Links - 14th July 2018 (1)

The numbers don't lie: Working-class families are winning big under Trump - "The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its newest jobs report on Friday, and the data clearly show, under the pro-business policies implemented by the Trump administration, low-income and working-class families are enjoying significant economic gains not experienced in nearly 20 years."

Act against landed property owners who reserve parking spaces on road - "The recent incident of nails found embedded in the tyres of a car has turned parking in private estates from a social issue into a criminal one... Once, when I removed a rubbish bin placed outside a house, the owner came out and started hurling abusive language at me. How did owners of private houses come to the conclusion that they have exclusive rights to the space on the public road outside their houses?"

Nurses forced to announce 'white privilege' when treating Indigenous - "Australian nurses and midwives are being forced to announce their 'white privilege' before treating Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander patients - a move which has been slammed as 'racist to its core'... The Nursing and Midwifery Board believes the cultural safety of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander patients is just as important as their clinical safety... The Board describes the move as 'a decolonising model of ­practice based on dialogue, communication, power sharing and negotiation, and the acknowledgment of white privilege'."

Rice Media - Posts - "To anyone who has ever "chao keng-ed" at the expense of your fellow NSFs, you are the reason commanders refuse to believe soldiers in genuine need of medical attention."
Comments: "Good luck with that. With forced conscription that’s pretty much impossible"
"To prevent more rapes, slut culture must end. To anyone who has ever been a slut, you are the reason rapists refuse to believe genuine virgins whose "no" means "no"."

Man in court for having potato peeler in public place - "Scott Walker, 39, of the James Bank Hostel, James Street, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court. He admitted that on Saturday in Appin Crescent, a public place, he was in possession of an object that which had a blade or was sharply pointed, namely a potato peeler"
Ahh Scotland!

'Fem-splaining' 'Star Wars': New docu-series dives into female sci-fi fandom - "“Looking for Leia” is a six-episode exploration of geek fandom from a female perspective, from costuming and droid building, to the importance of gender and racial representation both on and off-screen. “I’m looking forward to ‘fem-splaining’ 'Star Wars'”... Ophelian, 44, and her team are working to shatter stereotypes that suggest women have only recently embraced "Star Wars" fandom because of female lead characters like Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. Women, Ophelian said, have been here from the very beginning"
Mansplaining is bad but femsplaining is good
If women embracing Star Wars fandom because of female leads is a stereotype, then feminist bitching about 'representation' is nonsense
It's telling that the female Star Wars cosplayers featured here look very different from normal cosplay women

UN Women - Posts - "Press freedom means being able to report the truth. It’s holding those in power accountable. We depend on it in our work towards a gender-equal world.
On World Press Freedom Day, and every day, we stand with all journalists who expose the systems that perpetuate inequality and we call for their protection.
19% of journalists killed in 2017 were women"
To achieve gender equality, we need to kill more female journalists

I completely don't understand people here : SWGalaxyOfHeroes - "I don't know if it is cultural or what. With events like today when people complain other people come in to say 'Don't complain, don't be ungrateful, be thankful CG is so nice to give you nice gifts, stop being entitled etc, etc'. This makes me feel I am in some bizarre world. You all know you are customers of EA/CG right? You aren't dating, you aren't related, you aren't child. EA/CG isn't person, its a company. You shouldn't be grateful to a business for running a sale, you shouldn't be thankful to a corporation for running a promotion, you shouldn't think its feeling 'entitled' if you expect great service from a business. You shouldn't lecture other people to feel beholden to company! What sort of mega-corporation raised people who says these things? May 4 events are promotions, retention devices, relation-building; it is a celebration yes but its not like a Christmas, its more like a work party for a coworker you don't really know."

Customers can’t get enough of Aldi’s latest advert - "The online ad shows half a lemon on top of a pear. As well as displaying budget prices for its fruit – unwaxed lemons are 69p, while seasonable pears are 79p for a pack of five, in case you wondered – there’s something actually pretty genius about the image."

3 Hours Of "Harassment' In NYC! - YouTube
Comment: "A Guy flirting with a girl: harassment
A girl flirting with a guy: totally not herassment or annyoing."

This Mad TV skit from 2001 accurately predicted the future. : videos
Aka Life Through the Eyes of SJW's
Comment: "i grew up in central america during a war. i saw and experienced some fucked up shit, and my parents got us out of there and we made it to north america. and i am utterly baffled by the people my age here who act like children and turn every disagreement into a war and act like victims of the worst injustice. all i can think is that these people had a pretty comfortable life so they need to really dig deep to find a way to feel like they fought for something or survived something. They don't know real hardships so they invent them."

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Nassim Taleb: Having 'skin in the game' - "The author of the best seller Black Swan argues that our political leaders don't have skin in the game when making decisions and so their judgment can't be wholly trusted... perhaps the most compelling argument you put forward to make your case is that of a leader deciding to go to war...
This is a first, I think the very first generation of warmongers not dying, not being subjected to dying in battle... typically in history we had war mongers being first in battle: Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander"
Strangely, the number of wars has fallen even though warmongers don't risk dying in battle anymore

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, What happened to Russian spy Sergei Skripal? - "'You think there are Russian voters who would believe that it was right, it was good, it was admirable to be rewarded to murder an enemy of Russia in another country'
'The majority of the Russians would perceive it as the right thing to do and it will booster Mr Putin's images as a tough nationalistic leader who can get his enemies wherever they live on the globe'"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, The Saudi Prince's visit - "'The stereotypes that are told about Saudi Arabian women is that we are very oppressed and very unhappy and miserable but that is not the case... [On the dress code] I never really found it very restricting, restrictive or anything because I like the fact that I can just throw it on over anything I was wearing at the moment... I covered my face a lot of the time that I was there... but by choice... I really enjoyed it actually. It's again, it's part of like not having to worry about what I look like to anyone who sees me'
'But I assume you don't go out in the United States with your face covered or do you?'
'Yes, I do not, no. I feel like that would make my life harder in the United States'
'But the fact you said you enjoyed it, people might imagine that if you, if that was the emotion you felt from covering your face it would be one that you would also want in another country out of choice'
'Right but I enjoyed it mostly because it was common there. I wouldn't want to do it if no one else was doing it because the liberation I guess came from being anonymous and being blended in with everyone else but here in the United States that would just stand out like a sore thumb'...
Whenever we get a new ruler coming into Saudi Arabia we are told that they are a reformer. I welcome the fact that at some stage in the future women will be able to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. But I don't think that that is really the extensive reform that is probably required in Saudi Arabia... the rate of executions has doubled in the last 6 months in Saudi Arabia. That is a very worrying sign"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "The perception is created that investing is just for men and this is a problem because if we look at the figures while women are very good with money - while they are prudent with saving they still shy away from investing now. If you look at HMRC stats on ISAs in the UK - individual savings accounts - women hold far more ISAs than men but we hold cash ISAs whereas men hold more stocks and shares ISAs. Now you know how the rest of the story goes - interest rates are at record lows, inflation is high - so if you are sitting in cash you are getting progressively poorer each month"

Review: Arctic Zero Chocolate Peanut Butter Fit Frozen Dessert - "I’ve had chocolate peanut butter vapor that had more taste than this. If you’re in need of a substitute that lacks gluten, lactose and flavor, then this may be something worth looking into."

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Labour to decide on inclusion of trans women in all-female shortlist - "What these gender recognition proposals will allow is exactly what you said: that men will wake up one day and say I declare that I'm a woman and not only will society... have to accept them as women but if I like challenge that person so if I mean if I’m in a female only changing area and someone comes in who has self-identified as a woman yet is clearly a man, if I challenge that person I would be in breach of the law and that cannot be right. Now Emily is shutting down the conversation by using words like transphobia and being offensive. What I find offensive is the intimidation that women have suffered when they tried to discuss this… myself personally I've had threats. All the women have been attacked... a female member was attacked simply for attending a Woman's Place UK meeting… attacked on her own picket line. We have seen activists within the Labour party... put together a hitlist - can you believe it, a hitlist encouraging people to write the Labour party in order to get women thrown out of the Labour party who disagree with the proposal...
‘This issue is raising, is rising up the political agenda and the controversy will only increase the more people discover what the agenda is of the radical trans ideology and what it means. This does not only affect women, it affects every citizen of this country. It's about whether we base our laws on facts and reality or whether we base our laws on subjective feelings. The feelings of men who happen to feel like a woman on any given day’
‘That’s ridiculous and transphobic’
‘Of course it is’"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Momentum founder: Corbyn is 'anti-racist' - "Jeremy Corbyn went on TV to say... worries about anti-Semtism are genuine. He then sat down and had dinner with a group who says they’re not genuine. They are in fact a conspiracy...
People who dismiss anti-semitism as an issue in a way that you would not dismiss islamophobia as an issue... that reveals an unconscious bias that we’re all familiar with... people in the Labour party seem less willing or less aware of it when it comes to Jews"

Labour MPs Should Not Be Deselected For Anti-Racism Rally, Says Jon Lansman - "Jewdas, a left-wing Jewish group. The organisation had dismissed worries about anti-Semitism within Labour as “the work of cynical manipulations” by people loyal to the Conservative party and the “right wing” of Labour. It also described Israel in a tweet as a “steaming pile of sewage which needs to be properly disposed of”... Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire has been summoned by members of her local party in Bristol West to ‘explain her actions’ for attending the rally against anti-Semitism in Westminster. But Lansman said: “You shouldn’t have to defend why you go to an anti-racist rally."
Maybe the alt-right hasn't heard of Jewdas
Apparently anti-racism means that you must be against anti-Semitism

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, University strikes: The view from Scotland - "Over the past decade the rate of application to University among young people including young people from the most deprived areas is pretty similar, pretty much the same in Scotland as in England. So what that suggests is that we over concentrate on tuition fees as an issue and there's an awful lot more going on with determining why young people apply to University"

Zac Meat German Bratwurst - Online Grocery Shopping and Delivery Singapore | RedMart
What sort of "German Bratwurst" is Halal?!

Ay CARAMBA! SPLC’S extra hot take on Cinco de Mayo is NO BUENO but the thread is MUY hilarious - "We won’t be the least bit surprised if the Southern Poverty Law Center takes issue with our headline and accuses us of ‘cultural appropriation’, after all, we did DARE to use Spanish words and apparently that’s somehow a bad thing. Then again, it wouldn’t have been Cinco de Mayo without Lefties shaming Americans for celebrating Mexican culture"
Apologists can't dismiss SJW excesses as no name idiots on Twitter anymore
Comments: "You went from fighting the Klan to fighting any deviation from a narrow and insipid orthodoxy suitable to an Oberlin sophomore."
"If celebrating Mexican culture is culture appropriation then isnt sneaking into a country illegally the ultimate cultural appropriation?"

Sheryl Sandberg's wrongheaded campaign to ban the word 'bossy' - ""Banning a word or a term is never persuasive," said social psychologist Carol Tavris, who wrote "The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex." "It either makes the term go underground by the people who want to use it and love it and think it's the right word, or it makes the people who have been using it resentful, or they dismiss you as foolish."... I don't think it hurts to be called "bossy," and Sandburg's career is living proof. "Girls' self-esteem and girls' ambition are doing just fine," Tavris said. "That's the bottom line here. The old stereotype that only girls' self-esteem plummets when they are teenagers is wrong. Everybody's self esteem plummets when they are a teenager. This is an issue that feels so dated to me."
If being called bossy stops you from being a leader, maybe you're not cut out to be a leader after all

"Ban Bossy": A Bad Remedy for a Fictional Problem - "A closer look at the research invoked by “Ban Bossy” defenders shows it to be shaky and selective. What’s more, the “facts” cited on the campaign’s own website are such a collection of abused data that it brings to mind another common B-word—the crude synonym for bovine excrement... In this small subsample, 29 percent of the girls and 13 percent of the boys agreed with the statement, “I do not want to seem bossy.” That’s about 2.5 percent of all girls, compared to just over one percent of boys. Truly, a dreadful scourge of future womanhood that calls for a massive social media campaign. The Girls Scouts study has other fascinating data about girls and leadership. For instance, girls are somewhat more likely than boys to have actual leadership experience (in every area except sports, where 18 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls had been a captain or co-captain of a team). Thus, 31 percent of girls versus 26 percent of boys reported having been the leader of a team for a school project; 13 percent of girls, compared to 10 percent of boys, had run for a school or class office; 11 percent of girls but only six percent of boys had been officers in a school club. This fits with what a number of social critics such as Christina Hoff Sommers have been arguing for a while: that right now, boys are the ones falling behind in schools, academically and socially. Another alarming “fact” from the “Ban Bossy” site: “The confidence gap starts early. Between elementary and high school, girls’ self–esteem drops 3.5 times more than boys.’” The source for this is a 1991 study from the American Association of University Women, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America,” that amounts to 23-year-old junk science... What about the sexist use of the word “bossy”?... In my own simple Google search, I got an estimated 245,000 hits for “he is bossy” and 152,000 for “she is bossy.” “He is too bossy” yields about 139,000 results; “She is too bossy,” 145,000. On the other hand, “My sister is bossy” gets about twice as many hits as “My brother is bossy” (20,400 to 10,000). “My daughter is bossy” gets nearly 35,000 hits compared to just 700 for “my son is bossy”; but a lot of the results for the former are references to the “Ban Bossy” campaign. Oddly enough, “bossy little boy” gets over 200,000 hits compared to just 92,000 for “bossy little girl.” A few other qualifiers are needed. “Bossy” is not always pejorative; in fact, in two of the four textual examples offered by one of the linguists whose work Robb cites for support are either positive or neutral... Conversely, the word can and does get used as a pejorative for men... One may also ask if “bossy” boys—and men—are sometimes called more pejorative terms than “bossy.” “Jerk,” for instance, is used almost exclusively toward men. “My son is a bully” yields 264,000 Google hits compared to 127,000 for “my daughter is a bully.” Sandberg’s campaign is ostensibly meant to empower little girls and young women. But promoting myths of silenced, discouraged girls promotes grievance, division, and insecurity instead of empowerment—while downplaying boys’ problems... Using children as props for adult activism is always a dubious proposition. Using girls as props for activism that schools them in invented victimhood is not feminist advocacy, it’s feminist malpractice."
Unsurprisingly, the feminist angst over "bossy" is the usual feminist pseudoscience