Monday, March 19, 2018
Facebook Breach Ignites Uproar
Also, at LAT, "Exploiting Facebook data to influence voters? That’s a feature, not a bug, of the social network":
Exploiting Facebook data to influence voters? That’s a feature, not a bug, of the social network https://t.co/JlBUs1v4fB pic.twitter.com/qqCtXwqNBr
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 19, 2018
With each comment, like and share, users provide Facebook with a deeply personal window into their lives.
The result of that voluntary behavior? Advertisers looking to finely target their pitches can glean someone's hobbies, what they like to eat and even what makes them happy or sad — propelling Facebook's ad revenue to $40 billion last year.
This trove of rich information is now at the center of a rapidly growing controversy involving one of President Trump's campaign consultants, Cambridge Analytica, which reportedly took the advertising playbook and exploited it in a bid to influence swing voters.
Former employees accuse the firm, owned by the conservative billionaire Robert Mercer and previously headed by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, of taking advantage of ill-gotten data belonging to millions of unwitting Facebook users. News of the breach was met with calls over the weekend for stricter scrutiny of the company.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) demanded that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Maura Healey, attorney general for Massachusetts, said her office was launching an investigation. And the head of a British parliamentary inquiry into fake news called on Facebook to testify before his panel again, this time with Zuckerberg.
The accusations raise tough questions about Facebook's ability to protect user information at a time when it's already embroiled in a scandal over Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential campaign and under pressure to adhere to new European Union privacy rules.
They also highlight the power and breadth of the data Facebook holds over its 2 billion users. Whether used to sway voters or sell more detergent, the information harvested by the world's biggest social network is proving to be both vital and exploitable regardless of who's wielding it.
"The data set assembled on people by Facebook is unrivaled," said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business and author of "The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google." "The bad news is, people are discovering this can be used as a weapon. The worse news is that people are learning how to detonate it."
The controversy began late Friday when Facebook's vice president and deputy general counsel, Paul Grewal, announced in a blog post that the social network was suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories and its affiliate, Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook said the companies failed to delete user data they had acquired in 2015 in violation of the platform's rules. The data were supplied by a University of Cambridge psychology professor, Aleksandr Kogan, who built an app that was supposed to collect details on Facebook users for academic research. Kogan was not supposed to pass that information to a third party for commercial purposes under Facebook guidelines.
Facebook said the data collection was contained to 270,000 people who downloaded Kogan's app as well as "limited information" about their friends.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Gal Gadot is 'Very Ableist'
It turns out that Hawking was an anti-Israel BDS advocate.
Which makes this piece at about Gal Gadot interesting, if not ironic. At Althouse, "'Gal Gadot’s Seemingly Innocent Tribute To Stephen Hawking Pissed Off Some People/ Several disability rights advocates called it ableist'."
(PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons.)
The 51st State
This is the same region that's gaining steam to succeed from the state. Boy, sometimes I'd like to join them.
Here, "In California's rural, conservative north, there are big dreams for cleaving the state":
In California's rural, conservative north, there are big dreams for cleaving the state https://t.co/bkiymKsR4d pic.twitter.com/xk2rdavGCb
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 17, 2018
The two young, blond women in figure-flattering ball gowns hoisted whiskey and shotguns.Pfft.
An auctioneer rattled off bids. Above the stage in the banquet hall hung a green flag for the 51st state of Jefferson, with its pair of Xs called a “double-cross” representing a sense of rural abandonment.
Hundreds of people packed into the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9650 hall on this chilly Saturday night, ready to crack open wallets to help fund their dream of carving — out of California’s northernmost reaches — a brand new state.
Someone offered $350 for a state of Jefferson belt buckle. Someone else won a lamb, still in its mother’s womb, that should be born in time to be butchered for Easter. Outside, vehicles bore bumper stickers supporting President Trump and the 2nd Amendment.
“We Okies are fun, aren’t we?” one man quipped.
The scene last month in this small Shasta County city seemed like a perfect we’re-not-in-California-anymore-moment. That is, if you only knew California as the diverse, liberal bastion whose elected officials have tried to stymie the Trump administration’s moves on immigration, legalized marijuana, climate change and so on.
But the so-called Northstate is looking less and less like the rest of the Golden State. The vast, sparsely-populated region is whiter, more rural and poorer than the rest of the state — and residents are more conservative. While California has become the center of the resistance to Trump, a number of Northern Californians are waging a resistance of their own: against California itself.
Inside the banquet hall, the man many see as the founder of the modern Jefferson movement told the crowd that their gun rights, property rights, grazing rights and water rights were under siege by politicians who write them off as “country bumpkins.”
“You’re the ones being exterminated by a lack of liberty,” said Mark Baird, a Siskiyou County rancher.
The breakaway state of Jefferson is a decades-old idea, but it has been revived in earnest in recent years by residents who say they are fed up with their voices being drowned out in Sacramento, where outspoken urban Democrats hold a vise grip on the state Legislature.
Supporters say overregulation has hobbled rural industries such as timber, mining and fishing and that the state’s high taxes and cost of living are driving young people away, quickening the decline of small towns. They chafe under California’s strict gun-control policies and are infuriated by its liberal immigration laws.
They cite California’s new gas tax increase of 12 cents per gallon, saying it has an outsize impact on rural people who drive farther for work and basic needs such as hospitals, schools and grocery stores.
How likely is it that a new state will be broken off, like a piece of Kit Kat bar, from California? Not likely at all, experts say.
Eric McGhee, a political scientist at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that while you can “never say never,” there are too many legal obstacles to overcome.
“It’s easy to think that because there’s this large piece of territory, that it’s a large share of California in terms of the population," he said. “That’s just not the case. … It’s an absolutely minuscule portion of the state’s population.”
Supporters of a breakaway state say they are sorely underestimated and point to the number of passionate people who show up to their events. One man put it this way: “We’re not a bunch of dumb rednecks.”
But some Northern Californians have had enough of talk of breaking away from California. After several county boards began considering Jefferson proposals, Kevin Hendrick, a retired municipal employee from Crescent City, in Del Norte County, formed a political action committee in 2015 called Keep It California to oppose the idea.
“You’ve got a handful of residents that are grumpy and pining for the good old days, but that shouldn’t represent all the good people living in rural counties,” he said...
Far-left progressives aren't "good people," but keep reading.
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Bella Thorne on Shape Magazine Cover April 2018
At Fashion Gone Rogue, "Bella Thorne Poses in Sunny Styles for Shape Magazine."
And at Drunken Stepfather, "BELLA THORNE FOR SHAPE MAGAZINE OF THE DAY."
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Multiple Dead After Pedestrian Bridge Collapses, Crushing Cars, at Florida International University
At the Miami Herald, "FIU pedestrian bridge collapses days after installation; police say multiple deaths, cars trapped."
What a nightmare.
National Student Walkout
The real patriots are those students who stayed behind, in the classroom, resisting the idiots gun control activists.
Elementary school walkout in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 65 kids, and they are totally silent. Look at those faces. pic.twitter.com/ThyzDtyGo5— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018
Yes, look at them. These are the faces of exploited children who are being made afraid by adults. https://t.co/DOOrz7hoJG— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) March 15, 2018
Michael Booth, The Almost Nearly Perfect People
Kate Bock Takes It to the Next Level (VIDEO)
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Pennsylvania Special Election: Democrat Conor Lamb is Apparent Winner (VIDEO)
And from Steve Kornacki's coverage at MSNBC:
BONUS: From Stephen Green, at Instapundit, "LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: PA-18 Undecided, New Boss Lady at CIA and Much, Much More."
Lauren Southern Banned from the U.K. (VIDEO)
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) March 13, 2018
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Trump Fires Tillerson
In any case, Trump needs to just suck it up sometimes. I love him, but let some things go once in a while.
On Twitter:
How Trump’s fragile ego sabotages American foreign policy, encapsulated in one horrifying paragraph. https://t.co/AiXgyXkiiR pic.twitter.com/CkQa64NyQ6
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 13, 2018
Remarkable statement from State Department spokesman on Tillerson firing: pic.twitter.com/iBpLaK1tXw
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 13, 2018
Stunning to see a US Secretary of State, only recently head of Exxon, deliver an emotional speech after being suddenly fired.
— Michelle Kosinski (@MichLKosinski) March 13, 2018
Fired State Department spokesman was asked whether he anonymously criticized White House and Trump's decisions. “I spoke for the secretary of state. That was part of my role as the undersecretary," he said. https://t.co/aeVdv7YfEb
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 13, 2018
Transcript: Tillerson emphasizes allies in first remarks since firing but doesn’t mention Trump https://t.co/927GbjpGh5
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 13, 2018
Alexis Ren Uncovered for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)
Watch:
Kelly Brook Bikini in Thailand
Also, at London's Daily Mail, "Kelly Brook flaunts her jaw-dropping curves in a skimpy bikini as she shares sizzling snaps with boyfriend Jeremy Parisi during idyllic Thailand break," and "Saving the bust til last! Kelly Brook puts on a VERY eye-popping display in plunging swimsuit as she seductively squeezes fruit in final sizzling snap from Thai getaway."
Kate Upton for Yamanay
Also, at Drunken Stepfather, "FAT KATE UPTON TITTY WHORING OF THE DAY."
Monday, March 12, 2018
Stormy Daniels Offers to Return Payment
Here's the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Stormy Daniels Offers to Return Payment to End Deal for Her Silence."
Also, at Dallas Morning News, "Texas notary's failure to sign Stormy Daniels' hush agreement is under investigation."
Josh Marshall, at TPM, is salivating. See, at Memeorandum, "Is The Stormy Story More Damaging Than We Thought?"
BONUS: At Taxi Driver, "Stormy Daniels on Stage."
'Punish a Muslim Day'
It's not defensible, although I will say that I'm not surprised and I expect we'll see more of this kind of thing. Western societies are at a boiling point over mass Islamic immigration, which is seen as an invasion. And leftist elites are oblivious to what's happening within their own communities. It's recipe for violence.
At the New York Times, the Guardian, the Mirror U.K.
‘Punish a Muslim Day’ Letters Rattle U.K. Communities https://t.co/hjbTTl7FA7
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 11, 2018
UK charity urges vigilance after 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters https://t.co/e4ByHecRHr
— The Guardian (@guardian) March 11, 2018
Horrific 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters sent out offering rewards for violencehttps://t.co/vrf6FvLzeS pic.twitter.com/6vHZg2SpjR
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 10, 2018
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Bari Weiss 'Killing It' on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' (VIDEO)
Wow @bariweiss is killing it on @RealTimers she lays it out so perfectly— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) March 10, 2018
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Jennifer Delacruz's Continued Rain Forecast
Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer:
British Panic After Russian Spy Poisoning
And at Telegraph U.K., "Salisbury spy poisoning: public warned to wash possessions to avoid possible nerve agent contamination":
Salisbury public warned to wash clothes after nerve agent attackhttps://t.co/4nX5Fwo1NP
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 11, 2018
Anyone who visited the pub and restaurant in Salisbury where the poisoned Russian spy and his daughter went before they fell, are being advised to wash their clothes and other possessions to avoid possible contamination.
Hundreds of people are thought to have gone to The Mill Pub and Zizzi's restaurant in Salisbury between Sunday lunchtime and Monday evening, when both were closed by officials.
Sergei Skirpal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were taken ill shortly after visiting both venues.
A spokesman for PHE said: "Based on current evidence, the risk to the general public from this substance has not changed and remains low.
"While there is no immediate health risk to anyone who may have been in either of these locations, it is possible, but unlikely, that any of the substance which has come into contact with clothing or belongings could still be present in minute amounts and therefore contaminate your skin.
"Over time, repeated skin contact with contaminated items may pose a small risk to health."
Anyone who visited either location on Sunday afternoon is being advised to:
* Wash the clothing that you were wearing in an ordinary washing machine using your regular detergent at the temperature recommended for the clothing.
* Any items which cannot be washed, and which would normally be dry cleaned, should be put in two plastic bags tied at the top and stored safely in your own home. We are currently reviewing the best way of cleaning these clothes and will provide further advice on our website.
* Wipe personal items such as phones, handbags and other electronic items with cleansing or baby wipes and dispose of the wipes in the bin (ordinary domestic waste disposal).
* Other items such as jewellery and spectacles which cannot go in the washing machine or be cleaned with cleansing or baby wipes, should be hand washed with warm water and detergent and then rinsed with clean cold water. Please thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water after cleaning any items.
Greta Van Susteren, Everything You Need to Know about Social Media
I saw the book at the library yesterday and tweeted Greta. She was thrilled:
@greta Your book at the Irvine Public Library! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/teSgNHkvZj
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 10, 2018
That is FANTASTIC!!! I love that it is..thanks for tweeting this to me https://t.co/0nQvC2WIlO
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) March 10, 2018
Interview with Tayari Jones
Yes, it's a progressive "Oprah Book Club" offering, but I read everything and this looks interesting.
At LAT, "Talking to Tayari Jones about 'An American Marriage' and Oprah":
“An American Marriage” is a departure from your previous novels, which mainly focused on younger characters. Your new book is about adults with complex problems. What was it like for you to work on this different canvas? It was super challenging. When I had written novels with younger characters, I was confident that I knew more than they did, so I felt I had distance from the subject matter and a wisdom about the conflicts. In writing this novel, the characters are nearly as old as I am, and they’re struggling with questions for which I wasn’t sure I had the answers. The writing was more of an exploration.
I also intimidated myself early in the process with all the research. I discovered horrible things about the American penal system, and at first I was trying to novelize my research. I don’t like to read things that feel like the novel version of a sociological text, but for a while I felt like if I didn’t incorporate all of my research, I was somehow not being true to my aim of discussing the problem. But that is the absolute wrong way to approach writing a novel. As they say, you should write about people and their problems, not about problems and their people. I learned way too much about the problem and I didn’t have the people. I was learning, but I wasn’t imagining.
Although Roy and Celestial are newly married at the start of the novel, their marriage isn’t idyllic. Roy still collects phone numbers from other women, Celestial doesn’t understand how much pressure her family’s wealth puts on Roy. What are the challenges of writing about a marriage that has yet to completely gel?
I didn’t find a challenge in that at all. I think a fairy-tale marriage is harder to write, because a fairy tale doesn’t resemble anything you’ve ever seen in real life. I just wrote the characters real.
For example: Celestial is an artist, she’s ambitious, she wants to chase her dream. Anyone who’s chased a dream knows it takes a lot of time and focus, particularly in the arts. And she can’t do that and be the dutiful caretaker of an incarcerated person. So she has to make choices. If someone asked you if she had the right to pursue her dreams, without mentioning her husband, you would say, “Of course!” If your marriage is keeping you from pursuing your dreams, you need a new marriage. But if you add that Roy is wrongfully incarcerated, then it’s almost like she’s being a negligent member of her community. How does one balance your commitment to the collective, and taking care of yourself? This is a balance I struggle with all the time. I think a lot of women do...
Saturday, March 10, 2018
When Will We Stop Killing Humans with Down Syndrome?
Here's Ruth Marcus, at WaPo, via Memeorandum, "I would've aborted a fetus with Down syndome. Women need that right."
But see Marc Thiessen, at Fox News, "Babies with Down syndrome have a right to life":
WASHINGTON -- When Karen Gaffney's mother found out she would be born with Down syndrome, the doctor said Karen probably would not be able to tie her own shoes. Instead, as Karen explained in a moving and eloquent TEDx talk, she has become an accomplished open-water swimmer who has crossed the English Channel in a relay race and completed the swimming leg of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.Keep reading.
Now she fears the result of a new race -- the one to "find newer, faster ways" to screen for Down syndrome so that more children with the disability can be killed in the womb.
Her fears are well-founded. CBS News recently reported that Iceland was on the verge of "eliminating" Down syndrome. Unfortunately, there was no great medical breakthrough to report. Iceland, it turns out, is not eliminating Down syndrome; it is eliminating people with Down syndrome. The country's abortion rate for Down syndrome babies is close to 100 percent -- the highest in the world. Denmark is close behind at 98 percent. In the United States, it is 67 percent -- and Karen fears the rates here will soon reach European levels.
"Save our lives!" she pleads.
Sadly, there will always be those who see people with Down syndrome as nothing more than a burden on society. Princeton University professor Robert George recently tweeted out a shocking video in which a bureaucrat from Dutch National Institute for Public Health shows a man with Down syndrome on a blackboard how "expensive" he is for society compared to "normal" people. "Do the Dutch, who suffered under -- and in many cases heroically resisted -- Hitler's domination, forget that the 'final solution' began with the dehumanization and eugenic killing of the handicapped?" George asked.
Today, more and more people with Down syndrome are speaking out and demanding recognition of their humanity...
Helen Smith, Men on Strike
Friday, March 9, 2018
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Orangutan Smokes Cigarette (VIDEO)
If you aren't entertained and delighted by monkeys smoking, the GTFO of my timelinehttps://t.co/AvMYteq7ES
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 9, 2018
Growing outrage after a zoo visitor tossed a lit cigarette into an orangutan enclosure, prompting the ape to pick it up and smoke it. More than 1M people signed a petition to shut down the zoo after the incident. The zoo says it regrets that it happened. https://t.co/faEjTfg6yN pic.twitter.com/IbEGoYnUWq
— ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2018
President Trump 'Going Down as a Great President' with North Korea Denuclearization Gambit (VIDEO)
Leftists hate this. Just absolutely hate that Trump could achieve an unprecedented, historic breakthrough on North Korea.
Allie Ayers Uncovered in Belize (VIDEO)
Thursday, March 8, 2018
American Men Are Failing
Watch, from Tucker's show last night:
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
I Got My News From Print Newspapers
I spent 2 months getting the news mostly from print. It changed my life.— Farhad Manjoo: not really on here a lot now (@fmanjoo) March 7, 2018
I was better informed, less anxious, and I had tons of free time.
I distilled the experience into three Michael Pollan-esque lessons:
Get news. Not too quickly. Avoid social.https://t.co/09A1Q3vzBK
I first got news of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., via an alert on my watch. Even though I had turned off news notifications months ago, the biggest news still somehow finds a way to slip through.I too have been limited my online and social news gathering. Not completely, but I've always favored news in hard-copy form. I especially like the more deliberative style of news reading you get, the morning paper with a cup of coffee.
But for much of the next 24 hours after that alert, I heard almost nothing about the shooting.
There was a lot I was glad to miss. For instance, I didn’t see the false claims — possibly amplified by propaganda bots — that the killer was a leftist, an anarchist, a member of ISIS and perhaps just one of multiple shooters. I missed the Fox News report tying him to Syrian resistance groups even before his name had been released. I also didn’t see the claim circulated by many news outlets (including The New York Times) as well as by Senator Bernie Sanders and other liberals on Twitter that the massacre had been the 18th school shooting of the year, which wasn’t true.
Instead, the day after the shooting, a friendly person I’ve never met dropped off three newspapers at my front door. That morning, I spent maybe 40 minutes poring over the horror of the shooting and a million other things the newspapers had to tell me.
Not only had I spent less time with the story than if I had followed along as it unfolded online, I was better informed, too. Because I had avoided the innocent mistakes — and the more malicious misdirection — that had pervaded the first hours after the shooting, my first experience of the news was an accurate account of the actual events of the day.
This has been my life for nearly two months. In January, after the breaking-newsiest year in recent memory, I decided to travel back in time. I turned off my digital news notifications, unplugged from Twitter and other social networks, and subscribed to home delivery of three print newspapers — The Times, The Wall Street Journal and my local paper, The San Francisco Chronicle — plus a weekly newsmagazine, The Economist.
I have spent most days since then getting the news mainly from print, though my self-imposed asceticism allowed for podcasts, email newsletters and long-form nonfiction (books and magazine articles). Basically, I was trying to slow-jam the news — I still wanted to be informed, but was looking to formats that prized depth and accuracy over speed.
It has been life changing. Turning off the buzzing breaking-news machine I carry in my pocket was like unshackling myself from a monster who had me on speed dial, always ready to break into my day with half-baked bulletins.
Now I am not just less anxious and less addicted to the news, I am more widely informed (though there are some blind spots). And I’m embarrassed about how much free time I have — in two months, I managed to read half a dozen books, took up pottery and (I think) became a more attentive husband and father.
Most of all, I realized my personal role as a consumer of news in our broken digital news environment...
Anyways, I totally recommend it. There's a lot less stress, and particularly a lot less hatred.
Until then!
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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Academy Awards Ratings Collapse
And Sabo below:
Oscar Ratings Down, Eye All-Time Low In Early Estimates https://t.co/e3G3f1anvs pic.twitter.com/SCg42pqjHN
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 5, 2018
THREE BILLBOARDS:https://t.co/6rUJDXFUQT
— unsavoryagents (@unsavoryagents) March 5, 2018
Monday, March 5, 2018
Two Op-Eds
Europe Struggles with the Rise of Populist Nationalism
At WaPo, "Italy election results highlight struggle to govern in Europe as populist forces rise":
Italy election results highlight struggle to govern in Europe as populist forces rise https://t.co/qiBctn6YWS— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 5, 2018
BERLIN — After voters from the snowy peaks of the Alps to the sunny shores of Sicily delivered a verdict so fractured and mysterious it could take months to sort out, the banner headline Monday in the venerable daily La Stampa captured the state of a nation that’s left no one in charge: “Ungovernable Italy.”And the authors haven't even mentioned Austria yet, which has a "far-right" coalition now in power.
The same can increasingly be said for vast stretches of Europe.
Across the continent, a once-durable dichotomy is dissolving. Fueled by anger over immigration, a backlash against the European Union and resentment of an out-of-touch elite, anti-establishment parties are taking votes left, right and center from the traditional power players.
They generally aren’t winning enough support to govern. But they are claiming such a substantial share of the electorate that it has become all but impossible for the establishment to govern on its own. The result is a continent caught in a netherworld between a dying political order and a new one still taking root.
“This has been a post-ideological result, beyond the traditional left-right divide,” said Luigi Di Maio, whose populist Five Star Movement trounced its opponents to become Italy’s largest party on Monday.
Now the country has plunged into uncertainty.
“The traditional structures of political alignment in Europe are breaking down,” said Josef Janning, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “It started in the smaller countries. But now we see that it’s happening everywhere.”
Even in Germany, the ultimate postwar symbol of staid political stability.
As Italians were voting Sunday, Germans were learning they would finally have a government, a record five months after they went to the polls.
The establishment had hung on. But just barely, and with no evident enthusiasm, either from the voters or from the centrist politicians who will continue to lead the country even as the public increasingly gravitates to the margins.
A similar phenomenon can be seen in countries from east to west, north to south. It took the Dutch 208 days to form an ideologically messy four-way coalition last year after an election in which 13 parties won seats in the parliament.
The Czechs still do not have a functioning government after voting in October yielded an unwieldy parliament populated by anti-immigrant hard-liners, pro-market liberals, communists, and loose alliance of libertarians, anarchists and coders known as the Pirates.
The fragmentation of European politics takes what had been seen as one of the continent’s great strengths and turns it on its head. Unlike the United States and Britain, where winners take all, continental Europe primarily use proportional systems in which the full spectrum of popular opinion is represented in office.
That worked fairly well when the major parties captured some 80 or 90 percent of the vote, as they did in countries across Europe for decades after World War II.
But lately, the major parties have been downsized.
In Germany, the so-called “grand coalition” won just 53 percent of the vote — hardly grand. In Italy, neither of the two traditionally dominant centrist parties cracked 20 percent. A grand coalition is not even mathematically possible.
The trend has become self-reinforcing.
But keep reading.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Local Snow-Lovers' Delight (VIDEO)
At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
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BONUS: Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
How Progressives Win the Culture War
What’s happening today is that certain ideas about gun rights, and maybe gun ownership itself, are being cast in the realm of the morally illegitimate and socially unacceptable https://t.co/2mXNbOi04X
— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) March 2, 2018
I wonder if I’m wrong on the subject of guns. I started this latest round of the debate with the presumption that supporters of moderate gun restrictions are popularly strong but legislatively weak. Since Sandy Hook in 2012, more than two dozen states have passed gun laws and almost all of those laws have LOOSENED gun restrictions. Roughly 360 gun bills have been introduced in Congress, and they have all failed but one, which also loosened gun use.More.
The blunt fact is that Republicans control most legislatures. To get anything passed, I thought, it would be necessary to separate some Republicans from the absolutist N.R.A. position. To do that you have to depolarize the issue: show gun owners some respect, put red state figures at the head and make the gun discussion look more like the opioid discussion. The tribalists in this country have little interest in the opioid issue. As a result, a lot of pragmatic things are being done across partisan lines.
The people pushing for gun restrictions have basically done the exact opposite of what I thought was wise. Instead of depolarizing the issue they have massively polarized it. The students from Parkland are being assisted by all the usual hyper-polarizing left-wing groups: Planned Parenthood, Move On and the Women’s March. The rhetoric has been extreme. Marco Rubio has been likened to a mass murderer while the N.R.A. has been called a terrorist organization.
The early results would seem to completely vindicate my position. The Florida Legislature turned aside gun restrictions. New gun measures in Congress have been quickly shelved. Democrats are more likely to lose House and Senate seats in the key 2018 pro-gun states. The losing streak continues.
Yet I have to admit that something bigger is going on. It could be that progressives understood something I didn’t. It could be that you can win more important victories through an aggressive cultural crusade than you can through legislation. Progressives could be on the verge of delegitimizing their foes, on guns but also much else, rendering them untouchable for anybody who wants to stay in polite society. That would produce social changes far vaster than limiting assault rifles...
Friday, March 2, 2018
Trade War
In any case, at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "In Retaliation for Trump's Plan, E.U. Leader Threatens Tariffs on Bourbon and Bluejeans."
And at Bloomberg:
Trump's steel tariff shakes global trade order, EU group warns https://t.co/JO1TCv1tmm pic.twitter.com/zmlGrECGPM
— Bloomberg (@business) March 2, 2018
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind
Release the Florida School Shooting Surveillance Video
Open government isn’t just good government. It’s the public’s right.Click through to read the petition and the rest of the post.
In Florida, the Broward County Sheriff’s office and Broward County school district are fighting to keep exterior surveillance video from the day of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hidden from view. As journalists and citizens who’ve waged uphill battles against secrecy well know, government agencies too often invoke broad disclosure exemptions in the name of protecting public safety when they’re really just trying to protect their own jobs.
Feckless Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and media-luvin’ school Superintendent Robert Runcie are defendants in an open records lawsuit filed Tuesday by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald and CNN.
Here is the lawsuit petition...
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Tipped Off Illegal Aliens Ahead of ICE Enforcement
And at Althouse.
More at the San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could be conducting an operation in the Bay Area in the next day or so.https://t.co/xcqWge3VRX
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) February 25, 2018
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold, and War
By More Than 2-1 (63-29 Percent), Public Says Semi-Automatic Weapons Like the AR-15 Should Be Banned
Just posted: President Trump's job-approval rating drops to a new low, 38%, in the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, and the intensity of feeling is hardening against him. https://t.co/h38qKTGlRs via @usatoday
— Susan Page (@SusanPage) February 25, 2018
The USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll of 1,000 registered voters nationwide, taken Tuesday through Saturday, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
On guns, a nation that is often divided on issues is remarkably united:
* By almost 2-1, 61%-33%, they say tightening gun-control laws and background checks would prevent more mass shootings in the United States.
* By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, they say semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, used by the Florida shooter, should be banned.
* By more than 6-1, 76%-12%, they say people who have been treated for mental illness should be banned from owning a firearm.
Even gun owners are inclined to support those three measures. But a majority of Republicans say tighter gun laws wouldn't prevent more mass shootings, and they oppose banning semi-automatic weapons.
Easy test. Run on it. Every single one of you. Run. On. It. Dispense with the euphemisms. Primary everyone who won’t submit. https://t.co/Rdc2m4FnWd
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 26, 2018
Also, Republicans & @NRA say *real* agenda of gun control advocates is to ban all semi-automatic weapons. This is supposed to scare the public, but would it?
— Jonathan Cohn (@CitizenCohn) February 26, 2018
Majority favors the idea, 44% "very strongly" in new @YouGov @TheEconomist poll. https://t.co/HqldiyPZXk pic.twitter.com/QiCPCUpZnX
RUN. ON. IT.
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 26, 2018
James Damore at Portland State University
We invited @JamesADamore to speak about viewpoint diversity & his memo. Some were determined to shut us down. Full video: https://t.co/nmoWgMTmi7 #JamesDamorePSU pic.twitter.com/0BDdKf1K4a
— Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 26, 2018
Monday, February 26, 2018
The Homeless Are Not Who You Think They Are
At LAT, "Los Angeles' Homelessness Crisis is a National Disgrace."
"A city cannot say it’s full. The region must build denser and taller to make space for the people who are already here." https://t.co/rr3libu4xB
— L.A. Times Opinion (@latimesopinion) February 26, 2018
'Decolonizing' Everything
It's unreal, frankly.
At the American Conservative, "The Censorious Left’s Latest Mania: ‘Decolonizing’ Everything":
Their obsession with destroying white, euro-centric ‘domination,’ wherever it may be, has become patronizing and authoritarian. https://t.co/RSesKUbLBk
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) February 24, 2018
At Northern Michigan University, students can discover how to “decolonize” their diet. That means learning “about where the common foods and ingredients come from, what a ‘decolonizing diet’ is, and how they can incorporate the diet into their daily lives.”Sill more.
Meanwhile, the editors of the American Historical Review have announced plans to decolonize the journal and confront its “past lack of openness to scholars and scholarship due to race, color, creed, gender, sexuality, nationality and a host of other assigned characteristics.”
In the UK, London’s School of Oriental and African Studies has announced plans to “decolonize” its degree courses following high-profile student campaigns such as “Why is My Curriculum White?” that are critical of “the domination of white ‘Eurocentric’ writers and thinkers.” Last year, students at Reed College protested the Eurocentrism of their Introduction to Humanities course. At Yale University students petitioned for the removal of a course in Major English Poets that featured, surprisingly enough, mostly white men. Thanks to their efforts, that course has now been downgraded to optional.
The fight to decolonize Harvard led to the removal of the Royal family seal, for fear that it might “evoke associations with slavery.” At the University of Oxford a plaque honoring Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist who established the Rhodes Scholarships, has been taken down. At Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, professors can take a course in decolonizing education in order to “understand indigenous perspectives in the history of colonization to contemporary realities in Canada.” All around the world, universities are decolonizing courses, buildings, libraries, and reading lists.
The drive to decolonize is not confined to academia. In the UK we have discussions about decolonizing health care, translation, and feminist art. There are campaigns to decolonize architecture in the United Arab Emirates, the media in New Zealand, design in Mexico, bookshelves in South Africa, and seemingly the whole of Alaska. Throughout the U.S. we’ve seen the removal of Confederate monuments. Clearly, we have many unresolved issues with the past. But too often the rush to decolonize evades a discussion of history and instead paints everything that happened before today as irredeemably racist and wicked—in need of obliteration rather than discussion.
Last year, the journal Third World Quarterly published an article in which Bruce Gilley set out “The Case for Colonialism.” Those who read the piece criticized it for shoddy scholarship and historical inaccuracies. But most of us will never know how it measured up, as the publication was soon withdrawn following threats to the journal’s editor. In the UK, Oxford University’s Professor Nigel Biggar wrote a newspaper article arguing that people should not “feel guilty about our colonial history,” and as a consequence received a critical letter from over 200 colleagues and scholars condemning him as “an apologist for colonialism.” Biggar said: “There is a view that people with views like mine are not to be reasoned with, but only to be silenced.”
Preventing all discussion of colonialism erases, rather than confronts, the past. Indeed, the logic of the decolonize movement is that colonialism is not a legacy of history but a malignant impact upon the present. This sleight of hand allows campaigners to equate past invasion, murder, oppression, and exploitation with being made to sit through a lecture on Kant or Shakespeare in an expensive and elite institution...
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Los Angeles' Homelessness Crisis is a National Disgrace
It's a thoughtful piece, putting a lot of things in context, including recent local voter initiatives to fund new programs and housing to alleviate the crisis.
See, "Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis is a national disgrace":
"Years of infighting, mixed messages and failures of political will on homelessness must come to an end." https://t.co/ycV8YpVvg0— L.A. Times Opinion (@latimesopinion) February 25, 2018
How did we get here? From the founding of this newspaper in 1881, the pages of The Times have been filled with stories of those we have called, at various times, vagrants, hobos, tramps, transients and drifters. And for as long as there have been homeless people, there has been a tendency to blame the victims themselves for their condition — to see their failure to thrive as an issue of character, of moral weakness, of laziness. Since the “deinstitutionalization” of the mentally ill in the second half of the 20th century, and the subsequent failure of government to provide the promised outpatient services for those who had been released, the problem has grown significantly worse.RTWT.
Today, a confluence of factors is driving people onto the streets. The shredding of the safety net in Washington and here in California is one. (Consider the inexcusable shortage of federal Section 8 vouchers for subsidized low-income housing, or the dismally low level of “general relief payments” for the county’s neediest single adults.)
At the same time, California is experiencing a severe housing shortage. Gentrification is taking more and more once-affordable rental units off the L.A. market, and restrictive zoning laws along with high construction costs and anti-development sentiment make new affordable units hard to build. Over the last six years, the rent for a studio apartment in Los Angeles has climbed 92%, according to UCLA law professor emeritus Gary Blasi, so that even people who have jobs can find themselves living on the streets after a rent spike or an unexpected crisis. As Blasi notes: “In America, housing is a commodity. If you can afford it, you have it; if you can’t, you don’t.”
Contrary to popular belief, the homeless in Los Angeles are not mostly mentally ill or drug addicted, raving or matted-haired or frightening — although a sizable minority meet some of those descriptions. They are not mostly people who drifted in from other states in search of a comfy climate in which to sponge off of others; the overwhelming majority have lived in the region for years. Today, a greater and greater proportion of people living on the streets are there because of bad luck or a series of mistakes, or because the economy forgot them — they lost a job or were evicted or fled an abusive marriage just as the housing market was growing increasingly unforgiving.
It will surprise no one to learn that it is the most vulnerable among us who usually end up without a place to live. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, more than 5,000 of the county’s 58,000 homeless people are children and more than 4,000 are elderly. About one-third are mentally ill. Some 40% are African American. Also heavily represented: Veterans. The disabled. Young people from the county’s overwhelmed juvenile justice system and its foster care programs. Men and women just released from jail, without the tools or skills needed for reentering society. Patients released from public hospitals — often with untreated cancers, infections, heart disease or diabetes. Victims of domestic violence.
All the great social issues of American society play out in homelessness — inequality, racial injustice, poverty, violence, sexism. Naturally, life expectancy for the homeless is short: about 47 years, according to skid row doctor Susan Partovi, compared with 78 in the population as a whole...
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel with Jake Tapper on CNN's 'State of the Union' (VIDEO)
I can't believe he hasn't been fired yet.
At Hot Air, "The Brutal Waterboarding, Er… Interview of the Broward County Sheriff.
The Gun-Control Debate Could Break America (VIDEO)
I was just making this argument from @davidafrench to @SethAMandel and of course, David already wrote it and better than I ever could. https://t.co/EZPVRxEEsb
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) February 25, 2018
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Disastrous Visit to India
And at Blazing Cat Fur, "Trudeau Deals With Fallout From Disastrous India Trip."
More, via Iowa Hawk:
The indispensable Tim Blair reviews Canadian Lampoon's Subcontinent Vacationhttps://t.co/SULqN2DYGw
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 25, 2018
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Sharyl Attkisson TEDx Talk on 'Fake News' (VIDEO)
Here're her books, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington and The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.
And watch:
Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Friday, February 23, 2018
Today's Deals
See, especially, FlexiSpot Stand up Desk - 35 Height Adjustable Standing Desk Riser with Removable Keyboard Tray (Black).
Also, Timberland PRO Men's 6" Pit Boss Steel Toe.
More, Wrangler Men's Long Sleeve Quilted Lined Flannel Shirt Jacket With Hood.
Here, Buck Knives 110 Famous Folding Hunter Knife with Genuine Leather Sheath - TOP SELLER.
And, Pure Hydrolyzed Collagen Peptides, Dietary Supplement, Grass Fed, 16 OZ.
More here, Koffee Kult Thunder Bolt Whole Bean Coffee, with French Roast Colombia Coffee Beans - 32 ounce bag.
BONUS: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, The Judiciary's Class War.