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Thursday, May 23, 2019

Links - 23rd May 2019 (1)

This Too Shall Pass: Unassailable Monopolies That Were, in Hindsight, Eminently Assailable - "Elizabeth Warren wants to break up the tech giants — Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple — claiming they have too much power and represent a danger to our democracy. As part of our response to her proposal, we shared a couple of headlines from 2007 claiming that MySpace had an unassailable monopoly in the social media market."

Life of Brian is 40 years old, but is it still controversial? - "Watching it today, it strikes me that, as parody goes, it is a pretty gentle, even, respectful sort. Ironically, to be properly offended by it or even to get the joke — then or now — requires a good knowledge of the life of Jesus in the New Testament Gospels... The virtue of the film today is its capacity to offend a whole new generation of viewers for different reasons. It is now more likely to be criticised for breaching the boundaries of "political correctness" around issues of gender, race, class and disability than blasphemy."

Men With Beards Have More Germs Than Dogs: Study - "seven of the men had so much beard bacteria they were at risk of getting sick"

5 Reasons Why Donating To The Poor Makes Them More Poor - "Reason #1: The Communities Can’t Sustain The Things Donated To Them
Reason #2: It’s Misguided And Doesn’t Solve The Problem
'Disinfection household water treatments don’t seem to have any public health benefit'
Reason #3: The Solutions Aren’t Fully Developed
the tech companies haven’t fully developed the solutions in conjunction with local governments and businesses. If the underlying infrastructure isn’t in place, these tech solutions are like a band aid on a cannon ball wound. They may stop the bleeding for a few minutes, but they don’t solve the problem.
Reason #4: Donors Don’t Have A Sustainable Plan
Reason #5: It Kills Local Economies"

Siobhan Thompson on Twitter - "My mum studied cults ("new religious movements" mum please don't tell me off) and her first and only rule of how to not get into a cult was "do not. Under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!! Debate them." Because they got debated into the cult and know the arguments that work.
So yeah that's why all those Alt-Right chodes are always yelling DEBATE MEEEEEEE every chance they get. Debate isn't a fair and reasoned discussion, it's an extremely effective recruitment tool. You don't have to debate them. Nobody does."
Comments: "On second thought. What she is proposing is to not debate. To withdraw from contact. This is one of the FIRST fucking signs of cult mentality. Disassociate from friends and family that don't immediately go along with the Cult doctrine. The fact that people will take this and run with it is amazing! You think Jim Jones got to Africa trying to debate people on the merits of cool-aid?"
"When you're not smart enough to argue with logic you come up with shit like this"
As per Popper's Paradox of Tolerance, which liberals love to misquote, we are justified in censoring this person


Infographic: Mapping the Global Migration of Millionaires - "Unlike the middle class, wealthy citizens have the means to pick up and leave when things start to sideways in their home country. An uptick in HNWI migration from a country can often be a signal of negative economic or societal factors influencing a country.This is the case in Turkey, which has been rocked by instability, mass protests, and an inflation rate estimated to be in the triple-digits by some sources.For the third straight year, Turkey lost more than 4,000 millionaires. An estimated 10% of Turkey’s HNWIs fled in 2018, which is concerning because unlike China and India, the country is not producing new millionaires in any significant number. Time-honored locations – such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands – continue to attract the world’s wealthy, but no country is experiencing HNWI inflows quite like Australia."

European Hypocrites on US Peace Plan for Israel - "Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan has yet to be published, but that hasn’t stopped 37 former Europeans politicians and officials from publishing a joint letter against it"

Some thoughts, facts, and charts for Tax Day: Bring us back to 1913; or better yet, bring us back to 1912! - "Almost all federal income taxes (97%) are paid by the top 50%, more than 2/3 of income taxes are paid for by the top 10% and more than 40% of taxes are paid by the top 1% of taxpayers. For all of the criticism and negative publicity the “Top 1%” get, I’d like to personally thank that group this year at tax time for shouldering such a disproportionate share of our collective tax burden – that group of Americans with income above $481,000 in 2016 generated 19.7% of the nation’s Adjusted Gross Income but that group’s share of federal income taxes at 37.3% was about twice that... In 2016, the top 1% earned 19.7% of the total income reported to the IRS (as mentioned above) and paid more than 37% of all federal income taxes collected ($538 billion). The bottom 95% of US taxpayers earned 64.8% of total income (almost three times as much as the top 1%) and paid only 41.8% of the total income taxes collected ($602 billion)... If we scored bowling the way we tax income, we would subtract, not add pins for a spare or strike, i.e., penalize successful bowling. If we taxed income the way we score bowling, we would have lower, not higher, tax rates on our most successful income-earners."
I was once told that no economist supports a regressive tax system (the richer you are the less you pay, to incentivise you to earn more money) but...

Cher Totally Destroyed A Random Woman Who Replied To Her Tweet About DACA And People Are Shook - "The icon also declared that she would personally be welcoming DREAMers into her own home for protection:
"Those Who Can Must Take a DREAMER In2 Their Home & Protect ThemI’m Ready 2 Do This & Others in MY BUSINESS WILL DO THE SAMESANCTUARY"
One woman (name blurred to protect the dragged) decided to challenge Cher on her promise. It did not go well:
"Sure you will Cher.. I'll believe it when I see it!"
Cher not only noticed the woman's response, but responded with FIRE. "Then keep your eyes open bitch.""
From September 2017

Cher on Twitter - "I Understand Helping struggling Immigrants,but MY CITY (Los Angeles) ISNT TAKING CARE OF ITS OWN.WHAT ABOUT THE 50,000+🇺🇸Citizens WHO LIVE ON THE STREETS.PPL WHO LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE,& HUNGRY? If My State Can’t Take Care of Its Own(Many Are VETS)How Can it Take Care Of More"
From April 2019

Cory Booker says Trumps stoking of fear would "make us less safe" with sanctuary cities idea - "Democratic presidential candidate Senator Cory Booker, of New Jersey, accused President Trump of trying to incite anger and divide Americans with his threat to release undocumented immigrants from the border into sanctuary cities... So-called "sanctuary cities" offer safe harbor for undocumented immigrants who might otherwise be deported by federal immigration authorities. The president complained Friday about the increasing numbers of migrants crossing, whom he referred to as "illegals," and said, "We'll bring them to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it, whether it's a state or whatever it might be." He added, "California certainly is always saying, 'Oh, we want more people.' And they want more people in their sanctuary cities. Well, we'll give them more people. We can give them a lot. We can give them an unlimited supply. And let's see if they're so happy.""
Great admission that sanctuary cities make them less safe. So it's clearly just political maneuvering

Alyssa Milano - "This is so sick and twisted.
White House proposed releasing immigrant detainees in sanctuary cities, targeting political foes."
"You are truly a special person.
You have painted these sanctuary cities as bastions of hope, and now when an opportunity arises to prove to everybody that these illegal immigrants are the best part of mankind, now you are disgusted?
You hypocritical piece of shit."

Sanctuary Cities Pegged by Trump as Possible Sites for Immigrants - "Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who in the past has expressed a willingness to go to jail to defend sanctuary city policies, said the president’s plan to bring immigrants to districts like her was an “outrageous abuse of power and public resources. CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin accused the president of using immigrants as “a pestilence to spread around the country” and called the plan “grotesque.”... Some progressives even cheered the move. “sending migrants and refugees to cities with robust pro bono legal infrastructure and growing support for freedom of movement to own the libs,” quipped left-leaning journalist Brendan O’Connor.GOP National spokeswoman Liz Harrington dismissed the idea floated by some Democrats that Trump was “targeting his political opponents.“He’s just asking the Democrats to live by their own values,” she said in a tweet. “Just like they aren’t brave enough to vote for their Green New Socialist Deal, they apparently do not want any more immigrants in their ‘sanctuary’ cities.”Harrington was referring to the Green New Deal’s failure to pass the Senate last month. In a 57-0 vote, the Senate rejected the much-hyped proposal, with 43 democrats declining to go on record as voting “yes” for the plan and instead voting “present” in accordance with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s strategy."
Is it racist for liberals to call immigrants a pestilence?

Wealthy residents raise $60,000 to stop homeless shelter being built in San Francisco - "Residents of an affluent San Francisco area have launched a crowdfunding appeal in a bid to block a homeless shelter being built in their area.Donors have raised more than $60,000 (£46,000) to fund a legal battle over plans for the 200-bed centre in a city gripped by a housing crisis... The coalition of residents from surrounding neighbourhoods claims the plans would make the area less safe."
It is good to be liberal and compassionate until it affects your backyard

ICE nabs dozens of illegal immigrants, some with sex crime convictions, in New York - "Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday that it arrested 118 illegal immigrants in New York in a five-day raid this month, more than 107 of whom were convicted criminals or had pending charges against them -- and the agency slammed local politicians for protecting them and endangering the public. “In years past, most of these individuals would have been turned over to ICE by local authorities upon their release from jail based on ICE detainers," ICE said in a statement on Tuesday. "Now that many sanctuary cities, including New York City, do not honor ICE detainers, these individuals, who often have significant criminal histories, are released onto the street, presenting a potential public safety threat.”... Both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have criticized ICE. After a raid last year, Cuomo said he was sending a cease-and-desist letter to ICE, and he threatened to sue the agency if such raids continued."

Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people - "Edward Tufte’s full report makes for fascinating reading. Since being released in 1987 PowerPoint has grown exponentially to the point where it is now estimated than thirty million PowerPoint presentations are made every day. Yet, PowerPoint is blamed by academics for killing critical thought. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has banned it from meetings. Typing text on a screen and reading it out loud does not count as teaching. An audience reading text off the screen does not count as learning. Imagine if the engineers had put up a slide with just: “foam strike more than 600 times bigger than test data.” Maybe NASA would have listened. Maybe they wouldn’t have attempted re-entry. Next time you’re asked to give a talk remember Columbia. Don’t just jump to your laptop and write out slides of text. Think about your message. Don’t let that message be lost amongst text. Death by PowerPoint is a real thing. Sometimes literally."

'Math Is Unforgiving To That Concept': McCaskill Warns Against 'Far-Left' Ocasio-Cortez - "Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) warned against nominating "far-left" Democrats like socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this week, saying that candidates like her "have not been in a place where the math is unforgiving to" their political views... McCaskill cautioned that if Democrats go too far to the left, they will not be successful in 2020, warning that far-left Democrats "turn off people and make election victories impossible.""

Nancy Pelosi on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ election success: ‘A glass of water with a D next to it’ could win New York district - "Pelosi’s argument about keeping to the centre are almost identical to comments she made about AOC on 60 Minutes a few days ago.The House speaker told interviewer Lesley Stahl that those who prescribe to AOC’s left-wing, progressive ideals were “like, five people”."
So much for only insecure and sexist Republican men having anything not flattering to say about her

AOC suffers social media gaffe by criticizing photo of 'GOP' politician who is actually a Democrat - "One of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's, D-N.Y., tweets seemed to backfire on Thursday when she tried attacking Republicans over a picture of a politician stood next to a cardboard cutout of her."GOP: Let's pose our older male members next to cardboard cutouts of young female legislators," she tweeted. Her tweet included a post from the Republican Party of Kentucky. However, the politician pictured was Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, Ky., not a Republican as she claimed... "It literally says in the tweet that she is quoting that Yarmuth is a Democrat"... This wasn't the first time the freshman congresswoman appeared to mix up her political parties. While appearing in a video with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., she enthusiastically declared that she would turn a Kansas house seat "red" — the color often representing the Republican Party."

I’d rather trust Bernie Madoff with my money than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - "What’s the point of a bank?To make money, take care of our money and offer us professional guidance on how best to save our money.I mean it’s pretty much as simple as that isn’t it?So it was entirely unsurprising to see Chase, one of America’s largest banks, tweet the following words of advice to its customers this week:‘You: why is my balance so low Bank account: make coffee at home. Bank account: eat the food that’s in the fridge Bank account: you don’t need a cab, it’s only three blocks You: I guess we’ll never know Bank account: seriously?’ The tweet ended with the hashtag, #MondayMotivation... the Chase tweet... soon attracted the attention of socialist firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted back this snarky response... she specifically chose to mock the bank’s very uncontroversial advice to customers that they should be more careful in how they spend their money.She wasn’t the only high profile Democrat to attack Chase over the tweet... As financial expert Dave Ramsey told NBC News: ‘No one should ever shame someone for being poor, but all of us should be open to having our bad habits called out so we can live better lives.’... Ironically, this gutless surrender to Ocasio-Cortez and her merry band of shrieking virtue-signallers, made me furious in a way the original tweet never did.Why delete perfectly sensible advice?Why make such a snivelling expression of gratitude to a baying mob?Why give an increasingly shrill, aggressive and often woefully informed young congresswoman the completely unnecessary pound of flesh she so desperately wanted?"
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