March 27, 2019
A survey seeks to answer that question.
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In a prior post, we reported that employers think that most college graduates are poorly prepared for the work force in such areas as critical thinking, communication and problem solving.
See A bigger college scandal than the recent admissions bruhaha…
Let’s dig a little deeper on that sentiment.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) conducted a survey of “Core Requirements at our Nation’s Colleges and Universities” to determine what students are really learning in college.
Specifically, the ACTA survey focused on the courses that a student is required to take outside the major.
These courses — commonly called general education classes or the school’s core curriculum — are, according to the ACTA, “ the foundation of a school’s academic program”.
They are the courses “generally designed to equip students with essential skills and knowledge” for work and for life.
Here is specifically what ACTA was looking for…
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Posted in College Admissions, Education - Academics | 2 Comments »
March 26, 2019
Employers say that 9 of 10 college grads are poorly prepared.
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According to the WSJ …
9 out of 10 business owners surveyed by the American Association Colleges and Universities said that recent college graduates as poorly prepared for the work force in such areas as critical thinking, communication and problem solving.
“Employers are say that they don’t care about all the knowledge you learned because it’s going to be out of date two minutes after you graduate … they care about whether you can continue to learn over time and solve complex problems.”
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Are employers being too critical?
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March 25, 2019
Maybe so, but it shines a spotlight on other college problems.
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It was easy to get caught up in the recent college admissions fiasco.
It had all the ingredients of popular scandal: rich celebrity stars and industry titans, elite colleges, outrageous (and illegal) adult behavior, sports abuses, social injustice. All constantly re-fueled by continuous cable news looping.
Today, let’s step back and put the bruhaha into perspective.
Nicholas Lemann – of Columbia’s School of Journalism – cut to the chase in the New Yorker:
Busting the admissions cheaters is the right thing to do, in addition to being emotionally satisfying.
But it won’t change America’s colleges much for the better.
Let’s drill down on that…
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Posted in College Admissions, Core study requirements, Education - Academics | 1 Comment »
March 23, 2019
“It may be that Mr. Trump has kept repeating his mantra of ‘no collusion’ because it’s true.”
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That’s a conclusion the the NYT editorial staff reached.
But that conclusion was apparently tough for the Times to swallow, so the editors pulled a Comey in their editorial.
Remember when Comey said: “Here’s a list of all the laws and policies that Secretary Clinton violated, but no reasonable prosecutor would indict her”?
Well, the Times – apparently still grateful for the memo that Comey leaked to them to get the special counsel rolling – styled their editorial after his Clinton ruling.
After the obligatory reaffirmation of Robert Mueller as “a man whose name is synonymous with integrity and fairness”, the Times reheated all of allegations about collusion and obstruction that Mueller decided didn’t merit indictment.
The Times conceded (I think) that the investigation was ‘by the book’ and fair.
But, unlike the Clinton-Comey affair, when the glee-dancing Times said that was time to turn the page, this time – since Trump is center stage – they declare:
William Barr, the attorney general, needs to release as much of Mr. Mueller’s work as he possibly can, and soon.
All Americans deserve the chance to review those findings and reach their own conclusions.
Whatever happened to “turn the page”?
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Posted in Russia - Russians, Special Counsel - Mueller, Trump, President Donald J. | Leave a Comment »
March 22, 2019
The simple answer is ‘yes’, but it’s more complicated than that.
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I stumbled upon an interesting analysis…
According to Daniel Friedman posting on Quillette.com:
There is a statistically significant relationship between family income and SAT scores.
Let’s drill down on the numbers…
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March 21, 2019
Since SAT scores are in the news, here’s some perspective.
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The College Board publishes a “Total Group Profile Report” for college-bound seniors.
Browsing it, a couple of sets of numbers caught my eye ….
Let’s start with math scores.
Two big takeaways:
(1) The gap between boys and girls narrowed from the 40 point difference in the 1970s to about 25 points … but has remained fairly constant at that level for about the past 20 years
(2) Scores for both boys and girls have been falling for the past dozen years or so.
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OK, boys outscore girls in math, but girls do better on the verbal part of the SATs, right?
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March 20, 2019
There’s a sure-fire method, but it isn’t easy. It’s called parenting.
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Last week – in the wake of the college admissions scandal – we posted about how Asian-American students are being admitted to highly selective (aka. ” elite”) high schools at increasingly high rates.
Why?
Because they are academic achievers.
Why?
In part because Asian-American parents place a high priority on education, drive their children to excel (especially in STEM academics) and provide their kids with extensive extracurricular learning experiences (well beyond SAT prep classes).
And, oh yeah, they’ve probably gone to college … providing good role modeling and ready tutoring capabilities.
To that point …
The College Board published a “Total Group Profile Report” for recent college-bound seniors …
One set of numbers caught my eye:
SAT scores by the student’s parents level of educational attainment.
Note that about 2/3’s of the college-bound seniors taking the SAT came from homes with a degreed parent – either associate, bachelor or graduate.
Only about 1/3 came from homes with parents having only a high school education or less.
And, the performance differentials are substantial between the groups …
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March 19, 2019
In a prior post, I opined that an applicant to an elite college is “qualified” to attend that college if they have sufficient smarts and dedication to learning that it is reasonable to expect that they can successfully complete the coursework that’s required to earn a degree.
See Just how dumb are Lori Loughlin’s daughters?
If you buy that definition, then many (maybe most) of rejected applicants are qualified … but get rejected because there aren’t enough slots to accommodate all of them.
Which raises another question: is there certainty that the most qualified students get offered admission?
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March 18, 2019
Or, the more pertinent question: Are Lori’s daughters “qualified” to attend USC?
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I hate to pick on Lori Loughlin’s daughters (<=not really) but, in the recent college admissions scandal, they’re the only kids who have been outted (in detail) by the media … and, let’s be honest, they are easy targets.
Evidence re: smart or dumb is scant – i.e. IQ or legit SAT scores haven’t been reported – but there are a couple of data points:
- The video loops on cable news are less than flattering (e.g. “I’m looking forward to the football games and parties” — not “the high level of intellectual challenge”);
- Lori’s stating that “I didn’t push my daughters to get A’s in high school” — suggests that they met their mom’s low bar and didn’t get many A’s;
- it took a whopping $500,000 to open USC’s “side door” for the girls — that suggests that the girls had a lot ground to make up.
- Lori shelled out the $500,000 (and allegedly committed a couple of felonies in the process) …that’s pretty dumb … and, at least some of everybody’s “smarts” comes via their parents DNA.
So, it seems reasonable to conclude that the girls aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Does that mean that they aren’t “qualified” to attend USC?
That’s a trickier question…
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March 15, 2019
No, they don’t buy-off sports coaches and abuse standardized testing procedures.
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Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ” for short), is a selective DC-area magnet school designed to provide an elite, high-tech education for the most academically gifted students in Northern Virginia.
The school offers rigorous study in advanced college-level offerings like electrodynamics, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence.
High octane academics, for sure … offered to the best and brightest.
What’s the rub?
Demographic mix.
The school’s newly accepted Class of 2022 is 65 percent Asian, 23 percent white, five percent Hispanic, and two percent black.
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20 years ago, the concern was that Black and Hispanic representation at TJ was less than half their demographic mix in Fairfax County – the “feeder” county.
Several initiatives were launched to increase Black and Hispanic representation, including early identification and proactive outreach to high potential minority children; supplementary in-school and extracurricular programs to teach and mentor them; and more ready access to prep and gateway courses such as Algebra.
While undertaking those initiatives, something unexpected happened.
The numbers of Black and Hispanic students applying and enrolled at TJ remained stalled at the pre-initiative levels. So, that’s still a concern.
But, during the same time period (and unrelated to the minority initiatives), the number of white students declined sharply … and the number of Asian-American students has soared.
Why is that?
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March 14, 2019
And, there are remarkable similarities.
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Recently, in one of her articulated streams of consciousness, AOC warned that we all would be toast in 12 years if global warming wasn’t arrested.
Time to metal-cube our SUVs and mass-slaughter the bovine-methane creatures, right?
Well, not so fast.
While AOC’s warning may come to fruition, I’m betting the over on the 12 years … in part, because it fits a pattern of hysterical unrealized doomsday predictions.
For example, circa. 1970, Prof. Paul Ehrlich (Stanford University) wrote Malthusian-inspired book: The Population Bomb. The book became a runaway “scientific” best-seller.
Smithonian.com
Ehrlich warned that because of unchecked population growth:
The battle to feed all of humanity is over.
Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.
All of us will face mass starvation on a dying planet.
While their were some deniers, demographers agreed almost unanimously with Ehrlich’s doomsday prediction ….
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March 13, 2019
Reason #3: The “97% of scientists” baloney
For the record: I’m neither a denier nor a zealot … so, according to British writer (& phrase-coiner) Matt Ridley, I’m a “lukewarmer”.
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Since AOC rolled out her Green New Deal, I’ve heard many left-leaning pundits spouting the oft-repeated but unsupported claim that 97% of scientists agree that climate change (nee, ‘global warming’) is real, man-caused and catastrophic.
Reason enough to flashback to our long ago post debunking the 97% malarkey.
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In a prior posts, I covered:
Reason #1 … Unsettling Science … I’ve gotten cognitive whiplash from “Ice Age” u-turning to “Global Warming” … which was slowed by an “18-year Pause” … and then wrapped in a catch-all “Climate Change”.
Reason #2 … Al Gore and his doomsday prediction … in 2016 we passed his point of no return towards a true planetary emergency … without the planet melting or exploding … and with Manhattan still above water (I think).
Let’s move on…
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My 3rd reason: The “97% of scientists” baloney.
This claim really gained traction when former President Obama tweeted:
“97% percent of scientists agree: #climate change is real, man-made and dangerous.”
Case closed, settled science, right?
Not so fast …
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Let’s start with a simple smell test:
Can you think of any issue that garners 97% agreement?
My bet is that 97%% of “scientists” don’t even agree that smoking causes cancer.
Pick your issue … 97% … really?
Doesn’t smell right to me, but maybe climate change the exception to the rule.
So, let’s deep dive the claim…
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March 12, 2019
Conservatives are fretting (rightfully) that Roberts is trending liberal.
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Let’s put SCOTUS political leanings in context….
Political scientists Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn developed a measure to calibrate how liberal or conservative SCOTUS justices are … based on their rulings.
As near as I can tell, the measure is uncontested by either ideology.
![image_thumb[5]](https://homafiles.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/image_thumb5_thumb.png?w=521&h=432 "image_thumb[5]")
Source
First, let’s pull some takeaways from the chart…
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March 11, 2019
Congresswoman Omar: “Hope and change was just a mirage”
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Frosh Congresswoman ilhan Omer set off an anti-Israel, anti-Semite bruhaha last week.
That was broadly covered by the MSM.
But, the MSM has largely ignored the Congresswoman’s interview with left-leaning Politico.
In the lPolitico: interview Omar is quoted as saying:
We can’t be only upset with Trump.
His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies.
They just were more polished than he is.”
Who was she talking about?
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March 8, 2019
More evidence that the world is continuing to get wackier and wackier…
Flashback: Last year, during the the 2018 Olympics, a husband & wife mixed doubles curling team from Russia was stripped of their bronze medals when he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
You read that right: In the brute of all brute sports … CURLING!
For details. see our prior post Russia’s very bad week continues …
The draconian action by the Olympic Committee struck me as a bit puritanical overkill.
But, it may have been outdone by the the World Bridge Federation…
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March 7, 2019
Dems say that illegal crossings have declined in the past couple of years, evidence that that there is no crisis … and certainly no national emergency.
That narrative seems to have hit a bump in the road.
Let’s drill down on the numbers…
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March 6, 2019
After paying Medicare taxes for years, weren’t the benefits supposed to be free?
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Yesterday, we argued that Medicare’s payroll taxes can thought of as prepaid premiums … that amortize to the equivalent of $10,000 per year over a retiree’s post-65 life span.
See Ouch: The (personal) economics of Medicare payroll taxes
And, we pointed out that the prepaid premiums are just the tip of the iceberg.
Once retired, the Feds collects additional annual Medicare premiums.
This may surprise pre-retirement folks who think that they pay in during their working years, but then get “free” healthcare insurance when they retire.
![image_thumb[3]](https://homafiles.info/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/image_thumb3_thumb.png?w=383&h=259 "image_thumb[3]")
After
Today, let’s take a look at Medicare premiums…
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March 4, 2019
… AOC may be holding the matches, but the GOP tax reform provided the kindling.
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Last week, I whined that – though I’m getting a tax refund this year – my income taxes went up in 2018.
I’m ok with that since I conclude that the corporate cuts turbo-charged the economy and the stock market … and my IRA account gains are much larger than my additional taxes.
But, I do have a mega-concern that I started touting way back in 2017 when the GOP tax reform was being crafted, debated and passed.
My mega-concern is the long-run tilt in voting dynamics, in the new age of the Green Dream, Medicare for All and Guaranteed Minimum Income (for those who are unable or unwilling to work).
Let’s start with a flashback…
Remember Mitt Romneys ill-timed observation about “47% of Americans”.
No, they weren’t Hillary’s “deplorables”, they were simply the folks who pay no Federal income taxes.
Well if the GOP tax plan got enacted … the 47% is still alive .. and now on steroids..
Source
Let’s drill down on the data…
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March 1, 2019
That’s the gloomy prediction of disruption guru Clayton Christensen
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And, it’s not just the tidal wave of online programs or ballooning college tuitions.
Moreso, Christensen’s prediction is on track, according to a WSJ recap of economist Nathan Grawe’s “Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education.”
Grawe’s central thesis: Birthrates have plunged 13% since the Great Recession … and that “birth dearth” will cost America 450,000 fewer college applicants in the 2020s.
Here are some of the specifics….
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February 28, 2019
Can they muscle up to pull us together?
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A lot of punditry these days about American Tribalism … categorizing people by common interests … usually with a demographic slant (i.e. race. gender, and location – urban, rural; coastal or Heartland).
Those “tribes” are usually characterized as warring factions with little in common.
The result: sharp differences and apparently intractable political polarization.
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An organization called More in Common did some research that takes a different cut at the situation.
Their study – America’s Hidden Tribes – identified seven distinct groups of Americans. These are our Hidden Tribes of America: distinguished not by who they are or what they look like, but what they believe. (Below – at end of this post – are descriptions of the groups)
The study reached three fundamental conclusions…
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February 27, 2019
But, to my dismay, my taxes increased
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These days, all the publicity is about people who are getting smaller tax refunds this year … clear evidence, they say, that Trump lied about cutting middle class taxes.
Not really.
People seem to easily confuse “refunds” with “taxes paid”.
Of course, the relevant measure is “taxes paid” … and, most middle-classers are paying less in taxes.
But, behavioral economics and psychology kick in … and, people wrongly focus on their refunds.
If I did that, I’d be feeling great today
Last year, I had to write a check to the government. Ouch. This year, I’m getting a statistically insignificant refund.
Good news, right?
Nope … because my taxes went up.
My income stayed about the same … so the increase was due to the tax law changes.
When I drilled down on the causes & effects, I got a few surprises….
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February 26, 2019
Yesterday, we argued the case for Trump prevailing legally.
Again today, let’s set aside aside the question of “should he do it?” … and focus on “can he do it?”.
Specifically, will Trump survive a Congressional move to Undeclare his national emergency?
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OK, Pelosi is going to push through a resolution to “undeclare: Trump’s national emergency.
Dems will vote in lockstep, and the bill will will be passed over to the Senate.
Dems are ecstatic that a handful of GOP Senators are hinting may jump party lines and that enough my vote aye on the undeclaration.
Not so fast, grasshoppers.
There are a couple of reasons why I don’t expect the Senate to pass the Undeclaration Resolution…
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February 25, 2019
Loosely written laws and established precedents are on his side.
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For a moment, let’s set aside aside the question of “should he do it?” … and focus on “can he do it?”.
There’s a great legal analysis in the right-leaning Federalist that concludes
You can (and should) read the whole article. It weaves legal specifics with tight logic.
Here are my key takeaways…
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February 22, 2019
Today, let’s take an inspiration break from the socio-political messes in DC, Virginia and Chicago…
Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg columnist who usually writes on the intersection of economics and politics.
On her 45th b-day, she penned her retrospective ‘12 Rules for Life’
A couple of her rules really resonated with me, starting with:
1. Be kind. Mean is easy; kind is hard. Making yourself feel bigger by making someone else feel small takes so little skill that 12-year-olds can do it.
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Here are the rest of my favorites, a link to the complete list, and a reason for the picture (#11) …
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February 21, 2019
In the old days it was called the “silent majority”
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yesterday, we reprised a post: America’s political polarization in 3 charts …
That analysis ended in 2014 … showing a double-humped distribution that had been separating over the past decade or so.
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New data is now available, so let’s advance the picture to 2017
Source: WaPo analysis of Pew data
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The humps have spread further apart … indicating sharper polarization.
The peaks are higher … especially the one on the left,
Also, note the vanishing middle (the dark blue on the graphic).
Now, let’s drill down another level…
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February 20, 2019
The hardening political divide in Washington reminds me of an interesting analysis that NBC’s Chuck Todd did a couple of years ago.
So, let’s flashback:
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It’s no secret that American politics has become increasingly – and maybe, irreversibly – polarized.
Of course, Obama lays blame on Trump and his band of ignorant deplorables.
Let’s look at some inconvenient facts from Todd’s analysis…
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As Meet the Press host Chuck Todd puts it:
Polarization is no longer just polluting the system — it’s paralyzing it.
The deepening divide between the right and the left has largely hollowed out the center of American politics.
Gone are the politicians who once occupied the large “middle” and the voters who once gravitated to them.
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The Pew Research Center has tracked party identity and ideology for decades.
One way they do it is by scoring the Republicans and Democrats on a 10-item scale of political values.
Based on the latest Pew data (from 2014), here’s where we stand:
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What the chart means …
Democrats cluster to the left, Republicans cluster to the right.
There is less than 10% in each party leaning ideologically to the left (or right) of the other party’s median.
That’s where we are.
How did we get here?
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February 19, 2019
What is this “grit” that she’s talking about?
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Announcing her presidential candidacy (in a snow storm), Sen. Amy “Minnesota Nice” Klobuchar declared:
“I don’t have a political machine. I don’t come from money. But what I do have is this: I have grit,”
I doubt that Klobuchar was intentionally trying to channel Donald Trump, but …
You may remember that In his first SOTU, President Trump gave a shout-out to “American grit.”:
Together, we can reclaim our building heritage.
We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land.
And we will do it with American heart, American hands, and American grit.
So, what is this “grit” that they’re talking about?
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February 18, 2019
Last week, we posted Rasmussen poll results indicating that Trump’s approval got a bump after the SOTU.
See Trump approval up since SOTU…
Since Rasmussen leans right and doesn’t use classic interviewing techniques, it’s easy for some folks to dismiss the numbers.
But, Gallup is the gold standard of polling, right?
Well, the Rasmussen conclusion seems to be corroborated by Gallup.
The most recent Gallup survey indicates that (1) Trump has more than bounced back from the shutdown dip, and (2) His approval – which is at a high water mark – is double that of Congress!
So, what’s going on?
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February 15, 2019
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve put up a few posts addressing the border wall legislative mess.
To get you ready for weekend cocktail party debates on “the bill” and National Emergency, I’ve pulled together the posts into a sort of border wall primer.
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For openers, Dems like to say that Trump doesn’t have a plan … or that his defacto plan is “a concrete wall from sea to sea”.
Yes, the “build the wall” campaign rhetoric provides fodder for the sea-to-sea claimers, but Trumps plan (yes, there is one) has evolved to about 225 miles of steel slat barriers, strategically placed to slow the inbound flow across the borders and channel border crossers to bolstered “ports-of-entry.
See Cutting to the chase: What exactly is Trump demanding?
But, walls are ineffective and fundamentally immoral, right?
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February 14, 2019
In technical terms. a binary switch got flipped.
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Pro-wall extremists are fretting that Trump got hosed since he only got $1.375 billion towards the border wall/
Not to worry, folks.
The deal reminded me of an old story that provides some perspective…
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February 13, 2019
According to the WSJ, the partial government shutdown prompted government employees to test the job market
Evidence: job site Indeed.com reports that page views coming from government employees working for unfunded agencies surged during the partial government.
ZipRecruiter and LinkedIn report similar surges in government employee activity.
But, the WSJ concludes that despite the booming economy “there’s no evidence that the job-searching led to an actual exodus from the federal government’s payrolls.”
Why is that?
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February 12, 2019
We warned about this a year ago in the post
Will 143 million households notice that their taxes have been cut?
Regrettably, our prediction seems to be coming to fruition.
There have been a flurry articles citing tax preparers who are warning that, tax refunds will be smaller this year … lower in average, with fewer people getting refunds.
Most recent IRS data support that claim: average refunds are down 8.4% from this time last year.
That’s a big deal … and, will be a big headache for President Trump.
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February 11, 2019
May put a new paint job on conference committee negotiations.
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First, a disclaimer of sorts.
Rasmussen skews right and its surveys are scoffed at by most traditional pollsters because they’re conducted without human contact … folks just answer questions via touch tone phone responses.
That said, I’ve found Rasmussen to be a good predictor on sensitive issues when people are reluctant to tell somebody what they think, but are willing to interact with an impersonal computer.
Bottom line: Rasmussen says “Trump’s approval rating among likely voters has soared since the State of the Union and are at an all time high.”
More specifically…
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February 11, 2019
According to the WSJ:
No state suffered more from the Obama regulatory assault than West Virginia as coal production and business investment plunged.
West Virginia’s revival started in early 2017 as coal and natural-gas production picked up.
Exports and the Trump Administration’s deregulation have lifted the industry.
Employment is up, wages are up … dependence on government programs is (e.g. food stamps, Medicaid) is down substantially,
Now that West Virginia is back on it’s feet, there’s talk of a grassroots campaign for the state changing it’s name…
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February 11, 2019
Some interesting results from a weekend WaPo poll…
Overall, Virginians are split re: whether or not the blackface-revealed governor should resign.
Despite calls for his resignation from national Dems (Harris, Booker, Warren, etc.), a majority of Dems say he shouldn’t resign; a majority of Republicans and Independents say he should.
There was one head-scratcher in the poll results…
Whites are evenly spilt on whether Northam should resign, but — Virginia’s African-Americans say that Northam should not resign … by a margin of about 2 to 1.
What’s up with that?
Some hypotheses:
1) Blacks aren’t as offended by these long ago blackface transgressions as their visible spokespeople profess and are willing to forgive and forget
2) Support for Democratic policies and politicians outweighs any offense taken by these transgressions.
Regardless, expect Northam to be re-energized in his battle to hold on to power…
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Posted in Northam, Gov. Ralp, Virginia, Virginia politics | Leave a Comment »
February 9, 2019
MUST READ: Is this the trick that President Trump has up his sleeve?
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In the last few days, Trump has seemed way too sanguine about the outcome of the conference committee trying to hash out a budget resolution … especially since the best case (from Trump’s perspective) is a token amount of money that is tightly specified so that it’s not to be used to construct a “wall”.
Trump also has signaled that he won’t force another government shutdown and won’t declare a national emergency … and, indicated that he might be able to operate under existing “executive authority“.
So, what’s he got up his sleeve?
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In a prior post, we posed a gut-check question for Pelosi (and anybody else) who says that walls are immoral and don’t work:
Should the border wall between San Diego and Tijuana be torn down?
Well, late Friday afternoon when the media was busy with the Bezos and Virginia fiascos, the San Diego – Tijuana story took a strange twist.
The DHS issued a press release headlined “DHS Issues Waiver to Expedite Secondary Fence Replacement Project in San Diego“.
click to view the press release on the DHS site
This may be a signal of what’s to come, so let’s drill down on it…
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Posted in Border Security, Border walls, IIRIR Act, Pelosi & Schumer, Trump, President Donald J. | 1 Comment »
February 8, 2019
Jeff Bezos may dictate how Virginia’s political mess gets cleaned up
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Ask yourself a simple question:
If this front page had appeared a couple of months ago, would Bezos (Amazon) have picked Northern Virginia for HQ2?
I’d bet the under on that one.
Which begs a couple of questions….
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Posted in Amazon, Economic development, Virginia politics | Leave a Comment »
February 7, 2019
And, some predictions re: the likely outcome.
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First, a translation of the classic phrase…
Contrary to common misunderstanding, the phrase does not mean getting lifted by one’s underwear … wedgie and all.
Rather, a ”petard” was an ancient bomb-like device used to blow open walls or gates.
So, to be “hoisted by one’s own petard” is to be injured by the device that you intended to use to injure others.
Got it?
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OK, so how have Virginia Democrats hoisted themselves by their own petards?
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Posted in #Believe Women, #MeToo, Virginia politics | 1 Comment »
February 6, 2019
Twas a bad night for the haters, following a very bad week.
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Imagine if Pelosi had resisted the theatrical power-play of delaying the SOTU address.
If she had kept to the traditional schedule, Trump wouldn’t have had these current events mega-talking points…
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Posted in SOTU, Trump, President Donald J., Trump-haters | Leave a Comment »
February 5, 2019
… and, include border barriers as one of the supporting actions.
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First, the current lay of the land…
Pelosi is still declaring “I’ve been clear: No money for walls. Period”.
So, odds of the conference committee reporting out legislation that includes wall funding remain slim to none.
President Trump has threatened to declare the porousness of the southern border a National Emergency … under which he would have broad executive authority that would include funding and building people-crossing barriers in strategic locations.
Dems have already threatened to take a border-focused National Emergency Declaration to the uber-liberal 9th Circuit Court where it would likely be enjoined.
The journey to the Supreme Court would take time … with slightly better than 50-50 odds of reinstatement
So, what should Trump do?
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Posted in Border Security, Border walls, National Emergency Act (NEA), Opioids - Opioid Crisis | 2 Comments »
February 4, 2019
The odds seem to be increasing that President Trump will declare a National Emergency and use his executive authority to fund and build sections of crossing barriers (aka, “walls”) along the southern border.
So, I got curious and did a little digging into National Emergencies.
Here are some highlights…
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Posted in Border walls, National Emergency Act (NEA) | 1 Comment »
February 1, 2019
OK, New York passed legislation legalizing abortions right up to the point of delivery.
Pro-lifers grimaced; pro-choicers rejoiced.
Not to be outdone, Virginia started the ball rolling to reduce restrictions on late-term abortions.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist, explained the implications in a radio interview on WTOP.
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Posted in Abortion | 4 Comments »
January 31, 2019
More important: does it matter?
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Earlier this week, liberal newser Tom Brokaw set off a firestorm when he dared to say on MTP:
“Hispanic immigrants need to do a better job of assimilating to the United States and teaching their children to speak English.”
The backlash — from the left no less – was fast and brutal.
Brokaw was accused of being a racist (really?) and of being insensitive to immigrants’ culture.
So, Brokaw backpedaled from his statement and apologized
Yipes.
Let’s take a step back and look at some data.
According to a WaPo analysis of Census Dept. data, about 1 in 5 U.S. households don’t speak English at home.
That’s up from 1 in 10 back in the 1980s.
A pretty steep increase that begs a bigger question: does it matter?
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Posted in English, Language | 1 Comment »
January 30, 2019
As the Senate-Congressional conferees kick-off their negotiations, the MSM is still harping on the political-emotional hysteria and continuing to insinuate that Trump wants a Chinese-like concrete wall that runs the entire expanse of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Very misleading…
Let’s take a step back and put the “demand” in context:
The U.S.-Mexican border is about 2,000 miles long … 1,954 to be precise.
About 700 miles of walls and fencing are already in place (e.g, the wall separating San Diego from Tijuana)
- About 400 miles of the barriers are designed to stop pedestrian traffic
- About 300 miles is “vehicle fencing” which blocks vehicles but allows people on foot to cross easily.
The Sand Diego – Tijuana border
So, what exactly is Trump demanding?
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Posted in Border Security, Government & Politics | 2 Comments »
January 29, 2019
A blurb in the NY Times caught my eye:
The great irony is that the shutdown only proved the indispensable value of the very government Trump so often expresses such disdain for.”
I hate to resort to facts, but ABC-and the Washington Post teamed up on a projectable poll in which 18% of Americans said they had been inconvenienced by the shutdown.
Is 18% a big number or a little number?
To put that number in perspective, take the converse of the WaPo finding:
82% of Americans had not been inconvenienced by the shutdown.
That’s less than 1 in 5 … and, it includes the furloughed gov’t employees who have certainly been inconvenienced.
That doesn’t sound like a big deal.
But, the 35-day shutdown did surface a significant pain point: government managed air travel air travel…
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January 28, 2019
And. what’s his next move?
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Gotta admit, I was surprised that the self-proclaimed tough man folded so quickly.
Driving around on Friday morning, I heard the the headlines:”Flights delayed at LaGuardia due to air controller absences.”
But, the story didn’t exactly match the severity of the news reader’s tonality as he read that there were 15 minute gate holds and some arriving flights were instructed to take a lap in holding patterns.
Geez, that sounds like a pretty normal day at any of the big airports.
When I got to my destination I was pleasantly out of media reach.
Then … BAM!
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No way to spin it … the man threw in the towel … proclaiming that he was going to trust Lucy (Nancy Pelosi) to tee up the ball again … and negotiate a wall-inclusive compromise in the next couple of weeks.
Are you kidding me?
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So, what’s really going to happen next?
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January 25, 2019
This one will backfire, too.
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For openers, I don’t give a hoot whether this (or any future) State of the Union address is held.
I can rarely stay glued to the TV when the Leader of the Free World drones on and on about what a fine job he’s doing … and present a laundry list of priorities which will never see the light of day.
Usually, I do enjoy the opposition party’s rebuttals … they’re always so awful that they’re entertaining … think: Jindal’s zombie-like pitch, Rubio’s futile reach for the water or Schumer-Pelosi’s recent Ma & Pa Kettle response to Trump’s oval office pitch.
If I were advising Trump, I’d advise him to mail in the SOTU … then go on a 4-week barnstorming tour of the Midwest & South. Why subject himself to the Dem frowns, eyerolls and catcalls? That’ll happen now or in a couple of weeks, So, bag it Donald.
That said, here’s what I find interesting about the current situation….
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Posted in Precedents - Power of Precedents, SOTU | Leave a Comment »
January 24, 2019
Will he fall for that disingenuous “promise” again?
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Today, the Senate is due to vote on Trump’s plan to open the government, secure the border and extend DACA protections … and a Democratic bill to punt the issue (again): “open the government and we’ll negotiate (when we’ve stripped you of all your leverage).
As Trump likes to say: “We’ll see what happens.”
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Posted in Government shutdown, Immigration | 1 Comment »
January 23, 2019
An oft repeated Dem talking point is that walls don’t work.
When they’re confronted with the success rates of the many walls securing borders around the world, they shift to “but there are more cost-effective methods.”
What are these more effective methods?
As best I can tell, it’s throwing human capital at the problem (think: more border agents) … or enhanced electronic surveillance (think: drones).
Whenever you hear the latter argument, do what I do: recall the Lifelock commercial “Bank”.
When armed robbers rush into a bank, the scared customers implore the security guard to do something.
He informs them that he’s no a “security guard” … he’s simply a powerless “security monitor”.
View the clip to refresh your memory … then recall the imagery every time you hear the phrase “methods more efficient than walls”.
Click to play
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Posted in Border Security, Border walls, Commercials, Lifelock | Leave a Comment »
January 22, 2019
Even Lady Gaga is getting into the act, using precious concert time to trash Trump (“holding Federal employees hostage”) & Pence (“worst example of Christianity”) … and to rep for the cash-strained furloughed government workers.
OK, I know that 80% of Americans don’t have $500 in reserve to cover unexpected expenses.
I understand that for part-time burger-flippers working for minimum wages with no benefits.
But, that’s not Federal government employees.
A 2017 CBO study revealed that, on average, civilian Federal government employees make civilian federal workers make 17 percent more in wages and benefits than similar workers in the private sector.
Before you say; “Yeah, but these pay-deferred government employees are disproportionately from the lower end of the payscale.”
Let’s look closer at the data…
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Posted in gover, Government benefits, Government Employees, Government shutdown | Leave a Comment »
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