American Silliness, 8/6/2017

With citizens like these, where in this world will we find people who can respect this nation and it's voters? These are people who worship Barack Obama and adore national leaders such as Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters and the ladies of "The View", along with their applauding sycophants. TD

OK, this is Australia. Do you think American feminists are more mature? Cafe charges 18% 'man tax' to make customers think about gender pay disparity    "The feminist owner of a vegan cafe in Melbourne, Australia is charging men an 18% "man tax" to get her customers thinking about the unfair treatment of women.

"Women also receive priority seating over men."

There is a gender pay gap, the question is why? As for studies to back your argument, take your pick. The one factor that seems to jump out of every study that contributes most to the pay gap is motherhood. A large percentage of women who have babies leave the work force for 6 months to two years. Many of them get off the fast track to advancement and promotions - far more than men who have children.

 Google roiled by samizdat critique of diversity policy
. . . "Shhh...nobody tell Google that Chavez opposed illegal immigration because it depressed farmworker wages. That might be awkward when it comes to H1-B visas." . . .

Any Democrats out there with the courage to call out Rep. Waters?
. . . "The answer is that the modern Democratic Party is no longer a serious organization.  It tolerates people like Rep. Waters because they are afraid of challenging a loudmouth who will respond by calling everybody a racist for questioning her remarks.  And to make matters worse, MSNBC will give her a segment to do it!"

California State System Will No Longer Force Students To Know English And Math To Graduate  "California paves the road to the dumbing down of America."

'Social justice warriors' are ruining engineering, prof warns

“Instead of calculating engine horsepower or microchip power/size ratios or aerodynamic lift and drag, the engineering educationists focus on group representation, hurt feelings, and ‘microaggressions’ in the profession,”  . . .

Remember when people risked their lives to oppose segregation in the South? Well it once again rears its ugly head:
NC State admin proposes exclusive housing for 'women of color'

"Whittenburg did not respond to a request for comment on her proposal to to create another racially segregated dorm option from Campus Reform."  

But at least George Wallace recanted his racist views. That seems unlikely in the case of the anti-white fad of today.

Race and gender bean-counting studies will ruin your entertainment

The College Fix     "You’re not allowed to have fun anymore.

"

And you won’t if our well-meaning social justice gatekeepers have anything to say about it.

"It’s bad enough already that major outfits like Marvel and DC Comics have succumbed to the social justice warrior whims of their (allegedly) enlightened creative staffs; soon music labels and film studios may be following suit.

"A new study from the University of Sydney Business School “describes a music scene in which male voices dominate radio playlists, festival line-ups, industry awards, peak bodies and major industry boards.”

"Rae Cooper and her associates claim to have identified “chronic gender inequality” in the music business, an industry which typically generates around four to six billion dollars annually.

“ 'The industry need[s] to recognise it has a problem and that women’s voices really are white noise,” Cooper says.

"But now the “oh brother” part:"  . . .

EPA Ethics Panel: It is NOT Unethical to Question Climate Dogma

Watts Up With That?  "Back in March, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt questioned the human contribution to climate change. The Sierra Club immediately raised an ethics complaint against Pruitt’s climate heresy."

The Energy 202: EPA finds no problems with Pruitt’s climate change views

By Dino Grandoni August 3 at 8:39 AM

When Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt went on CNBC last March and said that he did not believe carbon dioxide was the “primary contributor” to global warming, he put himself at odds with the scientific stances of many institutions — including, officially, the EPA itself.

But an internal EPA review has found that the agency can tolerate such a disagreement.

A panel of EPA scientists convened to investigate Pruitt’s commentary found that the administrator was not in violation of the agency’s scientific integrity policy because that policy “explicitly protects differing opinion.”

“This expression of opinion, which was not made in a decisional context, is fully within the protections of EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy and does not violate that Policy,” the panel found, according to a letter sent to the Sierra Club and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and other outlets. The environmental group filed a complaint in March that prompted the internal review.

. . .
"Frankly I’m shocked it apparently took the EPA Ethics Committee six months to decide that expressing doubt about a scientific theory is OK. While I am glad the ethics committee eventually reached the only sensible conclusion, the fact this complaint was not immediately laughed out of the EPA in my opinion demonstrates the horrendous pressure on scientists and public figures not to deviate from hardline climate dogma."

FOIA Dump Reveals Collusion Between Lynch, FBI And Media To Bury Bill Clinton Meeting

Zero Hedge   "Back on June 29, 2016, Obama's Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, tried to convince us that the following 'impromptu' meeting between herself and Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport, a private meeting which lasted 30 minutes on Lynch's private plane, was mostly a "social meeting" in which Bill talked about his grandchildren and golf game.  It was not, under any circumstances, related to the statement that former FBI Director James Comey made just 6 days later clearing Hillary Clinton of any alleged crimes related to his agency's investigation."

But, according to a new DOJ FOIA dump just released by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), it looks increasingly as if nothing reported about this "social meeting" between Lynch and Clinton was grounded in fact...shocking, we know.

First, the new FOIA documents seemingly confirm that the FBI and DOJ simply lied in response to the ACLJ's initial FOIA request filed back in July 2016.  Here is what the ACLJ was told at the time after sending requests to both the Comey FBI and the Lynch DOJ asking for any documents related to the Clinton-Lynch plane meeting:

Is this the "increasingly right-wing press" that then-President Bill Clinton once spoke of?

Colossus of Corruption: Ben Rhodes Unmasked

Daniel John Sobieski  "Somehow it does not surprise that former Obama Deputy Security Adviser Ben Rhodes is now a “person of interest” in the probe of who illegally leaked for political purposes the names of Team Trump players allegedly collected inadvertently in intelligence reports. He joins others on Team Obama such as Susan Rice and Samantha Power in the unmasking designed to subvert the Trump administration in what amounts to a silent coup. As Fox News Politics reports: . . .

. . . "The “Obama whisperer” has quite a track record. Rhodes was up to his eyeballs in the Benghazi corruption, helping to cover up the Obama administration’s criminal negligence that got four Americans killed and helping to craft the video lie that was repeated to the parents of the dead in front of their son’s caskets by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

That was no accident, but a calculated part of the Obama administration’s disinformation campaign to protect President Obama’s reelection chances and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chances to be Obama’s successor in the White House. As Investor’s Business Daily editorialized . . .

. . . 

"While it does not surprise that Ben Rhodes may be involved in the unmasking scandal, it does surprise that H.R. McMaster has retained all of Ben Rhodes’ staffers as the question of who is leaking classified information for political purpose remains. That under covered story was brought up by retired U.S. Army Col. Tony Schaffer on Lou Dobbs show on Fox Business:

Ben Rhodes and Barack Obama’s staff are still in the National Security Council. H.R. McMaster has not fired any of them." . . .

. . . "The colossus of Rhodes' corruption and lingering influence must be dealt with. His people remaining in the Trump administration must be fired if not investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated. His people are undoubtedly among the criminal leakers and part of Obama’s fifth column within the Trump administration." . . .
 This is the Ben Rhodes I'm talking about:

 Ben Rhodes Reveals How Obama Duped America Into The Dangerous Iran Deal  "President Obama—with the help of an equally arrogant 38-year-old national security fabulist, Ben Rhodes—remade the Middle East to empower America’s most hated enemy."

Why is it so hard to hire employees in California?

Rick Moran  "The "official" rate of unemployment in California is a sparkling 4.7%, and according to state labor experts, the job market is tightening.

"But how many more people would be employed if it weren't so darned expensive to hire and keep new people on the payroll?

"How expensive?  Here are the real-world consequences of government policies that make it so easy for employees to sue their companies for a variety of imaginary offenses." . . .

. . . 

"California is not likely to follow Missouri's lead, but the state illustrates how out-of-control lawfare against companies has gotten.  It's no wonder that most companies settle employee lawsuits when the alternative is not only a long legal battle, but potentially millions in damages.

"The system is rigged against companies.  The idea that they are innocent until proved guilty is out the window.  A company doesn't even have to intend to discriminate.  It can be held liable if the number of minorities it employs is below that of similar businesses with a similar number of employees.

"When it becomes so easy to file a lawsuit alleging discrimination or sexual harassment with a good chance of winning, why bother to work when you can reach into the deep pockets of a company for a big payday?"

Rated ‘R’ For Violence, Language, and… Traditional Gender Roles?

NTK
A new movie rating system could age-restrict movies because they portray traditional gender roles.

"For decades, organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have assigned films a rating (i.e. G, PG, PG-13, etc.) based on their age appropriateness level.

"Screening films for themes like violence, sexuality, and language that could be considered inappropriate for certain age groups, the MPAA has made sure that parents can protect their children from age-inappropriate topics.

"But one group is seeking to add a new criteria to those age-inappropriate themes: gender roles." . . .

"One person who’s happy, though? None other than Chelsea Clinton."

Chelsea Clinton‏Verified account @ChelseaClinton

Thank you @CommonSense for your work helping parents choose films for our kids with positive gender representations:

CNBC’s John Harwood Calls on White House Staffer to Illegally Leak Trump/Putin Call

Weasel Zippers

"Potentially a crime in and of itself. Is it not clear that some in media view themselves as the opposition? They don’t care about violating the law or endangering the United States in their quest to get Trump.

"Via Free Beacon:

New York Times and CNBC journalist John Harwood called on a White House staffer to illegally leak classified information in a Thursday tweet.

After a White House source leaked transcripts of President Donald Trump’s phone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia to the Washington Post, Harwood called on the leaker to do the same for Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Keep reading…

Professor Mike Adams resigns from UNC-Wilmington

My Resignation from UNC-Wilmington

"On August 12, 2017, I will get in my car and make my annual cross-country trip from my summer home in Colorado to my other home in North Carolina. After I arrive in the Tar Heel State and get settled I will sit down at my computer and do something the leftists at my university have been wanting me to do for years: I will pen my letter of resignation to the Board of Trustees at UNC-Wilmington. 

"However, before I submit that letter, I thought it would be a good idea to write a brief letter of explanation to all of the supporters who have stood by me in the UNC free speech and cultural wars in which I have been engaged over the last 15 years. That is the purpose of today’s column.

"In a nutshell, as of last week, I have now accomplished the five main objectives I have set out to accomplish since the administration started to aggressively fight against the free speech and due process rights of professors and students in the UNC system. Having accomplished all of those goals, I have decided that it is time to start enjoying life instead of fighting against my employers in federal courtrooms and state legislative halls. For those unaware of the struggles that have consumed my time in recent years, here are some of the highlights:"

Oops-sorry, but:

. . . I will decide on my ride home to North Carolina exactly when it will take effect. I promise it will be no later than August 1, 2050. In the meantime leftists, feel free to start another of your annual petitions to fire me. If you ever do succeed, it will mean more time on my hands to write the things that make you angry and keep sane people entertained.

Turn Off the Cameras!

Jonathan S. Tobin  

"Jim Acosta, and others like him, are hurting journalism."

"The debate between Stephen Miller and CNN’s Jim Acosta proved that turning the daily White House press briefing into a TV show is a dangerous thing for journalism. 

"When the Trump administration temporarily refused permission for televising the daily White House press briefing, journalists howled. They claimed that conducting the briefing without the cameras turned on hurt the public and diminished the government transparency that is needed in a democracy. There was some truth to that, especially since the daily presser has become something of an institution in the last few administrations. 

"But after Wednesday’s televised press briefing, it is now clear the cameras need to be turned off. That’s not because it might aid the Trump administration’s efforts to evade accountability. Rather, it is to protect the press from further damaging their credibility in a way that injures not only journalism but also the fabric of American democracy." . . .   More here.

Charles Krauthammer: Once Again, the Guardrails Hold

The Trump presidency is a stress test, and America is passing.

National Review  "A future trivia question and historical footnote, the spectacular ten-day flameout of Anthony Scaramucci qualifies as the most entertaining episode yet of the ongoing reality show that is the Trump presidency. (Working title: “The Pompadours of 1600 Pennsylvania.”) But even as the cocksure sycophant’s gobsmacking spectacle stole the show, something of real importance took place a bit lower on the radar.

"At five separate junctures, the sinews of our democracy held against the careening recklessness of this presidency. Consequently, Donald Trump’s worst week proved a particularly fine hour for American democracy:

"1) The military says no to Trump on the transgender ban.

"Well, not directly — that’s insubordination — but with rather elegant circumspection. The president tweeted out a total ban on transgender people serving in the military. It came practically out of nowhere. The military brass, not consulted, was not amused. Defense Secretary James Mattis, in the middle of a six-month review of the issue, was reportedly appalled.

"What was done? Nothing. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs simply declared that a tweet is not an order. Until he receives a formal command and develops new guidelines, the tweet will be ignored.

"In other words, the military told the commander in chief to go jump in a lake. Generally speaking, this is not a healthy state of affairs in a nation of civilian control. It does carry a whiff of insubordination. But under a president so uniquely impulsive and chronically irrational, a certain vigilance, even prickliness, on the part of the military is to be welcomed.

"The brass framed their inaction as a matter of procedure. But the refusal carried with it a reminder of institutional prerogatives. In this case, the military offered resistance to mere whimsy. Next time, it could be resistance to unlawfulness." . . .
. . . 

Whatever your substantive position on the various issues involved above, we should all be grateful that from the generals to the Scouts, from the senators to the cops, the institutions of both political and civil society are holding up well.

CNN's Zakaria Admits Trump Won Because People Were Tired of Cultural Elites

PJ Media  "CNN's Fareed Zakaria has admitted something that most of the mainstream media were too afraid to say out loud -- that they may have caused Trump to win the presidency. Listen to him say, "The election of Donald Trump is really a kind of class rebellion against people like us-- you know, educated professionals who live in cities, who have cosmopolitan views about a lot of things. And I think there's a whole part of America that is sick and tired of being told what to do by this over-educated professional elite (that Hillary in many ways perfectly represented). And that's way they're sticking with him." What an outrageous statement for a CNN contributor!" Video at the link.

That is indeed a surprise, especially after you see how well documented Zakaria's near-hatred of Donald Trump is.