Friday, November 30, 2018
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina sinks confirmation of Thomas Farr to US District Court in this congress, but cocaine Mitch may have another plan
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott announced Thursday he will oppose embattled judicial nominee Thomas Farr, in a reversal of his position a day earlier that seemingly ends the nominee's chances for now amid fierce criticism by civil rights groups. ...
Farr was first nominated to the federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina by former President George W. Bush in 2006, but never received a confirmation vote. ...
Prominent Democrats immediately applauded Scott's decision Thursday to oppose Farr, and attacked President Trump for doubling down on Bush's nomination. ...
Top Republicans had also stood behind Farr this week. It remains unclear whether the Senate's GOP leadership will try to reconsider Farr when the new 53-47 Republican majority -- sans Flake -- is seated in January.
“The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary -- a body that's frequently been held up by my Democratic colleagues as the ‘gold standard’ -- has awarded Mr. Farr its highest possible rating: unanimously well qualified,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Mao's struggle sessions literally come home: Surplus Chinese communists placed in Muslim homes to convert Uighurs to Han secularism
The old woman was a spy, sent by the Chinese government to infiltrate his family.
There are many like her. According to the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, as of the end of September, 1.1 million local government workers have been deployed to ethnic minorities’ living rooms, dining areas and Muslim prayer spaces, not to mention at weddings, funerals and other occasions once considered intimate and private.
All this is taking place in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, home to the predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who have long reported discrimination at the hands of the country’s majority Han Chinese.
While government notices about the “Pair Up and Become Family” program portray it as an affectionate cultural exchange, Uighurs living in exile in Turkey said their loved ones saw the campaign as a chilling intrusion into the only place that they once felt safe.
They believe the program is aimed at coercing Uighurs into living secular lives like the Han majority. Anything diverging from the party’s prescribed lifestyle can be viewed by authorities as a sign of potential extremism — from suddenly giving up smoking or alcohol, to having an “abnormal” beard or an overly religious name.
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Uighur homeland has been blanketed with stifling surveillance, from armed checkpoints on street corners to facial-recognition-equipped CCTV cameras steadily surveying passers-by. Now, Uighurs say, they must live under the watchful eye of the ruling Communist Party even inside their own homes. ...
The Xinjiang United Front Work Department said in February that government workers should live with their assigned families every two months, for five days at a time.
The United Front, a Communist Party agency, indicates in the notice that the program is mandatory for cadres. ...
A February piece on the Communist Party’s official news site said: “The vast majority of party cadres are not only living inside villagers’ homes, but also living inside the hearts of the masses.”
Overseas Uighurs said the “visits” to their relatives’ homes often lasted longer than five days, and they were closely monitored the whole time. The cadres would ask their family members where they were going and who they were meeting whenever they wanted to leave the house. ...
All government employees in the region are required to conduct such visits in order to better understand villagers’ needs, according to Gu: “Because we’re always sitting in our offices, we don’t know what they really need. Only through penetrating the masses can we truly serve them.”
Like Hillary vs. Trump, Beto O'Rourke outspent Ted Cruz and lost, but some Democrats think he's their guy in 2020
But not Rahm Emanuel.
"If Beto O'Rourke wants to go and run for president, God bless him, he should put his hat in and make his case. But, he lost. You don't usually promote a loser to the top of party," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday on MSNBC, becoming the highest-profile Democrat yet to air doubts about the excitement swirling around El Paso congressman. ...
One reason Democrats see potential for O'Rourke in a crowded presidential field is that he displayed a rare gift for inspiring donors nationwide.
He smashed through all fundraising records for any Senate candidate anywhere ever. He had a $38 million haul in one three-month period alone on his way past the $70 million mark. A final post-election disclosure due next week will push the total even higher. He outspent Cruz roughly 3-1.
In Democrats' current short list for 2020 Beto runs third behind Lunchbox Joe and Bernie Sanders. Hillary's not on the list. Methinks Rahm would like to be.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Real Clear Markets: Why Victoria's Secret Is Struggling To Stay Relevant by Amy Odell, TIME
There is no business model for remaining relevant in a world gone mad.
VP Mike Pence overcomes Republican Jeff Flake alliance with Democrats to advance nomination of Thomas Farr to NC US District Court post vacant since 2005
The judgeship is just one of 136 current federal court vacancies. Authorized positions in 2018 are north of 860.
Senators typically veto nominees they don't like in their jurisdictions by returning a negative blue slip on the individual.
North Carolina is a playground for Supreme Court intervention in representation decisions involving race through the 1965 Voting Rights Act, making judicial appointments there radioactive. Both US Senators from North Carolina have been Republicans since 2014 when Tillis defeated Hagan. Burr was re-elected in 2016.
Barack Obama lets one go: "Suddenly America's like the biggest . . . gas, that was me, people"
Here.
Whooooooweeeeee, that one smells:
The blocked rule would not have affected most fracking operations in the United States, since it would have applied only to fracking on federal lands. The vast majority of fracking in the United States — almost 90 percent — is done on state and private land and is governed by state and local regulations. The rule was unlikely to have stopped most new fracking on public lands, although oil and gas companies complained that it could have slowed operations by creating burdensome paperwork.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
I'm guessing the Broward County election results upset her stomach
Wilson allegedly pulled a small “lock back knife” from her purse, “opened the knife and told the victim she was going to ‘gut’ him,” the police report said.
While doing so, she pulled back her right hand with the knife as if she was going to attack the victim with it, the report read.
If you need an attorney in Tucson, Arizona, make sure you pick one who knows the difference between "in" and "out"
The readers are having none of attorney Frances Lynch's opinion at USA Today, or at her Twitter feed.
The images of the Berlin barbed wire are only in her head. Be careful that you don't cut yourself.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Ha ha, Jack Ma, member of the Chinese Communist Party since the 1980s
State-run Chinese media on Tuesday reported on a social media post from someone claiming to be a former classmate of Ma's, who said that they joined the Communist Party while in university.
"We all joined the party around the second or third year of university. Back then, joining the party meant not just that you were a good student, but also that you had integrity, organizational ability, enthusiasm and idealism," the post said, according to a translation that matched a screenshot of the post seen by CNBC.
When it comes to divide and conquer, libertarians are the easiest to defeat because they're already divided
Something something about hang together or hang separately.
Uighur woman named Mihrigul Tursun claims genocidal Chinese communists tortured her with electrocution
One day, Tursun recalled, she was led into a room and placed in a high chair, and her legs and arms were locked in place.
“The authorities put a helmet-like thing on my head, and each time I was electrocuted, my whole body would shake violently and I would feel the pain in my veins,” Tursun said in a statement read by a translator.
“I don’t remember the rest. White foam came out of my mouth, and I began to lose consciousness,” Tursun said. “The last word I heard them saying is that you being ... Uighur is a crime.”
Monday, November 26, 2018
China's richest man outed as Communist Party member after pre-mature resignation announcement
Like these are unrelated developments, or surprising after the rise of Xi Jinping Pooh.
No one makes Jack Ma kind of money in China without the blessing of the Communist Party. And no one stops making Jack Ma kind of money without the urging of the Communist Party.
People do very well indeed under "communism".
Jack Ma, the head of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is a Communist Party member, the official Party newspaper said on Monday, debunking a public assumption the billionaire was politically unattached.
The People's Daily revealed Ma's Party membership in a list of 100 people it said had helped drive the country "reform and opening up" process. Ma is China's richest man with a fortune of $35.8 billion, according to Forbes.
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