IS DITCHING FACEBOOK BECOMING A THING ON THE RIGHT? This survey says a third of self-identified conservatives either have already or are seriously considering leaving Facebook. If this phenomenon gains momentum, it could be big trouble for Silicon Valley’s liberal poo-bahs, not just Mark Zuckerberg.
Archive for 2018
August 30, 2018
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: University of Illinois grad students declare ‘sanctuary union.’ “According to the resolution, the designation means that faculty members will engage in public activism to oppose immigration enforcement, refuse cooperation with ICE agents, and lobby the university to do the same.”
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: CNN Does Not Lie and Much, Much More. “CNN is standing by its story, anonymously sourced by Lanny Davis, that claimed Michael Cohen was going spill the goods on Trump’s foreknowledge of a meeting in Trump Tower between some campaign officials and a team of Fusion GPS connected RUSSIANS. Davis back tracked on his claim but CNN…they still claim their story is true. Almost like it was FAKE BUT ACCURATE.”
That’s CNN.
POOR GUY. HE’S NOT EVEN THE SMARTEST CUOMO. Andrew Cuomo accidentally admits he’s a liar in fiery debate with Cynthia Nixon.
IT’S AS IF THESE ANGRY VIOLENT MOBS IN BLUE CITIES ARE ACTUALLY DOING WHAT THE PEOPLE IN POWER WANT DONE: Texts show police chief told Chapel Hill officers to stay back amid ‘Silent Sam’ protest. “Police Chief Chris Blue instructed Chapel Hill officers to stand aside last week as protesters pulled down a controversial Confederate monument on the University of North Carolina campus, a review of Blue’s text messages and emails shows.”
“Let’s give them lots of space,” he says. Space to destroy?
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? California Eliminates Bail For Majority Of Suspects Awaiting Trial.
WELL: Census: There are no jobs Americans won’t do, poor citizens hurt by illegal immigration.
A new analysis of Census Bureau jobs data puts the “fake news” label on the pro-immigration mantra that there are many jobs Americans just won’t do and that’s why legal and illegal immigrants are needed.
According to the deep-dive analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies, just six of 474 job categories are majority immigrant, and none are majority illegal immigrant.
The report suggests that claims made by immigration proponents for greater access to American jobs because Americans don’t want them is false.
What’s more, the report indicates that in low-income jobs given to illegal immigrants puts pressure on poor Americans who want those jobs, according to CIS.
“If immigrants ‘do jobs that Americans won’t do,’ we should be able to identify occupations in which the workers are nearly all foreign-born. However, among the 474 separate occupations defined by the Department of Commerce, we find only a handful of majority-immigrant occupations, and none completely dominated by immigrants (legal or illegal). Furthermore, in none of the 474 occupations do illegal immigrants constitute a majority of workers,” said the study.
Another narrative bites the dust. Oh who am I kidding — it’s not like the narrative is going anywhere.
BREAKING WITH REPUBLICANS MAKES YOU A MAVERICK. BREAKING WITH DEMOCRATS MAKES YOU A TRAITOR, AND PROBABLY RACIST. Where are the mavericks in the Democratic Party?
I CAN THINK OF NINE JUST OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD: On what planet is Beto O’Rourke not a presidential contender, even if he loses?
In little over a year, O’Rourke has built a thriving political movement in the country’s second largest state, with a strategy built purely on hustle, grassroots organizing, and his hunch that the standard-issue campaign playbook met its final demise in 2016. O’Rourke has raised over $23 million so far, all from small donors and a lot it from out of state. But his campaign money hasn’t gone to television ads or consultants. It’s gone to online advertising (Sanders’s digital firm, to be precise) and a T-shirt vendor in Austin tasked with pumping out thousands of heather gray “Beto for Senate” shirts. He’s Spanish-fluent and hails from a border city, El Paso, in a moment when immigration has become the hottest-burning political issue in the country. And at a time when Americans view politics through their mobile screens, O’Rourke passes the ever-fetishized “authenticity” test by a mile. That’s partly because he has a habit of sharing almost every moment of his day, from his morning runs to his burrito lunches, on Snapchat and Instagram and Facebook. But it’s also because, so far, O’Rourke doesn’t appear to be performing a version of himself. Nothing feels practiced. The voters I spoke with in East Texas all said the same thing when I asked why they liked him: he seems “real.”
And that seems to be O’Rourke’s defining characteristic. It’s not ideology that’s carrying him as much as relatability.
That worked for Obama in 2008, to whom O’Rourke is being endlessly compared. But Obama had at least won a few elections (albeit sketchily) before running for President against a huge, weak field — plus the completely unrelated Hillary Clinton.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: U.S. GDP growth revised to 4.2% in second quarter.
MISS LIBERTY: John Locke’s Libertarian Philosophy In 5 Short Films.
UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT: “The exclusion of Governor Sarah Palin from Senator McCain’s funeral this afternoon strikes us as an off-note from the McCain camp.”
Related: “Just how can you complain about Trump’s boorish egotism when you decide to shun the person whose career you ruined, and who has been nothing but loyal?”
HMM: Beto O’Rourke yard signs are everywhere. Where are Ted Cruz’s? “As O’Rourke’s yard signs are popping up in neighborhoods around the state, frustrated Cruz supporters are having trouble finding ones promoting the current U.S. senator’s re-election bid. Until recently, that was by design, according to Cruz’s camp.”
“The one question I get asked universally, everywhere is, ‘We’re seeing signs that say ‘Robert Francis’ in our neighbors’ yards, and we want to claim our territory and have your signs in our yards,'” McCloskey told Cruz, using O’Rourke’s birth name. “I think people here are wanting those. What can we do to get those in the hands of the folks that want to have them in their yard?”
“That’s a question we hear a lot,” Cruz said. “Yes, there are a lot of signs for my opponent, Beto O’Rourke. They invested a ton of money and they put that money, part of it, into having signs everywhere.”
The sign disparity is not necessarily indicative of an enthusiasm gap, but of differences in campaign spending priorities. But more broadly, Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe has an aversion to yard signs — he said he views them as a far-less-effective use of campaign money than door knocking, television and radio advertising, phone banking or direct mail. That’s not a new strategy in Cruz world. Roe said the Cruz 2016 presidential campaign spent no money on yard signs.
I watched Cruz’s 2016 primary ground game here in Colorado fairly close up. It was grassroots, it was successful, and I don’t recall seeing more than a handful of yard signs.
HMM: Senate Death Gratuity Tradition Will Continue for Family of John McCain.
After Sen. John McCain is honored this week, his family will be remembered with a personal payment in a spending bill, the long-standing practice of providing a death gratuity for a departed member’s survivors. The only question is, which spending bill will it hitch a ride on?
Congress traditionally offers a death gratuity to be paid to the family of any lawmaker who dies in office. . . . The Senate Handbook indicates that the gratuity will be inserted in the next appropriations bill. It is to be paid to the “next of kin” in the amount of one year’s compensation — $174,000.
Wouldn’t it be simpler to include life insurance in the benefits package?
CHANGE MORE OF THE SAME: Russian Can’t Afford To Give Its Next-Gen Battle Tanks to Most of its Army.
In 2015 the United States and NATO received a rude shock: The Russian Army unveiled a new main battle tank, known as T-14 Armata. Together with the T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicle, which shares the same chassis as the T-14, the two armored giants would replace older T-72 tanks and BMP infantry fighting vehicles in Russian service, many of which dated back to the Cold War.
Three years later, reality has set in. Russian defense contractor Uralvagonzavod, maker of the T-90 main battle tank (itself an evolution of the Cold War-era T-72), ran into development troubles with the Armata platform. At the same time Russia’s defense budget, after years of increases, is facing cuts in large part due to the state of the Russian economy.
Russia originally planned to purchase 2,300 T-14 Armatas (and a similar number of T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicles) by 2025. Armatas cost $4 million apiece, making a total purchase approximately $9.2 billion just for the tanks. The high cost has Russia changing its tune, cutting the Armata purchase to rely instead on older [but modernized] T-72 and T-90 tanks.
The Armata looks good on papers, and even on parade. But it looks like Moscow will only get enough of them for a small parade.
HE’S DOING WELL ON THOSE: New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Don’t Want Impeachment for Trump. “They’re more interested in jobs and the economy, it turns out.”
Once upon a time, wise Democrats understood that it’s the economy, stupid.
DUE PROCESS? WHAT A MONSTER! Betsy DeVos Plans to Overhaul Title IX, Focus on Due Process for Accusers and the Accused.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT, GUYS: Palestinian Leaders Bet Future on Trump Impeachment: Palestinian leader hopeful Democrats will seize control of Congress, stall Trump agenda.
So this is basically the Sideshow Bob school of diplomacy:
NO, NO, THE LEFT ARE VIOLENT FASCISTS: The Black Flag of Anarchy.
SSSHHHH. IT’S DISRESPECTFUL TO HECKLE BARNES AND NOBLE WHILE THEY COMMIT SUICIDE: Barnes & Noble CEO fired for allegedly standing behind secretary.