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Archive for 2019
November 27, 2019
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: New Hampshire to Liz Warren: Meh.
Maybe it’s because I don’t want Washington usurping whatever remains of the private healthcare industry. Maybe I just don’t think we should tax innovators — and by extension, their innovations — out of existence. Or perhaps I just have a thing against getting lectured about how evil money is by somebody who used to get paid mid-six figures for parttime work hectoring college kids. It could also just be her voice.
Whatever the case, I’m just swooning over the latest Emerson poll showing Elizabeth Warren (D-Other People’s Money) tied for a distant third-place with New Hampshire primary voters.
So much more at the link.
HILLARY 2.0 IS A NO-GO: Sexist Dems Are Souring on Fauxcahontas.
BY FAILING TO TOE THE PARTY LINE, COMRADES: How Hong Kong’s greatest tycoon went from friend of China to punching bag.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: There has never been a better time to start a small space agency.
SHOCKER: Want a happy employee? Give them an office.
Of course, there are worse things than open concept offices: You’re doing open concept all wrong: ‘This is the type of toilet I see in my nightmares.’ “It’s not for everyone.”
FIRE THE WESTERN CANON: Notre Dame University Protest – Too Many White Male Authors in Curriculum.
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ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: TikTok Blocks Teen Who Posted About China’s Detention Camps. “The app faced renewed questions about whether it censors material after it removed an American’s video about Muslims in China.”
Concerns about major tech companies’ connections to China have grown in the past year. Short video app TikTok, which has been download over 1 billion times, in particular has been scrutinized for allegedly censoring content that could anger the Chinese government. In September, The Guardian reported on internal TikTok documents instructing the moderators to censor politically fraught topics including Tiananmen Square and an independent Tibet. The company said that these guidelines were no longer in use, and that the Chinese government has no control over them, because the app does not operate in China.
Uh-huh.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: We Should Explain Why This Cow Is Wearing a VR Headset.
IT’S COMPLICATED: They Voted Democratic. Now They Support Trump. “Two-thirds of battleground state voters who chose Trump in 2016 but selected Democrats in the midterms say they will return to the president next year.”
If the GOP Congress hadn’t been so feckless, they might have done much better in 2018.
MACKUBIN OWENS: PRUDENCE AND PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS.
President Trump recently issued pardons to three U.S. servicemen accused of crimes during wartime: U.S. Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, convicted in August 2013 on two counts of second-degree murder for ordering soldiers in his platoon to open fire at three men on a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan in July 2012; U.S. Army Major Matthew Golsteyn, a Special Forces officer who pleaded not guilty to the charge of killing an unarmed Taliban bomb maker; and Navy Special Warfare Operator First Class Edward Gallagher, who, although cleared of the murder of an insurgent, was demoted for posing with an enemy corpse.
Of course, as in all things having to do with Trump, his actions have elicited a great deal of pushback. His critics have argued that by issuing these pardons, he condones the commission of “heinous war crimes” by Americans; that his pardons constituted rogue actions external to the justice system; that he was undermining “good order and discipline in the military; and that the pardons damaged U.S. standing abroad, especially among allies. But as my old friend Charlie Dunlap, a retired Air Force Major General and staff judge advocate has argued, most of these claims are not supported by the facts.
In the cases of the individuals who Trump pardoned—as is usually the case in such instances—the facts are more complicated than first reported. For one thing, none of the individuals were charged as “war crimes” or “atrocities” but with standard criminal offenses, such as murder. As Dunlop observes, this relieves the prosecution from the burden of having to prove the additional elements needed to legally turn such alleged wrongdoing into “war” crimes.
Nonetheless, all we hear is “Trump pardoned war criminals,” because the press is largely garbage. But do read the whole thing.
Plus, from Dunlap: “In a democracy, elected civilian leaders ought to be exercising oversight over the activities of the armed forces, including the justice system that provides accountability for those forces. Among other things, when properly done civilian oversight can serve as a bulwark against unfairness in the ranks. It doesn’t hurt for military leaders to be reminded from time to time that their civilian boss is watching.”
Here’s the entire Dunlap post.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Will Deval Patrick be president? Not if his past scandals have anything to say about it.
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Cows wearing VR headsets might produce better milk.
WHEN A REPUBLICAN HAS THEM, YES: Are Thought Crimes Impeachable?
WAITING ON THE I.G. REPORT: Judge once again delays Trump ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn’s sentencing until further notice.
TODAY’S DEMS CAN’T EVEN RUN A SHOW TRIAL RIGHT: Support for impeachment drops after second week of hearings: Poll.
Related: Trump’s Invisible Support Army — Of Democrats.
UPDATE: Why Trump’s Ukraine demands weren’t remotely illegal.
SILICON VALLEY HAS MANAGED TO ALIENATE EVERYONE, BUT THEN NERDS AREN’T FAMOUS FOR THEIR SOCIAL SKILLS: Top DOJ antitrust official has sympathy for the liberal ‘hipster antitrust’ movement.