As Paul Manafort goes down for 47 months, Americans need to face up to what this says about Donald Trump  Ed Krassenstein need to face up to the fact that it says absolutely nothing about Trump.

New revelations implicate Donald Trump Jr. in his father’s nefarious schemes  Ooooooo, nefarious schemes!

Castro: ‘We’re Going To See More Indictments’ Related To Trump  As many as they can cram in. Something’s gotta stick.

MSNBC Goes DEFCON-1 on Manafort Ruling; ‘Shocking’ ‘Injustice’ by ‘Puppet’ Judge to Please Moscow  Better than admitting that there just isn’t anything there.

Paul Manafort sentencing: What does jailing of Trump’s former campaign chief mean for president?  It’s called a ‘miss’.

Trump golf course faces fine for chopping down trees and dumping them in river  And of course this is all Trump’s fault.

Joy Behar Nuances Herself Into the Far Left Corner

Trump calls Russia investigation a ‘collusion witch hoax’ in rambling and inaccurate White House rant  They had to put ‘rambling’ and ‘inaccurate’ in the headline so that you wouldn’t mistake this for a news piece.

Trump says he wants to ‘honour’ and ‘celebrate’ women – Here’s all the times they’ve accused him of sexual misconduct   And, as we all know, ‘accusation’ is the same as ‘proof’.

CNN Panel Uses McSally Testimony to Attack President Trump, Even McSally Herself  She’s a Republican, so she can’t be a real victim. Besides: TRUMP!

diGenova: With Mueller’s Investigation Coming To A Close, Democrats Rely On Congress To Abuse The President

Brennan, Matthews Rage at Judge; Accuse Trump of ‘Joining the Other Side’ to Betray America

Jon Meacham: Trump May Be ‘in Thrall to a Foreign Power’  Cue Twilight Zone theme music….

Ilhan Omar: Let’s Face It, Trump Is Only Continuing The Terrible Policies of Barack Obama  Now that’s hitting below the belt.

Read it.

This from The Independent, usually a reliable Voice of the Crust.

Somebody escaped from maximum security.

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Perhaps it’s time to send her to her room. Perhaps without supper.

Quick work for a former bartender. Even Jesse Jackson Jr. didn’t work that fast.

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Just in case you were pining for news of the latest Hate Hoax. It’s not as if the ‘mainstream media’ are covering it.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

You’ll never see these in the ‘mainstream media’.

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The totalitarianism inherent in the proglodyte world-view is starting to come out.

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This is what happens when the government handles health care.

I don’t think we want this.

Ace of Spades has the story.

Bias? What bias?

I’ll bet the police would have intervened if they’d tried to throw the guy out, though. You can depend on that.

Read it.

In addition to being sanctuaries for illegal immigrants, the Left Coast is becoming a sanctuary for drug cartels.

A combination of ideal growing weather and proximity to tens of millions of potential customers has always made northern California a great place to grow dope. California was the first to permit medical marijuana, in 1996, and this past November, residents voted “yes” on Prop 64, making California the fifth state to legalize recreational pot. Almost two-thirds of the country’s total legal harvest comes from the Golden State. The crop brought in $2.8 billion in 2015, putting it somewhere between lettuce and grapes, and some estimates project the state’s “green gold rush” could become a $6.5 billion market by 2020.

Even as California embraces the booming legal marijuana market, though, it is also seeing an explosion in illegal cultivation, much of it on the state’s vast and remote stretches of public land. National forests and even national parks have seen a surge in large-scale illegal “trespass grows,” some with tens of thousands of plants spread across dozens of acres. As much as 80 percent of illegal pot eradicated in California is grown on federal lands, and that’s just the fraction that authorities find. (Trespass grows occur in other states in the American West, and even in remote areas back east, but at nowhere near the scale of California.)

…

The lethal poisons growers use to protect their crops and campsites from pests are annihilating wildlife, polluting pristine public lands, and maybe even turning up in your next bong hit.

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Since lobbyists were able to get passed the Defend Mickey Mouse Copyright Act, many works that would otherwise have gone into the public domain have remained under copyright.

Since the Usual Suspects appeared to have dropped the ball this time around, copyrights are beginning to expire again.

If you haven’t read Leave It to Psmith, you ought to. It’s Wodehouse at his best.

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I love a good detective story.

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I’d be more impressed if Zuckerberg and Bezos announced plans to break up the U.S. Senate.

That might actually have a chance of coming off.

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In the U.S., socialism is for the privileged.

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This is abnormal. There’s never been an offensive so vast against a president by his rival party. It took only two committees — one in the Senate, one in the House — to look into the Watergate scandal and drive President Nixon out of the White House in 1974. But Trump is more popular today than Nixon was, and Democrats are taking no chances he might escape their grasp.

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Funny how the news media delight in showing that white nationalists and neo-Nazis vote Republican but seem to ignore the fact that most ‘wiccans’ and astrologers vote Democrat. If one can infer that Republicans are the party of hate then one can just as readily infer that Democrats are the party of stupid.

Read it.

Ticket punched.

Resume line added.

Time to move on.

Read it.

Is there anybody who doesn’t work for the New York Times who still pretends that David Brooks is some sort of conservative?

Ace of Spades: Those Of You Who Bet on “David Brooks” for “Which NeverTrumper Would Be the First to Embrace the Hard Left’s Holy Grail of Reparations” — Collect Your Winnings

Read it.

This is mostly about trains, but I suspect similar problems afflict roads and bridges.

Don’t expect our infrastructure to get better anytime soon. (Who knows? Now that Lake Erie has ‘human rights’, maybe roads will eventually be able to vote and politicians will give them some attention.)

Take a look.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Poor Mark Zuckerberg has almost as many fables told about him as Trump.

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For years, the sharing economy was pitched as an altruistic form of capitalism?—?an answer to consumption run amok. Why own your own car or power tools or copies of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up if each sat idle for most of its life? The sharing economy would let strangers around the world maximize the utility of every possession to the benefit of all.

Uh-huh. That works about as well as you think that it might.

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But that trick never works.

Suspected ISIS Member Convicted Of Killing 4 People In Belgian Jewish Museum Killings

Mehdi Nemmouche: Suspected Isis fighter guilty of ‘terrorist murders’ of four people at Jewish Museum in Brussels

Syria refugees launch bid to prosecute Assad’s government for war crimes: ‘We have suffered for too long’

Kashmir explosion: At least 18 injured after blast at bus station in Jammu near Pakistan border

Town Councillor Mugged by Underage Migrants in Maresme

Culture-Enrichers Riot in Grenoble

Israel Designates Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV as a Terrorist Oranization  Well, duh.

Lewis Ludlow trial: Man who plotted ‘spectacular’ terror attack on London’s Oxford Street jailed for 15 years

Man Who Converted To Islam Jailed For Planning Terrorist Attack In London

ISIS Bride Goes Silent When Asked About Tweets Calling For Terror Attacks

At least 18 prisons blocked in France after radicalised inmate stabs guards

Isis child suspects being detained and tortured without evidence, human rights report reveals

French prison guards stabbed by suspected Islamist inmate in ‘terror attack’

These innocent American children were taken to Syria by their Isis sympathiser mother — now it’s time to bring them home

Two Dead In West Bank After Terrorists Ram Vehicles Into Soldiers

Lull in Terrorism Masks a Deepening Jihadist Threat, Dutch Report Warns

Saudi Arabia Revokes Citizenship For Osama Bin Laden’s Son

Storm of criticism after Iranian TV host suggests wives should put up with decades of beatings

Hezbollah calls UK terror ban an ‘insult’ to Lebanese people

Mogadishu attack: Battle rages in Somali capital as death toll nears 30

Syria civil war: ‘Toxic chemical’ containing chlorine used in Douma attack, inspectors conclude

Saudi Arabia prepares to prosecute women’s rights activists

Isis face final assault in Syria as US-backed fighters close in on last remaining stronghold

India-Pakistan crisis: Six civilians killed as shelling continues on Kashmir border

Synagogue memorial stone vandalised in antisemitic attack in France

Deadly Enricher-on-Enricher Violence in Barcelona

Egypt’s grand imam calls polygamy an ‘injustice’ for women

Trump investigation: US House panel launches probe into possible obstruction by president  Congressman Nadler reminds me of Dean Wurmer from ANIMAL HOUSE.

Chief Imam Of Egypt Draws Backlash From Other Imams For Denouncing Polygamy

Christianophobia and Islamophilia Among Catalonian Marxists

ISIS Uses ‘Human Shields’ To Stall US-Backed-Forces Final Push

Proof of Bias? Poll Finds 99% of CNN Viewers Think Trump Lied About Russia

How the prospect of a fifth term for Algeria’s president sparked the biggest protests in 30 years

Hundreds of Isis prisoners with ‘no blood on their hands’ released in Syria

Anti-Semitic Vandalism Surges Across Eastern France

Helping Asylum Seekers in the Netherlands is a Dangerous Business

Two American children may be trapped in last Isis enclave in Syria, father says

Google refuses to remove Saudi government app that lets men track and control women  Political Correctness is all very fine/But don’t let it hurt the bottom line.

British special forces expected to step into counter-terrorism vacuum after US pulls out of Afghanistan  Because, after all, the only people who can do anything about terrorism are white people….

A socially acceptable form of murder: honour killings in Russia’s North Caucasus

Steve Sailer reports.

It will be interesting to see whether the Democrat party’s adult supervision will survive much longer.

Read it.

Does anyone else always hear Darth Vader’s voice in their head whenever they read the letters CNN?

Read it.

Automation is often presented as an inexorably advancing force, whether it’s ushering in a threat to jobs or a promise of increased leisure or larger profits. We’re made to imagine the robots rising, increasingly mechanized systems of production, more streamlined modes of everyday living. But the truth is that automation technology and automated systems very often fail. And even when they do, they nonetheless frequently wind up stranded in our lives.

For every automated appliance or system that actually makes performing a task easier—dishwashers, ATMs, robotic factory arms, say—there seems to be another one—self-checkout kiosks, automated phone menus, mass email marketing—that actively makes our lives worse.

I hate these things, and will not usr them. I’ll actually go buy stuff somewhere else.

The horror!

I’ll bet they haven’t heard of Gloria Steinem, either.

‘It gets real personal, real fast’: Dems fear targeting Trump kids could backfire  Oh, ya think?

Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to de-legitimize the 2020 election  The way CNN keeps trying to de-legitimize the 2016 election?

One CNN Guest Uses McSally Rape Claim To Attack Trump — The Next Attacks McSally  Because they’re Republicans and Republicans cannot be allowed to accumulate Pokemon Victim Points.

Democrats Poised To Disregard Mueller On Collusion, Launch Their Own Investigations  If you don’t like the facts you find, find some facts you like — or can make up.

Trump Is Right ? The Latest Investigation Against Him Is Another ‘Witch Hunt’

Media Magic: How a Democrat Pedophile Became a ‘Trump Scandal’

‘Tim Apple’: Trump calls Apple CEO Tim Cook by wrong name during White House meeting Scraaaaaaape that barrel.

Trump is trying to pay his way to an annihilation of Palestinian statehood, and an erasure of Israel’s crimes  Robert Fisk is the guy for whom ‘fisking’ was named, since his writing typically offers a fertile field for it.

Beware the Ides of Trump  Hope springs eternal in the NeverTrumper breast.

Media Compare Alleged Serial Underage Rapist R. Kelly to Kavanaugh, Trump  Because everything bad is Trump’s fault.

Tim Cook Changes His Twitter Handle To ‘Tim Apple’ After Trump Gaffe

‘CNN Tonight’ Muddies Waters on Anti-Semitism, Downplays Omar to Bash Trump

Jared Kushner goes rogue in Saudi Arabia, prompting national security concerns  ‘Goes rogue’? Seriously?

Read it.

Time to compare Pokemon Victim Points and see whose is bigger.

Read it.

I remember when Arnie pretended to be a Republican.

I guess there’s no more money to be made that way.

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And that’s a big problem.

Ace of Spades brings the happy news.

Well, at least we cleared that up.

Read it.

Just in case you’re keeping track.

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This madness, which long ago infected university campuses, is now seeping into HR departments of large employers. The result is the rise of the woke corporation, and it might affect the way you work. Certainly, no one should assume that their own company, however sensible-seeming, is immune.

Crackpot ideas that used to be confined to neo-Marxist professors in grievance studies departments have been enthusiastically embraced by the giants of capitalism. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola are all on board and anyone who publicly challenges this new orthodoxy is not merely endangering their chances of promotion, but at risk of being fired.

Read it.

Bryan Caplan is a GMU economist who likes to bet doom-sayers that they’re full of it. He has an impressive track record for winning.,

Read it.

It is a truth universally acknowledged among wonky introverts that derive their identity from the contents of their minds over the coalition to which they belong that the left-right political spectrum must be in want of an overhaul.

Read it.

Returning to designs abandoned in the 1970s, start-ups are developing a new kind of reactor that promises to be much safer and cleaner than current ones.

Our future depends on nuclear power. These guys are trying to help.

Check it out.

A ‘Portmanteau and Rhyme Generator’. Give it a try.

Read it.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that there were a lot of Orthodox Christians among the Maya.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity in particular has been growing rapidly, as a number of schismatic Catholic groups have expressed their desire to become Eastern Orthodox and have been received under the jurisdiction of Eastern Orthodox hierarchs.

I guess they took the Rod Dreher option.

Read it.

I guess walls only work if the Force is with you. Or something.

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Think how much more material would be reused if plastic recycling didn’t entail washing, sorting and individual processing. Now, IBM researchers have developed a new chemical process called VolatileCatalyst that eliminates these steps. VolCat recycling grinds up plastics, adds a chemical catalyst and cooks them at temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius. The chemicals eat through polymer strands, producing a fine white powder ready to be made into new containers.

House Democrats Have A Timetable For Demanding Trump’s Tax Returns  I’m sure he has a timetable for refusing.

Maxine Waters Delivers Wild Rant, Asks Trump If He’s ‘Still In Love’ With Kim Jong Un  Let’s ask Congresswoman BitterBeerFace whether she’s still in love with Louis Farrakhan.

Kimmel: CPAC Is ‘Largest Gathering’ of Anti-Vaxxers Led by a ‘Dementia’-Stricken Trump  There is, of course, no connection between ‘anti-vaxxers’ and either CPAC or Trump — except in the delusions of people like Kimmel.

CNN Rips President Trump for Hugging, ‘Groping’ American Flag at CPAC

Stephen Colbert targets Trump in Game of Thrones parody: ‘Subpoenas are coming’  Scraaaaaaape that barrel.

Laurene Powell Jobs says media should be careful, Trump attacks ‘out of a dictator’s playbook’  I can see where marrying Steve Jobs could make you an expert on ‘dictator’s playbooks’.

CNN Mocks Trump For Hugging American Flag At CPAC

CNN Aghast: Trump Signed Checks on Days He Fulfilled Official Duties

Revolving Door: House Intel Committee Hires Rabidly Anti-Trump MSNBC Analyst

Rep. Rashida Tlaib To Introduce Impeachment Resolution Against Trump  I guess she wanted to be the first on her block. It’ll be interesting to see whether she bothers to some up with some plausible excuse or whether it just boils down to ‘BECAUSE TRUMP’.

No-deal Brexit would take back control and hand it to Trump, experts say  And GOD KNOWS we can’t have THAT, right?

Anderson Cooper Plugs Liberal Poll: 64 Percent Say Trump ‘Committed Crimes’ Before Election

Read it.

Forbes.com contributor Elizabeth MacBride recently produced an essay that says far more about herself than the subject she has been supposedly getting to know over the course of “more than a year.” In “The Second Amendment Is A Marketing Slogan, And Other Lessons from The Gun Business Beat,” we are witness to what happens when a writer uses his or her own pre-existing beliefs to interpret what they see. In the world of intelligence gathering it’s called “mirror imaging.”

That approach might be an acceptable approach for a novelist, but such clear bias coming from a “business writer” who claims to be reporting on what she found in that role is a real disservice to Forbes readers. Serving as a self-appointed tour guide for those on the other side of our nation’s cultural divide when it comes to gun ownership, she is now only reinforcing the biases of those who would never deign to set foot on a range or venture near a gun counter

Read it.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have held up California’s new, error-plagued automatic voter registration program as a model for the nation, and are now pushing for a nationalized version of the program in a bill called the “For the People Act.”

The bill would require all states to implement automatic voter registration systems, which advocates claim would improve the accuracy of voter registration rolls, prevent ineligible people from registering, help election officials do less work to keep voter registration records accurate, and make it easier for eligible voters to register or update their registration records.

Yet since California started its own automatic voter registration program last April, exactly the opposite has happened.

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I think that they ought to raise it back to 21. The pathetic excuse used to lower it to 18, that there was a draft and that people who could be called on to die for their county ought to be able to vote, no longer applies.

Read it.

This micro-generation of Silicon Valley start-ups did two basic things: It put together a labor pool to deliver food or clean toilets or assemble IKEA bookshelves, and it found people who needed those things done. Academics called this a “two-sided market,” but to a user, it meant tapping on a phone and watching the world rearrange itself to satisfy your desires. Convenience drove consumer demand. Economic need and work flexibility drove the labor supply. At least in theory.

And of course, this being The Atlantic, Voice of the Crust, they have to put a Marxian spin on it.

Politically, the world is night and day, though. In that context, these apps take on a strange pall. The haves and the have-nots might be given new names: the demanding and the on-demand. These apps concretize the wild differences that the global economy currently assigns to the value of different kinds of labor. Some people’s time and effort are worth hundreds of times less than other people’s. The widening gap between the new American aristocracy and everyone else is what drives both the supply and demand of Uber-for-X companies.

Workers of the world, arise! You have nothing to lose but your gigs!

Read it.

Sometimes the old ways are best.

Read it.

I guess she didn’t have enough Victim Pokemon Points to be a big enough fish in the Senate.

I smell another RINO like Murkowski in the making.