Archive for 2017
November 3, 2017
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Aggressive Reed College student sit-in shuts down school’s finance office.
Reed College has placed no-contact orders against a group of student protesters after they allegedly harassed a staff member during an occupation of the university treasurer’s office and blocked the office’s employees from doing their jobs.
The aggressive sit-in has resulted in the finance office being closed for three days and prompted officials to quickly relocate sensitive financial documents so they could not be absconded with.
The demonstration, led by members of a student protest group known as “Reedies Against Racism,” began Oct. 26 and stems from the group’s demand that the university divest from Wells Fargo because of what protesters allege are the banking company’s ties to private prisons, mass incarceration and the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
Students have occupied the university’s administrative building, Eliot Hall, for about 10 days now. As of Wednesday, a campus spokesman told The College Fix that student protesters were still occupying the hallways of Eliot Hall, the president’s office and the treasurer’s office.
Expel a few and this will stop.
IT’S THE PEOPLE WHO COUNT THE VOTES: How Venezuela Fell Victim to ‘Clear Manipulation’ in Election.
“This is illegal,” said Luciano Mendoza, the election supervisor, who showed The Wall Street Journal the voting-machine receipts that counted just a third as many votes from the hamlet as reported by electoral authorities later. “They say they bring justice, but instead they commit fraud.”
Mr. Pérez’s evidence prompted opposition officials in Ciudad Bolívar to make more comparisons of voting receipts to an official tally on the National Electoral Council’s website. All told, in records reviewed by the Journal, they discovered that more than 2,500 votes were added statewide, flipping the winner of the Bolívar state election from the opposition candidate—briefly listed as the winner on the Electoral Council’s website—to the government choice. The declared winner, Justo Noguera, a National Guard general who never held political office from outside the state, took office two days later in a surprise midnight ceremony.
“There’s clear manipulation here,” said Luis Lander, director of the Venezuelan Electoral Observatory, a nonpartisan group in Caracas that tracks elections after he examined voting-machine receipts that the opposition alliance posted online. “The results were altered to allow the losing candidate to be declared the winner.”
Wreckers, hoarders, saboteurs, Trotskyites, kulaks, Yankee Imperialists, counterrevolutionaries, and (of course) Jews are to blame.
PJTV ALUMNUS JOHN PHILLIPS: Jerry Brown and the California state Democrats’ legacy is crime and homelessness.
OPEN A NEW CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT, HAL: Amazon’s Alexa now knows your credit score.
The credit agency Experian EXPN, +1.02% announced this week that Amazon’s AMZN, -0.86% Alexa devices have a new “skill” — telling people their FICO credit score, a version of the score named for the Fair Isaac Corporation. Customers can also use voice commands to ask what behaviors are helping or hurting their score and how much outstanding debt they have.
“Consumers use Alexa daily to check the weather, manage bank accounts, play music and more,” said Guy Abramo, the president of consumer business at Experian, in a statement. “It’s natural to incorporate another important element — credit services.”
What could possibly go wrong?
CATHY YOUNG: Is ‘Weinsteining’ getting out of hand?
The fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandals and the ripples from the “#MeToo” movement are having indubitably positive effects — above all, exposing and bringing to account predators who have enjoyed impunity due to their power and status. But there are some pitfalls. Many people — not just men with skeletons in the closet — fear that careers may be destroyed over minor misconduct and ambiguous transgressions. Troubling rhetoric abounds, condemning all sexually tinged dynamics in the workplace, stereotyping men as abusers and women as perpetual victims in need of quasi-Victorian protections.
What’s the endpoint? Where women have to be covered at all times and accompanied by a male relative when outside the home.
I’d like to say the overarching principle is equality. That’s the established legal concept: The working conditions for women and men should not be different.
By the way, have you noticed how impossible it is to apply that principle to Hollywood. Movies (and TV shows) tell stories that are highly gendered. There are roles for men and roles for women, and the actors are expected to show strong masculinity or femininity and to meet the extremes of sexual attractiveness. It’s completely unfair if you think in terms of gender equality. But all of us are buying the product. We’re serving our own sexual needs through these characters we see on the screen. We’re seeking vicarious relationships.
It’s like there’s a mismatch between the rules and human nature.
November 2, 2017
AS IOWAHAWK SAYS, JOURNALISM IS ABOUT COVERING STORIES. WITH A PILLOW. UNTIL THEY STOP MOVING: Nets Refuse to Acknowledge Donna Brazile‘s Revelation Dem Primary Was ‘Rigged’ for Clinton.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to avoid Facebook knife sale censors.
BARRY LYNDON FINALLY RECEIVES THE CRITERION TREATMENT, and over at Ed Driscoll.com, as a Kubrick obsessive since college, I go completely down the rabbit hole in a lengthy review.
Just think of the media as DNC operatives with bylines and lithium, and it all makes sense.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Tim Carney: The Hill’s stupid coverage of Rick Perry’s sexual assault comment is why nobody trusts the media.
TIME FOR “VALUE-BASED MEDICINE?”
AT AMAZON, save on Irons and Steamers.
TRUMP HEADS TO SOUTH KOREA: “Amid heightened tensions” VOA says. (bumped)
President Donald Trump is heading to Asia for a 12-day, five-nation tour with heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula and recent polls showing Americans consider North Korea to be the most immediate threat to the United States.
Trump is scheduled to visit South Korea (Nov. 7-8), the North’s rival, for the second stop of the trip.
MORE:
“Our goal is not war, but rather the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, last Friday.
That’s good cop. Darn fine good cop. Yes. Peace, brother. Let there be peace. Come, let us reason together.
MORE:
Around the time of the president’s presence on the peninsula, three U.S. aircraft carriers are expected to engage in their first combined exercise in a decade, displaying to Pyongyang the deterrence power of the world’s largest Navy.
There is increasing anxiety on both sides of the Pacific about what Trump views as necessary to achieve his administration’s vow to eliminate the threat to the United States posed by Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction.
Three carriers, which means three U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups. (Here’s an aircraft carrier strike group.) What a backdrop for a bad cop with his finger on the trigger.
THEY’RE REALLY TRYING TO STOP HER FROM RUNNING AGAIN: Donna Brazile Throws Hillary Under The Bus: Yes, the election was rigged to stop Bernie Sanders. Brazile is pretty kind on her own role, here, though . . . .
She also throws Debbie Wasserman Schultz under the bus. And she slides right over the fact that Obama left the Democratic Party $24 million in debt.
THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE PREMISE FOR AN OVER-THE-TOP TOKYO ACTION FLICK: Melania Trump to be protected by special all-female Japanese police squad.
RISE OF THE MACHINES: Mercedes-AMG GT R: Where Electronics Make the Quickest Driver Even Quicker.
REASON TV: Bitcoin and the Blockchain Will Stomp Out Wall Street Fraud.
EVER GET THE FEELING YOU’VE BEEN CHEATED?
THEN: We Are All Socialists Now; Obama is the Second Coming of God, JFK and FDR; the Democratic Party will rule unchallenged for 40 years.
Now: Democrats slowly realize Obama destroyed the party.
(Classical reference in headline.)
HOTTEST SLATE TAKE YET: Stop calling Kevin Spacey a pedophile for sexually assaulting a 14 year old; that only counts for 13-and-under. (Link safe; goes to Twitchy.)
Slate is one of the last journalistic redoubts of the Graham family, who owned the Washington Post and Newsweek for decades, before offloading, in recent years, the latter for $1 and the former in return for Jeff Bezos’ pocket change. It’s fascinating (read: horrifying) to watch them boldly go where the previously loopier Salon has already gone before.
PREDICTING SUICIDAL TENDENCIES WITH BRAIN SCANS.
J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Sayfullo Saipov, Winner of Chuck Schumer’s Diversity Lottery.
THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Study shows humans love dogs more than other people.