ILLINOIS POLITICS: Holocaust Denier on GOP Ballot Gets a Write-in Challenger, Harasses Him at Home. “Arthur Jones shouted ‘you want to debate the Holocaust, I’ll debate the Holocaust’ as Justin Hanson announced his candidacy in Illinois district.”
Maybe the most important reason to field candidates even in unwinnable races is that it prevents crazies from hijacking the party.
UH-HUH: Erdogan Shifts Blame for Turkey’s Woes to Social Media. “President, who had targeted U.S., now condemns ‘terrorists’ disseminating alleged disinformation about lira’s plunge, nation’s economic downturn.”
“There are economic terrorists on social media,” Mr. Erdogan told an audience of Turkish ambassadors gathered in Ankara’s presidential palace. “They are a genuine network of treason.”
The president said spiteful social-network posts had been spread in a bid to cause panic by saying authorities were preparing to limit bank withdrawals. The government said it had no plan to introduce capital controls.
Also on Monday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said it would take legal action against owners of 346 social-media accounts identified as having been used to express views that had harmed the lira, the state-run news service, Anadolu Agency, reported.
Yesterday Iain Murray linked to a piece stating that “It is not clear that Erdogan understands basic economics.” But that’s not quite right. It is actually quite clear that Erdogan doesn’t understand basic economics.
NO ONE IS WOKE ENOUGH: Ruby Rose Quits Twitter Following Trolling Over ‘Batwoman’ Casting.
The Australian actress, who co-stars with Jason Statham in this weekend’s global box office champ “The Meg,” quit Twitter and deactivated public comments on her Instagram account over the weekend following social media backlash against her casting as “Batwoman” in The CW’s “Arrowverse,” which was announced last week.
The openly gay actor faced a range of criticism over her casting as the character, reintroduced by DC Comics in 2006 as a lesbian of Jewish descent. Some of that criticism focused on Rose not being Jewish, but the comments that appear to have caused her to leave Twitter were those suggesting she wasn’t the right actress to play a lesbian superhero.
Before deleting her Twitter account, Rose posted a series of tweets addressing the issue, which she described as “the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read.”
It’s early yet.
WHEN DO WE GET TO RULE IN A MOTIVE? ISIS, Political Motives Ruled Out as Las Vegas Shooter ‘Found Religious People to be Ridiculous.’
AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Taliban blindsides U.S. forces with surprise Afghan offensive.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said Monday a Taliban assault on the city of Ghanzi — a key provincial capital linking other areas under the Islamic militant group’s control just 75 miles southeast of Kabul — has killed roughly 100 Afghan security forces and some 20 civilians over the past three days.
While the Afghan forces, backed by U.S. and NATO advisors, claimed Monday night to have retained control of central Ghanzi, local reports indicated Taliban fighters still held pockets of the city and had simultaneously swept in and taken over most of the surrounding province’s rural areas.
Analysts said the development has underscored the Taliban’s capability for a resurgence in Afghanistan and will likely increase the group’s political leverage over peace talks with U.S. officials that the Trump administration has quietly been trying to get off the ground.
The Taliban’s “political solution” is to create for itself a position strong enough to allow them to topple the Afghan government in Kabul with maximum speed as soon we leave. Call it “the North Vietnam solution.”
I’m not sure what advantage we create for ourselves by delaying the nearly inevitable.
WELL, GOOD: Trump approves defense budget delaying delivery of F-35 warplanes to NATO ally Turkey.
Further F-35 deliveries to Turkey should be contingent on Turkey refusing delivery of any Russian S-400 (or better) antiaircraft missile systems — at least.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Strzok, Ellison, the NDAA, and Much, Much More. “Finally.”
Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz this morning.
HEADLINES FROM 1968: Democrats used to be for the middle class. Not anymore.
HEALTH: A Troubling Rise in Pregnancy-Related Heart Problems.
The rates of heart-related problems in women before and after childbirth have increased in the U.S., a problem that some experts think may be contributing to a rise in the country’s maternal mortality rate. The reasons behind the increase in heart problems aren’t yet clear, though researchers think women delaying pregnancy could be a contributing factor, in addition to traditional cardiovascular risks such as higher smoking rates and high blood pressure.
The number of women having heart attacks before, during and after deliveries increased by 25% from 2002 through 2013, according to a study published in July in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Around 4.5% of women who had heart attacks died, a high mortality rate for such a young age group, the researchers say. While deaths are still relatively rare, the increase in heart attacks is worrisome.
As Robert Heinlein wrote, a society based on “any foundation other than ‘women and children first!’ … is automatically genocidal.” So let’s get on this faster, please.
SUSAN ESTRICH: Donald Trump numbers not as bad as some believe.
What’s striking from the numbers, at least as far as I can see, is not how much support Trump has lost but how, given the daily barrage of tweets and countertweets; ugly chants and ugly corruption trials (his campaign chairman); intense criticism in the media; all-out war in Congress; and foreign policy flubs and domestic failures, much remains firm, and how tough he will be to beat.
Boorish behavior seems like a small price to pay for increased wage growth in a hot jobs market. Or as Estrich’s former (Bill) Clinton campaign compadre James Carville liked to say, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And if anyone in Washington would understand that tradeoff, it would be someone from the Clinton Administration.
What gets me is that 20 years after L’affair Lewinsky, nearly 30 years after the first “Bimbo Eruption,” and longer still since JFK’s antics became widely known, that anyone is still seriously concerned about ill-behaved presidents.
Or is it just different when Democrats do it, because shut up?
GOOD IDEA: The Air Force Wants Helicopters to Help Defend Nuclear Missiles. “The helos would carry rapid reaction security troops.”
The United States has 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert across the western United States. Sixty feet long and weighing more than 37 tons, each Minuteman III carries a 300 kiloton thermonuclear warhead and has a range of more than 8,000 miles, enough to strike any target in the Northern Hemisphere. The missiles sit in reinforced concrete and steel silos in Wyoming (Warren Air Force Base), Montana (Malmstrom Air Force Base, and North Dakota (Minot Air Force Base.) Each silo is unmanned, with up to ten silos controlled by a nearby manned Launch Control Center.
Security is generally excellent but the spread-out nature of the missile fields means they are isolated. The fact that they control nuclear weapons makes them potential targets to anyone from anti-nuclear protesters to special forces troops and saboteurs. To deal with such situations, the Air Force has special security teams trained to fly in by helicopter and secure a threatened missile site.
The Achilles Heel of the security teams are their helicopters—old, slow UH-1N Hueys. They’re the last Hueys in the Pentagon’s inventory, and the Air Force would like to replace them.
Indeed.
I remember the climax of an old Tom Clancy novel that depended in part on a US black team, inserted into China and taking out their ICBMs on the ground, by damaging the silo doors. Surely something similar has occurred to people more dangerous than a technothriller novelist.
CHUTZPAH: Fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok Starts a GoFundMe Page: ‘He Needs Your Help.’ “We are asking you to support a man who has dedicated his life to defending America.”
I’m taking a hard pass on this one.
GOOD QUESTION: Why Does It Cost So Much to Educate a Child in America?
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS THE NARRATIVE: New York Times Savages Republican Candidate By Omitting the Most Important Data.
“I like beer” used to be one of the few things a vast majority of Americans could agree on without it getting political. But as Ed likes to say, you might not be interested in the Gleichschaltung, but the Gleichschaltung is interested in you.
CHANGE: Mattis ‘in Favor of Warfighting Capability Organized Along the Lines’ of a Space Force. “Department will organize proposal ‘for efficiency and make sure it’s fit for purpose,’ then wait for Congress to act on things DoD can’t do.”
Can we please call it Starfleet?
PROCUREMENT BLUES: Army’s XM25 program officially goes kaput.
The ill-fated weapon, known as the XM25 and nicknamed “The Punisher,” was once hailed as a game-changer for ground troops who would be able to use it to target enemies hiding behind cover. But it came under closer scrutiny several years ago after schedule slippage, cost overruns and aborted operational testing in Afghanistan.
In 2016, the Pentagon inspector general recommended that the Army consider ending the program and instead invest its nearly $1 billion in funding elsewhere. The program remained in limbo since early last year, when the Army canceled its contract with main contractor Orbital ATK Inc., but an Army official overseeing the effort could not clarify its overall status.
The shoulder-fired, semi-automatic weapon was designed to fire 25 mm high-explosive grenades that burst in mid-air over enemy troops taking cover behind walls or inside bunkers or trenches where they’re difficult to hit.
It’s a shame they couldn’t make the thing work.
ROGER L. SIMON IS SKEPTICAL of Ed Morrissey’s defense of Keith Ellison.
RASMUSSEN: TSA Is On the Up-And-Up With Americans. “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) now says that reports of possible cuts to screenings at smaller airports were merely part of a budget exercise to study cost-saving options.”
I’m not buying it.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Spike Lee Is Wrong About Racism in 2018.
FROM TYLER O’NEIL — WHO WAS THE PJ MEDIA REPORTER: Antifa Protester Yells at Police, Friend Knocks PJ Media Reporter’s Phone Out of His Hand.
CLAIM: Russia’s Next Fighter Might Have a New Way to Shoot Down F-22s and F-35s.
I’ve noticed that the fighters Russia hasn’t built are always superior to the ones we have.
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