History for April 7

History for April 7 - On-This-Day.com:
W.K. Kellogg 1860 - Industrialist in food manufacturing, most known for founding of the Kellogg Company, Walter Winchell 1897 - Vaudeville performer, journalist, radio commentator, Billie Holiday 1915 - Jazz singer

  

James Garner (James Scott Bumgarner) 1928 - Actor ("Rockford Files", "Maverick"), Wayne Rogers 1933 - Actor ("M*A*S*H"), David Frost 1939 - TV host ("That Was the Week that Was")
  

1864 - The first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California.


1922 - U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.


1933 - Prohibition ended in the United States.


1940 - Booker T. Washington became the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.


1945 - The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa. The fleet was headed for a suicide mission.


1948 - The musical "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein debuted on Broadway.


1953 - IBM unveiled the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine. It was IBM's first commercially available scientific computer.


1980 - The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions in response to the taking of hostages on November 4, 1979.

Rand Paul: If Rice’s Snooping Wasn’t Political…Why Wasn’t FBI Involved? - Cortney O'Brien

Rand Paul: If Rice’s Snooping Wasn’t Political…Why Wasn’t FBI Involved? - Cortney O'Brien:

"“I don’t think she answered the question,” Paul said on Fox News Wednesday.
If it wasn’t for political reasons and she was really seeking the information for foreign intelligence reasons, Paul wondered, then why wasn’t the FBI involved?

He had more questions."

Deniers?-----New Euro-studies Confirm Sun Dominates Earth’s Climate - Dennis Avery

New Euro-studies Confirm Sun Dominates Earth’s Climate - Dennis Avery
"Last year, the world’s top particle physics research facility, CERN, turned the global warming debate upside down.
CERN found, in the first-ever laboratory analysis of cloud chemistry, that solar variations—not CO2 molecules—were the biggest factor in the earth’s recent warmings! 
To be fair, climate modelers always admitted that clouds were the biggest unsolved mystery in climate change.
CERN’s CLOUD experiment findings are now being used to model predictions for the next 100 years—and the model shows a solar sunspot minimum will soon lower earth’s temperatures by half a degree C. 
The long cold minimum is expected to hit about 2040, and such minimums have historically lasted about 60 years.
Equally important, the solar minimum will come on the heels of the current 20-year “hiatus” in earth’s warming, which has defied the climate modelers..."
Read on!

State Officials' Pension Underfunding Crushing Michigan School Budgets [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

State Officials' Pension Underfunding Crushing Michigan School Budgets [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"In 2000, Michigan’s state-run pension system for public school employees was short $246 million of what it needed to cover future retirees’ benefit checks.
The funding gap exploded more than a hundredfold since then, reaching $26.7 billion in 2016.
The burden of catching up on this underfunded obligation is creating an ongoing budget crisis for public school districts across the state.
For example, the Ann Arbor school district was required to contribute $13.4 million to the system in 2007; by 2016 it had to pay $23.5 million, a 75 percent increase in just nine years. 
Had pension costs stayed at 2007 levels, the district would have had enough money left over to give all 1,180 teachers an $8,475 bonus in 2016.
School districts across the state have experienced increases of comparable magnitudes.
James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, did an analysis of the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System from 2007 to 2015.
The unfunded liability grew from $5.8 billion to $26.7 billion over that time..."

TapWires - Schumer: Ditch Gorsuch for a 'Mainstream Nominee' While He and the Dems Continue Their Treason

TapWires - Schumer: Ditch Gorsuch for a 'Mainstream Nominee' While He and the Dems Continue Their Treason:

"It is ok to ignore federal law if you don’t like it.

Harboring fugitives is ok if they will vote democrat.

Supporting an organized criminal conspiracy with “sanctuary” networks hiding illegals, despite the fact they are violent criminals, members of drug cartels, or violent gangs, as long as they are here illegally.

Allowing foreigners to vote in our elections – which is acts of both treason and sedition.

Allowing and encouraging illegal settlement in the U.S. for political purposes by even those whose ideology calls for the destruction of the United States – treason and sedition.

Aiding and abetting violent felons"

Putting federal spending in context | Pew Research Center

Putting federal spending in context | Pew Research Center:
"When thinking about federal spending, it’s worth remembering that, as former Treasury official Peter Fisher once said, the federal government is basically “a gigantic insurance company,” albeit one with “a sideline business in national defense and homeland security.”... "
Read on!

That monster!!-----After saying 'rape culture isn't real,' newly elected student senator shamed into resigning - The College Fix

After saying 'rape culture isn't real,' newly elected student senator shamed into resigning - The College Fix:
"Saying anything on the internet these days is already a minefield.

Running for student government as a fraternity brother while trying not to awaken a self-righteous digital mob might as well be walking on lava.

Just three days after he was elected to the Student Senate at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, Patrick Borum resigned his position. 

What provoked the mob?
A fully debatable claim, one that was made into an entire book by feminist author Wendy McElroy: “Rape culture isn’t real.”

And what provoked Borum to write his terse post?

An “informed consent” survey distributed to GVSU fraternity members, created by college consulting firm Dyad Strategies, that suggests male Greek life is obsessed with dominating women, excusing rape and not being called gay.

Also a member of Kappa Sigma, Borum told the paper he was simply saying it’s “false” that American culture tolerates rape “on a widespread scale,” which is the central idea of rape culture:

There will always be exceptions, but I believe that we do not live in a society where rape is encouraged."

Read on!

Noon-toon

Why Susan Rice’s Reported ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Officials Raises Very Serious Legal Concerns for Her | Law News

Why Susan Rice’s Reported ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Officials Raises Very Serious Legal Concerns for Her | Law News:

"The law imposes criminal sanctions on government officials who “engage in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized” by statutes and governing regulations implementing those statutes. This same criminal law makes a person “guilty of an offense” if she intentionally “discloses or uses information obtained under color of law by electronic surveillance, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained” in a manner “not authorized” by law. "

Health Care: Basic Facts and Hard Truths | National Review

Health Care: Basic Facts and Hard Truths | National Review:
"...But whoever eventually comes up with a replacement for the Affordable Care Act should keep a few hard truths in mind. 
1. Health care is neither a right nor a privilege; it’s a commodity. 
Worse, it’s a finite commodity. 
There are only so many doctors, so many hospitals, and so much money, and there are limits to how much these things can be expanded. 
That’s why no health-care system, outside Bernie Sanders’s fantasies, provides unlimited care to everyone. 
Every health-care system in the world rations care in some way, either through 

• bureaucratic fiat (Scandinavia, the U.K.), 
• waiting lists (Canada), or 
• price (that’s us). 

One can argue about which of these rationing mechanisms is fairest or most efficient, but let’s not pretend that it won’t occur. 
2. Coverage is not access..."
Read on!

100 years ago, war declaration started the ‘American Century’ - SFGate

100 years ago, war declaration started the ‘American Century’ - SFGate:
"...Then, 100 years ago Thursday, the United States declared war on Germany and, following victory in 1918, started what would eventually become known as the “American Century.”
President Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the slogan “He has kept us out of war.” Another of his campaign catchphrases had a more contemporary ring: “America first.”
In Europe, both sides had dug in for trench warfare, relentless shelling and gas attacks in northern France and Belgium.
Some days there were tens of thousands of casualties in unprecedented carnage.
Despite outrage over German destruction and atrocities, it took until April 2, 1917 for Wilson to call for war in an address to Congress.
By then, millions had already died.
The U.S. entry changed everything.
“Why? There was a real deadlock,” said Professor Luc De Vos, a military historian from Leuven University in Belgium.
The arrival of up to 2.1 million U.S. troops became a big factor..."

Student op-ed: Veganism a 'white thing,' not sympathetic to 'victims of racism' - The College Fix

Student op-ed: Veganism a 'white thing,' not sympathetic to 'victims of racism' - The College Fix: "It’s beyond cliché by now to say “just when you think you’ve heard it all”; unfortunately, almost every day something comes along to make you utter it yet again.
This time it’s Audrey Larcher’s op-ed in The Daily Texan.
She contends that “white veganism” refers to the “dominant cruelty-free culture of wealth, privilege and exclusivity” … a “mental image of a pale-skinned bro picking at his quinoa salad,” if you will.
But such is far from harmless, she continues, for “[i]f vegans want to promote sustainable and compassionate diets for the world, their communities must be intersectional.”
American vegans ignore the vegans of color around the world, she notes — Indian, Ethiopian, and East Asian cuisines, after all, demonstrate that veganism has “an international history.”
Even worse, vegans are not sympathetic to those affected by racism, and they even “appropriat[e] minorities’ struggles to advance their own cause.”..."
Read on!

You ought to know!

Raheem Kassam‏Verified account @RaheemKassam

Time to start questioning what is going on in the minds of these editors...

Bribery: New Documents Show IRS Targeting Scandal Was More Expansive - Katie Pavlich

Bribery: New Documents Show IRS Targeting Scandal Was More Expansive - Katie Pavlich:

"“No wonder the Obama IRS has been hiding these records.  The new smoking-gun documents contain admissions by the Obama IRS that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “But the records also show that the abuse continued – as the Obama IRS tried to force conservative applicants to give up their First Amendment rights in order to finally get their applications granted.”"

Some thoughts on Equal Pay Day, an annual event that spreads statistical misinformation about the gender pay gap - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas

Some thoughts on Equal Pay Day, an annual event that spreads statistical misinformation about the gender pay gap - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas:

"...Equal Pay Day on April 4 this year misleadingly represents how far into 2017 a typical woman will allegedly have to continue working to earn the same income that her male counterpart earned last year for doing the exact same job.

This year, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is joining in (“leaning in”) to the annual dissemination of statistical misinformation:

We have to understand that the pay gap is happening to women and men with similar jobs that require similar skills and similar educational levels — and that has a real impact. The number of working women living in poverty would be cut in half if women were just paid the same as men. So this is important for our businesses and this is important for our country.

That type of verifiably false statement about the allegedly widespread practice nationwide of employers illegally using dual-pay scales based on gender follows in a long tradition of feminist legerdemain this time of year. 

For example, in April of 2015 the AAUW’s then-executive director Linda D. Hallman sent a mass email that made this similar verifiably false statement (emphasis added):

Think about it: Women have to work almost four months longer than men do to earn the same amount of money for doing the same job. What’s more, we have to set aside a day each year just to call the nation’s attention to it.

Sandberg’s and Hallman’s statements are statistical fairy tales based on the false assumption that women get paid 20% less than men for doing exactly 
the same work in the 

• exact same occupations and careers, 
• working side-by-side with men on the same job for the 
• same organization (at Facebook?), 
• working the same number of hours per week, 
• traveling the same amount of time for work obligations, with the 
• same exact work experience 
• and education, with 
• exactly the same level of productivity, etc. 

...And if those blatant illegal violations are so supposedly widespread, the NCPE and gender activists should be encouraging female victims to report that employer misconduct to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a charge of gender discrimination is easy, here’s the website to start the process.

Related: See my related CD post “Evidence of employers paying women 20% less than men for the exact same work is as elusive as Bigfoot sightings.”

The reality is that you can only find a 20% gender pay gap by comparing raw, aggregate, unadjusted full-time median salaries, i.e. when you control for NOTHING that would help explain gender differences in salaries like:
Read on.
Stop the lies!

AM Fruitcake