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Hong Kong Hit by Another Weekend of Clashes, Tear Gas, Public Anger 2019-08-11 Hong Kong has been rocked by yet another weekend of tear gas, baton charges and angry protests amid a deepening confrontation between anti-extradition protesters and the city authorities. Riot police fired multiple rounds of tear gas at "illegal" protests and made arrests in several districts of the city on Sunday, as pro-China thugs attacked anti-extradition protesters in North Point. "HK Riot Police fired bullet and headshot a young lady," Joshua Wong, a former leader of the 2014 pro-democracy movement, said in a caption to a photo posted...

With conservative freedom of speech under attack across social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest, social media giant Facebook has begun directly attacking conservative groups, individuals, and content under the guise of shielding users from false content and hate speech. Carole Quattro Levine, founder of the Facebook-based conservative media site “Flyover Culture,” is among the latest, but not nearly the first victim of Facebook’s crackdown. According to Levine, Facebook’s censorship arose after sites such as her own “stunned the political world in 2016” by empowering like-minded conservatives often overlooked by coastal political elites and mainstream media, and thus ushering...

Previously, while listening on phone, heard very sympathetic interviews with Tommy, both prior to sentencing with crowd roaring outside, and from visiting Canadian journo while he is in jail. Now unavailable, for reasons I can't fathom. So here's the video of the demo, belatedly.

I recently quipped that 1943's The Song of Bernadette was "the best Catholic movie ever made by two Jews." Its admirers insist you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate this ("based on a true") story of Marian visions and miraculous healings, so maybe those unexpectedly ecumenical origins explain why. But I'm not sure they're right. No one can watch this (or any movie) through another's eyes. The Song of Bernadette must surely be baffling and even annoying to most Jews, Protestants, and, frankly, not a few Catholics, no? The film was produced by David O. Selznick from the surprise...

Retired Submarine Commander Sues Navy to Release USS Thresher Investigation By: Ben Werner August 9, 2019 8:57 AM • Updated: August 11, 2019 7:40 PM A retired nuclear submarine commander filed suit against the Navy to gain access to records classified for more than a half-century after the sinking of USS Thresher (SSN-593) – the Navy’s worst nuclear submarine disaster. Capt. James Bryant, who served on three Thresher-class subs, including a tour as commanding officer of USS Guardfish (SSN-612), has in his retirement taken to investigating the cause of Thresher’s sinking. “I’m trying to find out what happened because it’s...

Navy Reverting DDGs Back to Physical Throttles, After Fleet Rejects Touchscreen Controls By: Megan Eckstein August 9, 2019 10:46 AM SAN DIEGO – The Navy will begin reverting destroyers back to a physical throttle and traditional helm control system in the next 18 to 24 months, after the fleet overwhelmingly said they prefer mechanical controls to touchscreen systems in the aftermath of the fatal USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) collision. The investigation into the collision showed that a touchscreen system that was complex and that sailors had been poorly trained to use contributed to a loss of control of the...

Today’s Open thread Sunday, as I continue my weekend vacation, is a suggestion from Blonde Gator proposed after linking an article bemoaning yet another Millennial dilemma: their inability to afford “ethical” furniture. BG posted it along with this comment: “These mean little dumb-ass millennials will attack most viciously anything they don't (or WON'T) understand. Read the article....here is your BEVERAGE alert.” So consider yourself warned.The budget furniture dilemma: As companies like Wayfair face criticism, is buying from them the right thing to do?BG suggested that since everyone of *ahem* a certain age has gone junkin’ for wonderful furniture finds that...

In a move likely to have implications for Japan, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that discussions have begun with South Korea to get the Asian ally to pay more for the cost of maintaining U.S. troops there. “South Korea has agreed to pay substantially more money to the United States in order to defend itself from North Korea,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post, saying that Seoul had paid the U.S. “very little” over the “past many decades.” “Talks have begun to further increase payments to the United States,” he wrote. “South Korea is a very wealthy nation that...

<p>We’re old enough to remember the LiveStrong days when cyclist Lance Armstrong was an American hero. But as they say, never meet your heroes, and never follow them on Twitter either. Is this supposed to be virtue signaling or a humblebrag?</p>

Marine Raider Killed While Assisting in Iraqi Security Force Mission By: Megan Eckstein August 11, 2019 9:04 PM A Marine Raider was killed Saturday by enemy small arms fire while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. Gunnery Sgt. Scott Koppenhafer, 35, of Mancos, Colo., died Aug. 10 in an incident that is still under investigation, according to a Pentagon announcement. Koppenhafer was assigned to the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, part of the Marine Forces Special Operations Command out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. According to a separate statement released Saturday by U.S. Central Command, an unnamed service member was killed during...

If there’s one place one can find plenty of nicknames, it’s within the sprawling landscape of the armed forces. When it comes to the greater civilian world, there’s no historical precedent or agreed upon social norm for how someone or something gains a substitute informal title. However, given the Department of Defense’s fondness of rigid structure, it should be no surprise that when it comes to nicknames, there’s a policy for them, too.

The Trump administration on Monday issued a long-awaited rule strengthening the ability of federal officials to deny green cards to immigrants deemed likely to rely on government aid. Officials described the so-called "public charge" rule as a way to ensure those granted permanent residency are self-sufficient -- and protect taxpayers in the process. “The principle driving it is an old American value, and that’s self-sufficiency,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli told Fox News in an interview. “It’s a core principle -- the American Dream itself -- and it’s one of the things that distinguishes us,...

Unlike his assumed hero, Colin Kaepernick, Olympic fencer Race Imoden has a pretty good lock on his career: he has a day job as a super man-child model. Race Imoden’s publicity photo for the Wilhelmina Agency Why do you care? You probably don’t but Race (who names their kid “Race” – weenie liberal parents, that’s who) is the Olympic fencer who took a knee on the podium last week after his team won gold at the Pan Am games. Then used the opportunity to tweet his feeble mind: Never mind that he signed a statement promising to refrain from demonstrations...

We think of air conditioning as a “first world” luxury, but it’s really more of an American one. In Europe, fewer than 5% of households have air conditioning, according to the International Energy Agency, and even in hot regions like Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, only 8% of households have it. In the US, nearly 90% of households are air conditioned. In New York, where the summer reverberates with the hum of air conditioners, that percentage seems even higher. Along certain avenues, you walk in a sprinkle of condensation dripping from row after row of window units above,...

After the passage of three pro-Israel bills by the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the course of one week, I am reminded just how strong and deeply rooted American support for the state of Israel really is. Last month's votes serve as irrefutable evidence that the attempts by some to paint Israel as a partisan and divisive issue has failed once again. They refute claims that Democrats have abandoned Israel and contradict the notion that American support for Israel should be curtailed. The sweeping support the state of Israel and the American Jewish community received in Congress...

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Russian scientists have indicated that they were working on miniaturised sources of nuclear energy when a rocket engine exploded last week, increasing scrutiny of the possibility that the accident occurred while testing an experimental cruise missile powered by a small reactor. The explosion last Thursday at a military testing ground in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region killed at least five people and caused radiation readings in neighbouring cities to spike to 20 times their normal level for half an hour. Russia’s defence ministry said the explosion had taken place during testing of a rocket engine, but the country’s nuclear agency, Rosatom, later...

President Trump “resisters” are urging people to sabotage his New Hampshire rally this week by reserving free tickets and leaving the seats empty, instead protesting outside the Manchester arena — a strategy political operatives on both sides say won’t hurt Trump, and could backfire. Sergio Siano, who describes himself as a progressive and a democratic socialist on social media, tweeted over the weekend about Trump’s rally this coming Thursday: “Let’s hit him where it hurts: his rally attendance. Book your two free tickets to Trump’s New Hampshire rally, don’t attend, and join us in protesting outside. Let’s make this go...

If there was ever any doubt about the depth and extent of the deep-state coup against both candidate and President Donald J. Trump and the number of deep-state actors attempting to thwart the will of the American people, it vanished with the release of partially redacted copies of former Deputy Atty. Gen. Bruce Ohr’s FBI 302 reports (interview summaries) on Thursday evening obtained by Judicial Watch. They confirm that Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie were not merely passive conduits for the fraudulent Steele Dossier but were active participants in the plot to deny Trump the presidency. They confirm that...

Corrections officers had not checked in on financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for “several” hours before he was found hanging in his cell Saturday, a person familiar with the matter said, just one in a series of missteps in the hours leading up to his death. Officers should have been checking on Epstein, who was being held in a special housing unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, every 30 minutes