IF ONLY THIS WERE TRUE EVERYWHERE: Texas Politics is So Boring in 2016, Folks Are Already Talking 2018.
Archive for 2016
September 9, 2016
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Quake Was North Korea’s Biggest Nuclear Test Yet. “The test registered as a 5.3-magnitude quake; Middlebury Institute expert Jeffrey Lewis tells Reuters that signals a blast of up to 30 kilotons, which would make the North Korean bomb bigger than the one the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Incoming freshmen get training on ‘microaggressions.’ “Nowadays, students are taught that just about everything they say could be considered a “microaggression” if anyone overhearing it gets offended. These colleges could be teaching incoming students not to be pansies, but no. They’re teaching them to constantly police what they say on the off chance someone in earshot gets hurt feelings.”
Related: Auburn Prof: Political correctness making colleges ‘laughingstock of Western Civilization.’
UNFORCED ERROR: Trump attacks U.S. foreign policy, political press corps on state-owned Russian television network.
Asked during the RT America interview what has surprised him most about the political process, Trump unloaded on the American press.
“Well, I think the dishonesty of the media. The media has been unbelievably dishonest,” Trump responded. “I mean they’ll take a statement that you make which is perfect and they’ll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it or do something with it.”
“And all of a sudden it doesn’t look as good as it did when you actually said it. But there’s tremendous dishonesty with the media. Not all of it, obviously, but tremendous dishonesty,” he said.
Of course the American press deserved Trump’s scathing criticism, but understand that Russia Today is a Russian propaganda outfit, and that Trump’s appearance will be used by the Kremlin to further the Kremlin’s interests.
NEW YORK TIMES TRIES TO FACTCHECK GARY JOHNSON ON ALEPPO, REPEATEDLY STEPS ON A RAKE INSTEAD: “Unlike Johnson, who was asked a question on the spot, the New York Times reporter had the Internet, paid editors, and all the time in the world to help him avoid making a bunch of embarrassing errors. In spite of all that, NYT was still forced to publish not one, but two corrections of Rappeport’s reporting… It turns out that providing a correct answer to the question ‘What is Aleppo?’ is a lot harder than it looks. Especially if you’re a journalist with a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge.”
As Obama advisor Ben Rhodes said earlier this year about what he called his “blob” of Democrat operatives with bylines, “The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
It turns out that perhaps Rhodes’ use of “literally” wasn’t even in the false Biden definition of the L-word.
SOMEWHERE IN NORTH DAKOTA, ANOTHER FRACKING RIG COMES BACK TO LIFE… Oil heading for first rise in 3 weeks on OPEC hopes, U.S. stocks.
DEMOCRATS SURE GOT IT GOOD:
Shot: Clinton campaign warns media to tread carefully.*
—The Hill, yesterday, in a post time-stamped 6:00 AM EDT.
Chaser: Media doesn’t ask Clinton about emails in rare press conference.
—The Hill, yesterday, in a tweet time-stamped 11:28 AM.
Hangover: Matt Lauer gets bullied and shamed over moderator performance.
—The Hill, yesterday, in a post time-stamped 11:10 AM.
(Hat tip: Cameron Gray of NRA News and Ricochet; headline via long-running leitmotif of John Nolte.)
* “Remember the MSM shitstorm over Ari Fleischer’s mild rebuke? This time: crickets.”
It’s the blob that didn’t bark.
JONAH GOLDBERG: Washington’s smoking gun tyranny: You don’t need proof to know there is a problem, so why do we buy the Clinton campaign’s smoking gun standard? “We” don’t have to.
TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Hillary’s friends profit from the death tax she avoids.
It’s almost as though the death tax was just a scheme for fancy lawyers and accountants to help the well-connected protect their assets while preening about their moral superiority.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NO ONE IS ASKING: Why Arianna Huffington Left the Huffington Post.
THAT’S DEFINITELY A BUG, NOT A FEATURE: Florida man’s vehicle catches fire after charging Galaxy Note 7 explodes.
Samsung recalled the new phones last week, so if you have one you really want to get it replaced under the recall.
“AMUSING TO WATCH LEFT TURN ON THE POP-CULTURIFICATION OF POLITICS NOW IT’S HURTING THEM.”
Hey, they chose the form of their destructor quite a long time ago.
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK: Mark Zuckerberg was accused of ‘abusing’ his power after Facebook censored this iconic Vietnam war photo.
At issue is an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken in 1972 by photographer Nick Ut, depicting children fleeing in terror from a South Vietnamese napalm strike in the midst of the brutal Vietnam war. Its central subject, the 9-year-old Kim Phuc, is naked.
It is, as Hansen points out, “by far the most iconic documentary photography from the Vietnam war’ — and one of the most famous photos of all time.
But when a Norwegian author, Tom Egeland, wrote a Facebook post about “seven photographs that changed the history of warfare” which included the photo, the photo was deleted, and he was subsequently suspended from the social network.
Then, when Aftenposten shared a news story to Facebook that used the photo, an email from Facebook demanded that the newspaper removed the post — before the social network went ahead and deleted it itself, before the newspaper could respond.
A Facebook spokesman said, “while we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others.”
Algorithms make for poor curators, worse editors, and dangerous censors.
IT WAS NEVER POPULAR: Poll: Half of Americans disapprove of ObamaCare.
About half of Americans disapprove of ObamaCare, a slight uptick since November of last year, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday.
Fifty-one percent said they disapprove of ObamaCare, while 44 percent said they support the health law. In November, the poll found that 49 percent disapproved and 47 percent approved.
The poll comes a month after the insurance group Aetna announced it was pulling out of ObamaCare markets in 11 states.
The survey showed that 29 percent say the health law has hurt them and their family, a new high for the poll and a slight raise from the 26 percent who said the same in November.
To be fair, ObamaCare was never about helping Americans and their families.
SCENES FROM ERDOGAN’S TURKEY: Turkey suspends over 11,000 teachers for suspected terror links.
At least 11,285 schoolteachers across the country were suspended over suspected links to a separatist terrorist organization, Anadolu reported Thursday, citing Turkey’s Education Ministry.
That number could reach 14,000 during an investigation conducted in coordination with governors’ offices across the country, Anadolu reported.
Although the ministry did not specify the group, the term “separatist terrorist organization” usually refers to the Kurdistan worker’s party, or PKK.
Later, a senior Turkish official confirmed to CNN that the “separatist organization” is PKK.
It isn’t Kurdish schoolteachers Ankara should be worried about, but Kurdish schoolchildren. Turks are no longer breeding at even replacement levels, with a fertility rate of just 1.5. Kurds make up an estimated 18-25% of the country, but are producing children three times faster than the Turks are. Spengler wrote a while back that Turkey’s demographics mean that Erdogan is “inherently incapable of rationality,” and so you have to wonder if his War on Kurdish Teachers is a new part of Ankara’s longstanding effort to deny Kurdish identity.
THIS WOULD BE HILLARY’S GERALD FORD MOMENT IF SHE WAS A REPUBLICAN: Clinton Pledges No Troops in Iraq & Syria Even Though U.S. Already Has Troops There.
“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” — and no cannibalism in the British Navy, to boot.
To ask why this wasn’t Hillary’s Gerald Ford moment is to answer the question.
WAIT, I THOUGHT THE EDUCATED YOUNG WERE HEADING TO BIG BLUE CITIES: The States Gaining And Losing The Most Migrants — And Money:
To measure the states that are most attractive to Americans on the move, we developed an “attraction” ratio that measures the number of domestic in-migrants per 100 out-migrants. A state that has a rating of 100 would be perfectly balanced between those leaving and coming.
Overall, the biggest winner — both in absolute numbers and in our ranking — is Texas. In 2014 the Lone Star State posted a remarkable 156 attraction ratio, gaining 229,000 more migrants than it lost, roughly twice as many as went to No. 3 Florida, which clocked an impressive 126.7 attraction ratio.
Most of the top gainers of domestic migrants are low-tax, low-regulation states, including No. 2 South Carolina, with an attraction ratio of 127.3, as well as No. 5 North Dakota, and No. 7 Nevada. These states generally have lower housing costs than the states losing the most migrants. . . .
High costs go a long way to explain which states are losing the most migrants. At the top, or rather, the bottom of the list is New York State, which had an abysmal 65.4 attraction ratio in 2014 and lost by far the most net migrants, an astounding 126,000 people. Close behind was Illinois, a high tax, high regulation, and low growth disaster area. In 2014 the Land of Lincoln had an abysmal 67.2 attraction ratio, losing a net 82,000 domestic migrants.
Most of the other top people-exporting states are in the Northeast and Midwest. But the West, traditionally the magnet for newcomers, now also has some major losers, including Alaska (80.1), New Mexico (84.6) and Wyoming (88.6). The outflow for some of these western states may get worse, unless prices for natural resources like coal, oil, gas and minerals do not recover in the near future.
And then there is the big enchilada, California. For generations, the Golden State developed a reputation as the ultimate destination of choice for millions of Americans. No longer. Since 2000 the state has lost 1.75 million net domestic migrants, according to Census Bureau estimates. And even amid an economic recovery, the pattern of outmigration continued in 2014, with a loss of 57,900 people and an attraction ratio of 88.5, placing the Golden State 13th from the bottom, well behind longtime people exporters Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana. California was a net loser of domestic migrants in all age categories.
Some analysts have claimed that the people leaving California are mostly poor while the more affluent are still coming. The 2014 IRS data shows something quite different. To be sure the Golden State, with its deindustrializing economy and high costs, is losing many people making under $50,000 a year, but it is also losing people earning over $75,000, with the lowest attractiveness ratios among those making between $100,000 and $200,000 annually, slightly less than those with incomes of $10,000 to $25,000.
Overall, many of the most affluent states are the ones hemorrhaging high-income earners the most rapidly. As in overall migration, New York sets the standard, with the highest outmigration of high income earners (defined as annual income over $200,000) relative to in-migrants (attraction ratio: 53). New York is followed closely by Illinois, the District of Columbia and New Jersey, which are all losing the over-$200,000-a-year crowd at a faster pace than California.
But the Blue Model is good for graft, so there’s that, anyway.
September 8, 2016
AT AMAZON, deals in Industrial & Scientific.
Plus, Kitchen & Housewares.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO INCEST! Mother and daughter arrested over incestuous marriage. “According to a KFOR report, Patricia stated that she didn’t believe that she would be breaking the law by marrying Misty as her name does not appear on her daughter’s birth certificate. Patricia had previously married her son Jody in 2008, with the marriage annulled two years later.”
I’M BEGINNING TO THINK THIS IDEA IS GETTING TRACTION: To Avoid Vote-Counting Fraud, Use Paper Ballots.
NATO AND MONTENEGRO: The Balkan Powderkeg may have less powder than it did in 1912, 1914 and 1991, but there are still a lot of small fires.
MY LATEST NEW YORK OBSERVER ESSAY: Hillary’s waging a relentless War On Honesty. In early July FBI Director Jim Comey covered for her crimes. Now the tarnished FBI big shot has a chance to redeem his cowardly betrayal of the Rule of Law as The BleachBit Timeline exposes her criminal obstruction of justice.