Archive for 2020
February 20, 2020
BY THE NUMBERS: States That Defend Us—Where Do Our Military Volunteers Call Home?
Contrary to popular myth, members of the U.S. Armed Forces are mostly drawn from the middle class, with the lowest income quintile being slightly underrepresented, and the highest quartile being even less represented, with about 17% of enlisted personnel coming from the top 20% of neighborhoods by income. Further, 92% of accessions to active duty have a high school diploma, compared to 90% of adults age 25 and older.
But as representative of the nation as our armed forces are, there are stark regional differences in the makeup of our military, with the South contributing more than its fair share of personnel and the Northeast largely lagging behind, with a few exceptions.
Reviewing a 2016 report from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness titled “The Population Representation in the Military Services” shows that California (17,729), Texas (16,139) and Florida (11,552) had the largest number of people enlist in the military. But these three states are the three most-populous states. Further, new recruits are mostly 18-to-24 years old with about 0.5% of them volunteering and being accepted for active duty each year.
Looking at each state’s share recruits by the number of 18-to-24-year-olds in the state determines how well or how poorly a state is doing compared to its recruitable population. By that measure, the top five states in 2016 were: Hawaii, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Florida. The five places with the smallest share of recruits were: Washington D.C., North Dakota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.
North Dakota is an outlier because the high-wage opportunities created by fracking boom have made recruitment all-but-impossible there.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Are most law schools losing a million dollars a year?
HEH: Farmer in Eastern Washington Invites Bloomberg to Teach Her How Simple Farming Is.
Almost 30 years ago I had to rebuild a carburetor, and if I didn’t already have the utmost respect for mechanics, I certainly did after that near-disaster.
HITTING MOVING TARGETS IS HARD: Requirements volatility is the core problem of software engineering.
This is another “day job” piece and my first publication on the Stack Overflow blog.
WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF FLORIDA UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON: Do not disturb the snake orgies, Florida park officials urge.
SHORT-TEMPERED: Bloomberg on NDAs: ‘Maybe They Didn’t Like a Joke I Told.’
THE AAUP’S APPEAL IS BECOMING MORE SELECTIVE: College fires professor for his political speech. Professor group declines to defend him.
The Babson firing is a disgrace and a joke, and I’m willing to say it even if the AAUP isn’t.
Reminder: A couple of years ago, Babson banned students from campus for yelling “Trump 2016!” and “Make America Great Again.”
RARE SIGNS OF SANITY IN CALIFORNIA: That Freelance Job-Killing Law Is So Bad That the California Legislature May Dump It Next Week. But note this:
Next week, Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley is hoping that enough California lawmakers have received enough blowback to put a stop to the madness…They should just blow up AB 5 and pretend it never happened, but Kiley’s a Republican and California Democrats have a supermajority. They can do anything they want – including destroying the jobs of millions of Californians. They couldn’t have destroyed more jobs if they’d planned it. Maybe next week the Assembly rolls it back.
Stay tuned.
GO AWAY, KID, YA BOTHER ME. Student protesters threatened “consequences” if the chancellor didn’t resign” after he refused to sign three out of 19 demands- including one that would allow students to choose their roommates based on race.
Also, you’re bigoted trash.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump Train Keeps Steamrolling Dems. “What I love about these rallies is that they provide such a stark contrast to the vision of America that the Democratic candidates keep describing. The story they’re selling is that these are dark times in a country that’s being run by a lawless autocrat. The rallies are filled with thousands of happy people who are laughing and applauding a president for whom they have very deep affection. Trump comes off as a proud, gloating grandpa, giving off no autocrat vibe whatsoever.”
‘MAFIA’ MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, THE BAILOUT BILLIONAIRE:
Then-CIO Bill Mann appeared on a Motley Fool financial podcast in 2016, discussing the Bloomberg Terminal apparatus that accounts for a vast majority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s immense wealth – much of it from clients funded by the Bush/Obama-era bailouts.
The Bloomberg Terminal – effectively a custom keyboard and dual monitors paired with proprietary “Bloomberg Professional” software – has become a mainstay of corporate elites since the 1980s.
“…I don’t just mean New York City, I mean San Francisco, Tokyo, Kazakhstan, whatever, whoever’s in finance,” Mann added.
While some major firms have made noises about moving away from the kit designed by Michael Bloomberg, the reach is still expanding, with around 330,000 Terminals allowing real time access to market data, shipping information, and corporate insider info in use today.
“I’m trying to use a word other than ‘mafia’, but I’m going to fail at it,” said Mann. “I think Bloomberg is the closest thing to a mafia power that exists in finance, because it is such a default, and they have been able, for years, to come in and say, ‘Well, this is our pricing. Discount? No. There’s no discount. This is our pricing.’”
* * * * * * * *
In 2013 it was revealed that journalists at his Bloomberg media company could see inside the Terminal, i.e. spy on Bloomberg Terminal’s customers.
“Until recently, all Bloomberg employees could access information about when and how terminals were used by any customer. But after complaints by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, Bloomberg says its 2,000 or so journalists no longer have access to that information, though other staff still do. Bloomberg has more than 15,000 employees,” Quartz reported.
“The banks were concerned that Bloomberg News was keeping tabs on terminal usage in order to aid its reporting. JP Morgan specifically cited coverage of the bank’s disastrous derivatives trading, known as the “London Whale,” which Bloomberg was the first to reveal.”
Former Bloomberg employees have stated they could access a “wide array of data”, with high-profile figures such as former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s customer service chat logs being freely available to Bloomberg employees.
Couple that with this quote from Bloomberg himself:
Look, if you don’t want it to be in the public domain, don’t take that picture, don’t write it down. In this day and age, you’ve got to be pretty naive to believe that the NSA isn’t listening to everything and reading every email. And incidentally, given how dangerous the world is, we should hope they are, because this is really serious, what’s going on in the world.
As John Nolte asks, “Is this someone we want in charge of the federal government?”
CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC TESTS THE WORLD’S ECONOMIC VIGOR: The epidemic’s economic effects are broad — information technology, travel, auto manufacturing, even mining. The virus has put another crimp in Iranian oil exports.
BILL OF FOR SALE: Based On Tax Filings, Bill Kristol’s Been A Democrat For Years. “Bill Kristol, currently editor-at-large of The Bulwark, has been funded from the start of his rebellion by big left-of-center donors like Pierre Omidyar and the Hewlett Foundation.”
FORCE RECON ON SKIS: Marines in Force Reconnaissance Company 2nd Marine Division move on skis during the Norwegian Military’s Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) course in Norway, Feb. 17, 2020.
NICE POLL, KID. DON’T GET COCKY. Trump takes 2020 lead, 52%-48%, all Democrats ‘probably lose.’
MEANWHILE, IN ARIZONA LAST NIGHT, LOVE TRUMPS HATE:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
DON’T GET COCKY: Bloomberg, Democrats’ circular firing squad must have made Trump smile.