Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Tuesday, September 11. 2018

Tuesday morning links


Maine photo from Salt Water New England, where everything is always perfectly charming 


Why Was Disco Ever Popular? Blame Fake News.


Did The Village Voice Help Ruin Journalism? Advocacy reporting, once revolutionary and corrective, increasingly supplants the documentation of facts.


Harvard Prof: Merit-based admissions 'reproduce inequality'


 The Academic Left’s Emerging War On Scientific Study


 Closing Argument on Farm Bill: Work Requirements in SNAP Will Reduce Poverty


 DRAIN THE SWAMP: EPA SHED 1,200 JOBS IN TRUMP’S FIRST YEAR AND A HALF


 100 Bangladeshi Nationals Apprehended near Texas Border in 3 Weeks


When censorship is crowdsourced:



 When I was a university student in the early 1990s, it always was assumed that the primary threat to free speech was government — especially government in the Big Brother form that George Orwell had taught us to expect and fear...



 Tucker Carlson Reveals Explosive Email from Google Exec on How Company Actively Assisted Hillary in 2016


VDH: The Circus of Resistance


 Trump Should Be a Better Boss


 BOLTON TO ICC: BABY, DON’T YOU DO IT


Trump’s New Attempt to Push Palestinians to Negotiate With Israel. The administration has closed the PLO office in Washington, citing a lack of progress in the peace process.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:10 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

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The Harvard prof is revealing that he knows the answer that so many others will not admit. He is caught in a bind between the prevailing belief that disadvantaged minorities will do fine if we just give them a chance, and the growing scientific evidence that no, they won't, not at the same rates. Only some will make it through on merit, not enough to make liberals feel righteous. What to do? This sentiment is increasing in the academy, with African-American administrators saying black people just aren't good at math and wouldn't be here if we didn't favor them. Read some of the sad conversations John McWhorter has had. The people closest to the situation are closest to the truth, and they have to break one way or the other. Most other liberals can still pretend.

As for Trump being a better boss, there is something to that. However, because he is very much an outsider, he has had to build a lot of this from scratch, more than any other recent president. He can't know all these people and predict their behavior, let alone monitor it sufficiently. He has had to rely on the advice of others - others who are themselves unpredictable. He seems to have been able to appoint Mattis and forget about it. Not so lucky with other appointments.
#1 AssistantVillage Idiot (Link) on 2018-09-11 08:58 (Reply)
Can you imagine the difference if establishment Republicans had supported Trump from the beginning, and had not actively discouraged best qualified people from working to further his agenda? If they had not actively sat on their hands and said You’re on your own, bub, we’re not going to help you at all.
That’s one thing I’ll give McConnell credit for - he took a piece of the agenda (judges) that he agrees with and could act on and worked it. Who else can say that?
#1.1 Annie on 2018-09-11 10:03 (Reply)
The problem is, as THEY saw/see it, is that Trump's an interloper. He is NOT one of them, he didn't rise through the ranks, paying his dues, learning how to work the system.

He DARED to run for President, he DARED to refuse their advice on how to campaign. And then he had the temerity to actually WIN! The horror!

Now he's setting expectations for future Presidential behavior/activity that they're going to find hard to meet. He's actually addressing issues and solving what he can instead of promising to do things with no intent at all to deliver.

(Which may be what people complain about when they say he's not 'Presidential'. But since when did never actually doing something unless there was absolutely no other recourse become what we expected?)

Why should they help someone who's disrupting how DC does things? The GOPe got along quite well without him, giving only token protests to Dem activity while convincing us that they couldn't do anything without controlling the House, then the Senate, then the Presidency. Once all three were in - well, you saw their attitude toward the public when McCain thumbed down the Repeal.

Trump's about the people. The Political 'Elite' are about the Elite - the people just exist to give votes in exchange for promises that aren't given seriously, and never acted on.
#1.1.1 JLawson on 2018-09-11 11:00 (Reply)
This is why I haven't and won't contribute to the RNC, and why Trump is so liked by us Deplorables. It ain't JUST Hillary who doesn't like us.
#1.1.1.1 Sam L. on 2018-09-11 11:19 (Reply)
I've read many times that people who work for him at his business love him and say he's a great boss.
#1.2 FRP on 2018-09-11 14:21 (Reply)
So disco died because of a bunch of rockers, listening to WLLZ and holding DREAD cards?

by the fall of 1979, disco was gone.


Seems the author missed a few key details-

Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd)- Released Nov 1979

Abba played 17 sold out shows in US & Canada in Sep + Oct of 1979

"Islands in the Stream"- 1983 hit, written by the Bee Gees.
#2 DrTorch on 2018-09-11 08:59 (Reply)
Disco: the music is still with us. It's just been remarketed as "urban dance". What is gone is Disco: the Lifestyle. Remember disco Haircuts, Disco furniture, Disc-Os breakfast cereal... all that was gone before the beginning of 1980. My understanding from subsequent interviews is that the lifestyle portrayed in the film, to the extent it ever existed, was already in decline by the time of its release. Disco's breakout into middle America was wholly a marketing concept more than an organic movement.
#2.1 another guy named Dan on 2018-09-11 10:36 (Reply)
You bet. DJs are doing some great revisions of disco songs and using them in clubs. I listen to them just because it's good music. I was just listening the the Reflex version of Love Hangover this afternoon. Smokin.
#2.1.1 itsatax on 2018-09-12 20:02 (Reply)
What gives with RAP? It seems to be disco with shitty lyrics.
#2.2 indyjonesouthere on 2018-09-11 16:27 (Reply)
I was young and loved Disco and loved to dance to it. It was hot stuff the bars and clubs that had disco were jumping. So why did it die??? The answer was simple. For those who could not dance to it or could not dance well enough to get a partner on the floor Disco was a disaster. It used to be that the band/DJ would play a variety of music and even a 'bum' could dance a waltz and get a girl to dance with him. But Disco had 'moves' and if you weren't John Travolta it was tough to do with a new partner or some girl you didn't know. I was married and my wife and I knew our moves. But most of the single guys and girls had to sit out the disco songs OR look bad on the floor. THAT is what killed it.
#2.3 Anon on 2018-09-11 16:36 (Reply)
"Did The Village Voice Help Ruin Journalism? Advocacy reporting, once revolutionary and corrective, increasingly supplants the documentation of facts."

Come again? Something that a lot of people forget is that the idea of newspapers as "accurate documentation of facts" is an invention of the 20th-century American press. Accurate documentation of facts has never been the raison d'etre of newspapers. They've always been more advocates for a specific point of view than objective and accurate documenters of fact. The difference between now and a hundred years ago is that now most cities have only one or two newspapers instead of ten or more - and those one or two are frequently run by the same people. Two newspapers that have the same editorial slant is a considerably different situation than ten newspapers that have five or six different editorial slants.
#3 wolfwalker on 2018-09-11 09:49 (Reply)
The cable networks and the internet 'ruined' journalism. The journalist always lied to us always gave us fake news. Walter Cronkite, the most trusted journalist in history lied to our faces every night on TV. Both outright lies and lies of omission. The internet gave us the truth (and a lot of lies and crap too) and the journalist no longer controlled the news. They still try. They still act as though we don't know they are lying to us but we know and THAT has destroyed journalism.
#3.1 Anon on 2018-09-11 16:41 (Reply)
QUOTE:
Trump’s New Attempt to Push Palestinians to Negotiate With Israel. The administration has closed the PLO office in Washington, citing a lack of progress in the peace process.

"Peace process"? A cute way (tragically so) to describe "death to Israel via 1000 cuts". Good on Trump and his administration to cut the bs by adopting a "put up or shut up" stance.
#4 Bill Carson on 2018-09-11 10:15 (Reply)
This is the picture I always think of when I hear "Palestinian Peace Process":

Victims of Rome Airport Massacre

There was a more shocking one of a young murdered Italian woman that really haunts me, but you can't find that one on the internet any longer. It was in Time magazine at the time.

This sums up my "sympathies" to the Palestinians.
#4.1 Jim on 2018-09-11 14:00 (Reply)
Why was disco ever popular? People like to dance, plain and simple. As much as I like Rock n Roll, except for the slow type ballads, there just isn’t much to dance to in a song such as Diary of a Mad Man. The disco beat is a dancing beat.
#5 B. Hammer on 2018-09-11 11:20 (Reply)
SCHOW: The Academic Left’s Emerging War On Scientific Study: SJW's ATTACK!!! BAD THINK! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD

100 Bangladeshi Nationals Apprehended near Texas Border in 3 Weeks: How did they get to Mexico??

When Censorship Is Crowdsourced: SJWs again!! Being led around by the noses.

Explosive Email from Google Exec on How Company Actively Assisted Hillary in 2016: Sounds like an illegal campaign donation...that ought to be investigated.

Trump Should Be a Better Boss: According to the NeverTrumpers at NR.

Trump’s New Attempt to Push Palestinians to Negotiate With Israel: You Palis are ON YOUR OWN. Bummer for you. Squalor is your heritage.
#6 Sam L. on 2018-09-11 11:33 (Reply)
College sports are meritocracy based. Are they next in line to become diversity based? Probably not. Too much liberal media dollars and minority presence in college sports. But,as a short, fat, white guy, I really would have liked to have had a chance to play college basketball - and maybe even on a scholarship!
#7 nellborg on 2018-09-11 12:32 (Reply)
Meritocracy based???

Men's college sports have been decimated by Title IX, which "equalized" women's sports by cutting many men's sports programs. Perfect example of the politically correct socialist mindset, achieve equality by pulling people down.

At many colleges there is no longer men's baseball, men's rugby, men's soccer, men's track and field, men's cross country, and a bunch of other "minor" sports thanks to Title IX. Watched men's baseball, rugby and soccer go down at one of the schools I attended.

Want some reasons why men no longer go to college and a majority of those in higher ed are now women? This is a good example of the "men not wanted" signalling that is now prevalent in higher education.
#7.1 Jim on 2018-09-11 13:47 (Reply)
It must be difficult to be a better boss when many in your administration appear to be working against you at every turn. POTUS could be the best boss in the world and it wouldn't matter if the only goal is to thwart his agenda. Of course there is the thought in the back of my mind that perhaps there is no real writer for this Op-Ed. What if this is a made up piece in order to throw the White House into chaos during a critical time prior to an election. Having everyone walking around under a cloud of suspicion could do a lot to disrupt this White House. After all, we now know the Steele Dossier was simply a lie. Nothing seems beyond the pale anymore. Any conspiracy theorists out there,of course besides me.
#8 Pocono pam on 2018-09-11 14:41 (Reply)
A copy of the editorial was put up on a student paper site out in California a few minutes before the Times put it up on-line.

Maybe it was... but I'd love to see the time stamps for when the paper was posted on TurnItIn.com and when it was first put on-line by the NYT. There's a 3 hour difference, after all - and if it was put on TurnItIn BEFORE the NYT put it up, then they've found the writer.

https://conservativedailypost.com/was-the-times-duped-by-a-usc-student-to-run-hoax-op-ed/
#8.1 JLawson on 2018-09-11 16:44 (Reply)
Not talking about Title IX stuff.

"Meritocracy based" college sports - meaning that right now only the best players get to play on the college teams, right? Some would argue that this system isn't fair because of opportunity or whatever.

My point is how is this different from using a meritocracy based system for getting into college? If college admissions argues that the merit based system for entry into academics is unfair, then will we see colleges drop the merit based system that they use in determining who is chosen to play for the team? For example, are whites and asians and latinos and physically challenged individuals and LBQT... underrepresented on basketball teams through no fault of their own?
#9 nellborg on 2018-09-11 16:58 (Reply)

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