ANGRY MOB OF WHITE JOURNALISTS TRYING TO INTIMIDATE A BLACK MAN:

Pulverizing Lauer is their way of warning Lester Holt that he’d better be all over Trump at the first debate https://t.co/uwYeQXw0S2

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) September 8, 2016

LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACTCHECKERS AND WHATEVER: New York Times Gets Key Aleppo Fact Wrong in Story About Gary Johnson’s Gaffe.

To be fair, Johnson committed no gaffe — he had never heard of Aleppo, and admitted it. But Johnson’s ignorance doesn’t say much for how seriously he’s prepared himself for the White House, not that he ever had a chance of winning it.

So I suspect the media overreaction to the tiny affair is a tacit admission that Johnson is taking a lot more votes from Clinton than he is from Trump.

IF TRUE, THIS SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was once a KGB spy codenamed ‘Mole,’ report claims.

The birth of Arab nationalist terrorism, which evolved into modern Islamic terrorism, was midwifed by Leonid Brezhnev’s USSR.

IT’S A ZOMBIE, DRACULA, AND FRANKENSTEIN’S CREATURE ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE: Iran Nuclear Deal Likely to Survive Next Administration.

MAX BOOT: Another Obama Apology Tour?

I get what Obama is up to here. He thinks the U.S. can exercise more influence today by acknowledging past “misconduct” without directly criticizing the behavior of countries it deals with. The problem is that, in practice, this amounts to kow-towing to dictators from Cuba to Iran and buying into their fiction that the U.S. is guilty of conduct just as bad, if not worse, than what they have done. That simply isn’t true, and by shading the truth the president is failing to speak on behalf of the principles upon which the United States was founded–and which have long been our most powerful tool and selling point in international affairs. He is also inadvertently buttressing the dictatorships he is dealing with; now they can turn to their people and say in essence, “Our problems are America’s fault–the president of the United States even said so.”

I’m not so sure it’s inadvertent; President Pen & Phone isn’t isn’t a huge fan of representative democracy. And as Glenn noted earlier, Obama “never much liked the country he was elected to run.”

SECURITY THEATER: DHS chief has ‘a lot of confidence’ in security of US electoral infrastructure.

EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF “AND.” Are Clinton’s memory lapses a health issue, or just dishonest dodging?

“Can we just stop talking about Hillary Clinton’s health now?” The Washington Post plaintively asked in a recent headline.

But new documents from the e-mail scandal that continues to shadow her campaign cast serious doubt on her understanding of national security risks and possibly her underlying health.

According to recently released notes summarizing Clinton’s interview with the FBI, known as a 302 report, Clinton couldn’t recall something more than three dozen times. On her inability to remember security briefings upon leaving office, she blamed the concussion she suffered in 2012, which led to a blood clot in her brain.

“Clinton stated she received no instructions or direction regarding the preservation or production of records from (the) State (Department) during the transition out of her role as secretary of state in 2013. However, in December of 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot. Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received,” the report said.

Her top aid Huma Abedin felt it necessary to email that Clinton was “often confused” while serving as Secretary of State.

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT-RUN CITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF… WELL, JUST SUCH CESSPITS? Dozen disgraced California cops disciplined for shocking sex scandal involving underage prostitute.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Navy Vet Tells Hillary: I Would Be Imprisoned if I Handled Classified Material Like You Did.

NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: Or even for MSNBC.

oh my gosh Gary Johnson

Johnson: And what is Aleppo?

Mike Barnicle: You're kidding me.

Johnson: No. pic.twitter.com/zzqZbgemW1

— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) September 8, 2016

Ouch.

CIRCLING THE WAGONS: Media, Liberal Twitter Melt Down Over Clinton Email Questions.

MIND YOUR BETTERS: Clinton campaign warns media to tread carefully.

While Clinton responded to a fit of coughing this week with humor, saying she was “allergic” to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, her aides and surrogates played the role of bad cop.

Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill took to task an NBC reporter who wrote about the coughing spell, posting on Twitter that the writer should “get a life.”
The five-paragraph story, by Andrew Rafferty, was titled “Hillary Clinton fights back coughing attack” and reported that the “frog in Clinton’s throat on Monday was one of the most aggressive she’s had during her 2016 run.”

Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Obama, asked via Twitter if “anyone on NBC, or anywhere else,” was willing to defend the piece.

The pushback signaled that Clinton’s campaign intends to sharply counterattack news organizations that take questions about her health seriously.

C’mon, media — you going to take this lying down?

AN ARMY OF ONE: Obama Admin Wants to Cut Army’s Force Size by 25,000 by 2018.

While the Obama administration’s Defense Department is seeking to cut the force by 25,000 over current levels, the House is proposing to grow the Army by 5,000. The Senate is proposing to cut levels by 15,000.

The disparate plans highlight a lack of cohesion in the U.S. government about how strong the Army should be as America stretches its fighting forces across the globe to counter Islamic terrorism and a range of other threats.

“The debate about the size of the Army may well continue into the next Congress, as the Department of Defense plans further reductions in the size of the Army, proposing FY2018 end strength of 450,000,” the report states. “There will be also be a new president in January, and his or her policy priorities may revise the contours of this debate.”

It might be easier to decide what size force we need if we had an overarching grand strategy instead of a disjointed series of ad hoc engagements and disengagements.

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED TO FIND THAT CENSORSHIP IS GOING ON IN THIS COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP: Cuba has been filtering texts containing political dissent.

21ST CENTURY CRIME: Florida Woman mistakenly sets wrong car on fire.

There’s a correct car to set on fire?

DIVERSITY UPDATE: Professors Tell Students: Disagree With Climate Change? Shut Up, Get Out.

SHOCK THE SURVEYMONKEY: Over at VodkaPundit, it’s time again for Wargaming the Electoral College using brand new numbers from that huge WaPo/SM poll of more than 74,000 voters across the nation.

Spoiler: Trump’s Mexico trip was yuge.

NO ONE GOES THERE ANYMORE; IT’S TOO POPULAR: Why Lego wanted people to stop buying its toys.

Business has been so brisk at the world’s most profitable toymaker that Lego last year did something unusual: It began looking for ways to discourage customers from buying its products.

The Danish company scaled back its advertising efforts amid a 25 percent rise in annual sales, according to Reuters. It simply couldn’t make enough toys to satiate demand in North America, and needed a break while it boosted capacity at its factories and increased its workforce by nearly 25 percent.

“We feel we need to invest, to build some breathing space,” John Goodwin, Lego’s chief financial officer, told Reuters.

Judging by the mess on my kids’ playroom floor, it didn’t work.

CHANGE: Donald Trump Wants Plan Within 30 Days to Defeat ISIS if Elected.

It’s been about 32 months since President Obama dismissed ISIS as the “jayvee.” 32 months after Pearl Harbor, most of Italy was in Allied hands, the breakout from Normandy was about to begin, Saipan had been secured by US Marines, and the Japanese Navy had been decisively defeated in the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”

HEALTH: As FT4 Levels Rise, so Does Sudden Cardiac Death.

“Our study findings suggest that persons with higher thyroid hormone levels, even within what we consider the normal range of thyroid function, have a four-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death compared to persons with lower thyroid hormone levels,” said Chaker in an interview with MedPage Today.

“Our hypothesis was that thyroid hormone levels could increase the risk of sudden cardiac death by changing levels of cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure. We were surprised to see that when we control our analyses for these cardiovascular risk factors, the association remained similar, suggesting that other pathways could play a role.”

As someone who’s twice endured a hyperactive thyroid gland, I can tell you it’s nothing you want to leave untreated.

HEADLINES FROM 2001: Army to Deploy 101st Airborne Soldiers to Afghanistan.

COUGH, COUGH: Julian Assange: ‘We Have Released Thousands of Emails Where Clinton Herself Has Used a ‘C’ in Brackets’

PRESIDENT ASH CARTER: Russia has a ‘clear ambition’ to degrade world order with military, cyber campaigns.

TED GALEN CARPENTER: New Support for a European Union Army

While the American news media were preoccupied with Donald Trump’s latest tweet or Hillary’s Clinton’s latest explanation for a scandal that barely passed the straight face test, a more important development took place in Europe that received scant attention. The prime ministers of both Hungary and the Czech Republic urged the European Union to build its own army. That is a very significant shift in attitude. Until now, the European countries had been content to channel security matters through NATO and to focus the EU’s attention on economic issues.

The insistence on NATO’s primacy also reflected Washington’s wishes, since it guaranteed U.S. control of transatlantic security decisions. That control came at a high cost, however, since it enabled the European allies to free ride on Washington’s security exertions.

Given Europe’s 20th Century history, American “control of transatlantic security decisions” ought to be seen as a feature, not a bug.

And say what you will about the expense, but keeping the peace is cheaper than fighting a war.

IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T MADE LUNCH PLANS YET:

Happy #NationalBeerLoversDay! pic.twitter.com/0gQIDyNBiH

— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 7, 2016