Scattershots – 12feb20 (updated 14feb20)

George Rebane

New Dem candidates contest.  I’m considering starting a new contest after the 3mar20 Super-Tuesday to predict/pick the Democratic Party presidential nominee.  The line-up would consist of the 3mar20 surviving candidates and ‘Other’.  Each Friday the contestants, who can enter at any time until 10 July (the last Friday before the Dem convention scheduled for 13-16 July), divide up 100 quatloos among the line-up and post them as comments under the appropriate contest status posting.  I will then update and post a tally of the total bet by each contestant for each candidate, and a tally of the candidates’ totals to date.  The winner will be declared on 16 July 2020, and determined by a pari-mutuel algorithm wherein the correct picking contestants divide up the total quatloos bet on a pro-rata basis on how much each bet on the Democratic nominee for president.  The prescient contestant garnering the most quatloos wins.  In the interval we will see how the candidates and the contestants fare as the convention draws nigh. Thoughts?

National Conservatism held its second conference in Rome on 4 February 2020. (more here)  According to its leading lights, such as co-founder Christopher DeMuth, “National Conservatism is a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing.”  Its antagonists are “hegemonic progressives” who “seek to quarantine religious observance, traditional culture, bourgeois social norms and the family itself.” (more here)  This conference launched a fearsome counter essay, ‘This Is How Reaganism and Thatcherism End’ by Anne Applebaum in the arch-Left chronicle The Atlantic which sees national conservatism as a project for ideological troglodytes who do not understand the current of history.  Her accusations are against named people and institutions who are allegedly ready to do wrongs, but have yet to do so – they are simply judged as being pre-guilty and treated accordingly by “enlightenment rational liberals”, humanity’s desiderata.  To such progressives, national conservatism is “the creation of a new, kleptocratic authoritarian right that chips away at the institutions preserving democracy.”  Sounds like there’s enough here to give the movement a more thorough look.

Michael Bloomberg is an ideological chameleon and a moral cretin.  His latest sin is his confession of ‘racism’ in how he wrongly reduced NYC’s crime rate with his ‘Stop, Question, and Frisk’ program which saved thousands of black and Hispanic lives during the tenure of that policy practiced on the streets by police.  Why racist?  Well, because 95+% of the violent criminals were minorities, and were therefore the successful targets of SQF.  That, along with black lives matter, makes no never mind.  It’s the optics and politics that matter in proper progressive policies.  And such ‘racism’ to the light-thinkers, those who perennially return Democrats to urban administrations, is unacceptable enough to warrant going back to former levels of mayhem and murder.  Realizing his political priorities, Bloomberg promised never to do that again.  Another successful blow for social justice. (more here and here)

[13feb20 update]  Snowflakes melting in the workplace.  As expected, the sheltered generation is starting to buckle their knees in the realworld after having been lavishly sheltered through childhood and school, learning that they were the entitled class destined for a government guaranteed, happy and fulfilling life in a land where merit is optional, and possibly discriminatory.  ‘Mental Health Requests Strain Employers’ (13feb WSJ) reports that “managers and younger employees are struggling to adapt as a generation of people with higher rates of reported mental illness enter the workforce.  Many of these new workers are coming to offices from colleges and high schools where they received accommodations, such as extra time to take tests or complete assignments—in some cases from elementary school onward. They are confronting a world of work that operates under different legal standards and less-flexible pressures and deadlines.  Symptoms related to mental illnesses covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act—such as severe anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder—can be ambiguous, unpredictable, highly individualized and often invisible. That makes accommodating these disabilities one of the more difficult areas for employers, according to employment attorneys and disability experts.”  And then there’s technology-driven systemic unemployment.  Oi geweh!

Message to our CIC - Mr President, listen to your AG Barr and do us all a favor - your tweets are accomplishing what the Dems could never do on their own.  So please, shut the fuck up!!!

[14feb20 update]  The blindered grassroots of the Left continue to demonstrate that they know not where their party is leading them and our country.  The distance from Sanders, AOC, Warren, … to communism is a stone’s throw, as all of them openly embrace and tout socialism.  Today Democratic Party nabobs and its national leadership all acknowledge and fear the party’s one leftward lurch too far – some already call some of their clown car candidates communists.  However, if these foothills are representative, then our local looney lefties have no clue about all this, and continue to firmly believe that identifying the Dems’ alarming road to communism is only a “red herring” floated by “rabid Trumpists” as part of their “the sky is falling” alarums as “fake news”.  Ample confirmation of such ignorance is available from our comment streams - e.g. in the 14feb20 Sandbox.  Perhaps these locals should inform Team Nancy that all is well with the clown car, so that she and hers will stop polluting the public airwaves with their daily warnings of imminent collapse in November.  Still makes you wonder from where these people get their news.

Comments

[Scott O]

Bloomberg's 'stop and frisk' did just barely make the cut as a Constitutionally allowable procedure. It absolutely cut down on the amount of bloodshed in NYC. Now he's on the national stage and he's wishing he hadn't done it. He's apologizing for it. If you run for POTUS as a Dem, you have you stop at the BLM booth and pay the toll or at least give massive lip service. Black Lives Matter is the most oxymoronically named group I've encountered. They care deeply for a handful of African background folk - most of whom were begging for a quick dispach to their maker. The massive death toll of innocent bystanders in urban areas that are not white mean absolutely nothing to the BLM goons. Police incompetence in officer involved shootings needs to be addressed. But BLM operates in a place of racism and fantasy. Bloomberg is apologizing that he saved the lives of who knows how many African descent lives. The road to the Dem nomination for POTUS is strange indeed.

[odlaw]

,,,stop and frisk,,,

...DUI checkpoint...

What is the difference????

[George Rebane]

odlaw 803am - SQF used Bayesian decision making for selecting its targets, DUI checkpoints don't.

[Barry Pruett]

Whether or not your support stop and frisk, listen to Bloomberg's tone as he talks about minority neighborhoods.

“Ninety-five percent of your murders, murderers and murder victims, fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops,” Bloomberg said. “They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed."

“So one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods. Yes, that's true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is," he continued.

“And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them. And then they start. ’Oh, I don’t want to get caught,’ so they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home," he said.

According to Bloomberg's words, these minorities are "Xerox copies" and he talks about throwing these minorities "against the wall." Sounds racially insensitive at a minimum.

[oldaw]

,,,This talk about Bloomberg and racism doesn't sound much different than the talk about Trump's racial profiling and family separation immigration plans...

...Don't hear much critiquing from the conservos on Trump's plans...

Reasons???

[Walt]

Just mow your own lawn Dougy.

[George Rebane]

oldaw 941am - and what plans of Trump are you talking about? And where did you get that "racial profiling" and "family separation immigration plans", from Obama? ... or did the lamestream forget to report that?

BarryP 933am - Well, that was telling it as it was. But do you have any thoughts about SQF practices vs the number of black lives saved?

[fishwitchunt]

Bloomberg was a Republican mayor so what else did you expect except racial insensitivity, etc.? That is what pubbers do best, appeal to white people's lowest instincts. How else can one rationalize trump?

[Scott O]

Bloomberg's description of 'throwing them against the wall' was his version of the procedure. I had never heard of it happening back when that policing measure was in force. The black cops were glad to be able to get the gun toting punks off the streets. The black population of NYC were glad to have safer streets. It was mainly white lefties and a handful of blacks that never had to walk those streets that complained.
Oddie 9:41 - "This talk about Bloomberg and racism doesn't sound much different than the talk about Trump's racial profiling and family separation immigration plans..."
Because with Trump it is just 'talk' or actually left wing bullshit to be accurate. There is no racial profiling at the border. None.
Kids have always been separated from their parents when the parents have committed crimes. Skin color has nothing to do with it.
Dragging your kids along with you while committing crime is child abuse.

[Barry Pruett]

George. I think that SQF a Terry stop) is logical. Police should use common sense. Go to where the crime is and where the shootings are and ask questions. I understand how SQF appears to disproportionately effect minorities, but the reality is that a majority of the crime in any city occurs in impoverished areas in which many minorities live. One person’s common sense of going to where crime is highest in order to prevent crimes is another man’s racism. If police are truly applying SQF with no racial bias, I don’t see a problem with this constitutionally permitted activity. see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). It is important to also know that all subsequent cases to Terry expanded stop and frisk and were either 8-1 or 9-0 decisions. SQF is well settled law.

The disparate effect on minorities stems from the amount of crime in these areas and not racial animus. My humble opinion.

[fish]

Posted by: fishwitchunt | 13 February 2020 at 10:05 AM

How else can one rationalize trump?

I don’t need to rationalize Trump......black people seem to dig him.....I mean those not working in the professional grievance industry! They certainly like him more in South Carolina than the most recent democrat front runner!

Wonder why that is?

[George Rebane]

BarryP 1217pm - Thank you Barry, that has been my considered (if somewhat hubristic) opinion for some years as these pages attest. One can show mathematically that it's foolish not to commit police resources where the likelihood of crime is highest. Race has nothing to do with it; preserving civilization does.

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Feb 13 update

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1287593084769474&set=gm.873860366402408&type=3&theater

[odlaw]

,,,oh dear!!! George and Bessie aren't going to like this MAGA fail...

Hundreds of thousands of jobs offshored during Trumpskkki's reign...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/10/trump-workers-jobs-overseas-factories

[George Rebane]

odlaw 510pm - You are a real caricature of yourself - have any idea about the number of jobs offshored during Obama's tenure?

[Don Bessee]

Can you say worker participation rate and unemployment rate trollio? Likely not! LOL!!

;-)