Quick Hits: Volume CLVII

There's no question that President Donald Trump plays fast and loose with facts. The media could have (and usually does have) a field day picking apart the dubiousness, hyperbole and flat out inaccuracies contained in Trump's infamous Twitter feed.

But as is often the case with Trump's detractors, their valid criticisms morph into them stepping on the proverbial rake.

C'mon down, CNN.

“Some people might try to tell you that it’s a banana.” #FactsFirst pic.twitter.com/LbmRKiGJe9

— CNN (@CNN) October 23, 2017

The problem with that kind of dripping sanctimony, especially in the Information Age, is such smug claims of utilizing "Facts First" are easily punctured with....well......facts.

David Harsanyi at The Federalist pens a damning piece with the brilliant headline 10 Times CNN Told Us An Apple Was A Banana. 

Check it out here.


- The World Series gets started tonight with the Houston Astros taking on the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game One. This is the first Fall Classic since 1970 where both teams logged at least 100 regular season victories.

The Astros reached 100+ wins due predominately to a potent offense (1st in Major League Baseball in team batting average, Slugging Percentage & OPS and second with 238 home runs) whereas the pitching rich Dodgers were tops in MLB in WHIP (Walk and Hits allowed per inning pitched) and second in team Earned Run Average.

For what it's worth, I'm predicting the Dodgers in six.


- It was recently reported that former FBI Director James Comey was tweeting under a pseudonym.

Earlier this year, a reporter for Gizmodo traced (a) Twitter account to Comey, after doing what she described as "four hours of sleuthing." The account, under the pseudonym "Reinhold Niebuhr," takes the name of a well-known theologian about whom Comey wrote an undergraduate thesis at the College of William & Mary.

Another clue: The account is now called @FormerBu, for former, um, bureau. Last week, the account posted two public tweets — an image of a kayaker at West Point, and a photo from Little Round Top, in Gettysburg, Pa., with the line, "Good place to think about leadership and values."

But it was this tweet in particular which resulted in some wild speculation.

Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways. pic.twitter.com/DCbu3Yvqt3

— Reinhold Niebuhr (@FormerBu) October 23, 2017

Because Iowa is the first state to cast ballots for Presidential nominees every four years, people were drawing their own conclusions as to why Comey was there.

For my money, a picture like this leads me to one immutable truth: Comey is getting ready to run. No, I mean literally getting ready to run. You don't don a nice pair of New Balance shoes if you're not going to break 'em in with a brisk jaunt.


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