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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Wednesday, December 18. 2019

Wednesday morning links

This simple Holiday Wrapping Hack Is Blowing People’s Minds - “HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?” one person responded to a viral instructional


Vanderleun's Mall Angel 


 America’s best colleges get even worse on due process for accused students, report finds


 It’s Spreading Like the Plague — Social Justice Education


 Does anyone trust the FBI after reading the shocking findings of the Horowitz (IG) report? Not on your life.


 Opposition To Trump’s Antisemitism Executive Order Is All About The 2020 Election


 Why The Democrats Have Shifted Left Over The Last 30 Years


IG Report Proves Adam Schiff Has Been Lying About Spygate Since The Beginning. Following the inspector general’s FISA report that proved nearly every sentence wrong in Rep. Adam Schiff’s last high-profile report, Schiff’s work should be deemed worthless.


New Evidence Shows Hunter Biden-Ukraine Payments Flagged As ‘Suspicious’ In Early 2016


 Trump tells Pelosi in blistering letter that Dems are 'declaring open war on American Democracy'


 Read Donald Trump’s Historic Impeachment Takedown Letter to Nancy Pelosi


USA TODAY Poll: Impeached or not, Trump leads his Democratic rivals for another term


Scott Adams says Schiff is the one of the worst Americans ever 


Also amusing about Comey pleading incompetence rather than malice 


 Russia to modernize Syria port, build railway across Syria to Persian Gulf


 Mike Pompeo's great letter to Democrats on settlements and peace (full text)


 Xi Jinping’s annus horribilis

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:59 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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Scott Adams predicts that if you ever have to destroy an enemy, the part of the process you will enjoy the most is when he has to defend himself against accusations that he is evil by protesting that he is only very, very bad at his job.
#1 Texan99 on 2019-12-18 08:20 (Reply)
I have been very impressed by Adams's distinction between artists and economists in how people try to persuade. (I would use engineers instead of economists, but I take his point.) Many of the articles linked here every day are put forward on the basis of getting the facts right. That is engineer-thinking. We battle against those whose goal is to create the right impression. That is artist-thinking. This is not to disparage the artistic abilities of anyone here, nor to say that there is no one on the left who can be an engineer and fact based. In fact, many of them are indeed very capable but seem to choose not to because it is a better persuasive tactic.

Though that is infuriating, they may have a point. The population of any country may respond more to impressions than reasons.
#1.1 Assistant Village Idiot on 2019-12-18 13:27 (Reply)
You have it. This is a problem that has bothered me since I was young and experienced this involving a girl who was a pathological liar. No one cared for the facts. Seems to be the same now.
#1.1.1 mary on 2019-12-18 16:18 (Reply)
Well....I think the confusion is intended and encouraged. For example, we watch movies to escape, believing in the characters on screen while knowing they are actors. Most people don't ever conflate the actor's role and his character's lines with the actor's actual beliefs or actions in real life. We know the two are separate things.

Modern politicians play off this idea though, using their celebrity as an identifying qualification, presenting themselves as mummers in a pageant; as Adams says, saying things for effect that they know to be untrue, instead of framing their work with facts. Just like actors do, they present themselves as role-players and ask you to believe in the character and plot.

What hasn't happened yet is voters doing their part and holding politicians accountable to their word as a bond, rather than their words as some kind of performance shtick.

Most Americans think they're voting for governance, not circuses. You get what you pay for, and sometimes that involves collecting on a bad debt. Quite a few Britons just collected on their bad debts. We'll know, a year from now.
#1.1.2 Aggie on 2019-12-18 22:25 (Reply)
I just love the stupid polls! Who are they kidding? He'd beat Biden by 3 points? haha! He'll wipe the floor with any of them. I suppose this goes along with HRC's 95% chance of winning the last election, you know, the one Trump won.
#2 FRP on 2019-12-18 10:10 (Reply)
Looks like Russia is trying to make the Chinese debt trap move on Syria.

Of course this was pioneered by the French in Mexico, precipitating the installation of Maximillian I.

Get the government so far into debt that you can justify sending the Army to foreclose on the entire country.
#3 Another Guy named Dan on 2019-12-18 10:22 (Reply)
Do not fool yourself; Trump will not win in the 2020 election. The Democrats will steal the election. It is easier than you think to do. There are 4 or 5 key states that must be taken in order to win. In each of these states there is one country (two in one of the states) that must be won and in each county thee is one large city that sets the vote for the entire county. In other words the Dems only have to steal the election in 6 cities to win and in every case these are already Democrat cities.

Biden will be the candidate unless hell freezes over first AND he will pick a far lefty female minority like Stacy Abrams as his running mate which will just about guarantee him the election. After he is elected he will serve for a year or two and then because of illness or something retire and hand it over to the VP. This is absolutely what will happen so gird your loins for it. Option B is that if somehow Biden is knocked out of the running is that the DNC convention will choose Michelle Obama and the outcome will still be the same.
#4 Euripides on 2019-12-18 11:14 (Reply)
Back when I was a teenager, Chicago politics was firmly in the control of the Democratic party machine. Still is. Anyway, whatever deliberation that took place in the city was between two distinct wings: The Dailey wing (the old ethnic neighborhoods and the city unions) and the Harold Washington wing (blacks and the Lakeshore Drive progressives). Barack Obama is the product of the Washington wing, and Hillary Clinton is the product of the Dailey wing. If anything, the split in the national party is deeper than it was in Chicago, and getting wider. I don't think the center-left and progressive wings are going to be able to unite behind a single candidate. Clinton's hope seems to be a brokered convention where she could be brought out as a compromise after neither Biden, Sanders, or Warren can gain a decisive majority. So if Biden remains in the race, it is imperative that both Warren and Sanders do as well. If he drops out or is eliminated, expect Hillary to be at the press conference to accept the baton.
#4.1 Another Guy named Dan on 2019-12-18 12:30 (Reply)
While watching the proceedings in the House this morning most of the Democrats are quoting the constitution and our founding fathers. It occurred to me that most Democrat congressmen have never read the constitution before but now in search of an excuse to impeach Trump they (or more likely) their staff are reading it. I think that everyone elected and hired by the federal government should be required to read and even study the constitution. Might solve a lot of problems.
#5 OneGuy on 2019-12-18 11:38 (Reply)
If they're reading the Constitution, could someone highlight the Ninth and Tenth Amendments for them?
#5.1 Another guy named Dan on 2019-12-18 12:33 (Reply)
Adam Schiff, as bad as he is, is not even close to the worst American ever. I would nominate Barack Husain Obama for that title. Jane Fonda comes to mind. Nancy Pelosi. J. Edgar Hoover. Schiff is just a puppet.
#6 B. Hammer on 2019-12-18 12:19 (Reply)
I'm not sure Obama is an American. I believe he was born in Kenya. His grandmother worked for the state of Hawaii and took advantage of her position to forge him a birth certificate knowing that his mother was such a ditz she could have cared less where he was born.
#6.1 OneGuy on 2019-12-18 17:32 (Reply)
"Xi Jinping’s annus horribilis"
You learn something new everyday. I thought this article was about some terrible disease of the rectum.
#7 Ray on 2019-12-18 13:28 (Reply)
That would be with one N, and with a double-length A. "Annus" = year, and "horribilis" is the ancestor (through Old Norman French) of the English "horrible".
#7.1 Korora on 2019-12-18 15:06 (Reply)
ahhh. . .the devil is in the details. My intuition (Woman's?) always told me to watch out for Bill Clinton. His election was the first time I turned away from the Democratic Party. But, ever since 2000, I have had this haunting memory. It's about Bill/Hillary Clinton and their relationship with Viet Nam (largest producer and transporter of opium). Do you still remember your geography? Do you remember the Golden Triangle? Do you remember how the war in Vietnam helped to expand the market for illegal drugs in the US?
Port Douglas in Australia is a small town with a big reputation for drug dealers. Not just the little guys on the street--the news often reports on this towns relationship to the "big deals". A central distribution point.
With this in mind my alarm system went off when one month before the end of his presidency Bill Clinton became the 1st President to travel to Viet Nam. Copy and paste this link:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11278174

It was only several months after he was out of office that there was a story and picture (can't find) of him and Hillary re-visiting Viet Nam. The picture has both of them wearing those Collared shirts so popular in Viet Nam. At this same time and on the same trip there was a new story of them visiting Port Douglas on their way home from Vietnam. If someone here would really like to find this other picture and story it would be very helpful, especially now that we know about the Clintons and the "Clinton Foundation".
#8 Another One on 2019-12-18 13:40 (Reply)
re Russia to modernize Syria port, build railway across Syria to Persian Gulf

QUOTE:
Russia is considering a slew of major commercial projects in Syria

. . . He added that there is also a plan to build a railway across Syria and Iraq


"is considering" and "a plan" does not mean they will definitely proceed.
#9 feeblemind on 2019-12-18 14:49 (Reply)
Especially as they're pretty much flat broke at this point. I remember plans announced for new weapons systems, that can't be built in any quantity because there's no money...
#9.1 JLawson on 2019-12-18 15:36 (Reply)
"It’s Spreading Like the Plague — Social Justice Education"

QUOTE:
"Social justice is an actual impediment to acquiring human capital"
--Thomas Sowell
#10 JK Brown on 2019-12-18 21:01 (Reply)

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