Tag Archives: politics

There’s Surveillance

Posted on by
Reply

…and there’s surveillance.

The FBI is looking at ways to scan Facebook (and Twitter, et al.) postings with a view to proactively identify and reactively monitor threats to the United States and its interests.

In late 2016, following an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union into social-media monitoring done by outside developers on behalf of law enforcement, Facebook and Twitter cracked down on those services and explicitly banned the use of their data for surveillance purposes….
Facebook’s ban allowed law-enforcement agencies to look at public profiles manually but not use software designed for large-scale collection and analysis of user data.

This is a preview of There’s Surveillance. Read the full post (233 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

Guns and Gun Violence

Posted on by
1

A couple of instructive graphs, via Mark Perry at Carpe Diem AEI.

Yet, Progressive-Democrats—especially those competing to become our President—insist on disarming us.

Why is that, I wonder?

Permanent link to this post (62 words, 2 images, estimated 15 secs reading time)

The People’s Republic of China Threatens

Posted on by
Reply

Now they’re getting overt regarding the protests in Hong Kong against the local pseudo-autonomous government’s misbehaviors.

…those who play with fire will perish by it.

That’s pretty stark considering the overtly peaceful nature of the protests.  Yang Guang, speaking for the PRC’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of State Council:

[PRC] central government has “immense strength” and that punishment for those behind the demonstrations is “only a matter of time.”
…
“Don’t ever misjudge the situation and mistake our restraint for weakness.”

This is a preview of The People’s Republic of China Threatens. Read the full post (180 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)

Nice Things

Posted on by
Reply

President Xi Jinping and his cronies in the People’s Republic of China government look like they’re settling in for a long trade war with us. The claim, too, is that deteriorating relations with us, and allowing them to deteriorate further, are a sign of Xi’s strength as a leader of the government and of the Communist Party of China.

This misunderstands, though: those deteriorating relations are a good illustration of Xi’s weakness as a leader, not his strength. It takes strength, mind you, to be willing to change course when the chosen one proves…inopportune.

This is a preview of Nice Things. Read the full post (485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Guns and Deaths

Posted on by
Reply

Here are some actual data—facts that the Progressive-Democrats running for President are pleased to ignore—as produced by Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra):

Average # of deaths per day in US:Abortion: 1,778
Heart disease: 1,773
Cancer: 1,641
Medical error: 685
Accidents: 401
Stroke: 401
Alzheimer’s: 332
Diabetes: 228
Flu: 150
Suicide: 128
Opioids: 115
Drunk driving: 28
Underage drinking: 11
Teen texting-and-driving: 8
All Rifles: 1

His sources:

Abortion: (link: https://nrlc.org/uploads/factsheets/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf )
Heart disease/cancer/accidents/stroke/alzheimers/flu/suicide: (link: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm )
Medical error: (link: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html )
Opioids: (link: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html )
Drunk driving: (link: https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html )

Yet those Progressive-Democrat politicians want to control rifles, ultimately to take away all of our weapons.

This is a preview of Guns and Deaths. Read the full post (177 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

Lies of Progressive-Democrats

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s another.  Recall Congressman Joaquin Castro’s (D, TX, and brother of Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Julian Castro) doxing of donors to a Trump campaign organization.

[T]he Texas congressman’s original tweet included a list of San Antonio residents who had donated large amounts to the Trump campaign, along with the names of their employers. …
“Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump,” Castro tweeted, along with the Twitter handles of several owners of local businesses who apparently donated to Trump. …
The list—titled “WHO’S FUNDING TRUMP?”—had 44 names of donors and their employers.

This is a preview of Lies of Progressive-Democrats. Read the full post (283 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

Suicide Pact

Posted on by
1

Now The Wall Street Journal has joined the bandwagon.

Gun rights need to be protected, but the Second Amendment is not a suicide pact.

Indeed, they do, and it is not. But violating the Second Amendment as a matter of routine, or gutting it as the Progressive-Democrats want to do (background checks? Where would the Progressive-Democrats stop? They refuse to say, they refuse to articulate their limiting principle) certainly would be national suicide.

…those in the gun lobby who claim that denying access to guns from those with a history of mental illness violates individual rights.

This is a preview of Suicide Pact. Read the full post (208 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

Overreactive “Professional” Investors

Posted on by
Reply

Some folks think Fed President Jerome Powell is “in over his head” in terms of communicating Federal Reserve Bank policies to the general public (read: to “professionals”).

Here’s Krishna Memani, OppenheimerFunds Inc’s Vice Chairman of Investments:

As a central banker, you don’t want to give people the opportunity to interpret things how they want to[.]

This is backwards. The Central Banker—Powell—says what he says, and he does so clearly in today’s improved environment over the last century’s deliberate obfuscation in that era’s misguided attempt to avoid confusion.  It’s on “people”—professional investors—to take Powell at his words and not interpret things “how they want to,” or desperately over-parse them, or look for meanings hidden in backward-playing recordings of his statements

This is a preview of Overreactive “Professional” Investors. Read the full post (162 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Better is the Enemy of Good Enough

Posted on by
Reply

In the aftermath of Boeing’s failure with its 737MAX, the FAA—and foreign jurisdictions—are on the verge of entering that larger failure regime.

As Boeing Co and safety regulators push to complete long-awaited fixes for 737 MAX jets, testing has expanded to cover increasingly unlikely emergencies including potential computer failures pinpointed by overseas authorities, according to US government officials briefed on the details.
The broader risk analyses and simulator scenarios, some details of which haven’t been reported before, show the lengths to which leaders of the Federal Aviation Administration, in coordination with their foreign counterparts, are going to verify the safety of the MAX fleet before allowing the planes to fly again.

This is a preview of Better is the Enemy of Good Enough. Read the full post (339 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Lies of Progressive-Democrats

Posted on by
Reply

Here are some of the more despicable examples as Progressive-Democrats—including those running for President—look to politicize an El Paso tragedy for their personal political gain.

Washington state Governor and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Jay Inslee:

The first order of business to reduce white nationalism is to eliminate white nationalism in our White House. The sentiments of fear and division, and outright racism, that this president has emboldened out to be sickening to anyone.

What’s sickening is Inslee’s active condonement, along with his confrere in Oregon’s governor’s mansion, of Antifa’s active violence against conservatives, indeed against anyone to the right of their Leftist extremism.  What’s sickening is Inslee’s manufacture of racist beefs where he knows none exist.

This is a preview of Lies of Progressive-Democrats. Read the full post (565 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)