KATE’S LAW: House to Reconsider Law Named for San Fran Woman Murdered by Illegal.
It’s a safe bet that Senate Democrats will filibuster Kate’s Law to death. Again.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
January 9, 2017
FRENEMIES: Airstrikes by Russia Buttress Turkey in Battle vs. ISIS.
The air missions, which took place for about a week near the strategically important town of Al Bab, represent the Kremlin’s first use of its military might to help the Turks in their fight against the militant group. The Russians seized an opening to try to build a military relationship with Turkey, a NATO member, as the United States has sought to keep the emphasis on taking Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-declared capital.
The Russian bombing is a remarkable turnabout from November 2015, when a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Su-24 attack plane that had violated Turkey’s airspace.
Russia and Turkey had already been involved in a joint effort to establish a cease-fire in Syria — one that does not involve the United States. At the same time, ties between the United States and Turkey have come under growing strain as the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has become increasingly alarmed about the Kurdish forces known as the Y.P.G. The United States has aligned itself with those forces to combat the Islamic State in Syria.
The question remains whether Turkey will lean east or west after “the reunification of Syria.”
VIOLA DAVIS AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES: “There is no way that we can have someone in office who is not an extension of our belief system.”
You get used to it.
THIS DEAL KEEPS GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME: U.N. chief concerned Iran may have violated arms embargo.
The United Nations chief expressed concern to the Security Council that Iran may have violated an arms embargo by supplying weapons and missiles to Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, according to a confidential report, seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The second bi-annual report, due to be discussed by the 15-member council on Jan. 18, also cites an accusation by France that an arms shipment seized in the northern Indian Ocean in March was from Iran and likely bound for Somalia or Yemen.
Most U.N. sanctions were lifted a year ago under a deal Iran made with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, the United States and the European Union to curb its nuclear program. But Iran is still subject to an arms embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the nuclear agreement.
It’s easier to attempt and to get away with this kind of thing once you’re suddenly flush with cash.
EGADS! Republicans Would Repeal Obamacare In Precisely The Way They Accuse Democrats Of Enacting It.
The story that Obamacare opponents tell about its enactment is that backers conceived the health insurance proposal in secret, misled the public about its provisions, and passed it without thinking through the consequences.
That’s a totally accurate account ― of what Republicans are planning to do right now.
How dare they play by the Democrats’ rulebook.
RETAIL BLUES: The Limited Is Closing All 250 of Its Stores.
The retailer isn’t even making it online; last month it was reported that the company is likely headed for liquidation.
PURGE ON: Turkey may hold referendum on new constitution in early April.
Turkey may hold a referendum in the first week of April on a new constitution which would create an executive presidential system, handing incumbent President Tayyip Erdogan greater powers, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Monday.
Parliament’s general assembly is due to start debating the proposed constitutional changes later on Monday and work on the package is expected to be completed in 18-20 days, Canikli said in an interview with A Haber television.
The reform package is expected to be approved by parliament, in which the ruling AK Party has a strong majority, and would then go to a referendum.
The last remnants of Ataturk’s Republic will be swept away forever.
January 6, 2017
BAT-TASTIC! Tequila saves endangered species.
You want to help save an engendered species, don’t you?
BECAUSE SENDING THEM OUTSIDE WOULD BE WRONG: Fisher Price Releases Exercise Bike for Screen-Addicted Toddlers.
RETAIL BLUES: J.C. Penney holiday sales drop 0.8 percent.
Penney’s faces two headwinds: Online shopping giants like Amazon, and trying to woe back the core customers they lost during former CEO Ron Johnson’s short-lived and ill-fated attempt to turn the discount retailer into an Apple Store clone.
APOCALYPSE WHEN? Zombies Would Wipe Out Humans in Less than 100 Days.
In the new analysis, the University of Leicester undergraduates assumed that each zombie would have 90 percent success at finding and infecting one human a day, a rate that would make the zombie virus twice as contagious as the Black Death, the plague that devastated Europe in the 1300s.
The researchers further estimated that each zombie could live 20 days without braaaaaains.
Assuming a starting population of 7.5 billion people, approximately the world’s population today, the students calculated that it would take 20 days for a single zombie to start an epidemic of noticeable proportions. At that point, the pandemic has begun. Assuming no geographic isolation, in fact, the human population would drop to 181 by day 100, with 190 million zombies roaming around.
With some geographical isolation, the situation would be a tiny bit better for humans. Assuming the zombie virus had to spread through contiguous regions and that zombies were somewhat limited in their ability to travel (not leaving their current region until there were 100,000 zombies roaming there), human survivors would number 273 by day 100.
But wait. The paper also says, “We have also not included the possibility for the humans to kill the zombies.”
Maybe our disarmed British friends would be wiped out in weeks, but you’d have to give Americans much better odds.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: 5 Slasher Movies That Are Actually Good.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is new to me and I look forward to watching it. And I’d have replaced Scream with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, for being the first slasher flick to successfully combine gore, laughs, and high (for the genre) production value.
EDUCATION: Kids Will Soon Be Able to Write Code With Lego.
The Danish-based toy maker on Wednesday debuted a new toy called Lego Boost, a hybrid building and coding set that the company says combines the play experience of a traditional Lego set with an app-based coding play experience. Lego Boost, developed for children aged 7 or older, will hit retail shelves in the second half of the year and will be priced at $159.99. Lego debuted the set at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The hope is that Lego Boost can help kids learn to code using a downloadable app and the physical toy set.
This might be the most exciting thing to come out of CES so far this year — and I don’t mean for my boys.
PAUL MARSHALL: Brexit Is Like Repealing the Corn Laws All Over Again.
In 1846, the Repeal of the Corn Laws opened up a new era of unparalleled prosperity for this country based on the expansion of trade. Hopefully, Brexit will do the same as we gain access to the developing world for our service industries in return for opening up our agricultural markets.
Yet the Liberal “Democrats” have set their face firmly, not only against the democratic will of the people but also against our re-opening to the world. Vince Cable, for one, must feel conflicted. In his contribution to the Orange Book (which I edited with David Laws in 2004), he described the Common Agricultural Policy as “an economic, environmental and moral disgrace”.
Not much has been done to reform it since then so presumably his views haven’t changed.
The only disgrace today is that the Liberal Democrats have so lost touch with their roots that they have subordinated all policy making to their infatuation with an undemocratic regional customs union.
Read the whole thing. And while you’re at it, James C. Bennett’s A Time For Audacity: How Brexit Has Created The CANZUK Option makes a lovely companion piece.
PROLIFERATION? Israeli Satellite Imagery Shows Russian Nuclear-Capable Missiles in Syria.
The Iskander is nuclear-capable, but that doesn’t mean these particular models are nuclear-armed. More likely these are tipped with cluster munitions or fuel-air explosives — although hypersonic speed and a 300-mile range seem like overkill for the Syrian Civil War.
MASCULINITY: Deployed wounded warrior completes back-to-back tours.
“Being here, you get treated like a normal person, not like an amputee. Not like an injured guy,” said Tech. Sgt. Jason Caswell, as he added more 45-pound plates to his barbell.
In the crowded 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron “prison gym” at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Caswell is outlifting most. He should be – he showed many of them the ropes.
After a sports injury in 2010, Caswell underwent a year of surgeries, two years of painful limb-recovery therapy, followed by physical therapy. In October 2014, his limb still hadn’t healed and began to worsen. Caswell elected to amputate his injured leg.
It has since been replaced with a prosthetic, which has allowed him the mobility he needs to get back to work and stay fit.
Tech. Sgt. Micah Cox, an expeditor also with the 455th EAMXS, calls to him across the gym, “Show her how you strengthen your carbon fiber!”
Caswell responds with his always-ready laugh.
I’m surprised today’s Air Force allows Caswell to flaunt his male privilege like that.
THAT MEANS “THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT” IS WORKING.
TARGETED? OSU Student Advocate for CCW Shot Dead.
An Ohio State University student and advocate for campus conceal and carry was found shot to death on Thursday morning. Tarak Andrew Underiner was found dead from gunshot wounds at a residence near campus on Northwood Avenue. Police were called shortly after midnight and pronounced Underiner dead on the scene.
“Investigators do not believe this incident was random in nature nor has any connection to the University,” the report states.
Good lord.
UPDATE, from the comments: Police take guns, drugs, cash from home of University District shooting victim.
It looks like Underiner may have been a target for something other than his CCW stance.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The delusional Democrats of 2017.
The election of Donald Trump has brought unified Republican government to Washington and overturned our understanding of how politics works. Or at least it should have done so. The Democrats seem not to understand how to deal with Trump and the massive change he is about to bring to the nation’s capital. During the general election they fell for the idea that Trump can be defeated by conventional means, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in negative television advertising and relying on political consultants beholden to whatever line Politico was selling on a given day. This strategy failed Trump’s Republican primary opponents, but Democrats figured that was simply because the GOP was filled with deplorables. It was a rationalization that would cost them.
Republicans control the House, the Senate, 34 governor’s mansions, and 4,100 seats in state legislatures. But Democrats act like they run Washington.
To be fair, Democrats do still run the media which reports on Washington, which, and for good reason, they’ve long treated as no different from running Washington itself.
What they still fail to understand, even after November 8, is the power of a Republican who has figured out how to end-run the media.