vdare--2020-03-03--Derb's February Diary: Adam Rutherford's "Racist Myths",  Basil's Namesakes, Fury vs. Wilder, Etc (1

Derb's February Diary: Adam Rutherford's "Racist Myths",  Basil's Namesakes, Fury vs. Wilder, Etc (12 ITEMS)

Our dumb ruling class .
In discussions of our ongoing Cold Civil War between the goodwhite Tutsi ruling class and us badwhite Hutu deplorables , it 's often observed that we understand them much better that they understand us .
Of course we do : We perforce live in their mental world , while they only cast occasional disapproving glances at ours .
This came to mind when I was reading about Tutsi propagandist Adam Rutherford , who has a new book out this month .
The book 's title is How to Argue With a Racist .
Rutherford , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to know that there is No Such Thing As Race ( NOSTAR ) .
It 's all a fig newton of your imagination !
I read Steve Sailer 's February 19th review of Rutherford 's book over at Taki 's Magazine .
That did n't stir my interest sufficiently to make me want to read the book itself , but I did do some idle browsing around in related topics .
Among the websites my eye fell on was one belonging to BBC Radio , promoting some talks Rutherford is giving about his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Racist Myths Well And Truly Debunked '' by Dr. Rutherford .
OK , what are these racist myths that we benighted Hutus lug around in our tiny blood-starved brains , that Dr Rutherford has `` well and truly debunked '' ?
Say what ?
`` Completely different '' like the DNA of an elephant and a slime mold ?
Is there a literate human being anywhere who believes that ?
That 's a big thing with the NOSTAR crowd .
We Hutus are obsessed with the notion of racial purity , they believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possibility that there are people thus obsessed .
Human beings nurse all kinds of odd obsessions .
I will testify , though , that after twenty years of hanging out with fellow race-realist Hutus—reading their blogs , joining their online discussion groups , reviewing their books , attending their conferences , sometimes addressing those conferences , I ca n't recall a single conversation or talk about racial purity .
To the best of my awareness , it 's not a thing on the Dissident Right .
So being invaded—having foreign people enter your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ displacing those currently resident , frequently killing off their menfolk and taking their women—this is natural , inevitable , and not to be resisted ?
The hell you say .
Which black people ?
Surely not the 300-lb Momma who snarled at me across the DMV counter the other week .
We race realists prefer to express statistical truths in properly statistical language , not in airy generalizations .
We have several decades-worth of statistics on this topic now , from the Olympics and other athletic competitions .
Do the numbers support my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covers this in his review , and elsewhere . )
For a tribe that occupies all the commanding heights of our culture and civilization , goodwhite Tutsis often seem kind of dumb .
Martial arts .
How many adult Americans can name the world heavyweight boxing champion , I wonder ?
I read somewhere that in the years before World War Two the most popular spectator sports in America were boxing and horse-racing .
Neither sport has much purchase on the public imagination nowadays .
They exist , of course , and have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newsworthy .
The February 22nd heavyweight championship fight between Briton ( yes ! )
Tyson Fury and American Deontay Wilder got basically no coverage in my print edition of the New York Post .
I had to go to the online version to read about it .
It seems to have been a nice little earner for the pay-per-view companies ( whose customers apparently include our President ) , but back in the day it would have been the sporting event of the year .
Eh , times change , I guess .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 'm not really much of a sports fan , anyway .
Sure , throwing a ball through a hoop from twenty yards away is kind of impressive , and so is whacking a hockey puck past a guy on ice skates .
For sporting spectacle , though , watching two very large guys punch each other in the head until one of them falls down , is hard to beat .
In my opinion .
Gulled at the opera .
I 'm an opera fan .
I ca n't afford a Met @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can , and they get tickets for dress rehearsals .
These dress rehearsals take place in the midday hours when most people have to work ; so my friends often ca n't use their tickets , and generously gift them to me .
I 'm glad to get them .
A dress rehearsal is very little different from the real thing .
If the conductor finds some fault , he 'll stop the show and make them do it over .
This does n't happen much , though .
Also , singers—especially older @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't sing full voice at a dress rehearsal , saving their best for the full performance .
On the whole , though , a dress rehearsal is nearly as good as an actual performance .
And hey , the price is right .
So it was that around ten o'clock on the morning of February 3rd I was striding across the Lincoln Center plaza bearing two tickets for the dress rehearsal of Handel 's Agrippina , superstar soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role .
These tickets always come in twos , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to me thus .
I 'd invited a friend to join me , but at the last minute he could n't make it .
Halfway across the plaza I was approached by a very sweet-looking old lady—tiny , wrinkled , silver hair , heavy Slavic accent—who begged to know if I perchance had a spare ticket for the dress rehearsal .
I said I did , and was so charmed by her and by her touching desire to worship at the altar of Handel , I just gave her my spare ticket .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on my way glowing with charitable righteousness .
Taking my seat , I of course expected to see the object of my charity take the seat next to me .
No : It was taken by a much larger , much younger lady .
I suppose—I did n't ask—granny had sold my ticket forward for a profit .
Telling the story to my wife and son over dinner that evening , I got a mocking blast from Mrs Derbyshire , who has the Third Worlder 's scorn for rich-world gulls .
My son @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that my sweet little old lady was probably part of a gang run out of Moscow .
Things I want to know .
Since the Chinese word for `` saliva '' is 口水 kou-shui , literally `` mouth-water , '' why is n't the Chinese word for `` snot '' 鼻水 bi-shui , literally `` nose-water '' ?
Instead it is 鼻涕 bi-ti , `` nose-tears . ''
Finding the Mindy .
It 's a complex world we live in : so complex , it has generated a whole category of situations that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heading : `` Find the Mindy . ''
Mindy ( which is not her real name : which does not in fact have a single letter in common with her real name ) is a middle-aged lady who works at my local chain-store pharmacy .
She knows all the innumerable loops , tangles , and anfractuosities of retail pharmaceutics .
Mrs Derbyshire was going into the village to do some shopping .
I asked her to pick up a prescription I 'd phoned in .
I gave her a magic card that Mindy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identifying me as a member of something called the Janssen CarePath Savings Program .
`` Just show them this , '' I told the Mrs. `` Then it 'll only be a ten-dollar co-pay . ''
She came home with no medications .
`` They wanted fifty dollars co-pay , '' she said .
Me : `` Did you show them the card ? ''
She : `` Of course .
They insisted it was fifty dollars . ''
Me : `` Was Mindy there ? ''
I went down to the pharmacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were two young women on duty , Mindy not to be seen .
`` We looked you up on the computer , '' one young woman told me .
`` It 's fifty dollars . ''
What about the card ?
`` It does n't apply .
We looked it up .
Fifty dollars ! ''
If it was ten dollars last month and ten dollars the month before , how come it 's suddenly fifty dollars ?
`` I do n't know .
That 's what the computer says . ''
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got snippier .
Next day I drove down there mid-morning .
No Mindy .
I went down again mid-afternoon .
Still no Mindy .
At half past four I tried again—Mindy was on duty !
I explained the situation and showed Mindy the card .
She rolled her eyes and fiddled with her computers .
`` Yes , '' she said at last , `` Ten dollars is right .
I 've added a note to your record so in future they 'll know . ''
Moral of the story : A great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complex for middling-IQ drones working from a one-page script .
To get things done properly , you have to find the Mindy—the one person who knows how the system works .
I do n't engage much nowadays with other spheres of complexity , but my guess would be that Finding the Mindy is especially necessary in healthcare .
Basilolatry .
So how is the new puppy settling in ?
readers want to know .
Just fine , is the answer : happy , healthy , and affectionate .
He 's not totally house-trained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for his occasional delinquencies , and when the warm weather comes so we can open the doggy door , we are sure he 'll practice proper discipline .
I 'm still surprised at how many people I meet who do n't know that Basil is a guy 's name .
It seems to be even more Brit-specific than `` Nigel . ''
When people do know , Basil Rathbone is the only one they can come up with .
I have been idly , unsystematically collecting other Basils to offer to people in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feature of British children 's TV for many years .
I think he 's a squirrel .
• Basil Milbank in P.G .
Wodehouse 's 1920 novel The Coming of Bill .
`` It was not so long ago , she reflected with pride , that she had induced Ruth to refuse to marry Basil Milbank—a considerable feat , he being a young man of remarkable personal attractions and a great match in every way .
Mrs Porter 's objection to him was that his father had died believing to the last that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is nothing evil or degrading in believing oneself a teapot , but it argues a certain inaccuracy of the thought processes ; and Mrs Porter had used all her influence with Ruth to make her reject Basil . ''
• The first-person protagonist of Wilkie Collins ' novel Basil .
We do n't know his surname .
`` Circumstances which will appear hereafter , have forced me to abandon my father 's name .
I have been obliged in honour to resign it ; and in honour I abstain from mentioning it here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pleased to have uncovered was a real one : Mick Jagger 's dad .
The 10,000-th Spectator .
Highbrow print journalism is not dead yet .
The London Spectator is still with us , and coming up to its ten-thousandth issue .
That 's a heck of a run for a magazine .
David Butterfield has written a commemorative book : 10,000 Not Out : The History of The Spectator 1828 — 2020 .
The book does n't appear until April 23rd , which I think is the date of the magazine 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it from Amazon .
When , sixty years ago , I started paying attention to such things , the Spectator was in serious disfavor among the cool crowd of postulant intellectuals .
It was , we were told—I never deigned to check—a periodical for elderly Anglican clergymen in remote village parsonages .
As a young lefty , I read the New Statesman instead .
By my thirties , more mature and of course more conservative , I found the Spectator now suited my taste , and I kept up a subscription for many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : I recorded my marriage in the pages of the Spectator .
However , the last piece they commissioned from me was rejected by Boris Johnson , then the editor , in 2005 .
I dropped my subscription soon afterwards .
No hard feelings , guys .
Congratulations to the Speccie on its upcoming ten-thousandth !
Onwards and upwards to issue number one million , round about September of a.d. 20993 .
Remembering Bertrand Russell .
I mentioned teapots back there somewhere .
The most famous teapot in philosophy belonged to Bertrand Russell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ philosophy and leave you to make up your own mind about Russell 's teapot .
I would , though , like to note—if only because no-one else seems to have noted it—that February 2nd was the 50th anniversary of Russell 's death , from influenza , at age 97 .
That was shortly after the publication of his autobiography , in three volumes , 1967-69 .
I was then in my early twenties , still a lefty , an avid reader , and primed by having had to engage with Whitehead and Russell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mathematics course at university .
I loved the autobiography , and still quote it—I quoted the incident with Gladstone to a friend just the other day .
Now , looking back , I can see that Russell was sometimes silly , sometimes vain , and sometimes wrong .
I have never been able to dislike the guy , though .
After that university course , some of my classmates cooked up a vague plan to go and visit Russell at his home in Penrhyndeudraeth .
He was known to be hospitable to young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The scheme fell through for some reason .
I have always regretted it .
Bernie Sanders explained .
Also fifty years ago this month , I bought my first house , in London .
To be precise , I and my then-girlfriend co-bought it .
It was a three-bedroom row-house in a quiet street , with a garden out back .
We easily got a mortgage .
We were two working-class kids not long out of college .
( We 'd both graduated in 1967 . )
Our two families had a combined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we bought a house—in London !
The asking price was three times my annual salary as a young cube jockey .
An equivalent property today will set you back about £450,000 .
That 's three times £150,000 .
Do young data professionals two years out of college make £150,000 a year in London today ?
In their dreams !
Corresponding figures apply in America .
Right there you have an explanation for the radicalism of young adults and the `` OK , Boomer '' sourness .
Things I have n't done .
Yes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After forty years as a freelance writer , if I have anything to say that anyone wants to hear , I expect to get paid for it .
But like the rest of youse , I ca n't resist browsing the fool thing in idle moments .
For once I 'm glad I did .
This was bouncing around—or `` twouncing , '' whatever the verb is .
I scored just two ( 6 , 14 ) .
Judging by other people 's responses , assuming they are responding honestly , that puts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Occasionally I get depressed thinking what a humdrum affair my life has been .
I 've never swum the Hellespont , dated a movie star , rescued a child from a burning building , commanded men in battle , written a good poem , won a thousand dollars at poker , taken tea with Bertrand Russell , or had a mathematical theorem named after me .
But hey , just two !
Looks like I 've lived a little after all .
Fiction of the month .
Novelist Charles Portis died February @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never heard of the guy , but an acquaintance of mine turns out to be a huge Portis fan .
He enthused at length about Portis 's writerly prowess .
Always ready to try good fiction , I bought a copy of Portis 's best-known novel , True Grit ( 1968 ) .
Yes , it 's good .
From the afterword by Donna Tartt in my Overlook Press edition : Now I have to see the John Wayne movie , which somehow I never did .
Math Corner .
Returning , by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opening segment , I note for the umpteenth time how wearying it is to engage in Adam Rutherford-type discussions about race differences with people who are statistically illiterate .
( Rutherford probably is n't , but to judge from Steve 's review he might as well be . )
An astonishing number of people do n't understand words like `` average '' or `` outlier , '' or even ( I 'm sometimes driven to thinking ) the difference in meaning between the words `` some , '' `` many , '' and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blogs as PostTenureTourettes voiced similar frustrations a couple of years ago in a post headed Latent Variable Fallacy .
PTT offers the following brainteaser .
The answer to the easy part is actually in the post I just linked to .
And now , to close the Rutherford circle , here are the top scorers in the 2019 Putnam Mathematical Competition for undergraduates in the U.S.A. and Canada , held December 7th .
Top five scorers , surname only , alphabetic order : All together now , repeat after me : THERE IS @ @ @ @ @ @

Our dumb ruling class. In discussions of our ongoing Cold Civil War between the goodwhite Tutsi ruling class and us badwhite Hutu deplorables, it's often observed that we understand them much better that they understand us. Of course we do: We perforce live in their mental world, while they only cast occasional disapproving glances at ours.
This came to mind when I was reading about Tutsi propagandist Adam Rutherford, who has a new book out this month. The book's title is How to Argue With a Racist. Rutherford, a geneticist, is keen for us to know that there is No Such Thing As Race (NOSTAR). It's all a fig newton of your imagination!
I read Steve Sailer's February 19th review of Rutherford's book over at Taki's Magazine. That didn't stir my interest sufficiently to make me want to read the book itself, but I did do some idle browsing around in related topics. Among the websites my eye fell on was one belonging to BBC Radio, promoting some talks Rutherford is giving about his book. The website lists "Five Racist Myths Well And Truly Debunked" by Dr. Rutherford.
OK, what are these racist myths that we benighted Hutus lug around in our tiny blood-starved brains, that Dr. Rutherford has "well and truly debunked"?
1. The DNA of white and black people is completely different.
Say what? "Completely different" like the DNA of an elephant and a slime mold? Is there a literate human being anywhere who believes that?
2. There is such a thing as "racial purity."
That's a big thing with the NOSTAR crowd. We Hutus are obsessed with the notion of racial purity, they believe.
I wouldn't rule out the possibility that there are people thus obsessed. Human beings nurse all kinds of odd obsessions. I will testify, though, that after twenty years of hanging out with fellow race-realist Hutus—reading their blogs, joining their online discussion groups, reviewing their books, attending their conferences, sometimes addressing those conferences, I can't recall a single conversation or talk about racial purity. To the best of my awareness, it's not a thing on the Dissident Right.
3. England is for the English.
"In truth, Britain has been steadily invaded throughout its history and has become home to migrants since it became an island around 7,500 years ago!"
So being invaded—having foreign people enter your nation in quantity and settle there, displacing those currently resident, frequently killing off their menfolk and taking their women—this is natural, inevitable, and not to be resisted? The hell you say.
4. A genealogy test can prove someone is 100 percent white.
See number 2 above.
5. Black people are better at running than white people.
Which black people? Surely not the 300-lb Momma who snarled at me across the DMV counter the other week. We race realists prefer to express statistical truths in properly statistical language, not in airy generalizations.
Derb's restatement of Rutherford's racist myth number 5.
At the furthest right tails of the running-ability distributions—both for sprinting and for distance running—runners of sub-Saharan black ancestry are strongly over-represented.
We have several decades-worth of statistics on this topic now, from the Olympics and other athletic competitions. Do the numbers support my restatement, or not? (Steve covers this in his review, and elsewhere.)
For a tribe that occupies all the commanding heights of our culture and civilization, goodwhite Tutsis often seem kind of dumb.
(Also illiterate. From that same BBC Radio website: "Two people from different tribes in Southern Africa will be more genetically different from each other than a Britain, a Sri Lankan and a Maori." Uh, there are three people in that last clause, not two; and "Britain" should be "Briton." Are there really people writing copy for the British Broadcasting Corporation who have never sung "Rule Britannia"? Of course there are!)
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Martial arts. How many adult Americans can name the world heavyweight boxing champion, I wonder?
I read somewhere that in the years before World War Two the most popular spectator sports in America were boxing and horse-racing. Neither sport has much purchase on the public imagination nowadays. They exist, of course, and have their devotees, but they're rarely newsworthy.
The February 22nd heavyweight championship fight between Briton (yes!) Tyson Fury and American Deontay Wilder got basically no coverage in my print edition of the New York Post. I had to go to the online version to read about it. It seems to have been a nice little earner for the pay-per-view companies (whose customers apparently include our President), but back in the day it would have been the sporting event of the year.
Eh, times change, I guess. My sentimental fondness for boxing aside, I'm not really much of a sports fan, anyway. Sure, throwing a ball through a hoop from twenty yards away is kind of impressive, and so is whacking a hockey puck past a guy on ice skates. For sporting spectacle, though, watching two very large guys punch each other in the head until one of them falls down, is hard to beat. In my opinion.
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Gulled at the opera. I'm an opera fan. I can't afford a Met membership, but I have friends who can, and they get tickets for dress rehearsals. These dress rehearsals take place in the midday hours when most people have to work; so my friends often can't use their tickets, and generously gift them to me.
I'm glad to get them. A dress rehearsal is very little different from the real thing. If the conductor finds some fault, he'll stop the show and make them do it over. This doesn't happen much, though. Also, singers—especially older ones, who have learned caution—often don't sing full voice at a dress rehearsal, saving their best for the full performance. On the whole, though, a dress rehearsal is nearly as good as an actual performance. And hey, the price is right.
So it was that around ten o'clock on the morning of February 3rd I was striding across the Lincoln Center plaza bearing two tickets for the dress rehearsal of Handel's Agrippina, superstar soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role. These tickets always come in twos, for adjacent seats, and had been gifted to me thus. I'd invited a friend to join me, but at the last minute he couldn't make it.
Halfway across the plaza I was approached by a very sweet-looking old lady—tiny, wrinkled, silver hair, heavy Slavic accent—who begged to know if I perchance had a spare ticket for the dress rehearsal. I said I did, and was so charmed by her and by her touching desire to worship at the altar of Handel, I just gave her my spare ticket. She was effusively grateful. I continued on my way glowing with charitable righteousness.
Taking my seat, I of course expected to see the object of my charity take the seat next to me. No: It was taken by a much larger, much younger lady. I suppose—I didn't ask—granny had sold my ticket forward for a profit.
Telling the story to my wife and son over dinner that evening, I got a mocking blast from Mrs. Derbyshire, who has the Third Worlder's scorn for rich-world gulls. My son, who is a cynic, said that my sweet little old lady was probably part of a gang run out of Moscow.
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Things I want to know. Since the Chinese word for "saliva" is 口水 kou-shui, literally "mouth-water," why isn't the Chinese word for "snot" 鼻水 bi-shui, literally "nose-water"? Instead it is 鼻涕 bi-ti, "nose-tears."
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Finding the Mindy. It's a complex world we live in: So complex, it has generated a whole category of situations that I think of to myself under the heading: "Find the Mindy."
Mindy (which is not her real name: which does not in fact have a single letter in common with her real name) is a middle-aged lady who works at my local chain-store pharmacy. She knows all the innumerable loops, tangles, and anfractuosities of retail pharmaceutics.
Mrs. Derbyshire was going into the village to do some shopping. I asked her to pick up a prescription I'd phoned in. I gave her a magic card that Mindy had told me about, a card identifying me as a member of something called the Janssen CarePath Savings Program. "Just show them this," I told the Mrs. "Then it'll only be a ten-dollar co-pay."
She came home with no medications. "They wanted fifty dollars co-pay," she said.
Me: "Did you show them the card?"
She: "Of course. They insisted it was fifty dollars."
Me: "Was Mindy there?"
She: "No."
I went down to the pharmacy to argue with them anyway. There were two young women on duty, Mindy not to be seen. "We looked you up on the computer," one young woman told me. "It's fifty dollars." What about the card? "It doesn't apply. We looked it up. Fifty dollars!" If it was ten dollars last month and ten dollars the month before, how come it's suddenly fifty dollars? "I don't know. That's what the computer says." I tried to remonstrate, but they just got snippier.
Next day I drove down there mid-morning. No Mindy. I went down again mid-afternoon. Still no Mindy. At half past four I tried again—Mindy was on duty!
I explained the situation and showed Mindy the card. She rolled her eyes and fiddled with her computers. "Yes," she said at last, "ten dollars is right. I've added a note to your record so in future they'll know."
Moral of the story: A great many situations in our world are too complex for middling-IQ drones working from a one-page script. To get things done properly, you have to find the Mindy—the one person who knows how the system works.
I don't engage much nowadays with other spheres of complexity, but my guess would be that Finding the Mindy is especially necessary in healthcare.
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Basilolatry. So how is the new puppy settling in? readers want to know.
Just fine, is the answer: happy, healthy, and affectionate. He's not totally house-trained yet, but he shows proper remorse for his occasional delinquencies, and when the warm weather comes so we can open the doggy door, we are sure he'll practice proper discipline.
I'm still surprised at how many people I meet who don't know that Basil is a guy's name. It seems to be even more Brit-specific than "Nigel." When people do know, Basil Rathbone is the only one they can come up with.
I have been idly, unsystematically collecting other Basils to offer to people in evidence.
Fictional Basils:
Basil Fawlty, of course.
Basil Brush, a feature of British children's TV for many years. I think he's a squirrel.
Basil Milbank in P.G. Wodehouse's 1920 novel The Coming of Bill.
"It was not so long ago, she reflected with pride, that she had induced Ruth to refuse to marry Basil Milbank—a considerable feat, he being a young man of remarkable personal attractions and a great match in every way. Mrs. Porter's objection to him was that his father had died believing to the last that he was a teapot.
"There is nothing evil or degrading in believing oneself a teapot, but it argues a certain inaccuracy of the thought processes; and Mrs. Porter had used all her influence with Ruth to make her reject Basil."
Basil Milbank in P.G. Wodehouse's 1920 novel The Coming of Bill. "It was not so long ago, she reflected with pride, that she had induced Ruth to refuse to marry Basil Milbank—a considerable feat, he being a young man of remarkable personal attractions and a great match in every way. Mrs. Porter's objection to him was that his father had died believing to the last that he was a teapot. "There is nothing evil or degrading in believing oneself a teapot, but it argues a certain inaccuracy of the thought processes; and Mrs. Porter had used all her influence with Ruth to make her reject Basil." The first-person protagonist of Wilkie Collins' novel Basil. We don't know his surname.
"Circumstances which will appear hereafter, have forced me to abandon my father's name. I have been obliged in honour to resign it; and in honour I abstain from mentioning it here …"
Real Basils:
The Basil I am most pleased to have uncovered was a real one: Mick Jagger's dad.
(The European name Basil derives from Greek βασιλειος, "royal." A friend who knows Arabic, however, tells me that basil means "lion" in that language, and is used as a male forename. The best-known recent example was Basil (spelled "Bassel" on Wikipedia) al-Assad, elder son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria 1971-2000. Basil died in a car crash, 1994. His brother Bashar got the dictator job, and still has it.)
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The 10,000-th Spectator. Highbrow print journalism is not dead yet. The London Spectator is still with us, and coming up to its ten-thousandth issue. That's a heck of a run for a magazine.
David Butterfield has written a commemorative book: 10,000 Not Out: The History of The Spectator 1828-2020. The book doesn't appear until April 23rd, which I think is the date of the magazine's ten-thousandth issue, but you can pre-order it from Amazon.
When, sixty years ago, I started paying attention to such things, the Spectator was in serious disfavor among the cool crowd of postulant intellectuals. It was, we were told—I never deigned to check—a periodical for elderly Anglican clergymen in remote village parsonages. As a young lefty, I read the New Statesman instead.
By my thirties, more mature and of course more conservative, I found the Spectator now suited my taste, and I kept up a subscription for many years. I became an occasional contributor: I recorded my marriage in the pages of the Spectator. However, the last piece they commissioned from me was rejected by Boris Johnson, then the editor, in 2005. I dropped my subscription soon afterwards.
No hard feelings, guys. Congratulations to the Speccie on its upcoming ten-thousandth! Onwards and upwards to issue number one million, round about September of a.d. 20993.
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Remembering Bertrand Russell. I mentioned teapots back there somewhere. The most famous teapot in philosophy belonged to Bertrand Russell.
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
I have no head for academic philosophy and leave you to make up your own mind about Russell's teapot. I would, though, like to note—if only because no one else seems to have noted it—that February 2nd was the 50th anniversary of Russell's death, from influenza, at age 97.
That was shortly after the publication of his autobiography, in three volumes, 1967-69. I was then in my early twenties, still a lefty, an avid reader, and primed by having had to engage with Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica in my Foundations of Mathematics course at university. I loved the autobiography, and still quote it—I quoted the incident with Gladstone to a friend just the other day.
Now, looking back, I can see that Russell was sometimes silly, sometimes vain, and sometimes wrong. I have never been able to dislike the guy, though. After that university course, some of my classmates cooked up a vague plan to go and visit Russell at his home in Penrhyndeudraeth. He was known to be hospitable to young admirers, if given fair notice. The scheme fell through for some reason. I have always regretted it.
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Bernie Sanders explained. Also fifty years ago this month, I bought my first house, in London. To be precise, I and my then-girlfriend co-bought it. It was a three-bedroom row-house in a quiet street, with a garden out back. We easily got a mortgage.
We were two working-class kids not long out of college. (We'd both graduated in 1967.) Our two families had a combined net worth of … zero. And we bought a house—in London! The asking price was three times my annual salary as a young cube jockey.
An equivalent property today will set you back about £450,000. That's three times £150,000. Do young data professionals two years out of college make £150,000 a year in London today? In their dreams!
Corresponding figures apply in America. Right there you have an explanation for the radicalism of young adults and the "OK, Boomer" sourness.
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Things I haven't done. Yes, I hate Twitter, too. After forty years as a freelance writer, if I have anything to say that anyone wants to hear, I expect to get paid for it.
But like the rest of youse, I can't resist browsing the fool thing in idle moments. For once I'm glad I did.
This was bouncing around—or "twouncing," whatever the verb is.
NEVER HAVE I EVER
Give yourself one point for each thing you haven't done
1. Skipped school.
2. Broken a bone.
3. Fired a gun.
4. Done drugs.
5. Been in a limo.
6. Gotten a tattoo.
7. Ridden a horse.
8. Sung karaoke.
9. Gotten a ticket.
10. Been arrested.
11. Gone ziplining.
12. Been on TV.
13. Been on a cruise.
14. Gotten a piercing.
15. Smoked.
16. Met a celeb.
17. Been skydiving.
18. Had a 1-night stand.
19. Skinny-dipped.
20. Been drunk.
I scored just two (6, 14). Judging by other people's responses, assuming they are responding honestly, that puts me way down at some low percentile.
Occasionally I get depressed thinking what a humdrum affair my life has been. I've never swum the Hellespont, dated a movie star, rescued a child from a burning building, commanded men in battle, written a good poem, won a thousand dollars at poker, taken tea with Bertrand Russell, or had a mathematical theorem named after me.
But hey, just two! Looks like I've lived a little after all.
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Fiction of the month. Novelist Charles Portis died February 17th at age 86. I'd never heard of the guy, but an acquaintance of mine turns out to be a huge Portis fan. He enthused at length about Portis's writerly prowess.
Always ready to try good fiction, I bought a copy of Portis's best-known novel, True Grit (1968). Yes, it's good. From the afterword by Donna Tartt in my Overlook Press edition:
Portis is such a genius of a literary mimic that the book reads less like a novel than a first-hand account: the Wild West of the 1870s, as recollected in a spinster's memory and filtered through the sedate sepia tones of the early 1900s. [The first-person protagonist's] narrative tone is naïve, didactic, hard-headed, and completely lacking in self-consciousness—and, at times, unintentionally hilarious …
Now I have to see the John Wayne movie, which somehow I never did.
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Math Corner. Returning, by steps, to the theme of my opening segment, I note for the umpteenth time how wearying it is to engage in Adam Rutherford-type discussions about race differences with people who are statistically illiterate. (Rutherford probably isn't, but to judge from Steve's review he might as well be.) An astonishing number of people don't understand words like "average" or "outlier," or even (I'm sometimes driven to thinking) the difference in meaning between the words "some," "many," and "all."
My pal who blogs as PostTenureTourettes voiced similar frustrations a couple of years ago in a post headed Latent Variable Fallacy.
The latent variable fallacy ignores possible hidden variables controlling (apparently) causally unrelated surface features. Fringe claims of melanin directly causing criminality notwithstanding, the HBD argument for racial disparities on behavioral traits holds up perfectly well without direct causation. All you need is a latent variable (genes) controlling both melanin and aggression levels.
PTT offers the following brainteaser. The answer to the easy part is actually in the post I just linked to.
Arnold and Barney are two doctors who have never met or communicated in any way. Miraculously, they manage to agree on 99 percent of all of their patient diagnoses! [For the purpose of this puzzle, each patient is two-sided coin that lands on HEALTHY or SICK with some probability—not necessarily with fair odds, or even the same odds for each patient. The patients are statistically independent, and each patient gets diagnosed once by each doctor.]
1. (easy) How do they manage such a high rate of agreement without any communication?
2. (trickier) Given the information above, what quantitative conclusion can you draw about Arnold and Barney's diagnostic abilities?
And now, to close the Rutherford circle, here are the top scorers in the 2019 Putnam Mathematical Competition for undergraduates in the U.S.A. and Canada, held December 7th. Top five scorers, surname only, alphabetic order:
Sah, Sun, Yao, Zhang, Zhu.
Next eleven:
Ardeishar, Bhattacharya, Gu, Lin, Liu, Peng, Ren, Schildkraut, Singhal, Yao, Zhao.
Next twelve:
Gao, Kim, Kim, Lin, Liu, Liu, Nichani, Ren, Rong, Tang, Wang, Zhang.
All together now, repeat after me: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS RACE!
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vdare--2020-03-02--Disgruntled Minority Massacre, 2006: Joe Jackson, "Inventor", Killed Three In Patent Attorney's Offi

Disgruntled Minority Massacre, 2006: Joe Jackson, "Inventor", Killed Three In Patent Attorney's Office

A reader forwarded this , which did n't make national news that I can recall .
Angry , misspelled words and rambling sentences , scrawled by the hand of the man who last week killed three and tore a downtown law firm apart with gunfire , sketch a rough-edged portrait of a frustrated , fragile mind that would eventually break .
Joe Jackson , a would-be inventor with a plan for a tractor-trailer toilet , believed a patent attorney had stolen his idea .
`` I feel with no uncertainty that he sold or stole my project , '' Jackson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` He has destroy my life after he sign a confidenitally a vow of secrecy that he would n't betray me . ''
On Friday , consumed by his obsession , Jackson gunned down patent attorney Michael McKenna and two others on the 38th floor of a West Loop high-rise before he was shot and killed by police .
The sad motive behind a seemingly inexplicable tragedy comes clear in Jackson 's words .
`` I need help because I am very upset , '' he wrote .
`` I paid my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Pleased help me .
He took this because of greed .
`` [ More ] Jackson , pictured above right , was apparently not very bright .
He shot McKenna , pictured right , and three other white people , two of them fatally , because he thought that the lawyer had stolen his idea , which was very basic , limited , and unoriginal .
Survivors won a lot of money from the firm that provided security for the building because they 'd seen Jackson looking suspicious and done nothing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a supicious looking black man in Chicago , and both federal and local Civil Rights enforcers would also have sued the company for rousting him . )
His pastor , Rev .
C.L .
Sparks , had accompanied him to the lawyer 's office in the past .
[ Family saw anger build , by Andrew L. Wang and Matt O'Connor , Chicago Tribune , December 11 , 2006 . ]
The same pastor preached the funeral , in a way that seems to say Jackson was justified in his resentment .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or to put it another way , a neighborhood paper in an all-black neighborhood ) Bishop Sparks began his eulogy singing `` God 's Unchanging Hands . ''
He said he appreciated Joe 's family giving honor to the other families whose loved ones were lost and in no way is he trying to justify what happened .
He told the family they did not know how Sunday after Sunday Jackson met the pastor at the altar and commented on how he could not find one lawyer to represent him in his claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where did this come from , what caused this type of fear Joe claimed ?
`` Today is liberation day , '' Sparks said .
`` Today is the day we put everything in the Lord 's hand .
There are some [ questions ] we ca n't answer .
I went with Joe to the initial visit of the patent attorney .
They were trying to say he was a Looney-Tune until we produced those documents .
I 've already been in touch with the attorney general 's office , and Lisa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get to the bottom of this matter . ''
Bishop Sparks said many will leave the services still wondering why .
`` Well , some stuff we just wo n't know until by and by .
I want this family to know this will not be solved until we get to the bottom of it , and you need not be ashamed .
We 're going to pursue every effort because there are living family members left behind who want to know . ''
Sparks ending , saying , `` We thank you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to let his memory continue to flow in our lives .
That we may remember him as a upstanding man , as a man who feared God , who walked in church every Sunday with his Bible .
God , we ask you to forgive him his sins , his shortcomings and his ways .
On Judgment Day , you know his heart and you know the situation .
We asked that you be the wind beneath his family wings , and let them know that earth has no sorrow that heaven can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mainstream print or electronic media were present for the services and the photo used by the media did not look much like the person lying in state .
Bishop Sparks cancelled the press conference he had scheduled for Dec. 18 and said he is awaiting legal counsel as this matter is further investigated .
Bishop Sparks remembers Joe Jackson | Man who killed three in law office is laid to rest , Austin Weekly , December 20th , 2006 .
And if you 're wondering why you 've never heard of this , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't fit the narrative , and ( b ) it happened in Chicago , which has for the entire 21st century ( and parts of the previous century ) had casualty levels comparable to a war zone .

A reader forwarded this, which didn't make national news that I can recall.
Letter reveals shooter's anger By Tonya Maxwell, Tribune staff reporter. CHICAGO TRIBUNE, December 12, 2006 Angry, misspelled words and rambling sentences, scrawled by the hand of the man who last week killed three and tore a downtown law firm apart with gunfire, sketch a rough-edged portrait of a frustrated, fragile mind that would eventually break. Joe Jackson, a would-be inventor with a plan for a tractor-trailer toilet, believed a patent attorney had stolen his idea. "I feel with no uncertainty that he sold or stole my project," Jackson wrote in a document dated February 2003. "He has destroy my life after he sign a confidenitally a vow of secrecy that he wouldn't betray me." On Friday, consumed by his obsession, Jackson gunned down patent attorney Michael McKenna and two others on the 38th floor of a West Loop high-rise before he was shot and killed by police. The sad motive behind a seemingly inexplicable tragedy comes clear in Jackson's words. "I need help because I am very upset," he wrote. "I paid my hard earn money to a unmoral man. Pleased help me. He took this because of greed."[More]
Jackson, pictured above right, was apparently not very bright. He shot McKenna, pictured right, and three other white people, two of them fatally, because he thought that the lawyer had stolen his idea, which was very basic, limited, and unoriginal.
Material provided by Rev. C.L. Sparks, Jackson's pastor at New Pleasant Valley International Cathedral, includes Jackson's handwritten letter documenting his interaction with McKenna as well as a rough sketch—nothing more than a doodle—of the portable truck-cab toilet.
Survivors won a lot of money from the firm that provided security for the building because they'd seen Jackson looking suspicious and done nothing. (A huge Catch-22: Jackson was a supicious looking black man in Chicago, and both federal and local Civil Rights enforcers would also have sued the company for rousting him.)
His pastor, Rev. C.L. Sparks, had accompanied him to the lawyer's office in the past. [Family saw anger build, by Andrew L. Wang and Matt O'Connor, Chicago Tribune, December 11, 2006.]
The same pastor preached the funeral, in a way that seems to say Jackson was justified in his resentment.
As reported in a local black paper (or to put it another way, a neighborhood paper in an all-black neighborhood)
Bishop Sparks began his eulogy singing "God's Unchanging Hands." He said he appreciated Joe's family giving honor to the other families whose loved ones were lost and in no way is he trying to justify what happened. He told the family they did not know how Sunday after Sunday Jackson met the pastor at the altar and commented on how he could not find one lawyer to represent him in his claim against the patent attorney. Sparks asked where did this come from, what caused this type of fear Joe claimed? "Today is liberation day," Sparks said. "Today is the day we put everything in the Lord's hand. There are some [questions] we can't answer. I went with Joe to the initial visit of the patent attorney. They were trying to say he was a Looney-Tune until we produced those documents. I've already been in touch with the attorney general's office, and Lisa Madigan called me herself and promised to get to the bottom of this matter." Bishop Sparks said many will leave the services still wondering why. "Well, some stuff we just won't know until by and by. I want this family to know this will not be solved until we get to the bottom of it, and you need not be ashamed. We're going to pursue every effort because there are living family members left behind who want to know." Sparks ending, saying, "We thank you, God, that you allow us to let his memory continue to flow in our lives. That we may remember him as a upstanding man, as a man who feared God, who walked in church every Sunday with his Bible. God, we ask you to forgive him his sins, his shortcomings and his ways. On Judgment Day, you know his heart and you know the situation. We asked that you be the wind beneath his family wings, and let them know that earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." None of the mainstream print or electronic media were present for the services and the photo used by the media did not look much like the person lying in state. Bishop Sparks cancelled the press conference he had scheduled for Dec. 18 and said he is awaiting legal counsel as this matter is further investigated. Bishop Sparks remembers Joe Jackson | Man who killed three in law office is laid to rest, Austin Weekly, December 20th, 2006.
And if you're wondering why you've never heard of this, well, (a) it doesn't fit the narrative, and (b) it happened in Chicago, which has for the entire 21st century (and parts of the previous century) had casualty levels comparable to a war zone.


vdare--2020-03-03--This Day In VDARE.com History, 2015: The Stupid Party in Action: Worst Case Scenario for GOP

This was published on this day in 2015—the House GOP had threatened to use the power of the purse to defund Obama 's unconstitutional DACA order ... and then did n't .
It would have been better if the Republican Party had n't done anything .
Kevin McCarthy , of all people , tells us how it could have been different .
Why not ?
After all , Harry Reid already set the precedent when he was Senate Majority Leader back in 2013 in order to push through Obama 's judicial nominations [ Reid , Democrats trigger 'nuclear ' option @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Paul Kane , Washington Post , November 21 , 2013 ] .
The fight right now , after all , is not about Amnesty or even immigration .
It 's about whether the President has the right to use powers that he himself has repeatedly admitted he does not have .
Even the most milquetoast supporter of `` limited government '' has to note the distinction .
Even Judge Andrew Napolitano , an overt supporter of open borders , says that Obama 's actions are wildly illegal and Congress has the responsibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So if the GOP ca n't even stop this , what good are they ?
Seriously , what is the point of the Republican Party ?
Or for that matter , Congress as an institution ?

This was published on this day in 2015—the House GOP had threatened to use the power of the purse to defund Obama's unconstitutional DACA order...and then didn't.
GOP 101: 1. Take strong stand, enraging opponents. 2. Have shutdown-like crisis, enraging independents. 3. Cave, enraging supporters. — Jim Antle (@jimantle) March 3, 2015
It would have been better if the Republican Party hadn't done anything.
House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) announced that the House will vote on a clean Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which marks the conclusion of the Republican attempt to block funding for President Obama’s executive amnesty orders. In the words of one House Republican, Boehner told the Republican conference that the “full cave” will get a vote on Tuesday. [Boehner: Pass Clean DHS Bill Today, by Joel Gehrke, National Review Online, March 3, 2015]
Kevin McCarthy, of all people, tells us how it could have been different.
In Tuesday morning’s conference meeting, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) reiterated his belief that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) should have used the nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster in response to the Democratic votes to block debate on the House-passed DHS bill.
Why not? After all, Harry Reid already set the precedent when he was Senate Majority Leader back in 2013 in order to push through Obama's judicial nominations [Reid, Democrats trigger 'nuclear' option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees, by Paul Kane, Washington Post, November 21, 2013].
The fight right now, after all, is not about Amnesty or even immigration. It's about whether the President has the right to use powers that he himself has repeatedly admitted he does not have. Even the most milquetoast supporter of "limited government" has to note the distinction. Even Judge Andrew Napolitano, an overt supporter of open borders, says that Obama's actions are wildly illegal and Congress has the responsibility to stop the violation of the law.
So if the GOP can't even stop this, what good are they? Seriously, what is the point of the Republican Party? Or for that matter, Congress as an institution?


vdare--2020-03-03--An Australian Reader On The A (Asparagus), B (Broccoli) And C (Cheap Labor) Of Illegal Immigration:

Earlier : An Australian Reader Says Australia , Guarded By Unwadeable Seas , Needs To Up Its Airport Screening Game Who dotes on illegal immigrants more than woke liberals do ?
Avaricious employers on the lookout for cheap labor , that ’ s who .
Australia 's largest grower of asparagus and broccoli , Vizzari Farms in the state of Victoria , is currently on trial for hiring dozens of illegal immigrants at illegally low wages as vegetable packers .
Back in 2016 , Australian Border Force officers raided Vizzari Farms and discovered 61 immigrants ( from Indonesia , Cambodia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ unlawful non-citizens ” ( i.e .
illegal immigrants such as visa overstayers ) and a further 28 legal immigrants who were intentionally breaching their holiday visa conditions by working on the company ’ s farms .
Recruited through word-of-mouth , and in full knowledge of the immigration illegality involved , the foreign workers were being paid well below the legally-mandated rate of pay .
[ Victorian vegetable grower paid 'vast amounts of cash ' for illegal workers , Melbourne court told , by Karen Percy , Australian Broadcasting Corporation , February 27 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest supplier of asparagus and broccoli to Australia ’ s two biggest supermarkets , where over half of all Australians buy their fruit and veg .
Vizzari Farms ’ multi-million-dollar business model of using cheap foreign labor is crucial to their highly profitable market dominance in the supermarket supply chain .
The supermarket giants also benefit from the grower ’ s cheap foreign labor racket through buying cheaper veg and outcompeting rival retail outlets on price .
Vizzari Farms sits atop what is likely to be a very big iceberg of cheap foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for example , the National Union of Workers investigated some 650 temporary migrant farm workers ( mostly from south-east Asia and the Pacific ) in Sunraysia and the Goulburn Valley in Victoria , finding that two-thirds of the workers were being paid below the legal pay rate ( then $ 23.66 an hour ) with some paid as little as $ 4.60 an hour .
Two-thirds of the foreign workers did not hold a valid work visa .
It ’ s out in the heat and the dust of Australia ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visa system can best be viewed .
That ’ s where the cheap , exploitable , often illegal labour is picking and packing the fruit and vegetables that end up on the shelves of Coles and Woolworths , where over 50 % of Australians buy their fresh produce .
These two giant retailers have perfected the art of delivering consumers with produce at “ low , low prices ” — and what ’ s not to like about low prices ?
Plenty , as far as some suppliers and farm workers are concerned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and even killed on Australian farms | Australia 's supermarket duopoly sits at the head of a production chain that holds labourers in slave-like conditions , putting them at risk of serious injury or death , by David Hardaker and Chris Woods , July 23 , 2019 The woke left ’ s reflexive , “ anti-racist ” prostration before saintly , non-white immigrants makes it an ally of law-breaking , a facilitator of corporate profiteering , and an obstacle to jobs and proper wages for Australian workers .
No wonder the traditional , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left .
The wages of wokeness is political death .
Phil Shannon is a veteran Australian working class socialist and , since 2016 , a VDARE.com supporter .
See earlier letters from him here .

Earlier: An Australian Reader Says Australia, Guarded By Unwadeable Seas, Needs To Up Its Airport Screening Game
From: Phil Shannon [Email him]
Who dotes on illegal immigrants more than woke liberals do? Avaricious employers on the lookout for cheap labor, that’s who.
Australia's largest grower of asparagus and broccoli, Vizzari Farms in the state of Victoria, is currently on trial for hiring dozens of illegal immigrants at illegally low wages as vegetable packers. Back in 2016, Australian Border Force officers raided Vizzari Farms and discovered 61 immigrants (from Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand) who were “unlawful non-citizens” (i.e., illegal immigrants such as visa overstayers) and a further 28 legal immigrants who were intentionally breaching their holiday visa conditions by working on the company’s farms.
Recruited through word-of-mouth, and in full knowledge of the immigration illegality involved, the foreign workers were being paid well below the legally mandated rate of pay. [Victorian vegetable grower paid 'vast amounts of cash' for illegal workers, Melbourne court told, by Karen Percy, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, February 27, 2020]
Vizzari Farms is the largest supplier of asparagus and broccoli to Australia’s two biggest supermarkets, where over half of all Australians buy their fruit and veg. Vizzari Farms’ multi-million-dollar business model of using cheap foreign labor is crucial to their highly profitable market dominance in the supermarket supply chain. The supermarket giants also benefit from the grower’s cheap foreign labor racket through buying cheaper veg and outcompeting rival retail outlets on price.
Vizzari Farms sits atop what is likely to be a very big iceberg of cheap foreign labor in Australian agriculture. In 2019, for example, the National Union of Workers investigated some 650 temporary migrant farm workers (mostly from south-east Asia and the Pacific) in Sunraysia and the Goulburn Valley in Victoria, finding that two-thirds of the workers were being paid below the legal pay rate (then $23.66 an hour) with some paid as little as $4.60 an hour. Two-thirds of the foreign workers did not hold a valid work visa.
It’s out in the heat and the dust of Australia’s farms that this country’s broken visa system can best be viewed. That’s where the cheap, exploitable, often illegal labour is picking and packing the fruit and vegetables that end up on the shelves of Coles and Woolworths, where over 50% of Australians buy their fresh produce. These two giant retailers have perfected the art of delivering consumers with produce at “low, low prices”— and what’s not to like about low prices? Plenty, as far as some suppliers and farm workers are concerned. Migrant workers are overworked, intimidated and even killed on Australian farms | Australia's supermarket duopoly sits at the head of a production chain that holds labourers in slave-like conditions, putting them at risk of serious injury or death, by David Hardaker and Chris Woods, July 23, 2019
The woke left’s reflexive, “anti-racist” prostration before saintly, non-white immigrants makes it an ally of law-breaking, a facilitator of corporate profiteering, and an obstacle to jobs and proper wages for Australian workers. No wonder the traditional, white working class is deserting the contemporary left. The wages of wokeness is political death.
Phil Shannon is a veteran Australian working class socialist and, since 2016, a VDARE.com supporter. See earlier letters from him here.


vdare--2020-03-03--And Then the Junior Anti-Sex League Came for Chris Matthews ...

From the New York Times : Chris Matthews Out at MSNBC Mr. Matthews ’ s show , “ Hardball , ” has been on the air since 1997 .
Chris Matthews , the veteran political anchor and voluble host of the long-running MSNBC talk show “ Hardball , ” resigned on Monday night , an abrupt departure from a television perch that made him a fixture of politics and the news media over the past quarter-century .
Mr. Matthews , 74 , had faced mounting criticism in recent days over a spate of embarrassing on-air moments , including a comparison @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Nazi invasion of France and an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren in which the anchor was criticized for a condescending and disbelieving tone .
On Saturday , the journalist Laura Bassett published an essay accusing Mr. Matthews of making multiple inappropriate comments about her appearance , reviving longstanding allegations about the anchor ’ s sexist behavior .
… “ Compliments on a woman ’ s appearance that some men , including me , might have once incorrectly thought were OK are never OK , ” he said .
“ Not then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In 2008 , he was quoted in a magazine profile declaring the actress Kerry Washington “ a total knockout .
”

From the New York Times:
Chris Matthews Out at MSNBC
Mr. Matthews’s show, “Hardball,” has been on the air since 1997.
By Michael M. Grynbaum
March 2, 2020
Chris Matthews, the veteran political anchor and voluble host of the long-running MSNBC talk show “Hardball,” resigned on Monday night, an abrupt departure from a television perch that made him a fixture of politics and the news media over the past quarter-century.
Mr. Matthews, 74, had faced mounting criticism in recent days over a spate of embarrassing on-air moments, including a comparison of Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign to the Nazi invasion of France and an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren in which the anchor was criticized for a condescending and disbelieving tone.
On Saturday, the journalist Laura Bassett published an essay accusing Mr. Matthews of making multiple inappropriate comments about her appearance, reviving longstanding allegations about the anchor’s sexist behavior. …
“Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were OK are never OK,” he said. “Not then, and certainly not today.” …
In 2008, he was quoted in a magazine profile declaring the actress Kerry Washington “a total knockout.”


vdare--2020-03-03--Black Sociologist: Whiteness Is Terrorism, Also Whiteness Is Imaginary, Plus Whiteness Must be Eradi

Black Sociologist: Whiteness Is Terrorism, Also Whiteness Is Imaginary, Plus Whiteness Must be Eradicated

I tweeted ‘ whiteness is terrorism ’ and was condemned for it .
Here ’ s why I ’ m right .
By JOHNNY E. WILLIAMS SPECIAL TO HARTFORD COURANT | FEB 28 , 2020 | 10:32 AM Johnny E. Williams [ Email him ] is a professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Trinity College .
The United States is a nation in which people who identify as “ white ” preside over an oppressive system that everyone is expected to accept as normal .
So when indigenous , black , Latinx , and Asian folks refuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way of organizing life , we are publicly ridiculed and falsely accused of inciting hatred and violence .
But there is no “ white race.
” Whiteness is a shared conglomeration of fabricated meanings and ideas about biologically insignificant human differences .
Whiteness only exists in relation or opposition to blackness and other fictitious racial categories created by whiteness adherents for the purpose of cementing a higher status and material advantage over other people that are excluded from being white .
… It is a position of power where people who imagine themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decide who is white and who is not ; who will and will not prosper ; and who will or will not live .
As such — and contrary to my critics ’ beliefs that whiteness is merely an identity — race and whiteness materialize as systemic white racism terroristic actions and practices with very real , tangible , and lethal effects .
Whiteness often goes unnoticed by self-identified whites in ways that divert them from considering their complicity in the daily white terrorism — wars , police and military occupations , poor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directed at racially oppressed groups .
Take , for example , offices of and policies filed under diversity , equity and inclusion .
These codify diversity to ensure self-identified whites never consider systemic remedies for white supremacy and contribute virtually nothing to addressing white racism as a system of oppression .
Instead , they attempt to equip the racially oppressed with strategies for accommodating and coping with systemic white racism rather than eliminating it .
Which is a problem .
Because what sustains white supremacy is not merely white people ’ s unconscious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conscious participation in creating and maintaining their systemic racial oppression .
Many are quick to write off white supremacy as isolated to individuals .
But white supremacy is not merely confined to openly bigoted whites but also people who see themselves as individuals , rather than a member of a socially constructed racial group and system .
Individualism denies the very existence of systemic white racism by reducing it to individual hate and discrimination .
People immersed in individualism claim innocence or refuse to consider how the cultural environment of white supremacy we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ views and further informs how we perceive and interact with others within a hierarchical racial order .
To overcome this obstacle , it is imperative that people who imagine themselves as white , grasp how their socialization into whiteness guarantees their participation in everyday systemic white racism .
Make no mistake .
No human being in the context of white supremacy in the United States is immune from the negative mental and material outcomes of the ideas of race and whiteness .
Whiteness by its very definition and operation as a key element @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental and physical terrorism .
To end the white terrorism that is directed at racially oppressed people here and in other nations , it is essential that self-identified whites and their whiteness collaborators among the racially oppressed confront their white problem head-on , unencumbered by racial comfort .
Such comfortableness enables folks immersed in whiteness to disregard their complicity in systemic white racism , forestalling the destruction of white supremacy .

From the Hartford Courant opinion page:
I tweeted ‘whiteness is terrorism’ and was condemned for it. Here’s why I’m right.
By JOHNNY E. WILLIAMS
SPECIAL TO HARTFORD COURANT |
FEB 28, 2020 | 10:32 AM
Johnny E. Williams [Email him] is a professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Trinity College.
The United States is a nation in which people who identify as “white” preside over an oppressive system that everyone is expected to accept as normal. So when indigenous, black, Latinx, and Asian folks refuse to abide by this inequitable and cruel way of organizing life, we are publicly ridiculed and falsely accused of inciting hatred and violence.
For years now, I have been derided for inciting violence by those who think of themselves as white because I dare to name and write about the sources of racially oppressed people’s suffering — whites and their system of white racism. I was even investigated by my own institution, Trinity College, out of fear that the truth about whites and their systemic oppressive machinations may impact the thinking and actions of students, the public, and the institution’s financial bottom line.
Several months ago, a few alumni — who aimed to smear me publicly, yet again — scoured my personal social media accounts looking for posts to substantiate their belief that I hated people who think of themselves as white. In their haste to malign me, they revealed their ignorance regarding the idea of “race,” whiteness and the system of oppression conventionally known as white supremacy.
Race is often thought of as the idea that humans are naturally divided into biologically distinct groups. That’s not correct. Race consists of shared patterns of seeing, thinking and acting that validate and legitimize an existence of white identity and a white worldview.
But there is no “white race.”
Whiteness is a shared conglomeration of fabricated meanings and ideas about biologically insignificant human differences. Whiteness only exists in relation or opposition to blackness and other fictitious racial categories created by whiteness adherents for the purpose of cementing a higher status and material advantage over other people that are excluded from being white.
… It is a position of power where people who imagine themselves to be white hold the power to decide who is white and who is not; who will and will not prosper; and who will or will not live.
As such — and contrary to my critics’ beliefs that whiteness is merely an identity — race and whiteness materialize as systemic white racism terroristic actions and practices with very real, tangible, and lethal effects.
Whiteness often goes unnoticed by self-identified whites in ways that divert them from considering their complicity in the daily white terrorism — wars, police and military occupations, poor housing, health, and education — directed at racially oppressed groups.
Take, for example, offices of and policies filed under diversity, equity and inclusion. These codify diversity to ensure self-identified whites never consider systemic remedies for white supremacy and contribute virtually nothing to addressing white racism as a system of oppression. Instead, they attempt to equip the racially oppressed with strategies for accommodating and coping with systemic white racism rather than eliminating it. Which is a problem. Because what sustains white supremacy is not merely white people’s unconscious thoughts and habits but rather their active conscious participation in creating and maintaining their systemic racial oppression.
Many are quick to write off white supremacy as isolated to individuals. But white supremacy is not merely confined to openly bigoted whites but also people who see themselves as individuals, rather than a member of a socially constructed racial group and system. Individualism denies the very existence of systemic white racism by reducing it to individual hate and discrimination. People immersed in individualism claim innocence or refuse to consider how the cultural environment of white supremacy we inhabit shapes our racial identities and world views and further informs how we perceive and interact with others within a hierarchical racial order. To overcome this obstacle, it is imperative that people who imagine themselves as white, grasp how their socialization into whiteness guarantees their participation in everyday systemic white racism.
Make no mistake. No human being in the context of white supremacy in the United States is immune from the negative mental and material outcomes of the ideas of race and whiteness.
Whiteness by its very definition and operation as a key element of white supremacy kills; it is mental and physical terrorism. To end the white terrorism that is directed at racially oppressed people here and in other nations, it is essential that self-identified whites and their whiteness collaborators among the racially oppressed confront their white problem head-on, unencumbered by racial comfort. Such comfortableness enables folks immersed in whiteness to disregard their complicity in systemic white racism, forestalling the destruction of white supremacy.


vdare--2020-03-03--Restaurant Robot Works for Only $3 per Hour and Doesn’t Take Breaks

Tech and business publications routinely chat up the advantages of transitioning away from human workers and into smart machines , but it ’ s less often that the mainstream press emphasizes the cost saving of companies switching to robots .
It ’ s interesting then to see a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times cite the savings to be had by replacing restaurant employees with automation — thousands of dollars per month , we read .
Flippy the burger robot now is “ costing less to employ than a minimum-wage worker.
” What business manager wouldn ’ t take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t mind working the grill 24/7 with no breaks .
So does it make sense for America to continue immigrating millions of low-skilled workers from abroad ?
It seems unwise when the builders of technology hope to produce the next big machine , like the Kiva Systems robot company which was bought by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos for $ 775 million in 2012 .
The incentives are very enticing for techies around the world to push ahead with robot design .
The new burger chef makes $ 3 an hour and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a robot ) , Los Angeles Times , February 27 , 2020 In a test kitchen in a corner building in downtown Pasadena , Flippy the robot grabbed a fryer basket full of chicken fingers , plunged it into hot oil — its sensors told it exactly how hot — then lifted , drained and dumped maximally tender tenders into a waiting hopper .
A few feet away , another Flippy eyed a beef patty sizzling on a griddle .
With its camera eyes feeding pixels to a machine vision brain , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right shade of brown , then smoothly slipped its spatula hand under the burger and plopped it onto a tray .
The product of decades of research in robotics and machine learning , Flippy represents a synthesis of motors , sensors , chips and processing power that wasn ’ t possible until recently .
Now , Flippy ’ s success — and the success of the company that built it , Miso Robotics — depends on simple math and a controversial hypothesis of how robots can transform the service economy .
Costing less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Flippy is built to slip in right alongside humans on the fast-food line .
Off-the-shelf robot arms have plunged in price in recent years , from more than $ 100,000 in 2016 , when Miso Robotics first launched , to less than $ 10,000 today , with cheaper models coming in the near future .
As a result , Miso can offer Flippys to fast-food restaurant owners for an estimated $ 2,000 per month on a subscription basis , breaking down to about $ 3 per hour .
( The actual cost will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A human doing the same job costs $ 4,000 to $ 10,000 or more a month , depending on a restaurant ’ s hours and the local minimum wage .
And robots never call in sick .
( Continues )

Tech and business publications routinely chat up the advantages of transitioning away from human workers and into smart machines, but it’s less often that the mainstream press emphasizes the cost saving of companies switching to robots.
It’s interesting then to see a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times cites the savings to be had by replacing restaurant employees with automation — thousands of dollars per month, we read. Flippy the burger robot now is “costing less to employ than a minimum-wage worker.” What business manager wouldn’t take that opportunity?
The robot burger flipper doesn’t mind working the grill 24/7 with no breaks.
So does it make sense for America to continue immigrating millions of low-skilled workers from abroad?
It seems unwise when the builders of technology hope to produce the next big machine, like the Kiva Systems robot company which was bought by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos for $775 million in 2012. The incentives are very enticing for techies around the world to push ahead with robot design.


vdare--2020-03-03--Disgruntled Minority Massacre: Milwaukee Mass Murder Turns Out to be Another Omar Thornton Case

National media interest in the murder of five workers at the Molson Coors ( formerly Miller ) brewery in Milwaukee has plummeted since the murderer was identified as a black man complaining about racism .
But at least USA Today reprinted this story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : ‘ I didn ’ t really believe it at first ’ : How the Molson Coors shooting in Milwaukee unfolded Mark Johnson Milwaukee Journal Sentinel … Several floors below , a dispute between Anthony Ferrill , 51 , an electrician , and some of his co-workers , had exploded .
Ferrill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ building .
He had worked at the brewery for about 17 years .
Ferrill was African American and accused the brewery of discriminating against him .
Ferrill complained that employees came into his home , bugging his computer and moving chairs around .
In other words , he was paranoid : accusations of “ moving chairs around ” is a typical tell of paranoia .
Police declined to comment on a possible motive for one of the deadliest shootings in Wisconsin history .
Ferrill , a self-described gun collector , brought two handguns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
All but one of the men he confronted had been with the company six years or more .
They all knew each other .
So he shot four white men and a Latino , much like Omar Thornton , a liquor distributor worker in Connecticut who in 2010 murdered 8 white coworkers , accusing them of racism .
How many murders per year in the U.S. are due to unbalanced blacks angry over what they perceive as racism ?
How much does the daily media diet of denunciations of whiteness contribute to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Nobody seems to want to know the answer to either question , so even a spectacular case like this gets memoryholed fast .

National media interest in the murder of five workers at the Molson Coors (formerly Miller) brewery in Milwaukee has plummeted since the murderer was identified as a black man complaining about racism. But at least USA Today reprinted this story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
‘I didn’t really believe it at first’: How the Molson Coors shooting in Milwaukee unfolded
Mark Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel … Several floors below, a dispute between Anthony Ferrill, 51, an electrician, and some of his co-workers, had exploded. Ferrill worked in the utilities department in the building. He had worked at the brewery for about 17 years. Ferrill was African American and accused the brewery of discriminating against him. Ferrill complained that employees came into his home, bugging his computer and moving chairs around.
In other words, he was paranoid: Accusations of “moving chairs around” is a typical tell of paranoia.
Police declined to comment on a possible motive for one of the deadliest shootings in Wisconsin history. Ferrill, a self-described gun collector, brought two handguns to work, one with a silencer. All but one of the men he confronted had been with the company six years or more. They all knew each other.
So he shot four white men and a Latino, much like Omar Thornton, a liquor distributor worker in Connecticut who in 2010 murdered 8 white coworkers, accusing them of racism.
How many murders per year in the U.S. are due to unbalanced blacks angry over what they perceive as racism? How much does the daily media diet of denunciations of whiteness contribute to whatever the level is of anti-white violence?
Nobody seems to want to know the answer to either question, so even a spectacular case like this gets memoryholed fast.


vdare--2020-03-04--Today In VDARE.com History, 2015: U.S. Govt.'s Election Of A New People Worse Than Treason—It's Geno

Today In VDARE.com History, 2015: U.S. Govt.'s Election Of A New People Worse Than Treason—It's Genocide

Originally published on VDARE.com on this day in 2015 .
It 's not simply treason .
It 's something worse : A new report from the Census bureau predicts that nearly one-fifth of America ’ s total population will be foreign-born in a mere 45 years .
Immigrants , legal and illegal , will enjoy 85 percent growth — from 42 million to 78 million — by 2060 .
In contrast , the native-born population , which includes children born to illegal aliens , will increase by 22 percent or 62 million .
[ Census : Immigrant Population to Explode @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McHugh , Breitbart , March 4 , 2015 ] It 's worth noting that the ethnic makeup of the United States is not simply `` changing . ''
The core population is actually being eliminated .
At this writing , this is the lead story at Breitbart , one of the leading organs of mainstream conservatism .
So it 's not that American conservatives or libertarians are unaware that this is happening .
The real question : what they think their place will be in the `` America '' that 's coming .

Originally published on VDARE.com on this day in 2015.
"Unaccompanied Minors" invading Texas with Obama's consent and encouragement.
It's not simply treason. It's something worse:
A new report from the Census bureau predicts that nearly one-fifth of America’s total population will be foreign-born in a mere 45 years. Immigrants, legal and illegal, will enjoy 85 percent growth — from 42 million to 78 million — by 2060. In contrast, the native-born population, which includes children born to illegal aliens, will increase by 22 percent or 62 million. [Census: Immigrant Population to Explode 85 Percent by 2060, by Katie McHugh, Breitbart, March 4, 2015]
It's worth noting that the ethnic makeup of the United States is not simply "changing." The core population is actually being eliminated.
Non-Hispanic, native-born whites are the only racial and ethnic group expected to suffer a population decline. In 45 years’ time, their numbers will decline by 16 million, or eight percent, from 198 million to 182 million. They will make up only 44 percent of the nation’s population. The Census bureau points out that births of non-Hispanic, native-born white Americans will decrease by a predicted 23 percent.
At this writing, this is the lead story at Breitbart, one of the leading organs of mainstream conservatism. So it's not that American conservatives or libertarians are unaware that this is happening. The real question: what they think their place will be in the "America" that's coming.


vdare--2020-03-04--WASHINGTON POST Goes Full Omar Thornton On How Black Milwaukee Murderer's White Victims Had It Comin

WASHINGTON POST Goes Full Omar Thornton On How Black Milwaukee Murderer's White Victims Had It Coming

Earier:2011—Omar Thornton 's Victims Exonerated Of Racism and 2016—NYT : and Did Those 5 Dead White Dallas Cops Have It Coming ?
Noose found on gunman ’ s locker at Milwaukee Coors facility years before deadly shooting By Annie Gowen and Katie Zezima March 4 , 2020 at 7:20 a.m. PST Police have not provided a motive for the Feb. 26 rampage , which ended when gunman Anthony Ferrill killed himself inside the iconic brewery that has produced Miller beer for more than a century .
Police also have not said racism played a part in the shooting deaths .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a factor , ” said Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morale during an interview on news radio station WTMJ .
Ferrill , who is black , worked as an electrician at the facility for 17 years .
Six current and former employees and others with knowledge of the brewery said overtly racist acts have occurred there for years .
A noose was found on Ferrill ’ s locker in 2015 , they said , prompting a brewery-wide meeting with human resources .
The employees also described a workplace where minority workers were subject @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their religion .
“ Everyone knows the environment we worked in .
It ’ s just a sad situation that it actually happened , ” said former brewery worker Jelani Muhammad of the noose on Ferrill ’ s locker .
Molson Coors said Ferrill was not working the day the noose was reported .
“ Our HR team notified him of the incident , it was investigated fully , no camera footage was available to show who placed it on the locker , ” the company said in a written statement to The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worked at the brewery from 2015 to 2019 , said he endured taunts from co-workers about his name and the fact that he is a practicing Muslim .
He said people would call him Jamal or Salami .
… Muhammad said the stress of the environment took a toll on his health .
He gained weight and was crippled by anxiety .
He said he almost called a suicide hotline .
Finally , he quit .
Current and former employees said the brewery department was notorious for talk of racism and sexism .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ boys club to this day .
There was a saying on the brewery floor — ‘ no blacks , no b—–s , ’ ” said a current employee who did not give his name for fear of jeopardizing his job .
A former brewery floor worker , who did not give his name because he did not want to affect his current employment , said there was “ constant harassment .
The constant nitpicking .
The constant racial things that were done and allowed to be done because our complaints fell on deaf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worker at the plant from 2013 to 2018 , said he saw the n-word scrawled in a bathroom stall in the brewery and a swastika carved into a locker room wall .
He recalled a conversation with Ferrill in March 2016 , while they were on break watching college basketball games .
“ He was a cool guy , didn ’ t show any type of aggression , ” Powell said .
But when Powell , who is black , said he was thinking of applying to transfer to the brewery , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They will hate on you down there.
” … Employees said that the noose on Ferrill ’ s locker was discussed at a brewery-wide meeting held in the “ stables ” of the brewery , a historic room that once housed the draft horses but now is a meeting space .
Ken Litke , then the brewery manager , led the meeting , employees said .
“ He said , ‘ Obviously this isn ’ t right .
We don ’ t tolerate this , ’ ” the current employee recalled , adding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each other .
“ It was the kind of thing you would expect a brewery manager to say.
” … State Sen. Lena Taylor , a Democrat who is running for mayor of Milwaukee , said she has spoken to employees since the shooting about what she characterized as “ a racially toxic environment ” at the plant .
“ Based on what the colleagues have told me , [ Ferrill ] had to deal with a lot , ” she said .
“ So do I believe it was a contributing factor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question I believe the racial harassment was a contributing factor .
I don ’ t see how it would not be.
” In 1984 — when the Milwaukee plant was still owned by Miller — William K. Coors , then chairman and chief executive of Adolph Coors Co. , was quoted saying that black people lack “ intellectual capacity.
” The Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP called for a boycott , and more than 500 Southern California liquor stores stopped selling Coors beer .
The company signed agreements with black and Hispanic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minority-owned businesses and increase the number of minority distributors .
In 1994 , Miller Brewing Company paid $ 2.7 million to settle a racial harassment suit brought by black workers at the company ’ s plant in Fulton , N.Y. , according to news reports at the time .
The workers alleged they had been subjected to harassment that included racist graffiti , nooses and racial slurs broadcast over the brewery ’ s public address system .
The company closed the plant shortly before settling the lawsuit and laid off 900 workers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the “ powerhouse ” utility area of the 82-acre plant .
“ His personality made him a target , ” said the current employee , who had known Ferrill for more than a decade .
“ He was a soft-spoken guy.
” … But co-workers said he was struggling at work .
He had long suffered chronic back pain that left him frustrated and may have impacted his ability to work , according to lawyer Steven C. Gabert , a personal injury attorney who represented Ferrill after a car accident .
Ferrill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coors made him happy , paid well and allowed him to support his family — his wife , two adult children and a younger daughter — but added that working as an electrician at multiple buildings around the campus was more physically demanding than it seemed .
He was off work for a time on a workers ’ compensation claim and became convinced that the company was spying on him and that his house had been broken into , colleagues said .
He expressed that fear to neighbors as well .
According to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighbor , Erna Roenspies , that the company “ spies ” were checking up on him to make sure he was really sick .

Earlier:2011—Omar Thornton's Victims Exonerated Of Racism and 2016—NYT: and Did Those 5 Dead White Dallas Cops Have It Coming?
From the Washington Post:
Noose found on gunman’s locker at Milwaukee Coors facility years before deadly shooting
By Annie Gowen and Katie Zezima
March 4, 2020 at 7:20 a.m. PST
Police have not provided a motive for the Feb. 26 rampage, which ended when gunman Anthony Ferrill killed himself inside the iconic brewery that has produced Miller beer for more than a century. Police also have not said racism played a part in the shooting deaths.
“I don’t believe that was a factor,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morale during an interview on news radio station WTMJ.
Ferrill, who is black, worked as an electrician at the facility for 17 years.
Six current and former employees and others with knowledge of the brewery said overtly racist acts have occurred there for years. A noose was found on Ferrill’s locker in 2015, they said, prompting a brewery-wide meeting with human resources.
The employees also described a workplace where minority workers were subject to racist language and taunts based on their religion.
“Everyone knows the environment we worked in. It’s just a sad situation that it actually happened,” said former brewery worker Jelani Muhammad of the noose on Ferrill’s locker.
Molson Coors said Ferrill was not working the day the noose was reported.
“Our HR team notified him of the incident, it was investigated fully, no camera footage was available to show who placed it on the locker,” the company said in a written statement to The Washington Post. …
Muhammad, who worked at the brewery from 2015 to 2019, said he endured taunts from co-workers about his name and the fact that he is a practicing Muslim. He said people would call him Jamal or Salami. …
Muhammad said the stress of the environment took a toll on his health. He gained weight and was crippled by anxiety. He said he almost called a suicide hotline. Finally, he quit.
Current and former employees said the brewery department was notorious for talk of racism and sexism.
“It’s a good old boys club to this day. There was a saying on the brewery floor — ‘no blacks, no b—–s,’ ” said a current employee who did not give his name for fear of jeopardizing his job. A former brewery floor worker, who did not give his name because he did not want to affect his current employment, said there was “constant harassment. The constant nitpicking. The constant racial things that were done and allowed to be done because our complaints fell on deaf ears.”
Robert Powell, a sanitation worker at the plant from 2013 to 2018, said he saw the n-word scrawled in a bathroom stall in the brewery and a swastika carved into a locker room wall. He recalled a conversation with Ferrill in March 2016, while they were on break watching college basketball games.
“He was a cool guy, didn’t show any type of aggression,” Powell said. But when Powell, who is black, said he was thinking of applying to transfer to the brewery, he said Ferrill had a warning: “They will hate on you down there.” …
Employees said that the noose on Ferrill’s locker was discussed at a brewery-wide meeting held in the “stables” of the brewery, a historic room that once housed the draft horses but now is a meeting space. Ken Litke, then the brewery manager, led the meeting, employees said.
“He said, ‘Obviously this isn’t right. We don’t tolerate this,’ ” the current employee recalled, adding that the manager told employees to respect each other. “It was the kind of thing you would expect a brewery manager to say.”…
State Sen. Lena Taylor, a Democrat who is running for mayor of Milwaukee, said she has spoken to employees since the shooting about what she characterized as “a racially toxic environment” at the plant.
“Based on what the colleagues have told me, [Ferrill] had to deal with a lot,” she said. “So do I believe it was a contributing factor? Yes, there’s no question I believe the racial harassment was a contributing factor. I don’t see how it would not be.”
In 1984 — when the Milwaukee plant was still owned by Miller — William K. Coors, then chairman and chief executive of Adolph Coors Co., was quoted saying that black people lack “intellectual capacity.” The Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP called for a boycott, and more than 500 Southern California liquor stores stopped selling Coors beer. The company signed agreements with black and Hispanic groups to hire minorities, invest in minority-owned businesses and increase the number of minority distributors.
In 1994, Miller Brewing Company paid $2.7 million to settle a racial harassment suit brought by black workers at the company’s plant in Fulton, N.Y., according to news reports at the time. The workers alleged they had been subjected to harassment that included racist graffiti, nooses and racial slurs broadcast over the brewery’s public address system. The company closed the plant shortly before settling the lawsuit and laid off 900 workers.
… Ferrill worked as an in-house electrician in the “powerhouse” utility area of the 82-acre plant.
“His personality made him a target,” said the current employee, who had known Ferrill for more than a decade. “He was a soft-spoken guy.”
… But co-workers said he was struggling at work. He had long suffered chronic back pain that left him frustrated and may have impacted his ability to work, according to lawyer Steven C. Gabert, a personal injury attorney who represented Ferrill after a car accident.
Ferrill told Gabert that his career at Molson Coors made him happy, paid well and allowed him to support his family — his wife, two adult children and a younger daughter — but added that working as an electrician at multiple buildings around the campus was more physically demanding than it seemed.
He was off work for a time on a workers’ compensation claim and became convinced that the company was spying on him and that his house had been broken into, colleagues said.
He expressed that fear to neighbors as well. According to the Associated Press, he told a neighbor, Erna Roenspies, that the company “spies” were checking up on him to make sure he was really sick.


vdare--2020-03-04--Ann Coulter: Immigration, Wall Street, War— Why Bernie Is Stll Trump's Nightmare

Four years ago , Bernie probably beat Hillary Clinton—minus the finagling of the Democratic National Committee—by slogging her for her Iraq War vote .
Also , four years ago , Trump destroyed Jeb !
Bush during a debate in the most pro-military state in the union , South Carolina , by calling the Iraq War a `` big , fat mistake ” and saying Jeb !
’ s brother had “ lied ” us into it .
The media heralded this as another Trump gaffe , “ his riskiest departure from the party line , ” as Fortune magazine put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swept the South Carolina primary , walking away with all 50 delegates .
Trump bragged so much about his opposition to the Iraq War that media “ fact-checkers ” worked overtime to prove that he was an Iraq War supporter .
I think they were wrong and Trump was right , but the point is : Both Trump ( the candidate ) and the media knew that the anti-war position was wildly popular with voters .
Then Trump became president , and the only people working overtime on his war stance became his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he ’ s about to start a war with Syria or Iran .
Sanders has also shown remarkable consistency in his contempt for Wall Street .
( There ’ s a reason poor Mike Bloomberg was running . )
To great acclaim , Sanders says things like , “ The billionaire class is scared and they should be scared . ''
He vows to break up banks and impose a wealth tax .
`` We 're prepared to be their worst nightmare , ” he says .
Similarly , back when he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harping about the absurd carried interest tax break that allows hedge fund managers ( and private equity and venture capital managers ) to pay a tax rate of 20 percent on their income , rather than the 39.6 percent the rest of us pay .
Trump complained endlessly about the loophole , saying , “ the hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.
” He said some of these people “ are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax , and I think it ’ s unfair.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York Times reported : “ Defying Republican political gravity , after his heresy of proposing a tax increase , Mr. Trump 's popularity among Republicans rose.
” The sad ending to this story is that then Trump became president and hired half of Goldman Sachs .
More Goldman Sachs employees work in the Trump administration than worked for Presidents Obama and Bush combined .
Gary Cohn , one of these patriotic , salt-of-the-earth Goldman guys , told Trump not to eliminate the carried interest loophole , so he didn ’ t .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tax rate than his secretary .
Maybe a Fidel-admiring revolutionary was never the best champion of even the most popular ideas—just as a vulgar reality TV star wasn ’ t .
Maybe Bernie is dead .
But the universal popularity of hating Wall Street , war and immigration will never die .
Ann Coulter is the author of THIRTEEN New York Times bestsellers—collect them here .
Her book , ¡Adios America !
The Left ’ s Plan To Turn Our Country Into A Third World Hell Hole , was released on June 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Resistance Is Futile !
: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind , was released on August 21 , 2018 .

Four years ago, Bernie probably beat Hillary Clinton—minus the finagling of the Democratic National Committee—by slogging her for her Iraq War vote.
Also, four years ago, Trump destroyed Jeb! Bush during a debate in the most pro-military state in the union, South Carolina, by calling the Iraq War a "big, fat mistake” and saying Jeb!’s brother had “lied” us into it.
The media heralded this as another Trump gaffe, “his riskiest departure from the party line,” as Fortune magazine put it. A week later, Trump swept the South Carolina primary, walking away with all 50 delegates.
Trump bragged so much about his opposition to the Iraq War that media “fact-checkers” worked overtime to prove that he was an Iraq War supporter. I think they were wrong and Trump was right, but the point is: Both Trump (the candidate) and the media knew that the anti-war position was wildly popular with voters.
Then Trump became president, and the only people working overtime on his war stance became his own voters, constantly on edge that he’s about to start a war with Syria or Iran.
Sanders has also shown remarkable consistency in his contempt for Wall Street. (There’s a reason poor Mike Bloomberg was running.)
To great acclaim, Sanders says things like, “The billionaire class is scared and they should be scared." He vows to break up banks and impose a wealth tax. "We're prepared to be their worst nightmare,” he says.
Similarly, back when he was running, Trump alone among Republicans kept harping about the absurd carried interest tax break that allows hedge fund managers (and private equity and venture capital managers) to pay a tax rate of 20 percent on their income, rather than the 39.6 percent the rest of us pay.
Trump complained endlessly about the loophole, saying, “the hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.” He said some of these people “are making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no tax, and I think it’s unfair.”
Clueless as ever, a shocked New York Times reported: “Defying Republican political gravity, after his heresy of proposing a tax increase, Mr. Trump's popularity among Republicans rose.”
The sad ending to this story is that then Trump became president and hired half of Goldman Sachs. More Goldman Sachs employees work in the Trump administration than worked for Presidents Obama and Bush combined.
Gary Cohn, one of these patriotic, salt-of-the-earth Goldman guys, told Trump not to eliminate the carried interest loophole, so he didn’t.
And Warren Buffett continues to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary.
Maybe a Fidel-admiring revolutionary was never the best champion of even the most popular ideas—just as a vulgar reality TV star wasn’t. Maybe Bernie is dead. But the universal popularity of hating Wall Street, war and immigration will never die.
COPYRIGHT 2020 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
Ann Coulter is the author of THIRTEEN New York Times bestsellers—collect them here.
Her book, ¡Adios America! The Left’s Plan To Turn Our Country Into A Third World Hell Hole, was released on June 1, 2015.
Her latest book, Resistance Is Futile!: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind, was released on August 21, 2018.