| Remember Burisma? Expect to hear a lot more about it as Biden surges Posted: 06 Mar 2020 10:33 AM PST  Republicans are once again gearing up to attack the former vice president and his son Hunter over their dealings in Ukraine.
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| Schumer, the Supreme Court, and the Mob Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:39 AM PST  Should Chuck Schumer be censured? Of course he should, in the sense that the rule of law, were it actually our cynosure, would cry out for it.On Wednesday morning, the Democrats' Senate minority leader stirred up the mob outside the Supreme Court, unabashedly threatening Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh: "I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price," Schumer inveighed. "You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."Inside, the justices were then hearing argument on what ought to be a straightforward abortion case (i.e., one in which the "right" invented in Roe v. Wade is not up for consideration). When called on his menacing remarks, rather than apologize, Schumer brazenly lied about what he had done. This morning, he was still lying — a tepid apology, offered under pressure while insisting that "in no way was I making a threat."In a rule-of-law society, that should rate censure. Case closed.Except it's not closed, because we are not a rule-of-law society. We just pretend to be. In a rule-of-law society, a mob would not gather on the steps of the courthouse in the first place.Why is the mob out there?Because nearly a half-century ago, the Supreme Court took on the mantle of super-legislature, weaving from whole cloth a right to terminate the lives of unborn children. In terms of constitutional interpretation and the judiciary's place in our system, Roe was so indefensible that it took less than 20 years — the blink of a jurisprudential eye — for its farcical underpinnings to vanish. (In point of fact, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, not Roe, has been what passes for the law of abortion for almost 30 years.)With Roe, the High Court decisively transformed itself into a political institution. The worst kind of political institution, in fact: One that pretends to be something quite different — an apolitical arbiter of what the law says, an oracle of justice shorn of passion. One that is politically unaccountable to the people whose lives it deeply affects — and affects not as a court deciding the private disputes of litigants, but as a ruler imposing national policy on a heretofore self-determining republic.The mob is in front of the courthouse because we are inured to the unspoken reality that the Court is innately political. Political entities can be moved by mobs, such as the one that gleefully cheered Senator Schumer on.There is no mob outside a medical lab. When specimens are submitted, the techs do their tests, and the patients either have whatever condition is suspected or they don't. No one, however, believes any longer that jurists work with such professional detachment and rigor. No one believes they check their political, ideological, and emotional baggage at the door, applying law to facts without fear or favor.When President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Court, it was not for her legal acumen. The salient argument made in her favor, as if there were nothing remarkable about advocating such an attribute as a credential, was that she is a model of "empathy" — a "wise Latina" who would bring a "perspective" outside the ken of your average staid old white guy.There is, of course, a very appropriate place in our system for a person of such gifts. Justice Sotomayor would make a superb congresswoman. That I wouldn't agree with her about most things is beside the point. In a pluralistic society, the legislature is where we want our diverse interests effectively represented. That's the place where majorities must be persuaded to empathize with other interests if we are to have domestic tranquility.But that is not what a court is for.A court is for telling us what the law is, as opposed to what the judges wish it were, or think it had better be if the mob is to be appeased. If a court does its job properly, and the people and their representatives do not like the result, they can try to change the law democratically. No one would blame the judges. They are supposed to be the messengers, not the lawgivers.That is the system we were bequeathed. It is no longer the system we have.The Court is a political institution. And Senator Schumer is simply conducting politics the way the Left does politics. It is what the Alinskyites call "direct action." You pretend that you're all about the rule of law — in fact, that you are the very embodiment of the rule of law — until the second the law does not go your way. Then you claim the system is rigged, corrupt, racist, and so on. Then you call in the mob.The Left does what Senator Schumer did on Wednesday because it works.Censure? Perish the thought. The demagogues are already telling us he's just passionate about women's health issues (the health of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh is obviously not a concern). The Democrats will close ranks behind him — and use the publicity to raise money based on Schumer's heroic activism in protecting "choice." The left-leaning legacy media will look the other way — there's no reason you need to know that the case at issue is not actually about the enduring legality of abortion, but rather about whether abortionists should have admitting privileges at local hospitals (which actually is a women's health issue), and whether abortion providers — rather than women purportedly harmed by such a requirement — have standing to sue.No, better for you to be told the lie that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are scheming to consign women to back-alley quacks, and that Schumer had no choice but to call out the pitchforks. When you're pressuring a political institution, a little extortion can go a long way.
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| Mom of 2 missing kids extradited to Idaho to face charges Posted: 04 Mar 2020 07:11 PM PST  Vallow's children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua "JJ" Vallow, have not been seen since September.
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| A 94-year-old former Nazi camp guard who's living in Tennessee is going to be deported to Germany Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:05 PM PST  Friedrich Karl Berger served as an armed guard at a sub-camp of Neuengamme near Meppen, Germany, during World War II.
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| Are more coronavirus travel restrictions coming? Experts say they only delay the inevitable Posted: 06 Mar 2020 11:19 AM PST  Are Americans likely to see domestic travel restricted because of coronavirus? Not likely, medical and emergency planning experts say.
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| Trump's mental state — not Biden's — is the real concern, mental health professionals say Posted: 05 Mar 2020 02:36 PM PST  Mental health professionals who have expressed concern over what they see as Donald Trump's declining mental state say that similar fears about Joe Biden are overblown.
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| Airlines are burning thousands of gallons of fuel flying empty 'ghost' planes so they can keep their flight slots during the coronavirus outbreak Posted: 06 Mar 2020 10:03 AM PST  Airlines are running empty "ghost" flights because of European rules forcing operators to run their allocated flights or risk losing their slots.
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| South Korea condemns 'irrational' Japan virus quarantine Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:59 PM PST  Seoul will summon Japan's ambassador to protest over "irrational" plans to impose coronavirus quarantine on arrivals from South Korea, it said Friday, accusing Tokyo of ulterior motives. The two countries have close economic ties and are both major US allies, democracies and market economies faced with a rising China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
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| School removes Bible verse after complaint Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:19 PM PST  The verse on the wall of the locker room read: "But the Lord is with me like a Mighty Warrior. Jeremiah 20:11."
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| Hillary Clinton Gets Tipsy and Throws Shade at Bernie and Trump on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:47 PM PST  "Can I call you Hillary?"Hillary Clinton's appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen was never going to be the typical interview with the former secretary of state and presidential candidate, what with the talk show's penchant for getting guests liquored up and loose enough to swan-dive into rumor pools they ordinarily would never even dip a toe into. It was never not going to be the hardest-hitting, news-making sit-down with Clinton, who was promoting Hulu's documentary series Hillary, which chronicles her life and 2016 presidential campaign and launches Friday. But that was precisely what made the appearance such a delight. It's not every day you see Hillary Clinton take a shot with a Real Housewife and kiki with some drag queens in the Bravo Clubhouse. The interview was taped Wednesday, which means Clinton wasn't asked to weigh in on the biggest news on the minds of many viewers by the time it aired Thursday night: Elizabeth Warren's announcement that she was suspending her own presidential campaign, leaving it statistically near-impossible for a woman to swing open the door she cracked open in 2016. (But you do you, Tulsi.)But Cohen has always had a talent for making his guests comfortable enough to use his show as a pitching mound to throw shade—this is the show, remember, that birthed Mariah Carey's "I don't know her" dig at J. Lo—and Clinton seemed happy to take aim at a few choice batters.Asked what she really thinks of Melania Trump's "Be Best" anti-bullying campaign, Clinton quipped, "I think she should look closer to home." And she divulged that, while she's spoken with varying degrees of regularity to most of the Democratic candidates throughout primary season, "I've not been in touch with a few of them, most notably Bernie Sanders." Had Sanders reached out to her, she clarifies, she would have gladly spoken to him. Still, the comment echoes a saltiness that's already generated plenty of headlines, when it was revealed that, in one episode of Hillary, she slams Sanders pretty harshly."Honestly, Bernie drove me crazy," she says. "He was in the Senate for years. Years! He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done. He was a career politician. He did not work until he was like 41, and then he got elected to something. It was all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it." Asked about the comment afterwards, she's stood by it. It's clear that Clinton knew what kind of party she was being invited to when she showed up on Cohen's show, and she seemed totally game to engage in all of its demented joy. The episode opened with Cohen tossing off a series of HRC-themed puns, soundtracked by Clinton's clearly amused laughter off-camera: "Let's make like a glass ceiling and get smashed." "I'm with her, literally." And, in reference to the show's drinking game, an encouragement for audience members to "drink until all Hill breaks loose." We Need to Talk About Hillary Clinton's Disturbing Harvey Weinstein TiesHillary Clinton Slams Bernie and Dismisses Email Scandal in New Doc: 'All These Things About Us Get Disproved'Cohen asked Clinton what was going through her mind during iconic photos throughout her political history. About being at Trump's inauguration, she says she was thinking, "This is even worse than I thought." About the presidential debate in which he notoriously stalked behind her while she spoke, she remembers thinking, "This guy really has problems." And as for the famous photo of her looking exasperated during the 11-hour Benghazi Senate hearing, she captions it, "I cannot believe these idiots."I don't know if this is the first time the meme of Clinton cringe-inducingly shimmying with excitement during one of the 2016 debates was brought up in her presence, but it was definitely the first time it was used as the theme for a Never Have I Ever-inspired parlor game in which she would recreate the shimmy every time she's done the thing Cohen prompts her with. The revelations were nothing particularly scandalous, but they were pretty fun. She's forgotten the name of a world leader she's meeting before. She's taken a roadie with her in a motorcade. She's gotten tipsy with Obama. She's gone skinny-dipping, but not in the White House pool. She's been to a gay bar. It was all very cute!She followed tradition and delivered what she said would be her Real Housewives tagline, hilariously turning her back to the camera so she could dramatically whip herself around to deliver it: "I'm neither as good or as bad as people say." (This is what she also reveals in Hillary as what she wants etched on her gravestone.)There's a bit of news in her earnest defense of Nancy Pelosi's controversial State of the Union gesture, tearing up the text of Trump's speech after he finished. "I thought she was making a very strong point in demonstrating that so much of what he said was untethered from reality and just plain factually wrong," she said. "Sometimes it's the only way to get attention because otherwise his speech, which was filled with so many errors, would have been taken at face value. Because she visibly did that, which then went viral across the internet, people said, wait a minute, maybe we better take another look. I thought it was an interesting and effective gesture." Even when she was deflecting the few more uncomfortable questions, she was quippy and fun. "I'm the last person to comment on anybody's relationship," she responded to a question about Melania repeated swatting Trump's hand. The entire thing ended in a drag pageant, with RuPaul's Drag Race alumni Trinity the Tuck, Peppermint, and Alaska modeling looks inspired by Clinton's college days, time as first lady, and modern style, respectively. The plastered politician's smile immediately elasticized, nearly spreading off Clinton's face as she cackled breathlessly at the whole ordeal. She seemed to be having the time of her life. The entire thing was a blast. Sometimes it's just fun to see a world leader be allowed to enjoy herself with such abandon, freed of shackles of political propriety. More, in the wake of the Warren news Thursday, it was a much-needed elixir for many crestfallen Bravo viewers. As one tweeted me during the show, "It could not have been better timed for this thoroughly disappointed woman tonight."There is a necessity for Clinton to engage in the heavy news of the current election cycle, and there has been and will be ample opportunity for that. But sometimes it's just nice to have a little fun. Preferably in the presence of some drag queens. Hillary Clinton Basically Endorses Biden After Vowing to Stay NeutralRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'Despicable' - Women seethe over Mexican leader's wobbly response to violence Posted: 06 Mar 2020 02:39 PM PST  Mexico's president sells himself as lifelong champion of the rights of women, who he calls "more honest" than men. Support for an unprecedented women's "strike" on Monday has swelled, even as Lopez Obrador has tried to paint the event as a cynical attempt by political opponents to discredit him and capitalize on problems he says they created. Such comments strike many as tone-deaf and lacking empathy, exposing a weak spot for a government already battling to tackle gang violence, impunity and a stagnant economy.
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| Britain’s Best 100 Buildings of the Past Century Posted: 06 Mar 2020 10:12 AM PST |
| See These Missiles? This Is How North Korea Could Attack with Nearly 'No Warning' Posted: 06 Mar 2020 01:30 AM PST  Not nuclear weapons.
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| Hawley Announces Motion to Censure Schumer for ‘Pathetic Attempt at Threatening’ Justices Posted: 05 Mar 2020 05:14 AM PST  Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said Wednesday that he would be introducing a motion to censure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) for "disgusting, shameful, and frankly, WEAK" comments directed at Justice Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh."I would call on Schumer to apologize, but we all know he has no shame," Hawley tweeted. "So tomorrow I will introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation."Schumer, addressing a crowd of abortion-rights advocates in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, threatened President Trump's two appointees as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for June Medical Services v. Russo, the first major pro-life case since 2016."You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions," he said. "You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."After a deluge of criticism, including a statement from Chief Justice John Roberts on the "dangerous" comments, Schumer held his ground and did not apologize."For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what Senator Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes," a spokesperson for Schumer responded.President Trump also took aim at Schumer Wednesday evening, echoing the minority leader's own language in saying that he should "pay a severe price" for threatening the justices.> There can be few things worse in a civilized, law abiding nation, than a United States Senator openly, and for all to see and hear, threatening the Supreme Court or its Justices. This is what Chuck Schumer just did. He must pay a severe price for this!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020Politico's Playbook reported Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) also plans to take aim at Schumer, and will denounce him in opening comments on the Senate floor."Contrary to what the Democratic leader has tried to claim, he very clearly was not addressing Republican lawmakers or anybody else," McConnell's comments read. "He literally directed the statement to the justices, by name. And he said, quote, 'if you go forward with these awful decisions,' which could only apply to the court itself. The minority leader of the United States Senate threatened two associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Period."
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| Republican lawmaker dares Democrats to 'come and take' his non-functioning AR-15 rifle Posted: 06 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PST  A functioning AR-15 would be illegal on Capitol grounds for the general public. Lawmakers like Rep. Buck are an exception.
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| China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim Posted: 06 Mar 2020 11:13 AM PST  China's claims of how it's handling coronavirus recovery should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.Even before COVID-19 became a global crisis, Chinese leaders had been criticized for their handling of the situation and lack of transparency about the disease's progression. Things now look like they're on the upswing, and businesses even appear to be headed back to work — but whistleblowers and local officials tell Caixan that's just a carefully crafted ruse.Beijing has spent much of the outbreak pushing districts to carry on business as usual, with some local governments subsidizing electricity costs and even installing mandatory productivity quotas. Zhejiang, an province east of the epicenter city of Wuhan, claimed as of Feb. 24 it had restored 98.6 percent of its pre-coronavirus work capacity.But civil servants tell Caixan that businesses are actually faking these numbers. Beijing had started checking Zhejiang businesses' electricity consumption levels, so district officials ordered the companies to start leaving their lights and machinery on all day to drive the numbers up, one civil servant said. Businesses have reportedly falsified staff attendance logs as well — they "would rather waste a small amount of money on power than irritate local officials," Caixan writes.In Wuhan, officials have tried to make it appear that recovery efforts are going smoothly. But when "central leaders" personally survey disinfecting regimens and food delivery, local officials "make a special effort" for them and them alone, one resident told Caixan. And in a video circulating on social media, residents can be seen shouting at visiting leaders from the apartments where they're being quarantined — "Fake, it's all fake." Read more at Caixan.More stories from theweek.com South by Southwest canceled amid coronavirus concerns Bond yields, oil prices, and stocks all fall after a tumultuous week White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow claims coronavirus is 'contained,' says Americans should 'stay at work'
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| Texas woman gets life in prison in beheading of daughter Posted: 06 Mar 2020 01:37 PM PST  A Texas woman accused of stabbing and beheading her 5-year-old daughter in 2017 has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. A Hays County jury on Thursday convicted Krystle Villanueva, 27, in the death of her daughter, Giovanna Hernandez. Jurors also found Villanueva guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbing of the girl's grandfather, who survived.
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| Coronavirus panic sparks racist incidents against Asian Americans Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:05 PM PST  "They're just scared to get infected by Chinese people," restaurant owner Kin Lam told CBS News.
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| Pompeo says US will take 'all necessary measures' to bar war crimes probe of military Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:14 AM PST  Pompeo's remarks came after an international court ruled its prosecutors could investigate possible war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
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| A white woman demanded a nonblack server at Olive Garden. A manager fulfilled her 'disgusting' request and was fired for it. Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:21 AM PST  The 16-year-old hostess said the woman asked her if she was "even black" and added that she "should work at a strip club instead."
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| Asian-Americans Terrified of Coronavirus Backlash Stock Up on Guns Posted: 06 Mar 2020 08:18 AM PST  This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering guns in America.As the number of confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus cases continues to multiply, many Americans are emptying store shelves of hand sanitizer, bleach, and canned goods. But there's an acute fear among Asian Americans that the virus' origins in China will spark a violent xenophobic backlash. Along the West Coast, where the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the U.S. have occurred, those fears seem to be spurring a surge in gun sales. "People are panicking because they don't feel secure," said David Liu, who is Chinese American and owns Arcadia Firearm and Safety, which is just east of Los Angeles. "They worry about a riot or maybe that people will start to target the Chinese."Liu said his store had seen a fivefold increase in sales over the past two weeks. He's sold out of Glock handguns, and some customers have requested to buy his entire inventory of ammunition branded for home defense. "They think it's Costco," he said. Coronavirus Is Scary Enough for Some People to Risk DeportationAccording to Liu, the surge customers are overwhelmingly of Chinese descent. They worry, he explained, that in the event of mass panic, they might face violence because of their ethnicity and be easy victims because of their historically low rates of gun ownership. Surveys of gun ownership don't usually track Asian Americans separately, but instead include them in an "other" category that is typically very small. As The Los Angeles Times has reported, since the first novel coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, Asian Americans have experienced intensifying venom, including bullying, racist comments, and harassment. On February 24, a man of East Asian descent was assaulted in central London. One of the assailants reportedly said, "I don't want your coronavirus in my country.""The main thing I'm hearing is that they don't wanna get jumped because of their race," said Cole Gaughran, the internet sales manager at Wade's Eastside Guns in Bellevue, Washington. Gaughran said his store has seen a sixfold increase in sales in the same two weeks. His new customers, most of them first-time gun owners, were almost entirely of Asian descent, he said. Bellevue is just a 15 minute drive from Kirkland, where at least 11 people have died from the virus. There's no way to get an accurate accounting for how many people buy guns on a weekly basis, or in real time. However, in Washington, local police departments do process background checks for most first-time gun buyers. In Bellevue, police say they've registered the spike in demand. Meeghan Black, the police department's public information officer, said that since August of last year, the department has processed a steady average of around 158 checks per month. But in the first four days of March, they handled more than a hundred. "The officer who processes these checks said he's been processing the last ten years, and has never seen anything like this in his life," she added.A stack of firearm transfers slated for processing from this past weekend's sales. Black said the department normally sees about six of these every weekend.In nearby Lynnwood, Washington, the local police department saw no such increase in firearm sales. But at least one local gun shop did. Tiffany Teasdale, the co-owner of Lynnwood Gun & Ammunition, said she, too, has seen a sixfold increase in sales over the past two weeks, predominantly from Chinese-American customers. "We've had a line of customers before opening Thursday through Sunday, and customers in the store until 10 to 15 minutes after closing." she said. "We used to sell from 10 to 15 firearms in a weekend. [We sold] 60 firearms just [last] Saturday."Teasdale said that nearby stores had seen increases as well, and her distributors had run out of 9mm ammunition. "It's been happening for the last four or five days," Teasdale said." A lot of our distributors nationally are saying that all of their warehouses are empty. None of them know why."So far, police departments and civil rights groups in cities experiencing increased gun sales had received no reports of violent attacks against Asians. The Bellevue Police Department said they hadn't received a single complaint since the first U.S. case of coronavirus made headlines.Robin Engle, a spokesperson for OneAmerica—a Seattle-based nonprofit focused on immigrant rights—said that while the organization was aware of people avoiding Asian restaurants, it had not heard about any hate crimes in the Seattle area. When told about the reports from gun-store owners, she said, "It is alarming that people are afraid that that can happen to the point that they're going out and buying guns."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Joe Biden: Not a Socialist, Just a Scoundrel Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PST  Poor Bernie Sanders! The youth vote failed to show up for him. The youth vote always fails to show up — it will break your heart every time. Senator Sanders didn't lose to Joe Biden — he lost to Tinder, weed, and The Resident. The kids were doing themselves a favor — young people have more of a future for Senator Sanders and his coterie of socialist dingbat malefactors to ruin.Arising from the tumult, triumphant, was the dotty figure of Joe Biden. Biden and Sanders vying for the Democratic nomination, Michael Bloomberg perhaps at least dreaming idly of a third-party run — as of today, the youngest man with a realistic shot of winning the 2020 presidential election is Donald Trump, 73 years of age.What can we say for Joe Biden?For one thing, he is not a socialist.………So, he is not a socialist.What is he?He is a vicious self-serving political hack, for one thing, one whose ambition leads him from time to time into shocking indecency. You may have heard that Biden lost his wife and daughter in a horrifying drunk-driving wreck, the fault of a monster of a man who irresponsibly "drank his lunch," as Biden puts it.Never happened.Biden's wife and daughter did, in fact, die in a car wreck. That is true. It is not true that the driver of the other car was drunk, that he had been drinking, or that there was any reason to believe he was drunk or had been drinking — or even that he was at fault. The late Mrs. Biden "drove into the path of [the] tractor-trailer," the police report says. But Biden, like every other third-rate ward-heeler of his ilk, thinks and speaks only in terms of good guys and bad guys, white hats and black hats — and if something bad happens to good people, then it must be because somebody in a black hat did something nefarious. The driver of that truck went to his grave haunted by Biden's lies, to the point where his children were forced to beg the vice president to stop defaming their late father. The casual cruelty with which Biden is willing to subordinate the lives of ordinary people to his political ambitions — for the sake of a petty tear-jerker line in one of his occasionally plagiarized stump speeches — is remarkable.But that's Joe Biden. Just a regular guy from Scranton who takes the train to work (with a 20-man security detail swarming the platform at every stop and the aisles roped off to separate him from the riffraff, as I have seen firsthand) whose kids ended up growing vastly wealthy from unpredictable business opportunities to which they had no especial claim beyond their proximity to political power.Biden was protected by the Democratic political machine and then by Senate seniority; later, he was protected by the Obama administration and by protectors of the Obama administration. And so he continues doing the same things he always has done. Some of you may remember that Biden — who got into trouble for plagiarism back in the 1980s, when I was in eighth grade (and who already was running for president way back then) — was pillaging Margaret Thatcher's speeches (and Neil Kinnock's, too, not that anybody remembers him) to flesh out one of his own orations. That was embarrassing. What is embarrassing is that he is still doing it, as the Washington Post reports, with his campaign stealing material for advocacy groups and presenting it as the work of his campaign.That is a pattern. A man who can lightly misrepresent the circumstances surrounding the death of his wife and infant daughter is liable to be just as cavalier when it comes to, say, slavery, telling a largely black audience that Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney! — wants to "put y'all back in chains." (Oh, that "y'all"!) Cynical doesn't begin to cover it.One of the worst features of our political life is the ugly and dishonest fights we have over Supreme Court nominations — a habit that can be laid squarely at the feet of Joe Biden, who along with Ted Kennedy, that pillar of human decency, organized one of the worst smear campaigns in modern American political history against Robert Bork, whose great crime against humanity was taking the "extremist" position that the Constitution actually says what it says rather than what anybody with power wishes it would say at any given moment, and that the way to amend the Constitution is to amend the Constitution rather than having nine wizards in black robes pull previously undiscovered constitutional mandates out of the penumbras upon which they sit all day. Don't like the way Merrick Garland was treated? Mitch McConnell didn't start that game — he is just better at it than his contemporary Democratic colleagues are. For lying partisan viciousness in the modern mode, Joe Biden is your man.He is a liar, a corruptor of institutions, and a grifter of the first order.But he's not a socialist. I'll give him that.
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| Police seek suspects following attack on teenage girl Posted: 06 Mar 2020 01:50 PM PST  Police are currently trying to find suspects who attacked a teenage girl in NYC.
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| These couples spent nearly a month under confinement in a coronavirus quarantine, and yes, they're still married Posted: 06 Mar 2020 12:43 PM PST  When a man aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship was diagnosed with coronavirus, thousands of people were quarantined to their rooms, spending days in isolation with their partners.
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| China Hates India's Fast and Sneaky Brahmos Missiles Posted: 06 Mar 2020 12:00 PM PST  No way to counter it?
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| US sending military police to two border crossings Posted: 06 Mar 2020 09:15 AM PST  The U.S. government says it is sending 160 military police and engineers to two official border crossings to deal with asylum seekers in case a federal appeals court strikes down one of the Trump administration's key policies. Senior Customs and Border Protection officials said Friday that active duty personnel will be in place by Saturday at ports of entry in El Paso and San Diego, where a large caravan attempted to cross the border in 2018, resulting in chaos and the closure of the San Ysidro port, the nation's busiest land crossing. The deployment is in response to a crowd of asylum-seekers that gathered at an El Paso crossing last Friday after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily struck down the program known as "Remain in Mexico," which forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases wind through court in the U.S. Officials shut down that border crossing for several hours that evening before the court reversed itself.
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| Alabama poised to execute man for three murders he didn’t commit Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:16 AM PST  On Thursday evening, the state of Alabama is scheduled to execute a man for capital murder in a case in which even prosecutors acknowledge that he did not kill the three victims.A group led by family members is asking the governor for an eleventh hour stay of execution.
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| Trump likes that coronavirus has Americans staying home and 'spending their money in the United States' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 07:58 PM PST  President Trump is sure that people think the government is doing "a very good job" handling the coronavirus outbreak, and while no one knows how it started, "it's gonna all work out."Trump was asked about the coronavirus during a Fox News Town Hall Thursday evening in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There have been 12 coronavirus deaths in the United States, and Trump said it's important for people to "be calm" and also think about not shaking hands with others. "If there was ever a time you could convince people not to shake hands, this could be it," he declared.Because Americans are worried about being exposed to the coronavirus in hot spots like China and Italy, they are "now staying in the United States, spending their money in the United States, and I like that," Trump said. "You know, I've been after that for a long time. I've been saying, 'Let's stay in the U.S., spend your money here.' It's sort of enforced doing that."More stories from theweek.com China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim South by Southwest canceled amid coronavirus concerns Bond yields, oil prices, and stocks all fall after a tumultuous week
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| Bloomberg Staffers Claim Campaign ‘Was a Grift,’ Admit to Canvassing for Other Campaigns Posted: 06 Mar 2020 09:08 AM PST  Staffers for former New York city mayor Mike Bloomberg's failed presidential campaign have described how the campaign imploded after Bloomberg's Nevada debate performance, and detailed how Bloomberg's vast campaign resources were taken advantage of."Most people knew this was a grift," a campaign official told The Nation's Ken Klippenstein — who reported extensively on Bloomberg throughout the campaign. Staff pointed to the debate as the moment of implosion, after Elizabeth Warren slammed Bloomberg as "a billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians,'" and challenged him over his multiple non-disclosure agreements stemming from sexual harassment claims."The day after when we made calls people were like, 'Oh yeah, I was thinking about him, but I'm not really sure anymore,'" a staffer said."Ever since the first debate all of us faced a ton of hostility" a field organizer added. "I once had a woman chase me back to my car demanding that I say you can't buy the presidency."Despite paying his staff the best salaries and providing amenities — like free housing and meals and new iPhones — Bloomberg lacked loyalty and enthusiasm among his employees."At our first office meeting, my [director] said, 'We don't need to canvass. We can just make calls, right guys?' And everyone was like, 'Yeah, that's sensible,'" an official said.Staffers also admitted to siphoning away resources from the campaign to serve their own interests, with Bloomberg's organizers in San Diego reportedly using Bloomberg's funds for other local campaigns."I would actively canvass for Bernie when I was supposed to be canvassing for Mike. I know of at least one team of 'volunteers' that was entirely fabricated by the organizers who had to hit their goals. It was easy enough to fudge the data to make it look like real people put in real volunteer work, when in reality Mike was getting nothing out of it," one person said.Others detailed how Bloomberg's social media campaign — which included paying $2,500 a month in exchange for staffers to text personal contacts and post daily on social media about Bloomberg — was so lackluster that accounts would be flagged as spam and suspended for copying and pasting campaign talking points.
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| One chart shows 11 countries' current coronavirus death rates, based on the known number of cases and deaths Posted: 06 Mar 2020 04:15 PM PST  The death rate for the coronavirus varies around the world — but that's likely because some countries are testing more people than others.
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| Iran's Khamenei asks India to stop attacks on Muslims after deadly riots Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:44 AM PST  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged India on Thursday to "confront extremist Hindus" and "stop the massacre of Muslims", adding to the international fallout over deadly Hindu-Muslim violence in New Delhi. At least 44 people were killed and hundreds injured in the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades, triggered by clashes between supporters of a new citizenship law and those against it. "The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India," Khamenei said in a tweet in English, just days after New Delhi rebuked Iran's foreign minister for commenting on the same issue.
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| The U.S. Military Is Dead Wrong: Hypersonic Weapons Can Be Defeated Posted: 06 Mar 2020 02:08 AM PST  Hypersonic weapons steadily are getting better and more numerous and, in the future, could pose a serious threat to U.S. forces. But it's not impossible to defend against them.
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| Ex-GOP US Rep Schock says he's gay, regrets anti-gay stances Posted: 05 Mar 2020 04:40 PM PST  Saying he would do more if he were in Congress today to support LGBTQ rights — which he opposed when he served — former Illinois U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock came out as gay Thursday in social media and web posts. The longtime Republican laments that he opposed gay marriage while representing his conservative congressional district in central Illinois, noting Democrat and fellow Illinoisan Barack Obama once held a similar position.
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| 10-year-old boy in San Diego surrenders after shotgun standoff with police Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:19 PM PST  A 10-year-old boy surrendered to police Thursday after hiding out in a shed and firing a shotgun at them.San Diego police said the unusual firefight began when the boy's parents called the police because he was having an emotional and mental episode.
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| Children aren't at great risk for coronavirus, WHO report says, but some doctors aren't so sure Posted: 06 Mar 2020 11:01 AM PST  A report released by the Joint Mission and the World Health Organization-China says that people under 18 experience 'a relatively low attack rate.'
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| Mick Mulvaney out as chief of staff, Mark Meadows to replace him Posted: 06 Mar 2020 05:30 PM PST  The president made the huge staffing announcement on Twitter.
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| 'China is not an immigrant country': draft law sparks online racism Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:06 AM PST  A new draft law that could make it easier for foreigners to gain permanent residency in China has stirred up a torrent of xenophobia online. "China's forty years of family planning policy does not make it a place for foreign trash to soar," wrote one user on the Twitter-like platform Weibo, referring to the one-child birth limit China imposed between 1980 and 2016. Some Weibo-users posted videos of black people apparently committing crimes in China, while a campaign to encourage Chinese women to date Chinese men, under the hashtag "China girl", had 240 million views as of Thursday afternoon.
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| Vatican City, home to Pope Francis, reports first case of coronavirus Posted: 06 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PST  Vatican City, the city state that is home to Pope Francis, on Friday declared its first case of the coronavirus.
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| YouTubers keep playing Plague Inc. to try and simulate how coronavirus will spread across the world, even though the company behind the game has stressed it's 'not a scientific model' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 08:57 AM PST  YouTubers are playing Plague Inc. to see whether or not their version of the virus could wipe out humanity.
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