The fourth estate

Via Instapundit: "Trump is now being asked about the gorilla and media has reached its singularity."

When you've lost Politifact...

The Clinton campaign has maintained a website called "The Briefing" with "Facts about Hillary Clinton's emails."  It includes a link to a sympathetic Politifact analysis...from March.

Just about an hour ago, Politifact updated with this: "Fact-checking Hillary Clinton's claim that her email practices were 'allowed'."

Verdict: FALSE.  Better update that briefing.

Great racing day!

First, rookie Alexander Rossi won the Indianapolis 500 and the poor kid had to compose himself and clean up his tears of joy before climbing out of his car in Victory Lane.

Then in the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, Martin Truex, Jr (who has had a series of bad luck incidents this season) completely dominated the race tonight for his first win this season.  Like Rossi, he was liberally using a towel to "wipe away sweat" when it was obvious he was hiding some tears.

By the way, I was 90% sure that the NASCAR race was going to be ruined by rain, but not a drop fell to ruin Truex's parade.

On liars and Hillary...but I repeat myself

There's a great line in the otherwise lackluster movie "Shattered Glass" that always gives me a chuckle.  The serial fabrications of New Republic writer Stephen Glass are discovered and one fact-checker characterizes his story:

[after completely debunking Stephen Glass's New Republic article]
Adam Penenberg: But there is one thing in this story that checks out.
Kambiz Foroohar: What's that?
Adam Penenberg: There does appear to be a state in the union named Nevada.

That's how I think about Hillary's initial press conference at the United Nations to address the email issue.  Here's Jonah Goldberg:

Over a year ago, Clinton held a press conference at the United Nations intended to put the whole controversy to rest. Nearly every significant statement she made was a lie.

What's the clincher?  Hillary refused to cooperate with the State Department IG investigation:

Then again, if Clinton did nothing wrong, she also would have talked to the inspector general, as every other relevant secretary of state did. And she would have happily told her team to cooperate with the IG to clear the air. They all refused. I wonder why.

Just kidding. Of course I don’t wonder why. From the earliest days of this scandal — and it is a scandal — Clinton has lied.

Maybe it's just me (cheerfully biased!) and my buddies at the Politics sub-reddit, but I really don't see how Hillary escapes an indictment recommendation from the FBI.  There are just so many aspects to this controversy that scream violation of either the Federal Records Act or the laws governing classified information.  In fact, I'm placing 50-50 odds that she'll refuse to testify for the FBI and fall into the perjury trap.  You'd better believe her lawyers and PR people are sitting in a room, trying to figure out how to spin it.  Maybe James Comey voted for Reagan once.

Lying Hillary lies

Hot Air: "AP factcheck: Yes, Hillary lied about her e-mail server."

Joe Scarborough: "Everything she said there was a lie":

Joe Biden, please report to the on-deck circle

Here's Hillary lying back in October:

CNN’s JAKE TAPPER: “And you said it was allowed, too.”
HILLARY CLINTON: “Yes, it was.”
TAPPER: “Who allowed it?”
CLINTON: “It was allowed under the rules of the state department. And, again…”
TAPPER: “So nobody signed off on it?”
CLINTON: “No, it was allowed."

Good ole "passive voice" permission.  Of course, the State Department Inspector General released a report today indicating that: no, using a private email server was not allowed.  Reddit has a megathread on this topic but I think this guy has the best post summing up the accumulation of lies Hillary has lied about:

1) Hillary never sought permission to use a private email server
2) The private server violated standing State Department rules
3) After pledging to be "as helpful as possible", Hillary and key aides refused to talk with investigators
4) Staff was told to STFU about Hillary's server
5) Very early into its existence, the server was subject to several hacking attempts

Let's see: we have the IG report, Guccifer is taking a plea deal, and Brian Pagliano is already spilling the beans to the FBI.

Bernie, you magnificent bastard!

Extra - Free Beacon: "Clinton Failed to Report Multiple Attempts to Hack Personal Email"

“Notification is required when a user suspects compromise of, among other things, a personally owned device containing personally identifiable information,” investigators wrote in the report, which was released on Wednesday. “However, OIG found no evidence that the Secretary or her staff reported these incidents to computer security personnel or anyone else within the Department.”

Of course not.  Too many secret yoga routines.

More - Politico: "The 9 biggest revelations in the State IG report on Clinton's emails."

Even more - Commentary: "Why Hillary's rule-breaking matters."

Because socialism

How badly can you screw up a country that is awash in oil and is a founding member of OPEC?  So badly that you have to resort to that old rallying cry of "The Americans are coming!"  Hot Air: "Venezuelan President Maduro says country is ready for American invasion."

P. J. O'Rourke wrote a great book called "Eat the Rich" that reviews economic disparities between countries.  In the chapter "How to make everything out of nothing," he notes that rocky, isolated Hong Kong with very few natural resources is one of the richest places on Earth.  On the flip side, "How to make nothing out of everything," he contrasts Tanzania which has plenty of farmland and natural resources, but is mired in poverty.

Venezuela is in this latter category.  The country is blessed with oil, natural gas, bauxite, gold and iron ore to complement a huge amount of arable land in a temperate climate.  What went wrong?  Money printing, price controls, and all the other accouterments of socialism:

It is incredible that in this day and age, a government could be so blind, stupid, and cruel toward its own people.  It’s one thing to teach this sort of nonsense at expensive universities, but another to put it in practice and ruin people’s lives.

Eventually, even an oil-soaked country like Venezuela runs out of other people's money.

Hillary to Bernie: get bent

Fox News: "Clinton declines Fox News invitation to proposed Dem debate."

The campaigns earlier this year agreed in principle to hold a May debate.

Suckers!

It's happening!

The Hill: "Clinton hacker ‘Guccifer’ expected to plead guilty."

However, it is unclear which charges the 42-year-old will plead guilty to, or whether the move is part of a deal to cooperate with federal officials on other cases. 

Oh, sure, he's pleading guilty due to his mens rea.  He feels terrible!

What media bias?

Instapundit reports that the WashPost "begrudgingly" reported their own poll showed Trump ahead of Hillary.  This for a guy with the highest negatives among any candidate in Presidential history.  I tend to think that these negatives have nowhere to go but down, so what does that mean for the general election?

Yawn: another hate crime hoax

Chicago Tribune: "Lessons gleaned from a web of lies in Iowa."  Somebody started a drunk fight and tried to cover up his resulting ass-kicking in the worst way possible.

Today I learned: debt edition

Today I learned that the German word "schuld" means both "debt" and "guilt."

Thank heaven we live in a guilt-free America.  Instapundit: "Here we go again? Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic."

Egypt Air 804 found

Fox News: "Debris from EgyptAir plane crash found in Mediterranean, Egyptian military says."

Since reports of an explosion in midair are not reliable and the pilots did not answer a security check while the plane was flying, a struggle in the cockpit now seems to be a developing theory.

Flashback - The Atlantic magazine with this November 2001 story: "The Crash of EgyptAir 990."

No love for DWS

Politico: "Sanders camp slams Debbie Wasserman Schultz for 'throwing shade'."  Specifically, they've accused Debbie Downer of putting her thumb on the scale for Hillary.  IIRC, Debbie was against allowing Bernie Sanders to have a prime-time speech during the Democratic Convention.

A Brit for free speech

Hot Air: "JK Rowling: Silencing speech that offends you is standing with tyrants."

I think we all knew this

Or did we?  Because sometimes I think the mainstream media gets tired of reporting: "There go those Clintons again!"  Ace: "Wall Street Analyst: Clinton Charities' Finances Are So Convoluted and Dodgy It Rises to the Level of Fraud."

Just a reminder here: Bill's typical haul for a speech skyrocketed after Hillary became Secretary of State.

After his wife became Secretary of State, former President Bill Clinton began to collect speaking fees that often doubled or tripled what he had been charging earlier in his post White House years, bringing in millions of dollars from groups that included several with interests pending before the State Department, an ABC News review of financial disclosure records shows.

Pure coincidence, I'm sure.

Tireless cheerleader for Obamacare now reports

New York Times: "Sorry, We Don’t Take Obamacare - The growing pains of the health care act are frustrating patients."

Amy Moses and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: “We don’t take Obamacare,” the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president’s signature health legislation.

Supporters of Obamacare are always extolling about how the law has cut the number of uninsured.  The problem is that the insurance is useless if you can't find a doctor:

But when she tried to visit her longtime doctor using the new plan, she found she could not.

I seem to remember certain people noting that when reimbursement rates drop to be in line with Medicare, a lot of doctors are not going to accept such low payments:

Some of the problems may have been predictable.

If only there were some kind of unbiased organization designed to study and report these issues.

The last in line

USA Today: "This woman is the only person left born in the 1800s."  Emma Morano from Italy says the secret is to eat a raw egg everyday.

Meanwhile in Florida

Hot Air: "Florida insurers seeking double-digit rate hikes under Obamacare."

Every year the insurance companies ask for significant rate hikes and every year the Obama Administration says: "Oh, you don't need that much".  Then UnitedHealthcare pulled out, showing they weren't bluffing.

Surrounded by sycophants

Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta: "Yeah, Barry was never serious about stopping Iran from getting nukes."

Because: historical history-making.  So suck-up Ben Rhodes was in charge of foreign policy and suck-up Valerie Jarrett is in charge of domestic policy.  We're in the best of hands.

Related - Observer: "As Boyish Ben Rhodes Drops Truth Bombs, Obama’s Media Mask Crumbles - The president's Mini-Me reveals salesmanship—not always consistent with facts—matters above everything else."  Hat tip: Instapundit.