Archive for 2021
December 3, 2021
HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Eiffel Tower-sized asteroid will break into Earth’s orbit in a week, NASA says.
BLUE ON BLUE: Betrayed enviros plan 12 days of Biden protests.
FLASHBACK: Abolish the TSA. The day this was published it became the most popular item on the entire USA Today site.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: LOL…Democrats Think Mayor Pete Is Their Great White Hope. “Pete Buttigieg is the prime example of how institutionally vapid the Democrats have become. He’s well educated but incapable of original thought. There are third-graders in America who could come up with better solutions to the supply chain problem than he has.”
THE YALE LAW SCHOOL DUMPSTER FIRE: A Second Open Letter From Yale Grad Simon Lazarus: ‘A Take On Where Things Stand’.
USEFUL IDIOTS? FELLOW TRAVELERS? ON THE PAYROLL? YOU MAKE THE CALL! Senate Dems Blocking Measure To Prohibit Imports Made With Chinese Slave Labor.
THIS NUMBER WILL ONLY GO UP: Inflation causing hardship for 45% of U.S. households.
Related: Inflation Spreads Across America, Accommodated by Fed’s Policies.
THIS IS AN EMBARRASSING ADMISSION: What does the 20-year delivery on the AUKUS deal say about US power? “Then what did Australia get? Australia got subs, but you know what the fine print is, the first nuclear submarine that Australia builds is going to appear? Do you know what the date that they’ve got is? 20 years. 20 years! The thing is, this is not a serious thing.”
That was left out of the press coverage.
Plus: “The US used to ‘get things done’ but seems to have lost that.” Our institutions are run by people who think implementing pronoun training counts as getting things done.
MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Epstein visited Clinton White House at least 17 times.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, PRIORITIES REVEALED EDITION: Just Rewards? Some colleges cut back during the pandemic, but not when it came to their presidents’ pay packages.
The news hit the inboxes of Assumption University faculty and staff members on a Thursday in late September 2020. Assumption would temporarily cut back on its match of employee retirement contributions for the next eight months. The move was necessary, President Francesco C. Cesareo explained in an email, because the small private college in Massachusetts was staring down a budget deficit “that exceeds any we have faced in recent memory.” Doing so would save Assumption a half-million dollars and help offset the university’s growing financial losses — the result of unforeseen pandemic-related spending and diminished room-and-board revenues.
As he concluded his message, Cesareo sought to reassure employees that the suspension of their retirement benefits would help Assumption emerge from the crisis in a stronger position. Though spending cuts were needed, the university’s balance sheet and long-term financial outlook were stable, he said. And faculty and staff members could trust him to be open and honest as the university navigated the pandemic’s fallout.
“What I can promise is that I will continue to be direct and forthright with you as we address these challenges,” Cesareo wrote, according to an email obtained and authenticated by The Chronicle.
What the recipients of Cesareo’s email could not know was that just 16 days prior, Assumption had adopted a deferred-compensation plan for the man himself. Such deals are common tools used by colleges and universities to pay their chief executives and other top employees. Institutions and their trustees often describe such arrangements as necessary components of many executive contracts, because they help attract and retain highly valued employees who do difficult jobs in an increasingly competitive labor market. But such agreements, especially those that were established amid some of the worst months of the pandemic, also raise larger questions about institutional priorities — and about whose contracts can be reneged on, and whose are inviolable. . . .
The Chronicle’s reporting found Assumption was one of several private colleges and universities to establish such plans with select employees during 2020, a year that saw athletic and academic programs eliminated, paychecks and benefits slashed, and higher ed’s work force decimated. At least two other institutions established top-hat plans for their presidents last year. Another 14 colleges entered into such plans with more than 100 nonpresidential employees.
Some pigs are more equal than others.
December 2, 2021
OPEN THREAD: Or this baby.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Laid-Off Journalist Trying To Learn To Code Horrified To Discover The Code Is Binary. “‘Wow — that’s really problematic, chief,’ Chalet said. After apologizing for appropriating the term ‘chief’ from the Native Americans, Chalet excitedly realized that exposing the bigotry of the programming community would make for a great Huffington Post article. It was a few minutes before he remembered that he wasn’t a journalist anymore, though.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: America is behind in the new space race China is determined to win.
STALIN JUST CALLED AND SAID THAT SILICON VALLEY MIGHT WANT TO DIAL BACK THE SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA:
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE: Believe All Women?
You may have read about the case of Alice Sebold and Anthony Broadwater. Sebold is now a pretty well-known novelist; Broadwater spent 16 years in prison after being convicted of raping Sebold when she was 18 years old. Sebold wrote a memoir titled Lucky about her rape and the prosecution of Broadwater, which started her on her way to literary success. But Broadwater has now been exonerated and his conviction overturned. As a result, Sebold has publicly apologized to Broadwater. . . .
This “apology” strikes me as a classic of our moment in history. Sebold blames “the American legal system,” and jumps on the BLM train: “he became another young black man brutalized by our flawed legal system.” And the passive voice here is exquisite: “I will forever be sorry for what was done to him.”
Done to him by whom? It was Sebold who identified Broadwater, Sebold who drove his prosecution, Sebold who testified under oath, in court, that he raped her. Our “flawed legal system” consists of the police officers, prosecutor, and ultimately the jury that believed Sebold’s testimony–testimony that turned out to be false.
And she profited directly from that injustice.
WHEN JOHN GILL DISCOVERS THAT HE REALLY IS JUST A FIGUREHEAD: Biden Says He Jokes With His Wife That, By All Appearances, Fauci Is President.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Today’s deep question: Did a Biden judicial nominee commit perjury?
GOODER AND HARDER, FUN CITY: Bank of America execs warn junior staffers to ‘dress down’ as NYC crime surges.
If only there was a system with a proven track record designed to lower crime in Manhattan.
GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:
● ‘Violent Robbery Caravans’ Confronting Police On Oakland Streets.
● Councilwoman wants to offer $50K for officers to work in Oakland.
● Spike of Homicides Causes Oakland Mayor to Reverse Course on Diverting Funds From Police.
● ‘Defund the police’ movement is now dead in Oakland.
Hence the Oceania-style pivot this year, as a form of triage with the midterms looming large.