At Amazon, New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.
And see especially, Logitech Accessories.
More, Save on Avalon Humidifiers.
Also, Gowiss Backpack - Rated 20L / 33L - Most Durable Packable Convenient Lightweight Travel Hiking Backpack Daypack - Waterproof, Ultralight and Handy Foldable.
Here, Buck Knives 0119 Special Fixed Blade Knife with Leather Sheath - 75th Anniversary Edition.
And, Craftsman Adjustable Pneumatic Mechanics Swivel Seat (Black).
Still more, Rubbermaid RM-P2 2-Step Molded Plastic Stool with Non-Slip Step Treads, 300-Pound Capacity, Black Finish.
Plus, Cliff Bar Organic Blueberry Crisp, Blueberry Crisp (Case of 12) 2.4 Oz by Clif Bars.
BONUS: John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Trump's Challenge is to Unify the Nation?
I don't think so.
If he could rally his base with red meat he'd be better off in the long run. As we saw with the left's reaction to the administration's offer of legalizing 1.8 so-called "Dreamers," nothing's going to satisfy the fanatical hate-addled left.
But see David Fahrenthold, at the Washington Post, FWIW (via Memeorandum), "Trump's steep challenge in his first State of the Union address: Uniting a fractured country":
If he could rally his base with red meat he'd be better off in the long run. As we saw with the left's reaction to the administration's offer of legalizing 1.8 so-called "Dreamers," nothing's going to satisfy the fanatical hate-addled left.
But see David Fahrenthold, at the Washington Post, FWIW (via Memeorandum), "Trump's steep challenge in his first State of the Union address: Uniting a fractured country":
President Trump will give his first State of the Union address at 9 p.m. Eastern time, talking up the U.S. economy and calling for bipartisanship — after a year in office during which his aggressive, mercurial politics often overshadowed the former and undermined the latter.More at that top link.
“For the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government,” Trump plans to say, in a speech excerpt released by the White House on Tuesday evening.
In another excerpt, Trump will say “This is our New American Moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.
Trump also intends to use the speech to call for a bipartisan deal on immigration. On Thursday he proposed a deal that would allow “dreamers” — young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children — to be given a path to citizenship, in exchange for an increase in border-security funding and large cuts to legal immigration.
“So tonight I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to protect our citizens, of every background, color, and creed,” Trump will say, according to the excerpts.
That tone will be markedly different from the one that Trump used in a Twitter messages earlier last week, in which he taunted the Senate’s top Democrat, Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) for not agreeing to a bipartisan immigration deal. That tweet came after a short-lived government shutdown, which ended when Democrats backed down.
“Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA,” Trump wrote. “DACA” is an acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that allowed some “Dreamers” to avoid deportation.
And Trump’s call for bipartisanship and an end to division seemed unlikely to change the tone in Washington — where, in the hours leading up to Trump’s address, lawmakers seemed more divided than ever. One major cause was the fight over a House Intelligence Committee “memo” that purportedly raises questions about federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Many Republicans have used that memo, which was written by staff members of the committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as a reason to question the validity of scrutiny of Trump and his staff by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The divisions over immigration will be visible in the gallery that overlooks the House chamber. More than 50 Democratic lawmakers have invited “dreamers” to attend as guests to dramatize their demand for legal status. In response, Republican Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.) tweeted that he had asked the Capitol Police to check all guests’ IDs, and arrest “any illegal aliens in attendance.”
In Trump’s box, he has guests who will highlight the threat posed by MS-13, a criminal gang active in both the United States and Central America. Trump’s guests will include a federal immigration agent who has investigated the gang, and two sets of parents whose children were killed by MS-13 members...
Citizen Rose
Rose McGowan's new book, Brave, is out today.
Plus, her new reality show debuts tonight on E!, "Citizen Rose."
It's reviewed at the Los Angeles Times, "'Citizen Rose' keeps the #MeToo conversation, and Rose McGowan's career, alive."
And the book review, "In 'Brave,' Rose McGowan finally tells her whole story":
Plus, her new reality show debuts tonight on E!, "Citizen Rose."
It's reviewed at the Los Angeles Times, "'Citizen Rose' keeps the #MeToo conversation, and Rose McGowan's career, alive."
And the book review, "In 'Brave,' Rose McGowan finally tells her whole story":
There is a moment in Rose McGowan's new documentary series when she learns that Harvey Weinstein has allegedly stolen the first half of her memoir, "Brave," months in advance of its publication.More.
"I can't tell you how violating it felt," she explains via voice-over. "It was like being back in that room with him all over again, only this time, it was the inside of my mind and not my body."
Readers of "Brave" will understand why the revelation so enraged McGowan. She does not hold back when writing about Weinstein, whom she refers to only as "The Monster."
Long before the Weinstein scandal broke, McGowan publicly alleged that she had been raped by a Hollywood producer. After other women came forward with allegations of abuse, McGowan named Weinstein. But "Brave" is the first time she has described the alleged attack. Weinstein has denied the allegations.
Midway through the memoir, the incident occupies an entire chapter called "Death of Self." At the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, Weinstein invited McGowan to his hotel room for a meeting. Just a few hours before, he had sat behind her at the premiere of her film "Going All the Way," in which she appeared topless.
Her manager insisted the meeting was important, she writes. "I was so new to the industry's upper echelon, I didn't know … what so many already knew, that he was a predator and I was walking into a trap."
Once she was inside his hotel room, Weinstein offered to show her the hot tub, and before long, she writes, he had pushed her into a steamy room and begun stripping her clothes off. After picking her up and putting her on the edge of the Jacuzzi, she writes, he forced her legs open and performed oral sex on her while masturbating. She pretended to have an orgasm in an attempt to end the experience.
"I did what so many who experience trauma do, I disassociated and left my body. Detached from my body, I hover up under the ceiling, watching myself sitting on the edge of the tub, against a wall, held in place by the Monster whose face is between my legs, trapped by a beast. In this tiny room with this huge man, my mind is blank. Wake up Rose; get out of here."
The alleged sexual assault was the culmination of years of torment for McGowan, and "Brave" begins at the beginning. Using a brash tone that will be familiar to the millions who follow her on Twitter, McGowan describes her life, starting with the girlhood years she spent in a religious cult ("I was told I was worth nothing in the eyes of God"), the eating disorder she suffered as a teen ("I was never able to get below 92 pounds"), and her decision to legally emancipate herself from her parents at 15.
Still, as she describes her formative years it is clear that McGowan, 44, has always viewed herself as a defiant spirit and still takes pride in the fact that she grew angry over being made to wear a pink smock at school while the boys got blue ones.
That was after her family split from the Children of God. McGowan's father led the Italian branch and McGowan remembers being forced to declare her acceptance of God, lest she be beaten. When she was 4 a cult elder spotted a wart on her thumb and sliced it off with a razor blade, beginning "a narrative that [messed] with my head for years, that of perfection as self-protection. I told myself if I were just perfect enough, I'd be okay."
When the cult began promoting sex between children and adults, McGowan's father decided to leave. After the family returned to America, where they split time between Oregon and Colorado, she felt out of place. Her schoolmates couldn't understand her odd upbringing and she lashed out, still describing their "proverbial white picket fence" backgrounds as equally dangerous, "a different kind of cult."
"I'm sure I was unnerving as a child because of my intensity. I know I was because I basically was the same as I am now, and I tend to unnerve people to this day."
A runaway at 13, McGowan lived for a year on the street. When she returned home, her father demanded $300 a month in rent so she began gigging as an extra for $35 a day. Before long, she'd moved to Hollywood, finding leading roles in movies like "Scream" and "Jawbreaker." She began dating high-profile men such as Marilyn Manson and director Robert Rodriguez, whom McGowan calls only "RR."
Her relationship with Manson, though oft-scrutinized in the press, was largely without conflict, blissful even, from her descriptions of Manson "painting watercolors of my Boston terriers while I was ordering glassware from Martha Stewart's online store."
This was not the case with "RR," whom McGowan met at the Cannes Film Festival while the filmmaker was still married. RR was at turns weirdly flattering — "I got you at your ripest," he told her — and intensely possessive. On the set of "Grindhouse," McGowan writes, RR would often fly into jealous rages, accusing her of secretly being in love with his collaborator, Quentin Tarantino. Then, after the movie was completed, RR sold it to Dimension Films, a division of the Weinstein Co.
"I can't tell you what it was like to be sold into the hands of the man who had assaulted me and scarred me for life," McGowan writes. "I had to do press events with the Monster and see photos of us together, his big fat paw pulling me in to his body."
Dow Jones Drops for the First Time in 2018
Media outlets are publishing spectacular headlines as if the market crashed. This is nothing. The Dow lost 1.1 percent today, and apparently about .8 percent yesterday. Compare that to Black Monday in 1987, where the market lost almost 23 percent of its value in one day. Black Friday, October 24, 1929, saw a 22 percent decline, hence the "Wall Street Crash."
Here's the Wall Street Journal, "Dow Industrials Have Their Worst Day Since May." And at USA Today, "Dow's biggest 2-day drop since 2016 puts investors on edge as stock gauge briefly falls 400 points."
More, at Bloomberg, "Stocks Tumble, Bonds No Haven as Selloff Worsens: Markets Wrap." That's just not that big of a "tumble."
Seems to me media outlets are working to take a little luster off, if possible, the president's spin tonight at the State of the Union speech. Me, I'm quite bullish: My Roth IRA and 457b market fund have been growing wonderfully. I'm not worried at all. In fact I'm excited.
Here's the Wall Street Journal, "Dow Industrials Have Their Worst Day Since May." And at USA Today, "Dow's biggest 2-day drop since 2016 puts investors on edge as stock gauge briefly falls 400 points."
More, at Bloomberg, "Stocks Tumble, Bonds No Haven as Selloff Worsens: Markets Wrap." That's just not that big of a "tumble."
Seems to me media outlets are working to take a little luster off, if possible, the president's spin tonight at the State of the Union speech. Me, I'm quite bullish: My Roth IRA and 457b market fund have been growing wonderfully. I'm not worried at all. In fact I'm excited.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Laura Dunn
At the Other McCain, "Laura Dunn Is an Evil Liar":
When she was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin in 2004, Laura Dunn got drunk and had a ménage à trois with two guys. More than a year later, she decided she was a rape victim and filed a complaint with the university, and also reported the alleged rape to the campus police:
Keep reading.The investigation did not go well for Dunn. Because she reported the assault nearly a year-and-a-half after the event, one of the men had already graduated. The other insisted the encounter had been consensual, and since there were no witnesses or evidence, both the police and the university dropped the case. . . .If you haven’t yet read Christina Hoff Sommers’ account of this case, read the whole thing now, because it is central to understanding why and how the Obama administration effectively abolished due-process protections for university students accused of sexual misconduct. Dunn’s story was featured in a 2010 National Public Radio report that portrayed her as a trustworthy and sympathetic victim. The NPR story inspired the infamous 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. universities that was interpreted as a mandate to impose extreme policies that in effect denied due-process to accused students, so that any accusation of sexual misconduct was treated as tantamount to proof of guilt.
[Dunn] filed a Title IX sexual discrimination complaint with the [federal Education Department’s] Office for Civil Rights. Dunn accused the University of Wisconsin of multiple violations, including subjecting her to a hostile environment and failing to provide a “prompt and equitable resolution” of her case.
But in 2008, four years after the original incident, she received an 18-page letter from the Department of Education with the verdict: “Based on its investigation, OCR determined that there is insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations made in the complaint.”
All because Laura Dunn was a drunk teenage slut. Excuse me if I seem a bit judgmental, but didn’t I just tell you to read the whole story?
Indian Slavery
This is pretty fascinating -- and tells you something about how far down identity politics has infested historiography and cultural assimilation.
At NYT, "Indian Slavery Once Thrived in New Mexico. Latinos Are Finding Family Ties to It."
At NYT, "Indian Slavery Once Thrived in New Mexico. Latinos Are Finding Family Ties to It."
Latinos with roots in New Mexico are discovering ancestors who were Native American slaves, prompting new debates over identity https://t.co/B6VpNjXmq1
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 28, 2018
The Hateful Ideology and Rhetoric of Homosexual Rights
I get some mean and nasty homosexuals at my college. And to think, it's been 10 years since Proposition 8. Maybe a deep backlash is setting in, and none too soon.
Read Andrew "Milky Loads" Sullivan, at New York Magazine:
Read Andrew "Milky Loads" Sullivan, at New York Magazine:
Andrew Sullivan: Since achieving marriage rights, there’s been a radicalization of the gay rights movement’s ideology and rhetoric https://t.co/naGSy5UjH4— New York Magazine (@NYMag) January 28, 2018
"The sewer of most of Twitter is now so rank that even addicts have begun to realize that they are sinking in oceans of shitholery."— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) January 26, 2018
https://t.co/emm9BvPYSw via @intelligencer
"Social media has turned journalism into junk, has promoted addictive addlement in our brains, is wrecking our democracy, and slowly replacing life with pseudo-life."— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) January 26, 2018
https://t.co/emm9BvPYSw via @intelligencer
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Weather
We've got Santa Ana conditions coming. It's going to be hot and dry.
Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:
Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:
Friday, January 26, 2018
Democrat Adam Schiff Spearheads Efforts to Sabotage Release of Damaging FBI Memo
From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "Operation Sabotage the Memo":
Operation Sabotage the Memo https://t.co/061ZCV19jM— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) January 26, 2018
Rep. Adam Schiff has many talents, though few compare to his ability to function as a human barometer of Democratic panic. The greater the level of Schiff hot, pressured air, the more trouble the party knows it’s in.
Mr. Schiff’s millibars have been popping ever since the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, on which he is ranking Democrat, last week voted to make a classified GOP memo about FBI election year abuses available to every House member. Mr. Schiff has spit and spun and apoplectically accused his Republican colleagues of everything short of treason. The memo, he insists, is “profoundly misleading,” not to mention “distorted” and “political,” and an attack on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He initially tried to block his colleagues from reading it. Having failed, he’s now arguing Americans can know the full story only if they see the underlying classified documents.
This is highly convenient, given the Justice Department retains those documents and is as eager to make them public as a fox is to abandon the henhouse. Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes had to threaten a contempt citation simply to get permission for his committee to gain access, and even then investigators had to leave Capitol Hill to view them, and were allowed only to take notes. Mr. Nunes has no authority to declassify them. The best he can do in his continuing transparency efforts is to summarize their contents. Only in Schiff land is sunshine suddenly a pollutant.
The Schiff pressure gauge is outmatched only by the Justice Department and the FBI, which are now mobilizing their big guns to squelch the truth. That included a Wednesday Justice Department letter to Mr. Nunes—written by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, designed as a memo to the media, copied to its allies in Washington, and immediately leaked to the public. And the department wonders why anyone doubts the integrity of all its hardworking professionals.
Mr. Boyd gets in his cheap shots, for instance slamming Mr. Nunes for moving to release a memo based on documents that Mr. Nunes hasn’t even “seen.” He apparently thinks Rep. Trey Gowdy —the experienced former federal prosecutor Mr. Nunes asked to conduct the review of those docs—isn’t qualified to judge questions of national security. He hyperventilates that it would be “reckless” for the committee to make its memo public without first letting the Justice Department review it and “advise [the committee] of the risk of harm to national security.” Put another way, it is Mr. Boyd’s position that the Justice Department gets to provide oversight of Congress. The Constitution has it the other way around.
The bigger, swampier game here is to rally media pressure, and to mau-mau Mr. Nunes into giving the department a veto over the memo’s release. Ask Sen. Chuck Grassley how that goes. Mr. Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, recently sent a referral to the department for a criminal probe into dossier author Christopher Steele. He then in good faith asked the department its views on an unclassified portion of that referral that he wants to make public. The department invented a classified reason to block public release, and has refused to budge for weeks.
The Boyd letter is also a first step toward a bigger prize: President Trump. Under House rules, a majority of the Intelligence Committee can vote to declassify the memo. Mr. Trump then has up to five days to object to its release. If he doesn’t object, the memo goes public. If he does, a majority of the House would have to vote to override him.
The shrieks of reckless harm and national security are designed to pressure Mr. Trump to object. And wait for it: In coming days the Justice Department’s protectors will gin up a separate, desperate claim that Mr. Trump will somehow be “interfering” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe unless he objects to the release. According to this view, it is Mr. Trump’s obligation not just to sit by while the media and the Mueller team concoct their narrative, but to block any evidence that might undercut it...
HIllary Clinton Protected Top Aide Accused of Sexual Harassment in 2008
Hmm, this should be a blockbuster today.
It's a NYT breaking scoop, "Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008."
And at the Hill as well.
It's a NYT breaking scoop, "Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008."
And at the Hill as well.
In addition to being a big story about harassment, this @maggieNYT @amychozick is another case study – of many – in Clinton refusal to discard associates regarded by many in her wide circle as toxichttps://t.co/GGMdMe8mvU
— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) January 26, 2018
Via @maggieNYT and @amychozick: "Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008" https://t.co/JJ7HfxYnGi pic.twitter.com/AevncHhWm0
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) January 26, 2018
Clinton protected top staffer accused of sexual harassment during 2008 campaign: report https://t.co/K84smjbpRf pic.twitter.com/C79rHHdvUr
— The Hill (@thehill) January 26, 2018
I find it hard to believe Hillary Clinton would stand by and protect someone accused of sexually harassing a young subordinate.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 26, 2018
Hillary Clinton protected a top staffer accused of sexual harassment during her 2008 presidential campaign, The New York Times reported Friday.
Clinton's then-senior faith adviser, Burns Strider, was accused in 2008 of sexually harassing a young female staffer, according to the Times. Instead of firing Strider, as Clinton's campaign manager recommended, the campaign kept him on, docked him several weeks of pay and ordered him to undergo counseling.
The young woman who accused him was moved to a new job.
Strider was accused by a woman who shared an office with him of rubbing her shoulders without permission, kissing her on the forehead and sending her a number of sexually suggestive emails. The woman shared the complaint with Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's then-campaign manager, who brought it to the candidate's attention.
But Clinton personally requested that Strider remain on staff. The young woman signed a non-disclosure agreement upon leaving the campaign and declined to comment for the Times story...
Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life
At Amazon, Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
He's such a nice, thoughtful man. The more I listen to him the more I like him.
On Fox & Friends the other day:
He's such a nice, thoughtful man. The more I listen to him the more I like him.
On Fox & Friends the other day:
Jay Leno Takes the Dodge Demon to Pomona Raceway
From last night's Jay Leno's Garage:
Turns out they've got "street-legal" racing over there at Pomona, for $20.00. You have to meet the safety rules and specifications (one being which your car can't be faster than a 10-second quarter mile, heh). You wear a helmet if your car is faster that 14 seconds, which would be my Challenger V-6. But it's all cool and above board. Meaning safe.
Wheelies in the 2018 @Dodge Demon.— Jay Leno's Garage (@LenosGarage) January 25, 2018
Don't miss an all new episode of #JayLenosGarage TONIGHT at 10p on CNBC! pic.twitter.com/ZrBtWOL0Vb
Turns out they've got "street-legal" racing over there at Pomona, for $20.00. You have to meet the safety rules and specifications (one being which your car can't be faster than a 10-second quarter mile, heh). You wear a helmet if your car is faster that 14 seconds, which would be my Challenger V-6. But it's all cool and above board. Meaning safe.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
America's Extreme Poverty
From Professor Angus Deaton, at the New York Times, "The U.S. Can No Longer Hide From Its Deep Poverty Problem":
The other day, over at my local Ralph's supermarket on Culver and Walnut in Irvine, I saw a young woman with a baby panhandling for money in the parking lot. The baby was in a chest sling, sleeping; the woman was holding a sign, asking for money, which I couldn't read very well. I didn't even flinch. I walked over to her and asked if she and the baby had enough to eat. She said yes and held out her hand, showing some of the dollar bills folks had given her. I gave her a couple of bucks and urged her to get inside and get some food.
I remember when living in Santa Barbara, the staff at the local homeless mission told us not to give cash handouts to the city's downtown homeless people. The mission gave us food tickets that the homeless could use if they went down the organization's main shelter, which was on the south side of Highway 101. I guess a lot of panhandlers weren't buying food with the cash, but rather alcohol, drugs, or who knows what? But the beggars are persistent and ubiquitous, especially on State Street downtown. You want to help when you can, until you become so tired of the solicitations you give the beggars a wide berth (and I did that sometimes).
In any case, now I've been thinking about the homeless camp in Anaheim, and debating whether I should go over there myself to do a photo-blog. I'm not as motivated on this stuff as I used to be, although I'm just curious to check out the encampments. Many of the people there told the police they weren't moving, and it's a miles-long encampment, so I doubt we've heard the last of the news from that location.
And of course the homeless issue is just one facet of poverty in America; it's the most visible one, and gets a lot of media attention, especially given the current scale of the problem and the community backlash. As longtime readers will recall, I used to live in Fresno, and anyone who drives up Highway 99, and stops by and drives through some of the small migrant farming towns, which routinely have poverty and unemployment rates in the 30 and 40 percent range, knows what I'm talking about. It's hard out there. In California public policy is so bad it's a national disgrace. Remember, the so-called bullet train is scheduled for billions of dollars in cost overruns and may never be completed. How much money is being wasted on these high-theory policy programs, which mostly are focused on combating "climate change" as opposed to making any person's life better, to say nothing of relieving poverty? It makes me mad.
Note something else about Professor Deaton's essay: It reaffirms President Trump's nationalist focus of making our own country great again. We should be working in fact to help our own people more than we're helping other populations in other countries around the globe. Thinking about his findings, and his exhortations for citizens to give more, Deaton writes:
Well, don't rely on the Democrats to make any serious efforts to combat poverty and improve economic performance at home. That's not the agenda of the "intersectional" left right now. This radical intersectionality finds its home among the coastal urban elites in big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston, and elsewhere. The poster child for the urban elitist mindset is California State Senator Scott Wiener, notorious for authoring legislation decriminalizing HIV-infected blood transfusions. He's also one of state's leaders behind the urban density movement, cosponsoring a recent bill seeking to change California's zoning laws to allow high-density and high-rise housing near urban public transportation centers. The rationale? To reduce "climate change," what else? If you build more units near transportation centers, less people will rely on private vehicles, with less pollution, so the theory goes. But the types of folks targeted by these policies are high-income tech- and cultural-sector workers who help drive up property values, already high property values, and keep low-income workers out and the poor down. Leftist policies are driving the unaffordable housing trends in the state. (See Berkeleyside for more, "Berkeley mayor on Wiener-Skinner housing bill: ‘A declaration of war against our neighborhoods’.")
You're going to have poverty. You're going to have it in a market economy. Those times when we've seen dramatic reductions in the poverty rate have been during periods of robust economic growth. We're currently seeing something of this right now, with the black unemployment rate falling to its historic low in December. (This happened during the late-1990s too, when the first dot com boom pushed national unemployment down to under 4 percent.) A rising tide lifts all boats, I heard somebody say.
Lots more could be added here, but I'll have to save more commentary for later.
RELATED: "A 'Mixed Bag'? Fifty Years Later and That's All to Be Said for 'War on Poverty'?"
This is a horrifying read from Angus Deaton. Alas, I fear he underestimates the ability of Americans to hide from reality. https://t.co/tpODq5u1yc— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 25, 2018
You might think that the kind of extreme poverty that would concern a global organization like the United Nations has long vanished in this country. Yet the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, recently made and reported on an investigative tour of the United States.Keep reading.
Surely no one in the United States today is as poor as a poor person in Ethiopia or Nepal? As it happens, making such comparisons has recently become much easier. The World Bank decided in October to include high-income countries in its global estimates of people living in poverty. We can now make direct comparisons between the United States and poor countries.
Properly interpreted, the numbers suggest that the United Nations has a point — and the United States has an urgent problem. They also suggest that we might rethink how we assist the poor through our own giving.
According to the World Bank, 769 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2013; they are the world’s very poorest. Of these, 3.2 million live in the United States, and 3.3 million in other high-income countries (most in Italy, Japan and Spain).
As striking as these numbers are, they miss a very important fact. There are necessities of life in rich, cold, urban and individualistic countries that are less needed in poor countries. The World Bank adjusts its poverty estimates for differences in prices across countries, but it ignores differences in needs.
An Indian villager spends little or nothing on housing, heat or child care, and a poor agricultural laborer in the tropics can get by with little clothing or transportation. Even in the United States, it is no accident that there are more homeless people sleeping on the streets in Los Angeles, with its warmer climate, than in New York.
The Oxford economist Robert Allen recently estimated needs-based absolute poverty lines for rich countries that are designed to match more accurately the $1.90 line for poor countries, and $4 a day is around the middle of his estimates. When we compare absolute poverty in the United States with absolute poverty in India, or other poor countries, we should be using $4 in the United States and $1.90 in India.
Once we do this, there are 5.3 million Americans who are absolutely poor by global standards. This is a small number compared with the one for India, for example, but it is more than in Sierra Leone (3.2 million) or Nepal (2.5 million), about the same as in Senegal (5.3 million) and only one-third less than in Angola (7.4 million). Pakistan (12.7 million) has twice as many poor people as the United States, and Ethiopia about four times as many.
This evidence supports on-the-ground observation in the United States. Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer have documented the daily horrors of life for the several million people in the United States who actually do live on $2 a day, in both urban and rural America. Matthew Desmond’s ethnography of Milwaukee explores the nightmare of finding urban shelter among the American poor.
It is hard to imagine poverty that is worse than this, anywhere in the world. Indeed, it is precisely the cost and difficulty of housing that makes for so much misery for so many Americans, and it is precisely these costs that are missed in the World Bank’s global counts.
Of course, people live longer and have healthier lives in rich countries. With only a few (and usually scandalous) exceptions, water is safe to drink, food is safe to eat, sanitation is universal, and some sort of medical care is available to everyone. Yet all these essentials of health are more likely to be lacking for poorer Americans. Even for the whole population, life expectancy in the United States is lower than we would expect given its national income, and there are places — the Mississippi Delta and much of Appalachia — where life expectancy is lower than in Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Beyond that, many Americans, especially whites with no more than a high school education, have seen worsening health: As my research with my wife, the Princeton economist Anne Case, has demonstrated, for this group life expectancy is falling; mortality rates from drugs, alcohol and suicide are rising; and the long historical decline in mortality from heart disease has come to a halt...
The other day, over at my local Ralph's supermarket on Culver and Walnut in Irvine, I saw a young woman with a baby panhandling for money in the parking lot. The baby was in a chest sling, sleeping; the woman was holding a sign, asking for money, which I couldn't read very well. I didn't even flinch. I walked over to her and asked if she and the baby had enough to eat. She said yes and held out her hand, showing some of the dollar bills folks had given her. I gave her a couple of bucks and urged her to get inside and get some food.
I remember when living in Santa Barbara, the staff at the local homeless mission told us not to give cash handouts to the city's downtown homeless people. The mission gave us food tickets that the homeless could use if they went down the organization's main shelter, which was on the south side of Highway 101. I guess a lot of panhandlers weren't buying food with the cash, but rather alcohol, drugs, or who knows what? But the beggars are persistent and ubiquitous, especially on State Street downtown. You want to help when you can, until you become so tired of the solicitations you give the beggars a wide berth (and I did that sometimes).
In any case, now I've been thinking about the homeless camp in Anaheim, and debating whether I should go over there myself to do a photo-blog. I'm not as motivated on this stuff as I used to be, although I'm just curious to check out the encampments. Many of the people there told the police they weren't moving, and it's a miles-long encampment, so I doubt we've heard the last of the news from that location.
And of course the homeless issue is just one facet of poverty in America; it's the most visible one, and gets a lot of media attention, especially given the current scale of the problem and the community backlash. As longtime readers will recall, I used to live in Fresno, and anyone who drives up Highway 99, and stops by and drives through some of the small migrant farming towns, which routinely have poverty and unemployment rates in the 30 and 40 percent range, knows what I'm talking about. It's hard out there. In California public policy is so bad it's a national disgrace. Remember, the so-called bullet train is scheduled for billions of dollars in cost overruns and may never be completed. How much money is being wasted on these high-theory policy programs, which mostly are focused on combating "climate change" as opposed to making any person's life better, to say nothing of relieving poverty? It makes me mad.
Note something else about Professor Deaton's essay: It reaffirms President Trump's nationalist focus of making our own country great again. We should be working in fact to help our own people more than we're helping other populations in other countries around the globe. Thinking about his findings, and his exhortations for citizens to give more, Deaton writes:
None of this means that we should close out “others” and look after only our own. International cooperation is vital to keeping our globe safe, commerce flowing and our planet habitable.What to do?
But it is time to stop thinking that only non-Americans are truly poor. Trade, migration and modern communications have given us networks of friends and associates in other countries. We owe them much, but the social contract with our fellow citizens at home brings unique rights and responsibilities that must sometimes take precedence, especially when they are as destitute as the world’s poorest people.
Well, don't rely on the Democrats to make any serious efforts to combat poverty and improve economic performance at home. That's not the agenda of the "intersectional" left right now. This radical intersectionality finds its home among the coastal urban elites in big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston, and elsewhere. The poster child for the urban elitist mindset is California State Senator Scott Wiener, notorious for authoring legislation decriminalizing HIV-infected blood transfusions. He's also one of state's leaders behind the urban density movement, cosponsoring a recent bill seeking to change California's zoning laws to allow high-density and high-rise housing near urban public transportation centers. The rationale? To reduce "climate change," what else? If you build more units near transportation centers, less people will rely on private vehicles, with less pollution, so the theory goes. But the types of folks targeted by these policies are high-income tech- and cultural-sector workers who help drive up property values, already high property values, and keep low-income workers out and the poor down. Leftist policies are driving the unaffordable housing trends in the state. (See Berkeleyside for more, "Berkeley mayor on Wiener-Skinner housing bill: ‘A declaration of war against our neighborhoods’.")
You're going to have poverty. You're going to have it in a market economy. Those times when we've seen dramatic reductions in the poverty rate have been during periods of robust economic growth. We're currently seeing something of this right now, with the black unemployment rate falling to its historic low in December. (This happened during the late-1990s too, when the first dot com boom pushed national unemployment down to under 4 percent.) A rising tide lifts all boats, I heard somebody say.
Lots more could be added here, but I'll have to save more commentary for later.
RELATED: "A 'Mixed Bag'? Fifty Years Later and That's All to Be Said for 'War on Poverty'?"
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Aminatou Sow is Mad Because She Had to Pay Her Insurance Deductible Up Front, Before Her Scheduled Surgery
Um, that's how it works?
Leftists are so fucking stupid. Just stop. Fine. You want single payer. Push for it. But don't blame the insurance policy that you purchased. Buy a policy with an affordable deductible or quit bitching. That, or go on Medicaid. There's coverage available. Or, oh, you mean to tell me ObamaCare isn't that great after all? Who knew?
Seen on Twitter (make sure you read the whole thread; it's comedy gold):
Leftists are so fucking stupid. Just stop. Fine. You want single payer. Push for it. But don't blame the insurance policy that you purchased. Buy a policy with an affordable deductible or quit bitching. That, or go on Medicaid. There's coverage available. Or, oh, you mean to tell me ObamaCare isn't that great after all? Who knew?
Seen on Twitter (make sure you read the whole thread; it's comedy gold):
Money really is at the heart of everything that is fucked up with our healthcare. Case in point: I’m scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning. It’s been on the books for weeks. I’ve gone through extensive pre-testing and have followed up with the hospital every step of the way
— Aminatou Sow (@aminatou) January 22, 2018
Howard Kurtz, Media Madness
*BUMPED.*
Out next week, at Amazon, Howard Kurtz, Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War over the Truth.
Out next week, at Amazon, Howard Kurtz, Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War over the Truth.
'Let Your Love Flow'
It's the Bellamy Brothers.
My wife took the Challenger to Pechanga a couple of weeks ago and I had on satellite radio in the Jeep Liberty. This song came on and I realized I hadn't heard it forever, and as I was listening I just appreciated what a beautiful and wonderful song it is. You have to count your blessings sometimes, and music's a blessing in your life. Don't take it for granted. Think about it. Nurture it. And cherish it.
My wife took the Challenger to Pechanga a couple of weeks ago and I had on satellite radio in the Jeep Liberty. This song came on and I realized I hadn't heard it forever, and as I was listening I just appreciated what a beautiful and wonderful song it is. You have to count your blessings sometimes, and music's a blessing in your life. Don't take it for granted. Think about it. Nurture it. And cherish it.
The Prosperity Paradox
From Ronald Brownstein, at CNN, "The prosperity paradox is dividing the country in two":
Still more.
"The big blue metros believe their eco success is threatened by the Trump agenda of hostility to immigration & free trade, prioritization of tax cuts over investments in education & scientific research,the stoking of racial tensions" & SALT deduction limit https://t.co/BmTuqHfZNL— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) January 23, 2018
While President Donald Trump relentlessly claims credit for the strengthening economy, the nation's economic growth is being driven overwhelmingly by the places that are most resistant to him.These are the fault lines of the next American civil war. When and how it all goes to hell, who knows? But something this fundamentally radical will bring an eruption at some point, and those who anticipate the collapse will be better prepared for the fighting and the fallout.
Counties that voted for Hillary Clinton against Trump in 2016 accounted for nearly three-fourths of the nation's increased economic output and almost two-thirds of its new jobs in the years leading up to his election, according to previously unpublished findings provided to CNN by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
That imbalance looks even starker when considering that Clinton won less than one-sixth of the nation's counties. Trump carried more counties than any candidate in either party since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Yet it is the diverse major metropolitan areas that voted in preponderant numbers against Trump that have clearly emerged as the nation's engines of growth. In the process, the big blue metros have pulled further away from the small town and rural communities that provide the foundation of Trump's support.
The key to this divergence has been the large metro areas' dominance of the job opportunities created by the diffusion of digital technologies, largely in white-collar industries from business consulting to software development. Meanwhile, smaller places remain much more reliant on resource extraction (like oil and gas production), manufacturing and agriculture, which have not grown nearly as reliably, or explosively, as the digital economy.
"We have two quite different economies, and what is happening in recent years is growth is largely emanating from these big county metros," says Mark Muro, director of policy at the Metropolitan Policy Program. "These are not political trends. They are deep economic and technological long waves. And while we are in the midst of this long wave, we are not near the end of it."
These trends long predate Trump's presidency. But the President's policy agenda, which prioritizes reviving manufacturing and promoting energy development, generally favors the smaller places over the large metros -- many of which feel threatened by his initiatives, from restricting immigration and trade to limiting the deductibility of state and local taxes.
Muro, like many economic analysts, is dubious that anything Trump does can meaningfully unwind the consolidation of economic opportunity into the largest metropolitan areas. If anything, Muro says, the tilt toward the big blue metros has intensified in recent years. "We think this is a fundamental sea change," he says.
This pattern creates what could be called the prosperity paradox. Even as economic growth is concentrating in Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas thriving in the information economy, Republicans rooted in non-urban communities largely excluded from those opportunities now control all the levers of power in Washington and in most states. That disjuncture raises a pointed long-term question: How long can the places that are mostly lagging in the economy dictate the terms of politics and policy to the places that are mostly succeeding?
Generally through American history, political power has followed economic power. From the Civil War through the Great Depression, Republicans controlled the White House for 56 of 72 years as the party of the rapidly industrializing and urbanizing Northeast and Midwest. During that era, Democrats were marginalized politically as the champions of the agricultural and resource-producing South and West that felt sublimated by the Northern-based industrial and financial economic order.
In the decades just before and after World War II, Franklin Roosevelt built an impregnable New Deal Democratic coalition that married support from traditionally internationalist Eastern business and finance interests with new efforts to integrate the South and West into the national economy (through mechanisms ranging from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the World War II defense buildup). Similarly, the shift of economic clout to the Sun Belt after World War II prefigured the conservative movement's resurgence from the 1960s through the 1990s around Republicans Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Ronald Reagan of California.
Today the nation's core economic divide is less between regions than within them. After mostly declining through the late 20th century, the large metropolitan areas have restored their position as the locus of growth across the country by emerging as the epicenter of the information economy.
That advantage has allowed many metropolitan areas to achieve booming levels of growth and investment unmatched for decades: Tim Burgess, who served as acting Seattle mayor last fall, for instance, recently told me that the city is now enjoying its best economy since the Klondike gold rush in the 1890s. The intense nationwide competition for the second Amazon headquarters -- which produced finalists located solely in large metropolitan areas -- underscores how digital technologies are concentrating economic opportunity into the nation's biggest places.
Data from Muro and Brookings research assistant Jacob Whiton quantify the dramatic extent of that shift.
In 2016, Clinton won fewer than 500 counties and Trump won more than 2,600. But the counties that Clinton carried accounted for 72% of the nation's increased economic output from 2014 through 2016, the most recent years for which figures are available, according to Brookings. The Clinton counties accounted for 66% of the new job growth over that period as well.
In both output and employment the Clinton counties over that recent period accounted for an even higher percentage of the new growth than they did from 2010 through 2016, the full period of recovery from the financial crash of 2008.
The tilt away from Trump is even more pronounced at the very top of the economic pyramid. Of the 30 counties that generated the largest share of new jobs from 2014 through 2016, Trump carried only two: Collin County (north of Dallas) and Maricopa (Arizona), where Republican-leaning suburbs slightly outvoted a strongly Democratic metro core in Phoenix.
Clinton carried all the other places leading the employment growth list. That included not only such blue state behemoths as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Seattle, but also the economic hubs in purple and even Republican-leaning states, from Miami, Oakland County (outside Detroit), to Mecklenburg (Charlotte) and Wake (Raleigh) counties in North Carolina, and Dallas, Bexar (San Antonio) and Travis counties (Austin) in Texas.
In all, Brookings calculated, Clinton won 79 of the 100 counties that contributed the most to economic growth from 2014 to 2016, and 76 of the 100 that generated the most job growth...
Still more.
Larry Nassar Scandal: Sports Institutions Failed to Protect Athletes (VIDEO)
Parents, don't leave it to money-hungry, evil and corrupt institutions, like the USOC, to protect your child athletes.
Wow, what a commentary, from Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Parents of young athletes must face the disturbing truth in light of Larry Nassar's crimes":
Wow, what a commentary, from Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Parents of young athletes must face the disturbing truth in light of Larry Nassar's crimes":
The horror on display for the past week in Courtroom 5 of the Ingham County Courthouse in Lansing, Mich., marks the largest sexual assault scandal in this country's history and maybe the most tragic youth sports story ever.More.
It's the story of nearly 200 females, mostly athletes, including Olympic gold-medal gymnasts, who were molested during examinations by Nassar over the past two decades while he was a USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician.
It's the story of parents continually trusting a sports system that failed them at every level, from the lowliest Michigan State coach to the vaunted USOC.
Nassar, 54, has been sentenced for 60 years in prison on child pornography charges. He also pleaded guilty to 10 sexual assault charges for which he will be sentenced on Wednesday.
As part of the plea deal, Nassar's victims have been allowed to confront him in court — 177 of them have so far, powerful women and girls facing their demon and firing back with strength and inspiration.
They've cried, they've cursed, and some have nearly collapsed, as they've all powerfully given witness to the pain of assault and the will to endure.
Videos of their testimony are all over the internet and parents should watch. That could have been your child. It could have been my child.
Athlete after athlete told stories of being ordered to visit Nassar by a coach, often without a parent present. During what he called treatment, he would vaginally or anally penetrate them for as long as 20 to 40 minutes. When they complained, they were told they didn't understand medicine or were otherwise shushed. Until now.
"Little girls don't stay little forever,'' said Kyle Stephens, the first victim to testify last week, looking directly in Nassar's face as the doctor hid behind his hands. "They grow into strong women who return to destroy your world.''
Mattie Larson, one of the last women to testify, spoke of being molested at the Karolyi Ranch, the former cathedral of USA Gymnastics. The ranch is located in the woods outside Houston, where cell phone service is sketchy and parents weren't allowed. She also described being molested in Minnesota at her first national championships, penetrated by the doctor even with a USA Gymnastics trainer in the same room.
"Larry, you were the only one I trusted,'' she said. "In the end, you turned out to be the scariest monster of all."
The issue of trust has been a recurring theme. The athletes and their parents had to trust a system that churned out Olympians. Or they had to trust the university if they wanted to compete in college. And that gave Nassar his opportunity.
Anne Swinehart, whose daughter Jillian was abused when she was 8, spoke for many of the tortured parents when she said, "To think I let this happen to my child when I was sitting right there…''
This could happen to any of us with children in sports, right? We hand them over to strangers with no questions asked. We send them to distant backyards for pitching lessons, to desolate ice rinks for early-morning skating practice, and we walk away for hours or even entire weekends.
And when some sports authority tells us our child has potential but needs a private therapy session with a team doctor, we're not skeptical, we're thankful for the attention.
In this case, only too late did the parents realize that even the biggest and brightest of sports institutions care mostly about themselves.
Nassar worked for Michigan State, and at least 14 staffers and school representatives reportedly knew about his abuse for more than 20 years. Yet, even when Nassar was finally the subject of Title IX and campus police investigations in 2014, school president Lou Anna Simon didn't even look at the reports, and at least 12 more assaults occurred before the doctor was fired.
Michigan State did worse than ignore Nassar; it enabled him. The school even continued to charge women for sessions in which he was accused of molesting them.
"My mom is still getting billed for appointments where I was sexually assaulted,'' Emma Ann Miller, 15, said in court this week, before the university finally stopped halted its billing.
This scandal is, by numbers, larger than the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case that cleaned out Penn State's president, athletic director and legendary football coach. So how does MSU president Simon keep her job? In one of the most sickening statements in a case full of them, trustee Joel Ferguson said during a radio interview, "There's so many more things going on at this university than just this Nassar thing. … I mean, when you go to the basketball game, you walk into the new Breslin [Center] and the person who hustled and got all those major donors to give money was Lou Anna Simon.'
'For Ferguson's Michigan State, it seems that money trumps morality. Listening to the gymnasts, the same philosophy was followed by USA Gymnastics in the pursuit of Olympic gold...
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin has died.
Weird, but in all my used book shopping --- any book shopping, for that matter --- I haven't come across her books. I kept my eyes out for her too.
In any case, at Amazon, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Weird, but in all my used book shopping --- any book shopping, for that matter --- I haven't come across her books. I kept my eyes out for her too.
In any case, at Amazon, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness.
New Book By Pussy Riot's Favorite Photographer
It's Bert Verwelius. Nice.
At Maxim, "CHECK OUT THESE SEDUCTIVE NSFW SHOTS FROM A NEW BOOK BY PUSSY RIOT'S FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHER."
At Maxim, "CHECK OUT THESE SEDUCTIVE NSFW SHOTS FROM A NEW BOOK BY PUSSY RIOT'S FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHER."
Olivia Burns for Maxim
Seen on Twitter:
Olivia Burns beat out 10,000 other models to be the winner of the first-ever “Maxim Cover Model” contest. https://t.co/lyoEB2d0C3 pic.twitter.com/Hpwx4fRPqQ
— Maxim (@MaximMag) January 8, 2018
U.S. Border Patrol Arrests Radical 'No More Deaths' Activists
Good.
At the Arizona Republic, "Timing of Border Patrol's arrest of ASU instructor called 'suspicious'":
And here's the video from the despicable "No More Deaths" radicals:
At the Arizona Republic, "Timing of Border Patrol's arrest of ASU instructor called 'suspicious'":
Border Patrol arrested a volunteer with No More Deaths last week, hours after the humanitarian groupheld a news conference to accuse border agents of tampering with their water-aid stations in the Arizona desert.Also, at the Intercept, via Memeorandum, "Eight Humanitarian Activists Face Federal Charges After Leaving Water for Migrants in the Arizona Desert."
Agents on Wednesday detained Scott Warren, a faculty associate at Arizona State University, on charges of harboring undocumented immigrants.
Warren was arrested near Ajo with two men who had crossed the border illegally.
According to court records, Border Patrol had set up surveillance on a building known as "the Barn," and tracked the two migrants to the location. They also saw Warren approach the building and talk to the migrants.
The migrants turned themselves in to the agents.
The two men allegedly told agents they had researched online how to best cross the border illegally, and had obtained the address of "the Barn" as a place to stop for food and water...
And here's the video from the despicable "No More Deaths" radicals:
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Officials Start Clearing Out Homeless Encampment Near Anaheim Stadium
Following-up from last week, "False Twitter Memes About Homeless Encampment Along the Santa Ana River Bike Trail."
Anaheim and Orange County officials launched the area's homeless eviction operation yesterday. Reading the Los Angeles Times' report, it turns out one woman's been living there for 16 years. I had no idea, man.
And as I noted at the blog post above, these are not migrants, illegal aliens, or refugees. These are mostly downtrodden white working-class folks. People have been priced out of the housing market, and the county lacks credible services for the homeless. What a bummer. The O.C. Register's piece indicates that 32 out of 33 cities in the county ban overnight camping for the homeless, which criminalizes homelessness. And the state's wasting billions upon billions of dollars building the bullet train to nowhere. Remember, these are progressive Democrats running the state, the holier-than-thou tolerance-preaching leftists. They're full of it, the degenerate hypocrites. No wonder people hate politics.
In any case, click the links:
Anaheim and Orange County officials launched the area's homeless eviction operation yesterday. Reading the Los Angeles Times' report, it turns out one woman's been living there for 16 years. I had no idea, man.
And as I noted at the blog post above, these are not migrants, illegal aliens, or refugees. These are mostly downtrodden white working-class folks. People have been priced out of the housing market, and the county lacks credible services for the homeless. What a bummer. The O.C. Register's piece indicates that 32 out of 33 cities in the county ban overnight camping for the homeless, which criminalizes homelessness. And the state's wasting billions upon billions of dollars building the bullet train to nowhere. Remember, these are progressive Democrats running the state, the holier-than-thou tolerance-preaching leftists. They're full of it, the degenerate hypocrites. No wonder people hate politics.
In any case, click the links:
Denise Lindstrom, a 49-year-old homeless woman, sits in a wheelchair at a homeless encampment on the Santa Ana River trail today in Anaheim, Calif. Authorities on Monday told the homeless living in the encampment that it is being closed down. | Photo @jaethephotog pic.twitter.com/If55OwYPif
— AP Images (@AP_Images) January 23, 2018
Hundreds of homeless face eviction or arrest as O.C. clears encampment amid shelter bed shortage https://t.co/FwK8tVVki8 pic.twitter.com/U5QSKdUgaw
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 23, 2018
Amid anxiety among homeless, law enforcement begins plan to gradually clear out Santa Ana riverbed encampments https://t.co/Ayz0LfJBEU pic.twitter.com/QmR1RBCHu3
— O.C. Register (@ocregister) January 23, 2018
Professor Jordan B. Peterson Channel 4 Debate on Gender Equality (VIDEO)
Well, I had to watch the whole thing, considering how this interview generated considerable controversy.
The Spectator piece is cached here, and check the search results on Twitter for "Jordan Peterson Cathy Newman" for more.
I am surprised, relieved in a profound sense and impressed that channel 4 put this up uncut, enabled comments and, finally, left it online. Maybe there's hope yet. @cathynewman https://t.co/OqQtLqElc8— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 19, 2018
— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 22, 2018
The Jordan Peterson interview fallout will be that he's branded a 'controversial professor', while Cathy Newman will avoid being labelled a ‘controversial interviewer’, predicts Douglas Murray https://t.co/mUz94ujQR0— The Spectator (@spectator) January 22, 2018
The Spectator piece is cached here, and check the search results on Twitter for "Jordan Peterson Cathy Newman" for more.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Shop Today's Deals
At Amazon, Today's Deals New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.
Also, Samsung 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV 2017 Model (UN65MU6300) with 2x 6ft High Speed HDMI Cable, Stanley 6-Outlet Surge Adapter, Screen Cleaner for LED TVs & 1 Year Extended Warranty.
BONUS: by James O'Keefe, American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News.
Also, Samsung 65" 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV 2017 Model (UN65MU6300) with 2x 6ft High Speed HDMI Cable, Stanley 6-Outlet Surge Adapter, Screen Cleaner for LED TVs & 1 Year Extended Warranty.
BONUS: by James O'Keefe, American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Nina Agdal Takes It Off (VIDEO)
Actually, Ms. Nina's taken a hiatus from modeling, apparently after being fat- and figure-shamed by a magazine that declined to put her on the cover after a major photo shoot.
She's alright by me, though, and I hope she's doing better.
What a fabulous woman!
At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:
She's alright by me, though, and I hope she's doing better.
What a fabulous woman!
At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:
L.A. Times Publisher Ross Levinsohn Accused of Sexual Improprieties
Well, I've been reading the Los Angeles Times for over thirty years, almost on a daily basis. I had a subscription to the paper when I lived in both Fresno and Santa Barbara, and of course since 2,000 and working at Long Beach City College. Reading the paper becomes just part of your life. I know it's a left-wing paper, but you fight the ideological culture war with and against the media you have. And it's war, that's for sure.
In any case, sometimes I wonder how much longer LAT's going to hold out as a viable concern. There's a unionization effort going on right now, with the results of the vote to unionize going public tomorrow. And according to Business Insider, the Times is looking to go with some sort of "contributor" publishing model, offering the pages of the paper (at least online, I guess) as a platform for writers and commentators.
On top of all that the new publisher, Ross Levinsohn, is now the subject of sexual harassment allegations. That can't be good, man.
At NPR (where else?), "Accusations of 'Frat House' Behavior Trail 'LA Times' Publisher's Career" (via Memeorandum):
Whatever. (*Shrugs.*)
More at the link.
In any case, sometimes I wonder how much longer LAT's going to hold out as a viable concern. There's a unionization effort going on right now, with the results of the vote to unionize going public tomorrow. And according to Business Insider, the Times is looking to go with some sort of "contributor" publishing model, offering the pages of the paper (at least online, I guess) as a platform for writers and commentators.
On top of all that the new publisher, Ross Levinsohn, is now the subject of sexual harassment allegations. That can't be good, man.
At NPR (where else?), "Accusations of 'Frat House' Behavior Trail 'LA Times' Publisher's Career" (via Memeorandum):
My exclusive: LA Times publisher and CEO Ross Levinsohn was a defendant in two sexual harassment cases settled by employers and female colleagues repeatedly accused him of misconduct throughout his career. https://t.co/bKfExuUTAM
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) January 18, 2018
The Los Angeles Times has given prominent coverage to recent revelations of sexual harassment of women by prominent men, particularly in entertainment and media. Yet a review by NPR finds that the newspaper's own CEO and publisher, Ross Levinsohn, has been a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits and that his conduct in work settings over the past two decades has been called into question repeatedly by female colleagues.Threatening legal action didn't seem to help some of the earlier targets of the #MeToo recrimination ("reckoning") campaign, so I doubt it's going to help this guy.
This story is based on a review of court documents, financial filings and fresh interviews with 26 former colleagues and associates. Taken in concert, they suggest a pattern of questionable behavior and questionable decisions on the job. The portrait that repeatedly emerges is one of a frat-boy executive, catapulting ever higher, even as he creates corporate climates that alienated some of the people who worked for and with him.
Among the accusations:
— Levinsohn was sued in separate sexual harassment lawsuits as an executive at two different corporations. By his own sworn testimony, Levinsohn admitted to rating the relative "hotness" of his female colleagues in office banter as a vice president at a digital media company. He also testified that he speculated about whether a woman who worked for him there was a stripper on the side.
— Two witnesses say they were shocked to see Levinsohn aggressively kissing and pressing himself against a woman at a glitzy music industry dinner in plain view of his subordinates and his clients. Levinsohn was married at the time.
— Levinsohn once told an executive for the Hollywood Reporter he would not stay at the publication's lunch honoring the entertainment business' most influential fashion stylists because he would have to be surrounded by gays — using a vulgar epithet for them, according to the executive.
Almost all people interviewed declined to be quoted by name, citing concerns for their careers given Levinsohn's current perch atop the Los Angeles Times. It is one of the most important newspapers in the country and it is the most influential media organization in California, the capital to the world's entertainment industry. His behavior, as described by those who worked with him, raises questions about how effectively he can lead the paper as it covers the #MeToo movement and such widespread harassment revelations.
Levinsohn did not respond on the record to detailed questions emailed to him and a Times spokeswoman setting out the chief allegations raised in this story. In a telephone call he initiated Wednesday with NPR's CEO, Jarl Mohn, Levinsohn called those allegations "lies" and said he would retain legal counsel if he felt NPR had disparaged him. NPR sent detailed questions to Tronc's chief executive and public affairs staffers early Wednesday morning. The crisis management strategist Charles Sipkins issued a statement on Tronc's behalf Thursday afternoon saying Levinsohn had been placed under investigation by the corporation after the story was posted.
"This week, we became aware of allegations that Ross Levinsohn acted inappropriately. We are immediately launching an investigation so that we have a better understanding of what's occurred," the statement read. "At Tronc, we expect all employees to act in a way that supports a culture of diversity and inclusion. We will take appropriate action to address any behavior that falls short of these expectations."
Sipkins said Tronc had not suspended Levinsohn...
Whatever. (*Shrugs.*)
More at the link.
Daniel Day-Lewis Opens-Up About Retirement
I watched "The Last of the Mohicans" over the weekend, and then "Lincoln" was on the other night, so I got to thinking about Daniel Day-Lewis: Why'd he retire? So then I'm out with my wife yesterday at the Spectrum shopping center in Irvine, and she stepped into a hair salon for a consultation about getting a perm. While waiting, I started reading this article about Day-Lewis at W Magazine. Not sure if I'll see his latest --- and last --- movie, "Phantom Thread," which seems a bit too artsy, even for me.
In any case, at W, "Exclusive: Daniel Day-Lewis Opens Up About Giving Up Acting After Phantom Thread":
In any case, at W, "Exclusive: Daniel Day-Lewis Opens Up About Giving Up Acting After Phantom Thread":
Watch Daniel Day-Lewis in an exclusive @Phantom_Thread video clip, here: https://t.co/oXHzhpylNw
— W magazine (@wmag) January 18, 2018
Day-Lewis has not seen Phantom Thread. He has viewed many of his other films, but has no plans to see this one. Earlier this summer, he announced through a written statement that he would not continue acting. He only discussed this decision with Rebecca—and has not spoken publicly about his retirement until now. In the past, he always took extended breaks between films—blue periods and times of decompression that prompted Jim Sheridan, the director of My Left Foot and two other Day-Lewis films, to remark that “Daniel hates acting.” But after a break, he would be seduced anew by a fascinating character, a compelling story, an exciting director. “What has taken over in the past is an illusion of inevitability,” Day-Lewis said. “I’ll think, Is there no way to avoid this? In the case of Phantom Thread, when we started I had no curiosity about the fashion world. I didn’t want to be drawn into it. Even now, fashion itself doesn’t really interest me. In the beginning, we didn’t know what profession the protagonist would have. We chose fashion and then realized, What the hell have we let ourselves into? And then the fashion world got its hooks into me.”Keep reading.
The fashion world, in turn, was obsessed with the film, which was cloaked in secrecy. At first, Phantom Thread was rumored to be about the couturier Charles James, a great innovator whose work was recently celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who ended life destitute and virtually unknown, living in the Chelsea Hotel. Anderson and Day-Lewis were not interested in telling that story. Phantom Thread is one of the most beguiling portrayals of fashion in the history of film, but in the end, it’s not a film about fashion.
Day-Lewis was uncharacteristically inarticulate when speaking about the exact reasons why he found Reynolds Woodcock so overwhelming. Perhaps, I suggested, it was a combination of being back in his homeland and playing an exacting artist like his father. He politely brushed my theories aside. “There are spells in these films that you can’t account for,” he said. “Paul and I spoke a lot about curses—the idea of a curse on a family, what that might be like. A kind of malady. And it’s not that I felt there was a curse attached to this film, other than the responsibility of a creative life, which is both a curse and a blessing. You can never separate them until the day you die. It’s the thing that feeds you and eats away at you; gives you life and is killing you at the same time.”
Day-Lewis paused. I wondered why a man who is widely acknowledged as the greatest actor of his generation, who has won three Academy Awards for best actor and is magical onscreen, would want to walk away from his profession. “I haven’t figured it out,” he said. “But it’s settled on me, and it’s just there. Not wanting to see the film is connected to the decision I’ve made to stop working as an actor. But it’s not why the sadness came to stay. That happened during the telling of the story, and I don’t really know why.” He paused again. “One of my sons is interested in musical composition, so I showed him the film Tous Les Matins du Monde, about the French composer Sainte-Colombe. My son was deeply struck by the sobriety that it took to create that work, Sainte-Colombe’s refusal to accept less than what was extraordinary from himself or anyone else. I dread to use the overused word ‘artist,’ but there’s something of the responsibility of the artist that hung over me. I need to believe in the value of what I’m doing. The work can seem vital. Irresistible, even. And if an audience believes it, that should be good enough for me. But, lately, it isn’t.”
Day-Lewis has often wanted to quit after emerging from a character. This time, by making a public announcement of his retirement, he sought to make the decision binding. “I knew it was uncharacteristic to put out a statement,” he continued. “But I did want to draw a line. I didn’t want to get sucked back into another project. All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion. It was something I had to do.”
Interestingly, Day-Lewis speaks about the need to retire in the same manner he speaks about the need to take on a character: with a kind of intensity that takes over his entire being. And, as with acting, he is still uncertain of his feelings. “Do I feel better?” he asked, anticipating my question. “Not yet. I have great sadness. And that’s the right way to feel. How strange would it be if this was just a gleeful step into a brand-new life. I’ve been interested in acting since I was 12 years old, and back then, everything other than the theater—that box of light—was cast in shadow. When I began, it was a question of salvation. Now, I want to explore the world in a different way.”
Although there have been rumors that Day-Lewis is going to become a fashion designer, he laughed when I suggested that career. “Who knows?” he said mischievously. “I won’t know which way to go for a while. But I’m not going to stay idle. I don’t fear the stony silence.” He has always had a variety of passions: He once wrote a comedy script with Rebecca; he paints well; he makes furniture; and he is a fan of MotoGP, the competitive motorcycle tournament. But he also has a deep love of film, and it is hard to imagine that he will not continue to contribute to movies in some way.
“They will not let you go quietly,” I said to him. And Day-Lewis smiled. “Hmmm,” he said. “They will have to.”
False Twitter Memes About Homeless Encampment Along the Santa Ana River Bike Trail
I've written about the O.C.'s homeless problem a few times now, and it's not because of "left-wing socialism," as at least a couple of commenters have argued on Twitter. There's a viral video of the homeless camp along the bike trail near Anaheim Stadium, and some tweeps are claiming that these are migrant camps with "refugees." That's just not the case. These are regular urban homeless encampments, and from what I've learned you've got the full range of people residing in them. The most common cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. And usually the homeless are those with severe mental illness, people who normally refuse offers of temporary shelter (because they'll lose their freedom and be told what to do and how to live).
Unfortunately, in our tribal political era, fake memes aren't the exclusive domain of your political enemies. Sometimes people on your own side push false narratives, pernicious narratives. And this bothers me.
This person below, Ryan Saavedra, supposedly a "reporter" at the Daily Wire, did not respond to my tweet nor remove or make corrections to his comments.
Oh well. I'm a positivist conservative. I still believe in the truth. Truth should win out. In the end, conservatives will win when truth wins, so I'm sticking with it.
Unfortunately, in our tribal political era, fake memes aren't the exclusive domain of your political enemies. Sometimes people on your own side push false narratives, pernicious narratives. And this bothers me.
This person below, Ryan Saavedra, supposedly a "reporter" at the Daily Wire, did not respond to my tweet nor remove or make corrections to his comments.
Oh well. I'm a positivist conservative. I still believe in the truth. Truth should win out. In the end, conservatives will win when truth wins, so I'm sticking with it.
It is not. It’s a homeless camp next to Anaheim Stadium. Anaheim’s about as capitalist a city you’ll see in California. The problem is mental health and lack of jobs and affordable housing. Stop spreading fake memes. #TheOC https://t.co/bUVRGKg980
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 17, 2018
This video was taken in Orange County, California recently.
— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) January 16, 2018
It is over 10-minutes long, only 2:20 can be uploaded to Twitter.
This is the result of socialism and left-wing politics. pic.twitter.com/8BYWuXo0ly
Freezing Weather is Creating Energy Shortages in the Northeast
I just saw this at Watts Up With That?, "Frigid cold is why we need dependable energy."
Which reminded me of the East Coast natural gas shortages causing problems this last few weeks, not the least of which some folks couldn't heat their homes. Thanks radical left-wing anti-human environmental psychos!
At the Hartford Courant, "Cold Wave Puts Pressure On Energy Suppliers":
Which reminded me of the East Coast natural gas shortages causing problems this last few weeks, not the least of which some folks couldn't heat their homes. Thanks radical left-wing anti-human environmental psychos!
At the Hartford Courant, "Cold Wave Puts Pressure On Energy Suppliers":
Energy industry officials have for years warned that inadequate pipeline capacity limits the amount of natural gas coming into New England during peak demand periods like this one. Several multi-billion-dollar proposals for new pipelines have been blocked or withdrawn in the last two years as a result of financing issues and opposition from environmental and consumer groups.RTWT.
Herb said the current cold spell’s inadequate gas supply problems have triggered increased demands for heating oil.
“We’ve absolutely seen huge [institutional and industrial] users switching to fuel oil,” Herb said. He said big schools like the University of Connecticut, Yale University and Fairfield University, as well as a number of big industrial plants, are now using oil to power their heating systems.
Steve Sack, of Sack Energy, a major Connecticut fuel oil wholesaler, said those major users are now looking to purchase fuel oil on the spot market.
In some areas of the northeast, including portions of Pennsylvania and New York, major demand for fuel oil is creating shortage worries. But wholesalers and retail home heating oil suppliers say Connecticut isn’t experiencing the same problems.
The primary reason for Connecticut’s comfortable supply situation is that most of this state’s fuel oil comes into New Haven by barge and then is pumped up through the Buckeye pipeline to major portions of Connecticut. That avoids the kind of problems New York is having getting oil barges up the ice-choked Hudson River, Herb said.
“Right now, we’re having no issues with supply,” Sack said. He said areas of Connecticut that aren’t along the pipeline that runs from New Haven up through Springfield, Mass., are being supplied by tractor trailer trucks from the port or terminals along the pipeline.
Sack said wholesale fuel oil prices at New York’s harbor are now running at about $2.06 per gallon, which are “down a little bit right now” from earlier price levels.
Herb said his office is constantly monitoring the supply situation. He said he recently got a call from U.S. Department of Energy officials asking if the federal regional petroleum reserve should be released to help the energy situation.
“We told them no. … We did not need that,” Herb said.
Heating oil company drivers are being pushed to the max to keep getting fuel deliveries to residential customers who need them.
Feminism Has Become an 'Unapologetic Anti-Male Hate Movement'
At the Other McCain, "‘Maybe as an Old Chick I Don’t Get it’":
Back in the day, women knew men wanted sex, but they were cool with it because women wanted sex, too. It may be difficult for young feminists to believe, but there used to be women who actually liked men. In fact, there still are women who like men, but none of those women are invited to write op-eds for the New York Times. In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat, feminists have removed the mask of “equality.” Feminism is now an unapologetic anti-male hate movement...There are at least 3,000 words at that post, so click the link and read the whole thing.
Minority Unemployment at the Lowest Levels on Record
If voters truly vote their pocketbook, then President Trump should be a shoo-in for reelection in 2020. Alas, I doubt the economic models of elections have much predictive power in this age of political tribalism.
This is good news either way.
At IBD, "Don't Look Now, But Minority Unemployment is at Record Lows Under Trump."
This is good news either way.
At IBD, "Don't Look Now, But Minority Unemployment is at Record Lows Under Trump."
Gallup: Approval of U.S. Leadership Drops to New Low in Global Survey
Who cares?
There's a reason "America First" resonates with the lunch bucket set. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks? Sheesh.
At Politico, "Poll: Under Trump, global approval of U.S. leadership hits historical low." (Via Memeorandum.)
There's a reason "America First" resonates with the lunch bucket set. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks? Sheesh.
At Politico, "Poll: Under Trump, global approval of U.S. leadership hits historical low." (Via Memeorandum.)
Poll: Under Trump, global approval of U.S. leadership hits historical low https://t.co/y6eHvxMc9j pic.twitter.com/yrc2zyh5Os— POLITICO (@politico) January 18, 2018
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Out in Paperback: Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth
This book is well worth your time.
Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War.
Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War.
Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now
Out February 27th, at Amazon, Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
Don and Alex Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution
*BUMPED.*
At Amazon, Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.
At Amazon, Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.
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