NOW IS NOT THE END. IT IS NOT EVEN THE BEGINNING OF THE END. BUT IT IS, PERHAPS, THE END OF THE BEGINNING: The Final Debate Drunkblog Before the Voting Begins.
Tonight’s beverage: Jura “Origin” ten-year-old. It’s flavorful, rustic, and reasonably priced. Maybe the best deal I know of in single malts.
WHEN THE TRUTH IS A CRIME: Person who posted video of missile striking Ukrainian airliner has been taken into custody.
SO MANY WAYS: How Trump Derangement Syndrome Makes You Stupid.
BLOOMBERG SYNDROME: Anti-Discrimination Police Training Under Mayor Pete Warned Against ‘Languageism,’ ‘Sizeism.’
Actual policing in South Bend became… problematical.
BLUE ON BLUE: Did Commie Losers Assault Austin Democrat?
CHANGE: The Air Force’s B-52H Bomber Force Has Said Goodbye To Its Nuclear Bombs. “A new Air Force manual confirms that the only nuclear weapons these iconic aircraft are now approved to carry are nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.”
It’s about survivability. A B-52 has about the same radar cross-section as the Empire State Building, so you wouldn’t want to use anything but standoff weapons against near-peer adversaries, or even less-advanced countries equipped with Russian antiaircraft systems.
OR ANYTHING ELSE, REALLY: We Can’t Trust the Media to Report Honestly on Iran.
In the newest iteration of the story from NBC News, we learn that after Iran shot down a U.S. drone this summer, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, Trump’s then-national security adviser, tried to persuade Donald Trump to kill the Iranian terrorist leader. Trump, instinctively uneasy about escalating Middle East conflict, resisted the pressure. According to “current and former senior administration officials,” NBC News states, the president instead drew a red line: He would authorize the killing of Soleimani only “if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American.”
Trump even tweeted, warning the mullahs that further violence would have repercussions.
Well, after subsequent escalations by Iran, and proxies attacked the United States embassy and murdered an American contractor, Trump followed through on his threat to take out Soleimani. Apparently Ali Khamenei did not take Trump literally or seriously.
The big problem with the NBC News account of the killing is that it conflicts almost entirely with the premise and tone of much of the earlier coverage, most notably an adjective-laden New York Times story published the day after Soleimani was killed, which claimed that Trump’s decision was extreme and impulsive.
Today’s pravda reflects today’s needs, comrade.
“GO INSANE?” THEY STARTED THERE: National Championship Game Crowd Goes Berserk When the Trumps Show Up. Liberals Go Insane.
THIS IS SOMETHING CBS NEWS FINDS NEWSWORTHY: Trump retweets fake image of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in front of Iranian flag.
I think Trump got the point across nicely and succinctly. CBS, purveyors of actual Fake News, is trying to pass off Trump’s simple retweet of a silly photoshop as some kind of malicious Deep Fake propaganda effort.
Sad!
ISSUES & INSIGHTS: Hillary Clinton Vindicated On Corruption Charges? Hardly. “As soon as political access to the Clintons became worthless, so did the foundation.”
Before you read the story, see the chart:
Follow the money — she certainly did.
CYBERSECURITY: Iranian hackers have been “password spraying” the US grid.
BLUE STATE BLUES: California’s new gig worker law is disrupting the music industry and threatening all performing arts.
Under AB 5, we will be required to inform all U.S.-based musicians that they must now become employees of San Jose Jazz, or incorporate themselves before they will be allowed to perform for us.
If band leaders choose to pursue incorporation, they will then need to take on the responsibility of payroll and HR administration for the rest of their band.
In many performing arts disciplines, such as jazz, musicians are constantly reconfiguring line ups, performing as sidemen in various bands, and as one-time special guests for specific performances.
We will now be obliged to devote tremendous time and resources to constantly hiring, managing and tracking of musicians through this cumbersome process.
AB 5 unnecessarily complicates other work arrangements found in community cultural programming such as small festivals, neighborhood street fairs, parades and summer music series in our local parks.
San Jose Jazz is best known for producing our large Summer Fest which brings tens of thousands of visitors and requires hundreds of temporary roles to execute.
Getting what they voted for, good and hard.
SHARYL ATTKISSON: Former federal agent blows the whistle on illegal surveillance operation during Obama administration. “And it was run by none other than Rod Rosenstein.”
ESSAY: Modern China’s Precarious Existential High-Wire Act. “The genius of democratic republics like our own is that they tend to be self-correcting. For example, just enough traditionally Democratic voters were turned off by Barack Obama’s eight-year-long sequel to the Carter Administration, ‘Malaise II: The Un-Quickening,’ to take a chance on Donald Trump in 2016. The turnaround since then has been pronounced. But even when voters don’t exhibit such wisdom, elections allow citizens to vent their frustrations by throwing the bastards out — without, and this point is key, overthrowing the whole system or starting a civil war. That’s why authoritarian regimes are always more brittle than they appear.”
You could apply similar thinking to Iran.
Anyway, this one is for PJM/Town Hall’s VIP members, and the promo code VODKAPUNDIT provides a nice little discount, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a supporter.
I HATED THEIR SHOW WHEN IT WAS NEW, AND IT’S EVEN WORSE IN RERUNS: Barack and Michelle Obama Get Oscar Nomination for Being The Obamas.
CHANGE? Iran is closer ‘than ever before’ to regime collapse, says former Obama security advisor.
Asked about the possibility of regime collapse, General James Jones, who was Obama’s national security advisor in 2009 and 2010, said the risk for Tehran cannot be ignored.
“I think the needle is moved more in that direction in the last year towards that possibility than ever before with a combination of the sanctions, relative isolation of the regime, and then some catastrophic decisions have been made — assuming that we weren’t going to respond, which turned out to be a very, very bad decision,” Jones told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Trump undid as much of the Obama legacy regarding Iran as he could — sadly, the cash was non-refundable — and the results speak for themselves.
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Bill Clinton’s top campaign strategist endorses Michael Bennet’s presidential bid.
Bennet’s one of my senators, I cover politics for a living, and I’d forgotten he hadn’t dropped out of the race.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democratic Primary Field Moves Ever Whiteward. “Now their diversity street cred is a seventy-year-old patrician northeastern grandma who was once a Native American in her mind.”
I’ll drunkblog tonight’s debate over at the PJMedia mothership.
HE WAS A MURDERER IN NEED OF KILLING, AND I’M GLAD HE’S DEAD: Trump says it doesn’t matter if Soleimani posed an imminent threat.
TIM BLAIR: Controlled burning could have protected Australia.
Heed the warning from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Central West area manager Fiona Buchanan, in April last year: ‘We are getting the message out there that removing firewood, including deadwood and fallen trees, is not permitted in national parks. We want people to know the rules around firewood collection…it’s important people are aware that on-the-spot fines apply but also very large fines can be handed out by the courts.’
She wasn’t bluffing. A man had earlier been fined $30,000 ($20,000 US) for illegally collecting firewood in the Murrumbidgee Valley National Park. Why? Because, as Buchanan explained: ‘Many ground-dwelling animals and threatened species use tree hollows for nesting, so when fallen trees and deadwood is taken illegally, it destroys their habitat. This fallen timber is part of these animals’ natural ecosystem.’
Those natural ecosystems are now, across thousands of hectares of national parks in New South Wales, nothing but cinders and ash. Enjoy your protected habitat, little ground-dwellers.
Needless to say, read the whole thing.
WHAT’S SHOCKING IS THAT THE NUMBER IS FAIRLY SMALL, GIVEN THE ANTIAMERICAN PROPAGANDA PASSING FOR EDUCATION: Shocking Number Of Young Americans Say Other Countries Are Better Than U.S.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Did Bernie Just Become the Man to Beat Biden? Not So Fast…
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