Joel Kotkin.

Earlier in this decade, cities—the bigger and denser the better—appeared as the planet’s geographic stars. According to Benjamin Barber, author of the 2013 book If Mayors Ruled the World, everyone would be better off if the ineffective, aging nation-state were replaced by rule from the most evolved urban areas. This, Barber argues, would provide the “building blocks” of global governance run by a “parliament of mayors.”

In reality, the validity of the “back to the city” meme was never as pronounced as its boosters believed. And now it seems, if anything, to be reversing—first demographically, then economically—as workers and key industries seek more affordable and congenial environments. Furthermore, many elite urban centers are diverging, sometimes radically, from national norms which produces a political conundrum. As big city politics shift ever further to the left, particularly on climate and “social justice” issues, not only are they becoming toxic to the middle class, they are becoming places many avoid rather than models that invite imitation.

The Antiplanner peeks behind the curtain.

An article posted on the Atlantic‘s CityLab last week documented that many of the cities that have adopted “vision zero” policies have seen pedestrian fatalities sharply increase. These cities, notes the article, have “spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, rebuilding streets to calm traffic and reduce driving, lobbying for speed limit reductions, launching public awareness campaigns, and retraining police departments.” Yet Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, among others, saw sharp increases in pedestrian and/or bicycle fatalities after adopting Vision Zero policies.

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The Secret War in Africa (part 1) covered the overall strategic predominance of US military/ NATO bases – some secret – in Africa, and the expansion by private military contractors (PMC) there in aid of corporate and national interests according to the major powers.

In Part 2 we examine the geopolitical associations in Africa which vary by nation, where major powers have a vested interest in a particular resource causing that major power to assume an aggressive posture to ‘protect’ its national interest by dominating or subverting the African state, in possession of that resource.

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Sure, open the borders! Let ’em all in! What could go wrong?

Presidential historian predicts public support for Trump will collapse | TheHill

Trump official who promoted fringe conspiracy theories now senior adviser at State Department  CNN

Ken Cuccinelli, acting DHS deputy, forced to leave bar after being assailed by Martin O’Malley

Another Reporter Pays for TDS

Collins Fires Back At Nadler Deadline, Slams ‘Hurried And Partisan’ Impeachment

MSNBC’s Joy Reid Compares Trump Support To A ‘Racial And Religious Cult Of Personality’

Univision Now Reporting That Trump Gives Immigrant Women Heart Disease

Todd: Bad Impeachment Polling Not ‘Organic’, GOP ‘Bullying’ Dems

Cory Booker Releases Campaign Ad Hyping Love And Unity, Suggests Trump Is A Bigot And Demagogue

Klobuchar Says She Sees Trump Impeachment ‘As A Global Watergate’

MSNBC’s Joy Reid Issues ‘Big’ Correction After Network Confused A Fired Trump Official With White Supremacist Richard Spencer

Malcolm Nance: Trump’s Fave Dirty Dozen Character the Murderer/Rapist  Loserthink: Mind-reading.

‘Some People Like To Project Themselves’: Ed Henry Criticizes Joy Reid For Injecting Race Into Discussion About Trump Support

Did Humans Survive an Extinction Level Event?

An inventor abandoned his solar-powered boat in Canada. Later, it washed up 2,000 miles away

Scientists Warn: Nine Climate Tipping Points Now ‘Active’ – Could Threaten the Existence of Human Civilization

The Fatal Flaw In A Perfect Energy Solution

Climate migration myths

BBC’s One Planet falsely claims that polar bears hunting whales from shore is an unprecedented effect of climate change

Brazilian President Blames Leonardo DiCaprio For Amazon Fires

“World War Zero” – John Kerry’s Great Climate Change Mobilization

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(John Hinderaker)
It has been widely reported that Usman Khan, the London Bridge terrorist, was released from prison in December 2018 after serving half of the term to which he was sentenced in 2012. Khan was one of a group of nine jihadists who were arrested in 2010 for plotting to blow up the London Stock Exchange. They also contemplated “Mumbai-style” terrorist attacks, and one of the plotters had a hit list that included the names and addresses of the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London), two rabbis–naturally–and the US Embassy in London.

The Daily Mail now reports that of the nine, only two are still in prison, while the remaining six were released, like Khan, well before their terms had been served. Their whereabouts are unknown.

Welcome to Londonistan. Be careful not to step in the diversity.

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They have plenty of material with which to work.

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An Australian professor has been charged with implementing a bogus harassment campaign against herself following the controversial cancellation of a degree program.

ZMan waxes wroth.

Everyone raised in the Unites States over the last fifty years has been required to memorize the official dogma regarding Jim Crow laws. These were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. The official version preached to this day is that they were draconian restrictions on blacks preventing them from having a normal life. Modern blacks are told that their condition is the direct result of white discrimination against blacks via these laws.

…

While not always written into the legal code, certainly not explicitly, the Jim Snow laws are just as offensive to the ideal of equality before the law. The evolving legal construct under which whites are treated different from non-whites is a variation of what existed in the South during segregation. While the intent of Jim Crow was to keep the races separate, the intent of the Jim Snow laws is vengeance. It is part of the blood libel against white people in America.

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The work­ing class has experienced economic stagnation and precarity, and even declining life expectancy in the United States, as well as lower family stability and civic engagement. Social mobility has declined, while inequality has widened.

But it is precisely for these reasons that the working class is unlikely to be decisive in shaping politics for the foreseeable future. However one defines the working class, it has scarcely any political agency in the current system and no apparent means for acquiring any. At most, working-class voters can cast their ballots for an “un­acceptable” candidate, but they can exercise no influence on policy formation or agency personnel, much less on governance areas that have been transferred to technocratic bodies. In countries like France, the working class might still be able to veto certain policies through public demonstrations, but such actions seem unlikely in the United States, and even the most heroic efforts of this kind show little prospect of achieving systemic reforms.

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The exodus from California to Texas proceeds apace.

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And this is from Politico, reliable Voice of the Crust.

Guess you dan’t ‘buy an election’ after all.

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

Think of it as evolution in action.