GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: How China Lost Hong Kong. “Compromise or crackdown are the only options left for Beijing.”
Archive for 2019
August 1, 2019
IS THERE NOTHING IT CAN’T DO? Dark chocolate lowers risk of depression, study suggests.
To coin an Instaphrase, the science isn’t settled, but why take chances?
MAYBE, BUT I’M WARY OF ANY PLAN HOPING FOR BETTER BEHAVIOR FROM OTHER GOVERNMENTS: It’s Time To Pressure Corrupt Central American Elites To End The Border Crisis.
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED: Donald Trump Didn’t Lie About Where He Was after the 9/11 Attacks, But Hillary Clinton Did.
AND HE’S THE “MODERATE”: Joe Biden Calls for Jail Time for Insurance Execs ‘Who Totally Oppose My Plan.’
ROGER SIMON: Dems Pull a ‘Reagan’ in Their Debates.
Ronald Reagan famously said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”
Now it’s left the rest of us.
Read the whole thing.
QUESTION ASKED: Is Donald Trump a White Nationalist?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, KAMPUS KANGAROO KOURT EDITION: College hid evidence that accuser invented rape to get out of punishment for drinking: lawsuit.
A Minnesota liberal arts school hid exculpatory evidence from a student it found responsible for sexual assault, even though it knew his accuser had ulterior motives, according to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month.
Carleton College withheld evidence that “Jane Doe asked campus security if she could face discipline for underage drinking before filing her complaint” against “John Doe,” he alleges in the suit.
John was also left in the dark about the fact that a Title IX coordinator told Jane she wouldn’t be punished if her underage drinking was disclosed “as part of a sexual assault claim,” the suit claims.
He and his attorney only learned about the existence of exculpatory evidence after Carleton had expelled him, while he was under criminal investigation for sexual assault. (The Pioneer Press named him based on this criminal proceeding.)
Cost of attending Carleton College: $71,300 per year. That’s a lot to pay to a bigoted college that’s willing to hang you out to dry — and lie to do it — just because you’re a male.
COLD WAR II: Heidi Heitkamp: Countering the China threat will take much more than tariffs.
Chief among these threats is Chinese state-coordinated theft of intellectual property and the use of such property to assert technological dominance over other counties. In 2017, the Commission on Theft of American Intellectual Property estimated that the U.S. economy loses $225 billion to $600 billion annually because of Chinese theft of IP from U.S. agricultural research firms, pharmaceutical companies, and electronics manufacturers. Though the Department of Justice has been able to prosecute select cases of theft, their current efforts have had a limited impact on the growing problem.
While economic espionage accounts for significant domestic financial losses, Chinese requirements for foreign investment also contribute to the problem. The Chinese government often requires foreign businesses hoping to operate within China to join with a local partner, effectively forcing international firms, including American businesses, to share technology in exchange for market access. Businesses who choose not to operate with a local partner often face tariffs on exports to China. As a result, companies eager to gain access to the Chinese market make a devil’s bargain that trades short-term access for the long-term loss of their IP and trade secrets.
China’s assault on our economy does not stop at economic espionage and IP theft. Their military capabilities extend well into the cyber realm, where they have hacked into university networks to steal military technologies and taken down the network of U.S. Naval contractors.
President Xi has ample opportunity to expand his offensive.
If you can get past the obligatory Orange Man Bad stuff, Heitkamp does make a couple of good points about the full spectrum of threats China poses. But the Orange Man Bad stuff isn’t easy to get past, given that Trump is the only US president in decades to take China seriously at all.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Greedy colleges’ not off the hook for latest college admissions scam, scholar says.
Related: John Kass: Latest college scandal is another canary in the coal mine. “Once again, the elite get the breaks, and use the poor as shields to protect their leverage. And the middle class? They’re laughed at. Meritocracy is a myth that the republic cannot live long without. History tells us that when the middle class not only stops believing in a nation’s myths, but also has its face rubbed in the mess while being mocked by the elite, bad things can happen.”
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Candidates Sell Socialist-Flavored Kool-Aid at Debate. “The main targets were Biden and Harris. There’s a bunch of rando white guys that need to get cut from the line up and a bunch of other bottom crawlers that tried to get in some zingers to improve their lot who also need to get lost. Biden did okay and that’s all he needed to do. Kamala managed to maintain too but didn’t seem to stand out like the first debate when she told her busing yarn. “That girl was me!” Harris tried to go after Biden and Biden was prepared to fend off the attacks. The internet was all abuzz because a mic caught Biden calling Harris “kid” when the two walked on stage. Is there any limit to how petty and self-hating these lefties are? Biden said ‘Go easy on me, kid’ and all the grievance mongers were off the races.”
I thought it was a nice moment.
Deep fakes possess the immediate see-hear semblance of authentic imagery and audio. Digital Svengalis create them using manipulative techniques to fundamentally alter imagery (still and video) and audio tracks. They may combine or superimpose images.
For example, your face can be superimposed on Godzilla’s body; as the monster bashes Tokyo, your voice complains about Japanese cars. If it can be done, it has been done: The heads of well-known celebrities have already been superimposed on the bodies of porn actors. Presto! Deep-fake porn videos.
Deep fakes, however, are more than bad jokes and acts of felony libel. Deep fakes are tools for delivering high-speed and pervasive disinformation.
My latest Creators Syndicate column.
GROWLER TAKE-OFF: An EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft launches from the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan. The aircraft carrier is operating in the Coral Sea. (Mistake corrected!)
WHO’S WANTS TO TELL HIM? Biden Says America Can’t Take Eight More Years Of Trump.
It was my understanding that there would be no math . . . .
THEY’RE NOT ABOUT THE CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE: ‘No Republican Talking Points!’ Is The New Democrat Talking Point.
Plus: “CNN, with its usual even-handedness, opened several questions such gambits as ‘The president’s racist rhetoric’ or ‘After the president’s racist tweets.’ At least we knew where we stood. Indeed, this is CNN.”
GLENN LOURY: Why Are Democrats Defending Al Sharpton? They’ve handed Trump an easy win and yoked themselves to a genuine bigot.
Trump is surgically separating the Democrats from the voters they need to win — and Democrats are cooperating.
