CAMPAIGN TRAIL OF TEARS: After Six Straight Losses for Democrats, Warren Bets Georgia Can Go Blue in 2020.
Archive for 2019
February 18, 2019
IT’S AS IF HIGHER ED FOLKS THINK THE LAW DOESN’T APPLY TO THEM: Community College Bans Pro-Second-Amendment Banner with Picture of Rifles: A clear violation of the First Amendment — and not even justified under the College’s own stated reasons. The administrators need to be made more afraid.
THE AURORA, ILLINOIS SHOOTINGS: Some have complained that shooter Gary Martin should never have been able to acquire a gun given his prior conviction and numerous arrests. (His Mississippi conviction for aggravated assault evidently failed to come to light at the time he purchased his gun (i.e. an existing law failed). Interestingly, he was later denied a concealed carry permit on account of his record ….) I’ll leave it to others to sort out the facts here.
Here’s an issue I haven’t seen discussed yet: The EEOC discourages employers from conducting criminal background checks on job applicants and requires employers to hire felons unless they can show “business necessity” for not doing so. Under the agency’s logic, the refusal to hire a felon is a form of race discrimination, since such hiring practices have a “disparate impact” on African Americans.
Many employers have been bullied, against their better judgment, into taking a chance on a job applicant with a criminal record. I don’t know whether the EEOC’s policy had anything to do with the Henry Pratt Company’s decision to hire Martin. What I do know is that the EEOC’s policy is wrongheaded. Yes, integrating ex-convicts back into the economy is important. But there are better ways to do it than coercing employers into hiring someone they would prefer not to hire.
GORDON CHANG: It’s Time to Stop Talking to Beijing and Start Disengaging from China’s Economy.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, is in no position to negotiate in good faith with the U.S., in large part due to Communist Party politics. Trump, therefore, has to either abandon his ambitious trade goals or push Beijing to the edge of the cliff.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Xi on Friday and the talks head for Washington next week.
“I hope you can make persistent efforts to push forward an agreement that can benefit both sides,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster China Central Television. “We all think that in terms of maintaining the prosperity and stability of the world, as well as promoting global economic prosperity and development, our two countries share broad mutual interest.”
China and the U.S. “share broad mutual interest”? Actually, both countries, at far different stages of economic development, do not.
Wringing back much of our technology stack might take a Space Race-level effort, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. And given China’s increasingly imperial ambitions, probably necessary.
PROFESSOR W. JOSEPH CAMPBELL busts the Salt Lake Tribune for fake news about fake news.
Media myths can be appealing like that: Too good to resist. Too good for media outlets not to revive when they think the occasion is fitting.
So it was the other day when the Salt Lake Tribune editorially condemned President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to add miles of barriers along the country’s southern border.
In its editorial, the Tribune resurrected William Randolph Hearst’s debunked vow to “furnish the war” with Spain in the late 19th century.
“You want fake news?” the Tribune‘s editorial began. “Here’s some fake news about fake news.”
In other words, we’re turning to Hearst’s debunked “furnish the war” vow as seemingly a clever editorial device to impugn Trump’s claims about illegal cross-border immigration.
The Tribune went on, introducing Hearst and “yellow journalism“:
“William Randolph Hearst, impresario of yellow journalism around the end of the 19th century, was described as such a powerful press baron that, it was said, he basically started the Spanish-American War as a stunt to boost newspaper sales.”
Hearst “basically started the Spanish-American War as a stunt to boost newspaper sales”?
Hardly. . . .
The Remington-Hearst exchange supposedly was by cable, but the telegrams presumed to contain their words have never turned up. Had such messages been sent, Spanish authorities surely would have intercepted and denounced them as a clear case of Yankee meddling.
What’s more, the “furnish the war” anecdote is illogical because war — the Cuban rebellion against Spanish colonial rule — was the reason Hearst sent Remington to Cuba in early 1897. Given that context, it would have made no sense for Hearst to vow to “furnish the war.”
The Tribune acknowledges the Remington-Hearst tale is dubious but justifies its use as “too good” not to invoke when “appropriate.”
I guess “when appropriate” means “when it advances the Democrats’ narrative.”
I think the folks at the Salt Lake Tribune should learn to code.
FASTER, PLEASE: This NYC bookstore can a print a title for you in minutes.
Though part of me thinks this would have been way bigger before ebooks.
IT WOULD SEEM THAT MUCH OF WHAT WE’VE BEEN TOLD ABOUT FRATERNITIES IS WRONG. THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE! Why fraternities can be a good thing for young men.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THINGS OTHERS CONSIDER BAD, YOU’RE NOT FREE: The Right To Go To Hell.
THE ONLY THING TO DO IS PUT A STAKE THROUGH ITS HEART AND BEHEAD IT. OR ALTERNATELY NUKE IT FROM ORBIT. IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE: On the rebirth of socialism
BAH. DEFENDING THE BORDERS IS ONE OF THE FEW THINGS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO. AS OPPOSED TO, SAY, FORCING YOU TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE. HOLD THE HYSTERICS, ANYWAY: Hold the hysteria over Trump’s emergency declaration.
EVEN SO, COME SMOD: CNN: Clothes Shoppers For the Rich and Famous.
YES, BUT FROM WHAT TYPE OF CANNON? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Econ Professors Should Be Fired.
OH, DEAR LORD: Salon’s Chauncey DeVega Goes Racist. So What Else is New?
WARPLANES, HEAVY BOMBER EDITION: B-52H stays, B-1 retires.
UNCLE PERVY: Joe Biden: An Embarrassment To America.