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Posted by Taryn O'Neill on January 06, 2016 5 Comments

China performed a series of test flights for the first time Saturday on a newly constructed runway in the South China Sea. The 3,000 meter airstrip sits atop a Fiery Cross Reef, an artificial island constructed by the Chinese in the Spratly Islands region. The airstrip is long enough to accommodate a variety of aircraft including 4-engine jets, military transport planes, and the nation's most advanced fighters. A spokesperson with the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed a civil flight test was performed with civilian aircraft. 

The Spratly Islands are one of the world's most highly contested regions and are claimed by Vietnam, China, and Taiwan. They are also claimed in part by the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia. Responding to China's activities on Saturday, Vietnam launched a formal diplomatic protest and it is expected that the Philippines will follow suit. Vietnam's response comes after an improvement in American-Vietnamese relations as China's presence in this region becomes a shared threat to both America and Vietnam. Defense Secretary Carter's vocal opposition to China's activities has further emboldened countries bordering the South China Sea.

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Posted by Andrew Branca on January 06, 2016 86 Comments
Numerous pre-trial rulings were made today by Judge Barry Williams, the trial judge overseeing the "Freddie Gray" trials in Baltimore. Most were unsurprising, but one in particular raised eyebrows: Judge Williams ordered that Officer William Porter, whose case just ended in a mistrial and who is scheduled to be retried in June, can be compelled to testify in the trials of the other five officers charged in Freddie Gray's death. In particular, Porter will be compelled to testify in the next scheduled "Freddie Gray" trial, that of Officer Caesar Goodson, the driver of the van in which Freddie Gray suffered his traumatic neck injury. Jury selection for the Goodson trial begins next Monday. Judge Williams' ruling came in the form of today's denial of a motion by Porter's defense counsel to quash a prosecution subpoena for Porter to testify at Goodson's trial.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 06, 2016 12 Comments
Wednesday, Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi hurled an already debunked accusation at Committee Republicans. They claim the contentious investigation into the terrorist attack on the U.S.'s Benghazi embassy in 2012 has gone on longer than the Congressional investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. There's one tiny little problem with their latest claim -- it's not true. Committee Democrats write [emphasis mine]:
Today marks the 609th day since the authorization of the Select Committee on Benghazi, surpassing the length of time the 9/11 Commission took to investigate the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 06, 2016 23 Comments
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has made life difficult for centrist Democrats. Sanders self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist; a label most Democrats avoid like the plague. During and interview airing Tuesday, Hardball's Chris Matthews asked Hillary Clinton to explain the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist. Not once, not twice, but three times Matthews asked Hillary to explain how Democrats and Socialists are different. Clinton refused. Instead she talked about peace, love, and unity. Yes, really.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 06, 2016 8 Comments
Late Tuesday night North Korea claimed to have the 'H-Bomb of Justice.' Under tutelage of Dictator Junior, Kim Jong-un, North Korean state media made the following announcement:

LEGAL INSURRECTION QUICK TAKES

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Posted by Occam's Razor on January 06, 2016 1 Comment
We wrote previously about the scheduled anti-Israel resolutions at the seasonal faculty association meetings in 2015-2016. We are now in the midst of this season, with the American Historical Association (AHA) annual meeting in Atlanta this week. Once again, we see an attempt to politicize a reputable scholarly organization by a small group of radicals with an anti-Israel agenda. On the table at the AHA Business Meeting on Saturday, January 9, 2016, is a resolution condemning Israel's alleged mistreatment of Palestinians in education. Under the AHA Constitution, if the resolution passes the Business Meeting, it goes to the AHA Council for approval, non-concurrence or veto. If the Council votes not to concur, it goes to a full membership vote.[*] Unlike resolutions at the American Studies Association in 2013 (which passed) and currently at the American Anthropological Association (pending a membership vote), the AHA resolution does not explicitly call on the AHA to adopt the academic boycott of Israel pushed by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Rather, the AHA resolution is similar to the resolution which previously failed to pass a membership vote at the Moddern Language Association in 2014, denouncing Israel for allegedly violating the academic freedom of Palestinians. But the AHA resolution is just as much a part of the BDS agenda, and would set the stage in later years for a full BDS resolution at AHA. Where BDS supporters think they can pass a full academic boycott they do; where they think they can't, they try interim steps. I analyze the AHA resolution below.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 06, 2016 64 Comments
In the wake of Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the UK saw a huge response to a petition that calls for Trump to be banned from the UK.   While there is a petition against banning Trump, it has, so far, only 39,537 signatures. With 560,000 signatures on the petition for a ban, the UK parliament has tempered its initial stance and is now set to debate the Trump ban after all. The Guardian reports:
MPs are to debate calls for the US presidential candidate Donald Trump to be banned from the UK following his controversial comments about Muslims, after more than half a million people signed a petition.

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 06, 2016 12 Comments
While Obama cried for TV cameras yesterday, his administration was putting the finishing touches on a plan to transfer up to 17 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. This has been in the works for a while. Catherine Herridge of FOX News reported Monday:
Source: 'Al Qaeda followers' among 17 being transferred from Gitmo The group of 17 detainees expected to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay as early as this week includes “multiple bad guys” and “Al Qaeda followers,” a source who has reviewed the list told Fox News. Little is known publicly about which prisoners are being prepared for transfer, but the Obama administration has notified Congress it plans to ship out 17 detainees – some of whom could be transferred within days.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 06, 2016 4 Comments
As so many readers reviewed my review of The Big Short, which featured investments, I thought a good follow-up post would focus on the stock market. Obama's "Theater of the Absurd" gun control press conference played well on Wall Street, as stocks of gun makers soared in trading yesterday. Smith and Wesson stocks jumped over 11% in trading. LI #10 Smith and Wesson
Earnings per share is estimated to come in at $0.39 to $0.41, which is way above the previous estimate of $0.27 to $0.29. Analysts were expecting only $0.29.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 05, 2016 15 Comments
Ted Cruz's video ad, Invasion, is getting a lot of attention for the scenes of suits running across the border. But it's not the key moment in the video. That key moment comes when the screen splits to view Marco Rubio next to Cruz, with a cotton-mouth expression on his face as Cruz slams the economic impact of illegal immigration: Marco Rubio Ted Cruz Invasion Video

Posted by New Neo on January 05, 2016 17 Comments
[UPDATE 1/6/2016: The answer to the question is yes, the bill will get to Obama's desk. The measure passed.] Remember that slogan, "repeal and replace"? There have actually been quite a few bills passed in the House to repeal Obamacare during the last couple of years, whether you've noticed them or not. Here's an article about it from this past October:
House Republicans pushed forward with another vote to roll back the Affordable Care Act on Friday, passing a bill that would repeal several major pillars of President Obama’s landmark 2010 law, including the requirement that Americans have health coverage. The legislation, the latest of more than 50 bills by congressional Republicans to repeal all or part of the health law, would also halt federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The 240-189 vote will not change anything in the health law or Planned Parenthood, however, as Obama has indicated he would veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk.

Posted by Andrew Branca on January 05, 2016 75 Comments
Obama can once again lay credible claim to the title of "Best Gun Salesman Ever." His recently announced policy changes on guns not only do nothing to discourage gun purchases, they if anything facilitate even greater volumes of gun sales, and in particular machine guns, suppressors, short-barreled rifles/shotguns, and other highly controlled "NFA" items.  The ATF guidance purported to close the "gun show loophole" (spoiler: it doesn't, because there isn't such a thing) and the ATF policy "change" on NFA items are both embedded at the bottom of this post. Warning: Like Obama himself, both documents are extremely wordy and with little real-world effect.

Obama is "Best Gun Salesman Ever"

This is entirely consistent with Obama's actual effect on gun sales over both of his terms, during which sales have skyrocketed compared to prior administrations. The past 7 years of the Obama administration constitute only 40% of the time the modern NICS system has been in place, but nearly 60% of all NICS checks run.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 05, 2016 13 Comments
This story is the sum of the worst fears about the migrant crisis, and is sure to reverberate widely as more European countries seek to impose border controls. Germany's Deutsche Welle reports, String of New Year's Eve sexual assaults outrages Cologne:
Police in the western German city of Cologne responded on Monday to outrage over a string of sexual crimes over New Year's Eve. According to police, the series of assaults in one of the city's busiest thoroughfares represented a "completely new dimension of crime." Some 90 criminal complaints, including one allegation of rape, have been brought to the Cologne police department after women said they were molested by a crowd of men who had gathered in the city's famous square between its central train station and towering Gothic cathedral. Authorities expect more victims to come forward in the next few days. City police chief Wolfgang Albers said the crowd was composed of up to 1,000 heavily intoxicated men who gave the appearance of being "Arab or North African" in background.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 05, 2016 30 Comments
Turns out that the must-see movie of 2015 wasn't Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but The Big Short! The movie focuses on four finance professionals and 2 amateurs who predict the housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and use arcane rules and special deals to punish the big banks for their greed while making a hefty profit for themselves. I must admit, I was skeptical about how much I was going to enjoy the movie when my husband suggested seeing it this weekend. I detest preachy films that bash capitalism and deride businessmen as greedy.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on January 05, 2016 9 Comments
Corruption is inimical to rule of law and rule of law is the sine qua non of good governance and a free society.  So it is that the FCPA Blog's list of the eight most important developments from 2015 that provides insight into the state of U.S. efforts to promote good governance abroad. FCPA stands for the "Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" (15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1, et seq.), the principle tool for the U.S. government to penalize companies engaged in corrupt practices abroad.  The FCPA Blog was founded and is run by Richard Cassin, a former law partner with wide experience in Asia.  While Asia may not be the most susceptible to graft, it is at least competitive with South America and Africa.  But Asia's vastly greater economic relevance make its endemic corruption the most serious. FCPA Blog's Top-Eight:
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