Archive for 2016
September 29, 2016
THE NEW NORMAL ANEMIA: Final Q2 GDP Comes At 1.4%: US Set To Grow At Slowest Pace Since Financial Crisis.
If the Obama “recovery” had done no better than match the postwar average, the US economy would be more than two trillion dollars richer than it is — which translates to thousands of dollars per American household.
Heckuva job, Barry.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS: “…Without political correctness, we might not have a terror problem AT ALL…”
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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1239.
SEAN PENN: We Either Go With Hillary Clinton or ‘Masturbate Our Way Into Hell.’
Joycelyn Elders, Bill Clinton’s Surgeon General, could not be reached for comment. (Video may not be safe for work.)
PRAETORIAN GUARDS GOTTA GUARD: Nothing James Comey Says About The Hillary Clinton Investigation Makes Any Sense.
David Harsanyi:
FBI Director James Comey, who testified in front of two congressional committees this week, still maintains he was unable to recommend that the Justice Department charge Clinton with mishandling classified documents because of insufficient evidence proving “intent” — although the actions themselves are irrefutably illegal.
Well, how exactly did he anticipate gathering this proof when the Justice Department had proactively shielded the five people tasked with setting up the private system and then destroying it? Was he hoping to extract a confession directly from Hillary?
Why would, for instance, a Clinton functionary like Cheryl Mills help prosecutors once she’d already secured safeguards against any criminal prosecution? While testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Comey claimed Mills was already “cooperative” and the Justice Department had assured the FBI she had done nothing wrong. Hence the deal.
If she was accommodating and completely innocent, why would she seek, and be given, immunity? A lawyer for Mills and Heather Samuelson had already admitted the deal was struck to protect her clients from potential prosecution arising from “classification” on their laptops. Apparently, the Justice Department was more convinced of their innocence than their lawyer was.
It’s not like Clinton or her staff had done anything truly criminal, like calling Comey a weasel.
HOW’S THAT “PIVOT TO ASIA” GOING? Duterte “Serving Notice” to US Armed Forces.
Earlier this week, Duterte was talking up alliance-building with Russia and China. The White House, for its part, has studiously avoided commenting on every outburst. Reuters consulted an expert who presumably echoes Obama Administration thinking. . . .
There is no use hyperventilating in public about the gyrations of the Philippine populist, but one would hope that serious diplomatic work is being done behind the scenes. Having the Philippines definitively peel off for China at this juncture would not be a good thing.
John Kerry is on it, I’m sure.
SO WHAT I’VE DONE WITH TWITTER is just to log out for now. The robo-tweets of InstaPundit content will continue, at least for a while. I may take down the widget on the sidebar, eventually. I haven’t moved to Gab, and I’m not sure whether I will or not. Basically, there are two problems with Twitter for me. One is that they don’t support their users — they pretty clearly suspend, ban, etc. using a political double standard even though they claim they don’t.
But the other problem with Twitter is that it’s the crystal meth of social media: Addictive, but unsatisfying. I’ve been spending a lot of time on it even though it doesn’t make me any money, and even though I kind of doubt it has much of an impact on anything. As I said a while back: “I think Twitter is overrated. It’s a good way to chatter with the chattering classes, but (1) it doesn’t drive traffic; (2) its impact outside the chattering classes is basically nil; and (3) it encourages people to think they’re being ‘activists’ when they’re really just tweeting to a few hundred people.”
That I’ve posted over 580,000 tweets in spite of saying that suggests to me that I’m not very good at following my own advice. Add to that the exposure to Justine-Sacco type shamestorms on a platform you don’t control, and I don’t see why I should keep working for them for free. And on that point, if I, a tenured professor whose university just admitted that his tweets are protected by the First Amendment, have concerns about this, I have to wonder why anyone whose job is less secure would stay on Twitter.
YOU DON’T LIKE ME, YOU REALLY DON’T LIKE ME: Clinton campaign in ‘panic mode’ over Florida black voters.
Democrats are beginning to worry that too many African-American voters are uninspired by Clinton’s candidacy, leading her campaign to hit the panic button this week and launch an all-out blitz to juice-up voter enthusiasm.
Bill Clinton, once nicknamed the “first black president,” embarks on a North Florida bus tour Friday in an attempt to draw African-American crowds. At the same time, Clinton herself will host events in Broward and St. Lucie counties, which have black populations higher than the statewide average.
That follows the events of this past weekend, when black mothers who have lost children to gun violence hosted a Clinton organizing event in Jacksonville and a voter-registration drive in Opa-Locka, a majority black city near Miami. The group, Mothers of the Movement, includes Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, whose 2012 shooting death near Orlando became a flashpoint for racial division and gun violence.
Coming soon: President Barack Obama, who’s expected to campaign here at least twice before Election Day. First Lady Michelle Obama — more popular than her husband — will likely visit Florida as well, in addition to the ad she cut for Clinton that’s currently airing on Florida radio.
Maybe if next time around the Democrats don’t rig the nomination process, they’ll have more enthusiastic voters.
HEH, INDEED: Just Because Hillary’s a Birther, That Doesn’t Make Her Racist!, Andrew Klavan insists.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Gowdy Rips FBI Director Comey: This is ‘Not the FBI That I Used to Work With.’
It’s certainly more weaselly than it used to be.
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STATE OF DESPAIR: In Australia’s most progressive state they’re currently burning live cats to stay warm and eating newspaper. It’s the Adelapocalypse!
That’s Tim Blair, so of course you’ll want to read the whole thing.
I’M NOT SO SURE I AGREE WITH THIS SENTIMENT: More Americans Want a One-Party Government That Can Ram Through Policy. “In a survey taken the same week as the presidential debates, support for divided government hit its lowest point in the fifteen years that Gallup has polled on the question. Only one in five believe splitting power between the two parties is necessary, while those who want one-party government just barely missed hitting a new high at 36 percent.”
Well, since the GOP will almost certainly hold the House — and looks like it’s got a good chance with the Senate — if you want one-party government you need to elect Trump. On the other hand, Trump’s so different from the Republicans in Congress that it would still be divided government, really. Which I personally find more of a comfort than a disappointment.
JUST THINK OF THEM AS DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: Networks Silent on Accusation Trump Used Cocaine Before Debate.
Flashback: Clinton strategist: Sorry about — cough, cocaine! — that Obama drug story.
(H/T: Mickey Kaus.)
POOR BAR PASSAGE RATES: Law Deans blame Bar Exam, but when New Mexico switched, pass rates got worse.
This year, the University of New Mexico School of Law started giving the national exam, which is used in about half of U.S. states.
The results weren’t pretty. The number of students who passed the exam on their first try (68 percent) in July was down 13 percentage points compared to July 2015 (81 percent) on the old state exam. Those who failed were disproportionately minorities and women. None of the 14 Native American students who took the test passed.
The law school’s two deans – another arrangement rather unique to New Mexico – said, in a letter to alumni and other people associated with the school, that some other states that adopted the test also saw pass rates drop as well. But Arizona, which adopted the test in 2012, was not one of them. And Colorado’s pass rate dropped slightly from 2012 to 2015.
Maybe the students aren’t being taught the law that the bar examiners expect them to know.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Uh, Hillary, Your Hubby Caused the 2008 Recession.
GARY JOHNSON MAKES HIS CASE.
Johnson’s op-ed is mostly positive, focusing mainly on his policy ideas while taking just a couple specialized shots at his opponents Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Johnson, who didn’t poll high enough to make the debate stage Monday night, says that his Libertarian Party ticket is the only one that offers Americans “a chance to find common ground.”
Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, suggested they are fiscal conservatives but social liberals. Johnson vetoed more than 750 bills as governor of New Mexico, and said he believes “government does too much and costs too much.” He also scolded the treatment of black Americans by police officers and advocated for criminal justice reform.
“What would government be like in a Johnson administration?” he asked. “First, we would begin the conversation about the size of government by submitting a real balanced budget. Every government program would have to justify its expenditures, every year.”
He added: “Cuts of up to 20 percent or more would be on the table for all programs, including military spending. Changes to Social Security and Medicare must also be considered.”
Johnson called Trump’s immigration proposals “ludicrous,” and implied that a Libertarian president wouldn’t deport “noncriminal undocumented immigrants” or build a wall. He also knocked Clinton on foreign policy for her “muddled mix of intervention, regime change and bombing campaigns.” These, Johnson wrote, created the disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
He makes some solid points.
WE’RE NOT A SERIOUS NATION: Washington Mall Terrorist Cetin Wasn’t U.S. Citizen, Still Voted Three Times.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Shot: Trump? How Could We?
—Thomas Friedman, the New York Times, Tuesday.
Chaser:
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.
—Thomas Friedman, “Our One-Party Democracy,” the New York Times, Tuesday September 8th, 2009.
Exit question, from Charles C.W. Cooke of National Review from back in March: “Herewith, an under-asked question for our friends on the progressive left: ‘Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?’”