The NYTimes “staff ethicist” discusses how to react to other people expressing bigoted statements.
I didn’t see anything about responding to someone saying their politician was acting “in your best interests – as if you’re not perfectly aware of them, and somehow retarded by dint of not living in Manhattan or DC.
I’ll keep looking.
As Joel Kotkin points out, Donald Trump faces two major hurdles. One is the structural mess Barack Obama left; a shallow, fragile “prosperity” (nonetheless called a “boom” by the Democrat media) built on hoarding low-interest cash.
The second? The perception that the media is pumping out that this potemkin prosperity is actually a “boom” (emphasis added):
Yet this is more a matter of perception than reality, a kind of “fake news.” To be sure, President Barack Obama inherited a disastrous economy from George W. Bush and can claim, with some justification, that on his watch millions of jobs were restored and the economy achieved steady, if unspectacular, growth. Under Obama average GDP growth has been almost twice as high as under his predecessor, but roughly half that of either President Reagan or Clinton.
(And, lest anyone forget, “under Clinton” really means “under Gingrich”, since Clinton showed every sign of being no better than Obama for his first two years).
Less appreciated, however, are the fundamental long-term weaknesses in the U.S. economy that Obama and Bush have left for Trump. A recent report from the U.S. Council on Competitiveness details a litany of profound, lingering flaws — historically slow growth, rising inequality, stagnant incomes, slumping productivity and declining lifespans. As the report concludes: “The Great Recession may be over, but America is dangerously running on empty.”
Like everything by Kotkin, it’s worth a read.
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
How can anyone not foresee the obvious consequences of this policy:
Migrants will stay in Germany if they can prove neo-Nazi violence
Berlin’s interior minister Andrea Geisel ([pictured) said Berlin is looking into the legal possibilities of the exemption after nearby Brandenburg opted for the scheme which offers protection to witnesses.
First, there will be a tenfold increase in the number of asylum seekers falsely claiming to have been beaten up by Neo-Nazis in order to claim permanent residence; and
Second, Neo-Nazis now know that beatings aren’t sufficient to make asylum seekers leave, so they’ll escalate to killing.
How stupid are these bureaucrats?
Joe Doakes
“How stupid are these bureaucrats?”
Knowing Joe, I know it’s a rhetorical question.
In 1987, as a bill that would require the state to issue handgun carry permits to citizens who were not explicitly barred from having them passed a vote in the Florida state legislature, state senator Ron Silver predicted blood in the streets, and said the state would turn into Dodge City.
Silver, being a Democrat of some integrity, admitted several years later he was completely wrong, and that the law was an untrammeled success.
In 2003, Senator Wes “Lying Sack of Garbage” Skoglund, during the debate on the Minnesota Personal Protection Act (which also instituted “Shall Issue”), said that the law would “allow gang members to get carry permits”. Which would, I suppose, be true, if you found a gang-banger who was 21 years old and had a clean criminal record, in which case the term you’d be look for is “citizen”. Anyway – it hasn’t happened. In 14 years, carry permittees have killed perhaps a half dozen people; in every case but one, it’s been ruled justifiable (and the one exception was someone who shouldn’t have gotten a permit to begin with).
In sort, it wouldn’t be a gun control debate without someone claiming the sky would fall if the law-abiding citizen were able to exercise his or her rights – and a slow walk back five years later as the predictions turned out to be universally false. .
Speaking of universally false, The Reverend Nancy Nord Bence is in the news! And it almost reads too pat to be good fiction that she does it with a press release that ends with:
We cannot allow the gun-rights fringe to divide our communities, put police at risk, and turn our friendly and forward-looking state into…
Wait for it…
One wonders if she even realizes that the “OK Corral” analogy undercuts her point?
Wait for it…
…the OK Corral.
It never, ever fails, does it?
The Game, It Is On: Last week, two bills were introduced in the Minnesota state legislature:
In response, “Protect” Minnesota – a group that has for over a decade provided comic relief to Minnesota’s Second Amendment debate – released a press release on the bills.
They released it at 7:30 PM. On a Friday night. The time when most politicians in the know release damaging information – because it’ll be forgotten about by Monday.
And they tried to make up for bad timing with pure volume; unlike most such political press releases, it’s as long as a a Madonna speech, and about as coherent.
The piece isn’t just groaningly, flatulently long; it’s so full of falsehoods – through malice or through incompetence, it matters not – that it really leaves only two possibilities; they really are that badly informed, or they assume that the public is and want to help keep them that way.
At any rate, it’s so bad, I am actually going to break it up into four parts over the rest of the week:
So tune in every day over lunch for something that “Protect” Minnesota won’t give you; facts. And the truth.
Listening to Martin Luther King’s “I Have Been To The Mountaintop”, it’s glaring how far the art of oratory and rhetoric has sunk, even just in my own lifetime.
Martin Luther King was, of course, a tall yardstick to which to compare any orator.
Heat maps of TV / cable / digital shows around the country.
I’m frankly amazed that “The Voice” dominates North Dakota like it does.
…is today’s DFL cash cow.
Here’s the link to the MN Gun Owners Caucus.
As Bryan Strawser and I discussed, you need to start calling your state representative and state senator now, to support the Self Defense Reform (aka “Stand Your Ground”), Constitutional Carry and Reciprocity Reform bills.
More next week.
And of course, ♫ today’s music playlist.
Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air!
Today on the show:
Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1440, and Brad Carlson is normally heard on “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 2-3PM.
So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:
Join us!
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Got this message from the Real Property Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association, sent to all members:
“The MSBA Real Property Law Section seeks feedback on what our members find valuable about the Section. To streamline the process, we put together a short survey for members, and in return, five members who complete the survey will be rewarded with a gift card to Target worth $50 in stores or online. The information gathered from the survey will be used to evaluate the Section’s current and future initiatives and keep us focused on the things that matter most to our members.”
Sent this message in return:
Dear MSBA: I won’t be completing the survey. I thought I’d let you know why not.
I pay dues to support the section out of my pocket, not reimbursed by my employer. The section will use my dues as a reward for contributing to the survey. But not in cash which members could spend on anything they like; the section will only allow winners to spend the reward at a particular vendor.
The reason that matters is this particular vendor has chosen to embrace controversial corporate values which are not shared by everybody in the state, such as the recent bathroom controversy or even stocking policies under which customers cannot buy ordinary items sold at other discount retailers such as spark plugs. Target management makes these decisions to make a political statement of its corporate values, the better to market its brand to its selected customer base.
Fine, Target can make marketing decisions as it sees fit. But by specifically choosing that particular vendor over Walmart or Fleet Farm or a Visa gift card spendable anywhere, the Real Property Section signals to members that it shares Target’s value system and wishes to contribute to its bottom line profitability with my dues. What does that action say to members of the section – or to the public at large – who do not share those values?
It doesn’t matter whether I, personally, share Target’s values. I don’t think MSBA should be in the business of rewarding businesses on the basis of which political positions they embrace. I think MSBA and all its sections should be neutral. I don’t wish to participate in an activity that makes it appear that I, as an attorney and officer of the court, have chosen to promote one set of controversial values over the values held by other citizens of this state. Therefore, I will not complete the survey.
This is the sort of unconscious Liberalism that blindsided Hillary supporters. They literally don’t think anybody disagrees with them, never even occurs to them to wonder about it. I doubt my note will do any good – I suspect they write it off as “another cis-gendered White male curmudgeon” – but somebody ought to say it.
Joe Doakes
Someday, the concept “Urban Liberal Privilege” will need to be officially codified.
This is certainly a case study.
A Swiss community is un-thrilled by the immigration by a “left wing vegan” Dutch woman:
A left-wing Dutch vegan who campaigned against cowbells in the Swiss village where she lives has had a request for a Swiss passport thrown out after annoying the locals.
Nancy Holten, who was born in the Netherlands but moved to Switzerland at the age of eight, is a fluent speaker of Swiss German and has children who are Swiss nationals.
And she wanted a Swiss passport herself, but was refused after locals who were consulted about her request said they were ‘fed up’ of her challenging Swiss traditions by campaigning against the use of cow bells.
And for you liberals who read this and think “how terrible!”, but were campaigning against the Electoral College last month? This is what majority rule looks like.
Although this is a salutary example. If you’re Swiss.
…that Trump and his people might be smarter than their critics.
What happens when you count the dead over the past sixteen years in Chicago – which hasn’t had a Republican, much less conservative, mayor in several generations?
You get more blood and gore than our two official war zones, that’s what.
What do you suppose would happen if the mainstream media and Hollywood covered Democrat failures like they covered George W. Bush’s mistakes?
“But Mitch! You heard the President last year – Chicago’s violent crime wave is happening because people can buy guns in Indiana.”
If that were true, then why isn’t Indiana awash in blood, too?
No, for some reason Indiana – and, for that matter, most of Illinois – has a fraction of Chicago’s violent crime rate. Of course, the feds have been derelict in their own job, opting out of the business of prosecuting “straw buyers” – who, along with theft, provide most of the guns used by Chicago’s gangs.
Maybe some of the gun movement’s shrill scolds can whitesplain us why the US attorney for Northern Illinois hates black people…
We’ve fallen a little behind on our World War I series. Over the next few weeks/months, we’re going to work to get caught-up to the calendar.
The Romanian ambassador to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was insistent on delivering his communique on August 27th, 1916. Entrusted with a diplomatic message directly from Romania’s Prime Minister Ion Bratianu, the ambassador was rushing to made sure it reached the correct authorities within the Dual Monarchy.
In a verbose note that covered Romania’s relatively short diplomatic history with the Habsburgs – the nation had at one point been a part of the Triple Alliance along with the Austrians, Germans and Italians – Bratianu recited a long list of perceived slights and concerns for the young Romanian nation. The Dual Monarchy had regarded the Romanians as “an inferior race” which had led to a “continual state of animosity,” at least according to Bratianu. For these reasons, and many, many others, the note concluded: “Rumania considers herself, from this moment, in a state of war with Austria-Hungary.”
The Romanian ambassador had done his job. Only the note was supposed to be delivered on August 28th, not the 27th – meant to arrive as Romanian troops were already crossing the Austro-Hungarian border.
Romania had surveyed the landscape of the Great War and decided to join the Entente in a grasp for territory and power. Within two days of their premature declaration of war, they found themselves surrounded and in conflict with every nation of the Central Powers.
The Romanians weren’t exactly fighting for “freedom and justice.” Romania’s Day would be extremely short
Romania’s choice to go to war in the late summer of 1916 may have been cynically opportunistic, but the nation’s optimism seemed firmly grounded by the war’s recent turn of events. (more…)
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
My boss is a liberal. “Trump tweeted that he’s breaking his promise, Mexico won’t pay for the wall, we will.”
My response: you’re being distracted from important things by irrelevancies. Social Security runs out of money in three years. Then what?
His idea: make the federal government repay the money they stole from it.
Seriously? The reason the federal budget is only short $500 billion each year is that we’re borrowing money from the Social Security fund to cover it. Where will we get the money to close that gap PLUS repay the IOUs to Social Security?
Simple: the government will just have to come up with the money. And if they don’t have it, then we can’t build the wall. And besides, it’s only temporary, until enough undocumented immigrants arrive to pay into the system again, then it’ll all work out.
Yes. The liberal plan is to bail out Social Security with [illegal immigants], which is why we must not build the wall, so they can get in, to save us.
Joe Doakes
Which is, of course, also why we need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; if people make more, they pay more social security taxes. Hence solvency…
In the wake of the left’s disgraceful self-clowning at the Golden Glob Awards, the right’s perception of the Hollywood Liberal may be at Peak Meme. And for good reason.
But Christian Toto, writing in the National Review about filmmaker Peter Berg (no relation) cautions on the danger of painting with too broad a brush about “Hollywood Liberals”.
The lesson? We need a brush exactly broad enough.
Hollywood is threatening a strike until Donald Trump retires…
…well, OK. Not “Hollywood”. Just some actors.
Brad Pitt, Amy Adams, Dakota Fanning and Ralph Fiennes are among the A-listers…
…who are not mentioned anywhere in the piece about the supposed strike:
Rosie O’Donnell, Debra Messing, Ed Asner and Michael Shannon are among the dozens of artists, entertainers, and activists who have attached their names to an effort calling for a month-long protest to stop President-elect Donald Trump.
Those are the four they led with?
Rosie O’Donnell, whose picture s in the DSM-V under “delusional?”
Debra Messing, who turned all that “Will and Grace” star power into one entire season of The Starter Wife on the USA Network before it got tanked?
Is Ed Asner really still alive?
And…Michael who? Wasn’t he “Lord of the Dance” 20 years ago or something?
Hillary is pondering running for mayor of NYC.
To be fair, she couldn’t be any worse than DiBlasio.
Could she?
Hank Sheinkopf, a New York Democratic consultant, told Newsmax, “She is wildly popular among New Yorkers — so much so that were she to file, [Mayor Bill] de Blasio would have to file his retirement papers on the same day.”
I’m going to guess Mr. Sheinkopf was saying the same thing this time the last year about the Presidency…
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Obama promises to send 1,200 Special Forces troops to Lithuania, to counter Russian military aggression.
This is a transparently political move directed at low-information domestic audience, the people who get their news from headlines alone. Obama won’t be President this Spring so he won’t be the one keeping the promise when it comes to sending Greet Berets against Russian tanks. But if Trump doesn’t keep Obama’s promise, then Democrats will claim Trump is abandoning our allies because he’s in bed with the Russians who stole our election.
Trump should declare today that he has no intention of letting Obama start a war with Russia and then walk away leaving him holding the bag, that Trump will make his own decisions after he is inaugurated.
I expect Obama will continue to sabotage the incoming administration, not in Bill Clinton’s juvenile method of removing the “W” from all the White House keyboards, but in true tin-pot dictator style, by emptying the prisons and pardoning his henchmen.
Joe Doakes
I expect Sasha, Malia and Michelle to get a “fact-finding trip” to Monaco out of the deal in the next two weeks…
Rachel Maddow – not the most overrated “public intellectual” in the leftymedia, but pretty dang close – threw out some hilarioiusly historicalliy-ignorant red meat organic gruel for her audience of ill-informed wannabe intellects.
Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor. I am gravitating toward moments in history for subliminal reference in terms of cultures that have unexpectedly veered into dark places, because I think that’s possibly where we are
Well, there’s a “subliminal reference” there, but not the one Maddow is thinking of.
Let’s look back on when Hitler became Chancellor.
It was a decade when political parties kept private armies that roamed the streets beating, stabbing and sometimes shooting their opponents. There were more than a few massacres, of both commies and Nazis. The left has some groups that might, with a little more derangement, become “private armies”, but I’ll be charitable and assume thats not where we’re going, at least on purpose.
Germany had a parliamentary system that gave a president – superannuated General Von Hindenburg – the power to dissolve the government – something easily used by a crafty plurality to stage what amounted to a bloodless consensual coup. That’d be hard to do, at least legally, within the US’s constitutional system. Of course, the left has spent the past eight weeks floating ideas to circumvent or avoid the constitution – but again, let’s just chalk that up to the whining of spoiled, entitled children of all ages.
It was a place deeply fractured among extremist parties that hated each other and often acted on that hate. OK – the left might be giving us that equivalence.
Otherwise? Shut up, Rachel, and make me a f****ng sandwich.
Last summer, when the people of the UK voted to leave the EU in the fabled “Brexit”, the same pundits who routinely Americans for “voting against their best interests” took a time out to chide Brits for voting…against their “best interests”. The Brit economy was going to tank, returning the UK, if not to the Third World, at least into an impemetrable economic fog.
The landed punditry hasn’t been doing so well this year:
Business activity hit a 17-month high last month, meaning that the economy grew by 2.2 per cent last year — more than the six other leading nations, including the US, Germany and Japan.
Far from slowing after the referendum in June, as predicted by the Treasury and Bank of England, [and a rogue’s gallery of American pundits with portfolio – Ed.] growth appeared to have improved. GDP grew at 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent in the first two quarters of last year, compared with 0.6 per cent and an estimated 0.5 per cent in the final period.
On the one hand, time will tell.
On the other hand, our departing president wishes he’d had two consecutive quarters as good as that particular “failed experiment”.
A friend of this blog writes:
So, this opinion piece says the poor don’t get enough exercise, so of course the wealthy are to blame. Why? Because wealthy whites like to do things like yoga, spinning groups and the like, and they don’t see poor people at those classes.
The writer’s solution is anti-wealth. The writer could decide that we need to encourage job growth so poor people could raise their income and choose new forms of exercise, if that is what they want. But instead decides that everyone needs to be brought down a notch, do community yoga and the like.
Sort of like the morning calisthenics during Mao’s regime!
I wonder how the fitness instructor a feel, the yoga instructors, etc about the idea that they are making too much money teaching classes to wealthy people? The writer didn’t say that, but that would be a consequence of getting rid of private gyms.
Eggs must be broken to make an omelet!
And did the writer ask poor people what they’d like to do to increase their physical activity? I mean, in cities, many of the poor are already walking quite a bit for errands, to the bus, etc. Would they like community exercise opportunities? Well, sure, let me just pencil that in between my 2 hour bus commute between my two jobs, picking up food for my family, and washing clothes at the laundromat.
Back when I went without a car for a year, I lost like 30 pounds – and rarely had much time for anything but getting ready for my next walking/biking/mass transit sojourn.
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