CHRISTIAN TOTO: Boots Riley Props Up Venezuelan Dictator on Twitter. “The auteur behind the anti-capitalism comedy ‘Sorry to Bother You’ is defending a regime bringing mass starvation, suffering to its people.”
Well, to be fair, anti-capitalism is mass starvation and suffering, eventually.
COLD WAR II: China’s military build-up just starting – a lot more to come, expert warns.
Under its plan for military modernisation China had achieved “great advancements in space, electronics and cyberwarfare”, the academic said, but its achievements to date were only the beginning.
As well as the expansion of its missile force, Beijing was investing heavily in its navy, he said.
With the deployment of the new Type 055 guided-missile destroyer – which some Chinese military experts have said is as good as anything in the US Navy – the balance of power was shifting, he said.
“For the first time in 500 years, the East has combat equipment that is at least as good as the West’s.”
Equipment? Maybe. Crews and institutional knowledge? That’s a lot less certain than “maybe.”
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Spike Lee Is an Ass.
New York Knicks fans will never forget the 1994 playoffs, when Spike Lee, an ostensibly grown 37-year-old man who had leveraged his celebrity into scoring a courtside seat at Madison Square Garden, decided to make himself the center of attention late in the game. Lee, only a few feet from the action, got up and moved around and shouted at players and generally made a complete ass of himself. Lee had inexplicably made it his personal mission to taunt and distract the rival Indiana Pacers’ star shooting guard Reggie Miller. Then things got even worse: Miller responded by turning up the heat on his game from “smoking” to “molten.” Miller scored 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Pacers came from behind to win the game. The Daily News ran a photo of Lee with the caption, “Thanks a Lot, Spike.” When the series moved to Indianapolis, Lee made his typical horrible move of mixing evil with entertainment, telling reporters (falsely) that Indiana was the birthplace of the KKK and that he would be staying at “the governor’s mansion,” in “the slaves’ quarters.”
A man who acts like a churl in his late 30s is liable to remain one forever. You may correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Lee made Oscar history Sunday night. As far as I know, he was the first Academy Award loser ever to throw a public tantrum right there in the auditorium.
He’s made some fine movies, but his public antics make you feel sorry for whatever his cast and crew must have to put up with in private.
PATRICK POOLE: Al-Qaeda Still Using CIA-Provided Missiles in Syria. “Video shows CIA weapons being used against Assad regime forces in Idlib.”
AVNER ZARMI: Why Trump’s ‘Style’ Matters.
There are a couple good points here about Reagan’s successes, but overall I think it’s an unfair piece. If Trump’s “style” — which is far less at odds with actual Washington norms than elites dare to admit — is the price for solid SCOTUS picks, tax reform, deregulation, and shrinking our footprint in the Middle East, then it’s a small price to pay.
DON’T STRAY FROM THE NARRATIVE, COMRADE: Angry About Video of Starving Venezuelans, Maduro Detains Jorge Ramos. “I never thought they were going to do something stupid like this, I never thought they were going to take the whole interview and rob us.”
Well, you were a chump.
THE INTERNET OF NOSEY THINGS: Privacy group urges feds to force Google to dump Nest. “Had warned FTC of privacy concerns even before hidden camera scandal.”
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: U.S. Destroyer, Cargo Ship Pass Through Taiwan Strait in 4th Warship Transit in 5 Months.
Any nation opposed to freedom of the seas should exempt themselves from maritime trade.
BUT SCREENCAPS ARE FOREVER: Rep. Omar deletes tweets that sparked political firestorm.
Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy first noted that representative erased three posts that were considered by some as anti-Semitic. Fox News has confirmed that those tweets have been deleted.
Omar’s Twitter troubles date back to 2012 when she claimed that Israel has “hypnotized the world” regarding the Jewish state’s ongoing conflict with Palestinians.
The Minnesota Democrat then reignited accusations of anti-Semitism when she suggested that the GOP’s support of Israel is bought, saying that its stance is “all about the Benjamins.” She later named AIPAC as a group that pays pro-Israel politicians despite the fact they don’t make financial contributions to campaigns.
Amid uproar, Omar issued an apology.
Well, if you count “sorry not sorry” as a real apology, that is.
ROBERT W. MERRY: The Coming Socialist President? “Just because Democrats are lurching leftwards doesn’t mean they’re going to lose in 2020.”
The Democrats are swinging hard left, because they perceive Trump as weak due in no small part to the NeverTrump dead-enders eager to help elect a Democrat.
So why not take a gamble on a once-in-a-lifetime chance to elect someone who would make Barack Obama seem moderate?
RICHARD COHEN: Democrats Are Wrapping a Gift for Trump.
Democratic socialist ideas appear to be making significant headway in the party. The Democratic part is fine, the socialism part is not. It suggests a massive government intrusion in the economy that has not worked elsewhere — post-war Great Britain or that contemporary mess called Venezuela — and that, in a cultural sense, is un-American. Time and time again, the American people have shown they want nothing to do with socialism. While socialist movements have at times been politically strong in Europe, such has not been the case in America. This, in fact, is one of the original meanings of the phrase “American exceptionalism.”
If Americans are not about to embrace socialism, they certainly are not about to support reparations. This proposal, which seems to have come out of nowhere, has the support of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro and Marianne Williamson. This supposed redress for slavery — nothing can redress slavery — polls abysmally. Sixty-eight percent of Americans oppose making payments to descendants of slaves, and 72 percent oppose paying reparations to African-Americans in general. Among whites, 81 percent oppose payments to descendants of slaves.
At the moment, these proposals are reassuringly vague: Who would benefit? Just the descendants of slaves? All African-Americans? What about the very rich? As you can see, this can get a bit complicated.
It can also can get dangerously divisive.
They can’t help themselves; modern leftism has zero limiting principles. None.
Yet this is the kind of Democrat which some NeverTrump dead-enders are perfectly happy to help elect.
TRUE COLORS: Plan B for rebel Republicans: Wound Trump so he’ll lose to a Democrat in general election.
In 2020, that is the sort of primary challenge some “Never Trump” Republicans envision pursuing against this president if their favored option — running a contender strong enough to win — doesn’t come to fruition. For Republicans committed to dislodging Trump at all costs, wounding him in a primary would be adequate. No president challenged for renomination in the modern era has won a second term.
“For a number of people I’ve spoken to, putting a torpedo into Trump’s operation would suffice for them — if they could mortally wound him in a primary,” said a Republican insider involved in the effort.
Outright defeating a sitting president in a primary is nearly impossible, and Trump’s intraparty opponents are realistic about their prospects.
That they’d rather help elect what is likely to be the most extreme Democratic nominee in decades than deal with a successful but “distasteful” Republican shows that their far more interested in Not-Our-Kind-Dear snobbery than in a single damn conservative principle.
BRUCE BAWER: Sweeney Agonistes: Tommy Robinson Turns the Tables on the BBC.
Tommy Robinson’s courageous truth-telling about Islam has not only resulted in years of harassment by the British authorities, an endless cascade of death threats, and, last year, a thoroughly unjust prison term that might have spelled his demise, but also, of course, a pattern of coverage by the mainstream media that has been almost uniformly deceitful and poisonous. When he heard that the BBC series Panorama, which is the UK’s answer to 60 Minutes, was planning a story on him with the working title “Tommy Takedown,” and that its producers were collaborating with the vile group Hope Not Hate (HNH), which is Britain’s version of the Southern Poverty Law Center — i.e., a shady far-left smear machine masquerading as a noble monitor of bigots, fascists, and hate groups — he decided to go on the offensive.
You’ll want to read the whole thing.
SHE’LL MAKE THE HIGH-SPEED TRAINS RUN ON TIME: AOC Pounces after Misunderstood Mussolini Tweet by Sen. John Cornyn. “No, the senior senator from Texas is not a fan of fascism.”
HOTEL EUROFORNIA: U.K.’s Theresa May to Consider Delay to Brexit Date.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The vote to overrule Trump emergency declaration and much, much more. “Even if the House and the Senate pass their resolution, Trump can veto it and the Dems do not have the votes to override his veto. This is all a show exercise so that the Democrats and the sleazy Republicans can show their appropriate constituents the requisite #resistance.”
THE FIX WAS IN: DOJ Prevented FBI From Pursuing Gross Negligence Charges Against Clinton.
The Justice Department (DOJ), under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, decided to set an unusually high threshold for prosecution of Clinton, effectively ensuring from the outset that she would not be charged.
In order for Clinton to be prosecuted, the DOJ required the FBI to establish evidence of intent—even though the gross negligence statute explicitly does not require this.
This meant that the FBI would have needed to find a smoking gun, such as an email or an admission made during FBI questioning, revealing Clinton or her aides knowingly set up the private email server to send classified information.
This is what we ought to be investigating.
THE MANHATTAN CONTRARIAN: The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time– Part XXI.
You’ll want to read the whole thing, but climate “scientists” in Australia are lowering past temperature recordings to make the current situation look far worse.
BUT THE NARRATIVE! Scientists: CO2 the ‘miracle molecule’ key to feeding, saving the world.
If you like to eat, then you should be cheering global warming.
That’s the claim in a new scientific report that counters global warming fanatics like former Vice President Al Gore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and offers proof that CO2 added to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is nature’s Miracle-Gro.
In what some are calling the counter to the liberals’ “Green New Deal,” the new report provided to Secrets said that instead of fighting over the stalemated global warming debate, the world should take advantage of increased CO2 levels by growing plants and food that thrive on it.
“Fortunately, carbon dioxide, a non-polluting gas that is created when fossil fuels are converted into energy, has proved to be a powerful plant food,” said the report from the CO2 Coalition of scientists who reject claims it will end the world in 12 years.
You exhale CO2 which grass needs to grow. Cows eat grass, you eat cows and continue to exhale grass-growing CO2.
It’s the circle of life.
DEPLOYMENT: The Marines’ Version of the F-35 Flew More Than 100 Combat Sorties.
F-35Bs flew more than 100 combat sorties against the Taliban and ISIS while deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, said Lt. Col. Kyle Shoop, commander of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211.
“We overall supported more than 50 days of combat flying for over 1,200 flight hours,” Shoop told Task & Purpose. “We supported both Operation Freedom’s Sentinel up in the Afghanistan region as well as Operation Inherent Resolve over Syria/Iraq. We employed ordnance in both theaters on numerous days,” Shoop said. “Every single one of the pilots employed ordnance in theater. So, we were very busy.”
Good to know.
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