History for August 12

History for August 12 - On-This-Day.com
Cecil B. DeMille 1881, William Goldman 1931, Parnelli Jones 1933


George Hamilton 1939 - Actor, Sir Mix-A-Lot 1963 - Rapper, Pete Sampras 1971 - Tennis player


1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.


1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.


1915 - "Of Human Bondage" by William Somerset Maugham was first published.


1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.


1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.


1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.


1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.


2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

Obama Admin. Knew About North Korea's Mini Nukes in 2013

Obama Admin. Knew About North Korea's Mini Nukes in 2013:

"You can chalk this up as another example of President Obama employing his signature strategy for dealing with sticky national security issues: Ignore, discredit, or downplay. If the foreign policy crisis was too big to ignore, he would give a speech -- and kick the can down the road for another president to deal with.
In 2013, Obama not only downplayed the Defense Intelligence Agency's intelligence report about Korea's mini nukes -- he attempted to discredit it. "

Hey Google, Autocomplete This | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD

Hey Google, Autocomplete This | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD:

"Conservatives might very well start looking for other search engines, email accounts, etc., built by firms that don't treat them as if they were unworthy of breathing air. Other companies have found out the hard way that playing politics is risky, since it will invariably upset a good chunk of your customer base, no matter which side a company takes. (Just ask Target.)

This is the beauty of the free market. It offers choices. And that's good, despite what Google's autocomplete might lead to you to believe …."

The way we were-----The Association - Windy - 1967

The Boob tube-----Old Commercials That Would Be "Politically Incorrect" Today

Culture Beat: Rainbow Mafia: Dubious Economics to Further Agenda — The Patriot Post

Culture Beat: Rainbow Mafia: Dubious Economics to Further Agenda — The Patriot Post
"Socially conservative laws are labeled as dangerous for business, while leftist prerogatives are an economic boon.
The Texas Association of Business has been a vocal critic of a proposed transgender bathroom bill — one that would restrict the use of public bathrooms to an individual’s biological sex rather than one’s self-declared gender identity. 
It’s similar to the law that was passed last year in North Carolina. 
So why would a business advocacy group oppose a common-sense law that protects the vast majority of the population? 
Because it fears an economic backlash to the tune of an estimated $8.5 billion in lost business should the bill become law.
In Florida, a small-business advocacy group called Florida Competes has been actively and aggressively pushing for the state to make sexual orientation and gender identity a protected class under the Florida Civil Rights Act. 
The advocacy group maintains that this change would boost Florida’s economy by some $5 billion and add at least 36,000 jobs over the next decade.
What’s driving this connection between business revenue and leftist “social justice”? 
Call it the Rainbow Mafia’s economic carrot-and-stick approach. 
Across the country, these single-minded pressure groups have been promoting their agenda by pouring money into a “network of small-business coalitions that routinely make doom-and-gloom economic prognostications about socially conservative legislation.”...
Read on!

Rapidly rising seas: Scientists discover cause of Atlantic coastline’s sea level rise hot spots - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere

Rapidly rising seas: Scientists discover cause of Atlantic coastline’s sea level rise hot spots - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere:
"Sea level rise hot spots — bursts of accelerated sea rise that last three to five years — happen along the U.S. East Coast thanks to a one-two punch from naturally occurring climate variations, a new University of Florida study shows.
...The combined effects of El Niño (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), both of which are naturally occurring climate processes, drove the recent hot spot, according to the study. Study authors also discovered similar hot spots at various positions along the U.S. eastern seaboard over the past century.
They found that these past hot spots are also explained by the combined influence of ENSO and NAO.
...The finding challenges previous arguments that a hot spot north of Cape Hatteras over the past few decades was due to a slowdown of circulation in the North Atlantic, which is itself due to global warming. 
Instead, study authors discovered the combination of these two naturally occurring ocean-atmosphere processes explained both the timing and the location of hot spots observed along the entire U.S. Atlantic coast, Dutton said..."
Read on.

Ben Carson Is Ending Obama’s Illegal Section 8 Housing Grant Scheme (Video) - BB4SP

Ben Carson Is Ending Obama’s Illegal Section 8 Housing Grant Scheme (Video) - BB4SP:

"Whoop! Way to go Ben Carson.  Thank you for keeping up the good fight against the Obama era corruption. Section 8 housing is riddled with many problems. Hopefully, he can continue to chip away at them by keeping his nose to the grindstone and his eyes on his objective."

The Solution to North Korean Aggression No One Is Talking About | LifeZette

The Solution to North Korean Aggression No One Is Talking About | LifeZette
"When I first suggested writing commentary in support of an embargo of North Korea...
...But the idea is at least worthy of inclusion in the conversation over how to deal with the increasingly aggressive and nuclear regime in Pyongyang.
Any information about North Korea is subject to skepticism because it is a closed society, thus data are not reliable. First, the best estimate for real GDP is about $16 billion.
The 100th-largest city in the United States is Reno, Nevada, and it has the same GDP as the entire country of North Korea: $16 billion.
...There are five major seaports in North Korea: one on the west coast, Nampho, and four on the east coast, Rajin, Chongjin, Wonsan and Hamhung.
Unlike the 1962 blockade of the island of Cuba, my proposed embargo would target the five North Korean ports, with the concentration on the two deep-water ports that can handle large ships.
By stopping the flow of goods in and out of these ports, we could effectively shut down the country's meager economy. 
We can use other ships to patrol the coastline, but the action would be at the ports.
...If we reached out to China, Russia, Japan, Australia and England to supply ships for a proposed embargo, the sheer act of openly talking about the coalition, the number of ships and the specter of total economic collapse may bring Kim to the table.
...According to a CNN August 7 report, North Korea has tested 12 missiles in the first six months of this year.
Real data on what it costs to build and launch these North Korean missiles is challenging to acquire. Some experts suggest a range of $100 million to $200 million per rocket.
If we use the low end of a $100 million price tag, then North Korea spent $1.2 billion in the first six months of 2017.
According to the CIA World Fact Book and as stated above, the budget for North Korea is $3.2 billion for the year; so the $1.2 billion already spent represents one-third of the national budget.
If the North Koreans continue at this pace, they will spend close to 100 percent of their total budget on missile tests. 
The nation's already anemic economy has no buffer space for a total halt of exports.
A full embargo of North Korean ports would be a game-ending catastrophe for the Kim regime, and it should be in the mix as a tool to force the North to the table."

Feminist prof to teach class lamenting 'American Whiteness'

Feminist prof to teach class lamenting 'American Whiteness':
"A feminist professor at Grinnell College is offering a course this fall on “American Whiteness” that will focus on “attacking racism by making whiteness visible.”
The professor declined to provide a current syllabus, but a previous offering of the same course in 2015 described America as a "racist nation" due to the pernicious effects of "whiteness."
..."It is quite possible to avoid hating white people as individuals..."  
...According to the course description, students will learn about the “historical expansion” of whiteness while discussing both the “formal and informal advantages that accrue to whiteness” and potential “challenges to whiteness.”
...“Whiteness is, among much else, a very bad idea,” the syllabus states, quoting Kansas University Professor David Roediger.
“It is quite possible to avoid hating white people as individuals but to criticize the ‘idea of white people in general.’”..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----Stossel: Departments Grow and Cherries Rot

Noon-toon

The Google Gulag | Frontpage Mag

The Google Gulag | Frontpage Mag:

"“This has been a very difficult time.” That’s how Pichai began his letter to Google employees. Some might have thought that he was about to discuss a massive data breach, not an employee writing something that he disagreed with.

It was a difficult time because leftists at Google had to confront the horror of an original thinker in their ranks. Some were so traumatized by his intrusion into their safe space that they threatened to quit.

And so Damore was fired for “advancing harmful gender stereotypes”.  What were these stereotypes?"

Contra Grant On Exaggerated Differences. An article by Adam Grant called Diffe…

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SLATE STAR CODEX: Contra Grant On Exaggerated Differences. An article by Adam Grant called Diffe…:
"An article by Adam Grant called Differences Between Men And Women Are Vastly Exaggerated is going viral, thanks in part to a share by Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg.
It’s a response to an email by a Google employee saying that he thought Google’s low female representation wasn’t a result of sexism, but a result of men and women having different interests long before either gender thinks about joining Google.
Grant says that gender differences are small and irrelevant to the current issue.
I disagree. . . .
...In the year 1850, women were locked out of almost every major field, with a few exceptions like nursing and teaching.
The average man of the day would have been equally confident that women were unfit for law, unfit for medicine, unfit for mathematics, unfit for linguistics, unfit for engineering, unfit for journalism, unfit for psychology, and unfit for biology.
He would have had various sexist justifications – women shouldn’t be in law because it’s too competitive and high-pressure; women shouldn’t be in medicine because they’re fragile and will faint at the sight of blood; et cetera.
As the feminist movement gradually took hold, women conquered one of these fields after another. 51% of law students are now female. 
So are 49.8% of medical students, 45% of math majors, 60% of linguistics majors, 60% of journalism majors, 75% of psychology majors, and 60% of biology postdocs.
Yet for some reason, engineering remains only about 20% female.
And everyone says “Aha! I bet it’s because of negative stereotypes!”
This makes no sense.
There were negative stereotypes about everything!
Somebody has to explain why the equal and greater negative stereotypes against women in law, medicine, etc were completely powerless, yet for some reason the negative stereotypes in engineering were the ones that took hold and prevented women from succeeding there..."
Read it all!

How Did the Democrats' IT Scandal Suspects Get Here?

How Did the Democrats' IT Scandal Suspects Get Here?:
"Here is a radical proposition: The public has a right to know the immigration status and history of foreign criminal suspects.
Their entrance and employment sponsorship records should not be treated like classified government secrets—especially if the public’s tax dollars subsidized their salaries.
...In all, IT worker Imran Awan and his family and friends hoovered up an estimated $4 million in government funds over a period of 13 years.
For months, the D.C. Capitol Police have probed allegations that the Awan ring stole equipment from more than 20 congressional offices and accessed the House IT system without members’ knowledge.
Investigative reporter Luke Rosiak at The Daily Caller News Foundation has done excellent work on the case—most recently breaking the news of Imran Awan’s arrest in late July at the airport for alleged bank fraud, mortgage scams, and shady wire transfers of nearly $300,000.
Awan was headed to Pakistan to join his wife, Hina Alvi, and three children, who had hastily fled America in March after Alvi was fired by Meeks.
This reeks.
My question to the House Democrats was simple: Were the Awans and their family and friends H-1B tech workers—like so many of the 650,000 “temporary” foreign guest workers imported into America under that program over the past quarter-century and predominantly working in IT?
And if they’re not H-1Bs, how exactly did Awan and company get here, when did they get here, and who brought them over here and why?
These are simple questions.
Given that these foreign IT workers now under investigation were paid for with our tax dollars, Americans deserve to know their path to the public trough..."
Read on!!

#1 This day 1974-----The Night Chicago Died

The Latest: Canada sends soldiers to migrant border crossing | Miami Herald

The Latest: Canada sends soldiers to migrant border crossing | Miami Herald:
SAINT-BERNARD-DE-LACOLLE, QUEBEC 
"The Latest on the increasing flow of migrants over the U.S.-Canadian border at a remote spot in northern New York and southern Quebec.

Canada has sent about 100 soldiers to a remote spot on the Quebec-New York border where asylum seekers are crossing illegally.
The Canadian military said in a statement Wednesday that the soldiers will help the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency at the site.
They are preparing a place for tents that can hold almost 500 people.
...The migrants fear the U.S. is becoming less welcoming and have decided to try their luck seeking asylum in Canada. Officials estimate that 400 people crossed the border at the site on Sunday alone.
...The Canadians arrest the migrants as soon as they step across the border..."

You ought to know!

Democratic Congressmen’s Pakistani IT Workers: What Was Their Immigration Status? | National Review

Democratic Congressmen’s Pakistani IT Workers: What Was Their Immigration Status? | National Review:


"The public has a right to know the immigration status and history of foreign criminal suspects. Their entrance and employment sponsorship records should not be treated like classified government secrets — especially if the public’s tax dollars subsidized their salaries."