Rasmussen notes that "Trump's overall job approval rating is now running ahead of where Barack Obama's was at this stage of his presidency."
Rasmussen: Trump Approval Hits 50 Percent | Newsmax.com
Monday, April 02, 2018
Given the constant hateful reports, this is hard to believe. Bezos must try harder to defame.
Falsified cancer research at Ohio State
From the Columbus Dispatch:
“A prominent cancer treatment researcher at Ohio State University has resigned after an investigation showed he intentionally falsified data or acted recklessly in his review of data on more than a dozen occasions, affecting eight scientific journal articles.
Ching-Shih Chen, a professor in Ohio State’s College of Pharmacy, resigned in September after the university’s research misconduct review, the university announced Friday.
Approximately $5.9 million in grant money was tied to research related to Chen’s misconduct findings, said Ohio States spokesman Chris Davey.”
I wonder if OSU has to give the money back.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2018/04/01/2003690449
From the Wall St. Journal—benefits to the Trump presidency
“Much of the media is too consumed with hatred of Donald Trump to appreciate that there may be some benefits to his presidency. But for good and for ill, so far he is largely keeping the promises on economic policy that he made as a candidate in 2016.
The Washington Post is in a rhetorical war with the President, but give the Post credit for noting that at this point in his presidency the rust-belt revival he promised appears to be underway:
As he ran for president, Donald Trump promised to lift up regions of the country that had been left behind by the economy. “I want to go into the neglected neighborhoods, the failing schools, the forgotten stretches of this nation, and unlock their potential for all of our people,” he said in September 2016.
The argument proved persuasive — many of the nation’s most economically distressed regions voted for Trump.
Now the early returns are in: In the first year of the Trump presidency, places that voted for Trump are doing better economically than at the end of the Obama administration... not only are these counties adding jobs, but also job growth has accelerated the most in counties where Trump earned the most votes, according to a Washington Post analysis of Labor Department data.
In other words, even if the counties that supported Trump most are still struggling relative to the rest of the country, they’ve experienced the largest reversal of fortune.”
Personally, I doubt that any president could succeed for long with the hatred being lobbed at Trump by the media and culture snobs. The Democrat media would be more than happy to see the economy fail as long as they could blame Trump.
Tim Scott
Politico isn’t so liberal that you have to avoid it or feel we’re going to hell in a handbasket, but I found this paragraph a bit odd. The writer is interviewing Tim Scott, a black Congressman representing North Carolina’s Republicans. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/16/senator-tim-scott-black-republican-trump-profile-217237
“Yet in the age of Trump, he is coming to terms with an uncomfortable truth: The fixation on his color is a feature, not a bug. No matter his achievements or aspirations, Tim Scott is sentenced to exist in America’s collective political subconscious as a black man first and everything else second.”
So which party traffics in skin color? Democrats. Who has the fixation on race, color, gender, sexual orientation (or advocates for no recognition that there are sexual differences) , income status, and religion (or advocates for no religion). Democrats. Who believe children of immigrants should have special privileges that citizens don’t have, but would abort them denying them life if the mother wanted that? Democrats. Which party protects people who demand no borders thus endangering the very victims it elevates? Democrats.
Sunday, April 01, 2018
Facebook and Obama in 2012
Did Facebook violate Federal Law by giving Obama campaign free access to our data?
“The type of data that the Obama campaign was mining from Facebook is a more sophisticated version of the type of data that has long been provided by professional direct mail marketers—something pioneered by Richard Viguerie.
Viguerie, for example, has detailed personal data on “12 million conservative donors and activists” to whom his company sends letters and emails on behalf of his clients. He provides information to campaigns looking for votes and money, and to nonprofit and advocacy organizations raising funds.
Political campaigns must pay for these services. Under a Federal Election Commission regulation, giving a mailing list or something similar to a campaign is considered an “in-kind contribution.”
So if Facebook gave the Obama campaign free access to this type of data when it normally does not do so for other entities—or usually charges for such access—then Facebook would appear to have violated the federal ban on in-kind contributions by a corporation. And the Obama campaign may have violated the law by accepting such a corporate contribution.”
The Trump campaign paid for its marketing information; Obama didn’t. And that’s illegal.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/28/facebooks-favors-obama-campaign-may-violated-federal-law/?
April is national poetry month
My brother in law is very clever and loves a good rhyme. So I sent him my poem about April, and he responded in kind.
What’s more scary than a right wing zealot?
A former liberal, Harry Stein, writes:
“Extreme right-wing zealots are the second-scariest thing out there,” Stein says. “Extreme left-wing zealots, who would impose their view of what’s appropriate thought, scare me more, because they have a hell of a lot more institutional power, mainly through the media and the universities.”
Although that sounds quite contemporary—just like what’s happening at campuses with Black Lives Matter and Antifa and teen agers marching on Washington with the financial backing of Oprah and Planned Parenthood, he wrote that 18 years ago in a book about why the essayist and novelist got “left behind” by liberals. He was a “red diaper baby” (someone whose parents were members of the Communist party and very sympathetic to the ideas) who began rethinking his politics in the early 80s when he discovered he was condemned and ostracized by fellow leftist for questioning some feminist dogma about child care after he became a father.
He went on to write “How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace)” and now almost 20 years later writes for conservative media. Link to C-Span interview is below. https://nypost.com/2000/05/30/old-fashioned-liberal-who-got-left-behind/
https://www.c-span.org/video/?158396-1/how-accidentally-joined-vast-wing-conspiracy
Rosanne beats out Stormy
I was never a fan of the Rosanne show—when it came on the rerun channel, I always changed. Too much whining and yelling. So I didn’t watch the remake redux which has the media mavens all a twitter with hate and angst. 18.2 million viewers, a comedy with some poignant moments and it beat out Stormy (prostitute) interview in the numbers and rating game. From what I’ve heard on the filters, it shows family can disagree on politics and still love each other. Who knew?
“Most of the sparring is between Roseanne and younger sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), who shows up at the Conner home after an angry year-long estrangement wearing a pussy hat and sneeringly greets the family matriarch with, “What’s up, Deplorable?” By the book hilarity ensues.
“Aunt Jackie thinks every girl should grow up to be president,” Roseanne informs her granddaughter, in their most heated exchange, “even if they’re ‘Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire.”
“I think we know who’s a liar and who’s on fire, Roseanne,” counters Jackie.
Jackie doesn’t like it one bit when, before saying grace, her sister asks if she first wants to take a knee, and concludes the prayer by thanking the lord “for making America great again.””
https://www.city-journal.org/html/more-deplorable-please-15800.html?
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Cambridge Analytica, Catalist and Soros
The media are trying to make a scandal where there is none. The same media that swooned over Obama’s use of technology for data mining in 2012 and 2008. Scott Walter of CRC reports:
“Obama’s 2008 social media juggernaut was powered by a little-known entity that my organization, the Capital Research Center, has reported on extensively: a for-profit (therefore non-disclosing) data firm named Catalist.
Catalist is arguably the professional Left’s best-kept secret. The company was started in 2006 by two Clinton operatives with $1 million in seed money from George Soros. Because Soros and groups like the Tides Foundation keep Catalist well-funded, it can apparently afford to sell its political services to Democratic campaigns at below-market rates, which led to complaints being lodged with the Federal Election Commission in 2015, claiming Catalist violated campaign collusion laws.
This data giant enjoys close ties to the Democracy Alliance, a network of the biggest donors in left-wing politics. In-house Democracy Alliance strategy slides obtained in 2014 by the Washington Free Beacon show how the “legal firewall” separating campaigns from outside nonprofits can be bypassed by friendly “data, analytics, and research LLCs” like Catalist (and by political “investors”).
. . . In short, don’t buy the story that Zuckerberg and the mainstream media are peddling. It’s just untrue that one political outfit uncorked a genie in 2016 that no one had ever seen before”
http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/26/hey-zuck-cambridge-analytica-wasnt-the-first-of-its-kind/?
New Hampshire, Ohio, and West Virginia experiencing the highest drug overdose death rates
“Death rates for overdoses involving highly potent synthetic opioids other than methadone -- including illicitly manufactured fentanyl as well as the prescription kind -- more than doubled from 2015 to 2016, propelling an overall increase in opioid deaths of 27.9% in that one-year period, according to the CDC.
Synthetic opioids were present in 19,413 overdose deaths in 2016, up from 9,580 deaths in 2015, reported Puja Seth, PhD, of the CDC in Atlanta and colleagues in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. They accounted for 30.5% of all drug overdose deaths and 45.9% of all opioid-involved deaths in 2016.” Summary from Medpage Today. https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/opioids/72068
https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/fentanyl
At least in Ohio, where we often hear evening news reports on the problems of drug abuse in the suburbs, there needs to be a new approach and for researchers to do something other than looking at poverty, lack of education, various political disparities, and ghetto or rural life styles. Researchers have pathologized certain races, neighborhoods and income groups for so long, they’ve lost their way or just have no new ideas to meet this crisis.
Here’s an example from NIDA: “Opioid addiction is often described as an “equal opportunity” problem that can afflict people from all races and walks of life, but while true enough, this obscures the fact that the opioid crisis has particularly affected some of the poorest regions of the country, such as Appalachia, and that people living in poverty are especially at risk for addiction and its consequences like overdose or spread of HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers people on Medicaid and other people with low-income to be at high risk for prescription drug overdose.” That may be true—but that doesn’t answer what’s happening in Worthington and Upper Arlington.
Read the comments to this NIDA explanation. It’s worth your time.
This Columbus area rehab center has an interesting blog. https://www.columbusrecoverycenter.com/2018/03/
Friday, March 30, 2018
Soros tentacles are everywhere
When the U.S. destabilizes other governments with the help of George Soros funded organizations, refugees flood other countries—even our own. https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-sues-soros-documents-files-foia-lawsuits-state-department-usaid-records-funding-political-activities-george-soros-open-society-founda/
Our tax dollars go to NGOs such as:
The Soros Open Society Foundations of Romania
The Romanian Center for Independent Journalism (Soros funded)
The Soros Open Society Foundations of Colombia
“Judicial Watch is pursuing information about Soros’ activities in Macedonia and Albania, as well. The former Prime Minister of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski reportedly called for a “de-Sorosization” of society. In February 2017, Judicial Watch reported that the U.S. government has quietly spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia in collusion with George Soros.”
Sugar or starch
“The distinction between sugar and starch is largely meaningless from a biological perspective. The key public health challenge today is to reduce intake of all highly processed carbohydrates in favor of whole carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, legumes and minimally processed grains) and healthful fats (like nuts, avocado and olive oil).” I think he doesn’t want me to enjoy French Fries at the Rusty Bucket (our Friday night date site).
Dr. David Ludwig
See entire interview about refined carbs. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/12/16/dr-david-ludwig-clears-up-carbohydrate-confusion/
He says you can eat cereal without sugar, or sugar without the cereal, but below the neck, it’s all the same.
Why privacy matters
Some people say, I'm not doing anything illegal, why does Facebook privacy matter?
Watch this YouTube video by Glenn Greenwald to find out why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=pcSlowAhvUk It's 4 years old and yet really applies to millions of people giving up not only their own privacy, but that of their friends.
Watch this YouTube video by Glenn Greenwald to find out why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=pcSlowAhvUk It's 4 years old and yet really applies to millions of people giving up not only their own privacy, but that of their friends.
Watching HGTV—and all that stuff
We have friends whose mother lived in Arizona in a tiny mobile home the last decade of her life. She used to come and spend several weeks at Lakeside with them in the summer in her 90s. Just as sharp as a tack. She had so pared down her material goods, that she had almost nothing—by choice. She said when she died, they should just roll her “home” over a cliff. Now obviously, they didn’t do that, but she’d had a full life, and at the end, didn’t want to spend her moments left taking care of things.
I’m not there yet. Still have a problem with print and paper. . . everywhere. Every time I pull books to donate (like this week) I can always suggest things for Bob to toss, but Monday he asked me about my Latin I and II books from high school, and they are still here on the shelf. But it did get me to thinking. Don’t know if the library sale really wants textbooks from the 1950s when I used to scribble in margins.
One of our favorite cable channels is HGTV (particularly Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna) and although it’s been an evolution, I can hardly believe how much more luxuriously Americans live than in the 1970-1980s when everyone was talking about how we had too much stuff! Fixer Upper has its own blog. We just loved the show this week about redoing a 100 year old restaurant. https://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Cleaning out the book shelves--again
3 novels in Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop, HC
Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken, PB
Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, PB
Alan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind, 1987, HC
Ulrich Kellerer, One moment can change your life, 2017, PB
Viral Dalal, Choosing light, 2017, PB
Rebecca Smith|Galli, Rethinking possible, 2017, PB
Bret Stephens, America in retreat, 2014, HC
And one in the pile went back on the shelf as I was typing the list. That’s what’s so hard about clearing out my office.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Sex is not a social policy
“Modern science shows that our sexual organization begins with our DNA and development in the womb, and that sex differences manifest themselves in many bodily systems and organs, all the way down to the molecular level. In other words, our physical organization for one of two functions in reproduction shapes us organically, from the beginning of life, at every level of our being.
Cosmetic surgery and cross-sex hormones can’t change us into the opposite sex. They can affect appearances. They can stunt or damage some outward expressions of our reproductive organization. But they can’t transform it. They can’t turn us from one sex into the other.”
You’re missing the point if you believe this is about Trump’s campaign
Eight years ago, Ian Bogost created a silly app for Facebook called Cow Clicker, and inadvertently collected a lot of data on people who signed on the play his time waster (by his admission). He still has it. This is not, in my opinion, about the Cambridge Analytica “scandal.” That hyperbolic hysteria only exists because of Trump’s presidency. Obama’s campaign did the same thing in 2012. It’s a problem because millions of apps have been created, so no one really knows what has happened to that data Facebook users willingly gave away. If they weren’t trying to bring down Trump, it probably would have become an issue, although it shouldn’t have been happening.
He writes, “Cow Clicker’s example is so modest, it might not even seem like a problem. What does it matter if a simple diversion has your Facebook ID, education, and work affiliations? Especially since its solo creator (that’s me) was too dumb or too lazy to exploit that data toward pernicious ends. But even if I hadn’t thought about it at the time, I could have done so years later, long after the cows vanished, and once Cow Clicker players forgot that they’d ever installed my app.
This is also why Zuckerberg’s response to the present controversy feels so toothless. Facebook has vowed to audit companies that have collected, shared, or sold large volumes of data in violation of its policy, but the company cannot close the Pandora’s box it opened a decade ago, when it first allowed external apps to collect Facebook user data. That information is now in the hands of thousands, maybe millions of people.”
In some ways, this reminds me of the Henrietta Lacks story, where her cell line was used without compensation to her and her dependents. FB users gave away the data; FB then sold them and Zuckerberg became one of the richest people in the world.
Baltimore has highest murder rate—helps illegals with special fund
“Less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported, Maryland’s largest city will hire immigration attorneys to help those facing removal. It’s important to note that Baltimore has the nation’s highest per capita homicide rate and has been coined the deadliest big city in the United States by a mainstream newspaper. Nevertheless, a city panel approved spending $200,000 this month to pay for lawyers to represent illegal aliens with deportation orders. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says in a local news report that the goal is for everyone to get due process. “We’re not making a decision as to their status, we’re making the decision to be supportive of individuals who live in our city,” according to the mayor.”
Sentences that make you go, Hmmmm. “During the early years of the Obama administration, Highlandtown residents were occasionally targeted, though by the end of his second term, Martinez and other immigrants here said, they felt more at ease.” Yes, I imagine they did.
The mayor of Baltimore needs an expensive PR campaign to explain all of this. https://baltimorebrew.com/2018/01/10/pugh-hires-240-per-hour-media-consultant-with-city-funds/
Comparing Trump to Reagan--Heritage
“2017 was a banner year for conservative policy victories. On that score, President Trump can confidently stack his record right up there next to President Reagan’s first year.”
“By year’s end, the Trump administration had withdrawn or delayed 1,500 proposed regulations. It has made a difference. On Dec. 14, the administration reported that the regulatory rollback had saved the American economy $8.1 billion, and would save another $9.8 billion in fiscal 2019.”
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
