She's only 19-years-old.
Friday, January 5, 2018
The Democrats' 'Russian Descent'
This is good, from Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "Tactics in the Trump probe are starting to look a lot like McCarthyism":
Democrats have spent weeks making the case that the Russia-Trump probes need to continue, piling on demands for more witnesses and documents. So desperate is the left to keep this Trump cudgel to hand that Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats have moved toward neo- McCarthyism.Hat Tip: RCP.
If that sounds hyperbolic, consider an email recently disclosed by the Young Turks Network, a progressive YouTube news channel. It’s dated Dec. 19, 2017, and its author is April Doss, senior counsel for the committee’s Democrats, including Vice Chairman Mark Warner.
Ms. Doss was writing to Robert Barnes, an attorney for Charles C. Johnson, the controversial and unpleasant alt-right blogger. Mr. Johnson’s interactions with Julian Assange inspired some in the media to speculate last year that Mr. Johnson had served as a back channel between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. There’s still no proof, but in July the Intelligence Committee sent a letter requesting Mr. Johnson submit to them any documents, emails, texts or the like related to “any communications with Russian persons” in a variety of 2016 circumstances, including those related to “the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign.”
Mr. Barnes seems to have wanted clarification from Ms. Doss about the definition of “Russian persons.” And this would make sense, since it’s a loose term. Russians in Russia? Russians in America? Russians with business in the country? Russians who lobby the U.S. and might be affected by the election—though not in contact with campaigns?
Ms. Doss’s response was more sweeping than any of these: “The provision we discussed narrowing was clarifying that the phrase ‘Russian persons’ in [the committee letter] may be read to refer to persons that Mr. Johnson knows or has reason to believe are of Russian nationality or descent” (emphasis added).
If this stands, Democrats will have gone far beyond criminalizing routine government contacts with Russians, which is disturbing enough. Trump transition and administration officials have been smeared and subjected to exhaustive investigation merely for doing their job, which includes interacting with Russian officials or diplomats. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has spent the past year having to justify why, as a U.S. senator, he shook hands with the Russian ambassador. The running joke in today’s Washington is that one risks a subpoena merely for ordering a salad with Russian dressing.
But the definition in the Doss letter potentially takes all this much further. It could be that Ms. Doss was simply trying to prevent a recalcitrant witness from evading legitimate requests. But it could mean you are now officially under suspicion by the U.S. government—subject to requisitioning your emails and texts or getting your own subpoena—if your parents or even great-great-grandparents were Russkis. By some estimates, the Russian-American community is more than three million strong, and quite a few of them are Mr. Warner’s congressional colleagues, including Bernie Sanders.
This comes from a Democratic Party that supposedly rejects group-based discrimination. Substitute the words “Arab or Arab background” into a hypothetical Republican version of the letter, and the left would melt down—not without reason.
The Doss letter suggests this is of a piece with the Democrats’ manic effort to keep the Trump-Russia investigations going, no matter what. As Republican congressional leaders have hinted that their probes may be wrapping up, the left’s demands and tactics have become ever more desperate. The Washington Post this past weekend ran a piece straight out of House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff’s talking points, regurgitating complaints that Chairman Devin Nunes has run an incomplete probe. The accusation inspired House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy to quip that Mr. Schiff’s desired witness list is “pretty much every character in any Dostoevsky or Tolstoy novel.”
The House Intelligence committee has collected nearly 300,000 documents, conducted 67 transcribed witness interviews, and issued 18 subpoenas. It’s held 11 hearings, taken 164 hours of testimony, and reviewed 5,251 pages of that testimony. It’s spent 346 days investigating Russian meddling. The country deserves the committee’s final recommendations as to how to avoid further Russian interference, especially given we are again in an election year...
Laura Ingraham: President Trump Outsmarts the Establishment 'Intellectual Elite' (VIDEO)
Here's Ms. Laura with "The Angle," from last night:
Farms Facing Shrinking Immigrant Labor Pool
First thing I thought when I started reading this piece, is, "No, American workers worked Central Valley fields in the 1930s and '40s, workers escaping the devastation of Dust Bowl America (the Okies).
The piece does mention them, as a sop to history.
I just know that if wages were high enough, Americans would take these jobs. I would have picked cantaloupes in the 1980s if owners were paying me $12.00 an hour. The Times had a piece last year where growers near Sacramento were paying $15.00 and up (with some growers expecting to pay wages from $18.00 to $20.00 an hour).
It's simple economics. There's no shame in working an honest job. The fact that dark-skinned people have done it for so long doesn't mean that hard-working U.S. citizens won't work the fields. Immigrant labor drags down wages. Growers like it that way, giving the shiv to regular citizens.
At LAT, "Born in the U.S.A. and working in the fields — what gives?":
The piece does mention them, as a sop to history.
I just know that if wages were high enough, Americans would take these jobs. I would have picked cantaloupes in the 1980s if owners were paying me $12.00 an hour. The Times had a piece last year where growers near Sacramento were paying $15.00 and up (with some growers expecting to pay wages from $18.00 to $20.00 an hour).
It's simple economics. There's no shame in working an honest job. The fact that dark-skinned people have done it for so long doesn't mean that hard-working U.S. citizens won't work the fields. Immigrant labor drags down wages. Growers like it that way, giving the shiv to regular citizens.
At LAT, "Born in the U.S.A. and working in the fields — what gives?":
Farm labor from Mexico has been on the decline in California, and farmers are having trouble finding U.S.-born workers to make up the difference https://t.co/B8lcJDmfG3
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 5, 2018
Nicholas Andrew Flores swatted at the flies orbiting his sweat-drenched face as he picked alongside a crew of immigrants through a cantaloupe field in California's Central Valley.
The 21-year-old didn't speak Spanish, but he understood the essential words the foreman barked out: Puro amarillo. And rapido, rapido! Quickly, Flores picked only yellow melons and flung them onto a moving platform.
It was hard and repetitive work, and there were days under the searing sun that Flores regretted not going to a four-year college. But he liked that to get the job he just had to "show up." And at $12 an hour, it paid better than slinging fast food.
For Joe Del Bosque of Del Bosque Farms in the San Joaquin Valley, American-born pickers like Flores, though rare, are always welcome.
For generations, rural Mexico has been the primary source of hired farm labor in the U.S. According to a federal survey, nine out of 10 agricultural workers in places like California are foreign-born, and more than half are in the U.S. illegally.
But farm labor from Mexico has been on the decline in California. And under the Trump administration, many in the agricultural industry worry that deportations — and the fear of them — could further cut the supply of workers.
But try as they have to entice workers with better salaries and benefits, companies have found it impossible to attract enough U.S.-born workers to make up for a shortage from south of the border.
Del Bosque said he'll hire anyone who shows up ready to work. But that rarely means someone born in the U.S.
"Americans will say, 'You can't pay me enough to do this kind of work,'" Del Bosque said. "They won't do it. They'll look for something easier."
For some immigrants working the fields, people like Flores are a puzzle — their sweating next to them represents a kind of squandering of an American birthright.
"It's hard to be here under the sun. It's a waste of time and their talents in the fields," said Norma Felix, 58, a Mexican picker for almost three decades. "They don't take advantage of their privilege and benefit of being born here. They could easily work in an office."
Most don't last long, she said.
"There is always one or two who show up every season," Felix said. "They show up for three or four days and turn around and leave."
Agriculture's reliance on immigrant labor, especially in the American West, goes back to the late 1800s, after the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, said J. Edward Taylor, a UC Davis rural economist.
"The domestic farm workforce was simply not big enough to support the growth of labor-intensive fruit and vegetable crops," he said...
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Laura Ingraham: Trump/Bannon Feud Has Set Off a 'Pavlovian Feeding-Frenzy in the Media' (VIDEO)
I should watch her show. As noted many times now, I quit watching television news. But I do itch for some partisan news reporting, conservative news reporting, and there are few better plugged into the populist beat than Ms. Laura.
Maybe I'll watch tonight. She's good.
From last night, at Ingraham Angle on Fox:
BONUS: At NYT, via Memeorandum, "Trump Demands That Publisher Halt Release of Critical Book." (That's a huge thread on Trump/Bannon at Memeorandum.)
Maybe I'll watch tonight. She's good.
From last night, at Ingraham Angle on Fox:
BONUS: At NYT, via Memeorandum, "Trump Demands That Publisher Halt Release of Critical Book." (That's a huge thread on Trump/Bannon at Memeorandum.)
Maitland Ward on Twitter
She's got one shot right here that's virtually pornographic.
And there's more:
And there's more:
All bundled up and keeping warm #winteriscoming ☃️ pic.twitter.com/uh8LPxpuAm
— Maitland Ward Baxter (@MaitlandWard) December 6, 2017
Snapchat took it down... pic.twitter.com/XsV0ChkJko
— Maitland Ward Baxter (@MaitlandWard) December 8, 2017
I'm Hittin' it Hard on a Monday... 💪🏻💦 pic.twitter.com/uKxFSbZROE
— Maitland Ward Baxter (@MaitlandWard) December 12, 2017
Overdressed 😂😜💁🏻 pic.twitter.com/2FEflTYj3v
— Maitland Ward Baxter (@MaitlandWard) December 29, 2017
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Strangled by Identity
This is great, at National Affairs:
My latest in National Affairs, with @RWBhandari https://t.co/oT18A3MGLz— Thomas Hopson (@thomasehopson) January 2, 2018
American politics is overwhelmed by bitterness and rancor. The norms that structure the work of our constitutional system are everywhere under attack. Partisan loyalties now seem to determine not only people's worldviews and policy priorities but also what facts they will accept or choose to treat as lies. The rhetoric of animus and apocalypse is the everyday parlance of both parties, particularly when each talks about the other. And although this polarization may have its roots inside the Beltway, its toxicity pervades the public.More.
None of this began with Donald Trump. It was all there in the culture wars of the Obama years and in the deep divisions of the Bush era. It is systemic. Our political dysfunction in this century looks less like a failure of individuals and more like a corrosion of our entire political culture and its institutions.
Many observers of this problem, especially on the right though increasingly on the left as well, tend to explain it by resorting to critiques of "identity politics." But identity politics is something we tend to see others doing while failing to recognize that we are doing it ourselves. And because we tend to miss the breadth of its scope and reach, we fail to see not only how central it is to the trouble with our politics but also how it might be overcome.
Identity politics is not just a problem of the left. It is a way of thinking that pervades our self-understanding. Our rancorous political conversation now consists of three competing theories of identity in America — three stories of how our differing backgrounds should shape our common political life. One of these (espoused by a significant swath of the left but increasingly co-opted by an influential minority on the right) treats politics as a continuous struggle across racial lines, and so conceives of coalitions on racial grounds. Another (advanced more commonly on the right in our time) insists that the principled distinction in our politics is not between racial groups but along the legal line of citizens versus non-citizens. Finally, the third theory of identity (espoused by some elites of both parties, and barely aware of itself as a theory of identity at all) views the other two schools of thought as pernicious and proposes its own form of identity defined by an ideal of cosmopolitan dignity.
Each of these theories, as practiced, is unstable. And each rejects the other two as un-American without really quite understanding them. It is this problem — our country's conceptual blind spot on identity — that drives so much of our present polarization. To be sure, disagreements over identity are a causa causans of why Republicans and Democrats can barely get along. But it isn't only that the two sides speak different languages; it's that our political languages fall short of our political needs.
The solution is not a new and improved theory of identity, although in time the country could use one. Instead, a practical solution would require us to begin by pivoting from philosophy to institutions. It is all well and good to debate the various theories of identity. But our leaders should also focus on building and sustaining those institutions that can concretely ground a functional civic life — one that works in practice even if it sometimes seems as though it couldn't work in theory. To begin this work, we should seek to better understand the quandary of American identity, so that we might rise above it.
Alexander Roy, The Driver
At Amazon, Alexander Roy, The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World.
Jessica Biel in Workout Gear
At Popoholic and Twitter. Justin Timberlake's got a fine squeeze, heh:
Jessica Biel Leggy, Busty, And Curvalicious In Tight Workout Attire, Oh My! https://t.co/qaMFoOsOjA pic.twitter.com/aEPmfmi3An
— Popoholic (@Popoholic) January 3, 2018
Knee-high socks and blue steel gazes are BACK (amongst many other awesome retro styles!). Check out my New Year + New You picks launching on @amazon home in 2018! https://t.co/KorwILcsRR pic.twitter.com/thMtPRxV0w
— Jessica Biel (@JessicaBiel) December 30, 2017
Claudia Romani
At Egotastic! and elsewhere:
.@ClaudiaRomani ushers in 2018 with a fab photoshoot.
— Egotastic! (@egotastic) January 3, 2018
📷: https://t.co/CB0SJhb5mz pic.twitter.com/nQ7IAs4jIV
.@ClaudiaRomani is all woman, all Christmas, all curves.
— Egotastic! (@egotastic) December 26, 2017
See the pics: https://t.co/3A1mYxFWyh. pic.twitter.com/w70OvhcIwD
@ClaudiaRomani CR💜💜💜💜💜1 #WCF is just always the very perfect queen of curves always Claudia #1 CR💜💜💜💜💜1 pic.twitter.com/DpBGSJldNV
— Tom Elliott LE★💜★💍13 (@thomaselliott19) December 29, 2017
@ClaudiaRomani CR💜💜💜💜💜1 #WCT for the last time in 2017 the breathtaking Claudia #1 CR💜💜💜💜💜1 pic.twitter.com/yHb0LOSrNO
— Tom Elliott LE★💜★💍13 (@thomaselliott19) December 28, 2017
@ClaudiaRomani CR💜💜💜💜💜1 Claudia such amazing stunning beauty by the sea what a lady #1 CR💜💜💜💜💜1 pic.twitter.com/CEtpxyB9gD
— Tom Elliott LE★💜★💍13 (@thomaselliott19) December 28, 2017
@ClaudiaRomani CR💜💜💜💜💜1 #WCT is always the breathtaking Twitter queen Claudia #1 CR💜💜💜💜💜1 pic.twitter.com/bWvjmOfdgo
— Tom Elliott LE★💜★💍13 (@thomaselliott19) December 26, 2017
The View of the Blinkered
From VDH, at American Greatness:
Another brilliant column by my favorite columnist. How does he consistently top himself? https://t.co/Omvt6c9ahi— Jane (@Jane00245086) January 3, 2018
The Next Revolution in Military Affairs
Eliot Cohen published the classic piece on the topic in 1996, at Foreign Affairs, "A Revolution in Warfare."
I don't worry about the U.S. being overtaken in the military technology realm anytime soon. But just in case, here's this at the National Interest, "The Next Revolution In Military Affairs: How America's Military Will Dominate":
I don't worry about the U.S. being overtaken in the military technology realm anytime soon. But just in case, here's this at the National Interest, "The Next Revolution In Military Affairs: How America's Military Will Dominate":
The Next Revolution In Military Affairs: How America's Military Will Dominate https://t.co/PC4T8XPKVm— National Interest (@TheNatlInterest) January 2, 2018
A Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is a theory about the evolution of warfare over time. An RMA is based on the marriage of new technologies with organizational reforms and innovative concepts of operations. The result is often characterized as a new way of warfare. There have been a number of RMAs just in the past century.
An example of an RMA is the mechanization of warfare that began in World War I with the introduction of military airpower, aircraft carriers, submarines and armored fighting vehicles. Out of these advances in technology came independent air forces, strategic bombardment and large-scale amphibious operations. Another occurred with the invention of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles leading to the creation of new organizations such as the now-defunct Strategic Air Command and new concepts such as deterrence. In the 1970s, the advent of information technologies and high-performance computing led to an ongoing RMA based largely on improved intelligence and precision strike weapons. The 1991 Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 are considered to be quintessential examples of this RMA.
According to the theory of dialectics, all revolutions give rise to counter-revolutions. The counter to the precision strike revolution arose in the form of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities. These included weapons systems such as sophisticated air defenses, long-range precision fires and unmanned vehicles. But more significantly, the A2/AD counterrevolution seeks to exploit new means of combat -- electronic and cyber warfare, in particular, and operations in domains such as outer space -- to attack the sensors, networks, and command and control systems on which the precision strike revolution was based.
A still new RMA could be imminent. It is a function, first and foremost, of the proliferation of sensors and so-called smart devices, the creation of increasingly large, complex and sophisticated information networks, and growing potential in automated systems and artificial intelligence. The first step in this revolution, now evident in the commercial world and our personal lives, is the rise of the “Internet of Things.” But it is the marriage of ubiquitous information collection, virtually unlimited data storage, advanced computational analytics and global, near-instantaneous communications that will truly revolutionize the world.
This emergent RMA is also driven by the need to address the A2/AD challenge and to more fully exploit the opportunities presented by new technologies and concepts of operations. Electronic and cyber “weapons” can be employed both offensively and defensively. Sensors and weapons in each of the domains of warfare (land, air, sea, outer space and cyberspace) can be employed in all others.
The current overarching concept encompassing the various aspects of the new RMA is Multi-Domain Battle (MDB). Although the MDB approach to future warfare is still evolving, one reasonable definition of it can be found in the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command draft document, Multi-Domain Battle: Evolution of Combined Arms for the 21st Century, 2025-2040: “a new, holistic approach to align friendly forces’ actions across domains, environments, and functions in time and physical spaces to achieve specific purposes in combat, as well as before and after combat in competition.” The key to the conduct of MDB is something called “convergence.” This is defined in the same document as...
U.C. Santa Cruz Can't Attract Enough Transfer Students
Now this is a surprise, since the entire State of California has gone to the dogs of social justice and political correctness. Seems like far-left U.C. Santa Cruz would be just the ticket for degenerate left-wing students looking to tune out and burn out.
Maybe all that social justice crap is a turnoff for regular people, after all.
At LAT, "U.C. Santa Cruz has offerings far beyond hippies and banana slugs. So why can't it draw more transfer students?":
Maybe all that social justice crap is a turnoff for regular people, after all.
At LAT, "U.C. Santa Cruz has offerings far beyond hippies and banana slugs. So why can't it draw more transfer students?":
UC Santa Cruz sits on an idyllic expanse of redwood groves and rolling meadows. World-class surf is just minutes away.More.
Its researchers were the first to arrange the DNA sequence of the human genome and make it publicly available.
About nine miles away, Cabrillo College in Aptos is the closest community college. But at a recent UC Santa Cruz sales pitch featuring University of California President Janet Napolitano, numerous Cabrillo students made it clear Santa Cruz wasn't their first transfer choice. Cal State is cheaper and classes are smaller, said one student. Santa Cruz housing is too expensive, said another. Several named UCLA or UC Berkeley as their dream schools.
"Santa Cruz life is too hippie for me." said Rachel Biddleman, a 21-year-old studying political science. "I'm more of a city person."
UC Santa Cruz recently launched a million-dollar effort to reach out to community college students around the state in an effort to change minds and boost its transfer numbers. The university is under pressure to meet state demands that eight of the nine UC undergraduate campuses enroll one transfer student for every two freshmen. Santa Cruz and Riverside both fall short, a failure Gov. Jerry Brown cited last year as one reason why he is withholding $50 million from UC's budget.
Last year, Santa Cruz enrolled about three freshmen for every transfer student. Of the campuses under state scrutiny, only Riverside did worse, with about four freshman per transfer.
State finance officials will decide this spring if the campuses have made sufficient "good faith efforts" toward meeting the ratio, which was set by Brown and Napolitano in 2015, said H.D. Palmer, the spokesman for the state finance department. He said one reason why Brown is pushing for increases is that they provide a more cost-efficient path to a four-year degree because transfer students complete their first two years of studies at the less expensive community colleges.
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal, however, considers finance bureaucrats judging university enrollment actions "unbelievable micromanagement."
But he says the campus is trying hard — starting with correcting what he said were misperceptions. People still hear the name and picture the campus "Rolling Stone" once dubbed "the stonedest place on earth."
"Some people still think of us as a kooky place … as banana slugs, hippies and protests," he said. "We're also a serious university."
At Cabrillo College, Blumenthal talked up the work on the human genome project, as well as research in marine science and astronomy and astrophysics. Students got the chance to meet a Santa Cruz faculty member whose team won worldwide acclaim this fall for becoming the first to capture the light generated by a cataclysmic merger of two neutron stars. Last fall, the London-based Times Higher Education ranked UC Santa Cruz third in the world in research influence based on how many times scholars cited its work.
Blumenthal told students from four area community colleges about the university's undergraduate research opportunities, emphasis on social justice and leadership in environmental sustainability. He said a new summer academy could help them make the transition.
Napolitano pitched UC's generous financial aid, diversity and support for immigrants. "The doors to the University of California are open. ... Right next door is UC Santa Cruz!" she said.
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