Iran and Israel Mix it Up in Syria!

IT'S NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND ROSES BECAUSE OF THE #METOO MOVEMENT And I'll talk to the Manhattan Institute's Heather Macdonald about the potential negative effects of the #metoo movement.  She gave a speech which is in the latest issue of Imprimis, and you can read the whole thing here, but just read this paragraph:

The #MeToo movement has uncovered real abuses of power. But the solution to those abuses is not to replace valid measures of achievement with irrelevancies like gender and race. Ironically, the best solution to sexual predation is not more feminism, but less. By denying the differences between men and women, and by ridiculing the manly virtues of gentlemanliness and chivalry and the female virtues of modesty and prudence, feminism dissolved the civilizational restraints on the male libido. The boorish behavior that pervades society today would have been unthinkable in the past, when a traditional understanding of sexual propriety prevailed. Now, however, with the idea of “ladies and gentlemen” discredited and out of favor, boorishness is increasingly the rule.

She's on at 2 to discuss this and another recent column here about the notion that punishment in schools is meted out unequally because of racism.  She's got other ideas as you can imagine.  She uses data to make her point, not racism.  Perhaps the folks from the Obama administration should watch this video of black motivational speaker Eric Thomas trying to give a speech to a black high school first.  

ISRAEL AND IRAN ARE MIXING IT UP IN SYRIA And this could be the beginning of something. Or the end of something.  Could Israel be baiting Iran into a war that could ultimately bankrupt the Iranian mullahs?  Is Benjamin Netanyahu simply a war monger waiting for the right excuse to go?  Missiles are being fired from both directions, but the Israeli missiles seem to be the ones doing the most damage.  When Israel drops this truth bomb:

"If it rains in Israel it will pour in Iran."

My nephew in Israel told me that since it never rains in Israel, they use lingo normally reserved for weather to discuss the near daily rocket attacks certain parts of the country face, as in "a drizzle of rockets".  So this makes a lot of sense.  Everyone is calling for calm, and the Israel Minister of Defense says this should be viewed as a singular incident, not the beginning of something more.  


PERA GETS A LAST MINUTE BOOST FROM THE LEGISLATURE AND IT'S NOT HORRIBLE This bill is not perfect, but it does put MOST of the onus on fixing the funding gap in PERA where it belongs, on the people in the program.  From the Denver Business Journal:

After a week of negotiations, House and Senate leaders produced a plan Wednesday that would require phased-in increased contributions of 2 percent from workers and 0.25 percent from their government employers. SB 200, in its final form, raises the minimum retirement age for new hires to 64, calculates their earnings from five years of their highest average pay and drops the cost-of-living adjustment only to 1.5 percent. It also allows for limited expansion of the defined-contribution plan to more state workers and municipal employees, but not to school-district employees.

And good news teachers, your union thinks you're too stupid to do a defined contribution plan yourself, so they prevented that option from even being available to you.  


MICHAEL COHEN DID WHAT THE CLINTON FOUNDATION DID BUT NOW IT'S WRONG, K? I believe that governments and individuals donated the Clinton Foundation in the hopes of gaining favor with Hillary Clinton, who they believed was going to be the next POTUS.  Just look at how donations tanked when she lost before you tell me I'm crazy.  More on that here.  And now Trump attorney Michael Cohen finds himself in hot water for apparently tricking big companies into paying him big bucks for access to the President.  The problem for Dems hoping to use this to somehow "get" the POTUS is that the companies themselves now say they paid him for "nothing".  As in, he did nothing for them, and doesn't seem to have gotten any of them close to or access to Trump.  Michael Cohen just messed up by not setting up a charity he could milk like the Clintons did.  


I WOULD NOT WORK FOR A COMPANY THAT TRIED TO TELL ME WHAT TO SAY And when I see stories like this one, I'm always inclined to believe they are overblown.  However, the fact that a former employee of Salem Media produced emails which gird her claim that her criticism of Trump was a problem at her workplace does give it more credibility.  I'm not here to beat up on a competitor, just to reiterate that no such interference occurs at IHeart, nor has it ever.  


GREAT, NOW ACTUAL FLAT EARTHERS ARE HAVING A MOMENT To be very clear, I am certain beyond all doubt that the Earth is round.  However, there is apparently a growing(!) movement of people who reject that notion and say that the Earth is indeed, flat.  I don't even know where to go with this, I just didn't want to be the only one to know this.  


CALIFORNIA IS ABOUT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN RENEWABLE ENERGY ISN'T THERE As they are predicting the strong possibility of rolling brownouts to deal with surging energy demand and reduced energy production.  What's the problem?  Hydropower is expected to be down this year as they are retiring those evil (and reliable) natural gas plants.  From the article:

In addition, the ISO said 860 MW of generation retired since last summer, including 837 MW of gas-fired resources. Energy firms added 692 MW of new power sources since last year but 60 percent of that was solar, which will not supply much when supplies are tight in the evenings.

But I'm sure Californians don't need power at night, right?  


AND CALIFORNIA IS ABOUT TO MAKE HOMES EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE JUST FOR SOLAR And an analysis from MIT is saying that forcing new buildings to have solar on their rooftops is the WORST and least effective way to reduce greenhouses gases.  Expect the middle class exodus from California to continue.  


HERE IS SOME ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE ABOUT MEDICAL POT THAT IS PRETTY POWERFUL A mom moved to Colorado in the hopes of getting a medical marijuana card for her autistic son.  If you are in the "pot has no value" camp, perhaps you should watch this


JOHN MCCAIN GAVE UNCONFIRMED DEMOCRAT DOSSIER ON TRUMP TO THE FBI And he's defending the action as necessary because "duty demanded that I do it".  Fine John.  Just do us all a favor and become a Democrat officially so you can die an honest man.  


THE WAVES ARE ALIVE WITH A SUPER COOL ALGAE BLOOM

THE IMAGES FROM HAWAII FROM THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION ARE PRETTY REMARKABLE And this article from the Washington Post has a lot of them.  


Y'ALL, SARAH SANDERS IS EDGING OUT AIR FLEISCHER AS MY FAVORITE WH SPOKESPERSON EVER  Watch this to find out why. 

AND NOW, THE MUPPETS SING BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.  Just because.


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