TRUMP AS THE DISRUPTIVE PRESIDENT: Michael Barone says “Over history, America has mostly been built by disruption.” He wonders if Trump will disrupt the culture war-driven electoral pattern that has been in place for two decades. Read the whole thing.
Archive for 2016
July 22, 2016
LIVE AND LET EAT: Judge Not Your Neighbor’s Love for Mac n’ Cheetos.
VENEZUELANS FLEE THEIR SOCIALIST ECONOMIC WRECK: This article focuses on refugees entering Colombia. The situation is tragic and is going to get worse. I am bothered by missing information in this otherwise factual AFP report. Yes, declining oil revenues did unleash “deep recession, chronic shortages and hyperinflation.” The troubles do threaten “17 years of socialist rule” under Nicholas Maduro and Hugo Chavez. But their socialist dictatorship and economic ignorance created the systemic economic and political conditions where a price decline could wreak havoc. A few days ago Bloomberg ran an article which depicts the hell Venezuelans are fleeing. The diarist records her family’s hunt for food and necessities in Caracas. The big score occurs on June 17 — a five kilo can of corn flour.
RELATED: Tim Worstall has worthwhile thoughts in a Forbes magazine opinion piece. A commenter says “imperialist tampering” caused Venezeula’s woes. In a detailed reply Worstall dismisses that nonsense. Worstall doesn’t blame socialism per se for the mess, but fingers Chavista stupidities, such as “idiot interventions into the price system.” Read the whole thing.
MORE: This long StrategyPage update backgrounds Colombia’s current political situation then moves to a detailed discussion of the Venezuelan government’s decision to put the army in charge of the country’s food supply.
“HE’S NOT THE MESSIAH, HE’S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY:” Me In The New York Post: Trump’s Not A Savior, But Neither Was Obama.
JOHN KERRY: AIR CONDITIONERS AS BIG A THREAT AS ISIS:
Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna on Friday that air conditioners and refrigerators are as big of a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State.
The Washington Examiner reported that Kerry was in Vienna to amend the 1987 Montreal Protocol that would phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, from basic household and commercial appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, and inhalers.
“As we were working together on the challenge of [ISIS] and terrorism,” Kerry said. “It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what we–you–are doing here right now is of equal importance because it has the ability to literally save life on the planet itself.”
As someone tweeted in response, just imagine if Trump had said this. But let’s put Kerry and his party to the “global test:” When Congress returns from vacation, one of the first bills to be put up for a vote should ban the use of air conditioning at Foggy Bottom.
NEWS OF ANOTHER ELECTION: For UN Secretary-General. Handicappers favor former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres and former Slovenian president Danilo Turk. There is a serious effort underway to elect a woman secretary-general.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: SOCOM Looking to Stealth Motorcycles.
The prototypes were first developed in 1980.
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Leaked DNC Emails Reveal Discussions About Attacking Bernie Sanders’ Religion.
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Obama: ‘The World Has Never Been Less Violent.’
Related: Munich Attacked: Several Shot at Mall, Gunmen on the Loose.
UPDATE: As frequent PJM contributor Patrick Poole tweets, “Ooofff…:”
LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Facebook’s Giant Internet-Beaming Drone Finally Takes Flight.
AT AMAZON, save on Bedding.
POLITICO ON ‘THE ONE WORD MEDIA OUTLETS ARE USING TO DESCRIBE TRUMP’S SPEECH.’
Why, it’s like there’s an email list for DNC-MSM stenographers to coordinate their talking points or something. A list for journalists. A journalists’ list. Give me time, I’ll eventually think of a catchier name for it!
But as I said last night, it’s fascinating to watch a media that spent the last eight years hyping snipers, riots, racism, campus “rape epidemics,” Christian bakeries and pizza parlors, and the existential hell that is the gender-segregated bathroom suddenly having a Reagan-esque everything is wonderful “Morning in America” moment today isn’t it?
Which brings us to the DNC-MSM’s community organizer in chief’s response to Trump’s speech: Obama Hopes Americans Noticed ‘Birds Were Chirping’ After Trump’s ‘Vision of Violence and Chaos.’
UPDATE: Hey, did anyone make a ‘Mourning in America’ joke about Trump’s speech yet? Everyone?
ME NEITHER:
Must say I am shocked to see millions fewer people watched Trump's acceptance speech than McCain's. Would've never predicted that.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) July 22, 2016
But he did top Romney.
KEEP IT TOGETHER, RACHEL!
- Maddow to Rolling Stone: To Prepare for President Trump, I’m Reading Up on Hitler’s First Months.
- Maddow: Trump’s Speech Could Be ‘Gateway Drug’ for KKK into GOP.
So which flavor of socialist is Trump this week? Is he Hitler, or Woodrow Wilson?
And note that while Maddow has no problem smearing Trump as Hitler (and Woodrow Wilson), when it comes to Republican voters’ responses to Hillary’s corruption, Maddow desperately needs a safe space woobie – and believes her viewers do as well:
Warning — viewer discretion advised.
That was the precursor for Rachel Maddow’s segment on Wednesday in which she showed viewers an array of anti-Hillary Clinton campaign buttons.
Maddow cautioned snowflake-viewers with a trigger-warning: “You may find it uncomfortable. And so, you may not want to look at this stuff,” referring to slogans like “Hillary for prison” and “Vote no to Monica’s ex-boyfriend’s wife in 2016.”
Reminder: Rachel Maddow was a protégé of former MSNBC anchor/spittle-flecked raver Keith Olbermann, who in 2008 when Hillary was hanging on during the Democrat primaries and slowing Obama’s inevitable coronation, demanded someone from the Democratic Party “take her into a room and only he comes out.”
She debuted on Air America, also home to Randi Rhodes, who in 2008 was suspended from the now-defunct leftwing talk radio network for describing Hillary as a “big f***ing whore” and the since-deceased Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated to be vice president as “David Duke in Drag” for supporting Hillary that year.
But Maddow thinks a few anti-Hillary campaign buttons will cause her fellow lefties to dive for the fainting couches?
Earlier: Maddow Rambles For Three Minutes on “Incredibly Radical” “Openly Gay” Republican Peter Thiel.
I’m old enough to remember when being dubbed a “radical” was a compliment by lefties.
WAIT, THEY’RE NOT ALL NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS AND CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR MODELS? Sperm Banks Accused of Losing Samples and Lying About Donors.
WIKILEAKS DATA DUMPS THE DNC: Leaves the RNC alone.
FASTER, PLEASE: This machine could remove plaque from your arteries in minutes.
ROGER KIMBALL ON LAST NIGHT’S SPEECH: Prime-Time Trump Is Finally Here.
A SECOND SHOOTING?
Reports of a second shooting at Marienplatz station #Munich https://t.co/uMwFbEuveB
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 22, 2016
WHY DO WE HAGGLE WHEN WE BUY CARS? “Saturn got rid of haggling at its dealerships. It went out of business. Scion got rid of haggling at its dealerships. It, too, went out of business.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Amazon Prime’s latest perk is discounted student loans.
MUNICH SHOOTING UPDATE:
Shooter is still on the loose in Munich; transport has been shut down.
— Sam Gad Jones (@samgadjones) July 22, 2016
THIS IS NOT THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS PROMISED: Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York.
Dubbed as “the world’s first robot lawyer” by its 19-year-old creator, London-born second-year Stanford University student Joshua Browder, DoNotPay helps users contest parking tickets in an easy to use chat-like interface.
The program first works out whether an appeal is possible through a series of simple questions, such as were there clearly visible parking signs, and then guides users through the appeals process.
The results speak for themselves. In the 21 months since the free service was launched in London and now New York, Browder says DoNotPay has taken on 250,000 cases and won 160,000, giving it a success rate of 64% appealing over $4m of parking tickets.
“I think the people getting parking tickets are the most vulnerable in society. These people aren’t looking to break the law. I think they’re being exploited as a revenue source by the local government,” Browder told Venture Beat.
Indeed.