There’s always something to gain if you do the Left’s bidding at a key moment. She’s also fielding book offers. Plus: Her lawyers said they were representing her on a pro-bono basis. Why does she need all of this money?
If You Ignore the News, America Actually Seems Pretty Nice
This article is mostly good. I believe the 24/7 media drives much of the rancor in society as a result of the need for ratings combined with institutional bias. Move away from the news and people are normal.
Justin Fox:
Drive from coast to coast and everybody seems to be getting along fine — as long as you don’t listen to talk radio in the car or turn on cable TV news at the hotel.
“…Now that I’m back in New York and my media diet is back to more or less normal, the sense of calm, remove and, yes, optimism that pervaded my long days of driving has begun to dissipate. Maybe this just means I’m returning to the real world after an escapist journey. But I also wonder if it’s an indication that my normal media diet — even though it’s mostly free of such known toxins as Facebook and cable TV news, and heavy on old books — is driving me a little nuts.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a column puzzling over the rise in political polarization in the U.S. despite the absence of “a single great ideological divide” like slavery in the 19th century, and asked readers what they thought was driving it. The majority of the responses fingered the media in some form or another. That seems about right…”
Headline of the Day
From the nitwit capital of the world
SF spends $300,000 to register noncitizen voters; 49 sign up…
The young black Americans backing Trump
This is the democrats worst nightmare
“…Young black conservatives wore Make America Great Again caps and chanted the president’s name at the White House.
Mr Trump won just 8% of the African American vote in the 2016 presidential election and critics accuse him of stoking racial tensions.
But he told the activists that the black community was more interested in the economy than race…”
Merced Reflection
God Bless the People of Tree of Life Synagogue
God bless the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. I wish them all the best. What a tragedy.
US Troops Deploy ‘Overwhelming Force’ Against Iceland’s Beer Supplies
“…U.S. troops landed in Iceland last week ahead of the start the largest NATO military exercise since the Cold War, and apparently, they left their mark in the most appropriate way possible: by drinking every last beer in the nation’s capital.
A significant number of bars in downtown Reykjavík were forced to make emergency beer runs under the onslaught of thirsty American sailors and Marines in town for the start of Trident Juncture 18, Iceland Magazine reports.
Local media estimate that 6,000 and 7,000 U.S. military personnel exhausted beer cellars across the Icelandic capital in the span of a single weekend…”
Headline of the Day (Higher Education Edition)
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY
Ed Driscoll strung this together
UN report calls Bay Area homeless crisis human rights violation — Special rapporteur cites SF and Oakland along with worst slums in the world.
Found via “Comfortably Smug,” who tweets, “We need a coalition of the willing to go into San Francisco for regime change.”
Earlier: California Ranks as Poorest State, One of the Worst for Income Inequality. “Want a liberal utopia? This is what it looks like.”
Why Did NBC News Sit on Evidence Discrediting a Kavanaugh Accuser for Weeks?
“…The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee recommended anti-Trump attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges on Thursday. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley noted that in multiple public statements, Swetnick and Avenatti contradicted the sworn statement they provided claiming that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ran a gang-rape-party ring in high school.
What was a very bad day for Avenatti got worse when NBC News reported hours later that “NBC News also found other apparent inconsistencies in a second sworn statement from another woman whose statement Avenatti provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a bid to bolster Swetnick’s claims.”
It was very good reporting by NBC News. But it was also reporting based on interviews conducted three weeks ago, with no clear indication of why the outlet chose to sit on it. . . .
But per the newest story, these are the details NBC News knew for a fact during the Kavanaugh debate, and chose not to report:On September 30, Avenatti forwarded an anonymous woman (I’ll call her Woman B) to NBC claiming she could corroborate Swetnick’s story. On the contrary, she said of the punch spiking “I didn’t ever think it was Brett” and when asked if she ever witnessed Kavanaugh act inappropriately towards women replied, “No.”On October 2nd, Avenatti publicized a sworn statement from an unnamed woman claiming she had “witnessed firsthand Brett Kavanaugh, together with others, ‘spike’ the ‘punch’ at house parties I attended with Quaaludes and/or grain alcohol” and he engaged in “inappropriate physical contact with girls of a sexual nature.”The same day, Avenatti confirms to NBC News that the woman is Woman B.
On October 3rd, Woman B tells NBC she only “skimmed” the statement she made to Congress.
The same day, when asked about the discrepancies, Avenatti suddenly backtracks and claims the woman is not Woman B.On October 4th, Woman B texts NBC: “It is incorrect that I saw Brett spike the punch. I didn’t see anyone spike the punch … I was very clear with Michael Avenatti from day one.”The same day, when asked about her denials, Avenatti responds, “I have a signed declaration that states otherwise together with multiple audio recordings where she stated exactly what is in the declaration. There were also multiple witnesses to our discussions.”Five minutes later, Woman B texts NBC: “Please understand that everything in the declaration is true and you should not contact me anymore regarding this issue.”Minutes later, NBC calls again, and Woman B again reiterates she never saw Kavanaugh spiking punch or being sexually inappropriate.On October 5th, she texts NBC: “I will definitely talk to you again and no longer Avenatti. I do not like that he twisted my words.”
Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed October 6th. At the time of his confirmation, there was a sworn statement before Congress indicating that the Supreme Court nominee was a sexual assailant and drugged women. As far as the Senate and public knew, there was nothing indicating that statement was false.
NBC News knew that it was false. Four days earlier, they at least had enough to report that Woman B had changed her story. And days before that, they knew that one of the witnesses that Swetnick alluded to could not “attest to the truthfulness” of her allegations as she claimed in her sworn statement.
What gives? One gets the impression that had Grassley not moved to recommended Avenatti for criminal charges, NBC News would have continued to sit on the story…”
https://freebeacon.com/blog/nbc-news-sit-evidence-discrediting-kavanaugh-accuser-weeks/
Related
Ahwahnee
The Navy We Need
“…Everyone seems to remember Ronald Reagan’s 600-ship Navy from the 1980s, but few understand how precipitate the decline was following the demise of the Soviet Union. First the Bush/Clinton “peace dividend,” and then the nation’s focus on its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saw the Navy fall from 592 ships in 1989, to 350 in 1998, to its nadir of 271 in 2015. While this was playing out, both civilian and uniformed leaders made the argument that the Navy did not require large numbers of ships so long as the ships it retained were of the most advanced designs. This answer appeared valid, in theory, but the reality was that a smaller fleet simply could not be everywhere we needed it to be at once.
The result has been a slow unraveling of the maritime order of free trade and free navigation that the United States and its Navy struggled so hard to build over the previous 70 years. The current situation recalls the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement first advanced by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in the early 1980s. The theory took its name from the phenomenon wherein an unrepaired broken window acts as a psychological invitation to break other windows. Kelling and Wilson argued that police could control crime by maintaining a general sense of order in their communities, with cooperation from the communities themselves. This entailed patrolling on foot rather than by car — so that officers would be seen as part of the neighborhood — and by taking “quality of life” offenses seriously.
Between 2001 and 2016, when the Navy was shrinking rapidly, the United States’ strategic focus was firmly locked on its counterterrorism wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. Most of the Navy’s deploying ships were either moving towards those conflicts or returning home from them, leaving entire maritime “neighborhoods” unpatrolled — and windows started to break…”
Austin, Evan, and Vince
Kelly, Ralph, and Lesley
Lesley, Austin, and Cousin Kel, from Austin’s birthday
John James, MI, candidate for senate
Ireland’s Peculiar Presidential Election
CIARAN BURKE:
“…On October 26, Ireland will elect a powerless head of state. Less American president than British monarch, Uachtarán na hÉireann plays a purely symbolic role, representing some notional “character” of the Irish people but making no important policy decisions. Those voting in the upcoming election will make their choice with this peculiar criterion squarely in mind. Nonetheless, that symbolic role, and Irish voters’ awareness of it, makes the presidential vote consequential. It will say a lot about the Irish, and a lot about how the Irish wish to be perceived.
In the seven years since his inauguration, incumbent Michael D. Higgins has achieved near-heroic status in Irish daily life. Widely adored for his short stature and antiquated speech — as well as for other asinine reasons — the former Teachta Dála (i.e., member of parliament) has capitalized on the romantic image of a poetic, scholarly Ireland that transcends crude obsessions with material wealth.
Material wealth, in Higgins’s telling, almost always signifies America. His speeches, which typically rehash socialist boilerplate, also aim to convey to his international audience distance between Ireland and the United States. And although his rhetoric is routinely light on substance, Higgins has convinced a surprisingly large section of the Irish population that passion, prolixity, and idyllic dreaming are sufficient to qualify him as an intellectual giant…”
and
“…Higgins is a populist himself. Lionized as a champion of knowledge and reason in an age when ignorance runs amok in Europe and America, Higgins reassures a population discombobulated by Trump and Brexit by feeding their sense of intellectual superiority. Yet that sense of superiority rests on precious little substance. It feeds on grievance anchored in events outside living memory and having to do with an entirely different global power structure. In this respect Higgins’s strain of populism is symptomatic of an Irish identity that longs for parity with American influence despite the obvious asymmetries between the two countries. The most powerful Irishman in Ireland will never compare to the most powerful Irishman in America, after all… …In reality, Higgins’ populist appeal is entirely dependent on America’s apathy. That a figure with his history can be elected at no risk to transatlantic relations — even in the capricious age of Trump — is indicative only of his irrelevance. Sadly, much of Ireland’s population has embraced a parochial way of thinking that rages against American economic and military might, yet takes its benevolence for granted…”
Urgent Strategy Session at the Democratic Party Dirty Tricks Office
This is parody, but is it? Remember the Kavanaugh hearings?
-OK, the fake bomb campaign failed. People are laughing at us.
-I thought the media was with us?
-They are, but still they can’t get people to take it seriously.
-Truth be told, the bombs look like they were built by a drunk Joe Biden.
-I have an idea. Can we get somebody who really knows how to make a bomb?
-I can ask my nephew, he is one of them Antifa groups. Why a real one?
-We won’t be taken seriously unless we hurt somebody with it.
-So, who do we choose to have a bomb sent to?
-It has to be a Democrat politician that is recognizable, but we can afford to lose.
-Obviously, none of the people who we already sent one of the fake ones.
-Nope, somebody else.
-Let me think. I’ll get back to you.
https://gunfreezone.net/urgent-strategy-session-at-the-democratic-party-dirty-tricks-office/
Why no one trusts the media to get the bombing story right
Rick Moran:
“…I contend this started with their going all in to elect an untried, unprepared Barrack Obama, and showing absolutely no curiosity about things like his grades or even what courses he took or of course the fact he was a third generation red diaper baby. It continued with the demonizing of the tea party which many of us were involved in and knew was not how it was being described. Then there was the summer of recovery… eight times reported unironically in all major newspapers, including those that should know better. Why, yes, I am looking at you WSJ. The spectacular all-in for Hillary and it’s more spectacular backfire.
Now? If the media tells me it’s raining, I go outside to verify. And I don’t take an umbrella
Part of the tension right now is that we’re flying by instruments and the instruments are broken…”
The Feast of Crispin
October 25, a date that means a lot to a very few. A date immortalized by a great English poem no longer recognized as poetry. Listen now for inspiration.