Author Archive: Stephen Green
December 7, 2016
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Mainstream media is the chief culprit behind ‘fake news’
Ashe Schow:
There are several additional, high profile examples of the media promoting the spread of fake news, though these examples thankfully have not resulted in physical harm. (Emotional harm is debatable.)
The first: Andrea Mitchell’s claim Juanita Broaddrick’s accusations against Bill Clinton were discredited.
Mitchell said in a May segment for MSNBC that Broaddrick’s claim against Clinton had been “discredited and long-denied.” NBC News later edited out the “discredited” line because Broaddrick’s accusation has never been discredited. But saying as much certainly helps a narrative that continued to keep Bill popular with Democrats (and Mitchell was referencing Broaddrick in an effort to smear Trump during the election).
The second: Trump’s “grab them by the p—y’” comment.
Make no mistake, these words were really said by our president-elect, and they are disgusting. But the media began to claim that Trump was admitting to sexual assault when he uttered those words. The full context revealed Trump saying that when someone is as rich and famous as he is, women would let him do whatever he wanted. After these decade-old remarks were revealed, women began coming out of the woodwork to claim they never consented to Trump’s advances. Now that the election is over, we aren’t hearing much from these women.
The third: Trump “fact checks” conducted by media outlets.
Read the whole thing.
PASS THE POPCORN: Lame Duck Obama Seeing Power of Presidency Slip Away.
PROCUREMENT: Boeing Said to Offer Talks on Air Force One After Trump Tweets.
The Pentagon already is budgeting $3.2 billion for research and development, military construction and acquisition of two of the Air Force One planes through fiscal 2021, said Kevin Brancato, the lead government contracts analyst for Bloomberg Government. More money is anticipated in the two years after that. Boeing 747-8 planes average about $225 million each, he said, which means most of the expenses will go to outfitting the planes for presidential use.
The Air Force and Boeing are still conducting work to reduce the program’s technical risks before the company is awarded an advanced development contract, Captain Michael Hertzog, a spokesman for the service branch, said in an e-mail. Budgeted spending can be expected “to change as the program matures with the completion of the risk reduction activities,” he said.
“This is what an Air Force One costs,” Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, said of Trump’s tweet. “There have been no cost overruns. The ability to fly the president during a war is fundamentally expensive.”
The Boeing executives who contacted Trump officials suggested that the price of the new planes could be reduced if the Air Force and Secret Service revise their specifications for the aircraft, the people familiar with the discussions said.
The US military already flies four “doomsday planes,” capable of staying airborne while commanding any conflict up to and including a full-scale nuclear war. Militarized 747s with “what is likely the most complete and sophisticated spectrum of communications equipment ever flown,” all four E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Posts together cost a little less than one billion in 1998 dollars.
But today we can’t build a pair Air Force one jets for less than $3.2 billion?
Something doesn’t seem right.
PARTY OF SNOWFLAKES: Trump traumatizes Democrats.
The left is comfortable with the status quo, but nothing about Trump suggests that he will be content with going along to get along. Trump’s measures suggest that he is willing to be aggressive, think creatively and take some risks. The United States needs all of these traits to make up for the lethargic demeanor of the Obama years and the lawyerly approach that resulted in inaction more than it produced fresh initiatives.
The past month has given us some insight into how Trump will operate as president. His campaign and some of his personnel selections so far have been associated with clusters of tweets and some drama, but it’s clear that Trump and his team will be able to get some things done. You can argue about whether he is right or wrong on this or that issue, but there is no doubt that Trump is going to be bold.
Boldness and safe spaces don’t mix.
I’M NOT SAYING IT’S MICROWAVES… BUT IT’S MICROWAVES: Move over, fracking. There’s a new technology in town.
As strange as it sounds, producers are experimenting with ways to zap previously unextractable oil resources with microwaves, which has the potential to kick-start an even bigger energy revolution than fracking — and appease environmentalists while they’re at it. This is potentially “a whole shift in the paradigm,” says Peter Kearl, co-founder and CTO of Qmast, a Colorado-based company pioneering the use of the microwave tech. Some marquee names are betting on the play: Oil giants BP and ConocoPhillips are pouring resources into developing similar extraction techniques, which can be far less water- and energy-intensive than fracking.
If producers can find a way to microwave oil shales in the Green River Formation, which sprawls across Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, the nation’s recoverable reserves could soar and energy independence could become more than an election slogan. Even with existing methods — strip-mining the shale and then cooking it, or injecting steam to cook the rock underground (hydraulic fracturing is useless here) — the formation contains enough oil to last the U.S. 165 years at current rates of consumption. Microwave extraction could goose those numbers even higher.
Peak oil would seem to still be some ways off.
HUFFPO EDITOR: The FBI Is Investigating Me Because I Tweeted A Joke About Fake News.
Journalists benefit from special protections because the Justice Department doesn’t want to embarrass itself by picking a fight with people who buy server space by the terabyte. Non-journalists in my position have fewer ways to fight back — and lots of reasons to worry. They don’t have easy access to millions of readers. Many companies are more likely to fire an employee for causing trouble than to provide legal counsel. Many people feel compelled to talk to the bureau even though saying the wrong thing can lead to a felony charge for lying to the FBI.
The FBI has limited resources and must choose its targets carefully. As fake-news websites grow in influence, and people on the president-elect’s transition team spread ludicrous and dangerous claims — like the idea that a pizza place in Washington, D.C., is the site of a Clinton child-sex dungeon — it’s crucially important that the agency charged with investigating terrorism be able to tell the difference between what is a joke and what’s not. An agency that is using people’s tweets — and retweets — as evidence in terror trials should probably understand how Twitter works. The bureau needs a bullshit meter.
This episode has not inspired confidence.
Enjoy Obama’s weaponized FBI before Trump gets hold of it.
THE SIEGE OF ALEPPO: Syria rebels ‘withdraw from old city’
Activist monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pull-back in Syria’s second city came after days of heavy fighting.
State media confirmed the military had taken over the whole of the old city.
Government forces now control about 75% of eastern Aleppo, held by the rebels for the past four years.
The rebels, who had been left with just a spit of land north-east of the citadel after recent government advances, abandoned it by Wednesday morning, retreating to territory they still hold further south.
…
The SOHR said remaining rebel-held areas in the south-east of the city came under heavy artillery fire overnight.
The only thing as ugly as the Syrian Civil War will be the reprisals once it’s over.
BREAKING: Missing Pakistan International Airlines plane with 40-45 people on board has crashed in northern region – regional police official
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 7, 2016
And that’s all we know at this early hour.
BUT OF COURSE: Clinton to throw thank-you party for millionaire donors.
The party at the Plaza Hotel’s Grand Ballroom on Dec. 15 is expected to feature fashion icon Anna Wintour, investor Alan Patricof, hedge fund manager Marc Lasry and more, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.
“Hopefully there’s no balconies so nobody can jump,” an insider told Page Six.
Clinton raised far more money than President-elect Donald Trump — as much as $1.3 billion, according to the The Washington Post, compared to Trump’s $795 million. But despite her edge in fundraising and in the popular vote, Trump won last month’s election via the Electoral College.
As though winning “via the Electoral College” was some sneaky new thing Clinton was unaware of?
MY SECRET POLICE FRIEND CAYLA: These talking toys can tell a defense contractor everything your kid says.
The problem with these toys, the complaint alleges, is that their terms of service allow them to record everything they hear and then send that information back to Nuance Communications, a voice recognition software company that supplies the underlying technology behind the toys, but that also does work as a defense contractor.
In particular, the groups are crying foul over the fact both toys are covered by Nuance’s general privacy policy, which states that they “may use the information that we collect for our internal purposes to develop, tune, enhance, and improve our products and services, and for advertising and marketing.”
On the plus side, Nuance Communications is probably less likely to consider you to be a terrorist than Obama’s Homeland Security Department might.
December 6, 2016
HEALTH: A Mimosa a Day Might Save Your Life Because Guess What: Scurvy Is Back.
For what it’s worth, there hasn’t been a single case of scurvy reported at the Green family residence since we instituted Margarita Fridays back in 2011.
RED LINE: Syrian rebels in talks with U.S. about surrender in Aleppo, evacuation.
The lesson our Nobel Peace Prize-winning President taught the world is that using chemical weapons pays.
HEH.
Ben Carson, where white guilt ends. https://t.co/1O3HcFr6E0 pic.twitter.com/7Tc22icbHR
— Lou Perez (@LOUontheSUBWAY) December 6, 2016
ASKING THE QUESTIONS NOBODY CARES ABOUT: Is craft beer still too white?
I GUESS ‘MAYBE JUST A CIGARETTE MORE’ IS OUT, TOO: SJWs Rewrite ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ to Emphasize Consent.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” isn’t a song about date rape. It’s a cleverly told musical version of the age-old dance of seduction, where both dancers know exactly what they’re doing, every step of the way to an almost predetermined ending. “Hook-up culture” doesn’t teach those dance steps, which leads to lots of confusion and the occasional tragedy — such as ruining a charming and timeless cold-weather favorite.
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
Well, that’s encouraging — but what about his carbon footprint?
VOX POPULI, VOX DEI. Brexit Architect: ‘Crybabies’ Protesting Referendum Outcome Won’t Block EU Departure.
Daniel Hannan, an architect of the campaign to divorce the United Kingdom from the European Union, rejected claims on Monday that the U.K. Supreme Court could block Brexit.
Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament who represents South East England, called the pending court case and other efforts to stall Brexit negotiations nothing more than “bumps on the road” prompted by “crybabies” who “don’t accept the verdict of the people as final.”
“The question isn’t whether Brexit will happen. That was determined in June. It isn’t even when it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen in the beginning of 2019. The question is how do we make it a cordial process that brings benefits to all sides,” Hannan said during an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. “We want the European Union to prosper. Wealthy neighbors make good customers—we don’t want to leave in a way that’s going to trigger another bout of the Euro crisis.”
Crisis seems to be baked into the EU.
THE INTERNET OF THINGS: BMW Remotely Locks Stolen Car With Alleged Thief Still Inside.
Authorities say the suspect was prowling cars early last Sunday when he found an unlocked BMW 550i with the key inside and sped away. The owner—who had gotten married the day before and loaned her car to a friend—realized the car was missing at around 5 a.m. and reported it stolen to police.
After contacting BMW corporate, officers were given the current location of the vehicle by an employee. Police say they found the car idling in an alley with the suspect asleep inside. From the SPD Blotter:
BMW employees were able to remotely lock the car’s doors, trapping the suspect inside, presumably while hissing something terrifying like “I’m not locked in here with you, you‘re locked in here with me” into the car’s sound system.
Officers roused the suspect, who quickly, but unsuccessfully, tried to drive away.
Police say they then booked the suspect for auto theft and drug possession.
Catching thieves is all well and good, but for now I’m going to stick with driving older cars.
THE MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY — FINALLY: Obama makes a push for transparency before handing over executive power to Trump.
President Obama is making a push for transparency in his last days in office before handing off the vast counter-terrorism apparatus he has built to President-elect Donald Trump, starting with a major address Tuesday defending his record on national security.
Obama’s speech, at the U.S. military’s Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., will also explain the legal and policy underpinnings that his administration has established over eight years in deciding whether and how to detain, interrogate or kill suspected terrorists. The White House released some details on its legal rationale ahead of the speech.
The efforts at transparency were striking for an administration criticized for being secretive by news and watchdog organizations; Obama has used the Espionage Act more times than all other U.S. presidents combined to investigate leaks of government information. The bid for openness also served to make public additional facts that can be used to hold the Trump administration accountable, though the White House downplayed any message to the president-elect.
“It’s his final message to the nation on what he’s done and how he views these issues,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security advisor, told reporters before the president’s speech. “It’s something he would’ve done no matter who won the election.”
It’s something Obama could have done any time after his own election.
MAD DUCK: Obama actions on public lands may be difficult for Trump to undo.
President Barack Obama could cement his environmental legacy by taking executive action to designate nearly 4 million acres of Western land as national monuments before leaving office next month.
And it may be one legacy of the Obama administration that incoming President Donald Trump will have a hard time unraveling after he takes office.
But whether Obama goes that route is still up in the air. Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake said Monday that “credible sources” within the agencies considering the designation found “significant unresolved issues that prevent their recommending the designation of a new national monument” around the Grand Canyon.
At issue is a call by environmentalists for Obama to use the authority granted by the Antiquities Act to protect areas around the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Bears Ears site in Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada.
If we want to get serious about reducing debt and funding our trillions in unfunded entitlements, selling off western lands (Washington owns nearly 60% of the U.S. from the Front Range to Alaska) would be a good place for a gutsy administration to start.