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.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Wednesday, July 24. 2019

Wednesday morning links

Why is airport food so expensive? The reasons you pay a massive markup on a water bottle are more complex than you might think.


 Amazon Plows Into Real Estate Market With Realogy Pact To Transform Homebuying Process


 Alibaba brings e-commerce platform to US businesses


We’re Saved: S. Korea Cuts Down 2 Million Trees, Replaces Them With Solar Panels


Disabled students proliferate 


 When Trans Activism Empowers Sexual Harassment


 Title IX policies have ‘anti-male bias’ and treat students accused of sexual assault unfairly, lawsuit alleges


The Minimum Wage Is Not About Helping the Poor - A boon to organized labor.


THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS STRIKES AGAIN - The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has issued a report on school discipline.The report claims that students of all races misbehave in school at the same rate...


Chicago Mayor Delusional About City’s Violence


 Bernie Sanders’s Campaign Hit With … Federal Labor Complaint


 NAACP Delegates Call for Trump Impeachment


Byron York: Democrats think they've got a slam dunk obstruction case against Trump. They don't.


 Robert Mueller soon may be exposed as the 'magician of omission' on Russia


 Welcoming Boris Johnson


 European Union: A Massive Expansion Of Top-Down Powers

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:45 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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About Amazon "transforming" the homebuying process. We bought and sold homes about two years ago, and it was obvious to me that the process was highly inefficient and ripe for disruption.

But alas that's not what Amazon is doing. It's just combining with a large network of real estate agents to pass on referrals and then plus-sell its own products and services to homebuyers. None of that does anything to affect the basic process.

Knowing Amazon though, this is probably just a first step to start gathering data on the industry from the inside.
#1 T Migratorious on 2019-07-24 08:10 (Reply)
They already have gathered the data--this is just an excuse for using it in the open.
#1.1 another one on 2019-07-24 14:59 (Reply)
Airport food costs more because of the reasons given. It is higher priced because people are willing to pay for it. It is the fact that the price exceeds the higher costs that make it available.
#2 Another Guy named Dan on 2019-07-24 09:04 (Reply)
So after watching the Mueller-gate kangaroo court in congress for awhile I have discovered two things:

1. That Mueller knew about Hillary's and the DNC's collusion with foreign countries including Russia but ignored all that evidence because "it wasn't in his purview".

2. Any question posed by a Republican cannot be answered and Mueller either refers them to the written report OR claims "he can't get into that."
#3 Anon on 2019-07-24 10:02 (Reply)
If Trump wants to guarantee his own re-election all he has to do is strip the TSA down to its essential behind-the-scenes role and streamline its intrusive passenger interface to something more reasonable, a la the Israeli model of screening. It's not rocket science and more effective measures already exist. Nothing boils people up like having to stand in line, get their personal belongings pawed over and suffer the humiliation of being felt up by some low-IQ failed prison guard. None of this improves security by any measurable degree - it just pisses people right off.
#4 Aggie on 2019-07-24 12:26 (Reply)
Or hand it off to the airlines themselves.
Security done by the airlines on an individual basis will be faster and more thorough. Which airline wants to be known as the "least safe" to fly with?

To the point, it would be safer, faster, and cheaper.
Right now, we're paying for the TSA with borrowed money (deficit spending). While the airlines would have to raise prices - the market effect of this transfer of security would, in the long run, make travel more efficient.
#4.1 Bulldog on 2019-07-24 13:17 (Reply)
Shhh. . . can you hear it?

The drip, Drip, DRIP
#5 faculty wife on 2019-07-24 15:10 (Reply)
School discipline:

Classroom teachers know the reality, but refuse to be involved for several reasons: they are union members, and don't want to give any ground to anti-union politicians, because of salary negotiations; they are liberals, and don't want to give any encouragement to what they perceive as another tribe; they refuse to believe what their lyin' eyes tell them. Nonetheless, they are at heart not evil people. They care about the safety and fairness for the students who follow directions, especially minorities. They worry about their own safety.

I don't think it will be easy to pry them loose from their Democratic tribe. They will certainly not be public about it. But Republicans in general, and especially a disrupter like Trump, might figure out an appeal that will cause them to quietly pull the lever and say no more.

When they lie about what is happening in violence and school, they are driven to blame very nice teachers and policemen instead of facing reality.

I recommend that MF readers quietly offer these people an out rather than getting in their faces.
#6 Assistant Village Idiot on 2019-07-24 15:45 (Reply)
You nailed it! Give them a sound reason for turning away from the Democratic party--even if only in the voting booth!
#6.1 faculty wife on 2019-07-24 18:15 (Reply)
1. My experience is of unionized big cities. Not sure it's possible to win them over. Large big city teachers unions have become patronage machines for the minority middle classes (just as they were for the last generation of Dem constituents: Jews, Italians, Irish). They may be personally disgusted but they are unlikely to defect.

The old liberals - the people dismayed by the radicalization of the Dem party - will just take their pensions and leave the system. Like the senior white males in hi tech who avoid oppressive identity politics by "retiring" to consulting/freelance gigs.

2. For each teacher there are 30 to 60 parents. Better to target them. We have seen how effectively "school choice" and vouchers can be used to get African American voters off the Dem plantation. Typically some form of "right to work" law or a restructured teacher certification process is part of those programs - undermining unions and the ed-school monopoly, two radical power bases. It goes over better on screen, too - the conservatives are the ones "doing something for our kids" against the big bad Establishment. Hard for old Dem populist tropes to gain traction.
#6.2 Ben David on 2019-07-25 03:37 (Reply)
So you would have me believe that the NAACP was on the fence about Trump until his recent tweet?

That's the funniest thing I have heard in a while.
#7 Dangerous Dean on 2019-07-24 18:17 (Reply)
Heh. It's very typical. Advocacy groups like to give out that they were this close to sitting down with you to compromise, until this recent outrage occurred, so all bets are now off.
#7.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2019-07-24 23:44 (Reply)

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