... I'm finding the morning news unreadable, unclickable. You say something, won't you?
April 28, 2017
At the Dropping Out Café...
... I'm finding the morning news unreadable, unclickable. You say something, won't you?
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It's afternoon here, and it doesn't seem to get any better today.
speaking of dropping out, my wife retires today.
A lovely photograph, Althouse.
This April has given you plenty of opportunities to photograph raindrops, that's for sure. I don't mind the rain; I just wish it was warmer.
/The usual cheesehead bitching about the weather
I'm skepticated: Broken bones and rocks yield evidence that pushes back the record of early humans in North America by more than 100,000 years
Go Buckeyes!
News on the Atlanta real estate front. The houses prices are selling quickly at asking price, and the asking prices were long shots when they were listed last month. DaTrump effect rolls along.
Right now it's "39.7 °F/Feels Like 40 °F."
It's a lovely sunny day, and I know I'm choosing to live in Wisconsin. But it's hard to re-acclimate. I adjusted. Can't re-adjust this easily.
The big news today is that there was no riot in Berkeley yesterday.
The House GOP needs to get its act together. That's today's news, but it's not exactly "new," is it?
"DaTrump effect rolls along."
Working class prices for his working class supporters, no doubt!
54 now, and a high of 72 here in the California state capital. Supposed to be entirely sunny for at least a week, highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s.
But, of course, there's a stiff weather tax.
I sense tension at the surface.
Trump.
Looking forward to tomorrow: filming a short 'film' (ten minutes, maybe) that introduces the two main characters of the movie we will be filming in June.
Will put it up on YouTube when completed.
Renting a White Van for the story.
Laslo Films keeps rolling...
I am Laslo.
@ Paddy O
Where was your picture taken?
Laslo wrote: Renting a White Van for the story.
The seediest things happen in white vans. Will the film be a seminal effort?
"Will the film be a seminal effort?"
Ha!
I am Laslo.
Will your film be like "On The Road with Charles Kuralt" -- Laslo's bukkolic vision of America?
Bob, on San Miguel Island, part of the Channel Islands national park system. It's a trail in the middle of a field of giant coreopsis. Going down the cliff to the beach.
I never quite got to the islands when they were in full bloom, but I hear it's amazingly beautiful.
The middle class or working class had a main family retirement asset, which was the value of their working class home. That wealth was 2/3rds destroyed in 2008 and never came back until this month. So blame Trump for that too. He is still an Orange Haired Clown who only wins by accident, after accident.
Home prices are connected at the hip with the number of paying jobs within an area.
And the jobs are starting to return, by accident.
Interesting that there may be so few contentious national headlines that Ann has decided to take a nap. Is this a sign? Is it a trend? Is Ann feeling her age? Has TDS been miraculously healed? Stay tuned!
Well it looks like the Wall Street Journal must have read my post in the Laffer Napkin thread on Wednesday as they published this in an editorial yesterday:
"The plan also fits the economic moment, because a main source of U.S. malaise is poor business investment. Spending on the likes of new factories, equipment and software is soft, which in turn has undermined the productivity gains that produce more jobs, higher wages and higher living standards. Productivity growth in the 2000s and 2010s is only about half the average of the 1980s and 1990s.
"One reason for this underinvestment—even though corporations have about $2.5 trillion parked overseas—is the uncompetitive and complex American tax system. The 35% statutory rate is the developed world’s highest, and an archipelago of credits, exclusions and deductions means the tax collects only about 11% of federal revenue, or roughly a meager 2% of GDP.
"Slashing the headline rate to 15% would instantly lead to a surge in capital investment. Mr. Trump would make small businesses like S corporations and other pass-throughs that now pay through the individual tax code eligible for the 15% rate. Tax parity among all companies is a useful goal, not least because owner-operated companies are an engine of hiring and growth.
"Increasing the capital stock will raise productivity. The economic literature conservatively suggests that about half of the corporate tax burden is carried by workers in the form of lower wages. In other words, moving to 15% is a national pay raise."
Now, if only The Stupid Party would get to work and pass this we'll see some real economic improvement.
Whatever the legalities, or illegalities, may be about General Flynn not obtaining Gov't. permission to travel to Moscow and giving a speech there, how can it have been a serious transgression if he gave briefings at the agencies involved before and after the trip?
On the face of it, it seems General Flynn must have thought he was good to go, no?
It does look like General Flynn have managed to seriously offend someone somehow, and I would like to know who and what, but this paid speechmaking could hardly be it.
I like that picture. The plants are very....Doctor Seuss.
The House GOP needs to get its act together. That's today's news, but it's not exactly "new," is it?
Whether through post-election NeverTrump-fueled malice, simple incompetence or both, Paul Ryan has proven to be the Trump agenda’s enemy and the Democrats’ best friend.
The Speaker who, I was just reminded on cable, failed to carry his own state when he was VP on the ill-fated Romney presidential run and cannot produce enough votes from his majority in the House to pass any really important legislation, could be killing his chance for a future presidential bid.
Being pushed out of a leadership role because of poor performance is not recommended as a bullet item in a presidential candidate’s job history, as this article makes clear.
The GOP anti-Trump forces( a.k.a. the eGOP) first big mistake was not supporting their own party’s presidential candidate. Indeed, whenever they thought they could safely do so, they joined up with the Democrat/MSM/Academia/Urban anti-Trump coalition. They clearly preferred Hillary over Trump.
Now, post-election, the dickheads that make up the anti-Trump eGOP are committing their second big mistake – sabotaging the Trump legislative initiatives whenever and wherever they can behind the scenes in the House.
I’m not counting their acquiescence to the Russia Collusion bullshit. The eGOP usually pulls down its pants and bends over anytime the MSM is in its vicinity but that was true before Trump.
The House Democrats are of course laughing about all this and eagerly looking forward to the upcoming congressional elections – a bunch of imbeciles enjoying themselves at the expense of a crowd of cretins.
Looking forward to Der Rosenkavalier tonight, the Met/Covent Garden production featuring Renee Fleming giving her farewell performances as the Marschallin as part of her too-early good-bye to the operatic stage. Still tickets for next Friday's performances (the other two are sold out) for those of you who want to see her in this role. Terrific music, great cast, world-class orchestra. What's not to like?
Here are nine people who will lose their coverage under Trumpcare and one who won't:
1. a diabetic
2. a cancer survivor
3. an asthmatic
4. someone with allergies
5. a heart disease patient
6. an HIV/AIDS patient
7. someone with chronic lung disease
8. someone with Cystic Fibrosis
9. someone with Multiple Sclerosis
10. any member of Congress
@harrogate: Congress designed it that way. I recall the deliberations.
Do read her entire statement...
"...We have made the mistake of confusing democracy with capitalism and have mistaken political engagement with a political machinery we all understand to be corrupt. It is time to resist the simplistic, utilitarian view that what is good for business is good for humanity in all its complex web of relationships. We the people, must include all species.
We are not the only species that lives and breathes on this planet.
The possibility of rescinding and reducing our National Monuments is not going to happen. We have laws. We have the courts. We have brilliant attorneys working on this now. And we have each other.
When I say we will cherish this fight -- what I mean is that we will bring our whole presence to this fight which is about love
and wildness and all the joy we hold in our hearts for these
magnificent places -- in the desert, in the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the oceans -- and all the creatures who inhabit these lands and waters. We will defend Beauty and in so doing, we
are defending peace on Earth -- with the humanity that is ours..."
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Who the heck is Terry Tempest Williams?
Flowery words justifying land grabs by the Federal government.
I stopped paying attention to the news the first day of Lent and felt so much better without it that I haven't gone back. I am vaguely aware of some sort of war on science going on. What was that all about?
And then there are those who don't give one damn about the insane ramblings of Terry Tempest Williams. Do we get a say? Or is it "Shut up, Sonsong explained."
"Campus creeps in a nutshell: your words are the same as violence, our violence is the same as words." - David Burge
Were was Terry Tempest Williams when the EPA turned a Colorado river bright orange?
http://www.newsweek.com/epa-causes-massive-colorado-spill-1-million-gallons-mining-waste-turns-river-361019
U.S. says 'major conflict' with North Korea possible, China warns of escalation
So, we may be selling out fast on immigration and trade reform, but luckily you'll get that war nobody wants.
Kasich: Trump should ‘eradicate’ North Korean leadership
Remind me again why they let this goofball out of Columbus?
Thanks, Bob. Very Dr. Seuss indeed.
Sydney said...
I stopped paying attention to the news the first day of Lent and felt so much better without it that I haven't gone back. I am vaguely aware of some sort of war on science going on. What was that all about?"
The conservatives were waging a war against science but don't worry, the left organized a rally to tell everyone that they're all science-y, so we're all good.
Murders in US very concentrated: 54% of US counties in 2014 had zero murders, 2% of counties have 51% of the murders
Of all the emotions which materialized from the results, the two strongest were disorient[sic] and shame.
...
Which brings me to the rationale behind the second emotion the results unexpectedly surfaced: ... I was damn near 1/3 White.
"So, we may be selling out fast on immigration and trade reform, but luckily you'll get that war nobody wants."
Why did Trumpists trust that Trump wouldn't start nuclear wars? He signaled his admiration for nukes during the campaign. What did you think?
@Inga:
Why did Trumpists trust that Trump wouldn't start nuclear wars?
Well, I can't speak for Trumpists (whatever that is); I can only speak for myself. And I have answered this question to you before. When faced with a decision between a known quantity (Clinton with a history of militarism and promising an even more belligerent, militarized foreign foreign) and an unknown quantity (Trump promising to put "America First" and pursue a less interventionist foreign policy), you go with the latter. Of course, there is always the possibility of a sell out, but a known unknown is better than a known known.
But, Inga, perhaps you can tell us, since you presumably supported the other candidate, what did you think of Clinton's, "we came, we saw, he died" joke about Qadaffi? I mean, the intervention had turned Libya into an anarchic hell hole, helped destabilize Mali, and created a refugee crisis in the Mediteranean. What did you think about Clinton's call for no fly zones and the creation of safe zones inside of Syria, which would require a sizable number of US troops? If Trump's militarism bothers you, what did you find so enticing about the alternative's foreign policy?
Fernandinande:
Murders in US very concentrated: 54% of US counties in 2014 had zero murders, 2% of counties have 51% of the murders
Murder is also very concentrated by sex and race. Black men, who are about 6.5% of the US population, commit around 50% of the murders.
It hailed. It's snowing. Baby, it's cold outside.
grackle asserts: The GOP anti-Trump forces( a.k.a. the eGOP) first big mistake was not supporting their own party’s presidential candidate. Indeed, whenever they thought they could safely do so, they joined up with the Democrat/MSM/Academia/Urban anti-Trump coalition. They clearly preferred Hillary over Trump.
Of course! The Establishment is the Establishment, whichever label it wears. We need a third party.
I've been reading the German newspapers, and participating in the discussions re the articles. You have never seen so many bitter clingers who believe their government is out of touch. They're all like - we don't wanna be raped 'n stuff. It is difficult to describe the reaction to the proposals for school bussing for instance (because they now have schools in which virtually no child knows German). And then the pure joy over the idea of moving the refugees to the land and small villages!
Let's just say that it is astonishing to see societies fail in the same way, over and over again.
The Austrian president said that there was so much Islamophobia that the day was coming when the government would ask every Austrian woman to wear a head scarf so that the Muslimas couldn't be harassed. People were so ENTHUSED. I just can't describe it! They want to recall him, so everyone can hug him in enthusiasm.
And do you know what they are saying? They are all afraid they will end up like the US, with rampant crime and an entrenched, embittered, violent criminal lower class.
To make a very bad pun; the media is in a flat spin.
First, we fire O'Reilly. Then we will worry about what to do next.
Fernandinande:
What's it look like, murders by county, after normalizing for population or population density? I expect it would still be greater than rural areas but that diffrential would be more telling.
Drudge headlines implying FOX News is headed down the liberal toilet.
My O'Reilly therapy group agrees.
It is a slow news day so far.
Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are apparently quite upset with Trump.
Drudge headlines implying FOX News is headed down the liberal toilet.
Robert Conquest's 2nd Law of Politics: "Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing."
It's only Slate so pay no attention.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/27/conservative_media_outlets_really_want_the_border_wall.html
"On Thursday, Gateway Pundit published a post in which it spotlighted the concerns of National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, who claimed his organization would be “very upset” if the wall wasn’t built.
Gateway Pundit, typically one of Trump’s strongest allies, set one of Judd’s questions in bold: “Why continue to vote for people if they don’t keep the promises that they made on the campaign trail?”
Judd isn’t the only one worried that Trump could lose support over the wall. As Breitbart reported, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel suggested that voters would “hold [the GOP] accountable” if they didn’t make good on the promised wall. Breitbart’s commenters seemed to agree, as did Ann Coulter, who promised in the Daily Caller that there “will be a bloodbath” if the party doesn’t find a way to pay for Trump’s project. “Do not imagine that a Trump double-cross on the wall will not destroy the Republican Party,” Coulter continued. “Oh, we’ll get them back. No, you won’t. Trump wasn’t a distraction: He was the last chance to save the GOP.”
Coulter argued that the wall would be worth it, even it meant risking a government shutdown. “A failure to build the wall IS a government shutdown,” she wrote. Rush Limbaugh argued that a government shutdown is nothing to get worked up over anyway, especially if it means finding funding for the wall. “Two-thirds of the government cannot shut down. We’re only talking about the third of government that’s discretionary spending, and even at that, nobody loses their jobs, and nobody loses their Thanksgiving turkey,” he said."
I read an article that said U.S. and Japanese navies fished the remains of several of the North Korean missiles out of the ocean and found that major components were made in China.
I have long thought that this was a Chinese missile research and development program, since I do not see how North Korea with a population of 25 million in a hardscrabble country, and with that government, could possibly support a 500,000 man army and the industrial and financial muscle necessary to foot such a program, plus, of course, develop the necessary scientific and engineering prowess in nearly total isolation from the world around them.
I do not know where The Donald is going with this, but I think the show is for the Chinese leadership to ponder.
but luckily you'll get that war nobody wants."
I hate to break it to you Inga, but sometimes war wants us.
Appeasement does not avoid war, it strengthens those who would make war.
Doug Bandow asks "Could President Bill Clinton have Changed History in North Korea?"
"Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are apparently quite upset with Trump."
Well, he did say, and many, many times, that he would build a wall, "a big, beautiful wall."
But then he heard a little tiny peep from the defeated minority, and, well, he capitulated.
And I'm starting to wonder if has has a backroom deal with Ryan. Which is the only explanation I can come with regarding his now tattered agenda.
No repeal, no tax breaks, no wall... SHUT UP, YOU GOT GORSUCH!
There's a feminist panic about Handmaid's Tale being a documentary about the treatment of women Trump's America. Which is ironic, because it's more like the treatment of women under Sharia law.
Behold - the stupid
Inga -- Unlike leftists, who stand by their criminals, crooks and liars, no matter what (see Hillary) -those of us on the non-left actually disagree, argue, and hold out for principle.
"I just love NHL playoff hockey. The most exciting sport on the world. Too bad NHL officiating is the worst on the planet. The rules/infractions change according to the score, time left in the game, who is the home team."
Long-time Badger goalie coach Bill Howard was always expounded his "marble theory" of hockey referees, in which the ref kept marbles in his pocket counting the penalties he had called on each team so that he could even them up by the end of the game.
Reading "The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom" by John Pomfret (A Washington Post reporter and writes like he was taught in journalism class, for better or for worse; the better part being that the book is full of little telling details that historians usually miss.) and found a paragraph about U.S. District Judge William Orrick in 1988 jumping into the middle of a U.S./China deal to prosecute a drug smuggling ring, declaring a mistrial on "civil rights" grounds, causing major embarassment to both governments, and ending cooperation by China in our anti-drug enforcement efforts for decades.
@BJM:
I hate to break it to you Inga, but sometimes war wants us.
She was actually quoting that line from me.
Appeasement does not avoid war, it strengthens those who would make war.
The fact that both metaphors you have chosen (appeasement and Pearl Harbor) are nearly 80 years old. North Korea is one of the most heavily sanctioned regimes on the planet. There are nearly 30,000 US military service members on the Korean peninsula. The US regularly conducts military training exercises with the South Koreans and the Japanese. We are not "appeasing" North Korea.
Doug Bandow asks "Could President Bill Clinton have Changed History in North Korea?"
After reading the article, I'd say in all probability no.
Oh, and the Chinese national that Judge Orrick freed stayed in the U.S. and in the drug business and was later hacked to pieces with machetes in New York after a drug deal gone bad.
" -- Unlike leftists, who stand by their criminals, crooks and liars, no matter what (see Hillary) -those of us on the non-left actually disagree, argue, and hold out for principle."
Oh boy. And you voted for Trump? Hahaha, oy.
Well, well. Some of the leftist idiots (but I repeat myself) who threw a temper tantrum in DC on Inauguration Day are facing more than a wrist-slapping:
"Approximately 212 people face felony charges, which includes one count of inciting or urging a riot, one count of engaging in a riot, one count of conspiracy to riot and five counts of destruction of property, the indictment states.
Additional charges have been added to some of the defendants cases, including destruction of property involving damage to a limousine.
According to the indictment, 101 have been charged with a misdemeanor assault of an officer, one in a separate incident. Another person has been charged with three felony counts of an assault on an officer while armed. "
http://wjla.com/news/local/grand-jury-returns-superseding-indictment-in-inauguration-day-felony-rioting-case
Good. Some of these leftist scum are going to find out it's not fun to go through life with a felony conviction on their records.
The Clean College Chick With The Hot Nose Ring and Herpes says...
When I was a little girl I wanted to be a Florist when I grew up, because I really loved flowers: all the pretty colors and shapes and smells, I loved it all. But my Dad would just laugh at me, saying there was no 'real' money in that, and that I already had expensive tastes. Expensive tastes? I was twelve! I didn't like the newest clothes and shoes because they were expensive, I liked them because they were Cool...
I always had the clothes everyone else wanted and said they couldn't afford: that wasn't MY problem if their parents didn't make enough money. But then I realized that my Dad was Trying To Buy My Love by buying me all of those clothes, so I stopped wearing them. I would shop at Goodwill and Salvation Army and buy the clothes REAL people wore. My Dad would then complain and call those clothes 'dirty' but -- Fuck You, Dad -- Dirty is REAL...
You see, even as a teenager I understood what was REAL, and our Capitalist Patriarchy was NOT it. When I went to College I took classes in Women's Studies, and my Dad practically had a heart attack: he said I'd never get a job with that degree unless the person hiring was a Lesbian...
But Women's Studies opened my eyes: I realized I was RIGHT about what wasn't REAL, and that felt good. Then it hit me: Women's Studies were REAL, but how REAL could they fully be when they were still part of the Capitalist Patriarchal College System? It was Ghettoization, pure and simple...!
So I quit School and joined the Antifa. I will NOT live with my Soul in a Ghetto! I DON'T need the newest shoes this season! Still, I must admit: it made me a little sad when we rioted downtown last week and broke the windows of that Florist. But our Leader told me that the Florist was obviously selling flowers to all the Rich Pigs downtown, so he CHOSE to be punished. And you know? When I think about it that way I feel a lot better...
I am Laslo.
"I would shop at Goodwill and Salvation Army and buy the clothes REAL people wore."
My daughter went through that phase. Hmm, you are more plugged in than I thought.
Still, it was, I think, about looking for retro stuff.
@Inga:
Oh boy. And you voted for Trump? Hahaha, oy.
1) Who did you vote for?
2) What did you think of his or her foreign policy?
"We call it foreign policy because policy is absolutely foreign to it."
Jill Stein, reluctantly. I would've voted for Sanders if he had won the nomination.
I agree with Sander's foreign policy for the most part.
“We live in a difficult and dangerous world, and there are no easy or magical solutions…America must defend freedom at home and abroad, but we must seek diplomatic solutions before resorting to military action. While force must always be an option, war must be a last resort, not the first option.
As a member of Congress, I have supported the use of force only when it was a last resort and America’s vital interests were at stake. I opposed the first Gulf War, as did many other Members of Congress, because I believed that there was a way to achieve our goals without bloodshed, through sanctions and concerted diplomatic action. I supported the use of force to stop the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. And, in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001, I supported the use of force in Afghanistan to hunt down the terrorists who attacked us. I regret that President Bush did not use that authority properly, and that American combat troops remained there too long. I voted against the war in Iraq, and knew it was the right vote then, and most people recognize it was the right vote today. The only mission President Bush and his neo-conservative friends accomplished was to destabilize an entire region, and create the environment for al-Qaeda and ISIS to flourish.
While we must be relentless in combating terrorists who would do us harm, we cannot and should not be policeman of the world, nor bear the burden of fighting terrorism alone. The United States should be part of an international coalition, led and sustained by nations in the region that have the means to protect themselves. That is the only way to defeat ISIS and to begin the process of creating the conditions for a lasting peace in the region.”
– Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders on the Issues- war and peace.
@ J. Farmer
We aren't appeasing Iran? C'mon.
Clinton's Agreed Framework was magical thinking.
Joel S. Wit, State Department Coordinator for implementation of the Agreed Framework (1995-2000) during the Clinton administration, stated that "we did know about the DPRK cheating on the highly-enriched uranium front starting in 1998" the Koreans agreed not to enrich plutonium, but continued a secret uranium enrichment program."
That this issue has landed in Trump's lap is his luck of the draw, it could have just as easily landed in Obama's. This failure has many fathers on both sides of the aisle.
"My daughter went through that phase. Hmm, you are more plugged in than I thought. "
I intersect with interesting Social Circles.
Being Seattle and all.
I am a Venn Diagram. Of which one of the overlapping circles is The Althouse Blog, yes.
I am Laslo.
Trump's first 100 days assessment:
Not one evening did I have to hear "President Clinton ..." on the evening news.
Grade: A+
@BJM:
We aren't appeasing Iran? C'mon.
First, Iran or North Korea? We were talking about the latter, not the former. Second, I don't really like the word "appeasement" because invariably it is meant to draw comparisons with Chamberlain's treatment of Hitler and Mussolini in the latter half of the 1930s. Since the US is not faced with a situation even remotely resembling that of 1930s Europe, I think metaphors to that area tend to obscure more than they illuminate.
That this issue has landed in Trump's lap is his luck of the draw, it could have just as easily landed in Obama's. This failure has many fathers on both sides of the aisle.
I don't disagree with that, but ratcheting up the war rhetoric is not a workable solution. And the Pence/Tillerson line that North Korea must unilaterally disarm before any talks is patently absurd. No country would give up a program it considers of vital strategic importance for the prospect of mere talks. There likely isn't much we can do to persuade the North Koreans to give up their nuclear program, since the regime considers it a vital piece of defense strategy. It essentially wants insurance against invasion and overthrow. China also does not want North Korea to go nuclear, but they have very little options in dealing with the regime. A collapse of the regime would be a nightmare scenario for most parties involves, especially including South Korea and China, which would be flooded with million of poor, uneducated refugees.
@Inga:
Jill Stein, reluctantly.
In that case, thank you for helping get Trump elected.
That argument about the "millions of poor, uneducated refugees" won't wash. If the North Korean regime collapsed and say 20%, or 5 million people refugees escaped, that would relieve the pressure in North Korea, but would not even be a rounding error in China's population - especially not now that they are thinking they might have overdone it with the "one child" policy - and South Korea's share would not be that much to take care of in a burgeoning economy.
In fact, China might even welcome all 25 million North Koreans into Manchuria to stave off the Russians.
In that case, thank you for helping get Trump elected.
Inga did less towards that than Hillary and the DNC.
J Farmer, didn't you vote for Trump? I thought you had said so in the past, if not who did you vote for, Johnson the marijuana addled guy who didn't know what Allepo was?
Murders in US very concentrated: 54% of US counties in 2014 had zero murders, 2% of counties have 51% of the murders
What % of those 2% of counties voted for Hillary?
Hard to tell for sure (Map of Hillary Voting Counties and Trump voting Counties) but it sure does look like 'Lots of Murders' is a great predictor for 'Voted for Hillary'
A text message from my sister: "Muslim is 30% off this week."
Sometimes AutoCorrect says the darnedest things!
"Ready for my closeup Mr. Spatula."
@Hagar:
In fact, China might even welcome all 25 million North Koreans into Manchuria to stave off the Russians.
Except everything about Chinese behavior over the last quarter century suggests just the opposite. They have regularly been in the ire of the United Nations thanks to their forced repatriation of tends of thousands of illegal North Korean immigrants into China. Not exactly the behavior of a government blithe about the activity on it's northeastern border.
As for the issue of unification:
“Issues of reunification have been very divisive in South Korean society between left and right, between progressive and conservative. Perhaps no other issue has been as divisive as the issue of reunification,” Chung Chong-Wook, the vice-chair of the 50-member committee, said at its headquarters near the presidential Blue House in Seoul. “The committee’s mission is to try to forge national consensus among different groups.”
There are few thornier issues in global politics than reunification: the rejoining of one of the world’s most dynamic and developed economies with one of its most dishevelled and repressive.
-Costly and complicated – why many Koreans can't face reunification
"Survey data in South Korea consistently shows increased levels of antipathy and antagonism towards North Korea and unification. Young people who support unification do so with provisos that demand a net political and economic benefit for the South. They show little interest in the North. And growing numbers of young people actively and openly oppose unification.
The uncertainties surrounding unification compound the challenges and fears faced by young South Koreans in an already insecure economic and social environment. In this context, it is not unreasonable for South Korea’s youth to reject the North and unification in an attempt to mitigate what is certainly the greatest risk facing South Korea’s future generations. Instead, they embrace their proud South Korean national identity."
-Is South Korea still interested in unification?
@Inga:
J Farmer, didn't you vote for Trump? I thought you had said so in the past, if not who did you vote for, Johnson the marijuana addled guy who didn't know what Allepo was?
I wouldn't mind a president who did not what Aleppo was. It's not an American city, after all, and not a major international city as well. But no, I did vote for Trump, primarily because for two decades now I have supported immigration restriction and a restructuring of trade deals. Anti-interventionism is also important but not as important as the immigration issue.
@MadisonMan:
Inga did less towards that than Hillary and the DNC.
Every little bit helps.
Hard to tell for sure (Map of Hillary Voting Counties and Trump voting Counties) but it sure does look like 'Lots of Murders' is a great predictor for 'Voted for Hillary'
Well, black people tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, and "lots of black people" is a good predictor for "lots of murders."
The county murder stat is confounded with urban centers and population density (and Hilary voiting to be sure). A per capita number would likely be much less distinct and more honest, although I'd bet it's still skewed.
That kind of confounding is a classic statistical error/distortion. The county finding has to show and an effect size that is greater than more people = more murders to be intersting.
J.Farmer said,
"I wouldn't mind a president who did not what Aleppo was. It's not an American city, after all....."
Well you're welcome to him in libertarian world, we here in the real world need leaders who are well versed in current events and geography.
Good luck on that wall....
Bruno Hauptmann did NOT write the ransom note, although the father of modern forensic handwriting analysis, Albert Osborn, said he did. But not at first, not when he rightly declared that Hauptmann did NOT write the Lindbergh-baby ransom note. Yet a week later Osborn reversed himself. Why? What did the author of the seminal book "Questioned Documents" (1929, 2nd Edition), an exhaustive, 1000 page work of forensic genius, what did he see after originally concluding that Hauptmann did not write the ransom note?
For one, he saw nothing in the second viewing that he hadn't seen in the first. Notes, ransom or otherwise, do not rewrite themselves. Which leaves only one plausible explanation; political expediency.
But why "Osborn," has always been my question. In fact, when I first compared Hauptmann's writing history/samples to the ransom note, it was obvious that he did not write the ransom note. And I don't mean a "little" obvious, but blindingly obvious. Because I had studied Osborn's book. Intensely.
There was, however, a very unusual aspect to this case in that they coerced Hauptmann, who was somewhat hapless to begin with - to copy the ransom note, stroke for stroke, over and over, until he got it "right." And when Hauptmann finally produced a reasonable facsimile (to the untrained eye), they declared him guilty. But just so you know; no matter how hard you try, it's virtually impossible to replicate another person's handwriting. Even a simple "X," sometimes used in lieu of a signature, is next to impossible to forge.
Aside from the handwriting, however, Hauptmann was implicated in the kidnapping, this after the police found a portion of the ransom money in his garage stored in a shoe-box. Hauptmann claimed he knew nothing about the contents/money, and that he'd been asked to hold the shoe-box by a friend who had traveled to Germany (also Hauptmann's birthplace). That shoe-box was the sum total of the actual case against Hauptmann. All the remaining "evidence" was pure poppycock.
Therefore, I’ll never fully understand why Albert Osborn joined in the frenzy to convict Bruno Hauptmann - as if he hadn’t even read his own book.
@Inga:
Well you're welcome to him in libertarian world, we here in the real world need leaders who are well versed in current events and geography.
That's odd. I thought I was voting for the President of the United States, not the President of the World.
Good luck on that wall....
Thank you. But the people of southwest America who have their wages compressed and living standards altered by huge influxes of illegal immigrants need the luck more than I do. I actually have the resources to insulate myself from the negative effects of immigration. But unlike the current crop of globalist elites, I try to avoid an "I got mine" mentality.
JFarmer,
The United States is the most powerful country on earth. What happens here affects the entire world and vice versa, don't fool yourself that it doesn't.
@Inga:
The United States is the most powerful country on earth. What happens here affects the entire world and vice versa, don't fool yourself that it doesn't.
That's a truism, and it does not clash with an American First agenda. Japan is also exposed to the consequences of the world economy, but nobody has to call for a Japan First program in Japan because it's simply automatically assumed that the state will work for the best interests of the nation. Japan is one of the wealthiest, most highly developed nations on the planet, and next to nobody believes that it is their job to solve the problem in Syria anymore than the interests of the United States would have been served by solving the internecine civil wars of central Africa.
What China has done while maintaining North Korea as a fenced-in communist park exhibit is no indication of what they would do if they decided the park had served its purpose and it is time to end it.
@Hagar:
What China has done while maintaining North Korea as a fenced-in communist park exhibit is no indication of what they would do if they decided the park had served its purpose and it is time to end it.
Except China has not been "maintaining North Korea as a fenced-in communist park exhibit," and I think you are vastly overstating the degree to which China can control events on the ground in North Korea. Its primary strategic objective in North Korea is to provide a buffer state against the South, which contains tens of thousands of American troops, and is decidedly in the western sphere of influence.
Wil Casey Floyd, 32, is charged in federal court with unlawful possession of destructive devices. He was arrested Friday morning at his mother’s house in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.
He was throwing molotov cocktails in Seattle during the 2016 May Day protests.
J. Farmer said...
@Hagar:
What China has done while maintaining North Korea as a fenced-in communist park exhibit is no indication of what they would do if they decided the park had served its purpose and it is time to end it.
Except China has been "maintaining North Korea as a fenced-in communist park exhibit," and I think you hare vastly overstating the degree to which China can control events on the ground in North Korea. Its two primary strategic objectives in North Korea is to provide a buffer state against the South, which contains tens of thousands of American troops, and is decidedly in the western sphere of influence.
4/28/17, 3:56 PM
Go home China, you're drunk. Leaving out what you rotters do or do not deserve, where are the wise clear-eyed Chinese sages to tell the leadership that no, the US has watched The Pricess Bride, and is not about to bloody well invade China? But tyrants always need pretexts.
ROK is not going to invade China. DPRK is not going to invade China. Japan is not going to invade China through Korea. USA is not going to invade China. The Flips (sorry buwaya is that a slur? don't mean it), Malaysians, etc., are not going to invade China.
Invade China and do what?
The only possible takers are Russia or some combine of Stans/Islam.
Question, if anyone was going to come up over the Yalu to do China, what is the correlation of forces on their side to stop anyone bigger than some starving refugees?
North Korea gets its food, oil, and electric power from China and has served as China's cat's paw in nuclear proliferation, "illegal" conventional arms sales, and other nefarious activities around the globe.
But it is expensive to maintain and may turn out to be most dangerous to China itself.
I predict China will throw NorKor under the bus.
@Hagar:
But it is expensive to maintain and may turn out to be most dangerous to China itself.
How is it "expensive to maintain?" You left out North Korea's role as a buffer state to the south.
@Bad Lieutenant:
Go home China, you're drunk. Leaving out what you rotters do or do not deserve, where are the wise clear-eyed Chinese sages to tell the leadership that no, the US has watched The Pricess Bride, and is not about to bloody well invade China? But tyrants always need pretexts.
Where are you getting the notion that China fears a US land invasion? For starters, China is a nuclear-armed state, which makes conventional war between our two countries a quite limited possibility, but there are still geostrategic concerns. Mexico is not going to mount an armed invasion of the US, but if China started bilateral security agreements with Mexico and stationing forces in Mexico, it would be seen as highly provocative, and it would cause serious tension on the continent. Likewise, China does not have to fear typical land invasion in order to fear constraint on its ability to act, particularly within its sphere of influence. US forces in Japan and Korea are primarily there to contain China, and US security planners admit as such. Also, I do not think you appreciate how profoundly events like the Japanese invasion of Manchuria have had on on China's strategic worldview. That said, China has not launched a conventional military attack in the nearly 40 years since the Sino-Vietnamese War.
If you're into secure channels with audio, video, and file exchange, I've been playing with:
Retroshare
It works pretty good at cable modem speeds. I've been talking to my cousin in Lorraine, and he is appalled at my French, and I am appalled at his English, but at least we have the same taste in pictures of naked Swedish girls.
I had been looking forward to watching the Starz miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, but from the reviews I've been reading, it sounds like they are really politicizing it way out of proportion from the original novel. It's Gaiman's work and he's free to do with it what he will, but I think he's doing a disservice to his readers, because the book was not a polemic about the horrors of Trump's America. While the immigrant experience was a intricate part of the book, and of Gaiman's experience as well, it was not the main part of the plot, which was the conflict between the old gods that people had brought with them to America and the new gods of technology. It also sounds like they are really going to bloat it with extraneous material. It was a hefty book, but they could have wrapped up the plot in one season's worth of miniseries. It's not like Game of Thrones which was already a series of books when the television series started. Reading the blather from the showrunners (who think that John Oliver is a sage) brings a feeling of dread. I'll try to watch it, but if it becomes tedious, I'll drop it in a heartbeat.
tcrosse:
There's a feminist panic about Handmaid's Tale being a documentary about the treatment of women Trump's America. Which is ironic, because it's more like the treatment of women under Sharia law.
One of my favorite comedians, Norm MacDonald, took to Twitter recently to rant about the miniseries and the book:
"I've just read an incredible article where "The Handmaid's Tale", a sub-par piece of science-fi trash, is defended by its author."
"The author, who rightly should be apologizing for her execrable prose, not only defends it but calls it 'timely'."
"The book has been made in to some sort of cable mini-series."
"I'm Canadian, so had to suffer through this book as a young person. It's one of those cheap, dystopian tracts."
"The difference with this one is it has a deeply paranoid feminist look into the future."
"The story is as impossible as most of these 'frightening looks into the future'."
"But to call it timely, when the possibility of this fiction ever becoming fact even more of a joke, is just a cynical cash-grab."
mockturtle said...
"I predict China will throw NorKor under the bus"
That's more than likely the case.
Niether China or SK want to have to deal with a NK without a Kim.
It is inevitable though that NK flls in some way or another. There is simply too much outside information reaching NK citizens.
The greatest fear the SK peole that I've talked to is that NK invades SK and then stops and begs to be taken care of.
NK is just so third world backward SK would be better off without them and China surely doesn't need any freeloaders.
Kim onl real hope is to mollify both the US and China and then keep his boot even more securely on the neck of his people.
Let's see which way li'lKim jumps.
I'm pretty sure it's going to be in the direction of more bloster and military parades.
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