OUTSTANDING PUBLIC INTEREST REPORTING: From The Daily Caller, reports of the corporate version of the “payday loan” racket doing its best to squeeze every last dime from small businesses:

“There’s lots of talk about helping small businesses. But in the last few days, lawyers running lawsuit mills are suing small businesses to extract cash,” Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra tweeted on March 19 about the MCA industry. “The lawyers work for lenders that offer pricey payday-style loans using sketchy contract terms to restaurants and businesses.”

The story details how companies skirt usury laws through the sale of a portion of a business’s future income at a discount. Typical MCA agreements require businesses to make payments every business day of a set dollar amount until the agreement is settled.

**Disclosure: I act as outside Newsroom Counsel to The Daily Caller and occasionally contribute media-related commentary to the site. 

“LA MAFIA È COME LA CORONAVIRUS—TI PRENDERÀ DOVUNQUE.” [The mafia is like the coronavirus—it will get you wherever you are.] Old friend and renowned investigative reporter Richard Behar filed an interesting report on how Organized Crime is taking advantage of the Wuhan virus:

“In Switzerland—of all places, considering it’s one of the safest countries in the world—GI-TOC cites reports of criminal groups looking to loot properties. How so? “They claim to be from official state agencies and request access to properties with a view to disinfecting the areas of coronavirus.” Meanwhile, in China and Laos, traders have been falsely marketing rhino horn products as “cures” for the virus.”

Read more details here.

WELCOME TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE. POPULATION: JOE BIDEN
OK, look. He’s a hack. A likable, run-of-the mill, baby-kissing, glad-handing hack. That’s not news. But for heaven’s sake, how long can these idiots pretend the cheese hasn’t slipped off the cracker? “Professor” Biden?
Now he’s claiming to be a college professor. The Washington Examiner reports that:

“When I left the United States Senate, I became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” Biden claimed. “And I’ve spent a lot of time — and the University of Delaware has the Biden School as well, so I’ve spent a lot of time on campus with college students.”

Um, yeah, well, about that:

Biden was present on the University of Pennsylvania campus four times to make speeches in 2017 and again in 2018. He was paid $776,527, which amounted to nearly double the average salary of the professors on campus at the time, according to PhillyMag.

My professorship at NYU (adjunct, not tenured) pays in the neighborhood of $7,000 per class, and that’s for being in class with students, plus creating material, exams, and administrative bullshit.

THIS JUST IN:  NO PORK FOR NANCY! House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Panderville)  just announced she has dropped procedural blockage and will allow a vote on the Senate’s version of the COVID bill instead of holding the nation hostage by demanding what some commentators called “racial and gender pay equity provisions, diversity on corporate boards, increased use of minority-owned banks by federal offices, and a grab-bag of other diversity-themed requirements.”

JustTheNews appears to be the first with this development:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she will attempt to pass the Senate’s coronavirus economic stimulus package – putting aside the alternative, projected $2.5 trillion measure that she proposed. The California Democrat said she’ll try to pass the Senate’s projected $1.8 trillion measure by unanimous consent, meaning House members can say yes without having to come to Capitol Hill to vote.

More to come, for sure.

Note: Normally the Instateam doesn’t post during certain hours, but the Good Professor thought it important enough to let folks know now.

STANDING UP: Columbia University President Lee Bollinger deserves great credit for taking a stand in a time where inmates are running the asylum. Most universities — as we all know — have gone off the deep end in cowering and catering to the puerile whims of youngsters. (Oberlin College ring a bell?)

One of the most awful examples has been the BDS movement on campuses. You want more Ilhan Omars? This is how you get more Ilhan Omars. From Bollinger’s earlier statement:

“I plead with everyone on our campus to be careful and vigilant against legitimate debate turning into anger, then to hatred and demonization, and invidious discrimination,” he said.

Disclosure: He also penned of the foreword for the upcoming fifth edition of my book, so I’m both biased and proud.

ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF JIM ACOSTA BEING RE-ASSIGNED TO COVER THE LIBERIAN GOVERNMENT SAY “AYE.”
Because this is what real press suppression looks like.

TUCKER CARLSON DROPS A TRUTH BOMB: “Our existential threat is not global warming. It’s China.”
This should be shared widely. It may very well be the most thoughtful, balanced, bi-partisan and yes — humanistic — television editorial writing in decades. Bravo, Tucker Carlson.

Watch the whole thing.™

California Bill Would Require Occupational Licenses for Porn Actors, Strippers, Cam Girls.

“On Tuesday, Assemblymembers Lorena Gonzalez (D–San Diego) and Christina Garcia (D–Bell Gardens) introduced Assembly Bill (A.B.) 2389. The bill would require adult entertainers and video performers, including webcam performers, to obtain a business license and complete a state-mandated training course before being allowed to ply their trade.”

TRAINING? 

GEE, I WONDER WHY CHRIS HITCHENS STOPPED GETTING INVITES TO THE SWANK BLOOMBERG PARTIES IN DC?

“To protest the petty ordinances of Mayor Bloomberg’s New York, the author went on a one-man crime spree: taking his feet off his bike pedals, feeding pigeons, and sitting on a milk crate, among other offenses. Why are the people of America’s most cosmopolitan city being treated like backward children?”

The Internet remembers.

UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD: Politico, CNN *still* won’t name the anti-Trump “whistleblower” everyone knows, but they have no problem broadcasting worldwide the picture and identity of a doctor who who warned authorities of a potential “SARS-like” outbreak in December 2019, but was reprimanded by Wuhan police and is most certainly going to be a target of the Chinese secret police.

Because the deranged think that Trump will have the guy killed, right after he sells Alaska to the Russians and puts black people “back in chains.”

BUMPED WITH UPDATE AT BOTTOM:

LAWS ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: Hilary Edition. As Tyler O’Neil has reported, Clinton has twice refused to accept service of Tulsi Gabbard’s defamation lawsuit, trying to weasel her way out of a legal battle.

The New York Post also reported that:

[Gabbard’s lawyer] said their process server first attempted to effect service at Clinton’s house in Chappaqua on Tuesday afternoon — but was turned away by Secret Service agents. The agents directed the server to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, who on Wednesday claimed at his Washington, DC, firm, Williams & Connolly, that he was unable to accept service on Clinton’s behalf.”

Here’s the thing. She had her Arkansas law license reinstated last May. But the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct state that:

Rule 8.4. Misconduct.
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: (a) violate or attempt to violate the rules of professional conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another; (b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; (c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; (d) engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice; (e) state or imply an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official; or to achieve results by means that violate the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law; or (f) knowingly assist a judge or judicial officer in conduct that is a violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct or other law.

Seems to me that dodging service of a complaint might violate sections (c) and (d), no?

**UPDATE: Someone explained the law to The Smartest Woman Ever:
“A lawyer for Hillary Clinton has finally accepted legal documents in connection with a $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii congresswoman’s lawyer told Fox News on Thursday night.”

LAWS ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE: Hilary Edition. As Tyler O’Neil has reported, Clinton has twice refused to accept service of Tulsi Gabbard’s defamation lawsuit, trying to weasel her way out of a legal battle.

The New York Post also reported that:

[Gabbard’s lawyer] said their process server first attempted to effect service at Clinton’s house in Chappaqua on Tuesday afternoon — but was turned away by Secret Service agents. The agents directed the server to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, who on Wednesday claimed at his Washington, DC, firm, Williams & Connolly, that he was unable to accept service on Clinton’s behalf.”

Here’s the thing. She had her Arkansas law license reinstated last May. But the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct state that:

Rule 8.4. Misconduct.
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to: (a) violate or attempt to violate the rules of professional conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another; (b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; (c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; (d) engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice; (e) state or imply an ability to influence improperly a government agency or official; or to achieve results by means that violate the Rules of Professional Conduct or other law; or (f) knowingly assist a judge or judicial officer in conduct that is a violation of applicable rules of judicial conduct or other law.

Seems to me that dodging service of a complaint might violate sections (c) and (d), no?

UH, PHRASING?: The New York Times endorses Klobuchar and Warren for President. In lauding Warren, the Times actually said this:

“Senator Warren is a gifted storyteller.”

Does anyone think they have a clue over there?

APPLE’S SIRI TELLS YOU ISRAEL IS A “ZIONIST OCCUPATION STATE“: As of 10am, only i24News and The Post-Millenial have covered this at all. Apple’s Siri scrapes Wikipedia for “answers” about public figures. So it appears that last night one of the SJW crusaders who call themselves Wikipedia editors decided to change the entry for Israeli President Rivlin as follows:

The entry was fixed about an hour after it was noticed. The Post-Millennial news blog dug into the story and asserts that the vandalism (not a “hack”) occurred in the SJW world of Wikipedia editors.

Not a word from “major” legacy media as of 10am. You can bet your bottom dollar if they called Nancy Pelosi a pedophile or called Oprah a drug addict, this would be a much more “important” story.

Yes, most of us know that usually only stupid people rely on Wikipedia as the central foundation for a theory or factual statement. Yet, others make a career of it. AOC used Wikipedia to smear Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller in public, relying on Wikipedia to slanderously describe the publication as “White Nationalist.”  It’s not. Not even close. (Disclosure: I provide media law advice to TDC).

There ought to be a full investigation, but major legacy media is fixated on whether or not Prince Harry can continue to call himself “Prince.”

**UPDATE: At least Newsweek catches up.

REMEMBER: You are not really Black, Gay or a Woman unless you toe the Party Line. Gay conservative and thoughtful writer Chadwick Moore gets the gulag treatment from Facebook:

“In October, I received a 30-day ban for ‘hate speech,’ after I shared a link to my Spectator column titled ‘Rednecks are the least racist people in America.’ The column pulled heavily on research from philosopher Thomas Sowell and historian Colin Woodard and my own self-deprecating stories about growing up in cracker culture in Greater Appalachia…I appealed that ban a whopping six times and each time, sometimes within seconds, I was notified by Facebook that, upon studied and serious review from a Facebook speech agent, sharing my own column published in a well-respected magazine about how rednecks aren’t racist is, inarguably, hate speech.”

Time to re-write Section 230.

SUE THE BASTARDS: California’s State Controller Betty Yee says she “can’t find” any of the 49 million bills she paid last year. So fiscal watchdog OpenTheBooks has filed suit under the state’s Freedom of Information law. Here’s a link to the lawsuit.

As The Good Professor says: “we’re in the very best of hands!”

HUMBLEBRAG: Dan Bongino gets it. And proving he’s a smart guy, he scans both Instapundit and The Daily Signal for contrarian analysis.

MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH DON LEMON: As The Good Professor blogged here, CNN coughed up a settlement in the libel claim brought by Nick Sandman, one of the horrible, terrible, vicious and very very racist Covington Kids. In digging through the case file, I found this little gem argued by CNN:

“Courts treat statements characterizing people as “racist” as nonactionable opinion because they cannot be proved true or false… Sandmann cannot as a matter of law base a defamation claim on this statement as it offers an expression of opinion so subjective as to be unprovable.”

So, now CNN is saying it’s not possible to prove someone a racist? Did anyone run this by Don LeMons, who would call a dog “racist” if it pooped in his yard?

OMG! THE KIDS MIGHT BE EXPOSED TO UNAUTHORIZED IDEAS!
I’m always stunned by the call for censorship (sometimes a dogwhistle) from left-leaning media outlets. It’s almost as if they secretly fear their ideas will not stand up to scrutiny…

WAITAMINNIT:…isn’t he one of those folks who chided Trump for *not* invading Syria?

#MyWarGood
#YourWarBad

PLEASE DON’T DRIVE DRUNK: OK, OK, it’s New Year’s Eve, so in light of my plea, read this instead.

IT TAKES A ̶V̶I̶L̶L̶A̶G̶E̶ ENTIRE NEWSROOM: Glad to see it took the entire Reuters staff to bollix this up so badly.
Confirmation bias or just plain stupid?

AN OBSERVATION AFTER READING GLENN’S POST: “Newly Released Eric Holder Memo: Feds Can Use FISA to Spy on Journalists.”

From experience, I can just hear the voices in DC newsrooms:
“That was so three years ago. Obama is not President anymore, let it go. Oh, how are we doing on that story about Trump’s grandfather being all in for the Kaiser?”

SO MUCH FOR BEING THE SMARTEST PEOPLE IN THE ROOM:

Nothing beats being laid off just before the Holidays, huh?

WAITAMINNIT, WAT? Earlier this week, Bloomberg Media announced its first acquisition in more than a decade, buying CityLab:

“An offshoot website of the Atlantic that reports on a variety of areas—development, housing, transit, the environment—from an urban policy perspective. And as part of that purchase, it appears half of the website’s editorial staff could lose their jobs.”

According to Business Insider, 7,800 journalists have lost their jobs so far this year. I thought President Trump was supposed to be Biggest Threat to the Press Ever, what with him being mean to Jim Acosta and all.

But putting reporters on the breadlines? Nahhhhhhh.