THE GUILD PROTECTS ITS OWN: NYT Columnist Condemns Facebook for … Adopting NYT’s Ad Policy.

ALSO: Just a reminder that intense interest has blown up the signup system for PJ’s new ad-free VIP content. That’s fantastic, but hold off for now and I’ll post an update once the tech crew has the kinks unkinked.

SKYROCKETS IN FLIGHT: The reasons the IG report has been delayed will delight Trump supporters.

According to Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, whose sources on the ongoing scandal have been excellent, the reasons behind the delay are entirely positive. Yesterday they appeared on Lou Dobbs’s show on Fox Business Network, and laid it out. The video is embedded below, but AT contributor Mark Wauck laid out the substance and transcribed key portions in his blog, Meaning in History.

So, the transcript in relevant part–which means, virtually all of it:

Victoria Toensing: I can tell you this, and we have darn good sources for this, it [the OIG FISA report] is going to be very bad for the people in the Obama administration. My source said to me, “It’s going to be worse than you can imagine.”

…

Joe diGenova: I would say explosive and I would say, for people at the highest levels of the FBI and at the highest levels of the Justice Department–more important at the Justice Department–it’s going to be devastating. It’s going to ruin careers, it’s going to make people have bar problems …

And count on it, if Durham is looking at the leak, he’s looking at everything to do with the Flynn case. And that means not just Comey and his gang of jokers, but Team Mueller, too.

I’m shivering with anticipation.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Western Connecticut State puts itself at legal risk by promising to punish ‘It’s OK to be white’ perps. Want to make white nationalism a thing? Because this is how you make white nationalism a thing.

‘MIRROR TELEXING’ TO EXPLAIN WHISTLEBLOWER: Washington Examiner editorial chief Hugo Gurdon once worked in Jersey (No, not that one, the one that is a Brit tax haven). There is a lesson concerning paper trails to be learned from his experience there that applies in the impeachment whistleblower.

JOHN KASS: Jeffrey Epstein and Brett Kavanaugh, for ABC News, a tale of double standards.

Let’s remember what ABC, NBC and other media did to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing just a year ago, destroying his reputation, smearing him without evidence because he wasn’t on their political team.

Oh, you don’t want to go near Kavanaugh? Then just get off the bus, because I’m going there.

There is just no responsible way to discuss ABC’s alleged spiking of the Epstein story — or NBC’s spiking of the Harvey Weinstein story — without dealing with how those news networks, and other media outlets, worked frantically to destroy Kavanaugh.

Many in the media had one standard for Epstein and Weinstein, who had clout with Democrats including Bill and Hillary Clinton.

But Kavanaugh? He’s a Bush Republican nominated by President Donald Trump.
So that other standard was applied, one that allowed unsubstantiated allegations to be reported and repeated, endlessly, in an attempt to ruin him and keep him off the Supreme Court.

It seems clear now, from the Ronan Farrow stories and other accounts, and from Robach’s hot mic take, that NBC and ABC showed great deference to Epstein and Weinstein.

Kass isn’t one to mince words, but “deference” is far too kind a descriptor for the act of providing friendly media cover to a serial sexual abuser and a serial child rapist.

RELATED: ABC Spiking Epstein Story Reactionpalooza.

THE WAGES OF IRANIAN OIL SMUGGLING:

Iran has proved resourceful in the past when it came to finding new ways to smuggle oil, but the Americans now have decades of experience dealing with Iranian ploys and it has become more difficult to come up with new ideas, given that so many of the most effective sanction evasion methods have been neutralized or made much more difficult and expensive to use.

A long, detailed post that is worth the read. The U.S. sanctions employ the military, diplomatic and economic elements of power. Washington is serving Tehran a well-mixed power cocktail from Hell, to coin a phrase.

OUR MORAL BETTERS? NOT SO MUCH: The Newspaper Guild’s Washington Post Unit just published a study of pay disparities at the paper. Some highlights of their findings?

• Women as a group are paid less than men.
• Collectively, employees of color are paid less than white men, even when controlling for age and job description. White women are paid about the median for their age.
• Women of color in the newsroom receive $30,000 less than white men — a gap of 35 percent when comparing median salaries.
• The pay disparity between men and women is most pronounced among journalists under the age of 40.
• Men receive a higher percentage of merit pay raises than women, despite accounting for a smaller proportion of the newsroom.
• The Post tends to give merit raises based on performance evaluation scores, but those who score the highest are overwhelmingly white. The Post is fairly consistent across races/ethnicities and genders at awarding raises to those who do well on performance evaluations. But in 85 percent of instances in which a 4 or higher was awarded to a salaried newsroom employee, that employee was white.

According to the preeminent press ethics think-tank The Poynter Foundation, (second item on page) “the Post claims the study is “seriously flawed” and “does not accurately take into account factors such as position, experience and job performance.”

Do as we say, not as we do.

ABUSE OF POWER: University of California System President and former Obama DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano frequently uses her university position to push her political views on those in the UC community.

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KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Judging Trump on the Judges Edition. “Trump’s infusion of constitutionalist judges into the federal judiciary is a wall of sorts, a barrier keeping activists judges from reshaping American society according to the whims of fringe progressives. It may end up providing more security for America than the border wall, at least for a generation.”

Yes.

Plus:

You may have noticed the “Join VIP” graphic that appeared at the top of all of the PJ Media pages on Wednesday. We are in the middle of a soft launch of a new premium offering. There will be more details in the days to come as the technical issues are resolved. Here is some basic information, and some of the premium VIP content will begin showing up on the site today.

The economics of pageview-generated ad revenue never really meshed with quality writing, or the kinds of topics which drew people like Kruiser and me to blogging in the first place. Overall, the economic necessity of generating clickbait hasn’t been kind to the right side of the blogosphere, and skittish advertizing algos have forced us to either preemptively demonetize or avoid some topics completely. That’s a lousy way to have to run a commentary site. But on the ad-free VIP section of all the Townhall sites, we’re focusing on quality, and can cover any topics we choose. Best of all, the content you have to choose from won’t be at the mercy Google’s algos.

If you decide to join, use the promo code VODKAPUNDIT and get a nice little discount.

UPDATE: Wow. There’s been enough interest that signups have blown up the signup system. That’s fantastic, but hold off for now and I’ll post an update once the tech crew has the kinks unkinked.

REMEMBERING THE FORT HOOD TERROR ATTACK: Ten years ago this week.

Obama initially called the Fort Hood attack “tragic events” and “violence in the workplace.” Words matter. Obama insistently ignored evidence indicating that violent Islamic dogma spurred Hasan. It took Obama six years — till 2015, well after the 2012 election — to call the massacre a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Obama decided his political survival trumped the welfare of the soldiers he commanded.

Harsh? Deserved historical judgment. In 2011, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs called Fort Hood “the deadliest terrorist attack within the United States since September 11, 2001.”

In 2017, Hasan wrote that everyone opposing the Afghan Taliban’s establishment of “Sharia (God’s) Law” as supreme law and seeking to replace it with something “like a democracy that doesn’t rule by God’s law” were “the enemies of God” and worth killing.

The global war on terror isn’t over. Obama declared in 2009 that the war on terror had become a “contingency operation.” What a fraud. President Trump despises endless wars, but wars aren’t over until the enemy is defeated.

Worth remembering, especially on Veterans Day.

FLEET OF BONES: The 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, prepares its B-1B Lancers for the Bomber Task Force mission in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

WELL, I CERTAINLY HOPE SO: Warren’s Medicare For All: The Longest Political Suicide Note In Recorded History.

THE DISASTROUS TRUMP ECONOMY: Small business ‘optimism’ at record high, up 160% under Trump.

HMM: Mysterious Brazil oil spill linked to Greek-flagged ship that left Venezuela, investigators say.

CUT IT: Public Radio Host Falsely Claims ‘Paucity’ of Public Funding.

POCKET CHANGE: AT&T will pay $60 million over fake unlimited data ‘bait and switch scam.’

Plus: AT&T makes customers work to get refunds they should get automatically.

HMM: Did Japanese Military Sit On Knowledge Of Hiroshima, Nagasaki Attacks? “They knew the B29 headed for Hiroshima was carrying the atomic bomb, they knew the B29 headed for Nagasaki was carrying the atomic bomb. They knew hours in advance.”

OH: Testimony Transcript Shows William Taylor Never Talked To Trump, Wasn’t Even On July 25 Phone Call. “A top anti-Trump witness for House Democrats admitted he wasn’t on the July 25 phone call and had never even spoken with Trump about Ukraine military aid.”

$1.99 ON KINDLE: From Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

MEDICAL CARE IS NOT FOR WRONGTHINKERS: Bristol Southmead Hospital: Racist patients could have treatment withdrawn.

IT’S LIKE THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THE TRUTH: After Russia collusion controversy, FBI faces ‘red flag’ concerns over vetting informants.