Amazon: A Disrupter of All Things

From Barry Ritholtz, at Bloomberg, "Woe to Those Disrupted by Amazon":

The more I think about what Amazon actually is, the closer I come to this: It’s a self-funding incubator that ruthlessly kills the ventures that don’t work (remember the Fire mobile phone?), while pouring cash into the ones that hold promise. It’s a marketplace for new and used products, a place to hire people for services, a content company, a software maker, a gadget business, a cloud company and so on. Oh, and it’s an online retailer that just happens to be the world’s sixth-biggest company by market value -- about $365 billion.

I still am not sure exactly what Amazon’s core business is or what it will end up being. I just hope it never sees an opportunity in any business I have a vested interest in.

You have to read the whole thing to fully understand the lesson.

I love Amazon though. I'm not worried about it crushing any of my own business ventures, heh.

Political Rules Changed in 2016

From Michael Barone, at RCP, "How the Political Rules Changed in 2016":

Over the 40-some years that I have been working or closely observing the political campaign business, the rules of the game haven't changed much. Technology has changed the business somewhat, but the people who ran campaigns in the 1970s could have (and in some cases actually have) run them four decades later.

But suddenly this year, the rules seemed to change. Let me try to count the ways...

I remember in the spring I told my students that if Donald Trump won the presidency he'd have broken all the rules of politics. Indeed, I expect he's rewritten the rule book now.

But keep reading.

Barry Switzer Punked the Media Press Pool at Trump Tower

OMG this is hilarious.

Via AoSHQ, "#FakeNews: College Football's Barry Switzer Explains How He Easily Punked Media Into Reporting He Was Under Consideration to be Trump's "Secretary of Offense" Who Would 'Make the Wishbone Great Again'."

This is amazing https://t.co/lf6vv0FBUD pic.twitter.com/Nf9uFgCYyz

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) December 22, 2016

Kellyanne Conway Tapped as Donald Trump's 'Counselor to the President' (VIDEO)

This literally warms my heart, especially since she's super smart, close to the president-elect, and has a mellowing effect on Trump and his public statements.

She's going to be a huge asset to this White House.

At the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Kellyanne Conway, ‘Trump Whisperer,’ Will Be Counselor to President."

And watch, at CNN, "Kellyanne Conway lands top White House job."

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Bring Christmas Cheer

At WWTDD, "The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Dress Up Like Santas and Shit Around the Web."

Ivanka Trump, Flying Commercial, Accosted by Angry Leftists on JetBlue Flight

It's not moral equivalence, that there's "bad people on both sides."

No, leftists claim to be the tolerant ones. It's supposedly part of their DNA. They're better than you, remember.

Well, not so much actually. These people are in-you-face Hillary supporters and New York homosexuals. They're supposed to be the enlightened ones.

On Twitter:

.@lamblock Just wow: Ivanka Trump aggressively confronted, verbally attacked by man on flight with kids. https://t.co/qdZZjvW3fC

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 22, 2016

Harassing women and children at Christmas. Classy. pic.twitter.com/LX3u5RPS5t

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 22, 2016

Leftists are nasty, intolerant, hateful people. Period. https://t.co/jPju92p0q9

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 22, 2016

Leftists are out of control. https://t.co/UZ9PpE0G58

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 22, 2016

Ivanka Trump Berated, Harassed By Man On JetBlue Flight https://t.co/wdcCmBlXMW

— Ƭαвιтнα Ɓℓιѕѕ ❤ (@BlissTabitha) December 22, 2016

Please don't harass the president's grandchildren on planes (or anywhere). Sorry if this ruins your weekend plans.

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 22, 2016

Jared Diamond, Collapse

My mom bought it for me for Christmas.

See Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

My dad once told me that you'll never be bored if you like to read.

And I love to read. And I love to blog about books and reading.

Thanks again for all your support. I really appreciate it.

Merry Christmas!

Ward Cleaver, Sexiest Man Alive

Here's Jim Geraghty, for Prager University:

Lily Aldridge Irresistibles (VIDEO)

She's so sweet:

Last-Minute Deals

At Amazon, Last-Minute Deals - There's Still Time to Find Gifts for Everyone on Your List.

More Gold Box Savings here.

BONUS: Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

Change! Young Americans Living With Parents at 75-Year High

Thank god our long national nightmare of Barack Obama in office is almost over.

What, it's less than 30 days until the Trump administration takes power. I can't wait.

At WSJ, "Percentage of Young Americans Living With Parents Rises to 75-Year High":

Almost 40% of young Americans were living with their parents, siblings or other relatives in 2015, the largest percentage since 1940, according to an analysis of census data by real estate tracker Trulia.

Despite a rebounding economy and recent job growth, the share of those between the ages of 18 and 34 doubling up with parents or other family members has been rising since 2005. Back then, before the start of the last recession, roughly one out of three were living with family.

The trend runs counter to that of previous economic cycles, when after a recession-related spike, the number of younger Americans living with relatives declined as the economy improved.

The result is that there is far less demand for housing than would be expected for the millennial generation, now the largest in U.S. history. The number of adults under age 30 has increased by 5 million over the last decade, but the number of households for that age group grew by just 200,000 over the same period, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Analysts point to rising rents in many cities and tough mortgage-lending standards as the culprit, making it difficult for younger Americans to strike out on their own.

“I don’t think those are challenges that are going to keep young households permanently out of the housing market, but it may keep their homeownership rate near historic lows for likely the indefinite future,” said Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chief economist.

The share of young Americans living with parents hit a high of 40.9% in 1940, just a year after the official end of the Great Depression, and fell to a low of 24.1% in 1960. It hovered between about 31% and 33% from 1980 to the mid-2000s, when the rate started climbing steadily.

The census data on living arrangements goes back annually to 1980, and prior to that was collected each decade.

Household formation is closely correlated with housing affordability and income. Among those aged 25 to 34, 40% of those earning less than $25,000 headed their own household. The share rose to 50% for those earning between $25,000 and $50,000, and 58% for those with incomes above $50,000, according to the Harvard Joint Center.

Census data also show younger Americans are getting married and having children later in life than previous generations. Even so, economists project the historically large millennial generation will more than double its current number of households through 2025...

More.

Joan Smalls LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

The latest installment, from LOVE:

Evelyn Taft's Wet Weather Forecast

It's raining tonight.

I love it, heh.

Here's Ms. Evelyn, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Calls Berlin Truck Jihad an 'Attack Against Humanity' (VIDEO)

I love him.

I'm so happy we have someone who tells it like it is.

At CNN, "Trump calls Berlin rampage an 'attack on humanity'."

The Year in Reading

Following-up from early this morning, "Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth."

I was reading this fabulous roundup of luminaries and their favorite books of 2016, at the New York Times.

Of course, not that many conservatives there, but of those that are, some interesting choices. Newt Gingrich recommends Daniel Silva, The Black Widow.

And Francis Fukuyama recommends Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal, White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics.

Junot Díaz, Ava DuVernay, Hilary Mantel, John Green and many others share what they read in 2016: https://t.co/AW0kcMSlar

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) December 19, 2016

The Anti-Trump Electoral College Effort is Only the Beginning

This I believe.

From Chris Geidner, at BuzzFeed.

Previously, "Why Democrats Can't Move On."

Why Democrats Can't Move On

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

Why Democrats Can’t Move On? - by @tobincommentary https://t.co/dLqXq2MZ1F pic.twitter.com/o6uLRLgogX

— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) December 21, 2016

Like the effort to force recounts in swing states won by Trump, the attempt to persuade the Electoral College to see the president-elect as part of a Russian plot or to channel The Federalist Papers and pick someone else flopped. So now that the fantasies that the bad dream can be made to go away are exploded, what are Democrats who are still refusing to accept they lost to do?

The answer from the left is “resistance.” That’s what Moveon.org — which helped organize some of the protests at the various Electoral College ceremonies as well as other anti-Trump demonstrations — is saying. What form will “resistance” take? That’s far from clear. The group’s leader Anna Galland seems to be primarily interested in more mass street theater. According to radical TV talker Keith Olbermann, it should consist of daily reminders to Republicans that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and refusing to refer to Trump as the president.

Such comically futile gestures don’t sound terribly inspiring or productive, but might make some people feel better. Yet those elected officials tasked with the duty to reconstruct the Democratic Party sound just as confused as nudniks like Galland and Olbermann.

A small number of centrist Democrats like Ohio’s Rep. Tim Ryan, who led a spectacularly unsuccessful challenge to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, think the party should try to cooperate with Trump on issues where they might agree. But that’s something a party increasingly dominated by its Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren leftist faction has no interest in doing. Ellison, who is continuing his effort to be elected the head of the Democratic National Committee, believes the party should refuse to support the infrastructure proposal in spite of the fact that it is remarkably similar to President Obama’s own first term stimulus legislation. While his hopes to be the DNC Chair are still up in the air, he probably speaks for most of his party when he says they don’t trust Trump and will resist him on every front.

The point here is not so much their understandable hard feelings about the election results. Rather, it is that they are still stuck in the denial stage of grief and can’t shake it off. Though they’ll pay lip service to the notion of serving the best interests of the country, there’s little doubt that they are far more interested in continuing the project to delegitimize Trump. That’s why so many of them continue to harp on the farcical notion that Vladimir Putin elected Trump or to hope some other Hail Mary play like parlaying disputes over the president-elect’s admittedly tangled and far-flung financial interests into an impeachment putsch even before he takes office will do the trick.

What this means is that rather than a fraction of the party’s extremists starting the new administration enmeshed in a new derangement syndrome, it appears the critical mass of the party that won 48 percent of the vote is unable to move past a disappointing election...

Remember, it's the left that's fomenting fascism in America. All these attempts to delegitimize Trump are textbook examples of fascist political agitation, right out of the last days of Weimar.

Still more.

Karen Dawisha, Putin's Kleptocracy [BUMPED]

A timely suggestion for your winter holiday reading.

At Amazon, Karen Dawisha, Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?

Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo: Efforts to Abolish the Electoral College 'All About Race' (VIDEO)

I watched this last night and thought nothing of it.

Once again, O'Reilly hit the nail on the head. And like clockwork, leftists were outraged for O'Reilly telling it like it is.

this is getting lots of attention tonight https://t.co/SYlsj80HzB

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) December 21, 2016

.@oreillyfactor: “The left wants power taken away from the white establishment and they want a profound change in the way America is run.” pic.twitter.com/EggkBz7kvZ

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 21, 2016

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly under fire for race comments: "The left wants power taken away from the white establishment" https://t.co/qxBfsChIKw pic.twitter.com/RkaPfIRvvU

— CNN (@CNN) December 21, 2016

At Least 32 Dead in Mexico Fireworks Market Explosion (VIDEO)

At CNN, "Mexico explosion: 32 dead at fireworks market as search teams comb rubble."

That's a spectacular explosion, almost like a military bombing zone. Man.

CNN's @sarasidnerCNN is at the scene of the massive fireworks market blast Tuesday in Mexico https://t.co/erMO1c1H9n https://t.co/R7hZlFktNQ pic.twitter.com/uBnx0qHON2

— CNN (@CNN) December 21, 2016

#BREAKING: Fireworks explosion rips through market outside Mexico City, dozens injured. https://t.co/s4FBLe7XVl pic.twitter.com/3rhxSk4a4Z

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) December 20, 2016