News of the Week for July 31st, 2016
- Election 2016
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2016
Why Trump Can Win Pennsylvania
Given current trends, with a few tweaks to his approach, the Republican nominee could win Pennsylvania for the first time in a quarter century.
Sanders delegates chant “Lock her up!” at Dem breakfast
Angered by email leaks showing Democratic National Committee favoritism toward Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders delegates chanted “Lock her up!” at the California delegation’s breakfast on Monday.
Why Are Voters So Angry?
They want self-government back.
The Democrats manage to violate federal immigration law yet again at their convention
At this point, stories about Democrats breaking the law are quickly falling into the Dog Bites Man category, but this one is still worthy of note because of the national (and indeed international) platform where it was featured.
DNC Breaks Federal Law; Violation of Sec. 8 U.S. Code § 1324
In their bizarre showcase of illegal aliens on the first day of their convention, Democrats not only shamelessly used a little girl for crass political reasons, they also managed to break federal immigration law – twice.
Democratic Youth Council shows why we dislike millennials
If you were wondering why so many people dislike millennials today, look no further than the Orwellian-sounding “Youth Council” of the Democratic Party.
Harry Reid To Intel Community: Give Donald Trump Fake Briefings
“This man is dangerous.”
The Democratic National Convention Reminded Us Just How Badly The GOP Blew It
Has there ever been a more consequential act of political suicide than the one the GOP just pulled off? I doubt it.
Clinton campaign also hacked in attacks on Democrats – sources
The computer network used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign was hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on Democratic political organizations, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
How Pennsylvania will be won
The fate of the state’s 20 electoral votes will be decided on opposite ends of the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Gary Johnson’s VP: We’d be looking to appoint Supreme Court justices like Stephen Breyer and Merrick Garland
Via Reason, the key bit comes at exactly 10:00 of the clip below. Things start out okay, with Johnson insisting that he’d appoint originalists to the Court. Then Weld starts talking.
Anti-Trump protesters join in chants of “Lock Her Up” as Trump stumps at Colorado campus
Campaign appearances by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have incited violence, flag burnings, and rage-fueled debates, yet at a Trump pit stop at a Colorado campus on Friday protesters and Trump fans found something they could agree on – a dislike of Hillary Clinton.
Why Do Some Conservatives Criticize Donald More Than Hillary?
Ever since it became clear that Donald Trump’s presidential run was not going to be considered by Republican voters to be the joke it ought to be, I have spent a majority of my political Facebook-post capital drawing attention to his numerous, presidency-disqualifying flaws. Because of this, I have even been called, to my great amusement, a Hillary Clinton supporter, despite my unequivocal statements that I would never vote for her.
Collectivism Is All The Dems Have
But in fairness to them, I guess it sells well.
Ballot measures may let voters determine battle of titans
It can be rather entertaining to watch titans grapple for power – unless they are doing it in your backyard and you can be trampled.
Obama Scandals
Justice Department Knew of IRS Scandal 2 Years Before Congress but Did Nothing
Recently unearthed documents reveal that the FBI knew the IRS was unfairly targeting groups because of their conservative politics two years before Congress even heard about the agency’s misconduct.
Gun Rights
Knife Rights: The Unseen Side of the Second Amendment
While congressional Democrats and Republicans go head-to-head over gun control, proponents of a smaller, often overlooked facet of the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms pursue a battle of their own—the right to carry a knife.
College Republicans lead impromptu rally against MA gun ban
The College Republicans of Bridgewater State University rallied more than 400 protesters outside the Massachusetts State House Thursday to protest a proposed gun ban.
Gunman gets shot in Las Vegas by Pokemon GO player he tried to rob
A gunman and his underage driver tried to rob a group of people playing the popular Pokemon GO game, triggering a shootout after one of the players pulled out his own weapon at a Las Vegas park that has become a hot spot for virtual creature hunting.
Obama Issues Executive Order That May Drive Gunsmiths Out of Business
President Obama has the ability to issue “executive orders” that direct the agencies controlled by the Office of the President to change the way they operate. Government agencies have a large amount of leeway when it comes to the interpretation of the law and how it applies to the American people, and these executive orders are intended to allow the president to specifically direct those agencies in whatever manner he sees fit.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
Sociologist: “Why climate denial should be a criminal offence”
Dr Jarrod Gilbert is a sociologist at the University of Canterbury and the lead researcher at Independent Research Solutions.
A Warm Period by Any Other Name – The Climatic Optimum
There is frustration and reward when an article appears on the same topic of an article you are completing – in this case the Holocene. Such was the case this week with Andy May’s article “A Review of temperature reconstructions.” Andy points out the basic problems of reconstruction using proxy data for the most recent half of the Holocene – an issue central to historical climate and climate change studies. His paper did not alter my paper except as it reinforces some arguments.
Shale Ready to Tango with the Saudis
When oil prices first started falling two summers back, market observers turned their attention to OPEC to see if the cartel would constrain production to stop the slide. But Saudi Arabia strong-armed its fellow petrostates into staying put, reasoning that market share was more important than robust prices, and so oil fell down below $30 per barrel earlier this year before rebounding into the $40s where it remains today.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
When Assisted Suicide Becomes Coercive
Even the best intentions cannot reverse the insidious effects of a wrong policy. When those who advocate for assisted suicide cite a benevolent desire to relieve suffering, the horrifying results of such a practice still lie just beneath the surface.
War & Terror
Islamist knifemen forced priest, 84, to kneel and filmed his death as they slit his throat
Hollande says “France is at war with ISIS” after jihadists storm French church during Mass chanting “Allahu Akbar”
Rudy Giuliani: Electronic monitoring devices for people on the terror watch list would be an excellent idea
A leftover from earlier this week. The New Jersey paper that squeezed this quote out of Giuliani describes him as a Trump advisor, which is true, but as far as I know Trump himself hasn’t said anything about a proposal like this. Yet.
National
Amherst orientation includes mandatory screening of “I’m Not Racist…Am I?”
The film follows a dozen NYC teens through five workshops dealing with racism.
Prosecutors Drop All Charges Against Planned Parenthood Whistleblower David Daleiden
Planned Parenthood’s attorney previously admitted to colluding with Houston prosecutors to bring charges against Daleiden.
Employee suspended for “hate crime” of believing in two genders beats the charges
Restored “without loss of pay”
Congressman: Jewish Settlers Are Like Termites
Slams Israeli Government, compares top official to Trump
Heavy Metal Band Disturbed Urges Solidarity With Police
“Hashtags do not determine your f*cking fate, people.”
Charges Dismissed Against Baltimore Police Officers in Freddie Gray Case
Prosecutors dropped all charges against the remaining Baltimore police officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death, a court official confirmed to ABC News.
Columbia hosts “food justice” conference
The conference dealt with a multitude of subjects, including “Integrating Racial Equity and Food Justice into our Personal Lives, our Professional Lives, and Learning Environments,” and “Food System Sustainability Through a Food Rights and Equity.”
Profs deny that universities indoctrinate conservative students
Pollster Frank Luntz voiced concerns at the Republican National Convention last week that the GOP had lost millennials because of indoctrination by leftist professors.
MSU “women’s only” lounge goes unisex
The decision was made to comply with laws forbidding sex discrimination in programs that receive federal funding.
University to offer “Green Lives Matter” environmental justice class
A first-year seminar class on tap this fall at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay promises to merge civil rights with pollution.
University to offer “Green Lives Matter” environmental justice class
A first-year seminar class on tap this fall at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay promises to merge civil rights with pollution.
UWM offers gender pronoun guide
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee developed the pronoun card as a resource guide for faculty members, staff, and students.
Death by a Thousand Cuts – The true story of liberal indoctrination at UC Irvine
The truth about campus indoctrination is that it is a slow, steady, insidious process.
Federal Racial Discipline Quotas Create Chaos In St. Paul Schools
The city’s high schools have become menacing places where gangs prowl the halls and “classroom invasions” are commonplace. It’s coming to your schools next.
Disney Picks Up Star Wars Fan Fiction Favorite
When The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05 billion, its greatest new asset was the Star Wars franchise and its legion of fans. Part of the Star Wars culture at the time was its “expanded universe” of novels, comics, games, and more, where creators were allowed to explore the many corners of George Lucas’ vast Star Wars galaxy. One of Disney’s first actions was to clear out that expanded universe to allow the company a blank slate of possibilities for its upcoming Star Wars projects.
Clemson adds “justice studies” program for the fall
The program will begin this fall and already has thirty students enrolled.
Cornell’s kangaroo court for accused men
Judicial Counselor Report: Cornell “unnecessarily eradicated important rights of the accused”
Don’t Bring Empty Bottles Into Michigan, You Might Go to Jail
Founding Father James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers that “It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
Leaked Texts Reveal Social Justice More Important Than Actual Justice in Baltimore’s Freddie Gray Case
Social justice warriors at their most heinous and corrupt.
Leaked Text Messages Between Baltimore Prosecutor’s Deputy and Investigator Add New Twist to Freddie Gray Case
Leaked text messages between one of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s deputies and the lead investigator in the Freddie Gray case are raising new concerns about whether politics played a role in the decision to charge six officers with his death.
Economy & Taxes
The economy is slumping at a bad time for Democrats
National conventions aren’t what they used to be. They have become highly choreographed and lacking in drama (though there was more drama than normal at both conventions this year).
International
Double standard: Sikh drunk driver let off because “his feelings were hurt”
Hopefully we all remember Marco Muzzo. He’s that self-entitled Richie Rich drunkard who was recently sentenced to 10 years for killing three children and their grandfather.
After Series of Terror Attacks, Germany Mulls Stricter Gun Laws, Military Deployment at Homes
Not willing to face up radical Islam, Merkel’s government seeks to limit civil liberties
Turkey: Ambassador Purge Next, Reports of Detainees Being Raped, Tortured
Authorities have arrested over 60,000 people
Erdogan’s Self-Serving Purge Has Gone Too Far
In the coup’s sordid aftermath, Turkey’s president has damaged the system that saved him
Turkish troops hunt remaining coup plotters as crackdown widens
Turkish special forces backed by helicopters, drones and the navy hunted a remaining group of commandos thought to have tried to capture or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, as a crackdown on suspected plotters widened on Tuesday.
Turkey shuts down 130 media outlets as President Erdogan’s purge of “dissidents” accelerates
The increasingly authoritarian regime has purged the media, universities, schools, the police, judiciary and military of potential opponents since the failed coup attempt
Gang of Muslims storm nudist pool in Germany yelling “Allahu Akbar” and threatening to “exterminate” women for being “sluts”
Six men in their 20s burst into Geldern pool in North Rhine-Westphalia area
Venezuela’s socialist government seeks to ban opposition party
The grasping socialist government of Venezuela is doing what grasping socialist governments do when things get desperate: accusing the opposition of crimes. Yahoo News reports Nicolas Maduro’s government is actually moving to have the entire opposition party banned
Venezuela has a new “forced labor” law that can require people to work in fields
International human rights activists are complaining that new laws have introduced forced labour in Venezuela.
Erdogan cancels 50,000 passports in latest post-coup crackdown in Turkey as he tells Western leaders who criticise him: “Mind your own business!”
Recep Erdogan described criticism of him post coup as “anti democratic”
Opinion
A Simple Question: Is This True?
Last week, I spent some time compiling about two dozen feminist quotes into a Powerpoint slide presentation for the “Forum on Campus Sexual Assault, Consent and Due Process” to be held Aug. 1 at Central Piedmont Community College Central Campus in Charlotte, NC. These quotes are intended to demonstrate how the anti-male ideology of radical feminism has contributed to the current climate of fear and suspicion on American college campuses.
First Thoughts on Rebuilding Conservatism
The conservative movement has collapsed and is in ruins. Its vehicle for political expression, the Republican Party, is now in the hands of an authoritarian nationalist who has never read the Constitution and does not believe in free expression, free trade or the separation of powers. Its central vehicle for expression in the news media is in disarray as Fox News becomes embroiled in scandal. Even its defenders on talk radio and in the blogosphere are severely at odds as they are forced to choose whether to defend Trump as the lesser of two evils or to stand fast with the founding fathers against both terrible sides.
How to find books in authoritarian states: head for dark, dusty corners
Censorship and intimidation can make life hard for academic researchers. You need to know where to look for hidden truths
Trump’s Daily Outrageous Statement and Chesterton’s Open Field
Today, Trump — half-jokingly, but, I think it’s fair to say, only half — said he hopes Russia searches its records for the emails it already hacked from Hillary and lets the rest of us see them.
Duke Pesta on the left’s choke-hold on higher education – and its consequences
I started giving quizzes to my juniors and seniors. I gave them a ten-question American history test… just to see where they are. The vast majority of my students – I’m talking nine out of ten, in every single class, for seven consecutive years – they have no idea that slavery existed anywhere in the world before the United States. Moses, Pharaoh, they know none of it. They’re 100% convinced that slavery is a uniquely American invention… How do you give an adequate view of history and culture to kids when that’s what they think of their own country – that America invented slavery? That’s all they know.
Paul Joseph Watson: Media’s terrorist attack “cover ups” will cause the very “right wing backlash” they dread
Last night, journalist Paul Joseph Watson joined me to dissect the media’s shameful reporting on the latest Islamic terrorist attacks. Remember all the newspapers that blamed the Nice massacre on the truck? Well, the BBC may have outdone them all with sentence you just have to hear.
Weimar? Because We Reich You
Our latest Silicon Graffiti video was inspired by one of the key themes in the late Allan Bloom’s 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom wrote that by the middle of the 20th century, American universities had essentially become enclaves of German philosophy. As a result, “the new American life-style has become a Disneyland version of the Weimar Republic for the whole family,” according to Bloom. Last year in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman famously asked, “Can Greeks Become Germans?”
How “The Fractured Republic” Helps Us Understand The Veterans Affairs Scandal
The consolidated Veterans Affairs system we currently have is a product of another time. We need new, creative policy proposals to help remedy its massive failures.
The History of the United States, as Told by Young Democrats
Young Democrats appear to be part of the coalition championing that dictum from William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Documentary: Is the University Killing Free Speech?
Exposing the social justice warrior left.
Should Colleges Really Eliminate the College Lecture?
As schools incentivize innovative research, quality in-class experiences can fall by the wayside.
Good News! Feminist @sondosia “Probably Won’t Be Having Children”
In case you have forgotten atheist feminist Miriam Mogilevsky (@sondosia on Twitter), she is the “queer, gay, femme . . . homoflexible . . . lesbian with exceptions” who is “on the asexual spectrum somewhere” and does not “experience primary sexual attraction.” Ms. Mogilevsky’s confusing welter of identities is typical of Third Wave feminists, who are in favor of every kind of sexuality except normal sexuality.
Needed: An Unlearning of Political Mythologies
Can the decline be stopped? Yes, but that would require a great unlearning of the political mythologies on which modern Europe was built. Among those mythologies: that the European Union is the result of a postwar moral commitment to peace; that Christianity is of merely historical importance to European identity; that there’s no such thing as a military solution; that one’s country isn’t worth fighting for; that honor is atavistic and tolerance is the supreme value. People who believe in nothing, including themselves, will ultimately submit to anything.
Why Britain’s Leave Campaign Isn’t “Trumpism With A British Accent”
Brexit wasn’t an attack on trade or openness, it was a vote of self-confidence in Britain’s ability to thrive outside the European Union, and an attack on an anti-democratic technocracy.
