For all the love lavished on Venezuela’s Bolivarian socialism by Bernie Sanders, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, et al, I wonder if any of them actually put any money on the regime?
Not really. I’m sure the answer is no.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 23, 2018
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Lanny Davis Panhandles for Cohen on Cable News and Much, Much More. “Yesterday, the media was LIT UP talking about their favorite thing: Trump’s impeachment.”
ASHE SCHOW: Judge Reconsiders Dismissal of Accused Student’s Equal Protection Claim.
The accused student in this case, John Doe, had met his eventual accuser, Jane Roe (as they are referred to in court documents), while John was a student at OSU and worked as a registered nurse at the school’s Wexner Medical Center (WMC) in 2012. They dated through 2014, during which time Jane (by her own admission) initiated much of the sexual contact. It was John who ended the relationship after Jane told him she loved him but he did not want a committed relationship. Seven months after they broke up, Jane accused John of sexually assaulting her on their last date, November 20, 2014. John was found responsible and expelled from the university and fired from the WMC.
John sued, but his case was dismissed on March 10, 2017. He petitioned for reconsideration after the Sixth Circuit decision and was granted a reversal on just one claim — equal protection.
“Plaintiff is now arguing that the Defendants … violated the equal protection clause when they initiated and disciplined Plaintiff, but not Jane Doe despite receiving information from Plaintiff that she may have also violated OSU’s sexual misconduct policy,” Judge Smith wrote.
“Out of an abundance of caution and based on the analysis of the Sixth Circuit in Miami Univ., the Court reverses its finding on Plaintiff’s equal protection claim and reinstates that claim as to Defendants. …” Smith added.
More like this, please.
BLUE WAVE? Fox News Poll: Democrats maintain lead in race for House.
Several findings point to the potential for a blue map in November:
– President Trump’s job rating remains underwater.
– Republicans alone say the economy is in positive shape.
– The GOP tax law is less popular (40 percent favorable) than Obamacare (51 percent favorable).
– The Republican Party is less popular (39 percent favorable) than the Democratic Party (50 percent favorable).
– Optimism about life for the next generation of Americans is down eight points from last year.
– There is greater enthusiasm to vote in the midterms among out-of-power Democrats.
It’s never too soon to donate, or even better, volunteer for a local campaign.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Want More Power To The People? Choose Capitalism.
Capitalism is a kind of economic democracy, where consumers vote with every dollar they spend, determining which businesses succeed and fail. Look at the thousands of products in your local grocery store, shopping mall, or on Amazon, all vying for your attention. These products represent entrepreneurs striving to meet your needs as the way to achieve their own success. That may not be purely altruistic conduct, since capitalism depends on the desire of people to better their own lives, but it channels that natural desire into focusing on the opinions and preferences of a broad class of consumers.
In a socialist economy, rather than meeting the needs of others, you improve your life by getting more for yourself from the limited supply of goods, services, or benefits the government either makes or allows others to make available. Whether you get those goods depends on how well you please the political elites. People who are willing and able to make themselves useful to the powerful get special privileges, and since socialist systems produce so little wealth, everyone who is neither useful nor well connected stands in the inevitable bread line or waits her turn for gasoline.
Even in relatively free countries, where does the line move faster: At the corner McDonalds or the DMV?
THIS SEEMS LIKE KIND OF A BIG DEAL: Despite Comey Assurances, Vast Bulk of Weiner Laptop Emails Were Never Examined.
Virtually none of his account was true, a growing body of evidence reveals.
In fact, a technical glitch prevented FBI technicians from accurately comparing the new emails with the old emails. Only 3,077 of the 694,000 emails were directly reviewed for classified or incriminating information. Three FBI officials completed that work in a single 12-hour spurt the day before Comey again cleared Clinton of criminal charges.
“Most of the emails were never examined, even though they made up potentially 10 times the evidence” of what was reviewed in the original year-long case that Comey closed in July 2016, said a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Yet even the “extremely narrow” search that was finally conducted, after more than a month of delay, uncovered more classified material sent and/or received by Clinton through her unauthorized basement server, the official said. Contradicting Comey’s testimony, this included highly sensitive information dealing with Israel and the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas. The former secretary of state, however, was never confronted with the sensitive new information and it was never analyzed for damage to national security.
Our premier counterintelligence agency was more concerned with Clinton ass-covering than with national security. But somehow that pales in comparison to sex with a porn star.
Anyway, read the whole thing.
A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: Millennials Don’t Think America Was Ever That Great. “The left is winning the battle for the hearts and minds of young people and America is suffering as a result.”
August 22, 2018
MARK ELLIS: Top Five 1980s One-Hit Wonders to Rock the Midterms.
Red Rider’s “Lunatic Fringe” really should have made the cut.
BUT GUN CONTROL! Three injured outside Tube station in SECOND shooting in a NIGHT. “LONDON’S horrific crimewave continued last night as three people were injured in a shooting outside a Tube station in the capital.”
UGH: Saudi Arabia ‘seeks death penalty’ for female activist.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Tuesday the charges against the activists “do not resemble recogniseable crimes” and include “incitement to protest”, “chanting slogans hostile to the regime” and “providing moral support to rioters”.
Authorities have held the five activists, along with another not facing the death penalty, in pretrial detention without legal representation for more than two years.
They are due to appear in court again on October 28, according to HRW.
“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behaviour, is monstrous,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.
Crown Prince bin Salman could take a couple more of those baby steps towards modernity about now.
NEWS YOU COULD PROBABLY USE: Google Assistant’s latest feature delivers just the ‘good news.’
To activate the feature, Assistant users in the U.S. can say, “Hey Google, tell me something good” to kick off the daily briefing of happy stories.
Google offers some examples of what the “good news” may include, like a story about how Georgia State University stopped students from slipping through the cracks; or how backyard beekeepers in East Detroit are bringing back the dwindling bee population; or how Iceland curbed teen drinking.
The stories are selected and summarized by the nonpartisan nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network, an organization that helps train journalists to better cover how people are responding to problems and how those actions can have positive results.
I get the feeling there’s going to be a wide gap between Google’s definition of good news and my own.
GOOD GRIEF: Judge Gives No Jail Time To Imran Awan, Attorney Claims He Was Building ‘Women’s Shelter.’
A federal judge declined to give jail time to former Democratic IT aide Imran Awan Tuesday, saying he has “suffered enough” at the hands of politicians “at the highest levels of government.” In addition, the Department of Justice said it did not find any evidence that supported criminal charges.
Imran choked back tears, saying, “We want to thank the prosecution, the FBI and the Capitol Police,” while his lawyer submitted a letter referring to President Donald Trump, Sen. Chuck Grassley and other Republications as “deranged,” “pathetic” and “without a shred of decency.”
Judge Tanya Chutkin gave Imran three months of supervised release. Imran’s attorney had hoped to avoid the supervision, indicating Imran wanted to go back to Pakistan: “By ending this today, you will allow Hina to build her family wherever she chooses and allow Imran to visit his father’s grave and secure his legacy,” the attorney said.
The lawyer, former Hillary Clinton aide Chris Gowen, said Imran was motivated by love for his father, who was dying in Virginia when Imran flew to Pakistan. Imran, he said, was in a “panic” to get money to urgently build a charity hospital, described in court as a “women’s shelter.” He described the urgent moves as “securing his father’s legacy.”
The story is at odds with a 2009 Pakistani newspaper article, police reports and lawsuits in Pakistan, as well as interviews.
Outrageous.
SCRAPPLEFACE: Cohen, Manafort Felony Guilt Spurs Trump Departure.
The accompanying photoshops are well done.
SWAMPLAND STORIES: GOP Rep. Hunter, Wife Accused of Illegally Siphoning Campaign Funds for Personal Use. “U.S. Attorney says couple swiped a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds ‘to purchase goods and services for their personal use and enjoyment’.”
WELL THAT’S DISCONCERTING: Hey, Has Anyone Seen Russia’s Allegedly Missing Nuclear-Powered Missile?
According to CNBC, those sources said Russia tested four of the missiles, which are reportedly called Burevestniks, between November 2017 and February 2018. But President Vladimir Putin’s boasting earlier this year that the prototypes could “attack any target” at any range (specifically Florida) appears to have been somewhat premature. The sources said all four tests failed, with Russia’s best attempt lasting a pitiful two minutes and covering just 22 miles (35 kilometers), and the nuclear core failing to activate mid-flight. CNBC wrote the Russians are not particularly happy about this and are trying to recover one of the lost missiles.
(There is no reason to worry about the possibility of a nuclear warhead being on board.)
As Task and Purpose noted, the U.S. military may be looking for the lost missiles too: The Air Force flew “nuclear-sniffing WC-135 ‘Constant Phoenix’ aircraft” over the Barents and Baltic Seas from March to August 2018.
Russia has a long history of producing vaporware, but this is ridiculous.
YOU DON’T SAY: Venezuela: New currency fails to curb hyperinflation. “Price of goods are already going up after the Venezuelan bolivar was devalued by 95 percent over the weekend.”
It’s almost as though treating the symptom does nothing to cure the underlying disease.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Manafort, Cohen, Mollie and Much, Much More. “We had a NEWS BONANZA yesterday. Buckle up, Brief-heads!”
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook has TRUST ratings for users – but it won’t tell you your score.
Earlier this year, Facebook admitted it was rolling out trust ratings for media outlets.
This involved ranking news websites based on the quality of the news they were reporting.
This rating would then be used to decide which posts should be promoted higher in users’ News Feeds.
User ratings are employed in a similar way – helping Facebook make a judgement about the quality of their post reports.
According to Lyons, a user’s rating “isn’t meant to be an absolute indicator of a person’s credibility”.
Instead, it’s intended as a measurement of working out how risky a user’s actions may be.
If Facebook were transparent about this stuff, users — the network’s actual content providers and creators — could work to improve trust.
But that kind of openness just isn’t in the company’s DNA, says Frederic Filloux on Monday Note:
Facebook’s DNA is based on the unchallenged power of an exceptional but morally flawed — or at least dangerously immature — leader who sees the world as a gigantic monetization playground. In Mark Zuckerberg’s world, the farther from home, the more leeway he feels to experiment with whatever comes to his prolific mind. Yielding on the Ford Pinto syndrome, he feels little incentive to correct the misuse of the tools he created. And he managed to have no one standing against him.
It’s a fascinating article, and I recommend reading the whole thing.
MAKE TEXAS GREAT AGAIN: Texas Exports More Oil Than It Imports For First Time Ever.
On second thought, don’t tell anyone in Texas there might have been a time when it wasn’t.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Hollywood’s Silence on Free Speech Matters. “Bill Maher is all alone. Again.”
Naturally:
How many stars held their nose and said the Alex Jones of the world deserve to have a voice, too? Chelsea Handler, Billy Eichner, George Takei and Debra Messing did just the opposite, cheering on Jones’ dismissal via their Twitter accounts.
That, Maher said, is simply wrong.
“If you’re a liberal, you’re supposed to be for free speech. That’s free speech for the speech you hate. That’s what free speech means. We’re losing the thread of the concepts that are important to this country. If you care about the real American s*** or you don’t. And if you do, it goes for every side. I don’t like Alex Jones, but Alex Jones gets to speak. Everybody gets to speak.”
He’s right, of course.
Jones isn’t part of the privileged class, and what fun is privilege if it doesn’t mean denying others the things you enjoy the most?
HMM: Internal documents reveal the grueling way Tesla hit its 5,000 Model 3 target.
Of the 5,000 Model 3s that contributed to Tesla’s end of June manufacturing target, about 4,300 of them required rework, according to internal documents viewed by Business Insider.
Within the auto industry, cars that make it through a manufacturing process without requiring rework are part of a factory or line’s “first pass yield (FPY).”
That means the factory had a first pass yield for vehicles as low as 14% during the last week of June.
An industry expert told Business Insider that good auto plants have a first pass yield of about 80%.
But:
A Tesla spokesperson said the number of labor hours required per Model 3 has decreased by almost 30% since last quarter.
With so many investors short on Tesla, it’s impossible to know whose numbers to trust.