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, June 13. 2023

Tuesday morning links


Sunday Times reveals that COVID-19 developed by military at Wuhan lab


 We are assured, on the best scientific authority, that we can best deal with the nation’s mental health crisis by increasing public awareness of our mental health crisis...


 A Canadian Firefighter Sheds Light on the Smoke in the East


 A failing grade for using "biological women" in proposal


 England's health service says it won't give puberty blockers to children at gender clinics


 California Bill Would Punish Parents For Misgendering Children


 "Linguistics No Longer Loves Me.” with John McWhorter


  Urbanism’s Newest Controversy - Why the “15-minute city” has sparked protests


 The Neuroscience of Trust - Management behaviors that foster employee engagement


Goodwin:





 While his case will ultimately rise or fall on its merits, it is indisputable that Trump is being treated far more harshly than either Biden or Clinton were under very similar circumstances. 




All three kept classified documents where and when they shouldn’t have.




Only one is being prosecuted. 









Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:52 | Comments (36) | Trackbacks (0)

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The best managers I ever had were the ones that stayed the hell out of the way - not because they were lazy, but because they were smart managers. If I wanted to do something that made sense, I would prepare and lay out the case, show what was possible, show what could go wrong - and almost always get it approved.

But by far the best management style is to know your people, and put people in place that you can trust. Trust is a very powerful tool when it comes to getting the most out of your people - but it's a 2-way street, which is why it drives most people in management crazy. Note how I say, 'people in management', rather than 'managers.'

HR departments have made it difficult to fire people that under-perform, sometimes even blatantly dishonest people, because most managers are fearful of the confrontation. But letting someone with bad behaviors stay on a team is poison, and the shortest route to a low-trust environment - just as we are seeing in greater society today, in selected urban environments, where employees are penalized for defending company interests. And predictably, as we are seeing these businesses fail, we are also seeing the more competent interests depart, and the low-trust decay becomes entrenched.

But these urban cankers are the worst, most visible signs. The subtle signs are everywhere else, and in my world they are becoming a topic of regular conversation - the gradual loss of service quality, the fading away of expertise, the fleeting consumer satisfaction. All are a product of this process. It starts from the top.
#1 Aggie on 2023-06-13 08:37 (Reply)
It seems to me that Modern Urbanists are great at designing cities that appeal to Modern Urbanists, that is to say those who believe that a city is a tool that can and should be used to modify the behavior and even beliefs of its inhabitants. What they largely overlook is that most people don't want to have their behavior or beliefs controlled by Modern Urbanists.
#2 Another guy named Dan on 2023-06-13 08:44 (Reply)
Of what benefit to the consumer is a 15-minute city, when everybody is locked down? It seems to me that the future-pandemic-lockdown benefits all fall squarely on the side of those enforcing the lockdowns - by making them easier to manage - and enforce.
#2.1 Aggie on 2023-06-13 09:33 (Reply)
As with all such conceptual ideas, when something is premised on a societal benefit, yet one gets the feeling that they will be the ones most sorely affected (not the planners), my instinct is to say loudly: 'Great Idea! You go first and show us how it works!'
#2.1.1 Aggie on 2023-06-13 09:36 (Reply)
"SMART" cities ... surveillance, monitoring, analysis, reporting technology.

Not intelligent, clever, or well-functioning. They are slowly turning your towns and cities into prisons.

15-minute cities are just telling you that you are only allowed to exercise in the prison yard. Welcome to cellblock 15-minute.

When will the Wolrd Economic Forum be recognized as a global terrorist organization?
#3 ruralcounsel on 2023-06-13 09:47 (Reply)
QUOTE:
Goodwin: However, I believe that if federal prosecutors had empaneled a grand jury and obtained a search warrant for Joe Biden’s properties and if FBI agents had put his aides, employees and lawyers under oath, scoured their phones and emails and confronted them with evidence to get them to talk, agents would have found that Biden knowingly kept classified documents for many years in his homes and offices, including in the four years between his being vice president and president.

The government only knew about the classified documents because Biden's own attorneys alerted them to their existence. Then, Biden voluntarily allowed the government to conduct a comprehensive search.

As Alan Dershowitz, lawyer extraordinaire, said, "Had the former president cooperated with investigators and immediately returned all the classified material in his possession, as Messrs. Biden and Pence did, charges would have been unlikely."

Well, duh.

Trump is charged with unlawful retention of documents relating to the national defense and of conspiracy to obstruct the return of the documents. If he had returned the documents, he wouldn’t be charged with, oh, gee whiz.
#4 Zachriel on 2023-06-13 09:51 (Reply)
My goodness, this is turning into quite an investment for you!
#4.1 Aggie on 2023-06-13 11:15 (Reply)
Oh gee whiz, it's easy to continue with the, um... same old "arguments" when when using ChatGPT.
#4.1.1 Zachinoff (Link) on 2023-06-13 11:49 (Reply)
I note that Zach is spending all his energy on turning America into a banana republic, that he’s not gaslighting us concerning all the evidence pilling up about Covid being an engineered bio weapon. At least there’s that.
#4.1.1.1 B. Hammer on 2023-06-13 12:09 (Reply)
The Borg is keeping the narrative flowing to the Z bot. The narrative will not change unless the media actually investigates rather than just printing government sourced leaks.
#4.1.1.2 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 13:50 (Reply)
Let me see if I have this right:

If you (vice president or a senator) break the law getting classified documents (including some apparently stolen from a SCIF since they contained current classified intelligence on Iran, Ukraine, and the UK) and hide them in unsecured and unguarded locations (your garage, a building funded by the CCP, or your private office) AND your lawyer tells your AG (since you are now president) about it and you allow your places to be searched, you are not longer considered to have broken the law?

EVEN if you are now implicated in taking a bribe from a Ukrainian business man who was employing your son for $1M/yr (who was a crackhead, did not know Ukrainian, or have particular knowledge of the business) AND you pressured the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor looking into the company employing your son AND the business owner is likely a Russian asset? EVEN if you kept such bad track of those documents that you were surprised they were in your private office?

Does this work for everyone?

Defense lawyer: Your honor, when I found out my client killed John Doe, I alerted the police. They wanted to search my client's house which we agreed to. The police did find the murder weapon but since we told the police before being charged and offered no resistance to any searches, we plead not guilty.

Judge: Captain Smith, is that true?

Smith: Yes your honor. On the morning of the 16th, we got a call from the defendant's lawyer saying he killed John Doe and that neither he nor his client had any objection to our searching his house. We arrived at the defendant's house just before noon finding John Doe dead in the defendant's living room, He was shot twice in the back. We searched the house and found a smoking gun on a table in the living room. The lab determined that the defendant's gun was indeed the murder weapon and it had the defendant's fingerprints on it. The defendant stated that he was surprised that he shot him twice.

Judge: Defendant, you are free to go!
#4.2 mudbug on 2023-06-13 14:02 (Reply)
Thinking about it further, there must be more to it than that. After all Hillary Clinton "hid" her classified emails by deleting them and breaking devices that were subpoenaed so one can't say she cooperated with the government.

Why, it's almost as if the government was cooperating with her!!!

One could also look at the Biden classified document case the same way - not only did he cooperate with the government but the government cooperated with him!

Both of them being Democrats, it paints its own picture.
#4.2.1 mudbug on 2023-06-13 14:41 (Reply)
QUOTE:
The court files related to Trump’s lawsuit seeking a special master offer far more info than Smith’s indictment. Be wary of those commenting on classified docs case who didn’t follow that lawsuit or aren’t getting up to speed on the timeline and events.

To me, Trump’s biggest mistake was not fighting the ridiculously broad subpoena for all documents with “classified markings.” (Another Beryl Howell dandy.) NO president would’ve willingly complied the way Trump did (of course no former president would’ve faced such a subpoena.)

In less than a month, he and his team conducted searches for request docs. Trump delayed moving to Bedminster for the summer to greet Jay Bratt (DOJ counterintelligence chief) and FBI investigators at MAL. He offered his cooperation. They produced more documents.

Were mistakes made? Probably. But Smith’s accusation that there was a “willful” attempt to hide national defense docs (not part of May 2022 subpoena BTW) is false on its face.
-- julie kelly òn twitter
#4.2.1.1 Zachinoff on 2023-06-13 19:30 (Reply)
mudbug: If you (vice president or a senator) break the law getting classified documents

It's only a criminal act if there was intent, either in purposefully taking documents relating to the national defense knowing they didn't have a right to possess it or obstructing their recovery. Pence almost certainly didn't intend to keep classified documents, but it's reasonable to presume that they were mixed in with his other papers. Regardless, it would be difficult to prove intent, and Pence cooperated in their recovery. To prosecute Trump, they will have to prove that his actions were willful—for which, it turns out, there is substantial evidence.

mudbug: Hillary Clinton "hid" her classified emails by deleting them and breaking devices that were subpoenaed

No, the evidence is that she did not delete emails or destroy electronic devices after the subpoena was issued.
#4.2.2 Zachriel on 2023-06-13 14:54 (Reply)
I'm not even going to dignify the assertion that Biden left all those classified documents by accident. When there is evidence of bribery between a Ukrainian businessman and some of the most sensitive intelligence documents that were found pertained to Ukraine and his son was employed by that Ukrainian business man about time those documents were created, I don't see any reason to give Biden the benefit of the doubt.

From USAToday (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/15/inspector-general-report-clinton-emails-secrecy-column/704890002/):

QUOTE:
The IG report gives the impression that the FBI treated Clinton and her coterie like royalty — or at least like personages worthy of endless deference. When Bleachbit software or hammers were used to destroy email evidence under congressional subpoena, the FBI treated it as a harmless error.
#4.2.2.1 mudbug on 2023-06-13 23:10 (Reply)
mudbug: I'm not even going to dignify the assertion that Biden left all those classified documents by accident.

You do seem to have acknowledged the point about intent. Pence, also, had classified documents mixed in with his personal papers. Was it intentional?

mudbug: When there is evidence of bribery between a Ukrainian businessman . . .

All there is at this point is an unsupported allegation. Biden is the one who alerted the Archives about the classified documents, and then allowed a more thorough search. In any case, if Biden broke the law, he should be held to account.

Of course, none of this mitigates Trump's own alleged criminal behavior.
#4.2.2.2 Zachriel on 2023-06-14 09:44 (Reply)
"Had the former president cooperated with investigators yada, yada, yada.

No one with two or more brain cells believes that. Trump was targeted. They were going to charge him with crimes no matter what because he tried to drain THEIR swamp. Conversely Biden. Hillary and Obama were going to never be charged no matter how many crimes they committed. You can make your wild ass claims all you want, most Americans see this for what it is; the communist left using classic communist tactics to force America to become more communist.
#5 OneGuy on 2023-06-13 10:10 (Reply)
OneGuy: Trump was targeted.

The claim is that Biden and Trump are being treated differently. However, the indictment makes the distinction. Biden returned government documents when found and cooperated with the investigation, while Trump not only didn't return government documents in defiance of a subpoena, but obstructed the recovery of the documents—allegedly.
#5.1 Zachriel on 2023-06-13 10:34 (Reply)
How 'bout Biden's FBI treatment?
Leaks about Trump and redactions about Biden.
No differences there at all...
Fuck off, Quibble-DickZ, you're a joke.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/charles-grassley-joe-biden-fbi/2023/06/12/id/1123333/
#5.1.1 Zachinoff (Link) on 2023-06-13 15:18 (Reply)
What a Mystery Babylon Be assortment of contemporary Pissworld headlines and sausages.
Comrade Lefty fears reality and truth like the mortal enemies that they are.
The left hand path is the way of Satan.
Smart cities are a kindler gentler Bidenville shanty with free bugs and pods for all.
Carney barker Emmanuel Trumpstein can still run even with corrupt Georgie Sorrows prosecutors cooking up cases but that won't save the fake and GAE empire of LIES.
The Derp State was enshrined by Garfield, cemented by comrade commissar FDR and made total state by the immaculate Hussein Hopenchange.
#6 Fetterman Abrams 2024 on 2023-06-13 11:10 (Reply)
Dozens of War Games Show US Unprepared for ‘Horrifically Bloody’ War With China

This hardly comes as a surprise.

When your primary objectives are "diversity, equity and inclusion" and "fighting climate change," it's hard to see how we could have a competent military.

The incompetence goes all the way to the Commander in Chief.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/dozens-of-war-games-show-us-unprepared-for-horrifically-bloody-war-with-china/
#7 feeblemind on 2023-06-13 11:17 (Reply)
Headline: Biden Preparing Plans to Evacuate Americans From Taiwan.

I'm sure it's fine. Happens all the time. Besides it's pride month and we don't have time to worry about the actual things government should be doing. Can we get someone in here to take down that American flag it is offending the perverts.
#8 Anon on 2023-06-13 11:35 (Reply)
...it's pride month...

Why is Pride the only deadly sin to get its own month? How 'bout my faves, Sloth and Gluttony?
#8.1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2023-06-13 13:29 (Reply)
If this is a Joebama plan it is not likely to go any better than Afghanistan. We have lgbtqwxyz military leadership incapable of running even small operations without tripping over themselves.
#8.2 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 13:59 (Reply)
Worse than Afghanistan. The navy will have a Carrier battle fleet there. China has an indomitable advantage of home court and a huge military presence. If it comes to a fight they will win against the fleet. That means sinking a carrier, half a dozen warships, likely some support craft, about 70 planes and killing 10,000 or so U.S. troops. I didn't mention the submarine(s) which are armed with nuclear weapons. I will let you guess what the standing order of those subs are if the entire battle fleet is wiped out by an enemy attack.
#8.2.1 OneGuy on 2023-06-13 14:20 (Reply)
As a fan of Monty Python I do recognize and appreciate that our
once great has devolved into a Monty Python skit. Thank you George Soros and Obama for recreating his great sense of humor writ large everyday. But, it is just for fun, right! Right!
#9 Call me crazy but on 2023-06-13 12:12 (Reply)
Trending on Gab-Comrade Commissarina D'Alesandro Pelosi's chief of staff is a Dominion executive.
It didn't end well for Fang Fang but who knows about Feinstein's CCP keeper.
#10 A Hot Take With John Karl on 2023-06-13 13:26 (Reply)
re Urbanism’s Newest Controversy - Why the “15-minute city” has sparked protests

What happens if the 15 minute city YOU reside in has legalized shop lifting and no retail establishment wants to locate there?
#11 feeblemind on 2023-06-13 14:10 (Reply)
The mental health crisis is available for all to see. More gay, more tranny, more triggered, and more drugs. Going through life fat, dumb, and HAPPY, happy, happy.
The best reason yet to stay away from the 15 minute city products that require large doses of tolerance, third world criminality and indulgences, and a give a shit attitude.
#12 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 14:13 (Reply)
Found a good piece at WRSA by Douglas Macgregor on democratic backsliding. It is a Joebama special with extra toppings. Can be found at the American Conservative. 6/13/2023
#13 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 14:38 (Reply)
At the Geller Report for 6/13/2023

17 recordings: Audio of Bidens Ukraine bribery phone calls.

The bandits do not trust each other but did we really expect any other result. I'm sure the Joebama DOJ will be right on it. Or maybe a snuff team will be dispatched like in the old "Russia" hack creation.
#14 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 14:47 (Reply)
Barr was appointed to save the institutions from Trump and NOT to provide any justice. He knew about Bidens treasonous bribery scandal while he served as AG and did NOTHING.

https://www.independentsentinel.com/bill-barr-knew-all-about-bidens-treasonous-bribery-scandal/
#15 indyjonesouthere on 2023-06-13 16:47 (Reply)
"15 minute cities"? What a joke. Not long ago, I drove to the post office to mail some packages, stopped at the barber shop to get a haircut, went to the market to get a dozen 2 liter sodas that were on sale and then to the hardware store for some 8x8x16 concrete blocks and 8 foot 2x4s for a backyard project.

Took an hour and a half. If I had to walk, I still wouldn't be done.

Thinking about just the grocery store, I figure I'd have to go nearly every day if I could only buy what I could carry. And I live alone. Anybody want to guess what it would be like for people who have kids? That "15 minutes" would be getting old real fast when you're on your third or fourth trip of the day.

But hey... "15 minute cities" sounds so hip and cool, doesn't it?
#16 Not Sure on 2023-06-13 17:31 (Reply)
"Linguistics No Longer Loves Me."

I was a linguistics major in university and had for a while contemplated a post-graduate career in the field. Instead, I became a Canadian Army officer.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel like I dodged a bullet by walking away from linguistics.

The phony subcategory of sociolinguistics rules the field these days, a massively woke-infused mob of charlatans, whose studies are to language science what astrology is to astronomy.
#17 JJM on 2023-06-13 18:45 (Reply)
It is a pity that fascinating subjects like linguistics and the weather are succumbing to the woke virus. I thought Science would be immune by its nature.

Smart guy, that John McWhorter. He has a great Great Courses course on Language Families of the World.
#17.1 SteveS on 2023-06-13 21:37 (Reply)
Fifteen minute cities would be in armed conflict within a generation.
#18 Easy on 2023-06-13 19:15 (Reply)

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