Archive for 2018
June 26, 2018
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Vermont Law School Cuts More Than A Dozen Tenured Faculty.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Jim Geraghty on Gavin Newsom: “The man likely to be the Golden State’s next governor is a poster child for Democrats’ poor leadership of the ‘left coast.’”
Read the whole thing.
HMM: The Mystery at the Heart of North Korea Talks. “The parties have yet to agree on what exactly should be ‘denuclearized.’ But one South Korean official has a plan to close the gap.”
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Kathleen Kennedy Almost Fired as Head of Lucasfilm… But…
One point she alludes to, which she made before: She thinks that Star Wars never appealed to Kathleen Kennedy. Kathleen Kennedy didn’t like the franchise, because it was, indeed, a boys’ adventure franchise.
Instead of making a boys’ adventure franchise she didn’t get and didn’t like, she made it into something she could like: a girls’ empowerment fantasy.
This kind of sums up the problem with Social Justice Warriors taking over male-skewing sections of pop culture: They just don’t like it. They never did like it. Some of them even feel that these parts of pop culture encourage “toxic masculinity,” and therefore are evil.
And therefore must be subverted and remade into something they never were before.
So you… put multimillion dollar companies into the hands of people who don’t like the product those companies sell and in fact might even hate?
Well, good luck with that, I guess.
* * * * * * * *
Kennedy, who has previously declared that she owes nothing to the male fans of Star Wars (who, let’s face it, have maintained the value of the franchise for 40+ years):
“I have a responsibility to the company that I work with. I don’t feel that I have a responsibility to cater in some way. I would never just seize on saying, ‘Well, this is a franchise that’s appealed primarily to men for many, many years, and therefore I owe men something.'”
Yes… yes… reach out with your Hatred… all is proceeding precisely as I envisioned…
Heh, indeed.™
UH-HUH: Keith Ellison Says Travel Ban Ruling Will be ‘Marker of Shame’ in U.S. Like Plessy v. Ferguson.
I’m guessing Ellison either doesn’t know about or simply glossed over the explicit anti-racism in today’s majority opinion.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Trump’s Trade Spat With Mexico Is Making Bacon Cheaper.
PROCUREMENT: B-21 Program Approaching Critical Design Review.
The review, also known as a CDR, is a key technical assessment for major acquisition programs.
“We haven’t done CDR yet [but] we are on our way to critical design review,” said Randy Walden, director and program executive officer for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which is shepherding the B-21 program.
“I suspect it will be done before the end of the year. That’s our plan today,” he said during remarks at an Air Force Association event in Arlington, Virginia.
The B-21 Raider is one the Defense Department’s top acquisition priorities. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the effort.
The Pentagon hopes to begin fielding the platform by the mid-2020s or sooner. The program was put under the purview of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office to try to speed up the development process.
Walden said the service already has a model of the B-21 that has undergone wind testing.
“Any aircraft program that’s going through development, you’re going to wind tunnel testing, we’re no different,” he said. “You’re going to go from an estimate on a piece of paper and drawings, to [doing] the right things that can get you to build out the system, and wind tunnel testing is one of them. And we’re following that line because it makes sense from an engineering point of view.”
Aerospace engineer Will Collier noted on Twitter that “Going from award to CDR in less than three years is pretty darn fast in Big Defense Aerospace time.”
WANT MORE TRUMP? THIS IS HOW YOU GET MORE TRUMP: The lunatics are coming out in droves. Maybe Maxine Waters is crazy enough to think she can pardon this guy…
“A criminal complaint shows Key is accused of telling an intern who answered the phone, “I’m going to find the Congressman’s kids and kill them. If you’re going to separate kids at the border, I’m going to kill his kids. Don’t try to find me because you won’t.’[…]Key’s social media pages show he is very politically active. He volunteers regularly for the Democratic Party of Martin County and has volunteered many hours for Planned Parenthood, according to a friend of Key’s.”
Of course he does.
ANGELA MERKEL, MEET ANGELA MERKEL: Turns out the German Chancellor was against — make that really, really against — open borders multiculturalism before she decided to make her country a haven for 1.6 million immigrants, many from Islamic terrorism hot spots like Libya and Tunisia.
IN THE MAIL: From Vox Day & Richard Bonk, Alt-Hero 2: Rebel’s Cell (Alt★Hero).
Plus, fresh Gold Box and Lightning Deals.
CHANGE: Supreme Court Rules For Trump In Travel Ban Case.
Here’s the text of the opinion. And note this from the majority opinion:
Finally, the dissent invokes Korematsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214 (1944). Whatever rhetorical advantage the dissent may see in doing so, Korematsu has nothing to do with this case. The forcible relocation of U. S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of Presidential authority. But it is wholly inapt to liken that morally repugnant order to a facially neutral policy denying certain foreign nationals the privilege of admission. See post, at 26–28. The entry suspension is an act that is well within executive authority and could have been taken by any other President—the only question is evaluating the actions of this particular President in promulgating an otherwise valid Proclamation. The dissent’s reference to Korematsu, however, affords this Court the opportunity to make express what is already obvious: Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and—to be clear—“has no place in law under the Constitution.” 323 U. S., at 248 (Jackson, J., dissenting).
Ouch. I believe this is also a formal overruling of Korematsu, since it’s signed by 5 justices. Note that FDR’s action is properly characterized here as racist.
LEE SMITH: The Mysterious Seven Preludes of the FBI’s Trump-Russia Probe.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation formally opened its Trump investigation after Western intelligence assets and Clinton-affiliated political operatives repeatedly approached the Trump campaign and tried but failed to damage it through associations with Russia, a growing body of evidence suggests.
Before the FBI began investigating the Trump campaign in an operation code-named “Crossfire Hurricane,” there were at least seven different instances when campaign advisers were approached with Russia-related offers. Most of those contacts — including Donald Trump Jr.’s much-publicized meeting with a Russian lawyer and others in June 2016 — offered the prospect of information damaging to Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Two of these approaches were made by one U.S. government informant already publicly identified as such, Stefan Halper. Another was made by a man who swore in court that he had worked as an FBI informant. Two others were made by figures associated with Western intelligence agencies. Another two approaches included political operatives, one foreign, with ties to the Clintons.
President Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has asserted that dispatching Halper to follow the Trump campaign “protected” it from the Russians.
But Mark Wauck, a former FBI agent with experience in such tactics, sees an effort at entrapment.
Ya think?
Liberal outrage against the President has now reached such levels of hysteria that many of them have forgotten what it actually means to BE a liberal.
It’s not liberal to ban Trump staff from restaurants, or threaten to put his son in a cage with pedofiles, or viciously abuse his wife for wearing a jacket, or demand that all his Cabinet be harassed from public view.
In fact, it’s the complete opposite.
This kind of horribly intolerant behaviour only serves to further strengthen Trump’s support, especially amongst those who voted for him, and thus further increases his chances of winning another term in 2020.
As Roger L. Simon noted yesterday, “Anger makes you stupid.” And anyway, the Left has been illiberal for as long as I can remember.
I LOVE THIS VIDEO: Prosthetics For Children.
FASTER? PLEASE! Boeing Unveils Hypersonic Airliner Concept.
The initial concept vehicle, unveiled at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aviation 2018 conference in Atlanta, is a preliminary step toward a long-range development plan targeted at both commercial and military applications. Although not yet defined, the concept is provisionally aimed at a passenger capacity larger than long-range business jets, but smaller than Boeing’s 737, with potential entry into service from the late 2030s onward.
Flying at Mach 5, and with a projected cruise altitude of 95,000 ft., the vehicle would travel at more than 2.5 times the speed and 30,000 ft. higher than the supersonic Anglo-French Concorde, which was retired in 2003.
That’s roughly 90 minutes from New York to Paris.
REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Here’s One Unverified File the Feds Won’t Leak: About Loretta Lynch. “The FBI had little problem leaking ‘unverified’ dirt from Russian sources on Donald Trump and his campaign aides – and even basing FISA wiretaps on it. But according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, the bureau is refusing to allow even members of Congress with top security clearance to see intercepted material alleging political interference by President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, SEGREGATION-TODAY-SEGREGATION-TOMORROW-SEGREGATION-FOREVER EDITION: The University of Vermont is planning to hold its “White Identity Retreat” once again next year, even though the program appears to violate the school’s own equal opportunity policy. Segregation is fine, as long as it’s woke segregation.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Left Tries to Mop Up After Hurricane Maxine and Much, Much More. “What if cries for political violence and civil disruption aren’t winning campaign messages?”
FOR THOSE TALKING ABOUT DUE PROCESS AND ILLEGAL ALIENS: Due Process and Expedited Removal in the Interior.
SALENA ZITO: America’s Dearth of Civil Society:
Freemasons are civic leaders, and the room is filled with men of all ages, races and backgrounds, about to meet over what they can do next to further the betterment of their community. They are members of a dying American tradition that once drew young men by the hordes, in particular after the end of World War II when memberships in fraternal organizations like the Mason’s, Elks, and Rotary Clubs swelled with young veterans reared on the ethos of community service.
America today has a recession of civic activity as we emerge into a society that less united in a common endeavor with fewer people willing to listen to elders who could guide young men and women with the skills of cooperation and citizenship.
For the past 200-plus years Americans eagerly formed countless associations within their communities. It didn’t matter if their neighborhoods were in large cities, small towns, or spread out in expansive rural farming areas. We liked to form associations; a lot.
Some were serious, some were frivolous, some had ties to commerce in a town or were wedded to a church and some were exclusive, but nearly all of them were formed to advance or foster a better community or a better city.
Or as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of America’s burgeoning democratic order and the rapid formation of civic groups, through example “they form a society.”
But we don’t join things the way we used to. The question is why? The first obvious answer is we are busy, but so were our parents and grandparents and they joined the Rotary Clubs and Kiwanis.
The second obvious answer is technology. It does everything for us and connects us to people instantly so why would we want to connect in person?
You can answer that one by looking around yourself at an America with an eroded public square. Things are not going well.
Traditional member-based organizations, especially the do-goody ones, rarely included politics and brought diverse different ideas together that helped make communities and societies form cohesively.
Yes, read the whole thing. I made a similar point yesterday.