Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Monday, July 9, 2018
Chinese Communist hypocrite Xi Jinping has jailed political opponents Sun Zhengcai and 1.3 million others
Gordon Chang, here:
At the 19th Communist Party National Congress held last October, however, Xi broke convention by preventing the designation of a successor. No one who might follow him was named to the Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of Chinese power. Also, ahead of the 19th Congress Xi targeted an up-and-coming figure, Sun Zhengcai from Chongqing, by having him investigated for “serious discipline violations,” party code for corruption. Sun has been given a life sentence in circumstances indicating his crime was political—in other words, being in a faction not controlled by Xi Jinping. ...
Xi is upping the consequences for those coming out on the short end of political struggles. In what he has styled a new “anti-corruption” campaign but which looks more like an old-fashioned political purge, Xi has jailed more than 1.3 million officials. He has removed the venal, but it’s noteworthy that almost none of them were his supporters. They were, for the most part, either political opponents or potential rivals, like Sun from Chongqing. Moreover, Xi has betrayed the real nature of the campaign by jailing anti-corruption campaigners and leaving alone his own family members, some of whom, under the most suspicious of circumstances, have become extraordinarily wealthy since he was identified as Hu’s successor.
The headline writer at The Hill gets it wrong, but the article author gets it right
People returning to labor force in droves — a key step for the economy, says the headline, but the article says no such thing.
The story author makes many astute points, which the headline writer obviously doesn't understand.
The labor force is growing, but gradually, as is the percentage of the population actually working. We ought to have north of 62% working as was true before the Great Recession instead of 60% now, but the direction is up, if gradual.
This means we are NOT at full employment. People who dropped out are dropping back in, looking for work, and finding it, gradually.
This is dispelling the myth that the decline in the labor force was structural, and permanent. It isn't.
This also explains why wages aren't rising dramatically. Employers still have bodies to choose from as people who formerly sat on the sidelines get back in the game. Employers still do not have to pay dramatically higher wages to keep the employees they have. They still have employees to choose from.
In a nutshell, it's not a boom, but it is overall a return to the right direction.
Fewer than 600 acres of opium production in Afghanistan keep the Taliban insurgency alive
There should be a relatively simple solution to that, but Politico has a story here about what we've been doing instead.
The United States is not a serious country.
Bill Kristol doesn't much like Kavanaugh for Supreme Court, so Trump ought to nominate him
After all, Bill Kristol knows whereof he speaks.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Theresa May's Brexit Secretary resigns, a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister's no-Brexit Brexit
Donald Trump take note. You promised a wall, an immediate end to DACA, an end to Obamacare, an end to our senseless wars, jobs jobs jobs.
We're still waiting.
Laugh of the Day 3.0: The thing is, this Google employee PROVIDED the picture
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| This little piggy stayed home |
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| This little piggy went to Google |
Laugh of the Day 2.0: Liberal blogger breaks the rules, reveals source to FBI because it advanced her politics
Liberals always view rules as impediments to their political ends, and break them at will.
Wheeler, who has written blog posts about national security for almost 15 years, is clear that she wasn't motivated to talk to the FBI because she is out to get Trump. She certainly doesn't like him, but she is also not at all a Hillary Clinton fan. But what motivated her recent revelation that she went to the FBI has plenty to do with politics: She is disgusted by the way House Republicans are, in her view, weaponizing their oversight responsibilities and making it all too likely that FBI informants will have their names revealed - and their safety threatened. "It infuriates me," she wrote, to observe the "months-long charade by the House GOP to demand more and more details about those who have shared information with the government . . . all in an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation."
Marcy Wheeler (a.k.a. "emptywheel") is an American independent journalist specializing in national security and civil liberties. Wheeler publishes on her own site, Emptywheel, established in July 2011. She makes occasional contributions to the commentary and analysis section of The Guardian, progressive news site Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, and Michigan Liberal. Between early December 2007 and July 2011 Wheeler published primarily on Jane Hamsher's FireDogLake (FDL) and prior to that on The Next Hurrah. ... She campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in 2004, and is a former vice chairwoman of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party.
Just great, Thomas Hardiman worked for Ayuda, funded by George Soros' Open Society Foundation, and Trump's got him on his Supreme Court list
An administration is all about personnel, and 19 months in Trump still doesn't know what the hell he's doing.
For some reason Thomas Hardiman can't bring himself to call them illegal aliens but he's a leading contender for Supreme Court
On a Bush list, maybe, but why on a Trump list?
This is insane.
The Detroit News is pushing Kethledge for Supreme Court, the guy who reversed a deportation order of a criminal alien
The Detroit News, here, suffering as it does from a mental disorder known as libertarianism.
Kethledge is being pushed by the Republican Establishment as easier to confirm, in other words by the open borders crowd. For a reason.
The nitwits out there are getting into the weeds of "aggravated" in order to explain this away, some ignorantly equating "aggravated" in the law with "violent", which is hardly controlling. All sorts of things which aren't inherently violent are defined as aggravated by the law, including things which are obviously violent. For example, illicit trafficking in controlled substances and firearms are aggravated, as are money laundering, receipt of stolen property, disclosing classified information (Hillary), fraud (Obama), forgery, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Kethledge ignored the meaning of aggravated in the law in the case described, which suggests he might well dismiss the law in other circumstances when it is attractive to do so, for whatever reason.
There are better candidates than Kethledge who would enforce immigration law instead of try to find an excuse to get around it, which is also what Obama tried to do with the DACA executive order.
Friday, July 6, 2018
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Climate Update for June 2018
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Climate Update for June 2018
Max temp 94, Mean Max temp 94
Min temp 48, Mean Min temp 43
Av temp 69.9, Mean Av temp 67.7
Precip 2.50, Mean precip 3.54
Snowfall 0, Mean snowfall T, Season final 77.7, Mean Season 66.7
Heating Degree Days 12, Mean HDD 54, Season final 6456, Mean Season 6705
Cooling Degree Days 168, Mean CDD 139, Season to date 276, Mean Season to date 184
The heating season has finished 3.7% warmer than the mean using HDD as a measure. It ranked 32nd warmest since 1904.
The cooling season to date as measured by CDD has moderated to 50% warmer than the mean after a hot early start to the summer season.
Gasoline on the Fourth of July 2018 averaged $2.87/gallon nationally
But a year ago gasoline averaged $2.25/gallon nationally.
What happened to $2.50/gal gas, Mr. President?
Thursday, July 5, 2018
In 2011 a judge told us to forgo something is acting, in 2018 a judge insists refusing to help is not the same as impeding
Judge Kessler in 2011, here, a liberal Clinton appointee, in re Obamacare.
Judge Mendez in 2018, here, a liberal Bush 43 appointee, in re immigration enforcement.
Liberals always rule to advance liberal objectives, even if it means that not acting is acting once upon a time but later on in a different situation it is not.
The manifest politicization of the judiciary ought to mean that they all must resign when the guy who appointed them finishes his term. It would be a more honest acknowledgement of the truth that the law is an ass, and that elections have consequences.
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