Author Archive: Stephen Green
September 29, 2016
STATE OF DESPAIR: In Australia’s most progressive state they’re currently burning live cats to stay warm and eating newspaper. It’s the Adelapocalypse!
That’s Tim Blair, so of course you’ll want to read the whole thing.
WE’RE NOT A SERIOUS NATION: Washington Mall Terrorist Cetin Wasn’t U.S. Citizen, Still Voted Three Times.
LANGUAGE POLICE: Comey on Clinton email probe: ‘Don’t call us weasels’
“You can call us wrong, but don’t call us weasels. We are not weasels,” Comey declared Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. “We are honest people and … whether or not you agree with the result, this was done the way you want it to be done.”
The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional and emphatic as he rejected claims from Republican lawmakers that the FBI was essentially in the tank for Clinton when it recommended that neither she nor any of her aides be prosecuted in connection with the presence of classified information on Clinton’s private email server. He acknowledged he has “no patience” for such allegations.
Finally he’s tough on something.
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Police Refuse to Work HS Football Game after Players Take the Knee During National Anthem.
SYRIA CEASEFIRE UPDATE: Turkey to Clear ‘Corridor of Terror’ at Border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is determined to eliminate the “corridor of terror” along its border with Syria by clearing the Islamic State group and Syrian Kurdish fighters from the area.
Addressing a group of local administrators on Thursday, Erdogan reiterated that a secure no-fly zone which Turkey would like established in Syria would help end the flow of refugees to Turkey and beyond.
Turkey last month sent troops and tanks into Syria to help Syrian opposition rebels re-take IS strongholds near the Turkish border and curb the advance of Syrian Kurdish militia, which are affiliated with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish rebels.
Erdogan sees no practical difference between ISIS and the Kurds.
EIGHT YEARS LATE: Obama had a tense exchange with CNN’s Jake Tapper over why he won’t say ‘radical Islamic terrorism’
During a CNN town-hall event focusing on the US military, Gold Star mother Tina Houchins asked Obama why he won’t use the term.
Some critics, including Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have argued that Obama’s insistence on not using the term to refer to terror attacks committed in the name of groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda shows that he isn’t well-equipped to fight terrorism.
“The truth of the matter is that this is an issue that has been sort of manufactured, because there is no doubt, and I’ve said repeatedly that where we see terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse, for basically barbarism and death,” Obama said.
“These are people who kill children, kill Muslims, take sex slaves — there’s no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do,” he added.
Obama later seemed to allude to Trump as he continued to answer Houchins’ question.
Trump makes a convenient distraction.
Then this, from a different writeup of the same interview:
Obama believes that “the work that this military has done, and the work that our law enforcement has done, has made us significantly safer today than we were when 9/11 happened.”
We don’t seem to be much safer from “workplace violence” or “assault weapons” crimes committed by people whose faith POTUS isn’t honest about.
POLICE: Man killed by officer pointed vaping device, not gun.
Alfred Okwera Olango, 38, pulled a vape smoking device from his pocket and pointed it at police before one officer fatally shot him and another discharged a Taser, El Cajon Police said.
His death set off demonstrations in the San Diego suburb as activists demanded that authorities release video of the shooting. They also want a federal probe into Olango’s death.
Some protesters threw water bottles at police while others gathered in the street and parking lot where the shooting happened. Many held signs saying “black lives matter” as police wearing helmets with shields looked on.
Police have released little information except for a still photograph showing Olango in what authorities described as a “shooting stance,” facing off with the two officers in a parking lot.
By Wednesday evening, police identified the object as a the vaping device.
Good lord.
September 28, 2016
UH-OH: Trouble Brewing in the Craft Beer Industry.
Creature Comforts Brewing Co. is growing so fast that its supply chain can’t keep up.
The brewer has had so much trouble finding enough of a special type of hops called citra—the plant that gives its popular Tropicália ale its bitter flavor and fruity aroma—that it has been forced to reject orders for about 8,000 barrels of beer during the past year. That is more than $2 million in revenue and enough beer to nearly double production.
The Athens, Ga.-based brewer isn’t alone. A host of smaller, regional brewers including Wicked Weed Brewing of Asheville, N.C., and MadTree Brewing of Cincinnati have run into similar constraints.
This trend of over-hopping everything will fade, and then the shortage will correct itself.
I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS: Australian Man’s Penis Targeted by Venomous Spider for Second Time.
I ALLOW MY SONS TO SHOOT REAL GUNS: Do You Allow Your Son to Play With Toy Guns?
My six-year-old is small enough that he needs help even with a tiny .22 revolver, but my ten-year-old is handy with everything from that to an AR-15.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER WEEK: This Week in Clinton Corruption for September 28, 2016
IT’S PROBABLY NOTHING: Core Durable Goods Orders Contract For 20th Straight Month – Longest Non-Recessionary Streak In US History.
I’d quibble with the use of “non-recessionary.”
TROUBLE IN CLINTONLAND?
LATimes tracking shows nudge toward Trump. Only one day post-debate, but *if *others are similar she is in deep trouble.
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) September 28, 2016
Stay tuned…
THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Tenn. lawmakers, residents search for solutions after Blue Cross Blue Shield pulls out of ACA.
Some state lawmakers are working right now to try to figure out what should be done to help the more than 100,000 Tennesseans who will need to find new health insurance by January 1.
Chris Kane is one of nearly 30,000 people in the Knoxville region losing Blue Cross Blue Shield health care coverage. Kane and his family were insured under the exchange.
“We are pretty much left with Humana or we can pay full price with one of the carriers we want to go with, which isn’t in our budget,” said Chris Kane.
After three years in the Affordable Care Act exchange, Blue Cross is experiencing too many losses to continue to provide marketplace plans.
Tennessee’s ObamaCare exchange had been touted by Democrats as an example of a successful implementation of the law, and I suppose they’re right.
As an astrophysicist, Tyson is an excellent TV host.
NOW HERE’S A POLL I WON’T QUESTION: Self-driving cars will have to pry the steering wheel from our cold, dead hands, poll says.
Americans like the idea of self-driving cars, but are less willing to cede control of the steering wheel to a computer program, according to a new poll released today. An overwhelming majority, 80 percent, said humans should always have the option to drive themselves, while 64 percent expressed a need to be in control of their own vehicle.
Moreover, people are essentially torn between the promise of safety and the need for control: 49 percent said they prefer a safer roadway even if it means they would have less control over their vehicle, while 51 percent said wanted to stay in the driver seat, safer streets be damned.
Self-driving cars are inevitable, but it’s difficult to stomach the idea of getting into a car without a steering wheel.
SNIFF: Howard Dean under fire for alleging Trump cocaine use at debate.
But — yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgh! — here’s video of Dean pressing on with the charge.
SYRIAN CEASEFIRE UPDATE: Two Hospitals Hit as Syria Continues Offensive to Retake City.
Medical officials said strikes hit two hospitals — codenamed M2 and M10 — before dawn on Wednesday.
The head of M10 said generators and water-storage facilities were damaged while the ICU also sustained major damage.
“The destruction is everywhere,” Dr. Mohammad Abu Rajab told NBC News. “A wave of dust washed over the patients as they laid in their hospital beds.”
He said the hospital has been taken out of service “completely and indefinitely,” calling it a “sad day” for medical professionals.
“We cannot provide essential medical services to our patients who need it,” Rajab lamented.
That’s almost certainly a feature, not a bug, in the brutal Russo-Syrian effort to retake Aleppo.
THIS MUST BE A METAPHOR FOR SOMETHING: Elevator trouble closes Washington Monument indefinitely.
DUTCH PROBE: Missile brought from Russia downed Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine.
The SA-11 missile that struck the Malaysia Airlines plane was smuggled into Ukraine from Russia in July 2014, the investigators said at a news conference, and then returned to Russia. More than 100 suspects have also been identified, the investigation concluded, although their names were not made public on Wednesday.
“It may be concluded that Flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a 9M38 series missile launched from a BUK trailer. This BUK trailer was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and after launch was subsequently returned to Russian Federation territory. This conclusion is based largely on forensic investigation,” an investigator said.
The MH17 shootdown generated enough of an outcry to bring Putin’s offensive into eastern and southern Ukraine to a halt. But after two years without much followup from the West, Putin appears to be preparing for a renewed attack.
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Navy launches investigation into sailor who didn’t stand for National Anthem.
WORRIED: Democrats target Libertarian ticket.
The Libertarian ticket of Johnson and Bill Weld is running surprisingly strong among young voters — a cog in the Obama coalition that Democrats need to turn out for Clinton if she’s to pull away from Trump.
Whether Clinton reaches those voters could determine the outcome of critical battleground states like Colorado, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Democrats still vividly remember the 2000 election and blame Ralph Nader for costing Al Gore the presidency in the closest election in history. They’re worried history could repeat itself in 2016, as third-party candidates are attracting more interest than they have in decades.
The Clinton campaign and its liberal allies are increasingly taking the threat from Johnson and Stein seriously, making direct appeals to young voters and punching down at the third-party candidates they view as potential spoilers.
“Young voters are suggesting that they’re uncomfortable with Clinton and are using Johnson and Stein as protest votes,” said Douglas Schoen, a former official in the Bill Clinton administration. “The campaign must make the case that unless young people vote for Clinton, they’re effectively voting for Trump.”
I’m not sure how much difference young voters see between the two near-septuagenarian major party candidates.
But mostly Democrats should be asking themselves why the Libertarian Party’s least-likely nominee ever is doing so well with a traditional Democratic constituency.
FASTER… WHOA! Elon Musk unveils radical ‘megashuttle’ that will take man to Mars in 80 days to set up a million person city.
‘What I want to achieve is make Mars seem possible, to show that we can do it in our lifetimes, and you could go,’ he said at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico.
However, he warned the trip was likely to be dangerous – and said candidates for the first missions ‘must be prepared to die’.
…
Musk outlined plans for a fleet of large ‘megashuttles’ that would take 100 people at a time to Mars for $200,000 a trip, after warning ‘eventually history suggest there will be some extinction event on Earth’.
They’ll all be strangers in a strange land — and how will humans change, physically, on a planet with a surface gravity just one-third of the Earth’s?