Wednesday, March 07, 2018

The 2016 Election and the Demise of Journalistic Standards - Imprimis

The 2016 Election and the Demise of Journalistic Standards - Imprimis:
"...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.
It’s not exactly breaking news that most journalists lean left. 
See the source imageI used to do that myself. 
I grew up at The New York Times, so I’m familiar with the species. 
For most of the media, bias grew out of the social revolution of the 1960s and ’70s. 
Fueled by the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the media jumped on the anti-authority bandwagon writ large. 
The deal was sealed with Watergate, when journalism was viewed as more trusted than government—and far more exciting and glamorous. 
Think Robert Redford in All the President’s Men. 
Ever since, young people became journalists because they wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein, find a Deep Throat, and bring down a president. 
Of course, most of them only wanted to bring down a Republican president. 
That’s because liberalism is baked into the journalism cake..."
...Nations without economic liberty usually have little or no dissent. 
That’s not a coincidence. 
In this, I’m reminded of an enduring image from the Occupy Wall Street movement. 
That movement was a pestilence, egged on by President Obama and others who view other people’s wealth as a crime against the common good. 
This attitude was on vivid display as the protesters held up their iPhones to demand the end of capitalism. 
As I wrote at the time, did they believe Steve Jobs made each and every Apple product one at a time in his garage? 
Did they not have a clue about how capital markets make life better for more people than any other system known to man? 
They had no clue. 
And neither do many government officials, who think they can kill the golden goose and still get golden eggs..."
Lots here, read it all!

Lunch video-----Do College Students Hate Free Speech? Let's Ask Them.

Noon-toon-----Wondermark » Archive » #1382; An Inventor with Vision

Wondermark » Archive » #1382; An Inventor with Vision
Did you see they got double unicycles now too? I KNOW!!!

Why Aren’t Mueller, the FBI and DOJ Interested in Illegal Actions That Might Alter Our Elections? | The Heritage Foundation

Why Aren’t Mueller, the FBI and DOJ Interested in Illegal Actions That Might Alter Our Elections? | The Heritage Foundation:

Image result for flickr commons images voting booth"announcing the recent indictments against Russians brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the American people that “there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”
That was good news. The bad news is that the special counsel, the FBI, and the Department of Justice don’t seem interested in illegal actions that may actually affect the outcome of U.S. elections.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) sued Pennsylvania on Monday for concealing numerous cases of noncitizens registering to vote. One Pennsylvania election official testified before the state Legislature that an estimated 100,000 noncitizens are registered in the commonwealth."

Robert Reich's F Minus In Economics: False Facts, False Theories

Robert Reich's F Minus In Economics: False Facts, False Theories:
"I am appalled by the economic illiteracy encountered in leading newspapers, business magazines, and prominent web sites (the news section of the Wall Street Journal is no exception). 
Robert Reich’s Higher Wages Can Save America’s Economy – and Its Democracy (Salon.com) is only one of many examples. 
As a teacher of economics for over forty years and a co-author of a best-selling 1980s economics 101 textbook, I would have given Reich’s paper a resounding F, if he had submitted it for my elementary economics class.
...As a frequent TV pundit, author of 13 books, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley no less, and self-identified as “one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy,” many readers will automatically believe his economic nonsense. 
Image result for junk economics...Reich’s resume raises one red flag: He is not an economist but a lawyer – a Yale Law School classmate of Hillary Clinton...
...My F grade is also not based on Reich’s politics, which are quite different from my own.  
I award it instead for Reich’s incorrect facts and his embarrassing misunderstanding of basic issues about which economists agree.
Reich’s basic complaint in his Higher Wages Can Save America’s Economy – and Its Democracy is that “monied interests” have forgotten the century-old “basic bargain at the heart of America” that employers pay their employees enough to buy what they are selling...  
...Reich’s “forgotten bargain” is actually a hackneyed reprise of Karl Marx. 
In Das Kapital Marx warned of crises of overproduction and under consumption. 
...Reich dates the “basic bargain” back to Henry Ford.  
Henry Ford announced in 1914 that he would pay workers on his Model T assembly line $5 a day – three times what the typical factory employee earned at the time. 
Ford, according to Reich, took this step because he understood that the higher wage would turn Ford’s auto workers into customers for his Model T’s.
...Ford’s $5 wage to convert his workers into Model T customers is an urban legend that thinking economist dismiss as nonsense. 
...Ford raised the wage to $5 because labor productivity was soaring, not because he wanted to create customers. 
In 1909, his assembly line produced one Model T at his Highland Park plant every 12 hours. By 1914, it had fallen to one car every 96 minutes, and by 1920 to one Model T a minute. (See Henry Ford and the Model T: A Case Study in Productivity). 
Ford could afford to pay auto workers producing one car a minute much more than those producing a car every twelve hours. 
He also expanded his market by passing productivity gains on to customers. 
The Model T’s price fell from $825 in 1908 to $360 in 1916. 
With generally rising wages and a falling price, Ford became one of the richest men of his era..."
Much here, read on!

Political Editors: Biggest Driver of Inflation Is the Government — The Patriot Post

Political Editors: Biggest Driver of Inflation Is the Government — The Patriot Post
"...On the subject of inflation, however, it is the government’s meddling in the market that tends to be the greatest contributor. 
Economist Mark Perry, who has tracked changing prices for over two decades, has noticed a common trend with the price of various goods and services — costs have increased over the inflation level for those goods and services that have lacked competition
This should be no surprise to conservatives.
Specifically, those goods and services that have seen the greatest overall price increases are in the fields of medical and education-related services. 
And those two fields are most directly impacted by the government’s intervention in the marketplace, via subsidy and regulation. 
...As Investor’s Business Daily explains, “All that subsidy money was premised on the goal of making these things [health care and schooling] more affordable. 
The result is, for many, the exact opposite..."

#1 This day 1979-----I Will Survive

Todd Starnes: Court Ruling Could Banish Memorial Crosses From Arlington Cemetery — The Patriot Post

Todd Starnes: Court Ruling Could Banish Memorial Crosses From Arlington Cemetery — The Patriot Post
Image result for “Peace Cross”"There is a very real possibility that war memorial crosses at Arlington National Cemetery could be in jeopardy, a federal judge warned in a chilling dissent to a court case involving the fate of a 90-year-old monument honoring soldiers in Bladensburg, Maryland.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to revisit an October decision that declared the 90-year-old “Peace Cross” was unconstitutional because it rests on public property.
The monument is a memorial to the 49 men from Prince George’s County, Maryland, who died fighting for liberty in World War I.
The memorial, paid for by the American Legion and local citizens, consists of a large Celtic cross on a pedestal inscribed with the words “Valor,” “Endurance,” “Courage,” and “Devotion.”
The American Humanist Association, which represents a vicious gang of humanist and atheist thugs, was responsible for filing the original lawsuit..."
Read on!

You ought to know!


NRA memberships surge after gun protests

NRA memberships surge after gun protests:

Image result for NRA Symbol"Americans – and even people outside the country – have been tweeting their new NRA membership “thank you” notices under the hashtag #TweetYourNRA Membership.
“I am not an American and I don’t own a gun, but I wanted to help support your 2nd Amendment anyway,” wrote Justin Blake, who tweeted his new sign-up letter."

J. Christian Adams: The Foreign Influence on Our Elections Are Illegals Voting in Virginia, Texas, Penn. :: Grabien News

J. Christian Adams: The Foreign Influence on Our Elections Are Illegals Voting in Virginia, Texas, Penn. :: Grabien News:
‘I have got stacks of voter registration forms where people say, ‘Yes, I am a non-citizen,’ and they still get registered to vote’
  
RUSH EXCERPT:
PIRRO: "Welcome back to “Justice.” My next guest believes the real uninfluence in our elections has been ignored for years. Jay Christian Adams joins me to explain. Christian, thanks for being us tonight. When our government says illegals don’t vote and they tell us that all the time. Is that a lie?"
ADAMS: "It’s certainly not true because I can give name after name after name of foreign citizens in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, California, who have been posting ballots in federal elections. At least the years in federal prison when an illegal registers and votes."

AM Fruitcake


History for March 7

Image result for Aristotle Quotes
History for March 7 - On-This-Day.com:
Luther Burbank 1849, Maurice Ravel 1875, Willard Scott 1934 - Television personality ("Today")
Image result for Luther Burbank QuotesImage result for maurice ravel boleroImage result for Willard Scott Young

Janet Guthrie 1938 - Auto racer, Michael Eisner 1942 - Walt Disney CEO, Tammy Faye Bakker 1942
Image result for Janet GuthrieImage result for michael eisner quoteImage result for Tammy Faye Bakker Crying

0322 BC - Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, died.
Image result for Aristotle's Theory

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.
Image result for Alexander Graham Bell

1908 - Cincinnati's Mayor Leopold Markbreit announced before the city council that, "Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."
Image result for "Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."

1933 - The board game Monopoly was invented.
Image result for 1933 - The board game Monopoly was invented

1945 - During World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany.
Image result for U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany.

1975 - The U.S. Senate revised the filibuster rule. The new rule allowed 60 senators to limit debate instead of the previous two-thirds.
See the source image

1987 - Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titleholder when he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, NV.
Image result for Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titleholder when he beat James Smith

1994 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" that does not require permission from the copyright holder.
Image result for parodies

2002 - A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages. The ruling was the latest in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.
Image result for Anna Nicole Smith

Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Trey Gowdy, Bob Goodlatte call for special counsel in Carter Page case - Washington Times

Trey Gowdy, Bob Goodlatte call for special counsel in Carter Page case - Washington Times:

Image result for flickr commons images Trey Gowdy"Two chairmen of key House investigative committees officially asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to appoint a special counsel to look for “potential criminality” in the Carter Page surveillance case.
Republican Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, respectively the chairmen of the judiciary and oversight committees, sent a note making the request to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein."


The Incredible Trump Agenda – What Most Americans Don’t Know About the War the President Has Waged | The Heritage Foundation

The Incredible Trump Agenda – What Most Americans Don’t Know About the War the President Has Waged | The Heritage Foundation:

Image result for flickr commons images Trump"While the 2016 presidential elections were underway, policy analysts at The Heritage Foundation (my employer and one of the nation’s leading think tanks) compiled a six-volume series of conservative, research-based policy recommendations for the next president.
The recommendations were calculated to help the incoming president and Congress jumpstart the economy, strengthen national security and halt the increasing centralization of power in the federal government.
At the end of 2017, we reviewed all 334 recommendations presented in our “Mandate for Leadership” series and found that the Trump administration had embraced fully 64 percent of them. That’s nearly two out of three – and that’s very good indeed."


The way we were-----The Murmaids - Popsicles and Icicles

Boob-tube-----The Little Rascals (Our Gang) TV 1955 - Opening and Closing Theme (With ...

Trump and Trial Lawyers Target Drug Companies Over Opioid Addiction - Reason.com

Trump and Trial Lawyers Target Drug Companies Over Opioid Addiction - Reason.com:
"Making drug-company shareholders foot the bill for a public health crisis is flaky and counterproductive.
The opioid addiction issue is headed for the next stop on what is now a well-worn path: from public health crisis, to subject for award-winning and heart-tugging journalism, to payday for trial lawyers.
See the source imageThe lawyers are poised to do to prescription drug companies, pharmacy chains, and drug distributors what they did to tobacco companies and asbestos manufacturers—wring from them a multibillion dollar settlement, with a sizeable chunk going to the lawyers themselves.
...On March 1, federal government lawyers filed a "statement of interest of the United States of America" before Judge Dan Polster of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
Judge Polster is presiding over the consolidated cases known as In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation.
It is so vast that just the docket listing the names of the parties and their lawyers is 222 pages long.
...The targets of the suits instead are mostly large publicly traded companies—Abbott Laboratories, CVS Health, Costco, Express Scripts, Wal-Mart—whose shareholders will wind up paying the price of any settlement.
Also as usual, there is little consideration given to the potential unintended consequences.
The same issue of The New York Times that carried the news of the government's statement of interest before Judge Polster also carried a book review lamenting the "sluggish progress" and "dry pipeline" in developing new medicine to treat mental illness..."
Read on!

An attempt to scare you out of your money!-----Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled In Last 10 Years | Time

Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled In Last 10 Years | Time
"Child hospitalizations due to opioid overdoses nearly doubled between 2004 and 2015, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.
Attempts to curb opioid use among adults have not curtailed this troubling trend, the authors say, and more efforts are needed to reduce opioid ingestion—both intentional and accidental—in kids.
For the new study, researchers examined billing records from 49 children’s hospitals in 27 states and the District of Columbia. (why only 27 states?)
They found that between 2004 and 2015, there were a total of 3,647 opioid-related hospitalizations in 31 different hospitals. (but, but, but the study was 49 hospitals!)
See the source imageThe percentage of those children who died after admission decreased over that time period, from 2.8% a year to 1.3% a year. (16 total)
But in the same time frame, the total number of hospitalizations nearly doubled: from 797 in the first three years of the study to 1,504 in the last three years. (Why use the "3 year" total and not show the year to year?)
The number of hospitalizations that required admission to the pediatric intensive care unit also doubled. (doubled to what?)...
The majority of opioid-related hospitalizations were for older children ages 12 to 17, but one-third were for kids under age 6. (167/yr)
And while most children had overdosed on prescription opioids or illicit narcotics like heroin, a significant number of children under 6—about 20%—were treated for methadone overdoses.
The makes sense, the study authors wrote in their paper, since adult prescriptions for methadone, a drug used to treat other opioid addictions, increased 559% from 2000 to 2007..."
Read on!

Blame cultural failures, not NRA or firearm for school shootings - Washington Times

Blame cultural failures, not NRA or firearm for school shootings - Washington Times:

"The good news is that there is an effective program underway that addresses the specific security issues at individual schools.
Image result for flickr commons images NRA hatEstablished in 2012, The School Shield Initiative is designed to help local communities conduct comprehensive security evaluations of schools in their neighborhoods. Every school building and campus are different in their own unique settings. School Shield provides free training in how to evaluate the infrastructure, technology, personnel and policies already in place.
Military, law enforcement and other personnel with security backgrounds are eligible to participate in the five-day training sessions that “highlight and reinforce what is being done right, and identify potential areas requiring improvement.” The curriculum has been carefully constructed by security experts, and the training is comprehensive and accredited. After an individual school is assessed, it can even apply for a grant to help pay for the improvements.
Who supplies this free training around the nation? Who provides funds directly to schools to help them beef up their security? The same people who work so hard to preserve your personal safety: The NRA and the NRA Foundation."



'via Blog this'

The Chicken Littles Are Hammering Trump on Trade, but Charles Payne's Truth Bombs Blow Their Theories to Smithereens - Scott Morefield

The Chicken Littles Are Hammering Trump on Trade, but Charles Payne's Truth Bombs Blow Their Theories to Smithereens - Scott Morefield:
"President Trump’s Thursday decision to begin the process of keeping his campaign promise to protect the American industrial base by imposing tariffs on imported steel and aluminum has seemingly gotten everyone in a tizzy, oddly uniting Big Business, top globalists, the IMF, the GOP Establishment and even liberal Democrats, all of whom never agree on anything yet are united that this particular decision will mean nothing short of an economic apocalypse for the United States.
Truly, to hear these folks tell it we’re looking at an economic scenario to rival the bleak hellscape of The Walking Dead, minus the zombies (unless you count liberals as zombies, which arguably wouldn’t be that far off).
...Liberals, too, are in agreement. 
The folks at Vox think Trump “decided to put the global economy at risk because he was in a pissy mood.”
...Fox Business host Charles Payne, who says he is not a “protectionist” but wants, like most people slandered with the term, fair trade for all. 
...As Payne brilliantly points out, despite the grim prognostications of those who seemingly know better, tariffs not only have worked for America in the past, but are currently working for our competitors now.
...Here are a few more truth bombs from Mr. Payne:

  • “Let's be clear, the EU is against tariffs when America uses or considers them but they levy 10% on all US car imports we only have a 2.5% rate on their car imports. #justsaying”
  • ...In a piece last July arguing against Trump’s trade policies, even the Atlantic had to admit that “Many economists and industry experts agree that the United States faces unfair competition and artificially low prices that have damaged the domestic steel industry.

“But they don’t agree that a tariff is the right approach for addressing the problem,” the piece continued, because tariffs “could backfire,” or something.
Sure, it’s a nice argument, but if tariffs have worked in the past for the United States and continue to work for the rest of the world, it’s not one bolstered by history or reality..."
Read it all!

Ambitious plan seeks prosperity for everyone in Kalamazoo | MLive.com

Ambitious plan seeks prosperity for everyone in Kalamazoo | MLive.com
See the source imageKALAMAZOO, MI -- Local leaders have an ambitious plan to proactively improve prosperity for everyone in the city of Kalamazoo.
Monday, the City Commission approved an action plan which outlines short and long-term goals set by the "Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo" initiative.
It seeks to bring opportunity to all residents by increasing access to good jobs, ensuring the healthy development of youth and creating strong families.
"In order for us to move our community forward, we need to change all three of those things," said Community Development Manager Dorla Bonner..."
Read on for more moronism.

Lunch video-----(Video) The Weaponization of Social Media | The Daily Sheeple

(Video) The Weaponization of Social Media | The Daily Sheeple:
"Now openly admitted, governments and militaries around the world employ armies of keyboard warriors to spread propaganda and disrupt their online opposition. 
Their goal? 
To shape public discourse around global events in a way favorable to their standing military and geopolitical objectives. 
Their method? 
The Weaponization of Social Media.
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

Noon-toon