Monthly Archives: October 2016

Disparate Impact

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Some folks sued RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co over its hiring policy that

allegedly gave preference to applicants with two to three years of job experience out of college and disfavored those with closer to a decade in the workforce. The company’s guidelines provided to its hiring contractor, according to the ruling, said the greener group of workers “adjusts easily to changes.”

The suit centered on the premise that this policy had a disparate impact on older workers.  In the words of Lee Parks, an employment and civil rights lawyer with Parks, Chesin & Walbert, the policy means that

Those over 40 need not apply[.]

Judge William Pryor, writing for the majority at the 11th Circuit, which heard an appeal from the trial court’s ruling, wrote Indeed.  Disparate impact questions only apply to job holders, not those who’d merely like to hold a job.

Apparently disparate impact as justification for “corrective” action or as a cudgel is good only for some groups of Americans, but those who aren’t currently the favored ones don’t get its use.

This is one more reason to do away with disparate impact as an excuse for anything at all.

How Many Layers of Bureaucracy

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…whether government’s or private businesses’ will Big Government require before it will allow a failed enterprise to fail?

Regulators want to prevent taxpayers from having to ever again bail out big banks. Their latest idea: make the banks bail themselves out.

Previously, banks had struggled to persuade regulators they had a plan—called a “living will”—that would allow them to be dismantled and shut down if they got into trouble without taxpayers taking a hit. Now, banks are creating new structures that would allow their most important parts to keep functioning, even if the parent company has to file for bankruptcy. The aim is to avoid the kind of market chaos that could cause economic harm.

Never mind the far greater market chaos created by keeping these failed entities around, actively cluttering the market.

Make the banks bail themselves out?  Get regulators out of the way, and let the banks—or any other enterprise—prevent their failure with sound, market-driven business decisions, instead of facing a greater risk of failure by being trapped into decisions driven by Big Government regulations.  Those remaining businesses that fail will deserve to do so from their poor decision making.

The whole concept of a “living will” and a free market enterprise is internally contradictory.   Let a failed enterprise fail, and let the free market, consisting of all of its participants including the enterprises that rise from the bankrupt’s ashes, prosper.

Distractions

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Here’s one, from the files of Democrats.

John Podesta, one of Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s most senior advisors, says WikiLeaks and Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald Trump are in cahoots over the former’s leaks concerning Podesta’s, Clinton’s, and the Clinton campaign’s emails.

Clinton adviser John Podesta pointed the finger at Trump adviser Roger Stone, who he said has been in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Podesta also raised as evidence an August tweet in which Stone said Podesta’s “time in the barrel” was coming. The tweet was sent shortly after WikiLeaks published scores of hacked emails from other Democratic officials.

Because a simple prediction that comes home must be proof of collusion.  Sure.

He also worked in the Democrats’ fantasy of a Russian Connection:

[H]e also suggested the driving force could be “Mr Trump’s deep engagement and ties with Russian interests in his business affairs.”

As usual when the Left can’t form a coherent argument on a subject, they try to distract with accusations and character assassination.

Is this what we want in the White House?

Vetting Refugees

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Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2013 told the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago at their Vanguard Luncheon that Jordan, which was (and still is) in its crisis of handling refugees from the Syrian civil war, that had no hope of effectively understanding who those refugees were and which among them actually were jihadist terrorists.

[Jordan has] hundreds of thousands of refugees and they can’t possibly vet all those refugees so they don’t know if, you know, jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees.

But she wants to increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the US by some 500%, even though our own ability to vet them is no better than Jordan’s: the initial data on these folks just doesn’t exist.

This is something Clinton either has not thought through, or she doesn’t care and is just saying sweet words in order to garner votes.

With her words, though, Clinton did echo Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for “extreme vetting” of those we let into the US from terrorist-held territory and from terrorist-supporting nations:

We also have to be vigilant in screening and vetting refugees from Syria, guided by the best judgment of our security and diplomatic professionals.

Can we trust her?

Racism of the Left

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Again.  Still.

A Black-owned bakery, Fat Cupcake, baked up a batch of cupcakes to honor our President, an American who happens to be black; they titled the cupcakes “Mr President.”  Fat Cupcake described their confection on their menu as an

Oreo (™) Cookie baked inside white cake, cookies n’ cream buttercream.

It didn’t take long for the Left to start manufacturing a racist beef where none exists, thereby displaying their own racism.  Via Yelp, for instance:

Very troubling. They were serving a cupcake called the “Mr President” that had an Oreo cookie inside. When I tried to point out the racism implied, they claimed that “our current president loves Oreos.”

Never mind that President Barack Obama (D) is well-known for loving Oreos; there’s no “claim” there.

This isn’t just an isolated anecdote, either.

Since opening in Southeast Portland, [Fat Cupcake owner Anjelica] Hayes said she’s had to field questions about whether her cupcakes are racist.

I’m surprised someone isn’t whining about the sexist nature of the establishment’s name.