOXA by Walt Disney DIS “inevitable” and said the movie business is going “toward more and more blockbusters,” or big-budget movies with high-profile stars.
Three years ago, blockbusters accounted for only 25 percent of the box office, but today they take up more than 30 percent, Gelfond said. That’s big business for global box office revenues, which were around $38 billion in 2016 but are expected to reach nearly $50 billion by 2020, according to Statista .
“You have to go big to compete,” Gelfond said.
A quick look at Fandango shows plenty of nine-digit-budget sequels showing nearby, but not much in the way of original content worth getting excited about.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Hey, don’t be so hard on them! There’s lots of variety. We’ve got remakes of old movies, we’ve got comic book movies, and we’ve got remakes of old comic book movies!
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, GENDER-HOSTILITY EDITION: University offers ‘safe space’ for ‘fixing’ masculinity.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump SCOTUS Pick Will Destroy the U.S. Constitution and Much, Much More. “Yesterday the SCOTUS gutted the union political machine in the Janus v. AFSCME decision and then for the cherry-on-top, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he would retire. President Trump will be filling another seat on the bench. I was a little sad we didn’t have time to drink the liberal tears from Janus before the nuclear meltdown over the Kennedy retirement, but I’ll take it.”
It was a good day.
IS THE FIRST AMENDMENT AN EXCUSE FOR SLOPPY, AWFUL JOURNALISM? My column at The Daily Caller this week walks through the reason so many news outfits “get away” with egregious errors:
Let us stipulate that Paul Manafort is a bad man. A terrible man. The worst kind of man. If you are an unhinged #resist lunatic like Rep. Adam Schiff, you believe that Manafort helped the Russians deprive Hillary Clinton of her rightful crown at the cost of our electoral process. Even if all that were true, why did ABC News run an on-air graphic last week that claimed “MANAFORT PLEADS GUILTY TO 5 CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER”? Where the hell did that come from?
MEDIA LAW EXPERT SAYS U.S. JOURNALISTS SHOULD TRY REPORTING IN MEXICO: Things are a little different down south, writes media columnist Charles Glasser on the Daily Caller this morning:
“As I’ve opined in this space before, the whining and whimpering of the American press in response to President Donald Trump’s overblown ‘mean tweets’ and reflexively invoking the phrase ‘fake news’ simply do not hold a candle in comparison to the limitations and retribution faced by journalists in other countries. In Mexico, government officials don’t say mean things about you: They have you killed. And try calling Turkey’s Erdogan a Nazi sometime. The police will shut you down and jail you before the ink is even dry on your paper.”
Just keep reading cauz this guy knoweth whereof he speaketh.
ARMOR AT HOHENFELS: U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks assigned to 1st Infantry Division in a convoy. Oh the memories.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? False Dawn in Afghanistan?
The Taliban’s first-ever cease-fire does indicate that the insurgency is willing to support peace — even if for only a few days. Many Afghans have now experienced peace for the first time. After nearly 17 years of war, five years of brutal Taliban rule, several years of bloody civil war, and a long period of Soviet occupation, the country got a tantalizing taste of how things could be.
Given a growing pro-peace civil society movement, there’s good reason to believe there’s an appetite for more. Even some Taliban fighters told journalists they’re tired of war. These are striking admissions. In contrast, a new report from the United States Institute of Peace, based on interviews with 32 insurgents and supporters last year, found that members of the Taliban rank and file were keen to keep fighting.
The cease-fire’s popularity could blunt the opposition that confronted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during his previous pushes for reconciliation and give him more political capital and public support to push even harder for talks now.
It should be pretty clear by now that the Taliban don’t give a damn about popularity, and that “ceasefire” is almost certainly a euphemism for “rest up and reload.”
STILL VERY MUCH WORTH READING: Virginia Postrel’s The Substance of Style is now $1.99 on Kindle.
RASMUSSEN: “59% of all voters are concerned that those opposed to President Trump’s policies will resort to violence, with 33% who are Very Concerned.” Well, given that they already have, that’s fair.
AS CERTAINLY AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY: Post-election Crackdown: Erdogan Detains 324 Security Staff in 24 Hours.
Sultans gotta sultanate.
IN USA TODAY, I talk about why Trump should appoint Don Willett to the Supreme Court.
WITH THE OVERRULING OF ABOOD IN THE JANUS CASE YESTERDAY, Sylvester Petro takes a posthumous victory lap.
CHANGE: US begins to dismantle Iran nuclear deal sanctions relief.
The Treasury Department announced it had revoked licenses that allowed U.S.-controlled foreign firms to export commercial aircraft parts to Iran as well as permitted Americans to trade in Iranian carpets, pistachios and caviar. It said businesses engaged in any such transactions have to wind down those operations by Aug. 6 or face penalties under U.S. sanctions. Another set of licenses covering other types of commerce, including oil purchases, will be revoked in coming weeks, with firms given until Nov. 4 to end those activities.
The step had been expected since May when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark agreement under which Iran was given relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Trump said the accord, a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, was the worst deal ever negotiated by the United States because it gave Iran too much in return for too little. Trump also complained that the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.
Other parties to the deal — Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the European Union — have criticized the U.S. withdrawal, which has left the agreement at risk of collapse. The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to isolate Iran and its faltering economy from international financial and trading systems.
The Europeans can squawk, but the banks are falling into line:
Foreign banks that kept Iran trading oil through previous sanctions are pulling out under pressure from the latest round of U.S. restrictions, hitting a lifeline for the Iranian economy.
Even banks with no direct U.S. exposure are refusing to deal with Tehran, fearing that they will be cut out of the dollar-based global financial system.
Meanwhile: Iran protests set to continue amid collapsing currency, increasing pressure on regime.
Trump’s Reaganesque attitude towards Iran’s mullahs — “We win, they lose” — is a refreshing change from George W. Bush’s waffling and Barack Obama’s obeisance.