KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The Moderate Sins of Kyrsten Sinema. “I moved back to Arizona several months before Sinema was elected and I obviously didn’t vote for her, but have to say that I have been surprised by her so far, largely because she’s not a raging progressive. She’s an anomaly in a time when most Democrats are lurching so far leftward that they couldn’t find the center using GPS and Sherpa guides.”
Archive for 2019
October 30, 2019
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: The Sun has been Spotless for a Total of 224 Days in 2019, and Counting… Looming Grand Solar Minimum.
Related: The Blankest Sun In Decades.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST THROWS CAUTION FLAG ON GENE-EDITING: Anjeanette Roberts sees immense human benefit to be gained from gene-editing (think, for example, of disease prevention), but a recent failed experiment in China illustrates why this is a field where haste could well make for something far more painful than mere waste.
Billionaire libertarian and GOP supporters should get going on Glenn’s Welcome Wagon idea, pronto.
#GREENFAIL: Expensive Climate Policies Sparked Chile Riots, Just Like France’s Yellow Vest Protests. And the Dutch farmers’ revolt.
THE NEW REGULATIONS REINING IN TITLE IX ABUSES CAN’T COME OUT SOON ENOUGH: Another professor gets sideswiped by his university’s Kafkaesque Title IX regime: “In effect, a public college’s administrators coached a disgruntled student on how to make a bogus Title IX claim and how to make it look legitimate.”
MICHAEL BECKLEY: The United States Should Fear a Faltering China. “Beijing’s Assertiveness Betrays Its Desperation.”
China’s economic woes will make it a less competitive rival in the long term but a greater threat to the United States today. When rising powers have suffered such slowdowns in the past, they became more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad. China seems to be headed down just such a path.
In March 2007, at the height of a years-long economic boom, then Premier Wen Jiabao gave an uncharacteristically gloomy press conference. China’s growth model, Wen warned, had become “unsteady, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” The warning was prescient: in the years since, China’s official gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has dropped from 15 percent to six percent—the slowest rate in 30 years. The country’s economy is now experiencing its longest deceleration of the post-Mao era.
A growth rate of six percent could still be considered spectacular. By way of contrast, consider that the U.S. economy has been stuck at a rate of around two percent. But many economists believe that China’s true rate is roughly half the official figure. Moreover, GDP growth does not necessarily translate into greater wealth. If a country spends billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, its GDP will rise. But if those projects consist of bridges to nowhere, the country’s stock of wealth will remain unchanged or even decline. To accumulate wealth, a country needs to increase its productivity—a measure that has actually dropped in China over the last decade. Practically all of China’s GDP growth has resulted from the government’s pumping capital into the economy. Subtract government stimulus spending, some economists argue, and China’s economy may not be growing at all.
Lots to chew on here, but it’s worth your time.
CHANGE: NCAA Clears Way for Athletes to Earn Endorsement Money.
The move came amid growing pressure from legislators, a month after California passed a law requiring schools in the state to allow college athletes to earn endorsement money, and represents a stark shift in policy.
In a concession the NCAA had long resisted, the organization’s governing board directed its three divisions to immediately consider changing the rules governing such benefits for athletes, and to make any such changes no later than January 2021.
We must embrace change,” said Michael Drake, chair of the board and president of Ohio State University.
The details of the new policy are yet to be determined. The NCAA said it must be “in a manner consistent with the collegiate model,” making clear that compensation for performance or participation is still prohibited, among other conditions. But the directive nonetheless paves the way for a scrambled financial landscape in college sports.
College athletes, who have remained largely cut off from the profits of what has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry, may soon be able to earn related income without jeopardizing their eligibility to compete.
It isn’t that I’m against this move, it’s just that I’m wondering how long before they’ll dispense with the fiction that all of these college athletes are actually earning real degrees.
IF YOU THINK GRAHAM’S RESOLUTION WAS A GOOD IDEA: Sally Zelikovsky, writing for The American Thinker, has a bunch more solid ideas on how Senate Republicans “should handle impeachment.” As she says, “for once, before it’s too late, let’s outsmart the smarty pants on the left.”
SHOCKER: Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicide, Dr. Michael Baden reveals. “The bombshell claim by Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who has worked on high-profile cases during a five-decade medical career, is certain to reignite suspicions that surfaced immediately after Epstein, who was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, was discovered dead in his cell on Aug. 10. Baden, who was hired by Epstein’s brother and observed the autopsy, told Fox News its findings are more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging. He noted that the 66-year-old Epstein had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam’s apple, as well as one fracture on the left hyoid bone above the Adam’s apple, Baden told Fox News.”
FALLOUT: Boeing Backlash: India’s IndiGo To Order 300 Jets From Airbus.
It was only last week when we reported Florida-based Spirit Airlines bought 100 new Airbus SE A320neos. The low-cost air carrier was contemplating between Airbus SE A320neo and Boeing 737 Max planes, but since the 737 Max has been grounded across the world for nearly eight months due to severe design flaws, Spirit went with Airbus.
As we noted last week, the backlash has begun, Boeing’s name is a disgrace to American aerospace, nevertheless, the company cannot be trusted due to its shady practices and negligence behind the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), a flight control computer of the plane, that malfunctioned in two separate crashes, one on October 2018 and the other March 2019.
Reuters reported Tuesday morning that Indian budget airline IndiGo “is close to placing a near-record order for over 300 Airbus A320neos.”
Sources told Reuters that the deal is expected to be worth $33 billion, which is roughly $110 million per plane.
Ultimately, trust keeps passenger jets flying every bit as much as the Bernoulli effect does.
#METOO DESCENDS INTO SELF-PARODY: Chris Hayes on Katie Hill Resignation: ‘It Really Seems Like the Bad Guys Won.’
Plus: “The conventional wisdom of a vote by Thanksgiving having evaporated, now there’s worry that the House is spending far too much time behind closed doors, drawing things out. That’s as much of a factor in the Pelosi shift to a process vote as GOP pressure, I’m told.”
This is Pelosi’s mess, Dems — and it’s the mess you asked for, whether you realize it or not.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Ilhan Omar one of three House reps to vote ‘present’ on Armenia genocide bill. “Omar refused to back a resolution Tuesday that recognized the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during WWI as a ‘genocide.’”
YOU MIGHT NOT BE INTERESTED IN THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG, BUT THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG IS INTERESTED IN YOU: PayPal De-Platforms Conservative Street Artist Sabo, Holds His Funds for Six Months.
WELL, THAT DOESN’T FIT THE NARRATIVE: Tom Brokaw: Democrats don’t have ‘the goods’ on Trump as they did with Nixon.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: UNH Law School Budget Deficit Exceeds 100% Of Revenues.
A) AMERICA’S NEW PAPER OF RECORD, SO IT MUST BE TRUE. B) WOULDN’T PUT IT PAST TRUMP TO SAY THIS IF HE KNEW THE LEFT WOULD GO NUTS(ER) C) THAT‘S WHY THERE’S CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON MY FAVORITE STATION. WELL DONE, MISTER PRESIDENT. AND WELCOME TO THE PARTY, BABYLON BEE. YOU’LL HAVE TO UP YOUR GAME TO MAKE UP AS MUCH CRAZY STUFF AS THE WASHINGTON POST: Trump Claims He Personally Pushed Al-Baghdadi Off Nakatomi Plaza.
AND NO, YOU’LL NEVER MAKE UP STUFF AS CRAZY AS HILLARY DOES: Hillary Clinton: Trump ‘Grooming’ Russian ‘Favorite’ Gabbard.
Flashing videos in the dark web… in Hillary’s mind. Is the left so far gone they don’t realize she’s gone insane?
I NEVER SAID I WASN’T SCARED: Fraying.
WELL, THAT AND SHE WAS THE GOODEST GIRL! Trump’s praise for the dog that helped capture al Baghdadi was a psy-ops classic.
LOOK, EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF NANCY GREY GOOSE PELOSI IS A LIE OR A DECEPTION: Pelosi’s deceptive ‘impeachment vote’.
SCHIFF IS USEFUL. HE’S LIKE THE WALKING EMBODIMENT OF EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH OUR POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT. SURE, HE’S HEINOUS AND MAKES US RECOIL. BUT HE’S ALSO OBVIOUSLY WHAT WE NEED TO FIGHT: Schiff Directing Witnesses Not To Answer GOP Questions.
TRUST ME, WE DON’T WANT TO GET STUCK IN OUR BACKYARD EITHER. FIRST, IF WE START TRYING TO MAKE FUNCTIONAL NATIONS OUT OF OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH, WE DON’T STOP TILL BRAZIL. SECOND, WE — OUR CULTURE — WILL GET SWALLOWED BY THE DYSFUNCTIONAL ONES. SEAL THE BORDER AND LET THEM SORT THEMSELVES OUT. IT WILL BE THE FIRST TIME THEY HAD THE CHANCE: The Nations In America’s Backyard Are Falling Apart While The U.S. Remains Stuck In The Middle East.