Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the July 30, 2020 Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/Tidbits073020.htm
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
My Latest Web Document
Over 600 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With
Statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The published national debt is a lie
Here's the real federal debt ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/about/our_national_debt
Debt to GDP Ratio by Country 2020 ---
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-national-debt/
Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
MIT's Links to Covid-19 Trackers Around the World ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1000961/launching-mittr-covid-tracing-tracker/
Johns Hopkins University:
Updated Map and Table on the Number of Coronavirus Cases for Every Nation
---
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Accuracy is subject to wide margins of error for every nation and varies greatly
between nations.
Covid019 in New Hampshire
---
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/
The best maps for comparing
counties and towns in your state are provided by your state. For example, here's
the map showing the distribution of cases for New Hampshire counties and towns
---
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-map/32009329#
Beautiful News Daily (news and statistics to offset all of
today's bad news) ---
https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/
Here's a humorous and serious TED talk that seriously argues why the world needs billionaires
https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_eia_where_in_the_world_is_it_easiest_to_get_rich
Why did Cuba abandon its socialist/communist dream of equality for everybody?
The Guardian: This was the egalitarian dream of Cuba in the 1960s: For years in
Cuba, jobs as varied as farm workers and doctors only had a difference in their
wages of the equivalent of a few US dollars a month.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba
Here's a somber and serious Guardian article on why the Cuban
model of income equality for all is a disaster ---
Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/fidel-castro-cuba-economic-model
Miracle of Chile ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
Movie: The Chicago Boys of Chile ---
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chicagoboysenglish
The Singapore Dream: How Singapore's richest man went
from welding in a factory for $14 per hour to owning a $17 billion hotpot
restaurant chain ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-singapore-richest-man-from-welder-to-hotpot-billionaire-2020-1
While a
move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away
the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one
of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2
Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth
Jensen
Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed
communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep
poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If
so, why?
One reason is that many billionaires can afford to pour lots of money into high risk ventures. When's the last time you heard about a high risk (think Silicon Valley) venture in Europe?
Wikiquote from Wikipedia --- https://www.wikiquote.org/
"This is perhaps the assembly of the most
intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception
of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone"
John F. Kennedy at a White House party
The True Meaning of Memorial Day Isn’t a
Three-Day Weekend ---
https://www.ozy.com/news-and-politics/the-true-meaning-of-memorial-day-isnt-a-three-day-weekend/78579/?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyDose%20%282020-05-25%2016:37:44%29&utm_content=B
When the Great Scorer comes to write against your name, one unforgiveable sin (racial profiling) outweighs all the good you've done in life.
Bob Jensen
Kobe Bryant: We need to make the most of
every minute we have ---
https://www.newsweek.com/i-wont-take-see-you-later-granted-148449
Hermann Weyl born in Hamburg, Germany. He wrote,
"One may say that mathematics talks about the things which are of no concern to
men. Mathematics has the inhuman quality of starlight---brilliant, sharp, but
cold ... thus we are clearest where knowledge matters least: in mathematics,
especially number theory." ---
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Weyl.html
Also see Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics
And nevertheless conclude that the optimum
amount of restriction of immigration is zero point zero, zero, zero? Amazing.
Economics are generally skeptical models that yield corner solutions ---
https://www.econlib.org/do-you-talk-about-it-in-open-borders-yes/
Jensen Comment
To the list of questions I would add "Do your talk about the Tragedy of the
Commons?"
The problem with open borders is somewhat related to the economic problem of
"The Sharing of the Commons" where giving everybody the right to use a free
resource leads to everybody losing that resource. At what point will allowing
billions of people share in the free medical care, free college, and other
scarce resources ruin it for everybody ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGCkZzrvQkcFbRplBPwBFwmFDs
Open immigration can’t exist with a strong
social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to
everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net
History will prove former President Donald
Trump was correct about Mexico one day funding an impenetrable wall --- to keep
out over 2 billion starving green immigrants seeking to enter Mexico from the
north.
Bob Jensen
Assorted Charlie Munger Quotations ---
Walter E. Williams: Insults to Black
History ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/24/insults-to-black-history-n2571095?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=06/24/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Walter E. Williams: The True Plight of Black Americans
Is Racism Responsible for Today's Black
Problems? ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/07/29/is-racism-responsible-for-todays-black-problems-n2573212?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/29/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Some Fatherly Words of Wisdom from Jack Bogle, Founder
of Vanguard Investments, to My Sons ---
https://jborden.com/2019/06/16/some-fatherly-words-of-wisdom-from-jack-bogle-founder-of-vanguard-investments-to-my-sons/
Walter A. Williams: The Nation's Report Card
How are K-12 schools doing under President Trump versus
President Obama?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/06/the-nations-report-card-n2568167?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/06/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Jensen's Comment
Most K-12 schools were probably doing better when I was a child than they're
doing today. The downhill slide is greatest in the gang-ridden schools,
drug-infested urban schools like Chicago and New Orleans. Throwing money at such
schools is not the answer until life at home recovers.
Finland knows this, which is why Finland's dads spend more time with school
children than the moms or the teachers.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/04/finland-only-country-world-dad-more-time-kids-moms
Walter E. Williams: Insane News Tidbits
---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/27/insane-news-tidbits-n2569329?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/27/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Milton Friedman: The Lesson of the
Spoons ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/spoons-are-in-aisle-9.html
Chopsticks would be even better
Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls For “Dismantling” of US “Economy and Political Systems”
(VIDEO) ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/944250-radical-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-vows-to-overthrow-the-united-states-and-replace-with-a-socialist-world?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw..A
Jensen Comment
Republicans are most grateful that Omar played a huge role in getting Biden
nominated
Portland Antifa and Black Lives Matter
launched explosives at the Federal Courthouse and Justice Center while
attempting to barricade agents inside on the 50th night of riots in the ultra
liberal city ---
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/breaking-portland-antifa-blm-launch-explosives-federal-building-barricading-agents-inside/
I think Nancy Pelosi is happy about this since the Federal "storm troopers" seem
to be losing the battle ---
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/nancy-pelosi-calls-dhs-agents-nazi-stormtroopers-sent-portland-following-40-days-leftist-rioting-mass-destruction/
Oregon will sue federal agencies over use of
force against protesters ---
https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/oregon-will-sue-feds-over-use-of-force-against-protesters/
The Antifa Brought Weapons And Will Bring Them Again Until They Get
Their Civil War
Three Federal Agents May Have Been Blinded
Permanently by Antifa-BLM Lasers in Portland ---
https://www.fox13news.com/news/federal-officers-in-portland-may-have-been-permanently-blinded-by-lasers-officials-say
I'm afraid the the defunded and defanged police are helpless in fighting the
armed Antifa-led mobs.
One day white supremacist snipers may
enter the fray and Antifa will finally get the Marxist Civil War it really
wants.
The said thing is that BLM activists will one day regret being led into that
civil war by Antifa Marxists
Radical Seattle City Councilmember Kshama
Sawant Vows to Militantly Overthrow the United States and Replace with “a Socialist World”
---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/944250-radical-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-vows-to-overthrow-the-united-states-and-replace-with-a-socialist-world?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw..A
Also see
https://mynorthwest.com/1850633/rantz-socialist-kshama-sawant-militant-takeover-amazon/?
Black Police Chief Explains to Seattle Councilwoman That She Can't Fire White Officers Just Because They're White ---
"In
Praise of Cheap Labor," by Paul Krugman,
Slate, March 21, 1997 ---
https://slate.com/business/1997/03/in-praise-of-cheap-labor.html
Corruption in general has a deleterious effect
on the readiness of economic agents to invest. In the long run, it leads to a
paralysis of economic life. But very often it is not that economic agents
themselves have had the bad experience of being cheated and ruined, they just
know that in this country, or in this part of the economy, or this building
scene, there is a high likelihood that you will get cheated and that free riders
can get away with it. Here again, reputation is absolutely essential, which is
why transparency is so important. Trust can only be engendered by transparency.
It's no coincidence that the name of the most influential non-governmental
organization dealing with corruption is Transparency International.
A Conversation with Karl Sigmund: When Rule of Law is
Not Working
https://www.edge.org/conversation/karl_sigmund-when-the-rule-of-law-is-not-working
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so on ad infinitum ---
Augustus De Morgan
Prior to 1980 what was unique about the year of his birth in 1871?
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/De_Morgan.html
Also see
The
enemy is fear
We think it's hate
But, it's fear
Gandhi
12 inspiring quotes from Martin Luther King
Jr.---
https://www.businessinsider.com/inspiring-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-2017-1
‘Never Be Afraid’: William Faulkner’s Speech
to His Daughter’s Graduating Class in 1951 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/05/never-be-afraid-william-faulkners-speech-to-his-daughters-graduating-class-in-1951.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
21 outstanding Warren Buffet quotations ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-21-best-quotes-2019-2
Also see
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-25-best-warren-buffett-quotes-in-one-infographic/
History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://rapidvisa.com/history-of-united-states-immigration-laws/
Will Nextpolis become the new Hong Kong?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/07/a-hong-kong-enclave-in-ireland.html
Jensen Comment
I doubt if the proposed location of Nextopolis will work well unless the EU
gives Nextopolis exemptions from the many and severe regulations in the EU.
The same can be said for the West Coast of Canada since Canada is also bound up
in regulations. It would be dangerous to locate it in Tiawan. Singapore has a
better shot.
Hydroxychloroquine could save up to 100,000 lives if used for
COVID-19: Yale epidemiology professor ---
https://www.foxnews.com/media/hydroxychloroquine-could-save-lives-ingraham-yale-professor
NYT: Should We Cancel Aristotle?
He defended slavery and opposed the notion of human equality ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/opinion/should-we-cancel-aristotle.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Walter E. Williams: Rotten Education
Isn't Preordained: in 2016, in 13 Baltimore high schools, not a single
student tested proficient in math ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/20/rotten-education-isnt-preordained-n2569005?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/20/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
The Politidcally Correct Goose Step May Ruin
Universities ---
https://mises.org/wire/are-universities-finished?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=96712ec7ff-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_17_06_30_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-96712ec7ff-228708937
THE MEDIA'S JIHAD AGAINST SWEDEN'S NO-LOCKDOWN
POLICY IGNORES KEY FACTS ---
https://mises.org/power-market/medias-jihad-against-swedens-no-lockdown-policy-ignores-key-facts?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=73aebfbd79-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-73aebfbd79-228708937
Did you notice how Snopes is totally ignoring the latest research
showing positive impacts of
Hydroxychloroquine?
https://www.snopes.com/
Jensen Comment
Snopes is notorious in cherry picking what it "fact checks"
Iranian People Mock General Salami’s
Secret ‘Magnetic Coronavirus Detection Machine’ ---
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2020/07/15/iranians-mock-general-salamis-secret-magnetic-coronavirus-detection-machine/
How much trade is dodging Trump’s China
tariffs?
https://qz.com/1874110/how-much-trade-is-dodging-trumps-china-tariffs/
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over
Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-is-outrage-anti-semitism-sports-hollywood-1303210
Smithsonian’s Anti-White Propaganda ---
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/smithsonian-whiteness-anti-white-propaganda/
A Short Documentary on the Courageous Tuskegee
Airmen, Narrated by Morgan Freeman ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/07/a-short-documentary-on-the-courageous-red-tails-tuskegee-airmen.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+OpenCulture+(Open+Culture)
Moskos on Surging Crime in NYC ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/07/moskos-on-surging-crime-in-nyc.html
After the whites, police, and businesses leave
NYC AOC and her comrades are welcome to it ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/alexcorey/2020/07/16/aoc-calls-for-cuomo-to-support-billionaires-tax-n2572623?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/17/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Amazon is lucky to be scared off by AOC's threats to destroy it's NYC
preliminary choice for a second headquarters.
The National Museum of African American
History and Culture Removes Chart on “Whiteness” ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/07/the-national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture-removes-chart-on-whiteness/
Reason Magazine: Black Lives Matter 'Is
Hostile Towards Free Markets and Capitalism' ---
https://reason.com/podcast/kmele-foster-black-lives-matter-is-hostile-towards-free-markets-and-capitalism/
Curious Why US News Networks Are Supportive of
Chinese Government? Just Look at the Corporate Ownership ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/bradslager/2020/04/24/curious-why-us-news-networks-are-supportive-of-chinese-government-just-look-at-the-corporate-ownership-n2567504
On July 21, 2020 National News ABC repeated this well-known error
As of July 17, 2020, Nueces County in Texas had seen 85
positive COVID-19 tests among children aged under 1 year
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/85-babies-covid-texas-county/
There's no excuse after other news services retracted the claim
Vox mostly publishes leftist articles
Progressives Don't Love Joe Biden, But They're Learning to Love His
$10+ Trillion in New Spending ---
https://www.vox.com/21322478/joe-biden-overton-window-bidenism
Not mentioned in the article is his new promise of nearly $1 trillion annually
for child and elder care (beyond Medicaid) funded by taxing wealthy real estate
investors who are now taking an enormous hit in USA cities hit hard by the
simultaneous whammy of Covid-19, flight of high income people who can absorb
losses now to escape larger losses in the future, and crashing real estate
markets ---
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-crash-next-shoe-012742635.html
Also see Ican's multibillion short position taken on commercial real estate ---
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/04/25/icahn-sees-further-market-crash-from-coronavirus-says-hes-shorting-commercial-real-estate/#193b49ca256e
DNC Held Hostage: 15% Of Dem Delegates
‘Committed’ Socialists' Who Will 'Tear It Down' ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/963126-dnc-held-hostage-15-of-dem-delegates-committed-socialists-who-will-tear-it-down?utm_source=c-am&utm_medium=c-am-email&utm_term=c-am-GI&utm_content=697zxgAhCmuHg4vas74EBzlnoWM3eNVp0oCrhLuQnY-I.A
Why Detroit has been spared the violent
protests happening in other urban centers across the U.S. ---
https://www.foxnews.com/media/detroit-police-chief-we-dont-retreat-here
Jensen Comment
I think Detroit is appreciative of the billions spent recently by the public and
private sectors on its recovery --- billions for new factories, housing
recovery, public services (think plumbing and electricity), etc. Detroit is
unwilling to throw all that progress away on a Marxist quest for civil war.
Asheville, N.C., City Council Unanimously
Approves Reparations for Black People (need not be descended from slaves) ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/953550-asheville-nc-city-council-unanimously-approves-reparations-for-black-people-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=4_IBzIGwv_cPJlMRU4kb7RWtLkQ..A
Jensen Comment
No mention of requirements for residency or being "Black." Payments will not be
paid to individuals, but qualified residents may share in the benefits like
housing and housing improvements dedicated to this initiative. Apparently other
minorities will not share these benefits but may be taxed to help their Black
brethren. Presumably the city will not allow discriminatory wages, but these are
mostly illegal anyway. Perhaps there will be more enforcement such as when
teenage Blacks are hired to do domestic chores like baby sitting or mowing lawn
or taking care of pets. Limits on health care benefits are not discussed, but
presumably this will not go so far as to pay for organ transplants. Remember
Paul Krugman's warning:
Open immigration can’t exist with a strong
social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to
everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net
This applies to "open immigration" of any people coming into a town. Ashville
could not afford thousands of people coming to town just for generous
"reparation" benefits.
Remarkable data on wealth inequality in
Germany ---
https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1287701766830583811
Extreme wealth inequality in the USA, China, Russia, and elsewhere does not
surprise me, but the German data surprised me. The inequality is not so visible
when you visit the country like Erika and I used to visit her relatives quite
often and I did a few gigs at German universities (to pay for my supper). Like
Japan there's much more collaboration between government and Germany's banks and
businesses. When I lectured in classes in Germany it also amazed me how large
and crowded the classrooms were even in graduate courses.
Anyone Catch ABC News' Odd Tweet About the Mayhem
in California?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/07/27/anyone-catch-abc-news-odd-tweet-about-the-mayhem-in-california-n2573174?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/27/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Newsweek: In the future, I believe this
misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists
of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode
clear-cut medical evidence ---
HARVEY A. RISCH, MD, PHD , PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC
HEALTH
https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opinion-1519535
Jensen Comment
It amazed me how the leftist media (including Snopes and the NYT) ignored
studies, such as from the NYU School of Medicine, that showed positive results
for hydroxychloroquine in combination with other ingredients.
Who Are the Real Victims When We Abandon Surveillance in Policing, Academic Cheating, Credit Card Fraud, Traffic Violations, Shoplifting, etc.?
MIT: Predictive
policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/17/1005396/predictive-policing-algorithms-racist-dismantled-machine-learning-bias-criminal-justice/
Surveillance for plagiarism, examination Integrity, etc. are
cop-shit racist. They need to be dismantled ---
http://hackeducation.com/2020/07/20/surveillance
Indeed, I will close by saying that — as with so much in ed-tech — the actual tech itself may be a distraction from the conversation we should have about what we actually want teaching and learning to look like. We have to chance the culture of schools not just adopt kinder ed-tech. Chances are, if you want to focus on the tech because it's tech, you're selling "cop shit."
Jensen Comments
When George Orwell published A renowned book entitled 1984 that
anticipated (too soon) a police world (where Big Brother watched your every
move) nearly everyone got concerned that freedom and innovation would end in
police world taken to its utmost extreme ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. Many terms used in the novel have entered common usage, including Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, prole, and memory hole. Nineteen Eighty-Four also popularised the adjective "Orwellian", connoting things such as official deception, secret surveillance, brazenly misleading terminology, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. Time included it on its 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[5] It was placed on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, reaching No. 13 on the editors' list and No. 6 on the readers' list.[6] In 2003, the novel was listed at No. 8 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.[7] Parallels have been drawn between the novel's subject matter and real life instances of totalitarianism, communism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom of expression among other themes.[8][9][10]
Until the BLM, we've allowed surveillance technology Big Brotherism to creep into society in the name of academic integrity, public safety, and, yeah, even social justice. The City of London is covered by video surveillance more than any other city --- in part to detect bombers before they plant their bombs in public transit systems, schools, parks, public buildings, etc. Teachers routinely use plagiarism detection software and software to detect exam cheating (especially when students are remotely located).
After the BLM protests brought us a revelation that racism truly is endemic in all nations we've started to dismantle some of our surveillance tools on the claim that they are racist. The Sacramento Bee newspaper no longer will publish any pictures of wanted criminals because the proportion of blacks being pictured would be most likely racist even when those wanted criminals might be terrorists, murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. St. Louis no longer prosecutes looters and shoplifters because those jailed would be disproportionately Black.
We've hit a point where preventing racism trumps preventing all other crimes and cheating.
No concern is given to victims of reduced surveillance.
In academe if you eliminate cheating surveillance or give everybody A or A- grades the schools the will lose their reputations for academic integrity. Even worse you've weakened the learning process. When a plagiarized term paper earns an A grade just as much as a carefully researched term paper you've turned some learners into transcribers who no longer have to think beyond thinking of what they can transcribe. Actually in a cut-and-paste computer world they no longer even transcribe/read,
Exhibit A is my oft-repeated illustration where over 60+ students in political science course plagiarized turned-in homework. Their reasoning was that since they we're assured that all students who did the work would get A grades for the course why waste time doing the homework? To Harvard's credit, however, over 60 cheaters were expelled from Harvard University on grounds that they violated the sacred Harvard Honor Code. Harvard has such an honor code because Harvard University places great value on academic integrity at Harvard.
Schools that weaken their academic integrity surveillance should not be surprised when they also lose their academic reputations.
Who are the real victims
of the loss in their schools' academic reputations?
The victims are the graduates themselves,
especially the Black graduates that society (especially ignorant white
supremacists) will blame Blacks as the reason schools no longer have academic
integrity.
Now let's turn to predictive policing where preventing racism is now supposed to trump preventing high crimes like terrorism murder, rape, domestic abuse, etc.
Predictive Policing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_policing
Over 1,500 mathematicians have signed a letter urging the community to stop
working with police: Don't those mathematician's care about black victims of
fraud, robbery, rapes, arson, domestic abuse, and murder?
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/24/mathematicians-urge-cutting-ties-police?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=5feb7348e1-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-5feb7348e1-197565045&mc_cid=5feb7348e1&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Nationwide protests against anti-Black racism and police violence have sparked demands and reckonings in several corners of higher education and academe.
The latest to join the fray is the discipline of mathematics. Ten mathematicians from eight universities and one company wrote an open letter last week calling for mathematicians to cease collaborating with police departments. The letter also urges math scholars to publicly audit influential algorithms and to embed learning outcomes related to ethics in data science curriculums.
"It's a political belief, that collaborating with police in any capacity contributes to white supremacist violence and oppression," said Tarik Aougab, a math professor at Haverford College and one of the letter writers, speaking personally on his motivations. "Really any collaboration between mathematics, which is something that I love and that I find extremely beautiful, and the institution of policing shouldn't happen."
The letter has 1,500 verified signatures from mathematicians, Aougab said, although that number is not limited to academic mathematicians. The letter has been submitted to and accepted by the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
The letter writers take particular aim at "predictive policing," which involves using data and mathematics to predict where crime will happen.
"Many of our colleagues can and do work with police departments to provide modeling and data work," the letter said, noting that in 2016 the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University held a one-week workshop on predictive policing.
PredPol, a major predictive policing company, says that its technology is being used to protect one out of every 33 people in the United States.
Opposition to predictive policing is not new. Academics have raised concerns in recent years about the mathematical theory underlying the technology and its tendency to create self-reinforcing feedback loops ("It is predicting future policing, not future crime," said a 2017 paper on the subject).
Although the group has gotten some pushback for not having personally worked with predictive policing mathematics, Aougab said that for them, opposition to the technology isn't based on finding errors in equations or formulas.
Continued in article
Professor Walter E. Williams was raised by a single mom in an
urban ghetto ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
Walter E. Williams: The True Plight of Black Americans
---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/10/the-true-plight-of-black-americans-n2570249
To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in Chicago alone in 2020 there have been 1,260 shootings and 256 homicides with blacks being the primary victims. That comes to one shooting victim every three hours and one homicide victim every 15 hours. Three people in Chicago have been killed by police. If one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by police should figure way down on one's list -- which is not to excuse bad behavior by some police officers.
[denying predictive policing in Chicago will be far more damaging to its enormous Black community than to its white community fleeing to the suburbs at every chance]
Walter E. Williams: Rotten Education
Isn't Preordained: in 2016, in 13 Baltimore high schools, not a single
student tested proficient in math ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/20/rotten-education-isnt-preordained-n2569005?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/20/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Even of math appears to be a racist subject matter
we should not water it down to almost nothing because test results suggest it's
a racist subject matter
Is Racism Responsible for Today's Black Problems?
---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/07/29/is-racism-responsible-for-todays-black-problems-n2573212?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/29/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Walter E. Williams:
Stop Question, and Frisk Can Help (meaning help prevent minorities from becoming
victims of violent crimes) ---
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/feb/28/walter-williams-stop-question-and-frisk/
Walter A. Williams: The Nation's Report Card
How are K-12 schools doing under President Trump versus
President Obama?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/06/the-nations-report-card-n2568167?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/06/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
. . .
The school climate, seldom discussed, plays a very important role in education. During the 2017-18 school year, there were an estimated 962,300 violent incidents and 476,100 nonviolent incidents U.S. public schools nationwide. Seventy-one percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident, and 65% reported having at least one nonviolent incident. Schools with 1,000 or more students had at least one sworn law enforcement officer. About 90% of those law enforcement officers (used to) carry firearms.
[but we shouldn't use predictive policing to anticipate who will instigate school violence since it might predict a disproportionate number of Blacks]
Aside from violence, there are many instances of outright disrespect for teachers. First- and second-graders telling teachers to "Shut the f--- up." To note the attitude of some school administrators, a New Jersey teacher was seriously assaulted by a student. When she asked her principal to permanently remove the student from her classroom, the principal told her to "put on her big girl panties and deal with it."
[but we shouldn't punish disrespect for teachers since doing so might be racist]Years ago, the behavior of young people that we see today would have never been tolerated. There was the vice principal's office where corporal punishment would be administered for gross infractions. If the kid was unwise enough to tell his parents what happened, he might get more punishment at home. Today, unfortunately, we've replaced practices that work with practices that sound good and caring, and we're witnessing the results.
Jensen Note
I'm not advocating corporal punishment in schools. But I do recommend suspensions and expulsions to make school enrollment become more of privilege than a right.
Lawrence Mead --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Mead
Jensen Comment
I'm no expert on the award-winning Professor Mead or his research into welfare
and poverty. I am, however, against banning politically incorrect research conducted by respected researchers who intend to help rather than harm their
research subjects and the world in general. Professor Mead is not Josef Mengele.
He's done years of research into poverty and varying cultures.
He thinks a better understanding of what leads to poverty can help us more
efficiently marshal resources in to alleviate poverty.
Having said this I'm also not in favor of encouraging certain types of research. And if there's a way to do so, some types of research should be against the law. The obvious candidates are bomb making for home workshops and development of WMDs for which the risks are so great that treaties are in effect and advanced nations have enough WMDs of one type or another to counterbalance newer threats.
In 1971 I spent a year in a think tank on Stanford University land. Three
doors down from my office was the office of Josh Lederberg ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Lederberg
We did not interact on a regular basis since our research interests were far
different, but I did have some conversations with Josh about his research,
usually in the presence of Harvard University's libertarian philosopher Robert
Nozick who had an office next to my office. Bob Nozick and Josh Lederberg argued quite a bit about one topic while I was merely a bookkeeping professor
who mostly just tuned in ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Nozick
The topic in question was what scientific research should be banned or
otherwise vigorously discouraged. Josh Lederberg's best example nearly fifty
years ago was cloning ---
which at the time was mostly limited to some South African frogs. Later came
dogs, sheep, cows, polo ponies, etc. ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/adolfo-cambiaso-the-clones-of-polo-60-minutes/
Professor Lederberg's fear of cloning was how it could be misused if one day we could successfully clone human beings. The dangers are relatively obvious with Hitler's master race coming first to mind. But there are other fears on various fronts that overwhelm most of the good things we can imagine about cloning.
One problem of banning research, however, is the mechanism for doing so. We can make it illegal within assorted nations, but there will nearly always some nations that will not go along with the ban or will even encourage encourage/fund banned research. Do you really think Israel and Iran or the major world powers will cease all WMD research because they've made it illegal?
The arguments between Nozick and Lederberg made me glad I was a bookkeeping professor. But they did start me thinking about issues of freedom to conduct research and publish the findings. Sure it would be easier for me to promote burying the findings of Professor Mead in politically correct sand. I would most certainly be more respected as a politically correct blogger.
The research of Professor Mead has not been declared illegal. I think the research should be published if for no other reason than to motivate research that counters Professor Mead's conclusions. Professor Mead and Arthur Jensen did not necessarily discover truth. It's better to conduct further research to find what is not true than to bury it in the sand leaving the world uncertain about the truth.
In any case burying research that is not politically correct just won't work on a global scale, even research into human cloning and newer and more scary pandemic viruses.
Sorry, but I think political correctness has taken the Academy to new lows that are temporary and will go even lower in the next few decades. Visitors to our campuses today are required to march a politically correct goose step. Otherwise they will be shouted down at best and physically harmed at worst.
We should openly solve problems like poverty with better corrective alternatives --- rather than throw trillions of dollars wastefully into solutions that won't solve the fundamental problems.
My favorite example is the reason given by Fidel Castro why his egalitarian
dream eventually failed ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba
Believe it or not tens of millions of
people prefer not to work productively and uncomfortably when they have a
choice. I also think this applies to all racial and ethnic groupings. I'm
inclined to doubt Professor Mead, but not to a point where I want him fired and
his research banned.
Bob Jensen's threads on political correctness in academe ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
One related point:
Watch the cities (like Minneapolis) that severely defunded policeand eliminated
SWAT teams react to incoming white supremacist militias. Listen to them scream
when the white supremacist snipers start picking off Antifa protesters. And then
watch to Antifa protesters turn to sniper rifles themselves. Antifa wants civil
war in the USA. Sadly, Antifa may get what it wishes for.
In Minneapolis, Armed Residents Set Up Patrols Amid Calls to Defund Police
---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-minneapolis-armed-residents-set-up-patrols-amid-calls-to-defund-the-police-11595698725?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
Vigilantes move in when the law moves out
Italy's Grim Future ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2020/07/24/italys-grim-future-n2573076?bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&utm_campaign=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_source=thdaily
Italy’s problem, similar to many of its southern European neighbors, is an oppressively high tax burden, irresponsible welfare programs that encourage high measured unemployment and increase the debt, and high levels of regulation. …the share of average wages collected by the Italian government via income and social security taxes is 48 percent, among the highest in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In addition, Italy imposes a value-added tax of 22 percent on most goods and services, one of the highest in Europe. Plus, Italy’s corporate, capital gains, gift, and myriad other taxes are passed on to individuals and borne directly by workers. …At the same time, Italy’s complex regulations are a barrier to starting or continuing productive activities. A study by economist Raffaela Giordano of the Bank of Italy concluded that the main reason behind Italy’s underperformance was burdensome regulations and corrupt and inefficient government structure.
Jensen Comment
Unlike the USA, EU nations that adopted the euro (think Italy) cannot devalue
their currencies or print money to pay their spending deficits. I've been
hearing a lot about increase in USA's Federal debt accompanied by "printing" of
money (called "quantitative easing") since the spending deficit is now pushing
toward $1 trillion per month in the USA.
Vox mostly publishes leftist articles
Progressives Don't Love Joe Biden, But They're Learning to Love His
$10+ Trillion in New Spending ---
https://www.vox.com/21322478/joe-biden-overton-window-bidenism
Not mentioned in the article is his new promise of nearly $1 trillion annually
for child and elder care (beyond Medicaid) funded by taxing wealthy real estate
investors who are now taking an enormous hit in USA cities hit hard by the
simultaneous whammy of Covid-19, flight of businesses, and crashing real estate
markets as the recession deepens ---
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-crash-next-shoe-012742635.html
Also see Icahn's multibillion short
position taken on commercial real estate ---
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/04/25/icahn-sees-further-market-crash-from-coronavirus-says-hes-shorting-commercial-real-estate/#193b49ca256e
EU leaders reached an economic recovery $860-billion coronavirus stimulus
package. But poorer, harder-hit countries (think Italy) will have to make do with
substantially reduced grants and repay loans to the EU ----
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-summit/eu-reaches-historic-deal-on-pandemic-recovery-after-marathon-summit-idUKKCN24M0DF
Leaders hope the 750 billion euro ($857.33 billion) recovery fund and its related 1.1 trillion euro 2021-2027 budget will help repair the continent’s deepest recession since World War Two after the coronavirus outbreak shut down economies.
While strong in symbolism, the deal came at the cost of cuts to proposed investment in climate-friendly funds and did not set conditions for disbursements to countries, such as Hungary and Poland, seen as breaching democratic values.
In an unwieldy club of 27, each with veto power, the summit also exposed faultlines across the bloc that are likely to hinder future decision-making on money as richer northern countries resisted helping out the poorer south.
The Netherlands led a group of “frugal” states with Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, insisting that aid to Italy, Spain and other Mediterranean countries that took the brunt of the pandemic should be mainly in loans, not in non-repayable grants.
Continued in article
Chronicle of Higher Education: What College Activists Want?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-College-Activists-Want/249184?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1363707&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279
Defunded police.
Inclusive coursework.
Faculty members who look like them. (including administrators and coaches.
Students are demanding radical change for racial justice,
and they’re not backing down.
The demand: Sever ties with the police (except armed Antifa patrols)
The demand: Remove symbols of oppression (including the library's politically incorrect materials)
The demand: Hire people of color (even if they are less qualified than others)
The demand: Diversify the curriculum (No Shakespeare/math/business and more Che Guevara)
Some of the unmentioned demands in the above article
Free tuition, room and board, pot, and booze
Free medical and dental care (including free abortions)
Open admission for for people of color
Only A grades (stop giving mostly A- and B grades)
No examinations, quizzes or grading of term papers
Excuse from class attendance in favor of protesting
Screening of all campus speakers for political correctness (pretty much like it is now)
No suspensions or dismissals (except in the case of the first signs of conservatism disease)
Reparations plus guaranteed annual income during and after graduation
Reply from Bob Jensen later in the day
I perhaps exaggerated too much on student demands and tried unsuccessfully to be somewhat funny. However, I think if I dug deeper I would find where student groups have made demands of all the the things I mentioned.
I note that the Daily Beast articles almost always promoted a leftist agenda.
Here are some of the documented demands of students listed by the Daily Beast (note the ones to get rid of grades, tests, and teachings of all white male poets (including Shakespeare). I also note that some colleges (think Michigan State) removed mathematics from the core course and skills requirements:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-craziest-demands-of-college-kids-in-2016
MIT: Predictive
policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/07/17/1005396/predictive-policing-algorithms-racist-dismantled-machine-learning-bias-criminal-justice/
Jensen Comment
Its a shame that the above article fails to mention is that the predictive
policing algorithms probably protect minorities (especially Blacks) more than
anybody else since minority crimes (think rape and murder) are so heavily
perpetrated on minority victims.
NYPD statistics show 96
percent of shooting victims are black or Hispanic and that minority groups
represent 89 percent of all murder victims ---
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-statistics-show-96-percent-shooting-victims-black-hispanic-minority-groups-represent-89-percent-murder-victims-article-1.1152838
Walter E. Williams:
Stop Question, and Frisk Can Help (meaning help prevent minorities from becoming
victims of violent crimes) ---
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/feb/28/walter-williams-stop-question-and-frisk/
Who made the decision that its
worse to falsely suspect a minority person of violent crime than to not
detect/prevent minorities from being victims of violent crime?
Predictive policing can help minorities
probably more than whites.
Predictive policing is not the cause of violent crime. What is needed is greater focus on the causes of violent crime where in many cases it's poor policing in poverty neighborhoods that make criminals more assured they can get away with rape, murder, etc. Often minority women don't even report rapes because they rightfully think the police won't do anything about it. We need significant police reforms and more rather than less funding of police.
Eliminating predictive policing is dysfunctional to protecting all victims of violent crime, especially minority victims.
Why Detroit has been spared
the violent protests happening in other urban centers across the U.S. ---
https://www.foxnews.com/media/detroit-police-chief-we-dont-retreat-here
Jensen Comment
I think Detroit is appreciative of the billions spent recently by the public and
private sectors on its recovery --- billions for new factories, housing
recovery, public services (think plumbing and electricity), etc. Detroit is
unwilling to throw all that progress away on a Marxist quest for civil war.
Black Police Officer Blasts Arrogance,
Ignorance and Bigotry of White 'BLM' Activists ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/07/17/must-watch-black-police-officer-blasts-the-arrogance-ignorance-and-bigotry-of-white-blm-activists-n2572668?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/17/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Police Union Backs Trump for Re-Election in
2020 ---
https://www.courthousenews.com/police-union-backs-trump-for-re-election-in-2020/
Democrats may shrug their shoulders thinking that there aren't enough police
officers to make a dent in Biden's enormous lead in the polls. However, the
public stand of the Police Union could affect millions of independents who
beginning to become more upset about why police are supporting Trump for
November's election. And a lot of older voters may turn out to vote just because
they don't like the thought of defunding their protectors.
Guy walks down SF street bashing windshields.
No one bats an eye (including police since he would never be prosecuted if he
was arrested) ---
https://presscalifornia.com/2020/07/22/sf-broken-windows/
He may have been hired to do this by windshield repair companies
Armed kids as young as 10 carjack more than a
dozen people on South Side, police say ---
https://www.fox5ny.com/news/armed-kids-as-young-as-10-carjack-more-than-a-dozen-people-on-south-side-police-say
If there's any feasible way to leave Chicago who would want to stay there,
especially if you can't afford private schools for your children
Black Leaders Call on NYPD to Bring Back Anti-Crime Unit as Shootings
Spike ---
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/black-leaders-call-on-nypd-to-bring-back-anti-crime-unit-as-shootings-spike/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=most-popular&utm_term=second
Don't look for the national media to pick up on this one
Minneapolis: High-crime neighborhoods that want more police
Even city leaders want to disband the police department, the city charter
requires them to field their own police force with at least 724 officers ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/955438-defundorama-minneapolis-police-disbanding-via-disability-claims?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=5iEzoSRA3OwmMZouDYnIqL3RgHsaffHcB6hB5DcjF-f0.A
It's not at all clear that a referendum to do so would pass.
That might leave room for the Minneapolis city council to save face and withdraw its charter change. Black leaders and groups in the city have become increasing vocal in their opposition to the idea of defunding the present police force, especially in high-crime neighborhoods that want more police, albeit with better accountability. It also might help them avoid a very dicey fight over the status of the popular chief of police, the first black chief in the city’s history:
2015: No more white flight from Detroit (whites are returning) ---
https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/national_world/article_d5e9bb21-2fe3-5857-bd4c-f56b5e2da123.html
Jensen Comment
Even before the BLM demands for defunding/reforming Detroit's police the city
over five years reduced Police Department budgets by over 20% and reduced police
officer salaries. And after the 2020 BLM Movement to defund/reform police this
is no longer 2015 in Detroit. Major crime (rapes, murders, home invasions, car
jackings, etc.) are on the rise since 2015 and will only get worse with more
police defunding ---
https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/mi/detroit/crime-rate-statistics
Marxists want civil war in the USA and prefer that all whites leave Detroit. It's such a shame since the government and private sector spent billions to bring back jobs in Detroit. To the extent that the jobs last they will be filled by non-whites. How long can those businesses endure fewer police, increases in major crime, lootings, legalized shoplifting, etc.?
Detroit's leadership says having unarmed social workers respond to 911 calls
will reduce major crime. Yeah right!
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/what-does-it-mean-to-defund-the-police-in-detroit-one-of-the-most-violent-cities-in-the-us/Content?oid=24792239
Before long there won't be much diversity among the residents of Detroit --- not
that there was a whole lot of diversity 100 years ago when Detroit was almost
all white.
But by 2015 Detroit was making some progress at restoring diversity in it's
mostly Black community. That is probably over!
A leading voice on welfare reform is accused of racism after he publishes
an article linking poverty to "culture." Journal faces calls for retraction ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/28/leading-voice-welfare-reform-accused-racism?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=708582c960-DNU_2020_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-708582c960-197565045&mc_cid=708582c960&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
This is another in a long list of recent examples of how racism trumps all the
good and important things a person has done in life. Failing to march to the
politically correct goosestep brings down careers these days.
It also illustrates how research conclusions must be politically correct for publication of those research conclusions.
Bob Jensen's threads on political correctness and
how leading scholars like J.K. Rowling,
Margaret Atwood, and Noam Chomsk are trying to bring balance (equality) to the
worrisome political correctness trends in research, teaching, and scholarship
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
We've reached a very low point in the Academy.
We've also reached a new low in the politically correct major media.
Anyone Catch ABC News' Odd Tweet About the Mayhem in
California?
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/07/27/anyone-catch-abc-news-odd-tweet-about-the-mayhem-in-california-n2573174?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/27/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on July 15, 2020
U.S. consumer prices rose sharply in June, with higher prices for staples such as food, gasoline and apparel, as states broadened efforts to reopen economies last month while coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
The index had fallen in each of the previous three months, with particularly sharp declines during the earlier part of the pandemic in March and April.
Jensen Comment
In the early months of the pandemic prices declined because of lower demand
(think gasoline, apparel, hotels, and entertainment). After the virus surge in
July they prices are not expected to surge until the USA gets back to work. Then
they may soar due to added trillions of dollars in government spending.
Consumer Price Index FAQs (these are good) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_price_index#Personal_consumption_expenditures_price_index
Personal consumption expenditures price index
Because of some shortcomings of the CPI, notably that it uses static expenditure
weighting and it does not account for the substitution effect, the PCEPI is an
alternative price index used by the Federal Reserve, among others, to measure
inflation.[17] From January 1959 through July 2018, inflation measured by the
PCEPI has averaged 3.3%, while it has averaged 3.8% using CPI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_price_index#Personal_consumption_expenditures_price_index
How to Mislead With Bad Assumptions
Biden plan for free public
college tuition could doom most private colleges ---
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-free-college-justin-haskins-chris-talgo
Jensen Comment
I'm opposed to free public colleges except possibly the first two years in local
community colleges. My reason is the trillions of dollars it will cost to
otherwise provide free tuition and other aid to all public universities for
undergraduate and postgraduate education. It's unfair to give them free
undergraduate degrees and then tell them they have to pay to graduate schools
aimed at career education.
The conclusion that free public
education will doom most private colleges is misleading.
Some private colleges are on the brink of extinction and will fail with or
without free public college competition.
Free public college education will overwhelm the best public colleges (think flagship universities) with applicants. Either top public universities will limit the acceptance rates for onsite campuses to what it is now, or they will ruin onsite education with gigantic lecture classes, or they will limit the free tuition to inferior distance education. By inferior I mean that online courses will be huge with almost no interaction between students and their teachers and other students in each course. The very best online courses are small with instant messaging between faculty and students. These can be even better than face-to-face tutorials.
The better private schools will survive by offering what they offer now --- smaller classes, closer interactions with faculty, and campus residency aimed at providing all the things they cannot obtain in large public universities, small dormitories, participation in sports without having to perform at a professional level, etc.
But the nation may not survive as Biden's social program promises inch up toward $100 trillion per year for universal health care for legal and illegal residents, minimum basic income, green initiatives, reparations for all people of color, open borders, massive housing subsidies, free college for all legal and illegal residents, enormous increase in funding to K-12 schools, new roads/bridges, bailout of states, etc.
The ploy of promising everything for
everybody is not new to political candidates.
History is replete with failed promises when economic realities set in for
elected officials. The worry today is that activists will no longer accept
excuses for failed promises and will elect zealots like AOC, Warren, Harris, or
Bernie Sanders instead of Joe Biden --- who, like Obama, I hope is more tuned
into economic realities even though Biden's now making unrealistic promises.
I hope Biden's VP choice is a realist and not a zealot.
Here's One Economic Reality
That Activists Avoid Mentioning
Some argue that public colleges aren't all that radical, and some European
nations (think Finland and Germany) now offer free university education. But
they don't tell you how these nations face economic realities.
These nations painfully limit the number
of students getting free college education or free training to about the top 1/3
of Tier 2 graduates such that the other 2/3 either cannot get into college or
have to rely on private sector companies to train them with apprenticeships
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Tertiary
How to Mislead With Statistics
Corona19 Death Rates ---
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/where-the-u-s-ranks-in-covid-19-deaths-per-capita/
President Trump claimed the USA had one of the lowest death rates.
Chris Wallace Claimed the USA has had the seventh highest death rate ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/07/20/fact-check-president-trump-vs-chris-wallace-on-coronavirus-death-rates-defunding-the-police-n2572736
Both are wrong. Out of 144 nations the USA comes in at Rank 32
with most European nations having higher
death rates. Austria and Norway had death rates lower than the USA.
Averages (for some nations are more misleading than others). For example, the
Netherlands has a relatively dense population across the entire country. Its
death rate has a low standard deviation relative to the USA. In comparison, the
USA has a relatively disperse nation with populations concentrated in some large
cities in in some states and other states that are relatively low in population.
Among other things population density contributes to higher death rates (but
there are exceptions for other interactive factors like age of the state
populations, number of people commuting by subways and trains, etc.).
Corona-19 Death Rates Per 10,000 Cases
Accumulated Data as of July 19, 2020
Since accuracy of reported data is so suspect in the majority of nations, it's misleading to compare number of cases and number of deaths by nation.
Having said this I will report the following in any case because it's consistent with the Johns Hopkins Data
Coronavirus (COVID-19) death rate in countries with confirmed deaths and over 1,000 reported cases as of July 17, 2020, by country ---
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1105914/coronavirus-death-rates-worldwide/
YemenConfirmed
Cases
1,552Number of
Deaths
438Death
Rate %
28.22Belgium
63,238
9,795
15.49
United Kingdom
292,552
45,119
15.42
France
200,929
30,049
14.96
Italy
243,736
35,017
14.37
Hungary
4,279
595
13.91
Netherlands
51,351
6,137
11.95
Mexico
324,041
37,574
11.6
Spain
258,855
28,416
10.98
Canada
111,144
8,875
7.99
Ecuador
71,365
5,207
7.30
Sweden
76,877
5,593
7.28
Ireland
25,698
1,749
6.81
Liberia
1,070
68
6.36
Sudan
10,527
668
6.35
Niger
1,102
69
6.26
Switzerland
33,290
1,969
5.91
Slovenia
1,897
111
5.85
Romania
35,003
1,971
5.63
China
85,314
4,644
5.44
Burkina Faso
1,038
53
5.11
Iran 267,061
13,608 5.10 North Macedonia 8,623 401 4.65 Denmark 13,124 610 465 Germany 201,450 9,087 4.50 Finland 7,293 328 4.25 Guatemala 32,939 1,404 4.26 Lithuania 1,902 79 4.15 Japan 23,833 985 4.13 Poland 39,054 1,605 4.11 Iraq 86,148 3,532 4.09 USA 3,565,256 138,174 3.88 Sierra Leone 1,678 64 3.81 Brazil 2,012,151 76,688
3.81 Followed by 112 other nations Accuracy varies greatly © Statista 2020
Show source
How to Mislead With Statistics
The COVID Panic Is a Lesson in Using Statistics to Get
Your Way in Politics ---
https://mises.org/wire/covid-panic-lesson-using-statistics-get-your-way-politics?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=e9c5c5695a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-e9c5c5695a-228708937
Jensen Comment
One of my favorite examples is the media's use of Sweden's relatively high
Covid-19 death rate (that's lower than that of the Belgium, the UK, and various
other EU nations) as a glaring example of what happens when you don't have a
national lockdown. Evidence seems to be mounting that Sweden's high death rate
comes more from a glaring failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens,
especially the elderly. Had Sweden done this aggressively early on in March the
case the media might have had less of a case against the Swedish failure to lock
down. Of course we'll never know in hind sight since national death rates from
Corona-19 are so varied and complicated and the data are so inaccurate.
Please don't take this tidbit as a suggestion that locking down is not important for most (all?) nations.
How to Mislead With Statistics
Surprising study: Urban density doesn’t cause more COVID-19 infections, even
promotes lower death rates ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/surprising-study-urban-density-doesnt-cause-more-covid-19-infections-even-promotes-lower-death-rates/
Crowded city streets, subways, and buses have been considered the most likely places to become infected with COVID-19 over the past few months. Surprisingly, however, a new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concludes that densely populated spaces aren’t actually linked to higher infection rates.
Even more confounding, the study’s analysis indicates that crowded, dense locations are associated with lower coronavirus death rates.
In all, COVID-19 infection and death rates were assessed across 913 U.S. metropolitan counties. After researchers accounted for additional factors like race and education, the population density within each county was not significantly linked to infection rates. As mentioned, denser counties, as opposed to more rural, sprawling areas with smaller populations, were associated with lower death rates. The study’s authors speculate this is because denser, urban areas often offer better healthcare services.
Instead, higher coronavirus infection and death rates seem to be linked to a metropolitan area’s size, not its density. So, cities that are very big and stretch across multiple counties that are “tightly linked together through economic, social, and commuting relationships” appear to be most at risk of high coronavirus infection ratesContinued in Article
Jensen Comment
I think the populated density issues are more complicated than density per se
(think population per square mile). For example, the above study concludes that "densely
populated spaces aren’t actually linked to higher infection
rates". However,
I contend that the most dense populations vary greatly in terms of lifestyles.
Los Angeles differs greatly from New York City in many ways, including the LA's
relative lack of public transportation relative to NYC. Also in NCC it's
extremely common for workers to move out of NYC when they retire. And if they
retire in a another dense area like Miami or LA their lifestyles change because
they are no longer commuting daily over long distances by public transportation
to get to and from jobs. The public indoor places of Manhattan and San Francisco
are crowded many hours of each day relative to the public indoor places of
Miami, LA, and Houston.
My point here is that population density as a predictor of Covid-19 infections and deaths confounds many other issues like demographic differences of residents, lifestyle differences, etc. But density should not be eliminated as a contributing factor to the multivariate set of interactive causes.
Both the risks of infection from Covid-19 and the risk of dying when infected
are multivariate and interactive.
Except for age I don't think we can factor out any one variable (like population
per square mile) from all the other interactive causes.
And density is a continuum. Southern New Hampshire is much less densely
populated than Northern New Hampshire. And Southern New Hampshire is very much
less densely populated than New York City.
New York State has a population of 19.5 million out of which over 8.2 million live in NYC. New Hampshire has a population of 1.4 million out of which 110,000 live in Manchester, NH.
As a retired total recluse living on food and drink ordered from Amazon, your odds of testing positive for Covid-10 are probably about the same in NYC or New Hampshire's Manchester or Littleton in the north. If you're a patrol cop or hospital worker your probability of testing positive is much higher in dense NYC or Manchester. However your probability is even lower in Littleton relative to Manchester and points along I-93 leading toward Massachusetts.
Now consider the following map of New Hampshire where the state's highest
population density is skewed toward the southern part of the state ---
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/
Note that "50+" in the color
coding includes such large numbers as 500 and 800.
In the middle of New Hampshire my guess is that nursing home residents contributed to nearly all of the 6, 7, AND 16 numbers shown on the map below.
I contend that the Covid-19 infection rates along the southeastern boundary are relatively high because this is where NH workers commuting to Massachusetts (think Boston) are most likely to live in NH. These NH state line residents most likely were infected due to working in Massachusetts (think NH medical professionals who work in Massachusetts hospitals)
Contrary to the conclusion of the above "Surprising Study," the one thing I'm certain of is that people who move from New York City to northern New Hampshire at the present time ipso facto have lower probabilities of becoming infected unless they live like a recluses before and after the move.
Alpha --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_(finance)
New study slams public pension funds’ alternative investments, identifies
CalPERS as one of the worst ‘negative alphas’ ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/new-study-slams-public-pension-funds-alternative-investments-identifies-calpers-as-one-of-the-worst-negative-alphas
Political Correctness --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness
Florida Congressional Candidate Sues Law School
Claiming She Was Expelled For Supporting President Trump ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/07/florida-congressional-candidate-sues-law-school-claiming-she-was-expelled-for-supporting-president-t.html
Walter E. Williams: Despicable behavior of today's academicians
---
https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/free/walter-williams-despicable-behavior-of-todays-academicians-column/article_91f53c10-c6f6-11ea-aaf6-3bf6925ca976.html
Penn State Retracts Statement Saying Conservative Voices Are Important:
Leftist Ideology is the Only Politically Correct Ideology ---
https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/09/penn-state-retracts-statement-saying-conservative-voices-are-important/
“Dear conservative students. Your viewpoints are important,” the announcement read, referencing the isolation and self-censorship many conservative students experience on left-wing campuses. According to the schools Director of Strategic Communications, it was part of a statement aimed at creating a supporting and inclusive environment for students.
. . .
The University quickly crumpled, and retracted the statement.
Jensen Comment
By withdrawing support for debating ideologies that are not politically correct
Penn State is ignoring the appeals of Norm Chomsky and some other liberals
That hints that academe is marching
lockstep toward one ideology. Noam and others are worried!
The inmates are guarding the asylum.
Penn State University training film on how to liberal
faculty can deal with military veterans who refuse to be politically correct ---
An analysis by The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/PennStateVeteran.htm
Penn State issued a public apology for producing the video
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/13/qt#196252
The Harpers free speech letter and controversy ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/07/the-harpers-free-speech-letter-and-controversy.html
Noam Chomsky and Other Scholars Feer the Dangers of Losing Open
Debate and Toleration of Differences in Ideology ---
https://www.ibtimes.com/noam-chomsky-malcolm-gladwell-address-cancel-culture-open-letter-3007684
In an open letter, a group of public figures and writers warn readers about the pros and cons of the current world climate (mania).
The piece, titled " A Letter on Justice and Open Debate," featuring signatures from 150 public figures including the likes of J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and Noam Chomsky, was published on the Harper's Magazine website on Tuesday with plans to make a reemergence in the October issue of the magazine.
"Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial," the letter begins. "Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts."
"But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity."
Specifically speaking to their craft and the dire consequences if mindsets don't change lanes, they conclude, "As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us."
It seems not everyone was happy with the letter, though. After it was published both historian Kerri Greenidge and trans activist Jennifer Finney Boylan announced the withdrawal of their support on Twitter.
Who decides which books to burn?
Franklin Pierce Biographer
Urges Consideration Of 14th President's Progressive Civil Liberties Record
Before Removal Of His Name From UNH Law School ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/06/franklin-pierce-biographer-urges-consideration-of-14th-presidents-progressive-civil-liberties-record.html
No chance
'Black
Lives Matter' was painted on the streets of New York City and Washington, D.C.
as a way of city officials showing their support for the movement. Questions
have been asked (address to the NYC Mayor) about whether or not other political
groups and organizations should have the ability to paint their messages on
city-owned and maintained streets ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2020/07/11/conservative-womens-group-has-an-interesting-request-for-bill-de-blasio-n2572317?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/12/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Only politically correct messages, in the socialist Mayor's eyes, are allowed.
The Mayor actually helped the mob paint the streets with BLM graffiti in front
of Trump Tower ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/07/de-blasio-bans-large-gatherings-after-he-helps-paint-black-lives-matter-in-front-of-trump-tower/
Bob Jensen's
threads on political correctness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
From the Chronicle of Higher Education on July 9, 2020
Some Scholars Have Long Talked About Abolishing the Police. Now People Are
Listening. What Comes Next?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Some-Scholars-Have-Long-Talked/249149?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1357562&cid=at&source=ams&sourceId=296279
A few years ago, Forrest Stuart would find himself in an academic version of "Who’s on First."
To write Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row, the associate professor of sociology at Stanford University spent five years roaming one of Los Angeles’s poorest neighborhoods. He watched citizens contort their lives to avoid interactions with police officers, who would frequently question them for sitting on a corner. Stuart himself was stopped 14 times that first year. He spent evenings with those officers, listening to what he called their discordant ideas about punishment and compassion. The officers saw the two ideas as mutually dependent, Stuart wrote, even as he watched the people entangled in the criminal-justice system lose their housing, their jobs, and their hope.
At book talks, Stuart would lay out these themes and talk about the need for systemic changes, like the necessity of a large-scale redistribution of wealth. But then someone would inevitably ask: What reforms did he think were needed? How should the police be dealing with the people of Skid Row?
He would answer: The police shouldn’t be interacting with these people.
More hands would fill the air. Stuart didn’t understand the original question, people insisted. What new policies did he recommend?
Again, Stuart would tell them that no new policy would yield good results. What we need, he’d say, is less policing. Back and forth they’d go, speaking past each other. Even other sociologists, outside of his subfield, would look at Stuart as if he were some “crazy radical,” he said.
But that was before. Before May 2020, when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for nearly eight minutes as he died, igniting protests around the world.
“Nobody looks at me [like I’m] crazy when I say this anymore,” Stuart said in a recent interview, “which is just totally nuts.”
. . .
The Limits of Academe
However, traditional channels of academe have their limits. Lisa Guenther, a philosopher at Queen’s University, in Ontario, and a social activist, sees a tension between the imperatives to represent the university and to build the abolitionist movement. Universities “hire someone who, you know, maybe has a title like Queen’s National Scholar in Critical Prison Studies and Political Philosophy, which is my title, and then they write some articles and publish them and you might get some grants and that sort of thing,” she said. But that can operate as a sort of alibi, deflecting attention “from the ways that the university, itself, is operating in continuity with colonialism, with anti-Black racism.”
Certain social-science disciplines have long overlooked the roles of the criminal-justice system and policing. After the uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, many scholars in political science “appeared to be caught off-guard, as if events had pushed them onto unfamiliar empirical and conceptual terrain,” the researchers Joe Soss and Vesla Weaver wrote in a 2017 paper that called out the mainstream subfield of American politics for “largely and unreflectively ignoring the role of the police.”
Now, said Weaver, an associate professor of political science and sociology at Johns Hopkins, that’s changing. Otherwise, she said, “look how stupid and obsolete we look if we can’t say anything about police power when this is the central issue of the day.”
But historically, the Black radical tradition did not come out of the university, said Joy James, a professor of humanities and political science at Williams College, who spent years anthologizing the writings of incarcerated intellectuals. Academics sometimes assume that articles and talks are really beneficial to their subjects, James said. But while prison-abolition scholarship might lead other free people to sign a petition, make a donation, or vote accordingly, “it doesn’t really open prison doors.”
Sometimes students, too, get caught up in the theoretical and lose sight of the real, practical work, said Carl Suddler, an assistant professor of history at Emory University, who wrote Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York. He remembers when he was an eager undergraduate who traveled to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help with the reconstruction effort. “I went in thinking about the big picture, like, How are we going to destroy structural racism in a week?” That is, until a woman in the Lower Ninth Ward told him, “Honey, we’re just trying to get speed bumps in our neighborhood.”
That served as an “earth-shattering” lesson for Suddler about the balance between study and practice — one that he passes along to students who want to dismantle oppressive and racist systems. You can read. You can theorize. But you’ve also “got to get into these communities,” he said, and listen to them.Forrest Stuart, of Stanford, thinks academics like himself will have to grapple with a somewhat different role. Previously he saw his work as that of diagnosis, exposing the damage done by exploitative systems. That’s what sociologists do. But they hesitated, he said, to offer tangible recommendations.
Now more people are convinced by the diagnosis, Stuart said. Not only that, but they want to know what’s next. They want a prescription.
Essentially, the world has changed, and scholars will decide how to change with it.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The trick is to abolish police without turning the largest cities back into
Black ghettos and ganglands while rural White homes and towns become armed
fortresses.
If you want to scare older Republicans,
older Democrats, and especially older minorities living in high crime hot spots
in the USA into voting for Trump in November 2020 articles like the ones above
and below might do the trick.
Joe Biden Says Police Have 'Become the Enemy,'
'Absolutely' Should Defund Them ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/07/08/joe-biden-says-police-have-become-the-enemy-entertains-defunding-them-n2572130?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Jensen Comment
Defunding police in praise of Kaspernik
is not a smart way to attract older voters from the very, very large subset of
older voters. It's also not a good way to attract tourists to our USA cities and
other tourist attractions. Is this helping Trump more than hurting Trump?
Pew Research: Recent protest attendees
are more racially and ethnically diverse, younger than Americans overall ---
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/24/recent-protest-attendees-are-more-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-younger-than-americans-overall/
Jensen Comment
Media coverage at the protests, especially persons chosen to interview, leads us
to believe that there were many more than 17% Black people in those protests.
Pew analysts make the point that ethnicity among protesters differs greatly from
ethnicity of the total voting public in the USA. This probably is the reason
that Biden and the Democratic Party are not quick to support all of the protest
leader demands, including legalizing shoplifting, reparations for Blacks, defunding of police,
guaranteed annual income, Medicare-for-All, etc. Some of these demands are
losers in the 2020 Presidential campaign.
BBC News: Antifa: Left-wing militants on
the rise (in the entire free world) ---
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40930831
St Louis and Baltimore Beat Out Chicago In Rankings of the Most
Dangerous Cities on Earth---
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2020/07/09/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world-3/2/
Jensen Comment
Not good news for tourism, business development, or police defunding, although
existing police seem to be failing a lot in the world's most dangerous cities
(think solving fewer and fewer murders). NYC is striving to overtake St Louis
with defunding and deteriorating police relations under a socialist mayor. How
much will police defunding contribute to upper income and business flight from
our largest USA cities?
This article especially reveals how criminal gangs have ruined policing in
Mexico's cities.
NYT: American Crime and the Baltimore
Model ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/opinion/policing-crime-baltimore.html
Nearly 30,000 residents have since fled Baltimore, whose population is now the
lowest it’s been in a century.
New York, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon may soon beat Baltimore's record may so
beat Baltimore's rate of flight as public safety deteriorates
In Minneapolis, Armed Residents Set Up Patrols Amid
Calls to Defund Police ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-minneapolis-armed-residents-set-up-patrols-amid-calls-to-defund-the-police-11595698725?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
Vigilantes move in when the law moves out
Seattle rioters seen damaging, looting stores;
2 arrests, 12 cops injured ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-rioters-looting-amazon-store-officers-injured
Seattle will cut its police force down to 630
police officers for a city of over 750,000 residents having over 800,000 911
calls annually. There will be no emergency SWAT force ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/948019-seattle-city-council-to-defund-police-leave-600-officers-no-tactical-or-heavy-arms?utm_source=c-mid&utm_medium=c-mid-email&utm_term=c-mid-GI&utm_content=697zxgAhCmuHg4vas74EBzlnoWM3eNVp0oCrhLuQnY-I.A
Jensen Comment
I wonder if the entire city will become a no-go zone unsafe for tourists, sports
fans, and conventioners. Don't you wonder what this will do to the price of real
estate and the number of businesses that will close because of fear? Will
shoplifting and looting now be legal in Seattle? Would you want to be a
firefighter without armed police protection?
USA cities with the most and the least police
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/05/15/cities-with-the-most-and-least-police/
Ankeny, Iowa has the most law enforcement officers with 104.7 per
100,000 residents
University Place, Washington has the least law officers with 48.2 officers per
100,000 residence
Saying Goodbye to Seattle ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/960022-media-covering-up-facts-as-this-city-sees-record-amounts-of-people-leaving?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=06zogopD0FR_-qkpQTYmRsUU8Iw..A
Six Weeks, Six Cities, 600 Murders ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2020/07/05/six-weeks-six-cities-600-murders-n2571887?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
In June alone some 270 people were shot
in the NYC, a 154 per cent increase from a year earlier. July is not looking any
better. Over the recent July 4 holiday weekend, 64 people were shot. Seventeen
more were shot this Monday, a day after Gardner’s death. Those shootings have
contributed to a 23 per cent increase in homicides so far this year. Burglary is
also soaring ---
https://www.ft.com/content/a444b43e-ba40-48b5-a064-fa51c591cc32
AOC says proposed $1B budget cut to NYPD isn't
enough: "Defunding police means defunding police"
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/aoc-asked-defunding-police-her-130800430.html
Connecticut is Counting on Flight From NYC
Connecticut's Big Bet on the Suburbs Might Finally Pay
Off ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/connecticut-suburbs-coronavirus-new-york-real-estate-houses-for-sale-weston-fairfield-11594558882?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
The New York Times: Defund the Police
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
The Atlantic: Defund the Police ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/defund-police/612682/
Derecka Purnell: How I Became a Police
Abolitionist
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/how-i-became-police-abolitionist/613540/
The
Atlantic Finally Admits Its Police Abolition Piece Is Based On A False Narrative
---
https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/21/the-atlantic-finally-admits-its-police-abolition-piece-is-based-on-a-false-narrative/
Why BLM Yawns at Police-Shooting Statistics
(prefers fake news) ---
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/why-blm-yawns-police-shooting-statistics-john-perazzo/
As does the major media.
New York City's Mayor is Jumping for Joy:
NYC's Police Applications for Retirement are Now Running 100 Per Day
https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/nypd-limits-retirement-applications-amid-411-surge-this-week/
Portland Rioters Assault Police With Sling
Shots and Lasers ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/riot-declared-in-portland-cops-oder-protesters-to-leave
Six Weeks, Six Cities, 600 Murders ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2020/07/05/six-weeks-six-cities-600-murders-n2571887?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Do Trump's Border Walls Work?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/06/do-walls-work.html
More than a dozen businesses and property
owners are suing the city of Seattle over its tolerance of, and alleged support
for, an "autonomous" protest zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The city's
approach, they argue, has led to lawlessness, property damage, and a decline in
commerce and property values ---
https://reason.com/2020/06/25/seattle-autonomous-zone-sparks-class-action-lawsuit-from-local-businesses/
This Progressive City Has Been Releasing
Vandals, Arsonists, & Violent Protesters Back To The Streets ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/946763-this-progressive-city-has-been-releasing-vandals-violent-protesters-back-to-the-streets?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=06zogopD0FR_-qkpQTYmRsUU8Iw..A
Would you want to move to Portland after all this?
Why do Portland police even bother anymore?
Portland is an example of how urban
anarchy commences before criminal gangs move in to restore order
Pelosi's Stand for Ilhan How Jew-hate became
the new normal in the Democrat Party ---
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/nancy-pelosi-endorses-anti-israel-agitator-ilhan-ari-lieberman/
Young Mother Killed By BLM Mob for Allegedly
Saying ‘All Lives Matter,’ National Media Fully Ignores ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/947222-young-white-mother-killed-by-black-lives-matter-mob-for-allegedly-saying-all-lives-matter-national-media-fully-ignores-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw..A
Video: Black Lives Matter protestors demand that Target
stop calling the police on shoplifters ---
https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2020/06/29/video-black-lives-matter-protestors-demand-that-target-stop-calling-the-police-on-shoplifters/
Otherwise they threaten to shut it down
Chick-Fil-A Changes Name To
Gender-Neutral 'They-Fil-A' ---
https://babylonbee.com/news/chick-fil-a-to-change-name-to-gender-neutral-they-fil-a
What are farmers now supposed to call baby chickens?
The Dixie Chicks are toast. The popular singing group took away the Dixe part
and now call themselves "The Chicks."
The New Yorker on the Dark Side of Dollar
Stores ---
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/the-true-cost-of-dollar-stores?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_1331449&cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279
Jensen Comment
Imagine what low income neighborhood stores will become with defunded police?
Ask AOC, the New York Times, and The Atlantic about what the solution is to the
"Dark Side of Dollar Stores"?
The Present Moment Has Set Blacks Back a
Half-Century ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2020/06/30/the-present-moment-has-set-blacks-back-a-halfcentury-n2571585?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=06/30/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
FiveThirtyEight: Most Americans balk at
defunding the police ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-like-the-ideas-behind-defunding-the-police-more-than-the-slogan-itself/
Defunding and dismantling police departments ala Minneapolis will
not be a 2020 winning election platform stance, although replacing corrupt
officers and increasing police budgets may be a winner like in Camden, NJ. But
Camden is a city of 77,000 residents. How do you dismantle and replace an entire
police force in a city with over a 300,000 residents?
Jensen Closing Comment
Is academe playing a much larger role in re-electing Donald Trump than it wants
to admit?
The surprise may come in
November unless academe along with city governments and Joe Biden tone down the
rhetoric on defunding police.
Liberals are tipping their hands too early on police defunding.
Destroy the USA later after Donald Trump is out of the barn.
How long has it been since you watched the movie entitled Mad Max ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max
Labour of Love: An Open Access Manifesto for Freedom,
Integrity, and Creativity in the Humanities and Interpretive Social Sciences ---
https://commonplace.knowledgefutures.org/pub/y0xy565k/release/2
Hopefully this Manifesto covers resistance to political correctness censorship and ideological conformity that is storming the world at the moment
The Harpers free speech letter and controversy ---
Noam Chomsky and Other Scholars Fear the Dangers of Losing
Open Debate and Toleration of Differences in Ideology ---
https://www.ibtimes.com/noam-chomsky-malcolm-gladwell-address-cancel-culture-open-letter-3007684
In an open letter, a group of public figures and writers warn readers about the pros and cons of the current world climate (mania).
The piece, titled " A Letter on Justice and Open Debate," featuring signatures from 150 public figures including the likes of J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and Noam Chomsky, was published on the Harper's Magazine website on Tuesday with plans to make a reemergence in the October issue of the magazine.
"Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial," the letter begins. "Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts."
"But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity."
Specifically speaking to their craft and the dire consequences if mindsets don't change lanes, they conclude, "As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences. If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us."
It seems not everyone was happy with the letter, though. After it was published both historian Kerri Greenidge and trans activist Jennifer Finney Boylan announced the withdrawal of their support on Twitter.
Walter E. Williams:
Despicable behavior of today's academicians ---
https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/free/walter-williams-despicable-behavior-of-todays-academicians-column/article_91f53c10-c6f6-11ea-aaf6-3bf6925ca976.html
Why isn’t Andrew Sullivan allowed to write about protests in his New York Times column?
TED Talk: Why it Pays to Listen to People You Disagree With ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/zachary_r_wood_why_it_s_worth_listening_to_people_we_disagree_with?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2018-04-21&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=talk_of_the_week_button
Harvard President Lawrence Bacow to Activist Students Who Shut Down His Talk: 'The Heckler's Veto Has No Place' Here --
-
Levy: Why I Resigned In Protest From Penn Law's Board When A Conservative
Professor Was Punished (for not being politically correct)---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/12/levy-why-i-resigned-in-protest-from-penn-laws-board-when-a-conservative-professor-was-punished.html
Ohio University's Radical Students Could Have Ignored Kaitlin Bennett.
Instead, They Threw Liquids At Her.---
https://reason.com/2020/02/19/ohio-university-kaitlin-bennett-riot-free-speech/
Politically Correct Big Brother Will Not Allow Free Speech in USA Colleges
Williams College plans to revise its policies after a faculty petition to
adopt free speech guidelines enraged student activists ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/23/williams-college-rework-free-speech-policies-after-controversies?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=1aea7e93d2-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-1aea7e93d2-197565045&mc_cid=1aea7e93d2&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Political Correctness at Georgetown University
Kevin K. McAleenan, acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, was shouted off the stage by protesters who interrupted his
talk at Georgetown University’s law school ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/us/politics/homeland-security-chief-protesters.html?cid=db&source=ams&sourc
Conservative Law Prof Heckled by CUNY Protestors ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/04/conservative-law-prof-heckled-by-cuny-protestors.html
Political Correctness in Universities Never Quits
Black Pro-Life Speaker Disinvited From Cornell ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/briannaheldt/2019/03/27/black-prolife-speaker-disinvited-from-cornell-n2543853?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=03/28/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Beloit College: The incident (a pro-capitalism speaker)
was the latest in a string of free expression occurrences on college
campuses where students have intentionally drowned out speakers whose
views they find distasteful ---
Click Here
Capitalism is such a dangerous topic that mention of it should be banned
in all colleges and universities
Purdue University has won praise for embracing
all expression. What risk does that posture bring in an era of violence?
---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Free-Speech-Stronghold/241203?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=037e1e9941bc49ac93470e0e8430fa75&elq=0a44b6cc9e2a42208f8f52234581978a&elqaid=15632&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6700
I think political
correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality.
Juan William before he was fired after a distinguished career on NPR.
http://townhall.com/columnists/GuyBenson/2010/10/21/npr_finally_finds_an_excuse_to_fire_juan_williams
The Washington Post:
Conservatives say campus speech is under threat.
That’s been true for most of history ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/conservatives-say-campus-speech-is-under-threat-thats-been-true-for-most-of-history/2017/08/11/6aa959fa-7c4b-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.a02b7a26615d
John Cleese Makes a Stand Against Political Correctness ---
http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/john-cleese-monty-python-in-conversation.html
If colleges take precautions to protect their campuses when a controversial
figure comes to speak, they aren't coddling students but encouraging a safe
exchange of different ideas, argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a professor of religion
and African-American studies at Princeton University, in this Twitter thread ---
https://twitter.com/esglaude/status/908659323085164545?elqTrackId=8cb0ce38a2a24ea4a554189a51323204&elq=01c6a39c93c14e27a4f00717d1aa8abe&elqaid=15633&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6701
Professor: Tom Brady’s popularity is result of
white supremacy
---
https://www.thecollegefix.com/professor-tom-bradys-popularity-is-result-of-white-supremacy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thecollegefixfeed+%28The+College+Fix%29
Jensen Comment
Is there any doubt why academe has lost a lot of respect?
Speaker at CUNY law school interrupted repeatedly by those who said he
shouldn't have been permitted there ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/16/guest-lecture-free-speech-cuny-law-school-heckled?mc_cid=e889308cb3&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Politically Correct Rudeness in Academe: ACLU Speaker
Shouted Down at William and Mary ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/10/05/aclu-speaker-shouted-down-william-mary?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=948d0f34e9-DNU20171005&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-948d0f34e9-197565045&mc_cid=948d0f34e9&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
Are civil liberties coming to an end in higher education?
The (London) Times: Universities
warned over free speech by Jo Johnson
Universities must “open minds, not close them” and face tough new
penalties if they do not promote freedom of speech . . .
---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/universities-warned-over-free-speech-by-jo-johnson-bqp2d5np0
Bob Jensen's threads on
political correctness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#PoliticalCorrectness
How to Mislead With Bad Assumptions
Biden plan
for free public college tuition could doom most private colleges ---
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-free-college-justin-haskins-chris-talgo
Jensen Comment
I'm opposed to free public colleges except possibly the first two years in local
community colleges. My reason is the trillions of dollars it will cost to
otherwise provide free tuition and other aid to all public universities for
undergraduate and postgraduate education. It's unfair to give them free
undergraduate degrees and then tell them they have to pay to graduate schools
aimed at career education.
The conclusion
that free public education will doom most private colleges is misleading.
Some of private colleges are on the brink of extinction and will fail with or
without free public college competition.
Free public college education will overwhelm the best public colleges (think flagship universities) with applicants. Either top public universities will limit the acceptance rates for onsite campuses to what it is now, or they will ruin onsite education with gigantic lecture classes, or they will limit the free tuition to inferior distance education. By inferior I mean that online courses will be huge with almost no interaction between students and their teachers and other students in each course. The very best online courses are small with instant messaging between faculty and students. These can be even better than face-to-face tutorials.
The better private schools will survive by offering what they offer now --- smaller classes, closer interactions with faculty, and campus residency aimed at providing all the things they cannot obtain in large public universities, small dormitories, participation in sports without having to perform at a professional level, etc.
But the nation may not survive as Biden's social program promises inch up toward $100 trillion per year for universal health care for legal and illegal residents, minimum basic income, green initiatives, reparations for all people of color, open borders, massive housing subsidies, free college for all legal and illegal residents, enormous increase in funding to K-12 schools, new roads/bridges, bailout of states, etc.
The ploy of promising
everything for everybody is not new to political candidates.
History is replete with failed promises when economic realities set in for
elected officials. The worry today is that activists will no longer accept
excuses for failed promises and will elect zealots like AOC, Harris, or Bernie
Sanders instead of Joe Biden --- who, like Obama, I hope is more tuned into
economic realities even though Biden's now making unrealistic promises.
I hope Biden's VP choice is a realist and not a zealot.
Updates on Medical Insurance
Open immigration can’t exist with a strong
social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to
everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net
Bob Jensen's threads on health insurance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Bob Jensen's
Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm
Bob
Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals
Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:
Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm
Current and past editions of my
newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm
Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm
Bob Jensen's fraud
conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
· With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
· With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
· With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR
· With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen
What went
wrong in accounting/accountics research? ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most
Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW:
1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox)
that probably will never be solved
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/