The phrase "grievance studies" recently has entered public discourse thanks to a scandal by three liberal academics who set out to expose the vacuous nature of critical theory, post-colonial studies, queer theory and other sub-disciplines within the social sciences. Mathematician James Lindsay, writer Helen Pluckrose, and Portland State philosophy professor Peter Boghossian spent a year writing fake papers, which they then pitched to journals specializing in these fields. Seven passed peer review and were accepted for publication. As various commentators (including several here at Quillette) have noted, the hoax has shown what many have long suspected—that ivory-tower academics who study in fashionable fields inhabit ideological domains far removed from those of ordinary people.
But while observers have correctly focused on the lessons that may be inferred about high academic culture in the United States, it should be noted that the drifts of the liberal arts into postmodern gibberish has not been an isolated phenomenon. The trend also has its cheerleaders in government, even in Donald Trump’s very own Washington D.C. backyard.
Few Americans have heard of the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations (NAC). But when it comes to policymaking, the NAC effectively acts as a support network for grievance studies. Along with bureaucrats in other agencies, and various non-governmental "stakeholder" groups on the left, the NAC has for decades controlled the policy by which demographic data—the seedbed of identity politics—is collected and interpreted.
More here
Friday, October 26, 2018
The official price of Gold
People often whisper conspiratorially about the age-old U.S. practice of fixing the gold price at $42.22. "They're just trying to keep gold down," is a complaint I've heard more than a few times. But in this post I'll show that the monetary authorities have sound reasons for keeping the price of gold at $42.22.
Below, I've charted out the history of the U.S.'s official gold price. As you can see, the $42.22 price has been maintained since 1973, an odd-seeming state of affairs given that gold is currently hovering at around $1225. The practice of setting an archaic price for the yellow metal looks even stranger when we consider that central banks all over the world have adopted the habit of using the market price of gold to value their gold reserves.
To understand what is at stake, let's start with a few stylized facts about U.S. monetary gold:
Central banks that keep gold on their balance sheet tend to hold physical gold. But the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn't actually hold physical metal. Instead, it owns gold certificates.
The Fed registers the value of these gold certificates on its books at $11 billion (see screenshot below). It has used this same number for decades.
These certificates have been issued to the Fed by the U.S. Treasury, a different branch of the Federal government. (To learn about why and when the Treasury issued them, read my old posts on the topic)
To "back" these certificates, the Treasury in turn holds physical gold. According to the September 30, 2018 Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve, the U.S. Treasury currently records 261,498,926 fine troy ounces of gold in reserves.
The Fed's Treasury gold certificates are quite odd. They do not provide the Fed with a claim on a fixed weight of gold held at the Treasury. Rather, they provide the Fed with a claim on $11 billion dollars worth of gold. It would be as if your coat check tag constituted a claim on $40 worth of coat, rather than the coat itself.
How many ounces of gold does the $11 billion claim entitle the Fed to? That depends on the price of gold that is used in the calculation.
More here
Below, I've charted out the history of the U.S.'s official gold price. As you can see, the $42.22 price has been maintained since 1973, an odd-seeming state of affairs given that gold is currently hovering at around $1225. The practice of setting an archaic price for the yellow metal looks even stranger when we consider that central banks all over the world have adopted the habit of using the market price of gold to value their gold reserves.
To understand what is at stake, let's start with a few stylized facts about U.S. monetary gold:
The Fed registers the value of these gold certificates on its books at $11 billion (see screenshot below). It has used this same number for decades.
These certificates have been issued to the Fed by the U.S. Treasury, a different branch of the Federal government. (To learn about why and when the Treasury issued them, read my old posts on the topic)
To "back" these certificates, the Treasury in turn holds physical gold. According to the September 30, 2018 Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve, the U.S. Treasury currently records 261,498,926 fine troy ounces of gold in reserves.
The Fed's Treasury gold certificates are quite odd. They do not provide the Fed with a claim on a fixed weight of gold held at the Treasury. Rather, they provide the Fed with a claim on $11 billion dollars worth of gold. It would be as if your coat check tag constituted a claim on $40 worth of coat, rather than the coat itself.
How many ounces of gold does the $11 billion claim entitle the Fed to? That depends on the price of gold that is used in the calculation.
More here
Food stamps for terrorists
Millions of taxpayers dollars trafficked through food stamp fraud went to terrorists who funded their activities at home and abroad, according to an explosive report from the Government Accountability Institute (GAI).
The report from GAI, where Breitbart News Senior-Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer serves as president, highlighted several instances where money obtained through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits fraud went to fund acts of terrorism, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.
Although this method of using food stamp fraud money for terrorism has been around since the 1980s, it gained notoriety when New York City detectives testified before a Senate subcommittee about the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
Detectives told the committee that $125 million in food stamp fraud had "unwittingly" gone to terrorist activities.
One of the masterminds of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, Mahmud Abouhalima, funded the attacks by operating a million-dollar food stamp fraud scheme out of a video store in Brooklyn.
More here
The report from GAI, where Breitbart News Senior-Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer serves as president, highlighted several instances where money obtained through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits fraud went to fund acts of terrorism, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.
Although this method of using food stamp fraud money for terrorism has been around since the 1980s, it gained notoriety when New York City detectives testified before a Senate subcommittee about the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
Detectives told the committee that $125 million in food stamp fraud had "unwittingly" gone to terrorist activities.
One of the masterminds of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, Mahmud Abouhalima, funded the attacks by operating a million-dollar food stamp fraud scheme out of a video store in Brooklyn.
More here
Progressive wolves
If the New Democratic Party was smart, it would do what the old Democratic Party did long ago: always sound centrist if not conservative in the last weeks of a campaign, get elected, then revert to form and pursue a left-wing agenda for a year or two—and then repeat the chameleon cycle every two to four years.
But although many Democrats in Trump states still dance the old bipartisan two-step, lots of blinkered progressive wolves don’t even bother to put on the sheep’s clothing.
Evidently, the new progressive and radical Democratic Party is far more honest—or perhaps far more hubristic—than in the past. So what now looks and sounds like a wolf is a wolf. Democrats have learned nothing and forgotten nothing from 2016. Or rather, they still believe it is 2008 all over again, with a host of wannabe Obamas on the 2020 horizon, all appealing to identity politics, Maenad feminism, and neo-socialism. The hipster theory is that 30 percent of the present electorate will always vote en masse for unapologetic progressives, and that bloc number, due to changing demography and persuasive street theatrics, soon will grow to 50 percent of all voters.
More to the point, the strategy of hating Trump 24/7 and fueling the 90 percent negative media coverage of the president had seemed to be a winning hand—given that Trump has usually below 45 percent approval in most polls, and pundits promised a huge blue wave neutering what certainly would be Trump’s last two years in the White House.
More here
But although many Democrats in Trump states still dance the old bipartisan two-step, lots of blinkered progressive wolves don’t even bother to put on the sheep’s clothing.
Evidently, the new progressive and radical Democratic Party is far more honest—or perhaps far more hubristic—than in the past. So what now looks and sounds like a wolf is a wolf. Democrats have learned nothing and forgotten nothing from 2016. Or rather, they still believe it is 2008 all over again, with a host of wannabe Obamas on the 2020 horizon, all appealing to identity politics, Maenad feminism, and neo-socialism. The hipster theory is that 30 percent of the present electorate will always vote en masse for unapologetic progressives, and that bloc number, due to changing demography and persuasive street theatrics, soon will grow to 50 percent of all voters.
More to the point, the strategy of hating Trump 24/7 and fueling the 90 percent negative media coverage of the president had seemed to be a winning hand—given that Trump has usually below 45 percent approval in most polls, and pundits promised a huge blue wave neutering what certainly would be Trump’s last two years in the White House.
More here
Globalist projections for the future are suspect
Globalization isn't going quite according to plan. The French president, in defiance of political correctness openly worries African immigration could swamp the whole of Europe and "aid" is powerless to stop it. "The challenge of Africa is completely different, it is ... civilizational ... failing states, complex democratic transitions, the demographic transition ... in some countries today seven or eight children [are] born to each woman," Emmanuel Macron said. It is one more indication, as Ross Douthat of the New York Times notes, that Western leaders are starting to worry that their assumptions about the global world could prove drastically wrong.
African birthrates haven’t slowed as fast as Western experts once expected ... by century’s end two in five human beings could be African ... but ... over the same period, Europe’s population is likely to drop by about 100 million. ... the experience of recent refugee crises has demonstrated to European leaders both how easily populations can move northward, and how much harder assimilation may be than they once hoped.
Projections that underpinned the liberal policies of population control, climate change, open borders, soft power are now suspect. Open borders advocates wait with bated breath as central American refugee "caravans" headed for the United States in a replay of the migrant crisis that changed the political landscape Europe. Even a giant column from Honduras wound towards the US border yet another U.S.-bound caravan was taking shape in El Salvador. "As the Trump administration makes preparations to combat the 6,500-member Honduran migrant caravan making its way toward the United States, the Department of Homeland Security is also tracking a new caravan taking shape — this time from El Salvador."
More here
Projections that underpinned the liberal policies of population control, climate change, open borders, soft power are now suspect. Open borders advocates wait with bated breath as central American refugee "caravans" headed for the United States in a replay of the migrant crisis that changed the political landscape Europe. Even a giant column from Honduras wound towards the US border yet another U.S.-bound caravan was taking shape in El Salvador. "As the Trump administration makes preparations to combat the 6,500-member Honduran migrant caravan making its way toward the United States, the Department of Homeland Security is also tracking a new caravan taking shape — this time from El Salvador."
More here
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Was the CIA involved in Spygate?
Just weeks after the FBI opened a dramatic counterintelligence probe into Donald Trump and Russia, one of his presidential campaign advisers emphatically told an undercover bureau source there was no election collusion occurring because such activity would be treasonous.
George Papadopoulos says his spontaneous admission to London-based professor Stefan Halper occurred in mid-September 2016 — well before FBI agents and the Obama Justice Department sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrant to collect Trump campaign communications in the final days before the election.
"He was there to probe me on the behest of somebody else," Papadopoulos told me in an interview this week, recalling the Halper meeting. "He said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, it’s great that Russia is helping you and your campaign, right George?’"
Papadopoulos said Halper also suggested the Trump campaign was involved in the hacking and release of Hillary Clinton’s emails that summer. "I think I told him something along the lines of, ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. What you are talking about is treason. And I have nothing to do with that, so stop bothering me about it,’" Papadopoulos recalled.
The former campaign aide is set to testify behind closed doors Thursday before two House panels.
Sources who saw the FISA warrant and its three renewals tell me there is no mention of Papadopoulos’s denial, an omission of exculpatory evidence that GOP critics in Congress are likely to cite as having misled the court.
More here
George Papadopoulos says his spontaneous admission to London-based professor Stefan Halper occurred in mid-September 2016 — well before FBI agents and the Obama Justice Department sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrant to collect Trump campaign communications in the final days before the election.
"He was there to probe me on the behest of somebody else," Papadopoulos told me in an interview this week, recalling the Halper meeting. "He said something along the lines of, ‘Oh, it’s great that Russia is helping you and your campaign, right George?’"
Papadopoulos said Halper also suggested the Trump campaign was involved in the hacking and release of Hillary Clinton’s emails that summer. "I think I told him something along the lines of, ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. What you are talking about is treason. And I have nothing to do with that, so stop bothering me about it,’" Papadopoulos recalled.
The former campaign aide is set to testify behind closed doors Thursday before two House panels.
Sources who saw the FISA warrant and its three renewals tell me there is no mention of Papadopoulos’s denial, an omission of exculpatory evidence that GOP critics in Congress are likely to cite as having misled the court.
More here
It runs in the family
When kids choose a profession, they tend to follow in their parents’ footsteps: Doctors’ children often become doctors, lawyers produce lawyers, and plumbers beget plumbers. So, after 15 years of covering crime and criminal justice for The New York Times, I was fascinated by studies—conducted in cities across the United States and in London, England, with near-identical results—showing that crime, too, can run in families. In the most famous study, researchers followed 411 boys from South London from 1961 to 2001 and found that half of the convicted kids were accounted for by 6 percent of all families; two-thirds of them came from 10 percent of the families.
This intergenerational transmission of violence was first documented in the 1940s when a husband-and-wife team at Harvard Law School found that two-thirds of boys in the Boston area sent by a court to a reformatory had a father who had been arrested; 45 percent also had a mother who had been arrested. And, in 2007, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that half of the roughly 800,000 parents behind bars have a close relative who has previously been incarcerated.
Yet, despite the abundance of evidence showing the role of family in crime, criminologists and policymakers have largely neglected this factor—as the University of Maryland criminologist John Laub told me, it’s because any suggestion of a possible biological or genetic basis for crime could be misconstrued as racism. Instead, researchers have looked at other well-known risk causes like poverty, deviant peers at school, drugs, and gangs. Of course, these are real issues. But, a child’s life begins at home with the family even before the neighborhood, friends, or classmates can lead them astray.
More here
This intergenerational transmission of violence was first documented in the 1940s when a husband-and-wife team at Harvard Law School found that two-thirds of boys in the Boston area sent by a court to a reformatory had a father who had been arrested; 45 percent also had a mother who had been arrested. And, in 2007, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that half of the roughly 800,000 parents behind bars have a close relative who has previously been incarcerated.
Yet, despite the abundance of evidence showing the role of family in crime, criminologists and policymakers have largely neglected this factor—as the University of Maryland criminologist John Laub told me, it’s because any suggestion of a possible biological or genetic basis for crime could be misconstrued as racism. Instead, researchers have looked at other well-known risk causes like poverty, deviant peers at school, drugs, and gangs. Of course, these are real issues. But, a child’s life begins at home with the family even before the neighborhood, friends, or classmates can lead them astray.
More here
Mueller is interfering with election, and obstructing justice
As November 6 approaches, news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is waiting until after the election to reveal the conclusions from his investigation belie a deeper, more disturbing point. Although Mueller’s decision is allegedly predicated on a desire to avoid even the appearance of impacting the vote, according to Justice Department policy and tradition the truth is Mueller already has interfered in the election.
Every shaky indictment, every illegal leak, and every sensational "breaking news!" bit of media speculation continues his interference in the election. All of these affect the media’s daily coverage of the story, which is overwhelmingly biased against the president and Republicans generally.
Casting aside all pretense of journalistic objectivity, the ethically conflicted "newsrooms" of the major legacy networks are hoping that Mueller will intervene in the election by dropping some kind of legal bombshell on the Trump family, inner circle, or administration in the run up to the vote.
Citing the Mueller probe, the only platform most Democrats are running on is one of investigation and impeachment of Trump, and several openly state—as fact—that Trump has committed treason by "colluding" with Putin. The lack of evidence or even a believable motive on the part of either Trump or Putin does not bother them. This is just spun as "all the more reason to keep investigating." Being against Trump and convinced he is guilty is all they’ve got.
More here
Every shaky indictment, every illegal leak, and every sensational "breaking news!" bit of media speculation continues his interference in the election. All of these affect the media’s daily coverage of the story, which is overwhelmingly biased against the president and Republicans generally.
Casting aside all pretense of journalistic objectivity, the ethically conflicted "newsrooms" of the major legacy networks are hoping that Mueller will intervene in the election by dropping some kind of legal bombshell on the Trump family, inner circle, or administration in the run up to the vote.
Citing the Mueller probe, the only platform most Democrats are running on is one of investigation and impeachment of Trump, and several openly state—as fact—that Trump has committed treason by "colluding" with Putin. The lack of evidence or even a believable motive on the part of either Trump or Putin does not bother them. This is just spun as "all the more reason to keep investigating." Being against Trump and convinced he is guilty is all they’ve got.
More here
White privilege tedium
It’s not a coincidence that many of the loudest critics decrying white privilege are . . . privileged whites.
"I’m a white woman. . . . And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt. My job is to shut other white people down when they want to say, ‘Oh no I’m not prejudiced, I’m a Democrat, I’m accepting.’"
— Sally Boynton Brown, erstwhile candidate to head the Democratic National Committee
"These white men, old by the way, are not protecting women. They’re protecting a man who is probably guilty."
— Joy Behar, cohost, The View
"Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins? . . . Oh man it’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men."
— Sarah Jeong, newly appointed editorial board member, the New York Times
Why are current monotonous slogans like "white privilege" and "old white men" finally losing their currency?
Who exactly is "white" in a multiracial, intermarried, and integrated society? How do we determine who is a purported victim of racial bias — relative degrees of nonwhite skin color, DNA badges, an ethnicized last name, or nomenclature with two or three accent marks?
The reason that Arab-, Greek-, or Italian-Americans are more likely to be branded or to self-identify as "white" than Brazilian-, Argentinian, Spanish-, or Mexican-Americans doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with appearance or their DNA or their ancestors’ or their own historical experience in America. It has everything to do with the perversities of the devolving diversity industry in which claims to victimization bring greater careerist advantage or at least psychological satisfaction.
More here
"I’m a white woman. . . . And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt. My job is to shut other white people down when they want to say, ‘Oh no I’m not prejudiced, I’m a Democrat, I’m accepting.’"
— Sally Boynton Brown, erstwhile candidate to head the Democratic National Committee
"These white men, old by the way, are not protecting women. They’re protecting a man who is probably guilty."
— Joy Behar, cohost, The View
"Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins? . . . Oh man it’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men."
— Sarah Jeong, newly appointed editorial board member, the New York Times
Why are current monotonous slogans like "white privilege" and "old white men" finally losing their currency?
Who exactly is "white" in a multiracial, intermarried, and integrated society? How do we determine who is a purported victim of racial bias — relative degrees of nonwhite skin color, DNA badges, an ethnicized last name, or nomenclature with two or three accent marks?
The reason that Arab-, Greek-, or Italian-Americans are more likely to be branded or to self-identify as "white" than Brazilian-, Argentinian, Spanish-, or Mexican-Americans doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with appearance or their DNA or their ancestors’ or their own historical experience in America. It has everything to do with the perversities of the devolving diversity industry in which claims to victimization bring greater careerist advantage or at least psychological satisfaction.
More here
The evil that Facebook and Google can do
The new documentary The Creepy Line explores how the Masters of the Universe in Silicon Valley can utilize their platforms to suppress speech and undermine democracy — a topic of vital importance for elections in 2018, 2020, and beyond.
The Creepy Line is a new feature-length documentary that explores how Silicon Valley tech companies can use their vast influence to crack down on speech and undermine democracy. The film focuses specifically on Facebook and Google, and analyzes exactly what these companies do once they have unlimited access to user’s data. The film uses first-hand accounts, scientific experiments, and detailed analysis to explore the risks of allowing these two tech giants free reign over the personal information of millions of people.
The title of the documentary is lifted directly from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when during an interview in 2010 he explained Google’s code of conduct: "The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."
The new feature-length documentary is directed by M.A. Taylor and features interviews with prominent figures such as Dr. Jordan Peterson, Dr. Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute and author of Clinton Cash.
More here
The Creepy Line is a new feature-length documentary that explores how Silicon Valley tech companies can use their vast influence to crack down on speech and undermine democracy. The film focuses specifically on Facebook and Google, and analyzes exactly what these companies do once they have unlimited access to user’s data. The film uses first-hand accounts, scientific experiments, and detailed analysis to explore the risks of allowing these two tech giants free reign over the personal information of millions of people.
The title of the documentary is lifted directly from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when during an interview in 2010 he explained Google’s code of conduct: "The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."
The new feature-length documentary is directed by M.A. Taylor and features interviews with prominent figures such as Dr. Jordan Peterson, Dr. Robert Epstein of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute and author of Clinton Cash.
More here
Okay
I've never been much of a 👌 user, both in real life and in emoji. So when 👌 popped up as a suggested emoji when I was texting a friend last week, I was surprised and frankly, a little startled. My discomfort with 👌 had nothing to do with the emoji itself, and more to do with how a once innocuous hand sign is now being spread by white supremacists as a symbol of white power.
While the OK hand sign began to have associations with Trump supporters as early as 2015, its perception as a hate symbol has grown over the past two years to the extent that when Zina Bash, a clerk of Brett Kavanaugh's, appeared to make an OK sign with her hands during the judge's confirmation hearing last month, interpretations that Bash was making a white power gesture went viral on the internet.
According to Brad Kim, head of Know Your Meme, the hand sign now has multiple connotations in addition to its original meaning of "OK." There are those that employ it as a dog-whistle for alt-right affiliations and there are those that use it primarily for its shock value and to troll liberals. Although the OK hand sign hasn't been taken over by alt-right groups to the degree of, say, Pepe, growing association with white supremacists has prompted Emojipedia, one of the leading online resources on emojis, to recently publish an article declaring that the symbol and its emoji counterpart are not white power symbols.
Underlying Emojipedia's declaration is a sense of urgency and unease regarding the appropriation of a once relatively harmless sign. While emojis have never existed in a political vacuum, as more hand gestures are becoming increasingly politicized, so are the usage of their emojis. Should certain emojis, like 👌, therefore, now be avoided to ward off any possible association with groups such as the alt-right, or should we still insist on using them to prevent these symbols from being entirely subsumed by hate groups?
More here
While the OK hand sign began to have associations with Trump supporters as early as 2015, its perception as a hate symbol has grown over the past two years to the extent that when Zina Bash, a clerk of Brett Kavanaugh's, appeared to make an OK sign with her hands during the judge's confirmation hearing last month, interpretations that Bash was making a white power gesture went viral on the internet.
According to Brad Kim, head of Know Your Meme, the hand sign now has multiple connotations in addition to its original meaning of "OK." There are those that employ it as a dog-whistle for alt-right affiliations and there are those that use it primarily for its shock value and to troll liberals. Although the OK hand sign hasn't been taken over by alt-right groups to the degree of, say, Pepe, growing association with white supremacists has prompted Emojipedia, one of the leading online resources on emojis, to recently publish an article declaring that the symbol and its emoji counterpart are not white power symbols.
Underlying Emojipedia's declaration is a sense of urgency and unease regarding the appropriation of a once relatively harmless sign. While emojis have never existed in a political vacuum, as more hand gestures are becoming increasingly politicized, so are the usage of their emojis. Should certain emojis, like 👌, therefore, now be avoided to ward off any possible association with groups such as the alt-right, or should we still insist on using them to prevent these symbols from being entirely subsumed by hate groups?
More here
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Democrats hate housewives
Just as Democrats try to woo suburban moms ahead of next month’s election, along comes Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to remind us how much the Left hates us.
Sinema is running against her Republican House colleague, Rep. Martha McSally, for the open seat vacated by retiring Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. The 42-year-old unmarried bisexual atheist lawyer with a Ph.D. in Justice Studies has some interesting views on life, as you might imagine.
She once wrote that capitalism poses a danger to Americans; she was an anti-war activist in the early 2000s—one of her protest groups distributed flyers portraying U.S. soldiers as skeletons with automatic rifles; she summoned witches to one anti-war stunt; and she mocks her own (adopted) home state as a "meth lab of democracy" whose residents are "crazy."
Not exactly a winning campaign message when you’re running in Arizona.
But it’s her 2006 profane comments ridiculing stay-at-home moms that now pose a major problem for her party, and could very well cost her the election. Then-state representative Sinema questioned the feminist cred of women who don’t work outside the home and instead chose to care for their families. "These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they’re choosing to live that life," Sinema said during an interview with a Scottsdale magazine. "That’s bullshit. I mean, what the f— are we really talking about here?"
More here
Sinema is running against her Republican House colleague, Rep. Martha McSally, for the open seat vacated by retiring Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. The 42-year-old unmarried bisexual atheist lawyer with a Ph.D. in Justice Studies has some interesting views on life, as you might imagine.
She once wrote that capitalism poses a danger to Americans; she was an anti-war activist in the early 2000s—one of her protest groups distributed flyers portraying U.S. soldiers as skeletons with automatic rifles; she summoned witches to one anti-war stunt; and she mocks her own (adopted) home state as a "meth lab of democracy" whose residents are "crazy."
Not exactly a winning campaign message when you’re running in Arizona.
But it’s her 2006 profane comments ridiculing stay-at-home moms that now pose a major problem for her party, and could very well cost her the election. Then-state representative Sinema questioned the feminist cred of women who don’t work outside the home and instead chose to care for their families. "These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they’re choosing to live that life," Sinema said during an interview with a Scottsdale magazine. "That’s bullshit. I mean, what the f— are we really talking about here?"
More here
The guy who wanted Sharia
The Washington Post is indignant that "hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a whispering campaign against Jamal Khashoggi," supposedly in order to "protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist’s alleged murder by operatives of Saudi Arabia."
The Post hits these "hardliners" for highlighting Khashoggi’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and claims that "while Khashoggi was once sympathetic to Islamist movements, he moved toward a more liberal, secular point of view."
In reality, Khashoggi was the real hardliner, supporting jihad violence and Sharia right up to the time of his murder -- even in his recent Post columns. This raises questions about why the paper hired him as a columnist in the first place.
As recently as August 28, 2018, Khashoggi wrote in the Post:
The United States’s aversion to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is more apparent in the current Trump administration, is the root of a predicament across the entire Arab world. The eradication of the Muslim Brotherhood is nothing less than an abolition of democracy and a guarantee that Arabs will continue living under authoritarian and corrupt regimes.
More here
The Post hits these "hardliners" for highlighting Khashoggi’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and claims that "while Khashoggi was once sympathetic to Islamist movements, he moved toward a more liberal, secular point of view."
In reality, Khashoggi was the real hardliner, supporting jihad violence and Sharia right up to the time of his murder -- even in his recent Post columns. This raises questions about why the paper hired him as a columnist in the first place.
As recently as August 28, 2018, Khashoggi wrote in the Post:
The United States’s aversion to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is more apparent in the current Trump administration, is the root of a predicament across the entire Arab world. The eradication of the Muslim Brotherhood is nothing less than an abolition of democracy and a guarantee that Arabs will continue living under authoritarian and corrupt regimes.
More here
Rich ghost town
These days, walking through parts of Manhattan feels like occupying two worlds at the same time. In a theoretical universe, you are standing in the nation’s capital of business, commerce, and culture. In the physical universe, the stores are closed, the lights are off, and the windows are plastered with for-lease signs. Long stretches of famous thoroughfares—like Bleecker Street in the West Village and Fifth Avenue in the East 40s—are filled with vacant storefronts. Their dark windows serve as daytime mirrors for rich pedestrians. It’s like the actualization of a Yogi Berra joke: Nobody shops there anymore—it’s too desirable.
A rich ghost town sounds like a capitalist paradox. So what the heck is going on? Behind the darkened windows, there’s a deeper story about money and land, with implications for the future of cities and the rest of the United States.
Let’s start with the data. Separate surveys by Douglas Elliman, a real-estate company, and Morgan Stanley determined that at least 20 percent of Manhattan’s street retail is vacant or about to become vacant. (The city government's estimate is lower.) The number of retail workers in Manhattan has fallen for three straight years by more than 10,000. That sector has lost more jobs since 2014, during a period of strong and steady economic growth, than during the Great Recession.
There are at least three interlinked causes.....
More here
A rich ghost town sounds like a capitalist paradox. So what the heck is going on? Behind the darkened windows, there’s a deeper story about money and land, with implications for the future of cities and the rest of the United States.
Let’s start with the data. Separate surveys by Douglas Elliman, a real-estate company, and Morgan Stanley determined that at least 20 percent of Manhattan’s street retail is vacant or about to become vacant. (The city government's estimate is lower.) The number of retail workers in Manhattan has fallen for three straight years by more than 10,000. That sector has lost more jobs since 2014, during a period of strong and steady economic growth, than during the Great Recession.
There are at least three interlinked causes.....
More here
Differences in men and women become more pronounced as basic needs are provided
Imagine an egalitarian society that treats women and men with equal respect, where both sexes are afforded the same opportunities, and the economy is strong.
What would happen to gender differences in this utopia? Would they dissolve?
The answer, according to a new study, is a resounding no.
The findings, published Thursday in Science, suggest that on the contrary, gender differences across six key personality traits — altruism, trust, risk, patience, and positive and negative reciprocity — increase in richer and more gender-equal societies. Meanwhile, in societies that are poorer and less egalitarian, these gender differences shrink.
"Fulfilling basic needs is gender neutral," said Johannes Hermle, a graduate student in economics at UC Berkeley who worked on the study. However, once those basic needs like food, shelter and good health are met and people are free to follow their own ambitions, the differences between men and women become more pronounced, he said.
The new work is based on data collected by the Gallup World Poll in 2012.
More here
What would happen to gender differences in this utopia? Would they dissolve?
The answer, according to a new study, is a resounding no.
The findings, published Thursday in Science, suggest that on the contrary, gender differences across six key personality traits — altruism, trust, risk, patience, and positive and negative reciprocity — increase in richer and more gender-equal societies. Meanwhile, in societies that are poorer and less egalitarian, these gender differences shrink.
"Fulfilling basic needs is gender neutral," said Johannes Hermle, a graduate student in economics at UC Berkeley who worked on the study. However, once those basic needs like food, shelter and good health are met and people are free to follow their own ambitions, the differences between men and women become more pronounced, he said.
The new work is based on data collected by the Gallup World Poll in 2012.
More here
Special Ops using hackable handheld devices
U.S. special operators and other troops have been using advanced war-fighting applications for hand-held devices that contain software weaknesses that render them vulnerable to hacking by hostile actors, a non-public U.S. Navy Inspector General investigation found earlier this year.
The mapping applications at issue are known by their acronyms KILSWITCH and APASS and have been widely disseminated and used in training and combat among special operators and other forces across the military for several years, beginning with the Navy and Marine Corps in approximately 2012.
The apps are used to accelerate precision targeting and facilitate situational awareness and data-sharing between ground forces and overhead aircraft.
Navy leadership, along with top Pentagon officials, were alerted to the security problems in the Spring of 2017 but continued to allow frontline troops from multiple military branches, including special operators, to use them without issuing sufficient warnings or attempting to pull the applications back from use.
More here
The mapping applications at issue are known by their acronyms KILSWITCH and APASS and have been widely disseminated and used in training and combat among special operators and other forces across the military for several years, beginning with the Navy and Marine Corps in approximately 2012.
The apps are used to accelerate precision targeting and facilitate situational awareness and data-sharing between ground forces and overhead aircraft.
Navy leadership, along with top Pentagon officials, were alerted to the security problems in the Spring of 2017 but continued to allow frontline troops from multiple military branches, including special operators, to use them without issuing sufficient warnings or attempting to pull the applications back from use.
More here
Black Knight satellite
Here follows one of the most interesting and complex stories of Space Conspiracy in existence. It’s the story of the Black Knight satellite, and so much more. We’re about to go from a misreported news item from 1960, to theoretical science and radio transmission, to the writings of Philip K. Dick, but there’s much ground to cover in between.
It begins in the beginning, sort of.
In March of 1960, Time magazine published a story in their hallowed rag, detailing the discovery of what ultimately became known as the Black Knight satellite. As the story goes, three weeks prior to publication, analysts working for the US ‘Dark Fence’ radar program had detected an object orbiting above the continental United States. It was labelled a ‘dark satellite’, in that it seemed to be a man-made object in a near-Earth orbit, but wasn’t transmitting any detectable signals.
The Dark Fence program’s purpose was to monitor known satellite objects, whether American or Russian, or otherwise, and to identify new objects, so as to stay abreast of Soviet spy satellites and other space-military operations that might have been undertaken over US airspace. This, of course, was at the very beginning of the global Space Race – barely two years after the launch of Sputnik I – and at the height of the Cold War, and the political climate around the world was focused on military secrecy and keeping up with the Russians.
What was strange about this ‘dark satellite’, was that it was – apparently – neither American nor Russian, or at least it didn’t conform to any known American or Russian satellite at the time. It was also in a ‘polar’ orbit, meaning that it passed over or near both the north and south poles once per revolution, which was reported to be impossible at the time.
More here
It begins in the beginning, sort of.
In March of 1960, Time magazine published a story in their hallowed rag, detailing the discovery of what ultimately became known as the Black Knight satellite. As the story goes, three weeks prior to publication, analysts working for the US ‘Dark Fence’ radar program had detected an object orbiting above the continental United States. It was labelled a ‘dark satellite’, in that it seemed to be a man-made object in a near-Earth orbit, but wasn’t transmitting any detectable signals.
The Dark Fence program’s purpose was to monitor known satellite objects, whether American or Russian, or otherwise, and to identify new objects, so as to stay abreast of Soviet spy satellites and other space-military operations that might have been undertaken over US airspace. This, of course, was at the very beginning of the global Space Race – barely two years after the launch of Sputnik I – and at the height of the Cold War, and the political climate around the world was focused on military secrecy and keeping up with the Russians.
What was strange about this ‘dark satellite’, was that it was – apparently – neither American nor Russian, or at least it didn’t conform to any known American or Russian satellite at the time. It was also in a ‘polar’ orbit, meaning that it passed over or near both the north and south poles once per revolution, which was reported to be impossible at the time.
More here
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Russian hybrid warfare
In 2014 Russia-backed separatists used a blend of digital and traditional fighting during their takeover of Crimea, and the Pentagon took note.
As the Russians blitzed the contested eastern region of Ukraine with cyberattacks, electromagnetic jamming and unmanned aerial systems, the U.S. military closely monitored the battle tactics, according to officials speaking Oct. 8 at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting.
What Pentagon officials observed sparked change.
The events in Ukraine helped the U.S. military become more "threat informed in how we develop our future capabilities," Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee told reporters while speaking about electronic and cyber warfare.
How the Russians embraced hybrid warfare showed just how effective overlapping these tactics could be.
More here
As the Russians blitzed the contested eastern region of Ukraine with cyberattacks, electromagnetic jamming and unmanned aerial systems, the U.S. military closely monitored the battle tactics, according to officials speaking Oct. 8 at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual meeting.
What Pentagon officials observed sparked change.
The events in Ukraine helped the U.S. military become more "threat informed in how we develop our future capabilities," Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee told reporters while speaking about electronic and cyber warfare.
How the Russians embraced hybrid warfare showed just how effective overlapping these tactics could be.
More here
Happy Birthday, Karl
New York University is hosting a two-week celebration of Karl Marx’s May 5 birthday Oct. 17-28.
NYU Skirball, formally known as the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, will host a two-week celebration of the communist philosopher in commemoration of his 200th birthday.
The birthday bash, titled "On Your Marx," will feature a number of performances and events, including a "dance party," a professor-led lecture on "racial capitalism," and a performance highlighting socialism.
Admission to these events will be free, and students will be instructed to "pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth," according to the NYU Skirball. Attendees will receive a note featuring the cost of every facet of production and can then decide upon the production’s value, representing its demand, a process that the event description suggests will help artists learn how to earn money.
This structure is based on Marx's philosophy encompassed in a quote featured on the event website: "The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money."
NYU held the premiere event, titled "P Project" on Wednesday. Audience members were given cash if they participated in performances with Ivo Dimchev, a Bulgarian-born performing artist.
"P Project (2012) is an escalating, interactive performance where actual cash fuels participation based on several P words, such as Piano, Pray, Pussy, Poetry, Poppers, and so on," the description reads. "The People will be offered several opportunities to Participate in the P Project, for which they be [sic] Paid quite well."
More here
NYU Skirball, formally known as the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, will host a two-week celebration of the communist philosopher in commemoration of his 200th birthday.
The birthday bash, titled "On Your Marx," will feature a number of performances and events, including a "dance party," a professor-led lecture on "racial capitalism," and a performance highlighting socialism.
Admission to these events will be free, and students will be instructed to "pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth," according to the NYU Skirball. Attendees will receive a note featuring the cost of every facet of production and can then decide upon the production’s value, representing its demand, a process that the event description suggests will help artists learn how to earn money.
This structure is based on Marx's philosophy encompassed in a quote featured on the event website: "The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money."
NYU held the premiere event, titled "P Project" on Wednesday. Audience members were given cash if they participated in performances with Ivo Dimchev, a Bulgarian-born performing artist.
"P Project (2012) is an escalating, interactive performance where actual cash fuels participation based on several P words, such as Piano, Pray, Pussy, Poetry, Poppers, and so on," the description reads. "The People will be offered several opportunities to Participate in the P Project, for which they be [sic] Paid quite well."
More here
Why we should hate hate crimes
A popular football chant of my youth went ‘If you all hate Scousers/Cockneys/Scummers/Gas-heads/Add hate figures to taste, Clap your hands’. Sadly, it seems such light-hearted expressions of loathing have no place in contemporary society.
The mission creep of Britain’s hate-crime laws mean it may soon be illegal to hate anybody else at all, whether at football matches or in your own head. Even if you show your feelings through silent jazz hands rather than aggressive clapping.
The Home Office has asked the Law Commission to undertake a review which, reports the Guardian, ‘will look at whether there are any gaps in the hate-crime legislation’, and propose measures to fill them in with even more legal cement. The original plan, following a fuss led by politically loathsome Labour MP Stella Creasy, was to make misogyny – prejudice against women – a hate crime, so that police could send wolf-whistlers to the dog house.
Now, however, it is reported that the review will also consider whether ‘hostility to men and elderly people could be hate crimes’ (BBC). Hostility towards adherents of the ‘goth subculture’ might also be added to the list of hate crimes. Which would make it illegal to hate somebody not only for having black skin, but also for wearing black eyeliner.
More here
The mission creep of Britain’s hate-crime laws mean it may soon be illegal to hate anybody else at all, whether at football matches or in your own head. Even if you show your feelings through silent jazz hands rather than aggressive clapping.
The Home Office has asked the Law Commission to undertake a review which, reports the Guardian, ‘will look at whether there are any gaps in the hate-crime legislation’, and propose measures to fill them in with even more legal cement. The original plan, following a fuss led by politically loathsome Labour MP Stella Creasy, was to make misogyny – prejudice against women – a hate crime, so that police could send wolf-whistlers to the dog house.
Now, however, it is reported that the review will also consider whether ‘hostility to men and elderly people could be hate crimes’ (BBC). Hostility towards adherents of the ‘goth subculture’ might also be added to the list of hate crimes. Which would make it illegal to hate somebody not only for having black skin, but also for wearing black eyeliner.
More here
How to defeat global warming, according to left wing lunatic
Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Friday at a campaign event that the United States' blueprint for beating global warming needs to be the same as the blueprint the U.S. used for defeating Nazi Germany in the 1940s.
"So we talk about existential threats, the last time we had a really major existential threat to this country was around World War II," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And so we've been here before and we have a blueprint of doing this before."
"None of these things are new ideas," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "What we had was an existential threat in the context of a war. We had a direct existential threat with another nation, this time it was Nazi Germany, and axis, who explicitly made the United States as an enemy, as an enemy."
"And what we did was that we chose to mobilize our entire economy and industrialized our entire economy and we put hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to work in defending our shores and defending this country," she stated. "We have to do the same thing in order to get us to 100% renewable energy, and that's just the truth of it."
More here
"So we talk about existential threats, the last time we had a really major existential threat to this country was around World War II," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And so we've been here before and we have a blueprint of doing this before."
"None of these things are new ideas," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "What we had was an existential threat in the context of a war. We had a direct existential threat with another nation, this time it was Nazi Germany, and axis, who explicitly made the United States as an enemy, as an enemy."
"And what we did was that we chose to mobilize our entire economy and industrialized our entire economy and we put hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to work in defending our shores and defending this country," she stated. "We have to do the same thing in order to get us to 100% renewable energy, and that's just the truth of it."
More here
Fertility rates still falling
As 2017 drew to a close, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) urged Americans to have more children.
To keep the country great, he said, we're "going to need more people."
"I did my part," the father of three declared.
Ryan's remarks drew some eye rolls at the time, but as new data about the country's collapsing fertility rates has emerged, concern has deepened over what's causing the changes, whether it constitutes a crisis that will fundamentally change the demographic trajectory of the country — and what should be done about it.
Women are now having fewer babies and at older ages than in the past three decades, a change that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported this year, and which was confirmed this week with the release of additional data that shows that the trend holds across races and for urban and rural areas.
The CDC said Wednesday that the total fertility rate — a theoretical figure that estimates the number of births a woman will have in her lifetime — fell by 18 percent from 2007 to 2017 in large metropolitan areas, 16 percent in smaller metro areas and 12 percent in rural areas.
More here
To keep the country great, he said, we're "going to need more people."
"I did my part," the father of three declared.
Ryan's remarks drew some eye rolls at the time, but as new data about the country's collapsing fertility rates has emerged, concern has deepened over what's causing the changes, whether it constitutes a crisis that will fundamentally change the demographic trajectory of the country — and what should be done about it.
Women are now having fewer babies and at older ages than in the past three decades, a change that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported this year, and which was confirmed this week with the release of additional data that shows that the trend holds across races and for urban and rural areas.
The CDC said Wednesday that the total fertility rate — a theoretical figure that estimates the number of births a woman will have in her lifetime — fell by 18 percent from 2007 to 2017 in large metropolitan areas, 16 percent in smaller metro areas and 12 percent in rural areas.
More here
Sexual assaults by police
A police officer in Prince George's County, Maryland, was charged this week with raping a woman during a traffic stop. He's pleaded not guilty, but it's a disturbing headline -- even more disturbing when you consider there are hundreds more like him.
Yes, hundreds. According to research from Bowling Green State University, police officers in the US were charged with forcible rape 405 times between 2005 and 2013. That's an average of 45 a year. Forcible fondling was more common, with 636 instances.
Yet experts say those statistics are, by no means, comprehensive. Data on sexual assaults by police are almost nonexistent, they say.
"It's just not available at all," said Jonathan Blanks, a research associate with the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice. "You can only crowdsource this info."
The BGSU researchers compiled their list by documenting cases of sworn nonfederal law enforcement officers who have been arrested. But the 2016 federally funded paper, "Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested," says the problem isn't limited to sexual assault.
More here
Yes, hundreds. According to research from Bowling Green State University, police officers in the US were charged with forcible rape 405 times between 2005 and 2013. That's an average of 45 a year. Forcible fondling was more common, with 636 instances.
Yet experts say those statistics are, by no means, comprehensive. Data on sexual assaults by police are almost nonexistent, they say.
"It's just not available at all," said Jonathan Blanks, a research associate with the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice. "You can only crowdsource this info."
The BGSU researchers compiled their list by documenting cases of sworn nonfederal law enforcement officers who have been arrested. But the 2016 federally funded paper, "Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested," says the problem isn't limited to sexual assault.
More here
Monday, October 22, 2018
Exceptions to "Believe All Women"
After facing mounting criticism over apparent hypocrisy within its ranks, the movement using the hashtag #BelieveAllWomen has come out with an extensive list of exceptions to its directive to always believe all women no matter what.
While Americans from both sides of the aisle largely agree that women's stories shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, the far left's insistence that everyone always believe all women has gotten some pushback. This list of exceptions is designed to clarify the left's position, according to spokespeople.
Included in the list are the following:
Bill Clinton's accusers
Potiphar's wife
Delilah
Conservative women
Women who accuse Democratic candidates
Sarah Sanders
Any woman the left suddenly decides they don't like anymore
Nikki Haley
Dana Loesch
Women the Democrats no longer have a political need to exploit
Melania Trump
Cersei Baratheon
Any woman who argues for pro-life causes
The full list goes on for another 8,000 pages, explaining exactly which women the left doesn't believe while still proclaiming that everyone should "believe all women."
More here
While Americans from both sides of the aisle largely agree that women's stories shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, the far left's insistence that everyone always believe all women has gotten some pushback. This list of exceptions is designed to clarify the left's position, according to spokespeople.
Included in the list are the following:
Potiphar's wife
Delilah
Conservative women
Women who accuse Democratic candidates
Sarah Sanders
Any woman the left suddenly decides they don't like anymore
Nikki Haley
Dana Loesch
Women the Democrats no longer have a political need to exploit
Melania Trump
Cersei Baratheon
Any woman who argues for pro-life causes
The full list goes on for another 8,000 pages, explaining exactly which women the left doesn't believe while still proclaiming that everyone should "believe all women."
More here
Air superiority
The F-22 also won’t fly into the 2060s without upgrades. In the government’s 2018 fiscal year budget, the stealth plane will get $1 billion for this purpose, which could possibly include new radars, antennas and avionics to include displays, datalinks and cryptographic software.
Three years ago, four F-22 Raptors taking part in the second-wave of the U.S.-led coalition’s opening airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria dropped their bombs. It was the first time the stealthy fifth-generation fighters had ever engaged in combat. The coalition’s war planners also used the F-22s to leverage their low-observable profiles — and far-reaching sensors — while escorting non-stealthy fighters in case Syrian fighters or air-defense systems engaged.
Fortunately, the Syrian military held its fire.
Fast forward to today, and F-22 Raptors are still flying over Iraq and Syria and have shifted almost fully into that latter role, according to Air Force Magazine. "When we first got here, we were 95 percent precision strike. And now we’re probably 95 percent air superiority," Lt. Col. "Shell" — a callsign — of the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron told the magazine.
Air superiority is what Lockheed Martin and the Air Force designed the F-22 to do. But in practice over the Middle East, this mission normally means acting as a scout. Lt. Col. "Shell" elaborated to the magazine that the Raptors are in the air helping "deconflict" the airspace, and helping keep Russian and Syrian planes away from U.S. troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of militias spearheaded by the majority-Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
More here
Three years ago, four F-22 Raptors taking part in the second-wave of the U.S.-led coalition’s opening airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria dropped their bombs. It was the first time the stealthy fifth-generation fighters had ever engaged in combat. The coalition’s war planners also used the F-22s to leverage their low-observable profiles — and far-reaching sensors — while escorting non-stealthy fighters in case Syrian fighters or air-defense systems engaged.
Fortunately, the Syrian military held its fire.
Fast forward to today, and F-22 Raptors are still flying over Iraq and Syria and have shifted almost fully into that latter role, according to Air Force Magazine. "When we first got here, we were 95 percent precision strike. And now we’re probably 95 percent air superiority," Lt. Col. "Shell" — a callsign — of the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron told the magazine.
Air superiority is what Lockheed Martin and the Air Force designed the F-22 to do. But in practice over the Middle East, this mission normally means acting as a scout. Lt. Col. "Shell" elaborated to the magazine that the Raptors are in the air helping "deconflict" the airspace, and helping keep Russian and Syrian planes away from U.S. troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of militias spearheaded by the majority-Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
More here
Different cultures, different realities
I am an American who taught philosophy in several African universities from 1976 to 1988, and have lived since that time in South Africa. When I first came to Africa, I knew virtually nothing about the continent or its people, but I began learning quickly. I noticed, for example, that Africans rarely kept promises and saw no need to apologize when they broke them. It was as if they were unaware they had done anything that called for an apology.
It took many years for me to understand why Africans behaved this way but I think I can now explain this and other behavior that characterizes Africa. I believe that morality requires abstract thinking — as does planning for the future — and that a relative deficiency in abstract thinking may explain many things that are typically African.
What follow are not scientific findings. There could be alternative explanations for what I have observed, but my conclusions are drawn from more than 30 years of living among Africans.
My first inklings about what may be a deficiency in abstract thinking came from what I began to learn about African languages. In a conversation with students in Nigeria I asked how you would say that a coconut is about halfway up the tree in their local language. "You can’t say that," they explained. "All you can say is that it is ‘up’." "How about right at the top?" "Nope; just ‘up’." In other words, there appeared to be no way to express gradations.
More here
It took many years for me to understand why Africans behaved this way but I think I can now explain this and other behavior that characterizes Africa. I believe that morality requires abstract thinking — as does planning for the future — and that a relative deficiency in abstract thinking may explain many things that are typically African.
What follow are not scientific findings. There could be alternative explanations for what I have observed, but my conclusions are drawn from more than 30 years of living among Africans.
My first inklings about what may be a deficiency in abstract thinking came from what I began to learn about African languages. In a conversation with students in Nigeria I asked how you would say that a coconut is about halfway up the tree in their local language. "You can’t say that," they explained. "All you can say is that it is ‘up’." "How about right at the top?" "Nope; just ‘up’." In other words, there appeared to be no way to express gradations.
More here
The exhausted majority
Every few years one research group or another produces a typology of the electorate. The researchers conduct thousands of interviews and identify the different clusters American voters fall into.
More in Common has just completed a large such typology. It’s one of the best I’ve seen because it understands that American politics is no longer about what health care plan you support. It’s about identity, psychology, moral foundations and the dynamics of tribal resentment.
The report, "Hidden Tribes", breaks Americans into seven groups, from left to right, with names like Traditional Liberals, Moderates, Politically Disengaged and so on. It won’t surprise you to learn that the most active groups are on the extremes — Progressive Activists on the left (8 percent of Americans) and Devoted Conservatives on the right (6 percent).
These two groups are the richest of all the groups. They are the whitest of the groups. Their members have among the highest education levels, and they report high levels of personal security.
We sometimes think of this as a populist moment. But that’s not true. My first big takeaway from "Hidden Tribes" is that our political conflict is primarily a rich, white civil war. It’s between privileged progressives and privileged conservatives.
More here
More in Common has just completed a large such typology. It’s one of the best I’ve seen because it understands that American politics is no longer about what health care plan you support. It’s about identity, psychology, moral foundations and the dynamics of tribal resentment.
The report, "Hidden Tribes", breaks Americans into seven groups, from left to right, with names like Traditional Liberals, Moderates, Politically Disengaged and so on. It won’t surprise you to learn that the most active groups are on the extremes — Progressive Activists on the left (8 percent of Americans) and Devoted Conservatives on the right (6 percent).
These two groups are the richest of all the groups. They are the whitest of the groups. Their members have among the highest education levels, and they report high levels of personal security.
We sometimes think of this as a populist moment. But that’s not true. My first big takeaway from "Hidden Tribes" is that our political conflict is primarily a rich, white civil war. It’s between privileged progressives and privileged conservatives.
More here
Europe bringing back the draft
For many young Europeans, a post-high-school "gap year" has become a rite of passage. Instead of proceeding straight to work or college, hundreds of thousands of newly graduated high school students enjoy a year of travel to see the world and celebrate their newfound freedom.
But a growing number of those young men and women face a much different post-graduation interlude: military service.
After the Cold War, many European countries abolished conscription, considering it an expensive relic. But with Russia resurgent and tensions on the rise, mandatory military service is making a comeback across the continent. This year, Sweden drafted its first new class of conscripts since abolishing the draft in 2010. Lithuania has also reinstated conscription, and Norway began drafting women for the first time in 2016.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Italy, Romania and Germany have debated reintroducing some form of conscription in recent months. French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the introduction of a national service program that would include a military option and last between one month and a year. And there are no signs that Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Cyprus, Greece, Austria or Switzerland will get rid of their conscription systems anytime soon.
"A key reason for the revival of the draft is a changing security situation in Europe, especially after the Russian annexation of Crimea four years ago," said Elisabeth Braw, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London. "But there's also an economic argument: It has been very hard to recruit for the armed forces, especially in northern European countries, where the economy is doing well."
More here
But a growing number of those young men and women face a much different post-graduation interlude: military service.
After the Cold War, many European countries abolished conscription, considering it an expensive relic. But with Russia resurgent and tensions on the rise, mandatory military service is making a comeback across the continent. This year, Sweden drafted its first new class of conscripts since abolishing the draft in 2010. Lithuania has also reinstated conscription, and Norway began drafting women for the first time in 2016.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Italy, Romania and Germany have debated reintroducing some form of conscription in recent months. French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the introduction of a national service program that would include a military option and last between one month and a year. And there are no signs that Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Cyprus, Greece, Austria or Switzerland will get rid of their conscription systems anytime soon.
"A key reason for the revival of the draft is a changing security situation in Europe, especially after the Russian annexation of Crimea four years ago," said Elisabeth Braw, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London. "But there's also an economic argument: It has been very hard to recruit for the armed forces, especially in northern European countries, where the economy is doing well."
More here
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Odds and ends
DuckDuckGo, a competitor to Google's search engine, has achieved a new milestone by performing more than 30 million direct searches in a single day.
Obama's favorite swearword is (reportedly) m*th*rfuc*er.
Blogger Don Surber has noticed that Trump and McConnell seem to be working well together lately. "Remember, Trump’s book was titled 'The Art of the Deal.' McConnell’s memoir was called 'The Long Game.' More personally apt book titles are hard to imagine."
North Dakota is getting an early winter....17 inches of snow already.
President Trump praises Neil Armstrong...."There was no kneeling on the Moon."
Bill Maher says Political Correctness is why Democrats lose elections.
Democrats are nervous....Could election day disaster strike again in November?
Four of the five worst-run states all have one thing in common — and it’s exactly what you think it is. That’s right, states in the worst fiscal condition — according to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University — are almost universally run by Democrats. The worst-run states are, in order starting from the bottom: Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Kentucky.
The five best-run states are, in order: Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Florida, and Oklahoma.
MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki on Friday listed the Latino vote as a "worry area" for Democrats in November. "If there’s one worry area for Democrats in terms of November, that’s it right there," Kornacki told a panel on HBO’s "Real Time With Bill Maher." "And I think one of the issues there is it’s almost more fundamental."
The EU believes that it is able to accommodate 3.8 billion more refugees and migrants.
President Trump is likely to face at least five new House investigations -- plus a likely impeachment probe -- if Democrats take the chamber in the fall elections and make Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaker.
General Kelly on Sen. Elizabeth Warren...."Impolite, insulting, and arrogant."
Headline....Trump snubs Feinstein, Mouthy Kamala – Nominates conservative judges to liberal 9th Circuit
The original use of the term "skyscraper" applied to topgallant masts of a sailing ship which reached up to catch the highest breezes.
Have you noticed that the impeachment talk has pretty much dried up? And how much have we heard from Brennan, McCabe or Comey lately? Something's up and they know it. Now they are getting nervous. They are realizing that Trump is not as stupid as they thought.
Elizabeth Warren is now claiming to be around 1/1024 Native American.
Democrats....75 year-old Joe Biden leads 2020 Democrat presidential poll, 77 year-old Bernie Sanders in second place.
Instapundit, on the midterms...."All they had to do to win was not act crazy."
Congressman Adam Schiff says he will ruthlessly open 5 Trump investigations if Democrats take control of the House.
Kevin McCarthy warned in an interview yesterday that far-left billionaires George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer are pouring millions into Democratic committees this election cycle in a bid to "buy our government."
Trump has raised at least $106 million since January 2017, according to his campaign and federal filings.
New York City goes entire weekend with no shootings for first time in 25 years.
Federal judge tosses Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against Trump on free-speech grounds and forces porn actress to pay his legal expenses. (haha)
The King Ranch near Kingsville is the largest ranch in Texas. It has 825,000 acres. The 2nd biggest ranch is the W. T. Waggoner Ranch near Wichita Falls. It has 535,000 acres.
An online petition drive is underway to get a Black Lives Matter flag flown on Eastern Illinois University’s campus in February during Black History Month.
Trump refers to Stormy Daniels as Horseface and Stormy says, Game On, Tiny.
"A strategic leak is when a highly placed government official leaks classified or privileged information to the media to obtain a specific politicized outcome."
A "report card" on the best and worst governors in the United States has named the two chief executives in neighboring states—Washington and Oregon—as achieving the "worst scores."
According to the Daily Mail, crimes in South Africa include 56 murders a day, 110 rapes a day, and 45 carjackings a day.
Robert Mueller to release "core findings" in his Trump-Russia Report immediately after midterm elections.
Democrat priorities when they take Congress....Protect illegals, gun control, investigate Kavanaugh and Russia, impeach Trump, etc.
Netflix has 137 million subscribers. At $11 per month, that's $18 billion per year. Content costs are projected to be about $13 billion in 2018.
What did socialists use before candles?.......electricity.
"When you look at the rabid psychopaths that tried to destroy Kavanaugh and his family there wasn't a single Democrat with a shred of honesty, integrity, or goodness. They're all a bunch of satanic monsters."
Headline....Not one Democrat leader has spoken out against video depicting Melania as a stripper.
MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski called for President Trump to be ousted by his own administration Tuesday, declaring that he is ‘not well’ enough to be in charge of the country.
Lou Dobbs on the DOJ...."The rats are running the place."
Only 22 percent of Native Americans in the U.S. actually live on a reservation.
Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel...."Clinton Foundation Is Charity Fraud Of Epic Proportions"
"I keep reading that Trump is bringing Fascism to America, but it always seems to be Democrats wearing the Brown Shirts."
Rosie wants a coup....Rosie O’Donnell said on MSNBC Thursday that she wants to send the U.S. military to the White House to "get" President Donald Trump.
The same Nobel Prize winning economist who predicted the worldwide, permanent Trump recession and market crash (Paul Krugman) – now says President Trump is destroying the climate.
According to a new study, nearly 40% of Americans think elections are unfair.
Headline....Politico warns snowflakes...Prepare to be disappointed by Mueller Report.
Michael Moore lament...."Donald Trump outsmarted everyone, Republicans will probably win both houses."
Military Times poll....Nearly half of all U.S. troops think major war is coming.
Donald Trump....#JobsNotMobs
~
Obama's favorite swearword is (reportedly) m*th*rfuc*er.
Blogger Don Surber has noticed that Trump and McConnell seem to be working well together lately. "Remember, Trump’s book was titled 'The Art of the Deal.' McConnell’s memoir was called 'The Long Game.' More personally apt book titles are hard to imagine."
North Dakota is getting an early winter....17 inches of snow already.
President Trump praises Neil Armstrong...."There was no kneeling on the Moon."
Bill Maher says Political Correctness is why Democrats lose elections.
Democrats are nervous....Could election day disaster strike again in November?
Four of the five worst-run states all have one thing in common — and it’s exactly what you think it is. That’s right, states in the worst fiscal condition — according to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University — are almost universally run by Democrats. The worst-run states are, in order starting from the bottom: Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Kentucky.
The five best-run states are, in order: Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Florida, and Oklahoma.
MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki on Friday listed the Latino vote as a "worry area" for Democrats in November. "If there’s one worry area for Democrats in terms of November, that’s it right there," Kornacki told a panel on HBO’s "Real Time With Bill Maher." "And I think one of the issues there is it’s almost more fundamental."
The EU believes that it is able to accommodate 3.8 billion more refugees and migrants.
President Trump is likely to face at least five new House investigations -- plus a likely impeachment probe -- if Democrats take the chamber in the fall elections and make Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaker.
General Kelly on Sen. Elizabeth Warren...."Impolite, insulting, and arrogant."
Headline....Trump snubs Feinstein, Mouthy Kamala – Nominates conservative judges to liberal 9th Circuit
The original use of the term "skyscraper" applied to topgallant masts of a sailing ship which reached up to catch the highest breezes.
Have you noticed that the impeachment talk has pretty much dried up? And how much have we heard from Brennan, McCabe or Comey lately? Something's up and they know it. Now they are getting nervous. They are realizing that Trump is not as stupid as they thought.
Elizabeth Warren is now claiming to be around 1/1024 Native American.
Democrats....75 year-old Joe Biden leads 2020 Democrat presidential poll, 77 year-old Bernie Sanders in second place.
Instapundit, on the midterms...."All they had to do to win was not act crazy."
Congressman Adam Schiff says he will ruthlessly open 5 Trump investigations if Democrats take control of the House.
Kevin McCarthy warned in an interview yesterday that far-left billionaires George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer are pouring millions into Democratic committees this election cycle in a bid to "buy our government."
Trump has raised at least $106 million since January 2017, according to his campaign and federal filings.
New York City goes entire weekend with no shootings for first time in 25 years.
Federal judge tosses Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against Trump on free-speech grounds and forces porn actress to pay his legal expenses. (haha)
The King Ranch near Kingsville is the largest ranch in Texas. It has 825,000 acres. The 2nd biggest ranch is the W. T. Waggoner Ranch near Wichita Falls. It has 535,000 acres.
An online petition drive is underway to get a Black Lives Matter flag flown on Eastern Illinois University’s campus in February during Black History Month.
Trump refers to Stormy Daniels as Horseface and Stormy says, Game On, Tiny.
"A strategic leak is when a highly placed government official leaks classified or privileged information to the media to obtain a specific politicized outcome."
A "report card" on the best and worst governors in the United States has named the two chief executives in neighboring states—Washington and Oregon—as achieving the "worst scores."
According to the Daily Mail, crimes in South Africa include 56 murders a day, 110 rapes a day, and 45 carjackings a day.
Robert Mueller to release "core findings" in his Trump-Russia Report immediately after midterm elections.
Democrat priorities when they take Congress....Protect illegals, gun control, investigate Kavanaugh and Russia, impeach Trump, etc.
Netflix has 137 million subscribers. At $11 per month, that's $18 billion per year. Content costs are projected to be about $13 billion in 2018.
What did socialists use before candles?.......electricity.
"When you look at the rabid psychopaths that tried to destroy Kavanaugh and his family there wasn't a single Democrat with a shred of honesty, integrity, or goodness. They're all a bunch of satanic monsters."
Headline....Not one Democrat leader has spoken out against video depicting Melania as a stripper.
MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski called for President Trump to be ousted by his own administration Tuesday, declaring that he is ‘not well’ enough to be in charge of the country.
Lou Dobbs on the DOJ...."The rats are running the place."
Only 22 percent of Native Americans in the U.S. actually live on a reservation.
Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel...."Clinton Foundation Is Charity Fraud Of Epic Proportions"
"I keep reading that Trump is bringing Fascism to America, but it always seems to be Democrats wearing the Brown Shirts."
Rosie wants a coup....Rosie O’Donnell said on MSNBC Thursday that she wants to send the U.S. military to the White House to "get" President Donald Trump.
The same Nobel Prize winning economist who predicted the worldwide, permanent Trump recession and market crash (Paul Krugman) – now says President Trump is destroying the climate.
According to a new study, nearly 40% of Americans think elections are unfair.
Headline....Politico warns snowflakes...Prepare to be disappointed by Mueller Report.
Michael Moore lament...."Donald Trump outsmarted everyone, Republicans will probably win both houses."
Military Times poll....Nearly half of all U.S. troops think major war is coming.
Donald Trump....#JobsNotMobs
~
False sexual assault reports
Should deliberately false reports of sexual assault be subject to the same legal penalties as false reports of other felonies? Right now, accusers who lie about sexual abuse are criminally liable for filing a false report and perjury, as well as civil sanctions for defamation, but legal consequences rarely occur.
The question was spotlighted by the accusations surrounding Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It was clear during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing: An accusation of sexual assault can devastate a man’s life, family and future. Those who reject the account of his main accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, don’t suggest bringing legal proceedings against her. A sincere report of sexual abuse should not be penalized for being confused or mistaken.
Jeffrey Catalan and Julie Swetnick are different stories; in the wake of Ford’s accusations, Catalan and Swetnick claimed to have witnessed sexual abuse by Kavanaugh; Catalan quickly recanted. But the chairman of the Senate Committee that presided over Kavanaugh’s hearing has asked for an official review of the claim as a possible crime. In a NBC interview Swetnick contradicted a sworn statement to the Committee, which had implicated Kavanaugh in gang rapes. Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has called for Swetnick to be investigated and then prosecuted for perjury, if appropriate.
The debate on how to handle blatantly false accusations of sexual abuse has re-opened. Feminists argue that punishing any accuser chills the willingness of victims to come forward. Rule-of-law advocates counter that false accusations are not victimless crimes. In most cases a real person is named as an attacker and he or she confronts severe consequences. Genuine victims are also damaged by false allegations. Every lie casts a shadow of doubt over every future report of sexual assault. So legal disincentives should attach to the act of lying not merely to protect those falsely accused but also to encourage real victims to make reports.
More here
The question was spotlighted by the accusations surrounding Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It was clear during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing: An accusation of sexual assault can devastate a man’s life, family and future. Those who reject the account of his main accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, don’t suggest bringing legal proceedings against her. A sincere report of sexual abuse should not be penalized for being confused or mistaken.
Jeffrey Catalan and Julie Swetnick are different stories; in the wake of Ford’s accusations, Catalan and Swetnick claimed to have witnessed sexual abuse by Kavanaugh; Catalan quickly recanted. But the chairman of the Senate Committee that presided over Kavanaugh’s hearing has asked for an official review of the claim as a possible crime. In a NBC interview Swetnick contradicted a sworn statement to the Committee, which had implicated Kavanaugh in gang rapes. Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has called for Swetnick to be investigated and then prosecuted for perjury, if appropriate.
The debate on how to handle blatantly false accusations of sexual abuse has re-opened. Feminists argue that punishing any accuser chills the willingness of victims to come forward. Rule-of-law advocates counter that false accusations are not victimless crimes. In most cases a real person is named as an attacker and he or she confronts severe consequences. Genuine victims are also damaged by false allegations. Every lie casts a shadow of doubt over every future report of sexual assault. So legal disincentives should attach to the act of lying not merely to protect those falsely accused but also to encourage real victims to make reports.
More here
Princess Spreading Bull
Paul and Scott have joined in the general hilarity over Elizabeth Warren’s disclosure that she might be something like 1/1,000 Native American. (Then again, she might not be. There is so little Native American DNA in the database that several Latin American countries, including Mexico, are used as proxies. Warren may have a better claim to being Hispanic than Indian.) It turns out that Warren likely has less Native American blood than the average white American. Not to mention the wag who noted that she has more bourbon in her blood than Warren has Indian. But Warren doggedly sticks to the one-drop rule that her Democratic forbears promulgated in the antebellum South. Good for her!
Here’s the point: Warren’s defense of her claim to being Native American is good for America. Because if Warren is an Indian, then so are most of the rest of us. And most of us are also African-American or Hispanic. If everyone is an Indian, then no one is an Indian. This logic is fatal to the whole corrupt affirmative action enterprise.
Harvard Law School billed Elizabeth Warren as the first "woman of color" on its faculty. On the contrary, if Warren’s 1/1,000 Native American ancestry counts, the law school has probably had any number of "women of color," both before and after her. Most of us qualify.
Affirmative action is teetering on the brink. Trial of the Asian students’ race discrimination lawsuit against Harvard University commenced today, I believe. Harvard’s denial that it discriminates against Asian applicants is transparently false, yet the academic world has rallied around the university in what likely will prove to be a vain effort to uphold the discriminatory regime in which nearly all are complicit.
More here
Here’s the point: Warren’s defense of her claim to being Native American is good for America. Because if Warren is an Indian, then so are most of the rest of us. And most of us are also African-American or Hispanic. If everyone is an Indian, then no one is an Indian. This logic is fatal to the whole corrupt affirmative action enterprise.
Harvard Law School billed Elizabeth Warren as the first "woman of color" on its faculty. On the contrary, if Warren’s 1/1,000 Native American ancestry counts, the law school has probably had any number of "women of color," both before and after her. Most of us qualify.
Affirmative action is teetering on the brink. Trial of the Asian students’ race discrimination lawsuit against Harvard University commenced today, I believe. Harvard’s denial that it discriminates against Asian applicants is transparently false, yet the academic world has rallied around the university in what likely will prove to be a vain effort to uphold the discriminatory regime in which nearly all are complicit.
More here
Democrat election fraud
The Texas Democratic Party asked non-citizens to register to vote, sending out applications to immigrants with the box citizenship already checked "Yes," according to new complaints filed Thursday asking prosecutors to see what laws may have been broken.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation alerted district attorneys and the federal Justice Department to the pre-checked applications, and also included a signed affidavit from a man who said some of his relatives, who aren’t citizens, received the mailing.
"This is how the Texas Democratic Party is inviting foreign influence in an election in a federal election cycle," said Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the PILF, a group that’s made its mark policing states’ voter registration practices.
The Texas secretary of state’s office said it, too, had gotten complaints both from immigrants and from relatives of dead people who said they got mailings asking them to register.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to investigate.
"If true there will be serious consequences," he said.
More here
The Public Interest Legal Foundation alerted district attorneys and the federal Justice Department to the pre-checked applications, and also included a signed affidavit from a man who said some of his relatives, who aren’t citizens, received the mailing.
"This is how the Texas Democratic Party is inviting foreign influence in an election in a federal election cycle," said Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the PILF, a group that’s made its mark policing states’ voter registration practices.
The Texas secretary of state’s office said it, too, had gotten complaints both from immigrants and from relatives of dead people who said they got mailings asking them to register.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to investigate.
"If true there will be serious consequences," he said.
More here
Pastor poses as homeless man
Well-known megachurch pastor James MacDonald recently posed as a homeless man stationed outside several campuses of Harvest Bible Chapel before Sunday morning services to see just how his congregation would react to his presence.
MacDonald, who founded and leads the megachurch in the Chicagoland area, posted a video of the experiment to his Facebook page Monday. He told his congregation he was blown away by the treatment he received as he crouched next to the door of the church campuses, donning a gray, mangy beard as he leaned against a TJ Maxx shopping cart overstuffed with his life ’s belongings.
"The closer a person is to us and the less common the struggle, the easier it is to love," the pastor explained in the video. "[H]ow common is homelessness? How frequently is the homeless person someone dear to us personally? Never."
Moments later, the undercover MacDonald is seen walking into the church sanctuary, pushing his shopping cart in front of him. When he reaches the pulpit, MacDonald removes the fake, raggedy beard and oversized coat, revealing his true identity.
More here
MacDonald, who founded and leads the megachurch in the Chicagoland area, posted a video of the experiment to his Facebook page Monday. He told his congregation he was blown away by the treatment he received as he crouched next to the door of the church campuses, donning a gray, mangy beard as he leaned against a TJ Maxx shopping cart overstuffed with his life ’s belongings.
"The closer a person is to us and the less common the struggle, the easier it is to love," the pastor explained in the video. "[H]ow common is homelessness? How frequently is the homeless person someone dear to us personally? Never."
Moments later, the undercover MacDonald is seen walking into the church sanctuary, pushing his shopping cart in front of him. When he reaches the pulpit, MacDonald removes the fake, raggedy beard and oversized coat, revealing his true identity.
More here
Operation Choke Point
James Madison once wrote that "the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which government was instituted." While in recent years our political leaders have not always lived up to Madison’s vision of government, rarely have they engaged in such blatant disregard for our constitutional rights as they did during Operation Choke Point — a secret program launched under the Obama administration to punish political adversaries.
Operation Choke Point was a plot by President Obama’s Department of Justice, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other government agencies to cut off banking and financial services for small businesses and industries that they deemed to be political enemies or otherwise undesirable.
Some of these businesses included gun stores, ammunition shops, fireworks stores, small dollar lenders, and home-based charities.
Some government officials tried to deny the existence of the program. That includes former CFPB director, Richard Cordray, who dodged questions from Sen. Mike Crapo in 2014 as to the CFPB’s participation in Operation Choke Point. Yet in that same year, Cordray warned banks against doing business with "… unscrupulous lenders and their payment processors."
More here
Operation Choke Point was a plot by President Obama’s Department of Justice, the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other government agencies to cut off banking and financial services for small businesses and industries that they deemed to be political enemies or otherwise undesirable.
Some of these businesses included gun stores, ammunition shops, fireworks stores, small dollar lenders, and home-based charities.
Some government officials tried to deny the existence of the program. That includes former CFPB director, Richard Cordray, who dodged questions from Sen. Mike Crapo in 2014 as to the CFPB’s participation in Operation Choke Point. Yet in that same year, Cordray warned banks against doing business with "… unscrupulous lenders and their payment processors."
More here
Friday, October 19, 2018
Tornadoes shifting to the east
Over the past few decades tornadoes have been shifting — decreasing in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas but spinning up more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, a new study shows. Scientists aren't quite certain why.
Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. Even with the decline, Texas still gets the most tornadoes of any state.
The shift could be deadly because the area with increasing tornado activity is bigger and home to more people, said study lead author Victor Gensini, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University. Also more people live in vulnerable mobile homes and tornadoes are more likely to happen at night in those places, he said.
Even though Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma get many more tornadoes, the four deadliest states for tornadoes are Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
More here
Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. Even with the decline, Texas still gets the most tornadoes of any state.
The shift could be deadly because the area with increasing tornado activity is bigger and home to more people, said study lead author Victor Gensini, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University. Also more people live in vulnerable mobile homes and tornadoes are more likely to happen at night in those places, he said.
Even though Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma get many more tornadoes, the four deadliest states for tornadoes are Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
More here
Greeks are tired of migrants too
According to the Greek webpage Kathimerini, 1,130 parents living with their children on the Greek island of Chios, sent a letter of protest to the principals of their schools, in which they declared that they do not want their children to study together with migrant children.
The letter of protest was also communicated to various high ranking officials on the island of Chios.
The 1,130 parents state that the right of refugee and migrant children to be educated is not only fully respected by them, but it is also an obligation of the state to do it without the participation of NGOs.
"We, the inhabitants of these islands, are the ones who have carried almost the whole weight of this situation, which the decision-makers do not seem to understand at least at a practical level. But is the ministry’s design well-thought out in all its parameters and is it one that works for all children? " They ask and continue: "The inconsistency of the entire spectrum of migration management, the chaotic distance between the occasional promises and promises and their results, as well as our obligation as parents and as citizens, leads us to point out the wrong texts we identify…"
More here
The letter of protest was also communicated to various high ranking officials on the island of Chios.
The 1,130 parents state that the right of refugee and migrant children to be educated is not only fully respected by them, but it is also an obligation of the state to do it without the participation of NGOs.
"We, the inhabitants of these islands, are the ones who have carried almost the whole weight of this situation, which the decision-makers do not seem to understand at least at a practical level. But is the ministry’s design well-thought out in all its parameters and is it one that works for all children? " They ask and continue: "The inconsistency of the entire spectrum of migration management, the chaotic distance between the occasional promises and promises and their results, as well as our obligation as parents and as citizens, leads us to point out the wrong texts we identify…"
More here
Okay to be white
Embarrassed officials scrambled Tuesday to explain how members of Australia’s conservative government backed a parliamentary motion declaring "it is okay to be white", blaming the decision on an "administrative process failure".
The resolution, tabled in the Senate on Monday, was drafted by populist firebrand Pauline Hanson and railed against what it described as "the deplorable rise of anti-white racism."
The motion was narrowly defeated 31-28, with several government ministers voting in favour, including its top official for indigenous affairs.
It emerged Tuesday that Attorney General Christian Porter had issued instructions to senators from the governing Liberal party to back Hanson’s motion.
Following the vote, Porter tweeted, "The Government Senators’ actions in the Senate this afternoon confirm that the Government deplores racism of any kind."
The vote in favour of what many see as a white supremacist slogan sparked a furious backlash and demands for the resignations of ministers who backed the motion.
More here
The resolution, tabled in the Senate on Monday, was drafted by populist firebrand Pauline Hanson and railed against what it described as "the deplorable rise of anti-white racism."
The motion was narrowly defeated 31-28, with several government ministers voting in favour, including its top official for indigenous affairs.
It emerged Tuesday that Attorney General Christian Porter had issued instructions to senators from the governing Liberal party to back Hanson’s motion.
Following the vote, Porter tweeted, "The Government Senators’ actions in the Senate this afternoon confirm that the Government deplores racism of any kind."
The vote in favour of what many see as a white supremacist slogan sparked a furious backlash and demands for the resignations of ministers who backed the motion.
More here
Censoring themselves
Most ordinary people found it unbearable to live under communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The reasons varied: shortages of consumer goods, incessant propaganda, restrictions on travel.
Nothing was more psychologically exhausting than the constant pressure to watch every word one said, and to pretend to believe things one did not, for fear of negative repercussions. Dissidents called this "double morality" or "double consciousness." It drove people crazy. Actually, it drove some to suicide.
Only among trusted family and friends was it possible to speak one’s mind, yet even that was not guaranteed. Of all aspects of totalitarian life, citizens of the former Eastern Bloc say, this is the hardest to explain to those who grew up in the democratic West.
Until now, perhaps. A new study of political attitudes in the United States offers stunning evidence that most Americans censor themselves, except among people they regard as like-minded, on a bundle of sensitive topics: immigration and immigrants; race and racism; gay, lesbian and gender issues; and Islam and Muslims.
The report by More in Common, a new nonprofit dedicated to understanding and healing political polarization in the United States and Europe, is based on a nationwide survey of nearly 8,000 people conducted this past December and January.
More here
Nothing was more psychologically exhausting than the constant pressure to watch every word one said, and to pretend to believe things one did not, for fear of negative repercussions. Dissidents called this "double morality" or "double consciousness." It drove people crazy. Actually, it drove some to suicide.
Only among trusted family and friends was it possible to speak one’s mind, yet even that was not guaranteed. Of all aspects of totalitarian life, citizens of the former Eastern Bloc say, this is the hardest to explain to those who grew up in the democratic West.
Until now, perhaps. A new study of political attitudes in the United States offers stunning evidence that most Americans censor themselves, except among people they regard as like-minded, on a bundle of sensitive topics: immigration and immigrants; race and racism; gay, lesbian and gender issues; and Islam and Muslims.
The report by More in Common, a new nonprofit dedicated to understanding and healing political polarization in the United States and Europe, is based on a nationwide survey of nearly 8,000 people conducted this past December and January.
More here
Revolt in France
Students in France are up in arms about a new government plan to raise the entry requirements for university. This alleged injustice has led youngsters across France to block fellow students from attending classes, prevent teachers from entering campuses, and, in some cases, riot. All this for what are, in truth, the most basic quality-control measures.
At the moment, the French education system guarantees high-school students a public university place as long as they pass their final-year exams with a 50 per cent mark or above. This, and the fact that annual fees stand at just €170 (£150), has meant that the overwhelming majority of high-school students are eligible to enter university.
As a result, universities have been inundated with applications, and this has adversely affected the standard of education and students’ rates of success. The first-year dropout rate in France stands at 44 per cent, and just 27 per cent complete their degree after three years. By contrast, in the UK just 8.4 per cent drop out in the first year, while three quarters of students complete their degree in three years.
With the French state spending nearly €7,000 per student per year, high failure rates have proved a huge drain on government resources. Oversubscribed university programmes have been using lucky draws to pick who is admitted to particular courses, regardless of the students’ exam results.
More here
At the moment, the French education system guarantees high-school students a public university place as long as they pass their final-year exams with a 50 per cent mark or above. This, and the fact that annual fees stand at just €170 (£150), has meant that the overwhelming majority of high-school students are eligible to enter university.
As a result, universities have been inundated with applications, and this has adversely affected the standard of education and students’ rates of success. The first-year dropout rate in France stands at 44 per cent, and just 27 per cent complete their degree after three years. By contrast, in the UK just 8.4 per cent drop out in the first year, while three quarters of students complete their degree in three years.
With the French state spending nearly €7,000 per student per year, high failure rates have proved a huge drain on government resources. Oversubscribed university programmes have been using lucky draws to pick who is admitted to particular courses, regardless of the students’ exam results.
More here
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