Category: politics

As Shootings Rise in New York, Police Focus on a Small Number of Young Men – The New York Times

The strategy of targeting those believed to be behind the violence, born of years studying the origins of shootings, has intensified this year. Officers on the street, who are recording far fewer arrests and a still plummeting number of stops, are now focusing on a few hundred people who are believed to fuel rounds of… Continue reading As Shootings Rise in New York, Police Focus on a Small Number of Young Men – The New York Times

Rich Californians balk at limits: ‘We’re not all equal when it comes to water’

Rich Californians balk at limits: ‘We’re not all equal when it comes to water’

Yuhas lives in the ultra-wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, a bucolic Southern California hamlet of ranches, gated communities and country clubs that guzzles five times more water per capita than the statewide average. In April, after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) called for a 25 percent reduction in water use, consumption in Rancho Santa Fe went up by 9 percent.

I was a liberal adjunct professor. My liberal students didn’t scare me at all.

I was a liberal adjunct professor. My liberal students didn’t scare me at all.

it’s truthy: it offers a conclusion that feels as if it should be true, even though it isn’t accompanied by much in the way of actual evidence. In this case, that truthy conclusion is that the rise of identity politics is doing real harm — that this new kind of discourse, whether you call it “identity politics” or “call-out culture” or “political correctness,” is not just annoying or upsetting to the people it targets, but a danger to academic freedom and therefore an actual substantive problem to be addressed.

You’re not allowed to question if this bullshit about out of control political correctness is real.

I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me

I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me

“What about Fannie and Freddie?” he asked. “Government kept giving homes to black people, to help out black people, white people didn’t get anything, and then they couldn’t pay for them. What about that?”

…

The next week, I got called into my director’s office. I was shown an email, sender name redacted, alleging that I “possessed communistical [sic] sympathies and refused to tell more than one side of the story.” The story in question wasn’t described, but I suspect it had do to with whether or not the economic collapse was caused by poor black people.

That was a liberal student?!? It sounds like a libertarian, not a liberal. I’ve never seen a liberal call someone out as a commie for suggesting that poor people didn’t cause the banking collapse.

This is the kicker:

This new understanding of social justice politics resembles what University of Pennsylvania political science professor Adolph Reed Jr. calls a politics of personal testimony, in which the feelings of individuals are the primary or even exclusive means through which social issues are understood and discussed.

And he wishes to fight this by talking about how he fears his students because of their opinions.

Um, yeah.

Poll Finds 80% Of REPUBLICANS Agree With Bernie Sanders On Citizens United

Poll Finds 80% Of REPUBLICANS Agree With Bernie Sanders On Citizens United

Not surprised. There is a right wing noise machine that spends a lot of time on silly outrage politics and prevents actual compromise. I bet a really good compromise on campaign finance would happen if we had issues based politics rather than outrage and horserace politics.

Obama poster artist says president is a disappointment

Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he’s compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he’d support]. (via Hope dashed: Obama poster artist says president is a disappointment | US news… Continue reading Obama poster artist says president is a disappointment