“What you get when you put Bob Dylan’s son in the lead vocals(Jakob) Tom Petty’s lead guitar playing the slide (Mike Campbell) and Counting Crows singer doing backing vocals (Adam Duritz)” – 6th Avenue Heartache.
An even better tune.
I Want A New Country
Swamp, Draining
The appointment of Grenell can be looked at as President Trump trying to cut the Gordian knot that exists due to a myriad of self-interests deep inside the intelligence apparatus.
The SSCI will not allow any ODNI office member to expose their corrupt intelligence operations. Recently Oklahoma Senator James Lankford quietly quit the SSCI. It has been speculated that Lankford left the committee due to rank corruption and their ongoing plans to hide prior abuses. Mitch McConnell selected Senator Ben Sasse to replace Lankford to retain and achieve the continued objectives of the committee.
The *tell* will be to watch how members of the SSCI respond to the Grenell appointment.
This could become ugly.
Related.
Dude, you were a creative writer who inexplicably wound up a NatSec boss because your brother ran CBS News.
Sit the fuck down https://t.co/OZmvFNxDdI
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 20, 2020
State Of The Nation
Pretty much.
This is insane. The federal government is not just refusing to enforce the law, but IS RETREATING. https://t.co/JXW1TdiatR
— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) February 20, 2020
Remember now — the government doesn’t order the police after their enemies. That would be dangerous.
In the unlikely case that you haven’t figured this out on your own: This is Trudeau’s mob. They’re advancing his policy goals as surely as if he were directing their activities personally. If he didn’t want these blockades and disruptions, he’d stop them. But he does, so he won’t.
In The Mail
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How Not to Become a Millennial: Learning from America’s Largest Sociological Disaster Never before in the history of the world has more time, effort, and resources been invested into a single generation than the Millennials. Be it incredibly expensive college degrees, perfectly privileged diets, life-coping drugs, uncountable therapist visits, even bending reality so that everybody was impossibly a winner, no expense was spared for the most pampered generation in human history. |
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Was The Bolton “Leaked Manuscript” A Trap?
Who could have seen this coming?
Bolton also revealed that he was surprised the Senate voted against him testifying, but dowplayed the impact his testimony would have had anyway. “People can argue about what I should have said and what I should have done. I would bet you a dollar right here and now, my testimony would have made no difference to the ultimate outcome.”
How strange.
It’s Probably Nothing
Authorities in Iran have confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus, a day after two people died from the infection in the city of Qom.
Alireza Vahabzadeh, an adviser to Iran’s health minister, said on Wednesday a total of five cases have been confirmed in Iran so far.
“The three new cases from today include two in Qom and one in Araq in central Iran. The case in Araq is a doctor,” he told Al Jazeera. “It remains unclear where the virus in Iran has come.”
[…]
The deaths in Iran on Tuesday were the first fatalities in the Middle East region and only the seventh and eighth death caused by the virus outside mainland China. A health official cited by the semi-official IRNA news agency said the victims had not had any contact with foreigners or with Chinese nationals.
Move Along, Nothing Here To See
“Two cars derailed and there’s no danger for the public, no injuries, no fire and no dangerous goods are involved,” CN senior manager of public affairs Olivier Quenneville told CTV News.
A source reportedly told CTV News that they believe something was purposely put onto the tracks to derail the train. A CN spokesperson did not confirm whether or not that is true.
When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal
Pardon, coming right up.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
We Don’t Need No Stinking Kiddie Scooters
Ride it like you stole it: Montreal ends electric scooter experiment, citing ‘disorder’…
I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords
Hackers have manipulated multiple Tesla cars into speeding up by 50 miles per hour. The researchers fooled the car’s Mobileye EyeQ3 camera system by subtly altering a speed limit sign on the side of a road in a way that a person driving by would almost never notice.
This demonstration from the cybersecurity firm McAfee is the latest indication that adversarial machine learning can potentially wreck autonomous driving systems, presenting a security challenge to those hoping to commercialize the technology.
Mobileye EyeQ3 camera systems read speed limit signs and feed that information into autonomous driving features like Tesla’s automatic cruise control, said Steve Povolny and Shivangee Trivedi from McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research team.
The researchers stuck a tiny and nearly imperceptible sticker on a speed limit sign. The camera read the sign as 85 instead of 35, and in testing, both the 2016 Tesla Model X and that year’s Model S sped up 50 miles per hour.
The modified speed limit sign reads as 85 on the Tesla’s heads-up display. A Mobileye spokesperson downplayed the research by suggesting this sign would fool a human into reading 85 as well.
h/t KP
February 20, 2020: Reader Tips
One Headlight — Wallflowers
Great tune. Thread’s up.
Bottom Story Of The Day
Via email: On the agenda to be dealt with at the next South Glengarry Township Council meeting…
Nevada Debate
It’s murder on the debate floor pic.twitter.com/bEyzL5VMRr
— 🌸 (@SailorZZtar) February 20, 2020
Wheeee!!!!! Vodkapundit is drunk blogging.
I'm waiting for the news that Bloomberg has fired his entire debate prep team during the commercial break. #DemDebate
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) February 20, 2020
@TimRunsHisMouth — There’s so many car wrecks happening in rapid fire on #DemDebate that it’s literally impossible to live tweet. I’m just going to chant “Let them fight!”
We totally agree. https://t.co/7BOXDykYoZ
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 20, 2020
I didn’t tune in until part way through the debate, but I suspect the acrimony might have begun with Klobuchar stealing Bloomberg’s box.
Bloomberg just threw the “c” word at Bernie to *gasps* from the audience. At this point, I swear he’s 50-50 on ditching the debate, announcing his support for Donald Trump and walking off the stage.
Har… and he just got Bernie to list his three houses.
Everyone on the stage promised to screw Bernie over if he wins the most delegates. Gonna be mean tweets tonight.
And now protestors interrupt Biden during closing statements.
But they’re “united” against Trump.
Addendum: Pete Buttigieg’s answers bore a striking resemblance to those of Justin “Word Salad” Trudeau, but not quite as gay.
State Of The Nation
The Dialogueing has begun.
• Tensions were high at a protest in Regina on Saturday, when a vehicle pushed through a line of demonstrators blocking Albert St.
• RCMP are investigating after a truck driver refused to stop for a group of protesters — allegedly hitting at least one of the demonstrators — while they blocked Highway 75 near Morris, Man., Monday, police say.
• Counter protesters in Edmonton have all but hauled away the barricades on the CN tracks. (Video)
Andrew Coyne is all atwitter.
Did a leading candidate for Conservative leader just endorse vigilantism as a response to railway barricades?
— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) February 19, 2020
Hey, Quebecers — it’s your turn.
Yang Banged
Some audition for President. Some audition for commentator.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is joining CNN as a political commentator, the network announced Wednesday.
“I’m excited to join @CNN to help shed light on the election and the candidates’ experiences,” Yang wrote in a tweet following the announcement. “Learned a lot these past months and am glad to contribute to the public discussion.”
He’ll appear on the network in his new capacity later Wednesday, he added.
Yang, a businessman who ended his campaign last week, rose from obscurity to become a highly-visible candidate, rallying a coalition of liberal Democrats, libertarians and some disaffected Republicans to form a devoted group of followers known as the Yang Gang.
My heart goes out to the naive millennials who donated to that campaign. (And Klobuchar’s).
Interview With A Recovering Vegan
@VeganRecovering – Thank you @trentloos for skillfully interviewing me for his Rural Route radio show. He digs into the psychology of why I went #vegan in 2002 — the painful spinal cord damage I suffered from decades of deficient diet — and why it’s so hard to leave “the cult” to eat meat again.
Podcast is here. (48 minutes)
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
h/t Raymond
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
The Bloomberg media prepares for tonight’s Democrat debate.
Watch: CNN caught coaching the crowd pic.twitter.com/2p5i92iDQG
— PolishPatriot™️ (@PolishPatriotTM) February 19, 2020
“Diamond Princess is COVID-19 mill”
There is “nobody in charge of infection protection” on the Diamond Princess: Passengers, crews, health care professionals working inside are at risk of infection, and the practice is even worse than what I saw in Africa. Immediate action is needed to save people inside.
Update: The WSJ and Toronto Star have picked up the story.