Archive for 2019
May 14, 2019
RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! 22nd Dem Enters 2020 Race — With Tirade Against Free Speech in Politics.
THE INSTA-WIFE SOLD HER STUFF ON POSHMARK: Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up Has Created a Flood of Clothing Donations No One Wants.
SETH BARRETT TILLMAN on Toleration and Prejudice in Academia. “How does one fairly distinguish a furious condemnation from a plain condemnation from a mere emphatic disagreement or an honest debate over strongly held beliefs and principles? The choice of such terms is, in most (albeit, not in all) cases, indicative of a lack balance, of a lack of perspective.”
CHINESE INFLUENCE OPERATIONS: From The Diplomat, a look at Beijing’s influence and “interference” operations:
Foreign influence operations – which can be broadly defined as the coordinated utilization of capabilities to affect changes in the perceptions, practices, and policies of foreign target audiences – in and of themselves are neither new nor not unique to China. But growing concern about aspects of the Chinese state and its broader conduct, as well as a series of recent incidents which have spotlighted the more illicit and coercive aspects of alleged influence operations – be it election interference, the bribing of key influencers, or the manipulation of media environments – have contributed to increasing the spotlight on this subject. The focus on Chinese influence operations is also occurring amid a confluence of broader trends, including intensifying major power competition…
The article mentions “permissive conditions” Beijing exploits. No kidding. Those conditions also make it easier to conduct intelligence operations. My Creators Syndicate column last week focused on China’s pervasive spying and used the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston as a telling example.
OF COURSE THEY DO, ANTI-SEMITES ARE ONE OF THEIR KEY CONSTITUENCIES NOW: Democrats rally behind Rashida Tlaib after Palestine, Holocaust comments.
UGH: Senate Republicans Use New Rules to Save a Crony Institution.
After nuking their debate rules for nominations last month for the stated reason that they wanted to push the confirmations of more Republican judges, the Senate this week used the rule change instead to waste precious floor time expanding corporate cronyism.
The Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank for more than 1,000 days has lacked the full quorum of its board of directors, which is necessary to approve taxpayer-funded loans of over $10 million to benefit America’s richest corporations (think Boeing, Caterpillar, and General Electric). The board now has a full slate, and can confirm loans up to $100 million.
The Ex-Im bank, you may recall, loomed large on the Tea Party agenda in 2014 and 2015. It stood as a symbol of everything establishment Washington had gotten wrong: K Street colluding, corporate favoritism, and the general feeling of, “Wait, I’m sorry, my tax dollars do what?”
Washington is where bad ideas go to achieve immortality.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Here’s how much student debt Americans with PhDs have on average.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: More De Blasio Donors Plead Guilty In Corruption Cases.
Bill de Blasio is still busy pushing his not-yet-declared presidential bid, but things back at home aren’t looking so great. As the New York Post reports this week, two more of Hizzonor’s political cronies and donors have pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations. I’ve lost track of how many this makes, but the latest two seem to have been some bold and shameless traders in political influence. . . .
In addition to the CEO of HAKS, his brother, CFO Shahid Akhtar, pleaded to two counts of offering a false instrument for filing. He’s expected to get one to three years at sentencing. The company will pay a fine of three million dollars.
The brothers didn’t employ any particularly subtle tactics in funneling money to de Blasio’s campaign coffers. They got their staff members at HAKS to make maximum donations with the understanding that they would be reimbursed in the form of bonuses. And through some tremendous “coincidence,” the company received more than $36 million in municipal contracts. Funny how that works out, eh?
Less than surprising.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: So AOC Was Just Kidding When She Said We Only Have 12 Years Left?
“12 years left, 12 years left, 12 years left… psyche!”
I call this technique Clown Nose Off, Clown Nose On. I first noticed it with Jon Stewart 15 years ago, when he went on CNN’s Crossfire and supposedly owned Tucker Carlson by being a passive-aggressive jerk. First, Stewart would present an argument and insist on being taken seriously. Then, when he was challenged on it, he’d backpedal: “Hey, what’s the big deal? I’m just a comedian!” Once I noticed Stewart doing that with Carlson, I realized that he did it all the time. It was cheap, it was dishonest, and it made Jon Stewart rich and famous.
At least he had the excuse of being a comedian. AOC is an elected official, and she only makes people laugh unintentionally.
Read the whole thing.
IN THE MAIL: From Winston Lord, Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership.
Plus: “The department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, is separately examining investigators’ use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Mr. Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the United States attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation. His findings have not been announced.”
TRUMP: Rashida Tlaib’s Holocaust Comments Show ‘Tremendous Hatred of Israel and the Jewish People.’
Somewhat off topic, but my favorite joke of the last few months was, “What’s the difference between Donald Trump and a leftwing Jew? Trump has Jewish grandkids.”
RADICAL CHIC: THE GERITOL YEARS. The New York Times attempts to rehabilitate Frances Fox Piven, she of the infamous Cloward-Piven strategy for bankrupting government institutions to speed up the socialist revolution.
THE SOFT BIGOTRY OF LOW EXPECTATIONS: Biden Gets New York Times Headline For Not Saying Anything Stupid.
Biden is praised in the story, which was featured on the paper’s app Sunday night, for making it a few weeks into his presidential bid without going off message. “‘There He Goes Again?’ Not Yet, as Biden Avoids Major Gaffes,” the headline reads.
“Just over two weeks into Mr. Biden’s candidacy, the most notable feature of his campaign may be what hasn’t happened: He has not blurted anything out that delights his rivals, horrifies his aides and reinforces his image as ‘Uncle Joe,’ America’s there-he-goes-again relative who makes you smile and wince in equal measure,” reported The New York Times.
To be fair, it is a man-bites-dog story.
THESE YOUNG MAOISTS SHOULD BE PUBLICLY SHAMED: Students demand ‘complete removal’ of professor even after the school cleared him of racist behavior.
Students at Virginia Commonwealth University are demanding the termination of a professor for allegedly racist behavior, even though the school conducted a full investigation that concluded the professor had not behaved in a racist manner.
The controversy surrounding Javier Tapia, an instructor in VCU’s art school, has been ongoing since last year. In the fall, Tapia called security on visiting professor Caitlin Cherry, who was eating breakfast in a faculty lounge at the time. Tapia told a security guard he believed that Cherry was a student. Cherry subsequently filed a racial discrimination complaint against Tapia; the school investigated it and determined that Tapia was not guilty of racial discrimination or bias.
Though it cleared him of the racial bias accusation, VCU suspended Tapia anyway, while also forbidding him from talking to any members of the VCU community. Tapia is currently suing the school over that suspension. Students have continued to protest Tapia’s affiliation with the university, demanding, for instance, that his tenure be revoked over the incident involving Cherry.
Now, one of the organizers of the ongoing protests is clarifying what the students seek from the university: Tapia’s “termination” from any role at the school.
“We’re asking for the complete removal/termination of Javier Tapia,” Angelica Credle, a student at the university, told The College Fix via email.
Accusation should mean punishment! If the university started expelling students who behave badly, they’d develop a rapid appreciation for due process.
Plus:
Tapia “hinders our academic freedom in so many ways,” one activist said, claiming that his “syllabus is outdated” and that he “only teaches from a white western male perspective.”
“He is just not a good educator. The effect that he has on the mental and physical health of the people in this building is not acceptable,” she continued.
If you’re that fragile, you don’t belong in college, kid. Go home to your mommy.
UN-TATTOO YOU: Costly face tattoo removals on the rise as regret sets in.
As Mark Hemingway wrote in 2017, We All Need To Admit That America Has A Tattoo Problem.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Barr Appoints Prosecutor to Investigate Trump-RUSSIA Hoax. “Barr doesn’t need to provide details about the spying because some of it is out in the public realm already if you aren’t the industrial-advocacy-media-complex ignoring it. The FISA warrants, based on the salacious and unverified dossier are a good starting point. Then there are the SPIES put on Page and Papa-D. Then there are the text messages about an ‘insurance policy’ to protect against a possible win by Trump. So, yeah, the SPYING isn’t really a speculative matter at this point.”
ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE. ALSO, TAXES. College president who used public resources to campaign gets slap on the wrist. “A Michigan college president allegedly violated campaign and election law in the November elections. Schoolcraft College president Dr. Conway Jeffress and other administrators’ efforts focused on trying to pass a tax increase that would have brought in millions more dollars for the college.”
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