ALTHOUSE: " BRILLIANT POSITIONING BY KID ROCK"
Kid Rock:
Dinner time at my house. What do you think Schumer is spoon-feeding Stabenow tonight?
(It's been a long time since Ann Arbor when I used to drink Stroh's.)
Athouse Blog
Saturday, July 22, 2017
From Obama Voter Althouse:
"The American news media’s respect for tech CEOs and foreign-policy experts are the photographic negative of their overwhelming contempt for Dumb Donald."
"These things don’t happen because the journalists that remain are liberals. It happens because so many of them are part of the same class – an exalted and privileged class."Althouse Blog
On this day in 1861,
On this day in 1861, the Union army was routed at Bull Run (aka Manassas) by Confederate forces in the first battle of the Civil War just 30 miles outside Washington, D.C., disabusing the North of any notion that there would be a quick end to the “Southern insurrection.” At a critical point in the battle, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson closed a gap in the Rebel lines and withstood a series of Union attacks, earning him the nickname “Stonewall.” The battle was watched by politicians, socialites and others who gathered as if they were attending a picnic. The Union retreat was so disorderly that second-guessers believe the Confederates could have proceeded into D.C. had they chosen to pursue. The Union army suffered what was then considered a massive 3,000 casualties while the Confederates suffered 2,000 casualties.
In a little known coincidence, much of the battle of Bull Run was fought in the front yard of the farm home of Wilmer McLean, who later moved from the area and reestablished himself in Appomattox. His Appomattox home was the “courthouse” where Lee surrendered to Grant. After the surrender, Union soldiers took almost all of McLean’s furniture and other artifacts to save as mementoes.
REBELS ROUT YANKS AT BULL RUN
In a little known coincidence, much of the battle of Bull Run was fought in the front yard of the farm home of Wilmer McLean, who later moved from the area and reestablished himself in Appomattox. His Appomattox home was the “courthouse” where Lee surrendered to Grant. After the surrender, Union soldiers took almost all of McLean’s furniture and other artifacts to save as mementoes.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
On this day in 1969,
TEDDY KENNEDY KILLS MARY JO KOPECHNE IN CAR ACCIDENT LEAVING HER TO DROWN
TEDDY KENNEDY KILLS MARY JO KOPECHNE IN CAR ACCIDENT LEAVING HER TO DROWN
On this day in 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island, off the east coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The celebration was in honor of the dedicated work of the Boiler Room Girls, and was the fourth such reunion of the Robert F. Kennedy campaign workers. Robert's brother Ted Kennedy was there, whom Kopechne did not know well.
Kopechne reportedly left the party at 11:15 p.m. with Ted; according to his own account, he had offered to drive her to catch the last ferry back to Edgartown, where she was staying. She did not tell her close friends at the party that she was leaving, and she left her purse and keys behind. Kennedy drove the 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a narrow, unlit bridge, which was without guardrails and was not on the route to Edgartown.
The Oldsmobile landed in Poucha Pond and overturned in the water; Kennedy extricated himself from the vehicle and survived, but Kopechne did not and died in the submerged vehicle eight days shy of her twenty-ninth birthday.
Kennedy failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne's body were discovered the next morning. . .
The captain of the local fire department testified at the inquest:
It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position.... She didn't drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he [Ted Kennedy] didn't call. . .
Farrar testified later at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted that to mean that Kopechne had survived in the air bubble after the crash, and he concluded that:
Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.[
Farrar believed that Kopechne "lived for at least two hours down there."
A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a two-month suspended sentence. . . .
Mohamed El-Erian is also tired of this "stupid sh--"
Jamie Dimon Is Right to Raise the Alarm
Bloomberg Opinion Article
From Grant's Interest Rate Observer
Bull sightings
Courtesy of today’s Wall Street Journal: the old-school, tried-and-true (to its proponents) “Dow Theory” is signaling higher equity prices. The theory, which holds that new highs in the Dow Jones Industrial Average should be confirmed by corresponding highs in the Dow Transports in order to portend a healthy bull market, has flashed a yellow light to investors through the spring as the broad Industrial average repeatedly made new highs without confirmation from the Transports. With the latter group riding an 11% advance from mid-May, both indices notched fresh highs on Friday.
File it under: For what it’s worth.
Obama Voter Althouse:
The "Breaking News" concept hits a new low.
And that's not one of these articles that reports on the existence of a report in another publication. USA Today makes no mention of the Politico article that I blogged first thing this morning, "Is the President Fit? Donald Trump is the least athletic president in generations. Here’s why it matters."Althouse Blog
As Kevin said in the comments to that earlier post: "Is this what's left to them after the collusion with Russia effort failed? Bullying Trump about his weight?"
Did some memo go out? This is the talking point — Trump is fat??!!
Monday, July 17, 2017
Obama-Voter Althouse:
WaPo scratches its head at poll showing the Don Jr. “smoking gun” hasn’t budged opinion about Trump and collusion with Russia
Maybe you shouldn't have cried wolf all those other times. Or was this one another crying of wolf? You squandered your credibility, trying so hard to get Trump. You built up our skepticism and our capacity to flesh out the other side of any argument against Trump.Althouse Blog
FWIW
Breaking: Lynch Ordered Manafort’s Phone Tapped During Veselnitskaya Meeting
I'm not sure about the source for this but there are at least two interesting tidbits here, one which does not appear to be getting any attention. The first is that the tapping may have been illegal. The second is that others involved in the campaign could have participated via conference call. Others? The "others" could be really big news.
ArticleAccusations have arisen that the meeting was part of a wider setup to achieve a FISA warrant to wiretap phones of the Trump campaign during 2016. President Trump himself has accused the FBI under Loretta Lynch of wiretapping his campaign.Now, a former Trump campaign official reports that Paul Manafort’s phone was subject to FISA wiretap during the infamous meeting.If true, this FISA warrant would have been carried out under Loretta Lynch, Attorney General to Barack Obama. Former FBI Director James Comey has testified under oath to instances of collusion between AG Lynch and the Clinton campaign during 2016, as well as obstruction of justice in the Clinton investigation. . .FISA transcripts of the meeting in June 2016 may have also served the basis of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, now headed by Bob Mueller.Other senior members of the Trump campaign may have participated in the meeting via conference call.Update: This would have been illegal, as FISA court denied Obama’s June 2016 request.
During Bastille Day Weekend Migrant Suburbs Saw 900 Cars Burned in Scenes of ‘Intolerable Urban Violence’
Article
Border Patrol union chief praises 'miraculous' drop in illegal immigration under Trump
Article & InterviewThe significant downturn in the number of illegal border crossers between the U.S. and Mexico is "nothing short of miraculous," National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said on C-SPAN Monday."As far as the Trump administration's efforts on immigration, this is something they campaigned heavily on," he said. "At six months, where we are on meeting those promises, we are seeing nothing short of miraculous. If you look at the rhetoric that President Trump has given, it has caused a number of illegal border crossings to go down. We have never seen such a drop that we currently have.""There's a vibe, there's an energy in the Border Patrol that's never been there before in 20 years that I've been in the patrol," Judd added in a separate Fox News interview.
I'm all in favor of Jamie Dimon-speak
Candor from Central Bankers is Overdue
When did you last hear mandarins speak clearly about radical monetary policy?
The truth, yet unspoken from on high, is that radical monetary policy begets more radical monetary policy.James Grant, Financial Times
Oh well.
Wikileaks Emails Show DNC Staffers Wrote Questions for CNN's Blitzer's 4/16 Trump Interview
Article
Sunday, July 16, 2017
On this day in 2009
On this day in 2009, Democrat President Barack Obama damaged police-African American relations by accusing white Boston police officer James Crowley, a certified police trainer in diversity and racial profiling, of “acting stupidly” when he arrested Obama’s personal friend, African-American and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, for disorderly conduct.
Crowley had previously gained some notice for being one of two police officers who had administered CPR, including mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, in a failed attempt to revive African-American and Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis, who died on the court during practice.
According to press reports, Gates had just returned from a long trip overseas, was tired, and both he and his driver had trouble getting his front door open. After entering through a back door and then exiting, Gates and his driver forced their way into the front door, damaging the door.
After a neighborhood resident reported a possible break-in at Gates’ house, Crowley arrived at the scene, went up to the front door, and asked Gates to step outside. Crowley explained he was investigating the report of a break-in in progress.
Gates asked, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?"
Gates then threatened Crowley by saying he did not know who he was "messing with."
Crowley asked Gates for a photo ID so as to verify he was the resident of the house. Gates initially refused, but then supplied his Harvard University identification card. However, Gates went on to repeatedly shout requests for Crowley’s identification.
Crowley then told Gates that he was leaving his residence and that if Gates wanted to continue discussing the matter, he would speak to him outside.
Gates replied, "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside."
Gates stepped onto his front porch and continued to yell at Crowley, accusing him of racial bias and saying he had not heard the last of him. On the 9-1-1 dispatcher audio recordings, a man's loud voice is heard in the background at several points during Sgt. Crowley's transmissions.
Crowley warned Gates that he was becoming disorderly. When Gates ignored this warning and persisted in his behavior, and likewise ignored a second warning from Crowley, Crowley informed Gates that he was under arrest.
Obama’s insertion of the presidency into a local police matter and his characterization of Crowley’s behavior, with no criticism of Gates’ behavior, set off a national uproar which he later attempted to mollify with a White House Beer Summit in the Rose Garden.
Dilbert: The Best Analysis Yet of The Trump Jr Meeting w/ THE RUSSIANS (and a Side Bar About Kid Rock)
Scott Adams BlogObama Voter Althouse: "Trump is the Most Tone-Policed Person in the World."
Tone-policing is just about the same thing as what I've been calling "civility bullshit." (It's my observation that calls for civility are always bullshit. It's always because of what you are saying, because if the civility enforcers agreed with you, they'd be celebrating your passion.)
I want to stress that men get tone-policed too. The most tone-policed person in the world is Donald Trump.
Althouse Blog
A good start.
Berkeley student who cried racial profiling & mistreatment is arrested for hate crime, vandalism
Article
One of the best trades ever
American Greatness Article
Goodbye Joe Scarborough . . . Hello, Kid Rock
Joe Scarborough is out and Kid Rock is in.Joe made official his departure from the Republican Party this week, following in the footsteps of other pundits such as George Will and Bret Stephens. Good riddance. Meanwhile in Michigan, Kid Rock announced he would seek the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent do-nothing Democrat Debbie Stabenow.Scarborough’s departure from the GOP the same week Kid Rock threw his trucker cap into the ring nicely illustrates the current political fault lines.The 2016 election was about who rules in America. Will it be an aloof, self-interested class of patrician mandarins who attend the same schools, have the same accents, and repeat the same noxious pieties? Or will the American people rule themselves? Those were the stakes. Those continue to be the stakes.Scarborough is a fitting avatar for the striving, elite careerist eager to demonstrate his moral and cultural superiority over average Americans while Kid Rock revels in redneck cool.The contrast between the two is striking.Scarborough is at home in Washington. Kid Rock lives in Detroit.Joe curries favor with coastal elites. Kid Rock is at home in the middle of the country. And it’s no wonder: He’s travelled the country by bus and minivan on more than 25 tours with legends like Lynyrd Skynyrd and David Allen Coe.Kid Rock has the long, stringy hair of ’70s rock gods while Scarborough wears a Ken doll bouffant—a requirement for male TV anchors so hackneyed that it has become a stock punchline.Perhaps most striking is the music. Kid Rock plays straightforward American rock and roll. Scarborough sings Britpop retreads steeped in the sort of hipster self-regard that is unbecoming in a 20-year-old student at a small liberal arts college let alone in a middle-aged man.
American Greatness Article
Chechen President on Alleged Torture of Gays: There Are No Gay Men in Chechnya
ArticleChechnya’s president responded to reports alleging that gay men are being tortured in the country by saying that there is no torture taking place because there are no gay men in Chechnya.“This is nonsense,”Chechen President Razman Kadyrov told HBO reporter David Scott in an interview. “We don’t have those kinds of people here. We don’t have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada.”. . .“Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them,” Kadyrov added.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Trump Mocked By Dour Libs For Saying During Originally Off-the-Record Humorous Exchange with Reporters that Border Wall Needed to be See-Through So Americans Wouldn't Get Hit on Head with Drugs Tossed Over the Wall
But Even Wacko CNN Admits Drug Dealers Using Catapult to Toss Drugs Over the Border Wall
From The National Interest
I've Worked with Refugees for Decades. Europe's Afghan Crime Wave Is Mind-Boggling.
In 2014, when waves of refugees began flooding into western Europe, citizens and officials alike responded with generosity and openness. Exhausted refugees spilled out of trains and buses to be met by crowds bearing gifts of clothing and food, and holding up placards that read “Welcome Refugees.”This was a honeymoon that could not last. Some of the upcoming difficulties had been anticipated: that the newcomers did not speak the local languages, might be traumatized, would probably take a long time to find their footing, and had brought their ethnic, religious and sectarian conflicts with them, causing them to get into battles with each other. All of these things happened but—as Angela Merkel promised - were manageable.“Wir schaffen das.” . . .But there was one development that had not been expected, and was not tolerable: the large and growing incidence of sexual assaults committed by refugees against local women. These were not of the cultural-misunderstanding-date-rape sort, but were vicious, no-preamble attacks on random girls and women, often committed by gangs or packs of young men. At first, the incidents were downplayed or hushed up—no one wanted to provide the right wing with fodder for nationalist agitation, and the hope was that these were isolated instances caused by a small problem group of outliers. As the incidents increased, and because many of them took place in public or because the public became involved either in stopping the attack or in aiding the victim afterwards, and because the courts began issuing sentences as the cases came to trial, the matter could no longer be swept under the carpet of political correctness. And with the official acknowledgment and public reporting, a weird and puzzling footnote emerged. Most of the assaults were being committed by refugees of one particular nationality: by Afghans. . .On the basis of his hundreds of interactions with these young men in his professional capacity over the past several years, he believes to have discovered that they are motivated by a deep and abiding contempt for Western civilization. To them, Europeans are the enemy, and their women are legitimate spoils, as are all the other things one can take from them: housing, money, passports. Their laws don’t matter, their culture is uninteresting and, ultimately, their civilization is going to fall anyway to the horde of which one is the spearhead. No need to assimilate, or work hard, or try to build a decent life here for yourself—these Europeans are too soft to seriously punish you for a transgression, and their days are numbered.And it’s not just the sex crimes, my friend notes. Those may agitate public sentiment the most, but the deliberate, insidious abuse of the welfare system is just as consequential. Afghan refugees, he says, have a particular proclivity to play the system: to lie about their age, to lie about their circumstances, to pretend to be younger, to be handicapped, to belong to an ethnic minority when even the tired eye of an Austrian judge can distinguish the delicate features of a Hazara from those of a Pashtun . . .[T]he relevance to U.S. refugee policy is sadly obvious. It will require rigorous vetting indeed to weed out such deeply disturbed, degenerate young males whose willingness to be deceptive is so pronounced and whose motives are so irrational.Which brings me to a final theory being vented in Austria: that these destructive, crazed young men are being intentionally infiltrated into western Europe to wreak havoc: to take away the freedom and security of women; change patterns of behavior; deepen the rifts between liberals, who continue to defend and find excuses, and a right wing that calls for harsh measures and violent responses; to inflict high costs and aggravation on courts and judicial systems and generally make a mess of things.
Andrew McCarthy/NRO
ArticleWhen Worlds Collide: Unassimilable Muslim Migrants Crash Europe’s Fantasy Islam
What happens when the West’s fantasy Islam collides with the reality of an imported critical mass of unassimilated — and defiantly unassimilable — Muslims?Cologne happens.Nor is it only Cologne. That was just Ground Zero of the New Year’s Eve rape jihad in Germany. As National Review’s Ian Tuttle notes in an alarming column about the predictable — and, if I may say, predicted — surge of sexual assault in a Europe overrun by “migrants,” the jihad included similar episodes, albeit on a smaller scale, in Stuttgart, Hamburg, and even astride the Brandenburg gate in Berlin.We are finally learning about the magnitude and harrowing details of the attack after days of Stasi-like information suppression. Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be big on German security, but she is a bulwark when it comes to fantasy Islam.First there was no news; then, a few disturbing hints of gropings and robberies by gangs of “Middle Eastern or North African” men. Now, we know it was a mass atrocity — the only remaining question being: How massive?Upward of a thousand men, overwhelmingly Muslim, executed a coordinated series of attacks on an obvious target of opportunity: street celebrations in the major cities of a reviled Western state, where they were certain to find throngs of young women and a police presence grossly inadequate to provide security — certainly not against a critical mass of Islamic supremacists.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
The American consumer can solve the North Korea problem
a
Dilbert: North Korea is an Information Problem Disguised as a Military Problem
Dilbert BlogIn the year 2017, most of our national problems are information problems. And by that I mean having the right information would allow us to solve most problems.Consider the nuclear threat from North Korea. That’s an information problem disguised as a military problem.I hope that statement seems wrong to you, so you will be extra-impressed when I change your mind in the next hundred seconds.If the U.S. government tries to strongarm China to control North Korea’s nuclear program, that might cause more problems than it solves. No one likes a government-to-government confrontation of that type. China would have to push back. It could get ugly fast.But imagine what would happen if American consumers knew which American companies were doing the most business with China.And imagine American consumers understanding that China can turn off the economy of North Korea, like a switch, any time it wants, thus controlling North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.Now connect the dots.If you treat the North Korean nuclear threat as a military problem, it becomes one. If you treat it as an information problem, with an economic variable, it becomes that instead.I’m in favor of my government trying to negotiate an agreement with China, Russia, and North Korea. But if our leaders can’t get it done, I ask the government to get out of the way. Citizens can take care of this one directly.All we need is some information.
a
Liberal law prof Jonathan Turley
"For the love of God, treason is defined in the Constitution. This is not treason."
Interview videoIt is like we have this giant Rorschach test and people see whatever they want to.The criminal code has defined elements to it. You just don’t find these ambiguous crimes. Some people have said this could be treason. For the love of God, treason is defined in the Constitution. This is not treason. Other people have said this could be a Logan Act violation. Well, Logan Act has been used once in 200 years and is facially unconstitutional. One said, well, if you take things of tangible value under the campaign laws and treat information like that, then maybe you have a campaign contribution violation. Well, yeah, but we haven’t seen that done. You could also treat it like a panda and say it’s an endangered species violation, but courts haven’t done that. So, I think that people need to take a breath…What I’ve said to a lot of my friends who do legal analysis is, is this really the world you want to live in, where we broaden the definition of crimes so far that most any conversation could be a criminal act?That’s a very dangerous world to live in, but more importantly, if information is now a thing of tangible value under federal campaign laws, then the Clinton campaign could be charged with the same type of offense, and a wide variety of other campaigns could be charged.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Maybe elitist David Brooks is starting to get it
By David Brooks, the elitist
How [the Elitists] Are Ruining America
To feel at home in opportunity-rich areas, you’ve got to understand the right barre techniques, sport the right baby carrier, have the right podcast, food truck, tea, wine and Pilates tastes, not to mention possess the right attitudes about David Foster Wallace, child-rearing, gender norms and intersectionality.The educated class has built an ever more intricate net to cradle us in and ease everyone else out. It’s not really the prices that ensure 80 percent of your co-shoppers at Whole Foods are, comfortingly, also college grads; it’s the cultural codes.Status rules are partly about collusion, about attracting educated people to your circle, tightening the bonds between you and erecting shields against everybody else. We in the educated class have created barriers to mobility that are more devastating for being invisible. The rest of America can’t name them, can’t understand them. They just know they’re there.
By David Brooks, the elitist
Monday, July 10, 2017
Hoisted on his own petard
Report: James Comey Memos Contained ‘Secret’ or ‘Confidential’ Information
How could they not?
...(W)hen the seven memos Comey wrote regarding his nine conversations with Trump about Russia earlier this year were shown to Congress in recent days, the FBI claimed all were, in fact, deemed to be government documents.While the Comey memos have been previously reported, this is the first time there has been a number connected to the amount of the memos the ex-FBI chief wrote.Four of the memos had markings making clear they contained information classified at the “secret” or “confidential” level, according to officials directly familiar with the matter.A spokesman for the FBI on Sunday declined to comment.FBI policy forbids any agent from releasing classified information or any information from ongoing investigations or sensitive operations without prior written permission, and mandates that all records created during official duties are considered to be government property.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Trump is wrong/time to do something radical
Why hardly anyone dies from a drug overdose in Portugal
WaPo…But in Portugal, the numbers paint a different story. The prevalence of past-year and past-month drug use among young adults has fallen since 2001, according to statistics compiled by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which advocates on behalf of ending the war on drugs. Overall adult use is down slightly too. And new HIV cases among drug users are way down…Among Portuguese adults, there are 3 drug overdose deaths for every 1,000,000 citizens. Comparable numbers in other countries range from 10.2 per million in the Netherlands to 44.6 per million in the U.K., all the way up to 126.8 per million in Estonia. The E.U. average is 17.3 per million.Perhaps more significantly, the report notes that the use of "legal highs" -- like so-called "synthetic" marijuana, "bath salts" and the like -- is lower in Portugal than in any of the other countries for which reliable data exists. This makes a lot of intuitive sense: why bother with fake weed or dangerous designer drugs when you can get the real stuff? This is arguably a positive development for public health in the sense that many of the designer drugs that people develop to skirt existing drug laws have terrible and often deadly side effects.
Althouse
WHO BARGED WHERE IN THE G20 PHOTO?
Clearly (and hilariously) it was Macron.
Video at linkFrench President Emmanuel Macron goes way out of his way, jostling past numerous world leaders to get to stand next to Donald Trump. Angela Merkel, planted in the center front row, actively reaches out to him, but he's dead set on task and makes it to the extreme right, where Donald Trump had positioned himself.
But look how Newsweek presents the same photo op: "IN G20 PHOTO, TRUMP COULDN’T SHOVE HIS WAY TO THE FRONT AND CENTER OF WORLD LEADERS." The video there shows an earlier point in the assembling on the risers, but it's easy to see that Trump makes no attempt to get to the front and center position. He steps calmly to the end position and casually speaks to a few people. He does nothing that makes it seem as though he wants to be in the center, and he certain doesn't engage in any shoving. It's Macron that actively moves through the crowd (and "shove" would be the wrong word even for what Macron is doing).
I'm imagining how Newsweek would defend itself against the charge that this is fake news: Trump didn't shove his way to the front and center, because he couldn't. He would've if he could've. Since he didn't, that means he couldn't, so we reported that he couldn't.
That's not a logical defense, of course. It contains a glaring false premise. But it might work for hardcore Trump haters, who are deranged into thinking they are seeing the deranged mind of Donald Trump. Oh, man, he so needs to be in the center of everything, him with his narcissistic personality disorder. We need to move on him with the 25th Amendment before the world explodes.
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Dang, even the globalist WSJ agrees
White House Summary
Instapundit's Summary
Trump’s Defining Speech
Peggy Noonan:
Mr. Trump is taking a clear stand against the kind of gauzy globalism and vague multiculturalism represented by the worldview of, say, Barack Obama and most contemporary Western intellectuals, who are willing, even eager, to concede the argument to critics of the West’s traditions.WSJ Opinion
White House Summary
Instapundit's Summary
Rich Lowry/Politico
Trump Is Winning the Immigration Debate
Full article hereWith his penchant for tweeted insults and GIFs, Donald Trump will never be mistaken for a master of the sweet art of persuasion. Yet he is clearly winning the public argument on the issue of immigration.He isn't doing it through sustained, careful attention. He tweeted the other day that the media will eventually have to cover his success at the border, even though he himself has devoted more energy to his war with CNN than promoting the reduction in illegal border crossings.No, it is the sheer fact of his November victory, and the data showing the importance of the issue of immigration to it, that has begun to shift the intellectual climate.It had been assumed, even by many Republicans like Sen. John McCain, that opposition to amnesty and higher levels of legal immigration would doom the GOP to minority status forevermore. Trump blew up this conventional wisdom.Now, intellectuals on the center-left are calling for Democrats to rethink the party’s orthodoxy on immigration, which has become more and more hostile to enforcement and to any skepticism about current high levels of immigration.
Friday, July 7, 2017
I agree
The Smart-Medicine Solution to the Health-Care Crisis
Our health-care system won’t be fixed by insurance reform. To contain costs and improve results, we need to move aggressively to adopt the tools of information-age medicine
If you're not a WSJ subscriber, click on the X when the subscription box appears
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Dem Pollster Pat Caddell: Does CNN ‘Really Deserve to Be Called a News Organization Anymore?’
Caddell said, “What we have with CNN is the breakdown of the news network, which has become overwhelmingly a politically driven, ideological antagonist to a sitting president to the exclusion of everything else.”“This response that they did to this video thing and to the person who did it is really disturbing. It seems to border on some kind of journalistic blackmail, as far as I’m concerned.”
Caddell InterviewContinued Caddell, “It has damaged itself in the last month so much that you have to wonder: does it really deserve to be called a news organization anymore?”
National Review
CNN Is Breeding a Post-Millennial Generation of MAGA-Loving Rebels
It has become crystal clear that CNN still has no clue why Hillary and the establishment lost.. . . Much of the post-election reflection has focused on Trump’s popularity with the white working class, with whom the president’s populism and protectionism resonated. Most, however, have ignored the reactionary post-Millennials who, despite holding liberal values on many issues, voted en masse for Trump. (A Hispanic Heritage Foundation study backed up the voting data, which was limited to only the oldest of Gen Z. Their findings: of 50,000 teenagers, Trump would beat Clinton by 15 percent.)Full Article
Who'da thunk it?
Full Article
Shock Report: Trump’s Tough Trade Talk Is Working
As the G-20 summit gets underway in Germany, a shocking study out of Britain suggests — are you sitting down? — President Trump’s aggressive statements on trade may actually be working to the benefit of the United States. . .
But the Center for Economic Policy Research in London has just reported that the other 19 G-20 economies took 52 steps against United States commercial entities in the first six months of this year.And that, the Center reports, is — wait for it — down 29% from the first six months of last year when someone, let’s say, more aloof and less outspoken was president of the United States. These actions against U.S. interests include quotas, duties and tariffs on imports from the U.S., measures against dumping and tax incentives for exporters that could adversely U.S. companies.In public remarks and even tweets, Trump has ranted about the global trade playing field being tilted against the U.S. “The United States made some of the worst Trade Deals in world history,” he’s said. “Why should we continue these deals with countries that do not help us?”Simon Evenett, one of the authors of the Global Trade Alert and a professor of economics at Switzerland’s St. Gallen University, puts it this way:“The G20 countries that had hit U.S. interests more often before President Trump was elected are the very G20 countries that have cut back on protectionism the most in 2017,” said . “Why should [they] do that unless they feared being singled out for retaliation?”
Full Article
OBAMA-VOTER LAW PROF ALTHOUSE: CNN THREAT AIMED AT PRIVATE CITIZEN "ABSOLUTELY DESPICABLE"
Althouse BlogTuesday, July 4, 2017
On this day in 1863
CONFEDERATES SURRENDER VICKSBURG
On this day in 1863, the Confederates surrendered Vicksburg after a long siege by Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Union's victory at Vicksburg was the biggest of the western campaign and allowed the Union to control the Mississippi, effectively split the Confederacy, and disrupt the Confederacy’s supply lines. The Union’s win at Vicksburg, combined with the Union’s victory at Gettysburg the day before, rendered a double body blow of the first order to the Confederate cause. Legend has it that the people of Vicksburg did not celebrate July 4th again until 1944 during WWII.
Pat Buchanan, the man who presaged Trump
IS AMERICA STILL A NATION?
Full Buchanan Article. . . Could the Constitution, as currently interpreted, win the approval of two-thirds of our citizens and three-fourth of our states, if it were not already the supreme law of the land? How would a national referendum on the Constitution turn out, when many Americans are already seeking a new constitutional convention?All of which invites the question: Are we still a nation? And what is a nation? French writer Ernest Renan gave us the answer in the 19th century:“A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things … constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is the past, the other is the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present consent, the desire to live together, the desire to continue to invest in the heritage that we have jointly received.“Of all cults, that of the ancestors is the most legitimate: our ancestors have made us what we are. A heroic past with great men and glory … is the social capital upon which the national idea rests. These are the essential conditions of being a people: having common glories in the past and a will to continue them in the present; having made great things together and wishing to make them again.”Does this sound at all like us today?Watching our Lilliputians tearing down statues and monuments, renaming buildings and streets, rewriting history books to replace heroes and historical truths with the doings of ciphers, are we disassembling the nation we once were?“One loves in proportion to the sacrifices that one has committed and the troubles that one has suffered,” writes Renan, “One loves the house that one has built and that one passes on.”Are we passing on the house we inherited – or observing its demolition?Happy Fourth. And God bless the USA.
Althouse: NYT Shows Its Hypocrisy Analyzing Trump CNN Takedown Video
By the way, I think if a politician the NYT liked — e.g., Obama — were depicted fighting his media opponents — e.g., Fox News — in a cartoonish, over-the-top video, the NYT would approve of the comic fun. Anyone who complained that the video encouraged violence would be deplored as not understanding humor and the difference between real and metaphorical fighting.Althouse Blog
Monday, July 3, 2017
On this day in 1863
UNION ARMY WINS BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG AFTER PICKETT’S DESPERATE CHARGE ON THE THIRD DAY RESULTS IN 7,000 CONFEDERATE DEAD OR WOUNDED IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In what turned out to be the turning point of the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of the North was stopped at Gettysburg by Union forces led by recently-appointed General George Meade.
After two days of fighting, the Union and Confederate forces had suffered an incredible 35,000 fatalities. Lee tried to gain the initiative on the third day with a massive bombardment of Union positions. The Union responded with its own bombardment, reported to be the heaviest of the Civil War.
Mistakenly believing the Confederates’ artillery had softened up the Union lines, Lee ignored the advice of his subordinates and ordered General George Pickett and others to send 15,000 soldiers into what turned out to be a one mile long killing field to take the appropriately-named Cemetery Ridge. Pickett’s troops were mowed down one after another like sitting ducks and Pickett never forgave Lee for the slaughter of his men.
Realizing Gettysburg was unwinnable, Lee reluctantly withdrew his army. Meade’s Army of the Potomac was too battered to pursue and destroy the vulnerable Confederates as they retreated, but Lee never again attempted to invade the North and spent the rest of the war trying to fend off Union forces as they moved through the South to their ultimate victory.
Michael Goodwin
The Mainstream Media is Distorted by Intentional Bias and Hostility
I’ve been a journalist for a long time. Long enough to know that it wasn’t always like this. There was a time not so long ago when journalists were trusted and admired. We were generally seen as trying to report the news in a fair and straightforward manner. Today, all that has changed. For that, we can blame the 2016 election or, more accurately, how some news organizations chose to cover it. Among the many firsts, last year’s election gave us the gobsmacking revelation that most of the mainstream media puts both thumbs on the scale — that most of what you read, watch and listen to is distorted by intentional bias and hostility. I have never seen anything like it. Not even close.Michael Goodwin Speech at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Atlanta
Althouse: Your priorities may differ, but for some people even a full size flag pole is not enough to say how much they love America.
Dilbert on Trump's "Modern Presidential" Tweet
School Marms Unceremoniously Knocked Off Alleged Moral Highground
Scott Adams, Master Persuader, analyzes Trump's Master Persuader "High Ground Move."Scott Adams Blog
Sunday, July 2, 2017
On this day in 1964
JOHNSON SIGNS CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
On this day in 1964, Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House, the most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools. The bill also led the way for a number of other pieces of civil rights legislation–including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote–that have since been used to enforce equal rights for women as well as all minorities.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
To the federal judges in Seattle and Hawaii
LAW PROF JACOBSON ON IMMIGRATION RULING: LOWER COURT CHAOS SLAPPED DOWN BY EVEN LIBERAL SCOTUS JUSTICES
From last night's Tucker Carlson interview:
Legal InsurrectionQ. I think we’re bordering on legal chaos [because of the action of the lower courts]. Am I wrong?A. I describe what the Supreme Court did the other day as really a slap down to the lower courts. They issued this ruling on a preliminary basis, which basically said lower courts, what you did was wrong. And not only that, nine Justices, every single Justice of the Supreme Court said that. Now they said it in varying degrees….Not a single Justice, not even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the leading liberal light on the Court, was supportive of what the lower courts did. And that’s why I think this was a tremendous slap down. I hope the [lower] courts will learn their lesson from this, I’m not confident that they will ….I don’t know if it’s legal chaos, but what the lower courts did was really pretty outrageous …. [The Supreme Court said] no, you cannot strip the presidency of its constitutional and statutory power to control who enters the country.”
Friday, June 30, 2017
DILBERT AT HIS BEST: WHY TRUMP'S TWEETS HAVE DESTROYED CIVILIZATION
Scott Adams Blog
Time to do something radical
Survey: Pain patients overwhelmingly prefer medical marijuana over opioids
Though the survey, involving 2,897 medical cannabis patients, didn’t track actual drug use or efficacy, the findings fits with previous data. Decades of research suggest marijuana is effective for pain treatment. And recent studies have found that in states with medical marijuana availability, there are fewer opioid overdose deaths and doctors fill fewer opioid prescriptions.Article
On this day in 1950
TRUMAN ORDERS U.S. FORCES TO KOREA
On this day in 1950, Democrat President Harry S. Truman ordered U.S. armed forces to South Korea to defend against an invasion by North Korea. Truman also ordered the U.S. Air Force to bomb military targets in North Korea and directed the U.S. Navy to blockade the North Korean coast. China responded by entering the war on the side of North Korea a few months later. The war lasted three years before ending in a stalemate that exists to this day. 37,000 American boys were killed and over 100,000 were wounded. 7,800 Americans remain unaccounted for 67 years later. Some estimate the cost of the war for all sides as high as $20 billion and claim that up to 5,000,000 civilians and soldiers were killed.
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