Patterico's Pontifications

7/26/2019

Breaking News & Off Topic Links (7/26/2019)

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 11:30 pm



[By DRJ]

This post is for everyone who wants to share a link to a breaking news story or to an interesting news story/blog post that is not related to a current post. Put your link in the comments and, if you want, a brief discussion of why it is important or interesting. Discussion about any links is welcome here, too.

From now on, off-topic links left in the comments at my posts may be deleted so please put those links here.

— DRJ

65 Responses to “Breaking News & Off Topic Links (7/26/2019)”

  1. Well, if you want something off topic, here is Kurt Loder’s review of Quinten Tarantino’s newest movie.

    https://reason.com/2019/07/26/review-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood/

    I remember Loder from MTV, where he served as a video critic, but he also wrote for Rolling Staone. I consider him one of the more astute critics of music and cinema.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  2. She went to loon a tick university, nk.

    mg (8cbc69)

  3. Excellent links. It is an amazing world we live in.

    DRJ (15874d)

  4. Mahalo on this format, DRJ.

    mg (8cbc69)

  5. Yes they made it a happy story kind of,

    Narciso (f848af)

  6. I’m glad, mg. I may do these posts every couple of days so they are easier to find. I would never find all these topics on my own and many offer good posting ideas. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to post on everything but at least this way we can all share them. Also, it is fascinating how varied everyone’s interests are.

    DRJ (15874d)

  7. The ASAP Rocky story keeps drawing me back in. The Swedes are lecturing Trump on the Rule of Law in the US and Sweden, and now this:

    The cause célèbre escalated to another plane, however, when Kim Kardashian called the White House adviser Jared Kushner to talk with him about the situation. Kushner spoke with Trump, and so did Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West. Trump in turn called Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who, Trump then tweeted, “assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative.” (There is no bail in Sweden’s legal system.) Trump has also tasked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with working toward Rocky’s release.

    It sounds like a game of celebrity Mad Libs: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West ask President Donald Trump to prod the Swedish prime minister about A$AP Rocky. But there’s some precedent for these players to be involved in this way. Rocky is not just a hit musician, but also a well-connected celebrity who’s close with West and the Kardashians. Moreover, Kim Kardashian has made the fight against unjust incarceration her signature political issue. In 2018, she successfully lobbied Trump to grant clemency to a first-time drug offender with a life sentence. After Congress passed the First Step prison-reform act, she and a legal team from the advocacy group #cut50—which is coaching her to eventually take the bar exam—provided assistance to a number of inmates who sought reduced sentences under the new law. West has spoken out about racism and incarceration, too, and is famously chummy with Trump.

    DRJ (15874d)

  8. Ah yes the Scandinavian paradise where their most recent Serbian russian and east African residents make things lively.

    Narciso (f848af)

  9. From the same link:

    At a moment of heightened public awareness about the overpolicing of people of color—and with famous rappers such as Meek Mill emerging from years-long, career-damaging legal morasses—Rocky’s case brings with it, for many, a nauseating feeling of familiarity. Though he was only charged on Thursday, the rapper has been in detention for weeks because a judge ruled him a flight risk. By contrast, when the white rapper G-Eazy was arrested in Sweden last year for assaulting an officer, violent resistance, and illegal drug possession, he was able to plead guilty and go free within two days. G-Eazy wrote on Instagram, “The difference between me and Rocky’s treatment and process in Sweden brings to mind two concepts that disgustingly go hand in hand: white privilege and systemic racism.” Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, and other artists have posted messages saying #JusticeForRocky or #FreeRocky, and four House Democrats held a press conference on his behalf.

    This is annoying. Blame racism, even though the difference in outcomes is obvious. The white suspect plead guilty and was presumably fined (and maybe deported and banned from re-entry? I don’t know but it appears Canada may have). Rocky is not pleading guilty so he must await his day in court, where he might prevail. Is the difference racism, or it is Sweden’s ‘no bail’ rule?

    DRJ (15874d)

  10. I hold no brief for Mr. Meyer, if Stockholm wants him, they can keep him:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-mueller-was-trying-to-hide-11564094510

    Narciso (f848af)

  11. 1. USA
    2.Sweden
    Where will President Trump obstruct Justice next?

    mg (8cbc69)

  12. A palate cleanser:

    https://youtu.be/mQKRAJTgEuo

    Narciso (f848af)

  13. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Only in Minnesota.

    A worthy exemplar of the new, Trumpian GOP.

    Dave (1bb933)

  14. Analysts: North Korea has ramped up production of nuclear material, missiles during diplomacy with Trump

    Quoting a paywalled WSJ article:

    Analysts at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency say North Korea’s scientists may have produced 12 nuclear weapons since the first Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore last year. In total, Pyongyang could currently possess between 20 and 60 nuclear bombs, according to estimates by various security analysts.

    This is why putting an imbecile in the Oval Office is dangerous.

    Dave (1bb933)

  15. Note shes a special ed teacher, and she’ll get nowhere in the primary, now van Jones the 9-11 denialist he got to be clean energy czar

    Narciso (f848af)

  16. DRJ @11 & 13. That’s why when I travel, I always carry The African-American Race Card.
    “The African-American Race Card: Never break a bottle over somebody’s head without it.”

    nk (dbc370)

  17. At Quillette, there is a longish but good piece on Boris Johnson by a fella who had known him since ’83 during his days at Oxford. There are many interesting observations, but one thing you can say is that he’s not thin-skinned like our current president:

    During this period I was sharing the job of drama critic on the Spectator with Lloyd Evans and we decided to write a sex farce set in the magazine’s offices called Who’s The Daddy?. It enjoyed a sold-out run in an off-West End theatre and we were terrified that Boris, who we mercilessly sent up in every scene, would sack us. After all, not many editors would do nothing if two junior employees lampooned them in such a public way. To give you a flavor of the play, the Boris character—who was named “Boris”—had a life-size portrait of Margaret Thatcher on his office wall that doubled as a pull-down bed and was in constant use throughout. It ended with the publisher giving birth to triplets, all of them sporting thick blond hair. But Boris took it on the chin. He didn’t demote us, didn’t withdraw any of our editorial privileges, didn’t stop inviting us to office parties. Our relationship with him was entirely unaffected. His only response was to send us a postcard on opening night that read: “I always knew my life would be turned into a farce. I’m just glad it’s been entrusted to two such distinguished men of letters.”

    But a major similarity is that Boris gets away with a lot of stuff just on the sheer force of his personality. If he were a communist, he’d be the next incarnation of Hugo Chavez. We’ll see if he restores England to its rightful place on the world stage.

    Paul Montagu (dbd3cc)

  18. Toby young’s quite a character, a prickly one.

    Narciso (f848af)

  19. Again you’ve confused him with Jeremy Corbyn, KGB and stb (Czech intelligence) asset.

    Narciso (f848af)

  20. In reaction to Rep. Cummings subpoenas for White House emails and texts, Trump just launched his latest bigot eruption:

    President Trump ranted Saturday morning on Twitter about an African American lawmaker by disparaging the Baltimore district that Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) represents as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
    […]
    “Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA……
    ….As proven last week during a congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.
    Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

    So if a person wants to live there, he/she is not human? At least Trump didn’t tell Cummings to go back to his s**thole district and fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which he came. As Randy Newman would tell you in a song, the Baltimore area is not a great place. However, Trump is sketchy with the facts.

    MD-7 is the 2nd-wealthiest majority-black district in the country ($58K median household income, per my data; MD-4 is first). Also the 2nd-most well-educated majority-black district (37% bachelors’ degree+; GA-4 is first).

    Mataconis:

    In other words, this is yet another example, of the President blindly lashing out at a perceived enemy with racist tropes that are not based in fact at all.

    Paul Montagu (dbd3cc)

  21. I won’t hold my breath for Ben Carson to pipe up and say, “Mr. President, I live in this district that you call a ‘disgusting, rodent and rat infested mess.’”

    Paul Montagu (e70a29)

  22. Murder so extreme there was a series named after it, well two if you count the wire, corrupt mayors and prosecutors who allow ‘room to destroy’ but you’re right no rats

    Narciso (f848af)

  23. You are wickedly clever, nk.

    DRJ (15874d)

  24. Well, this is the test case in the box diagonally opposite in the matrix box of race of the American traveler and likeability of the foreign victim and government involved: http://abc7chicago.com/who-is-finnegan-lee-elder/5424001/

    urbanleftbehind (60bae8)

  25. News you can use:

    According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 265 vessels with a total cargo capacity of 664 million tons are sailing under the Mongolian flag.

    Mongolia [has] no coast, no ports, no real direct relevance to shipping, but it offers a flag that’s cheap and low standards, therefore it is good for shipowners.

    Greece, a shipping superpower that owns the largest fleet in the world, is sailing most of its ships under a foreign flag, because shipowners want to avoid Greece’s high tax rates.

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/28/middleeast/seized-tanker-crew-shipping-rules-intl/index.html

    nk (dbc370)

  26. One, the timing of Trump’s bigot-eruption tweet makes sense.

    Trump’s Twitter blast at Cummings and Baltimore started during the 7 o’clock hour Saturday morning after a Republican strategist, Kimberly Klacik, on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends,” called Cummings’ district the “most dangerous” in America.
    The interview with Klacik was headlined: “How do living conditions in Rep. Cummings Baltimore district compare to those on the border?”
    The conversation was accompanied by video on boarded-up row houses and garbage-strewn alleys that Klacik said she videotaped on a visit to Cummings’ district.
    “To have Congressman Cummings talking about conditions at the border is laughable,” said Klacik, characterizing conditions in Baltimore as “atrocious.”
    Cummings’ district, which includes a large part of Baltimore is not the “most dangerous in America,” according to the FBI, which ranks the city as a whole as the third most dangerous in the nation. Cummings’ district, which like the city is majority black, has more college graduates than the country overall and a median income above $50,000.
    But the claim of “worst” is exactly the kind of disinformation Trump traffics in on a daily basis.
    The sick symbiosis between Trump and the reckless right-wing chatter and political propaganda on “Fox & Friends” has been well documented — in some cases by Trump himself voicing his love of the show.

    Two, Trump’s use of “infest” or its variation is exclusively directly at brown-skinned people, minority communities or countries where most of its inhabitants are brown-skinned.
    Three, the irony here is that Trumps son-in-law is literally a Baltimore slumlord, thus contributing to this town’s “infestation”.
    https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/926232483598913544
    https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1021498887582965762

    Paul Montagu (dbd3cc)

  27. ‘Two, Trump’s use of “infest” or its variation is exclusively directly at brown-skinned people, minority communities or countries where most of its inhabitants are brown-skinned.’
    Paul Montagu (dbd3cc) — 7/28/2019 @ 9:20 am

    Good lord.

    This has to be self parody.

    Munroe (0b2761)

  28. This has to be self parody.

    Nope, just a fact.

    Paul Montagu (dbd3cc)

  29. Cummings stewardship of baltimore, has to be considered,

    And the threads suggested sandman wasnt wronged and the pageant authorities were in the right when they fired miss Zhen because of her views that seems odd.

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  30. His strategy is obvious.

    History rhymes…

    ‘The Great Silent Majority’ is listening.
    And watching.
    And white.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. Trump made this attack, not for itself, but because he wanted to push aside any claim that conditions of detainees near the border was bad.

    There’s truth to his claim (although Cummings district extends beyond the problem areas) but he wasn’t complaining that Cummings wa ignoring this – it was just a kind of false tu quo quo.

    And Elijah Cummings isn’t the mayor of Baltimore.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  32. Why does Trump say “at the border?”

    He can’t admit these are locatiosns controlled by the U.S. government?

    On Face the Nation Mulvaney said it wasn’t true about feces, and when Trump sid investigate that meant Elijah Cummings’ committee should investigate (Baltimore) corruption

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  33. Much more pressing problems in blue cities around the country. EPIC BLUE FAIL.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  34. Trump is very sensitive to any criticism of his immigration enforcement policy because there is some merit to it. And that’s what sets him off. He doesn’t react that way when he is criticized over something he is more comfortable with. This is true even when there are some problems with the criticism, Because even if the charges were corrected there are still things he is not comfortable with defending.

    This is really an attempt to change the subject. But the Democrats, at large, don’t want to say so. And they want to change the subject too.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  35. It’s sort of like; If you are against miserable conditions for immigration detainees then you are for “open borders.” And that’s sort of true.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  36. A criminal terrorist much like the ice bomber, walked out of prison based on a lie against Quayle, secured economic support and political legitimacy, based on perceived persecution, has bought the silence of most of the presence and the acquiescence of law enforcement on both coasts, is still party to criminal conspiracy but your obsession is with the right,

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  37. “And Elijah Cummings isn’t the mayor of Baltimore.”

    He should be thankful for that. Lately, most of them don’t remain in office long before being removed for corruption

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  38. Ah Newsweek the publication that rationalized anarchist terrorists and is overvalued at a dollar. They went all five years ago over a punl drug dealer, whose unfortunate passing set half the city ablaze with Obama providing the bellows

    Narciso (a0a0bf)

  39. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/25/opinion/honduras-corruption-ms-13.html

    The economy there can’t improve unless the gang taxes are reduced.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  40. I found out that the upcoming Democratic debates on July 30 and 31 can be heard on the radio.

    On Bloomberg radio 1130 AM in New York and they aheva few other stations, one on San Francisco.

    The debates apparently start at 8 pm, not 9 pm.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  41. Gmail Sammy Finkelman

    Morning Jolt: The Russian Hackers Who Didn’t Hack Anything
    2 messages

    Jim Geraghty Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 10:18 AM

    To: sammy.finkelman@moondog.com

    https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-russian-hackers-who-didnt-hack-anything

    When the committee states that hackers could access voter data, they presumably mean voter registration information, not votes. Having a Russian hacker go into your local county elections board system and alter your name, address, etc. would indeed create headaches. But that’s the sort of action where the more you do it, the easier it is for authorities to figure out what’s going on. If a polling place has dozens or hundreds of people coming in, and all their addresses were changed in the system recently, but they insist they haven’t changed anything, election officials will figure out something’s wrong pretty fast. (And this is why provisional ballots are an important concept.)

    So that’s what maybe could have hapepned in Illinois – except that the hackers did not try to change anything.

    I think a quote from something previously published is:

    Before Election Day 2018, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Cyber Command announced that it would be sending text messages, emails, and pop-ups to Russian operatives meddling in the midterm elections, informing them that their actions were being monitored — sort of a “shot across their bow” to signal that we know who they are, what they’re doing, and how to find them.

    Then, on Election Day 2018, the professional trolls at Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg showed up for work and could not access the Internet. At all. For two days, they couldn’t log on to any of their social-media accounts.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  42. sammeh, strikingly these reports don’t understand how these databases work, much less when the data is uploaded to local servers, you can add data from local terminals to update info, but the central server is something else again,

    narciso (d1f714)

  43. Then, on Election Day 2018, the professional trolls at Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg showed up for work and could not access the Internet. At all. For two days, they couldn’t log on to any of their social-media accounts.

    It would have been a more persuasive “shot across their bow” if they’d all been found floating face down in the Neva River.

    Dave (1bb933)

  44. Release the Kraken.

    “I was very happy to see that Devin Nunes brought that up,” Papadopoulos said. “A man named Charles Tawil gave me this money [in Israel] under very suspicious circumstances. A simple Google search about this individual will reveal he was a CIA or State Department asset in South Africa during the ’90s and 2000s. I think around the time when Bob Mueller was the director of the FBI.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/papadopoulos-heads-to-greece-to-retrieve-10k-in-safe-as-senate-investigators-request-bills

    Munroe (0b2761)

  45. 55. This gets a bunch of things wrong. Mueller wouldn’t pverlap with something like that very much.

    The FBI does not deal with foreign intelligence – it deals with intelligence matters within the Unuted States, which means mainly counter-intelligence. That’s how they split up things between the FBI and the CIA.

    Now this FBI counter-itelligence mandate is separate from criminal investigations, and a lot that is obtained that way cannot be used to prosecute anyone.

    During World War II, the FBI also handled Latin America but now the FBI is strictly limited to operating within the United states. Sometmes for some purposes both the FBI (running the investigation) and the CIA (technical work outside the United States) are involved.

    Bob Mueller was Director of the FBI from 2001 (a week before the Sept 11 attacks), through 2013.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  46. narciso @53.

    these reports don’t understand how these databases work

    Maybe some people don’t want other people to understands, but want to argue there is a danger of tampering.

    It makes sense that all they could do is falsely update voter data – and they could probably do that by mail, as well. Well, maybe the could skip that step with computers.

    Except somebody maybe would notice that too many of them had happened, and nothing had been sent to them that would cause the change in voter registraton data to be inputed.

    Sammy Finkelman (fbd892)

  47. Mr Tawil’s side of the story
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-named-by-trump-russia-probe-convict-dismisses-absurd-spy-allegations/

    I went to college with someone named Tawil. But he was a Palestinian. His father was a doctor who worked for the WHO in Syria (late 70s).

    Kishnevi (14a2e1)

  48. Why do so many of Trump’s associates resemble Eric Ambler’s Arthur Simpson?

    nk (dbc370)

  49. Found my Tawil. He looks nothing like what he did 40 years ago. Bit I suppose that goes for most people.
    https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/people/21155383-rabi-n-tawil

    Kishnevi (14a2e1)

  50. That is a very good article by Charlie Daniels, mg. Very good indeed.

    nk (dbc370)

  51. Thank you.

    nk (dbc370)


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