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Two white guys, at each other’s throats, JD Vance and Gavin Newsom. Vance debated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in December, 2023. Newsom wants a debate with Vance, using the dreary, tired old “if you have something to say to me, say it to my face.”
Feels a bit like a “Hail Mary” approach. San Francisco is slowly returning from the Progressive disaster under new (supposedly business-friendly) Mayor Lurie. But there is a reason that San Francisco is reviled; the pervasive aggressive homelessness, public defecation, mass closing of restaurants and other businesses and associated red tape in establishing new businesses, lack of preparedness for emergencies, the shuttering of over 200 businesses in the Union Square downtown shopping district, and on and on.
Hope it happens. It would be an interesting debate.
I might drop off for a while, if not permanently.
I talked with a good friend of mine this morning. We haven’t connected in a number of years, but he was one of my closest friends in my 20s. He’s my age, early 60s. He was on the other side of my business, worked as a Controller and VP Finance for a variety of tech companies.
He stopped working a few years back, not intentionally. “The new frontier hit,” he said. A female superior told him she didn’t feel safe with older males in senior finance positions. Leadership at another company worried that they couldn’t attract Indian and Chinese talent if they had older white males in senior management.
Not the first time I’ve heard any of this. A number of senior, straight, white males I know, leaders in their fields, haven’t been able to find employment, including the single best CSO I know, who shepherded the growth of a Chicago-based firm for 12 years through COVID. He doubled their revenue in a tough market. Since he was canned three years ago, they have lost about 2% in annual revenue.
I have two sons, both employed. Older one has lost one or two roles to non-SWMs. He takes it in stride. Younger one is hypercompetitive, hypercapable. In a great tech company with few SWMs. He’s thriving…for now.
A number of years ago, I got in trouble with Mrs. Mick at the dinner table. My oldest son asked me what my dream job was. Don’t know what I was thinking, but I told him “bartender in Maui” and got the can-I-speak-with-you dagger look from Mrs. Mick who didn’t approve of my idle opinion in front of an impressionable teenager.
From time to time since then, I’ve wondered if that would have been a better way to go. No wife, kids, ongoing stress, heart failure, high blood pressure, etc… and my capable, well-trained, hard-working friends are unemployed or underemployed.
Was it all for naught?
I don’t understand your comment or the Israeli general’s comment. What credible source says the USA won’t intervene as a matter of policy?
Hegseth stated two weeks ago that we would defend Taiwan. Personally, I didn’t care for the comment, I’d rather our response be vague. At the same time, he clearly wanted to counter the implication that America would back off or avoid international military commitments. And the fact is, we support Israel vs. Iran tacitly through arms sales and intelligence.
Yes, U. S. presidents have suspended habeas corpus on three occasions:
- President Lincoln, Civil War
- President Grant, Reconstruction.
- President Bush, Global War on Terror.
Any immigrant here legally is justified. I have no problem with that individual, nor does any Republican, nor does Trump (who is married to one), nor does Vance (who is married to one). No one wants to repatriate the 49% of immigrants who are naturalized U. S. citizens, the 24% who are lawful permanent residents or the 4% who are legal temporary residents.
As best we know, 23% of immigrants are here illegally. A study cosponsored by Yale and MIT (so let’s say probably accurate) was initiated to find an accurate number of illegal immigrants. The presupposition of the study’s sponsors was that the number of undocumented immigrants was overcounted at 11 million, more or less. Instead, they found that the number was likely undercounted by 2x…that there were likely 22.1 million undocumented immigrants with a minimum of 16.7 million and a theoretical maximum of 27.5 million.
Two other points regarding that study: 1) it was researched and completed using data from 1990 to 2016, 2) during Barack Obama’s reign when the “deporter in chief” was repatriating many illegals, so long before Biden’s open doors allowed 8 million illegals into the U.S., ) It was conducted by an immigrant, Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi and 4) the study’s methods and conclusions and the inflow/outflow analysis were mimicked by the DHS/OIS confirmed the same broad range.
Please note, the DHS currently refutes their core assumption (because of assumptions made during the base period of early 1990s) and their formal estimate remains 11.4 million…which is odd, because 8.70 illegal immigrants were allowed in during Biden’s term (DHS stats) with 8.1 million “encounters” and only 600k that avoided capture. Really? We caught 93.1% of those trying to get into the country? Puh-leeze.
Releases, expulsions and deportations total 3.77 million, meaning net increase of 4.93 million. And yet, DHS maintains the same 11.4 million figure between 2012 dropping to 11.0 mms. in 2022. The Migration Policy Institute estimates an increase to 13.7 million as of 2023.
Any immigrant here illegally has purposefully and willfully broken our laws. First offense, $5k fine or 6 months imprisonment or both. Subsequen offenses, up to two years imprisonment, up to $250k. Aggravated felonies, up to 20 years in prison, permanent ban on re-entry.
Illegal immigrants harm job markets. First evidence of that, Los Angeles, 1979, Police Chief Daryl Gates (yes that one) issued Special Order 40, effectively telling his officers that they couldn’t discover the alien status of people they stopped. Why? Because there was so much crime in that community, and they needed the cooperation of immigrants. The effect? Black men dominated drywall installation, making $19/hour. Within six months, illegals dominated drywall installation at $11/hour. You won’t find that on Snopes. It’s why Cesar Chavez and his cronies used to meet illegals at the border. They were competition. And rich Anglos and American corporations want to benefit from cheap labor.
Stats: over the past five years, 479,000 American-born workers were added to the labor force compared with 3.6 million foreign born workers. Immigrants are 1/3rd of the California workforce.
Incidentally, Gates later stated that the order mandated that when violators are arrested, police are supposed to notify ICE if they’re undocumented.
I would rather the hypocrisy be eliminated and just make the borders open. You want in, you get in. Beyond Thunderdome says that’s the way it should be.
I agree re: Las Vegas and thematically, your comments apply to San Francisco and LA. Lots of good people outside of the big cities, but if you’re not woke and fully supportive of illegal immigrants, you’re not really welcome there.
My take on New Yorkers is that once you get to know them, they’re terrific. Salt of the earth, great people…once you get to know them. As strangers, rude and hostile.
Detroit is interesting. I never had a problem in the four years that I lived there, but it is basically a city formerly under siege. If you could get out, you got out, and that was between one and three generations ago. Since then, they’ve lost 70% of their population. Large chunks of Detroit proper, particularly once you get off the main drag, are a ghost town. Everyone is running scared, and it leads to some very odd social rules. For example, it is considered rude to come to a red light or stop sign abreast of the other vehicle– in the line of fire, so to speak. It’s considered appropriate to be either a half car length ahead or behind of the car next to you.
The BBC is saying that Harris clearly wants to run for President again, citing her (a) absence from the California Democratic convention and (b) the lackluster video address she delivered.
I still find it stunning that neither Harris nor Newsom showed up for the event. Newsom attended a separate Democratic Governor’s conference in Oregon.
Supposedly, Kamala Harris wants to be our Governor, the Governor of the great state of California.
Then why did she skip the California state Democratic convention? Tim Walz showed up. Cory Booker showed up. Harris didn’t. And Newsom didn’t show up either.
Yelling and cursing galore as California Democrats gather – Los Angeles Times
Party Activists in California Aren’t Sold on a Harris Run for Governor – The New York Times
The Champion of Marketing, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the perceptible leader of the Democrats, followed by two far-left progressives. Interesting how far Obama has fallen. Newsom, Pelosi, Schumer right where they should be…
Inflation rate down to 2.1% annualized in April.
Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows | Watch
And here’s the latest, jaw-dropping, I-can’t-believe-a-leading-Democrat-just-said-that comment.
This one, to absolutely no one’s surprise, is from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, who has doubled down on abolishing ICE, calling it a “rogue agency.” Even Kamala Harris (a particularly low-watt bulb) was smart enough to pay lip service to keeping ICE in business. AOC has doubled down. Like David Hogg, she’s pro-open borders, anti-American citizen and wants to flout immigration laws by bringing in the world with no guidance, laws, process or…anything.
AOC’s Renewed ‘Abolish ICE’ Call Sparks Republican Fury, White House Condemnation
The challenge is that Harvard (and Stanford) do not view themselves as American institutions with the requisite American loyalties. They view themselves as international institutions. Yes, they take American government funding. Yes, they are bound by American laws. They enjoy the former and chafe under the latter.
Incidentally…if you read other boards, that we’re-international-and-not-American belief is pervasive amount elite college alumni.
So let’s take it one logical step further. The clear, dominating argument is that we’re better off with international students. We accept, educate and train international students because we believe we are serving the world, not America. Consequently, it is not important to accept American citizens.
That’s the spoken part. The unspoken part is that it is critically important to reject American citizens and accept international students. And if it happens to further another nation’s interests, well, you have to break a few American eggs to get your international omelet.
I don’t know enough about scholastic endowments to comment, but my general sense is that, given their investments in private equity and venture capital, it’s very difficult to have accurate valuations. My guess is that they are overvalued.
I have a hypothesis that there are good, centrist Democrats who are fully electable in a general election. But… They are totally ineligible due to the tendency of Democrat leaders (in ANY industry, btw) to exercise their ideological power over their practical power. They would rather RUN a nutjob leftist (or in industry HIRE a poorly qualified identity) than actually WIN. You can’t tell me that Amy Klobuchar couldn’t have been a better candidate than Kamala. Same w/ Shapiro. In the funny way that CNN is to blame for the rise of Trump the politician, the Democrats are to blame for re-electing Trump. They couldn’t get out of their own way. Out of 50 nationally known Democrats, Kamala was probably the absolute worst option.
100% agree with your take. I had heard that when Harris interviewed Shapiro for the VP role, he basically communicated that he felt he should have the top role rather than Harris.
Harris was a stunningly poor choice. She made Dukakis look like FDR, Lincoln and Washington rolled into one. But the Dems can’t get out of their own way.
