GREEN NUDE EEL UPDATE: Most powerful electric eel ever discovered by scientists. “A previously undiscovered species of electric eel which delivers a shock with more than three times the voltage of a domestic plug socket has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. The enormous 2.5 metre eel has been named the Electrophorus voltai after Alessandro Volta, the Italian physicist who invented the battery. The animal, a type of knifefish, can discharge an electric shock reaching as high as 860 volts, the most powerful of any animal known to science.”
Archive for 2019
September 12, 2019
OUT SOON FROM RANDY BARNETT AND JOSH BLACKMAN: An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know. It’s designed to be accessible to non lawyers. (Bumped).
IN THE MAIL: From RG Ainslee, The Caspian Intercept: A Raven-One Team Thriller (The Secret Cold War).
IT’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE A WEDGE ISSUE: California Bill Threatens to Destroy Uber, Lyft, and the Gig Economy.
GLENN’S MAIL BAG: A longtime Instapundit reader who has lived in Hong Kong for several years reports from the front lines:
I went to two demonstrations last week.
Students held a protest in front of Legco last Monday and Tuesday and about 10,000 students showed up. They arrived around 4 pm and left around 8 pm leaving it as clean and neat as when they had arrived. I noticed one think that wasn’t there – policemen. Didn’t see a single police officer and it went off without a hitch – completely peaceful.
On Sunday, I went to the protest in front of the US Consulate. I think I only saw two police officers there. But I did see hundreds upon hundreds of paramilitary troops there. They had not only pistols but rifles (presumably with rubber bullets, beanbags and tear gas). They were decked out in full body armour, shields, helmets with mirrored face masks, no nametags and no ID numbers.
The march was loud but peaceful and the proceeded past the FCC and back down to Central where people were then going home via the MTR. Then three knucklehead supposedly were causing problems. Rather than arrest the three, put them in a paddywagon and send them off to the police station, they shut down the entire MTR station. They then chased those protesting to Wanchai, where they proceeded to shut down that station. They then chased them to Causeway Bay where they started shooting off tear gas and throwing tear gas even in places where there were no protesters (but plenty of media).
I would note that no damage was done anywhere by protesters until AFTER the MTR stations were shut down. I suspect that the Police did this on purpose. Rather than de-escalate and disburse the protesters at the end of the day, the police intentionally aggravated and incited the protesters. Why? To de-legitimize the protest to the US Consulate. To put the protesters in a bad light making them all appear “violent.” To discourage future protests by giving the appearance that if you show up at a protest, you’ll encounter violence.
How much tear gas did the Hong Kong Police fire between 1967 and 2014 (a period of 47 years)? ZERO.
But in the past three months, the police have fired off over 2,000 rounds of tear gas along with numerous bean bag projectiles and rubber bullets. The Hong Kong police gave training for years to the UK and elsewhere in how to deal with and de-escalate protests. Then about a decade ago, the Police decided to start sending their forces to China for “training.” Since then, the policy has moved from a de-escalation policy to a one of intimidation and fear.
There have been those that note that food requisitions have escalated much higher in the past couple of months, with many now speculating that Chinese PAP troops are now part of the HK Police Raptors Forces.
In sum, the Hong Kong Police of today are nowhere close to the Hong Kong Police of 10, 20 or 30 years ago. I completely sympathize with the average beat police officer today. But top management has decided to gear up a paramilitary force within the larger Police Force and use them liberally and with impunity.
This is not your father’s Hong Kong Police Force, and it is a very sad turn for the worse.
Indeed.
HIGHER EDUCATION AT ITS BEST: Penis ring toss, lubricant taste tests featured at public university’s sex ed carnival. “The vagina bean bag toss boasted giant inflatable lips that served to mimic a ‘vagina,’ and students could throw large pink bean bags into it. The game doubled as an educational display, informing students on flyers that ‘not all people with vaginas are women.’ ‘Genitalia is not an indicator of gender and it can be harmful to assume so,’ the display added.”
TO SIGNAL THEIR VIRTUE: Those Plant-Based “Burgers” Aren’t Better For You, So Why Are You Eating Them?
WE’RE GOING TO MISS T. BOONE: Whatever you may have thought of his corporate raids, or superego, or prairie populist orneriness, T. Boone Pickens was one of a kind, as this delightful Forbes profile by Christopher Helman makes clear.
Those of us who also graduated from Oklahoma State University have our own special reasons for admiring Pickens. He will be buried on the campus in Stillwater, so I wonder how long till reports circulate of his ghost being seen around the football stadium named after him and the geology classrooms in which he first began learning where to look for black gold.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Missouri univ. tried to restrict students’ 9/11 display, emails suggest.
RUSSIAN BLASTS FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT: The post analyzes Russian munitions dump explosions in Siberia and the August 8th explosion of the experimental Skyfall cruise missile. The Skyfall had a nuclear-powered engine.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The New York Times Is Satan Edition. “There are many these days who refer to the press in America as the enemy of the people. I’ve resisted getting on board with that but they’re doing a better job every day of bringing me around to that point of view.”
THE ARMY’S AGMV GETS A RIDE: 173rd Airborne Brigade paratroopers test CH-47 Chinook helicopter capabilities by sling loading their newest vehicle, the Army Ground Mobility Vehicle (AGMV). The caption says the soldiers also loaded the vehicle inside the Chinook. The photo was taken at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, on August 16. Here’s a closeup of the AGMV deployed in an exercise earlier this year. (During development the AGMV program had several names, including the Ground Mobility Vehicle and the Ultra Light Combat Vehicle.)
NANNY KNOWS BEST: California approves bill that will turn gig workers into employees.
ANALYSIS: TRUE.
But it provides an excuse for racial indoctrination in higher ed and corporate environments, which is its chief reason for existing.
WHAT IF THIS GUY IS RIGHT THAT THE PENTAGON DOESN’T GET CHINA? David P. Goldman uses his Law & Liberty review of Bill Gertz’ latest book — “Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy” — to make the case that U.S. political and military leaders are disastrously wrong about what the Asian giant has accomplished and how we must respond. I advise you not to read Goldman’s analysis if you have a weak heart.
JOHN SOLOMON: Two names who would give Trump an all-star security team after Bolton. Ric Grenell and Pete Hoekstra.
FLASHBACK: Biden Tried to Buy Putin’s Support for Iraq War With Promise of Oil Money. “Biden told of his attempt at ‘creative diplomacy’ during a July 2004 event at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Biden, then the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was joined on stage by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for a discussion on foreign policy in the upcoming presidential election.”