BUT OF COURSE: Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence.
Archive for 2017
January 17, 2017
FIT, SECURE, AND UNINDOCTRINATED IS NO WAY TO GO THROUGH LIFE, SON: Colleges Ramp Up Assault on Masculinity for Spring Semester.
BECAUSE NOT EVERY TRANSITION OF POWER CAN BE AS PEACEFUL AND PRO-FEMINIST AS THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION: “There’s an old joke about what happens when you cross a postmodernist academic and the Godfather: You get an offer you can’t understand,” Steve Hayward quips at Power Line:
To which might be added today, who needs Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, about to close after 146 years, when you’ve got liberals beclowning themselves nonstop for free. (I suspect there’s a connection between these two things.)
This comes to mind with today’s story about what is the most hilarious planned liberal protest against Trump on inauguration day. I’ll just let Inside Higher Ed tell you without embellishment:
Because hey, not every transition of power can be as peaceful and pro-feminist as the 1979 Iranian revolution – which Foucault supported. Or as the lefties at Truth-out pondered in September, “Why Did Foucault Disregard Iranian Feminists in His Support for Khomeini?”
Afary and Anderson observe that, while many progressives and leftists — both in Iran and elsewhere — favored the Revolution against the Shah but could not countenance the notion of an Islamic Republic replacing such despotism, Foucault was less critical toward Khomeini and the possibility of clerical rule. The authors argue that Foucault’s attitude in this sense — rather than signify some aberration or lapse in judgment — indeed follows from his post-structuralist political theorizing, which rejects the Enlightenment and despairs at the historical possibility of emancipation. As such, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution serves as an important warning for Western radicals and intellectuals vis-à-vis revolutionary movements, anti-imperialism and political authoritarianism in the rest of the world. Moreover, it raises questions about the liberatory potential of post-structuralism, detailing how that tendency’s preeminent spokesperson so clearly betrayed Iran’s workers, women, LGBTQ citizens, dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities by romanticizing what French leftist Maxime Rodinson refers to as “a type of archaic fascism.”
Which neatly sums up what we could we expect on Friday from those on the left not organizing read-ins of postmodern philosophy, come to think of it.
FIGHTING CHANGE: New York driver groups push for a ban on autonomous cars.
WHAT ABOUT BOB? Earlier today Glenn asked, “Is anybody keeping track of Robert Creamer, Jan Schakowsky’s (D-IL) husband, who ginned up violence at Trump rallies on behalf of Hillary’s campaign?”
The only thing I could find is a week-old Breitbart item headlined, “Disgraced Democrat Operative Robert Creamer in Front Row of Obama Farewell Speech.”
So it’s a safe bet that, whatever he might be up to, it has the unofficial sanction of Barack Obama.
I THINK A LOT OF IT DEPENDS ON THE JOBS: Robots Will Devour Jobs More Slowly Than You Think.
LADY NOOR MACBETH: Orlando nightclub attacker’s wife helped him turn to terror, indictment shows.
Noor Salman, the wife of the Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen, deliberately helped her husband’s terror plans while trying to keep police and the FBI off their trail, according to the newly unsealed federal indictment which painted a much different picture from her claim that she was clueless about his intentions.
Salman, 30, “did knowingly aid and abet” her husband’s attempts to support the Islamic State terror group, the two-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday stated. It also charged her with obstruction of justice. The charges could send her to prison for the rest of her life if she’s convicted.
Salman was born in Afghanistan but was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A SPACEPORT RISES IN WACO.
HEH: Ladies and Gentlemen…President Sinatra.
Better President Bennett Marko in the White House than the Red Queen.
SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA: Twitter Jumps on Rob Schneider for ‘Whitesplaining’ to John Lewis.
FASTER, PLEASE: Miniaturized Nuclear Power Plant? U.S. Reviewing Proposed Design.
“Miniature” in nuclear terms is still pretty big. The modules are small enough to fit on flat-bed trucks, but they would stand nearly nine stories tall. Moreover, a power plant would probably require several modules hooked together like giant batteries. Of course, they’d need to be operated by professional nuclear engineers.
But the design — a radical departure from other nuclear plants — would also have advantages.
Each module uses less uranium fuel, making a large-scale meltdown far less likely. The fuel would be housed in a special containment vessel that would be submerged in a pool of water, an added safety feature. And rather than using pumps of the sort that failed during the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the reactor would circulate the water using natural convection. The company maintains the design is simpler and safer than existing reactors.
I’m still waiting for those long-promised mini thorium reactors in every neighborhood.
READER BOOK PLUG: From reader T.J. Linzy, The Nez Perce War of 1877: A Concise History.
A BITTERSWEET NOBEL PEACE PRIZE MOMENT:
PARENTING: Fancy Mommies Pay Strangers to Sleep Train Their Newborns While They Go to a Resort.
Both my boys were quick to learn to sleep through the night, so I’m in a bad position to judge this.
RICHARD COHEN: Trump’s presidency is doomed.
GOP presidents are failures before they’re sworn in, and Democrats are successes after eight years of failure.
MAYBE OUR PUBLIC-HEALTH PEOPLE NEED TO SPEND MORE TIME ON INFECTIOUS DISEASE, AND LESS ON TRENDY SOCIAL ISSUES: How the Response to Zika Failed Millions. See also Ebola.
THE VISIBLE HAND: Presidents Have Less Power Over the Economy Than You Might Think.
I’m old enough to remember when President Obama saved the U.S. economy from another Great Depression almost single-handedly, but eight years later we wouldn’t want to risk giving a Republican president too much credit.
SOME INAUGURAL PERFORMERS WHO HAVEN’T CHICKENED OUT: The Piano Guys. This campaign of threats and intimidation against people for daring to perform at a presidential inaugural is really a war on civil society.
THE UNRECOGNIZED ALLIANCE OF DEMOCRATS AND PUTIN. Reader Will Vine emails: “It’s the Democrats who are supporting Putin by supporting his efforts to delegitimize the American form of government by delegitimizing the election of Trump. Both the Democrats and Putin want to weaken the Trump administration; the former to improve their electability, the latter to weaken American influence around the world. Seems a win-win for them and dangerous for America.”
The sustained campaign right now to delegitimize Trump’s presidency before it’s even started is not just a disgraceful attack on Trump, who is quite capable of defending himself without my help.
It’s also a disgraceful attack on American democracy and freedom.
As Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ‘On each national day of inauguration since 1789, the people have renewed their sense of dedication to the United States.’
Friday should be a day when the country comes together, not a day when it splinters even further apart.
Trump, whether you voted for him or not, whether you love him or loathe him, is the democratically elected President of the United States.
If you refuse to accept it, then you flip the bird at democracy.
It’s only genuine democracy when they win.
MOTHER JONES: Trump’s education secretary pick has spent a lifetime working to end public education as we know it.
Too much of public education as we know it consists of featherbedding and indoctrination — or neglect.
That last item might explain this competing narrative: Black Leaders Praise Trump Education Pick Betsy DeVos.
CHUTZPAH: Obama names Iran deal salesman to Holocaust Memorial Council.
President Obama on Tuesday appointed deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, part of a slew of appointments given to high-profile staff and supporters in the final days of his presidency.
Rhodes, whose mother is Jewish, played a key role in shaping Obama’s foreign policy during his eight years in the White House.
He also came under fire from some U.S. Jewish groups for his role in selling the Iran nuclear deal and the administration’s decision to allow a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity to pass the U.N. Security Council.
It’s said that A-players hire other A-players, but B-players hire C- and D-players — and now we know who D-players appoint.
Somewhat more seriously, Obama has again chosen the petty and mean course of action just because that’s who he is.
RICHARD EPSTEIN: A Revolution In Administrative Law.
One of the most vital, but technical, items on the Republican agenda is not likely to get its fair share of public attention. On the first day of the new Congress, Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia introduced two pieces of legislation that could fundamentally alter the structure of American administrative law for years to come.
The first bill, H.R. 26, the Regulations From the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, languished in three previous successive Congresses, but it has now cleared the House by a vote of 237-187. If enacted, this bill will give Congress a final say on regulations with an estimated cost over $100 million through a mandatory up-or-down vote before they go into effect. More importantly for the day-to-day operation of administrative law is Goodlatte’s other bill, H.R. 5, the Regulatory Accountability Act, which the congressman claims will “wipe out abusive regulation—freeing Americans to innovate and prosper once more.”
Let’s hope.
VOTING THEIR POCKETBOOK: Brazil firms shun Trump fears in busiest debt, stock window in years.
I suspect we’ll see a lot of these stories over the next few months.