I’M NOW READING ANDREW WAREHAM’S Chinese Whispers,
March 19, 2019
WELL, THAT WOULD DOOM TWITTER, SO YEAH: Roger Simon: Trump Should Quit Twitter — After He Wins.
CNN WINS CRONKITE AWARD FOR THAT GARBAGE GUN-CONTROL TOWN HALL IT HELD AFTER PARKLAND:
Dana Loesch was suckered into attending in the belief that this would be some sort of civil moderated discussion about the pros and cons of gun control. As it was, she was jeered for noting that some rape victims wished they had a gun during their attack, had people shout “murderer” at her, and allegedly needed a security detail to exit the event safely. Loesch reminisced about the magical evening she had earlier today on Twitter:
* * * * * * * *
It was embarrassing all the way through, less town hall than mob catharsis, and of course they’re being rewarded for it by industry watchdogs rather than reprimanded. If you wonder why big media is frequently so terrible, this is a small part of the answer: They’re incentivized to be that way by their own gatekeepers.
As long as it’s remembered that Cronkite himself, far from being the Mr. “And that’s the way it is,” was one of the original Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and would have loved CNN’s hard left coverage, then it’s an absolutely appropriately named award for CNN’s train wreck.
Related: ‘Go be a company man’! Dana Loesch calls out Jake Tapper for pulling this after she told truth about CNN’s Parkland ‘town hall.’ As Glenn posted earlier, Tapper unfollowed Dana — and also her husband Chris, “for pointing out what a sham this award is. Dana presented the facts and truth on that stage which were subsequently proven correct,” as Chris tweets.
DANA LOESCH LAYS DOWN THE SMACK ON CNN AND JAKE TAPPER IN THIS THREAD:
That whole “Town Hall” was an exercise in false-narrative propaganda worthy of Goebbels. In other words: This is CNN.
Struggle harder, Jake.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO HAVE SEX WHILE THEIR KIDS ARE DYING IN A HOT CAR: Ex-cop admits she was having sex while 3-year-old daughter was dying in hot car. “Cheyenne Hyer died Sept. 30, 2016, after her mother left her strapped in a car seat for four hours while Barker was with her then-supervisor at his home. The car was running with the air conditioner turned on, but wasn’t blowing cold air.”
DIRECTIONALITY: Study finds some people can sense Earth’s magnetic field. “Researchers with the University of Tokyo and Caltech have found evidence that humans may have the ability to sense magnetic fields. Many animals are known to possess magnetoreception, including birds and bees, but questions have remained over whether humans have the same ability. A newly published study potentially has the answer, detailing brain wave changes observed in isolated participants.”
KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD, BUT KEEP AUSTIN SURROUNDED: Giant Rock Sculpture of Beto’s Face Appears in Austin.
(Classical reference in headline.)
WHEN DID OLIVER STONE START EDITING THE NEW YORK TIMES? NYT Writer Links Trump to Mosque Shooter Via ‘George Soros White Supremacist Conspiracy Theory.’
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is Circumcision Healthy, Outdated, or Dangerous?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Naomi Schaefer Riley: College admissions need to have some kind of transparency.
Of the 406 brands analyzed by Marketplace Pulse, AmazonBasics — Amazon’s home and electronics brand — is the most successful, scooping up 57.8% of Amazon’s private-label sales, even though it accounts for only 5% of the new products the company has launched, the firm said.
Following that is the Amazon Collection jewelry brand, with 7.8%, and Amazon Essentials, which sells basic clothing for both men and women, at 4.8%. None of the others make up more than 2% of Amazon’s private-label sales.
Measured by sales, the products don’t fare any better. All told, sales from Amazon’s private-label brands are under $1 billion, according to Marketplace Pulse. That’s a lot taken in isolation, but it’s also just a fraction of the $122.9 billion Amazon raked in last year from direct online retail sales.
I needed a new linen shirt or two for our last beach vacation, and picked up a couple from Amazon’s “Isle Bay” house brand. For about $25 each, they weren’t bad. In fact, I’ve spent quite a bit more for similar quality.
COULD ANYTHING BE WORSE THAN DISAGREEMENT? When it comes to learning, lots of things are worse, as the longstanding partnership of Princeton’s Robbie George and Cornel West demonstrates. One of the many overlooked crimes of the campus language and feelings police is that they have conned students into thinking that intelligent disagreement is not only not fun – a lie – but that it’s painful, even harmful. George and West are showing us a way out, if anyone cares to take it.
THE FASTEST RELOAD IS A SECOND GUN: Two-Gun Carry: Considerations & Carry Options. On the other hand civilian carriers — and, for that matter, police — almost never need to reload.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: KOMO News’ special: Seattle is Dying.
“People didn’t use to use the word embarrassing about Seattle, but they use it a lot now,” the narrator to a new KOMO News special titled “Seattle is Dying” says. The focus of the special is homelessness and the ways in which it has changed the city.
There’s a section featuring angry residents of one area of the city who are screaming at their representatives for action. They want the tent cities managed and they’re tired of calling the police only to find out the police can arrest people but those same people will be back on the street, sometimes within hours.
As I noted last month, just 100 homeless people in Seattle were responsible for 3,500 criminal cases. This special references that story. It also asked Seattle police officers to comment anonymously on what was happening and those responses are enlightening. One officer told KOMO, “People come here because it’s called Free-attle and they believe if they come here they will get free food, free medical treatment, free mental health treatment, a free tent, free clothes and will be free of prosecution for just about everything; and they’re right.”
But it’s provided plenty of opportunities for graft and virtue-signalling, which is what our political class runs on.
BUDGETING: Pentagon finds $12.8 billion for Trump’s border wall.
The Defense Department has identified $12.8 billion in possible funding that it could use to fulfill President Trump’s call for a border wall.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., released the 20-page spreadsheet on Twitter Monday night.
Trump last month declared a national emergency at the border, and said he wants to use $3.6 billion for border wall projects. The Pentagon’s list said it has found possible funding sources that are “in excess of the amount needed.”
But it’s not clear which projects the Defense Department will draw from. Some states that have been allocated big chunks of money that haven’t been spent could see a hit.
California, for example, was identified as having more than $700 million in unused Army and Navy military construction that could be used. Hawaii has more than $400 million that could be used.
Blue states gotta pay their fair share.
THIS EXPLAINS SHELDON COOPER’S SISTER: Prenatal testosterone linked to long-term effects in females who share womb with male twin. “Women who shared their mother’s womb with a male twin are less likely to graduate from high school or college, have earned less by their early 30s, and have lower fertility and marriage rates when compared with twins who are both female, according to new Northwestern University research. One explanation for the long-term effects the researchers discovered is changes in behavior, which have previously been demonstrated in girls with male twins.”
So there is such a thing as “testosterone poisoning” after all, it just occurs in women.
AT AMAZON, save in Car Care.
RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Trump-Russia-Obsessed Rep. Eric Swalwell Mulling a Run for President in 2020. “I’ll make a decision by the end of the month.”
BLESS HIS HEART: NBC’s Idea of ‘Tough Question’ for 2020 Dem: Is Trump a ‘Racist?’
Reporting for NBC’s Today show on Tuesday, correspondent Kristen Welker touted New Jersey Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker being hit with a supposedly “tough question” during an interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews that aired on Monday night’s Hardball. In reality, a clip of the alleged grilling showed Matthews urging Booker to call President Trump a “racist.”
“Meanwhile, as the Democratic base pushes issues of racial and gender equality, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker asked tough questions about President Trump by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews,” Welker claimed. The soundbite followed of Matthews teeing up the liberal lawmaker to trash Trump: “Is he racist?” Booker started to respond, but did not immediately say yes, prompting Matthews to cut him off and repeat: “Is he a racist?”
Yes. It’s true. Throughout Trump’s career as both a businessman and politician, he has uttered the words “golf” and “Chicago.” No word yet if he’s ever uttered “Bless his heart,” however.
REMEMBER, WHEN DEMOCRATS LOSE, IT MEANS THE RULES NEED TO BE CHANGED: Elizabeth Warren says she wants to eliminate the Electoral College. I almost want to see a 2020 Trump victory made possible by the National Popular Vote deal just to see heads explode.
WEIGHING THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF STATINS.
EWE-INSPIRING RESEARCH: World’s oldest semen makes sheep babies 50 years later.
GIVE HER ENOUGH ROPE…: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Less Popular Than Trump, Hillary.
CHARLIE MARTIN: The Power of Pulp. “Once upon a time, fiction was fun to read. Maybe it’s time to bring that back.”
Some of my favorite reading as a kid was from the pulp racks at various local stores. Inexpensive books with lurid sci-fi covers, written by authors who usually delivered on the cover’s promise.
OOPS: MySpace lost all music uploaded from 2003 to 2015.
MySpace remained big with local bands long after its wider audience disappeared. I hope none of them trusted all their digital data to someone else’s platform, which is never a good idea.
STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: 4 Times Before the Boeing 737 Max 8 That Plane Automation Software Went Haywire.
GET YOUR LAWS OFF MY… YOU KNOW: Andrew Yang, Upstart Democratic Presidential Candidate, Comes Out Against Circumcision.
WHAT AN UTTERLY STUPID AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE WAY TO BE PETTY: Germany Plans to Renege on Pledge to Raise Military Spending, Defying Trump.
If confirmed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the move would mark a fresh step in the gradual estrangement between the U.S. and its erstwhile loyal European ally and comes after Mr. Trump’s repeated attacks of North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders for not meeting a 2% military-spending target.
In recent months, Berlin has rebuked Washington’s demands that it limits gas purchases from Russia, ban Chinese components from its communication networks, and prevent German companies from doing business with Iran.
In another sign of Berlin pushing for Europe to chart a more independent geopolitical course, Ms. Merkel is planning an unprecedented summit between European Union heads of government and Chinese President Xi Jinping next year, European diplomats said Monday.
Ms. Merkel publicly pledged last year to increase German military expenditure to 1.5% of gross domestic product by 2024 and bring it closer to the 2% level members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have set themselves as a target. The promise followed mounting and increasingly overt pressure by Washington under Mr. Trump.
Berlin currently spends about €43 billion ($49 billion) or over 1.2% of GDP on defense. Under the new budget plan, unveiled by the finance ministry Monday, the spending would rise to 1.37% of GDP next year, but then decrease again to 1.33% in 2019, 1.29% in 2022 and 1.25% in 2023.
Germany has chosen preemptive surrender to Russia (for energy, which we could supply) and to China (for tech, ditto). Between Erdogan and Merkel, there isn’t much left of an effective NATO.
DAVID HARSANYI: The Gun Control Campaign Against The AR-15 Is Full Of Lies. “Efforts to outlaw the AR-15 are part of an incremental movement to ban all semi-automatic guns.”
If [Joe] Scarborough and others are proposing banning all semi-automatic rifles, then why not handguns? Why not shotguns, which are used more often in homicides than ARs. Because their contention that the AR-15s are especially “dangerous and unusual” compared to other widely-owned guns, simply isn’t true.
Then again, the very notion of “weapons of war” is silly. Every gun is designed to kill, otherwise it would be worthless. And if any weapon that kills can be categorized as a “weapon of war” then the AR has some stiff competition. John Browning designed the 1911 handgun before World War I, and it was subsequently used by the US military until 1986. Now it is one of the most popular handgun designs in the country. It was a “weapon of war.”
Gun restrictionists focus on the AR-15 because it looks like a military weapon. Once stripped of emotion, however, the argument against ARs, which feature the same mechanics as many others firearms, is that they work better. There will always be a gun that works better than other guns. Which is why we know banning them is part of an incremental push towards broader prohibitions.
Molon labe — or just read the whole thing.
A STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA REGARDING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS BRIBERY SCANDAL: “It is just despicable that these privileged, wealthy families, who already enjoy every advantage, would be so deceitful and unethical in their efforts to secure a coveted spot at Yale, Stanford, or Georgetown, but not at Penn, which — friendly reminder! — is an Ivy League school. It’s extremely exclusive. Very difficult to get into. Definitely harder than Georgetown and sometimes harder than Stanford; it sort of depends on the year.”
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: New Zealand Attack Shows Us That Tribal Score-Settling Has Infected the West. “The old devils are on the loose and the problem is what to do now.”
Ethnic conflict in the Third World is a dog-bites-man story. What is new about the New Zealand attack is that the terrible plague of tribal score-settling and grievance mongering is now in the West. Not that the West is a stranger to ethnic conflict: the Holocaust, Generalplan Ost, Holodomor, and Polish and Armenian genocides are bywords in themselves. But it was widely assumed that WW2 had seen these off (until Bosnia) and the risks of multiculturalism and mass immigration could be mitigated by immunosuppressive strategies like political correctness and demographic replacement, of which the EU project is a textbook example.
Yet events since 2016 indicate that this strategy is failing despite the suppressants. Pressure from the root causes — whether European colonialism, Islamic slave trading, 9/11, the War on Terror, multiculturalism, populism — are burning through the medication. The old devils are on the loose and the problem is what to do now.
In Europe, this Everything Old Sucks Again wound opened back up in Bosnia almost 30 years ago, and elites there proved unable or unwilling to stop it without outside (ie, American) help. Our own elites haven’t done much better in the decades since.
SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: TRUMP’S 7% PANEL.
Read the whole thing.
IN THE MAIL: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.
HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): Sex Offender Read to Kids at ‘Drag Queen Story Hour,’ Pro-Family Group Reveals.
YEMEN: Faction fatigue and food warfare.
Very Related: Cocktails from Hell, Chapter 5: Iran Exploits Yemen’s Nest of Wars.
CHANGE: Pennsylvania Senators Unveil Marijuana Bill.
Senator Daylin Leach, and co-author, Senator Sharif Street are circulating their latest proposal, Senate Bill 350, to colleagues for co-sponsorship.
The bill would allow anyone 21 and older to use recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania, and each household could also grow up to six marijuana plants at a time for personal use.
The bill also allows home delivery of marijuana.
That last part seems wise.
WHAT’S AN OXFORD MATHEMATICIAN GOT TO SAY ABOUT FAITH? To meet John Lennox on the street would be a pleasant enough experience, as he is a down-to-earth Irishman with an easy laugh and a gentle manner. He’s the proverbial guy you’d love to have as a neighbor.
He’s also a professor of mathematics at Oxford, an admirer of the great physicist Stephen Hawking, whom he critiqued in an important book, a regular debate opponent of another famous Oxford don, Richard Dawkins, and an articulate apologist for intelligent design and evangelical Christianity.
So why does he claim science and faith are complementary at a time when the former claims to have done away with the latter? He explains it all here on HillFaith in an excerpt from a recent interview on British radio.
UPDATE: Every editor needs an editor and I am no exception. Thanks to all for pointing out my complementary/complimentary stumble.
AN UGLY TITLE IX TRUTH: St. Louis NAACP: ‘The denial of due process disproportionately impacts African American men.’
The St. Louis chapter of the African-American civil rights organization is supporting state legislation to make campus sexual-assault trials more fair to accused students, the Associated Press reports.
It’s a brave decision for the group, which will undoubtedly face hostility from other progressive organizations that have tarred the legislation as harmful to alleged survivors of sexual assault.
“The denial of due process at Missouri’s colleges disproportionately impacts African American men,” John Gaskin III, president of the chapter, wrote in a statement. “And that’s why we call for immediate due process reforms.”
He defended one of the advocates for the legislation, also black, who is financially supporting a group that is pushing for its enactment.
The Kansas City Star tarred Kingdom Principles as a “dark money group” that is “bankrolling ‘The Missouri Campus Due Process Coalition,’ which is buying ads on social media and conducting polling to measure support of the House and Senate bills that would alter Title IX proceedings in the state.”
“Dark money?” Racist much, KC Star?
FEEDING HOGS OVER KANSAS: Refueled A-10s fly beneath a KC-135 tanker. Down below is a snow covered Kansas — the photo was taken March 6.
HMM: Is Elon Musk Osborning His Model 3?
First, a little background on The Osborne Effect:
In 1981, Osborne introduced a machine that was, in effect, the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1.
Sales took off, reaching 10,000 units per month. This might not sound like much by our smartphone standards, but thirty years ago it was a truly phenomenal success.
This wasn’t enough for our fearless entrepreneur. In 1983, he told anyone who’d listen: Just you wait! I have two superior models in the works, the Executive and the Vixen.
Customers took his advice. They stopped buying the current model and waited…and waited… In 1985, the company ran out of cash and went bankrupt.
And now back to today:
The parallel with Tesla’s Model Y announcement needs little elaboration. Musk finally announces Tesla’s CUV, a model many will would prefer to the Model 3 sedan. No trouble if both are available simultaneously or in close succession. But the Model Y is promised for the “last quarter” of 2020, and the base model for “early 2021” — past Tesla performance easily explains the skeptical quote marks. First deliveries are 18 months away and manufacturing plans are glowingly vague.
This could be Tesla’s riskiest transition ever.
Musk is rightly known for escaping tight situations, so predictions might be a fool’s game.
PELOSI’S HOUSE TO MODERNIZE BUT FORGET MORE TRANSPARENCY: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said voters in November 2018 demanded a Congress that is more “ethical, transparent, unifying, and responsive.” So she created the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
The committee heard from 30 witnesses — all members of Congress — at its recent first hearing but hardly anybody said anything about making the legislative branch more transparent. I know, you aren’t surprised, either, but you won’t believe some of the stuff these guys did suggest.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: White supremacy alert and much, much more. “CNN/the left wants you to know that Trump did not sufficiently denounce white supremacy following the horrible massacre in New Zealand. I can’t imagine a group of people more ill-suited to address ‘white supremacy’ than the band of jokers who have reduced every person in America to their color, gender and sexual preference while elevating victimhood to the highest virtue. What did they think was going to happen when they insist people are identified primarily by their attributes?”
They thought they’d profit handsomely for it — and they have.
CHANGE: As Stephen Green posted earlier, PJ Media Joins The Townhall Media Family. That doesn’t affect InstaPundit directly. PJ handled my ads, and now Townhall will, but from your perspective the only significant change is likely to be fewer bad ads. InstaPundit is still independent and nobody edits it but me and mine. I do hope, though, that this will get me a chance to swill martinis and smoke cigars at the Trump International Hotel in DC, with Kurt Schlichter. (Bumped).
JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT DISSENTS in a case on whether nonviolent felons lose their right to arms. She has the better of it, I think, though the majority cites me, which is always nice.
SORRY NOT SORRY: Sorry AOC, capitalism is not the problem.
Carol Roth has written a nice little defense of capitalism, plus this important reminder:
Despite its trust-violating actions of opening fake accounts and charging fees, Wells Fargo today, according to their most recent 10-K filing, still has $1.9 trillion in assets and services one in three households in the United States. Customers apparently just don’t care enough about their past behaviors to vote with their wallets and take their business elsewhere.
If consumers’ actions matched their words, they would be leveraging the essence of the free market. By not spending their dollars or time with companies that they didn’t value, those companies would be forced to change or be put out of business, if the companies were salvageable at all. The vote of their wallet would instead direct dollars (or time, etc.) towards companies that aligned with the important values of consumers, whether it be privacy or worker conditions or other values.
But, the reality is that consumers don’t care enough.
Like voters, consumers get what they ask for — sometimes good and hard.
IT LOST LEGITIMACY THROUGH OVERREACH: #MeToo movement starts to fade, men ‘desensitized to the issue.’
Overall, 62 percent of adults believe sexual harassment is a “major problem.” That is down from 69 percent in 2017.
Among men, 53 percent see it as a major problem, down from 66 percent in October 2017.
For women, 70 percent call it a major problem, down from 73 percent in 2017.
While still in the minority, more also see that “people in the workplace are too sensitive” to the issue, said Gallup.
For men, 45 percent said people are “too sensitive,” while 46 percent said they aren’t “sensitive enough.” At the height of the movement, 54 percent said people were “not sensitive enough,” versus 33 percent who felt people were “too sensitive.”
I predict that the chief long-term consequence of #MeToo will be less mentoring of female employees by male supervisors.
CORNELL AND HARVARD ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS DROP THE GRE. Quoth Cornell: “Requiring the exam narrows our applicant pool at precisely the moment we should be creating bigger pipelines into higher education. We need the strength of a diverse community in order to pursue the English department’s larger mission: to direct the force of language toward large and small acts of learning, alliance, imagination and justice.”
GOOD LUCK COLLECTING: Venezuela Ordered to Pay ConocoPhillips $8.7B.
IT’S ONLY BAD FOR OUR DEMOCRACY WHEN REPUBLICANS DO IT: Democratic Superstars Get Away with Questioning the Integrity of Elections.
Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams were 2018 runner-up candidates for governor in the country’s third- and ninth-largest states, are considered “rising stars” in the Democratic Party, and are engaging in “horrifying,” “shocking” rhetoric that is “threatening our democracy.”
That’s according to Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. That’s what they said about Donald Trump, after all, for questioning the results an election that hadn’t even happened yet. Surely they must feel the same about Gillum and Abrams doing the same.
Gillum and Abrams have, to varying degrees, openly impugned the integrity of their governor’s race losses in Florida and Georgia, to the sound of crickets in mainstream and liberal media.
Clinton, Kaine, Democrats, and the media were understandably vexed when Trump infamously said he would keep us all “in suspense” about accepting the results of the 2016 election. Even now, cable news talkers wonder in hushed tones if Trump would refuse to accept a 2020 defeat and leave the White House, or something.
Yet Abrams and Gillum continue to get away with irresponsible self-pity and delusion.
Rules are for the little people. And Republicans.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Google Quietly Adds Search Engine Privacy Option To Chrome – Here’s How To Enable It.
Apple’s Safari has good privacy protections built in, but it’s also clearly not everyone’s cup of tea. But I also use Brave, which is built on the same code foundation as Chrome, but with privacy features even stronger than Safari’s built right in. And you can use most Chrome extensions with it.
THERE’S NOTHING TO BUY ANYWAY: US sanctions could shut MasterCard and Visa out of Venezuela.
GOOD ADVICE: Don’t Read The Constitution The Way Robert Bork Did.
I discussed this very subject in this piece.
NOT ALL EXTINCTIONS ARE BAD: Nasty, 3ft-long parasitic worms are on the cusp of being wiped from the planet.
IS THAT A LOT? THAT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT. The Democrats’ $100 trillion agenda.
Start with “Medicare for All,” the new health care anthem of the left. It is touted as a way to make medical services “free” for everyone. The cost to taxpayers? By some estimates $32 trillion over the next decade, according to a study by the Mercatus Center. Medicare, just for the seniors it was designed to cover, is already projected to run deficits in the tens of trillions of dollars over the next four decades, according to the program’s own Trustees.
Then there is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal,” which is supposed to turn America into an eco-friendly paradise and avert the apocalypse that AOC claims will occur in just over a decade. Four presidential candidates have endorsed some or all of that agenda.
Of course, the politicians pushing these plans remain suspiciously quiet whenever they’re asked to explain exactly how much their pet projects will cost U.S. taxpayers and whether they’re worth the investment. But thanks to public-policy watchdog groups, we have some preliminary estimates. According to one recent study by the American Action Forum, the “Low-carbon Electricity Grid” proposed in the Green New Deal will cost taxpayers $5.4 trillion over 10 years, or $39,000 per household.
Similarly, a “Net Zero Emissions Transportation System,” another part of the environmental proposal, will require up to $2.7 trillion, or $20,000 per household, while guaranteed “Green Housing” would cost an additional $4.2 trillion.
The Democrat-backed welfare programs in the Green New Deal are even more daunting — according to the study, “guaranteed jobs” and “universal health care” would together cost each American family $582,000, or $80.6 trillion in total.
Then there is the loss of as many as 10 million jobs in the oil, gas and coal industries, which would add to welfare and unemployment benefit costs, let alone the severe financial hardship this would impose on millions of middle-class families whom Democrats once said they care about.
There’s more — much more, good Lord — at the link.
IT’S ALMOST LIKE THEY’RE ALL USING THE SAME WELL-FUNDED PLAYBOOK: NYT Writer Links Trump to Mosque Shooter Via ‘George Soros White Supremacist Conspiracy Theory.’
RICHARD VEDDER: The Four Unspoken Rules for Getting Into College. “The recent college admissions scandal is spectacular in its size and scope, but hardly surprising. Let me make four major points.”
21ST CENTURY PARENTING: Kids aren’t growing up: Shocking new poll says parents are killing kids’ life skills.
By the time kids are old enough for college and way beyond the point they should have graduated, parents — whether wealthy or not — are still doing things children can do for themselves. Such as:
76 percent reminded their adult children of deadlines they need to meet, including for schoolwork
74 percent made appointments for them, including doctor’s appointments
15 percent of parents with children in college had texted or called them to wake them up so they didn’t sleep through a class or test.One of the most egregious findings of the poll is that 11 percent of parents with adult children will call their child’s employer if he or she had an issue at work.
I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising in that 8 percent of parents said they had contacted a college professor or administrator about their child’s grades or a problem they were having.
And yet at the same time we’re told that 16 year olds should be able to vote.
AND AGAIN I SAY UNTO THEE… WAIT, WHAT? Scientists Played Music to Cheese as It Aged. Hip-Hop Produced the Funkiest Flavor.
AND WHAT A WEEK IT WAS: The Week That Was.
OH, DEAR LORD: Ilhan Omar Spins Platitudes In WaPo Editorial.
VESTIGIAL SANITY IN NYC: Poll: 38 percent say Ocasio-Cortez ‘villain’ in New York losing Amazon HQ deal.
SIGH. TO BE FAIR, THE FACT THAT WE AS A CULTURE ARE HAVING WAY FEWER CHILDREN MEANS WE’RE PUTTING WAY MORE PRESSURE ON EACH OF THEM: Millennials Feel So Pressured and They Can’t Even.
NO. IS THIS A TRICK QUESTION? Is it any wonder no one trusts the media?
I HAD BEEN RELIABLY INFORMED THAT THE SCIENCE ON PLATE TECTONICS IS SETTLED: Scientists make ‘impossible’ discovery off coast of Africa.
WEIRDLY, IT’S NOT QUITTING! This simple act can make your coworkers happier and healthier. … okay, in some cases, maybe.
A POLISH BARBER? BETWEEN THIS AND SWEENEY TODD BARBERS COULD GET A BAD REPUTATION: DNA research may finally unravel Jack the Ripper mystery.
March 18, 2019
AT AMAZON, save on Small Appliances.
OUT: WORKING-CLASS HEROINE. IN: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the ‘villain’ in Amazon deal collapse: Poll.
Related: AOC: My approval-rating drop is the result of racism and sexism (and Fox News).
I still maintain that getting her, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib elected is Roger Stone’s best dirty trick yet.
NOT THE ONION: Stress Mess: 3 In 5 Millennials Say Life More Stressful Now Than Ever Before.
Related! J. Christian Adams on: They Shall Not Grow Old: Peter Jackson’s Masterpiece WWI Memorial.
Required viewing for every millennial, perhaps with the Clockwork Orange Ludivico Treatment lidlocks applied.
DICK DALE, KING OF THE SURF GUITAR: Rock legend Dick Dale has died at age 81.
The Daily Telegraph comments on Dale’s influence:
Dick Dale, who has died aged 81, was the progenitor of what become known in the 1960s as “surf music”, a sub-genre of pop whose most famous exponents were the Beach Boys; he belatedly achieved wider recognition when Quentin Tarantino used his track Misirlou as the opening theme to one of the key films of the 1990s, Pulp Fiction.
Although mainstream success did not come to him until late in his career, it could be argued that Dale did more than many better-known guitarists to shape the direction of rock music. His influence lay not so much in what he liked to play, which never gained more than local popularity in his youth, as in the style of his attack.
The style of his attack — indeed. In his tune “Third Stone from the Sun,” Jimi Hendrix said “You’ll never hear surf music again.” Thing is, that’s an inside joke. Dale’s style influenced Hendrix and Hendrix’s style of attack.
But surf music? As the BBC report says, it has Greek folk music roots and influences. Cultural appropriation scream the Social Justice Warriors!!! Hey, SJWs, there are only 12 notes in the tempered scale. Temper down — learn sumthin’.
“When I got that feeling from surfing,” he [Dale] told the writer Barney Hoskyns, “the white water coming over my head was the high notes going dikidikidiki, and then the dungundungun on the bottom was the waves, and I started double-picking faster and faster, like a locomotive, to feel the power of the waves.”
Cool. Greek and Eastern European music morphs into Southern California surf rock.
Only in America.
UPDATE: Dick Dale plays Pipeline then ad libs. Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughn play Pipeline. If you’re a Baby Boomer and suffer from tinnitus, check this out. Dale, Leo Fender and James B. Lansing challenged your ears.
UPDATE UPDATE: Just discovered this. August 4, 2017.
REMEMBERING The Jew Who Died For Ilhan Omar.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota, has become widely known for her attacks on supporters of Israel. Ms. Omar is a naturalized citizen whose Somali refugee family settled in the U.S. when she was a teenager. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees relocated to the U.S.—some 25,000 in the Minneapolis area—to escape the starvation, famine and civil war that turned Somalia into a lawless, failed state in the early 1990s.
Another name is worth recognition and remembrance, especially among Somali refugees: Lawrence Freedman. In 1992, the year after Ms. Omar’s family left Somalia, the U.S. sent troops there as part of a joint United Nations humanitarian effort. The U.S. intervention, Operation Restore Hope, began with the landing of U.S. troops near Mogadishu on Dec. 9.
Freedman was a U.S. Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars in Vietnam. He was an original member of the Green Berets, reached the rank of sergeant major, and eventually became an instructor. He retired from the Army in 1990 and joined the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1992 the U.S. sent Freedman as part of an advance team to prepare the way for American troops in Somalia. On Dec. 23, two weeks after the troops had arrived, Freedman became the first American killed as part of the relief effort in Somalia.
Any American casualty is noteworthy, but Freedman’s sacrifice stands out because he was Jewish.
Thousands of Somali refugees who now live in Ms. Omar’s district had their freedom and security paid for with the blood of American soldiers—22 of them, including Freedman.
Ms. Omar’s words have caused concern in both the Somali and Jewish communities in Minneapolis, which have worked for years to build friendships and collaborate on charitable pushes against hunger, illiteracy and discrimination. These efforts to build and nurture relationships stand in sharp contrast to Ms. Omar’s anti-Semitic statements.
Despite calls for her removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, thus far the only consequence for her bigotry has been an anodyne resolution against hate speech, crafted by Ms. Omar’s fellow Democrats. Unfortunately, even before her election to Congress, Ms. Omar had a record of comments that raised grave concerns about her views toward Jews, and what she has said since her election has only heightened those concerns.
As a friend observes on Facebook: “That in some ways is what’s most irksome about her, Glenn. It’s not her Jew-hatred or her dissembling about her positions to get elected and disavowing them the day after the election. She came from a failed state, one of the worst places on earth. She was taken in by America and Americans, given a chance, got to be elected to Congress…and her sheer ingratitude is really hard to take.”
It really is.
YES: “The college admissions scandal should be the populist issue of our time. Most of the talk in our politics about how ‘the system is rigged’ is incredibly abstract and symbolic. But this is infuriatingly concrete.”
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