SHE’S AS INEVITABLE AS SHE WAS IN 2008: Hillary Clinton Isn’t Inevitable.
Archive for 2015
April 15, 2015
POLITICS: DNC uses celebrity women with collective net worth of $331 million to attack GOP on #EqualPay.
Should’ve used female staffers from the Obama White House. And Hillary’s office . . .
ASHE SCHOW: A yearly reminder that the gender wage gap is due to choice, not discrimination.
I don’t know how many times this myth has to be busted before people stop repeating it, but here we go again.
Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler has a great takedown of the myth, giving “two Pinocchios” to those who continue to push it as a means of telling women they’re perpetual victims of discrimination. One important factor that Kessler points out is that women often choose lower-paying fields. He includes two lists, the first showing that nine of the 10 highest-paying fields are dominated by men (the second highest-paying profession, pharmaceutical sciences, has slightly more women than men). The second list shows that nine of the 10 lowest-paying fields are dominated by women (theology and religious vocations has vastly more men than women).
Proponents of the wage-gap myth like to claim that the patriarchy pushes women into those less lucrative careers. That’s a sad commentary on their way of thinking — their notion that women are simply too dumb or weak to think for themselves and choose the career they actually want. I think the numbers show that women are choosing the careers they prefer but those careers just aren’t as lucrative as those chosen by men. There’s nothing wrong with that. Do what makes you happy.
Mark J. Perry of the conservative American Enterprise Institute has also taken apart the myth, showing that different lifestyle choices made by women contribute to the wage gap. For instance, married women and women with children tend to make less on average than men. Again, proponents say this is patriarchal discrimination that allows women to make as much as men only if they never marry or have children. I see no discrimination, only women choosing to work less or choosing more flexible careers that let them care for children.
Lisa Maatz, a spokeswoman for the American Association of University Women, confirmed my suspicion years ago. When asked how much of the gender-wage gap is due to discrimination, Maatz — whose organization is one of the biggest proponents of the myth — responded: “We’re still trying to figure that out.”
Translation: Despite decades of pushing this number, they still have no evidence that discrimination is the reason.
Evidence is a patriarchal construct of the patriarchy. Like math.
FROM DAVID BOAZ, A PROPOSAL FOR REAL BUDGET DEMOCRACY: We should get to decide how the government spends our taxes: The case for letting taxpayers choose whether their money goes to schools or the police or Medicaid.
Of course, that’s what Congress is supposed to do, but given how clearly broken the system is, perhaps a radical fix like this is in order.
PERHAPS HE’LL WEAR HIS MOM JEANS: Obama journeys to the land of mommy bloggers. Not all of them are buying his spiel, though:
But Lena Gott, a blogger based in Wake Forest who is participating in the town hall, said her experience working as an accountant has made her skeptical of calls for equal pay. Gott, who is now the stay-at-home mother of three young children, said business owners may have to lower some workers’ salaries if they have to bring them in line with those of other employees.
“You can’t just come up w an extra, magical $20,000 for workers,” Gott said. “You have to make it fit within your budget.”
Magically cost-free policy is an Obama trademark.
OF COURSE SHE DOES: Hillary Clinton says she would support a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform. Proof beyond a doubt that “reform” isn’t about making things more honest or transparent. . . .
On April 24, 1915, in the midst of World War I, the Ottoman Empire began systematically massacring its Christian Armenian subjects. At Sunday’s Mass in Rome, Pope Francis described the massacres as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey, which emerged from the rubble of the defeated Ottoman Empire and has long fiercely denied that a genocide took place, angrily recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. “The pope’s statement, which is out of touch with both historical facts and legal truths, is simply unacceptable,” tweeted Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Will President Obama follow Pope Francis’ lead?
Contrary to the foreign minister’s tweet, there is a solid factual and legal foundation for calling the massacres a genocide, defined as killing or other acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Yeah, I think Obama sees Erdogan as more of a peer than he does Pope Francis.
CORRUPTION-FIGHTING! GOP lawmaker proposes lifetime lobbying ban. “Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) introduced legislation on Tuesday to prevent members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists after they leave office. Blum, a freshman lawmaker, argued his bill would help limit lobbyists’ influence on the legislative process so members of Congress won’t feel pressured to cater to their wishes for their own self-interest.”
We could still apply my revolving-door surtax to the Executive branch.
ROLL CALL: Marco Rubio’s Presidential Bid Creates Open-Seat Scrum.
Marco Rubio on Monday became the third Republican senator to announce a bid for president and the first of the group to leave behind a competitive seat.
Rubio vacating his seat in Florida in favor of national ambition gives the GOP another potentially strong White House contender. But it presents new challenges for Senate Republicans pushing to hold their newly acquired majority by leaving an expensive open seat in a state at the heart of the presidential election.
Two days before Rubio’s formal Monday night announcement in Miami, the race to replace him had already taken an unforeseen turn. Republicans thought they had a top recruit in Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, until he announced on April 11 he wouldn’t run. His decision leaves a wide-open field on the Republican side, with at least a half-dozen potential contenders.
“The race has changed dramatically,” said Adam Goodman, a Republican media consultant in Florida. “There was an emerging consensus that Atwater was certainly, if nothing else, going to be given the first full shot to close out the field and move ahead with the nomination. So everyone had to wake up to the realization [on Saturday] that suddenly the world has changed.”
Since Atwater’s exit, some Republicans have turned their sights to the congressional delegation, particularly Tom Rooney, a four-term Republican from central Florida.
Rooney, who told CQ Roll Call two weeks ago the race wasn’t even on his radar, said in a Monday phone interview he now believes he can win the open seat and has a meeting scheduled at the National Republican Senatorial Committee Thursday.
A potential campaign, he said, is “something that I’m taking very seriously, and I’m talking to a lot of people.” Rooney, the lone member from Florida so far to endorse Rubio, noted he has lingering concerns on the effect a statewide race will have on his wife and three sons, ages 13, 11 and 8.
Republicans are also looking at former state Speaker Will Weatherford, seen as a possible Rubio replacement for some time. The senator even mentioned Weatherford as a potential successor at a breakfast with reporters in January. But Weatherford hadn’t expressed much interest when Atwater was a seemingly certain contender, and Florida Republicans wonder if he would prefer to hold off.
Stay tuned, I guess.
WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ CONGRESS: How the IRS repeatedly rewrites Obamacare tax credit provisions.
HMM: House Dems jump to support new Iran bill.
House Democratic leaders are quickly jumping on board legislation empowering Congress to review an emerging nuclear deal with Iran.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) endorsed the Senate bill on Tuesday, shortly after it passed unanimously through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had rejected an earlier version of the Senate proposal, said she’s also open to supporting it.
“They certainly produced a bill that would be more palatable to our members,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “Most of us don’t think that any legislation is necessary or should be there, [but] from what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty innocuous.”
Hoyer’s endorsement was more full-throated.
“I believe that Congress has a responsibility to review any final agreement with Iran, and this bill will achieve that goal — setting up a carefully-constructed review period to ensure that a deal meets expectations and prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said in a statement.
Pelosi had come out in staunch opposition to an initial version of the Senate bill, sponsored by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). Echoing President Obama, she’d warned that the legislation could undermine the ongoing talks over Iran’s nuclear program as negotiators face a June 30 deadline for finalizing a deal.
The new Senate bill, a compromise hashed out between Corker and Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, shortens the timeline of Congress’s review of the deal, from 60 to 30 days, and empowers Congress with a vote of approval.
Obama had threatened to veto the initial Corker bill, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the president would sign the Corker-Cardin compromise.
Hmm.
April 14, 2015
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Former Atlanta educators sentenced for cheating scandal.
I’D PREFER TARRING AND FEATHERING ALL THE OFFICIALS INVOLVED, BUT I GUESS THIS’LL DO: Parents of “Free-Range” Kids to File Lawsuit, Attorney Says.
KNOW YOUR PLACE, PEASANTS! When Hillary Goes to College to See ‘Everyday Iowans,’ Students Get Locked In Their Classrooms.
IT’S SYNTHETIC ESTROGENS IN THE WATER SUPPLY: Why More Men Are Sitting Down to Pee.
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FEAR AND BUTTHURT at UC San Diego. “Though modest on a national scale — it’s a proposal by one student, about one student paper — it’s emblematic of a trend in modern college students. It’s the Magna Carta of Me-Me-Me, the Ninty-Five Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Able to Say That. . . . Why is a petty gesture of attempted censorship notable? It’s notable because it reflects a dangerous trend. Never doubt that the existence of Colin King and his ilk threaten not only the mild annoyance of the UC San Diego campus, but our rights. We rely, as a society, on shared values. Those values include the rule of law and freedom of expression. Never doubt how crucial they are. There will always be a few Colin Kings. But a society made up of them is doomed.”
CATHY YOUNG ON HILLARY AND THE SEXISM CARD: “Even the notion that female pols are subjected to sexist scrutiny for their looks and dress turns out to be shaky. A recent study by political scientists Danny Hayes of George Washington University and Jennifer Lawless of American University showed that male politicians are no less likely to have their appearance mentioned in newspaper articles — and that voters don’t judge women in politics more harshly over personal appearance.”
Women just complain more when it happens.
#WARONMEN: Men With Stressed Out Wives May Have High Blood Pressure As A Result, Study Suggests. “A new study suggests that men whose wives are stressed are more likely to suffer from higher systolic blood pressure than those with more relaxed spouses. Women’s hearts, on the other hand, don’t seem to be affected by a husband’s stress levels.”
BUT SHE WOULDN’T ANSWER, AND NEITHER WOULD THE STATE DEPARTMENT: Hillary Clinton Was Asked About Using Private Email Server 2 Years Ago.
YEAH, BUT TO BE FAIR, BAIN CAPITAL QUIT BEING EVIL IN NOVEMBER OF 2012: Deval Patrick takes investing role at Bain Capital.
THIS PIECE MAKES AN EXCELLENT POINT: Are Harvard, Yale, and Stanford really public universities?
More than 800 colleges and universities across North America hold endowment assets of $516 billion. But the top 10 schools in terms of assets have about $180 billion of that total, one-fifth of all the holdings. Harvard University alone has a $35 billion endowment.
None of that money, nor the gains on it — which at the top schools were about 16 percent last year — are taxed. As non-profit entities, neither are the extensive land holdings of the nation’s colleges and universities.
Such benefits account for $41,000 in hidden taxpayer subsidies per student annually, on average, at the top 10 wealthiest private universities. That’s more than three times the direct appropriations public universities in the same states as those schools get. Princeton University, for example, receives $105,000 in taxpayer benefits for each of its students, compared to the $12,000 in appropriations that go to New Jersey’s public university, Rutgers.
I think we should eliminate the tax exemption for higher education. They’re all basically for-profit, it’s just a question of whether the profits go to shareholders, or administrators.