Read it.

In D.C., the Revolving Door doesn’t have to revolve very far any more.

I supposer this qualifies as a promotion.

Read it.

I remember when John Kasich was a Republican. Ah, those were the days….

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

— Luke 16:9

I suppose he doesn’t think of it as Selling Out so much as Buying In.

Read it.

‘Constituent Services’ is the branch of Congressional administration designed to give the appearance that your Congresscritter cares what you think without actually bothering him/her/it with your actual opinions (unless, of course, that opinion is accompanied by a large check, the larger the better).

To cut it down to its essence:

1. The unpaid intern opens the letter; determines if it’s someone mildly important or unimportant, and just enough to know what they’re talking about.
2. Based on those two data points he routes it to the appropriate LC or LA
3. The LC or LA reads the letter just enough to know if the writer is ‘for’ or ‘against’
4. The LC or LA sends a form letter.

This piece examines how that process can be automated to make sure that no public employee is ever bothered  by the opinions of unimportant (i.e. non-donor) citizens.

Read it.

Presumably because the last one worked out so well. Eventually Mexico is going to wake up to the fact that these ‘caravans’ headed for the U.S. border merely make Trump’s case for a wall and cause problems only for Mexicans.

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Read it.

The ignorance of those who write for newspapers never ceases to amaze me. Cleopatra was a Ptolemy, descended from Alexander’s general who got Egypt in the carve-up after ol’ Alex died; they were Macedonians, and quickly followed the Pharaonic custom of marrying their siblings, so there is no possible way that Cleopatra was ‘black’, i.e. sub-Saharan African. Judging from her name and picture Biba Kang is Asian so perhaps can’t be expected to know any better, but presumably this piece passed through the hands of editors at least one of whom presumably attended University and so ought to have intervened. But perhaps accuracy isn’t that important any more in ‘journalism’.

Read it.

The Sunday morning gabfests are turning into asylums a la Marat/Sade, without the pathos or human interest.

Couldn’t have put it any better myself.

Read it.

Thank you for that warning, otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do.

I’m going to start selling T-shirts that say ‘YOU CAN’T MAKE ME CARE’. I think that it has the potential to generate many millions of dollars in sales and an impressive number of ugly incidents on college campuses.

Read it.

No doubt most are accompanied by minor children and report a credible fear of oppression in their home countries.

Cue U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Bark if you need funding.

Read it

‘Male-dominated capitalist machine’? So far as I can tell, this isn’t intended as a parody, although these days the distinction is getting less and less. (Funny, I don’t see any complaints about the male-dominated socialist machine; perhaps they ought to interview Berni and President Maduro on that.)

First Rule of Totalitarianism: Even making ‘woke’ noises won’t get you off the hook.

Read it.

I have no response to that.

You’d think that the reference to Kilimanjaro would make Kenya a more appropriate venue, but I guess not.

Read it.

There seems to be a common thread here. The foreign policy establishment doesn’t want to strike at Iran, so (reportedly) we don’t have contingency plans to do so, and a request for such plans is deemed “mind boggling.” The foreign policy establishment doesn’t want to withdraw forces from Syria, so (reportedly) Trump’s team is caught short when Trump announces a withdrawal, and Trump is accused of being “erratic,” as the Post puts it.

Read it.

The range is now Lies, Damned Lies, and Media Reports.  (Sorry, statistics.)

Read it.

Advantage eunuch, obviously.

Audacious Epigone takes a Steve Sailer meme and runs with it.

The cliche isn’t just raining down from above, it’s miasmically rising up from below.

The graphs are very enlightening.

Read it.

In other words, they got caught enforcing the Narrative, and had to backtrack.

Read it.

The chief functional difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats never forget which side their on, and some Republicans often lose track. Sadly, those people often wind up in the Republican ‘leadership’.

Ace of Spades does some color commentary.

Trump’s responses to Red Cortez’s “Racisss!!” taunt, and Sassy Jim Acosta’s buffoonish grandstanding, should be primers for all serious Republican politicians in the future.

Don’t dignify fundamentally undignified people. Treat them as what they actually are, not as what they pretend to be.

Read it.

The Department of Health and Human Services created rules allowing employers to opt out of birth control coverage due to religious or moral objections. Employers otherwise have to offer health insurance that covers a range of birth control options, from the pill to intrauterine devices to emergency contraception, at no cost to patients.

The decision to block the rules from taking effect was issued Sunday by Judge Haywood Gilliam, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama and previously blocked an interim version of the exemptions.

Stalin reputedly once said that it didn’t matter who voted, it mattered who counted the votes. Similarly one might with equal justice say that it doesn’t matter what the law is, what matters is how it is enforced.

The Deep State is everywhere. For evil to triumph it is merely necessary for judges to pick oppression over freedom.

Read it.

Cronyism is alive and well in the Democrat Party.

Read it.

A California judge has ruled that American cops can’t force people to unlock a mobile phone with their face or finger. The ruling goes further to protect people’s private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision.

Family Guy producers reveal exactly how they shred Trump in new episode

Trump quotes racist article by man he previously called a ‘Hitler lover’, in effort to justify his border wall

Government shutdown – live: Trump sued by federal workers as international airport terminal closed amid growing chaos

Trump suggests falling energy prices is evidence he has never been a Russian agent in rambling Twitter storm

Former Trump Pollster Predicts Over Three Dozen Democrats Could Run For President In 2020

Julian Castro Accuses Trump Of Scapegoating Immigrants, Being A ‘Failed Leader’

CNN’s Stelter: Are We Talking About Russia Enough?

NY Times’ Bruni Warns Media Colleagues: Don’t Let Trump Fool Us Again in 2020

‘Family Guy’ Producers Try To Justify Depiction Of Trump Groping Teenager  I’m surprised that they even bothered.

Ocasio-Cortez Responds To Trump’s ‘Who Cares?’ Criticism — Compares President To Bar Patron

Chuck Todd Urges Trump Impeachment: ‘How Much More Do You Need to Know?’  Well, some evidence of a crime would be helpful….

The shutdown hurts the President. Still the anti-Trump media can’t keep off Russia

Donald Trump, the Kremlin and the ghost of Alger Hiss

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hits back at Trump for dismissing her: ‘The real reason he’s hiding his taxes’  Seriously?

What has Trump tweeted today? The latest Twitter posts from the US President and what they really mean  #PsychicNewsNetwork.

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Read it.

Now THAT’S comedy.

Read it.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Read it.

Oh goody. A researcher over in England named David Klemperer has come up with a “Class Struggle Index” to rank the Democratic presidential field now taking shape. Not surprisingly, Bernie does best, but Beto better find a more working class encounter than dental hygiene to Instagram next time, as he’s clearly trailing the progressive pack.

The chief difference (functionally) between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats never forget what side they are on, whereas a lot of Republicans often lose track — or never knew in the first place.

Read it. And scope out the reading list.

f you pay much attention to the posturings of the left — and how could you not? — you probably have concluded that leftism is a quasi-religious* cult.

Leftism, as we know it today, is quasi-religious because of its strongly moralistic bent, given its readiness to condemn anything that can be associated (by leftists) with white supremacy/white privilege/racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, climate-change denialism, elitism, etc., etc., etc. (Condemnation of elitism, coming from leftist elites, epitomizes irony.)

Leftism of yore was aimed mainly at the realization of a material heaven on Earth through communism, socialism, and various forms of income and wealth redistribution. Today’s leftism, without having abandoned the objective of economic equality (or less inequality), has conjoined that objective to social equality.

Read it.

Of course he will. He’s falling behind in the Pander-Bear race.

Victor Davis Hanson turns over a rock.

Ironically, the quest for a superficial separation from the majority comes at a time when the majority has never been so committed to the promise of the Declaration of Independence and when equal opportunity has become a reality rather than an abstract ideal.

Yet in our new binary society, we all have a choice to be seen either as victims or victimizers. And thus we make the necessary adjustments for the often more lucrative and careerist choice.

Read it.

Because people are too damned stupid to know how much to eat unless told what to do by some authority?

A demonstration of how much a certain class of people despises everybody else.

It’s people like them that cause unrest.

Wes McKinney makes a good case for it.

One thing is certain: many companies based in major cities like NYC and SF are extremely effective at extracting high quality labor from the world’s most talented young people. It should be no surprise why wealthy corporations want this to be: it is immensely profitable. In a single quarter in 2017, Facebook made around $450,000 in revenue and $190,000 in profit per employee. As Jeff Hammerbacher infamously put it: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”

I’ve increasingly felt that open source development is at odds with the values that are driving a large portion of the corporate world, particularly in the United States. Many companies won’t fund open source work because there is no “return on investment”. This is deeply frustrating, and being surrounded by people whose actions align with profit-motive can be pretty discouraging. It’s not necessarily that people who work in NYC or SF are greedy or amorally concerned with making money. In many cases they are just responding to incentives coming from pretty low on the hierarchy of needs.

Read it.

Frank Bruni, formerly the New York Times’s White House reporter and now a columnist for the paper, has a long, long op-ed that is unintentionally revealing. It is headlined, “Will the Media Be Trump’s Accomplice Again in 2020?” As though the press were pro-Trump in 2016! “We have a second chance. Let’s not blow it.” A second chance to help a Democrat beat Donald Trump.

Jon Meacham Compares Trump’s White House To Titanic Steaming Toward An Iceberg  He hopes he hopes he hopes….

Tapper Presses Sen. Johnson To Condemn Trump On Russia — He Isn’t Biting

President Trump Fires Back At ‘Insulting’ Questions Raised By NYT Article

Trump equates illegal immigrants with paedophiles in attempt to justify need for border wall  Which he didn’t, of course. He just pointed out that there is a lot of that going on, which is true.

Trump losing blame game over shutdown – but increase in support for wall could see president dig in further  From a Voice of the Crust — this appears to be the Official Line.

Read it.

Or, alternatively, we could get rid of the TSA, saving taxpayer money and making travel more pleasant for all of us.

But that won’t happen.

Read it.

When I set out to open a restaurant in San Francisco’s vibrant restaurant market, I thought I’d employ all I’ve learned from an MBA from a top school, the rigor of an engineering education and a decade and a half launching and managing some of the most successful businesses for Google and other tech companies. Furthermore, I wasn’t naive to think that I knew better than all those who’ve been tenured in the industry. I actively sought out the mentorship of many titans who’ve been generous with their time and knowledge of the industry. So I opened Tawla, a restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission district. I hoped Tawla would provide a fresh lens onto the culinary cultures of Turkey, Greece and the Levant area that is more humanizing. With food being a most humanizing lens, Tawla was a restaurant that aspired to present the home-cooked food of that region while sourcing local ingredients from farms and purveyors, creating a healthy environment for our employees where they can thrive, be reasonably priced to many, and be a good citizen in our neighborhood. In today’s San Francisco climate, that all seems like a tall order and very few restaurants that don’t belong to large restaurant groups will be able to exist without compromising on one or more of these dimensions.

Avoid cities run by Democrats. They’re great for rich people and tolerable for the tax-supported Underclass, but they have no room for real people.

Lileks.

It’s the middle of the month of the new year, and you haven’t reduced your screen time, learned French, lost weight, organized the drawers or anything else you resolved to do. January sits on your chest like a fat, dead possum.

But you know what they say about possums: They only play dead. So embrace the good news — you have a live, nasty possum on your chest.

Let me rework that metaphor. You have plenty of chances to start something new, and it’s just a two-step process. Step 1, slowly roll over, so the possum slides off. Two, look at that glossy community education catalog that arrived in the mail. It’s full of interesting classes. It’s like college, without the crippling debt and early-20s sense of existential despair.

I have lingered over these details because they formed a part–a most important and honorable part–of that ancient curriculum of house-keeping which, at least in Anglo-Saxon countries, was so soon to be swept aside by the “monstrous regiment” of the emancipated; young women taught by their elders to despise the kitchen and the linen room, and to substitute the acquiring of University degrees for the more complex art of civilized living. The movement began when I was young, and now that I am old, and have watched it and noted its results, I mourn more than ever the extinction of the household arts. Cold storage, deplorable as it is, has done far less harm to the home than the Higher Education.

— Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance

Mrs. Wharton died in 1935; there is no telling what her reaction would have been to Congresswoman Occasional-Cortex, but I doubt that it would have been good.

Read it.

Biting the hand that feeds her? This will not end well for AOC, I predict.

Read it.

With Republican ‘leaders’ willing to take their own troops out and shoot them over ThoughtCrime, who needs Democrats? If you’re wondering why Democrats are always winning, look no further.

Read it.

Time once again to thank God you don’t live in New York City.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his plan to provide health care to all New Yorkers — including illegal immigrants — on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. He stopped short of explaining exactly how he planned to offset the cost, saying only that the “wrong people” had all the money and he planned to correct that.

Once again, talking past the sale. Tapper takes quite a while to work his way around to asking why these are ‘the wrong people’, but it’s astonishing that a CNN ‘journalist’ even heads in that direction.

Tapper opened the segment by quoting Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — who had proposed a similar plan for his state, but noted that unless other states joined the program, it would be financially impossible. “He was saying in Florida they could do it only if other states joined him because otherwise, all sick people would just come to Florida,” Tapper explained.

Shock! It would appear that Gillum has at least two brain cells to rub together. How did that happen?

“What’s to stop sick people from flocking to New York and overburdening the system?”

De Blasio shrugged off the question, saying, “I don’t see that happening.”

It would appear that DeBlasio does not. No surprises there.

He concluded by blaming politicians starting with Republican President Ronald Reagan who, through tax policy and other policies, had implemented a “systematic agenda to take that money and put it more and more in the hands of the few.”

Here we see the consistent Democrat belief that any money belongs of right to the government and that it wound up in the ‘hands of the few’ because — what? They snuck around and scooped it up while Democrats weren’t looking?

Read it.

This is a good example of what Scott Adams calls ‘talking past the sale’. If somebody gets in your face and shouts ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT INCOME INEQUALITY?’ the automatic response of most people is to start fumbling around trying to think of what it is you’re doing about income inequality as if it were obvious that income inequality were ipso facto some bad thing that needs to be fixed.

The correct response, of course, is to ask the shouter ‘Why should I be doing something about income inequality?’ since (a) you didn’t create it and (b) no demonstration has been made that it’s a bad thing. But that’s the way the Usual Suspects deal with their agenda: They just proceed on the assumption that their grievances are fully justified and therefore the discussion (using the term loosely) is about how to satisfy them.

There is a lot of income inequality between me and Bill Gates, because I didn’t see an opportunity in the computer field when I was in college, as he did, and I didn’t drop out of Harvard, as he did, to pursue it by working sixty-hour weeks for twenty years, as he did, to build a company to take advantage of that. Is that his fault, or mine? Or maybe nobody’s? In any event, I don’t see that I have any legitimate beef that he’s one of the top ten richest people in the world and I’m not.

Democrats, of course, don’t see it that way. Since there’s no way yet to make me clever and workaholic, their solution is to steal most of his money (thus ensuring that his decades of cleverness and hard work gained him very little) and give it — not to me, of course, because I’m a white man, but to some prole who can barely use a computer much less create an industry to provide them for everybody. As one can plainly see, this guarantees that in the future we will have a lot more ignorant proles and a lot less clever hard-working people like Bill Gates.

But those whose wealth and power depend on harvesting the votes of the ignorant proles (and, hardest to comprehend, the contributions of people like Bill Gates) don’t worry about that, because no matter how bad it is for the rest of us, they’ll be doing very well indeed, as will their children. (Yeah, Chelsea, I’m looking at YOU.)

Read it.

‘Cost’, of course, assumes that the money you make belongs to the government, which then graciously allows you to keep part of it. From that perspective, then, a tax cut is a ‘cost’ to the government.

Of course, when YOUR ‘costs’ exceed your income, you have to either find new income or reduce your spending. The  government never reduces spending — perish the thought! — so it has to find new sources of income. Since the only sources of income available to the government are the monies it takes from YOU, well….

Read it.

The Embroidered Computer is an exploration into using historic gold embroidery materials and knowledge to craft a programmable 8 bit computer.

Solely built from a variety of metal threads, magnetic, glas and metal beads, and being inspired by traditional crafting routines and patterns, the piece questions the appearance of current digital and electronic technologies surrounding us, as well as our interaction with them.

The Emergency Declaration as a Destructive, Disguised Surrender on the Wall  David French, National Review cuck, never passes up an opportunity to punch right.

Trump’s Typos Reveal His Lack of Fitness for the Presidency  Serously? Seriously?

Puerto Rico governor rips report of Trump redirecting disaster aid funding for border wall  He might want to wait until something actually happens before he starts complaining.

Read it.

Compromise. It’s a word President Trump used several times yesterday. He is open to compromise. In this case, that means something short of the $5 billion he wants for a border wall. He’s open to taking less, perhaps in exchange for not applying the law to younger illegal immigrants. This is clearly the easiest way out of the current debacle. But it is something the Democrats, led by “No Wall” Nancy Pelosi, have said they will never support.

This is a problem. Democrats have backed themselves up against a, well, a wall. They have created a situation in which if they give even one dollar to Trump to build a wall, or fence, steel barrier, or whatever, they have lost the political fight. Pelosi, the great speaker of the House who gets things done, has left herself no leverage to get anything done. She could ask for almost anything in exchange for wall funding, but instead, she won’t budge.

The Democrats will lose because they have an infinite many ways to lose and only one way to win, one that Trump will never give them.

The Democrats have made this a zero-sum game. If Trump gets any money for the wall, he wins. That’s a really fantastic position for him. He can go on TV, whether in a controversial network roadblock or an appearance on the southern border, and say, “Hey, I’m up for a compromise.” Meanwhile, Chuck and Nancy have to slam the door shut on getting 800,000 federal employees back to work.

I’ve met rocks with more brains than Nancy Pelosi.

Read it.

Next they’ll be requiring children in public schools to rat out their parents, just like in the old Soviet Union.

There is nothing new under the sun.