Posts Tagged ‘Austin American Statesman’
Friday, April 5th, 2024
Hope you’ve got your taxes done. I’m still working on mine.
“Summers: Inflation Reached 18% In 2022 Using The Government’s Previous Formula.”
Numerous commentators—especially those defending President Biden’s economic record—have puzzled over why Americans are sour about the state of the U.S. economy. Unemployment rates have returned to pre-pandemic lows, commentators correctly point out, and the official rate of inflation is declining. So why are Americans ignoring the view of many experts that the economy is doing well?
According to a striking new paper by a group of economists from Harvard and the International Monetary Fund, headlined by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, the answer is that Americans have figured out something that the experts have ignored: that rising interest rates are as much a part of inflation as the rising price of ordinary goods. “Concerns over borrowing costs, which have historically tracked the cost of money, are at their highest levels” since the early 1980s, they write. “Alternative measures of inflation that include borrowing costs” account for most of the gap between the experts’ rosy pictures and Americans’ skeptical assessment.
“Backlash Is Real‘: DEI Exodus Gains Steam Across Corporate America.”
The unraveling of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives was seen on the state level, as Red states rushed to ban DEI programs in 2023. Google, Facebook, and other tech companies slashed DEI staff by late last year. Early this year, universities began rolling back diversity programs, while Harvard President Claudine Gay was demoted.
DEI was doomed to fail, and corporations have been quickly scrambling to abandon mindless and profitless diversity programs with Marxist roots. The latest earnings call data shows that “DEI” mentions have collapsed from their peak in 2021, according to Axios, citing data from AlphaSense.
In January, Johnny Taylor, president of the Society for Human Resource Management, told Axios that corporate executives are fed up with DEI.
“The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before,” Taylor said, adding, “CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong” since George Floyd’s murder in early 2020.
Kevin Clayton, senior vice president and head of social impact and equity for the Cleveland Cavaliers, said the chief diversity officer role was all the rage across corporate America after Floyd’s murder. He said companies filled these positions “out of gilt,” and hiring wasn’t the best.
Axios noted, “Some businesses are cutting back funding, trimming DEI staff — and even considering pulling back on things like employee resource groups comprised of workers of various races, ethnicities or interests.”
The pushback on DEI is finding momentum across corporations and universities. Subha Barry, former head of diversity at Merrill Lynch, told Bloomberg last month: “We’re past the peak.”
Let’s hope so.
No one at the wheel: “Biden Reportedly Has No Idea He Issued ‘Trans Day Of Visibility’ Proclamation.”
Gen Z hates the lousy Biden economy and favors Trump over Biden. Though a word to those Gen Z sorts who complain about a 9-5 schedule being “unnatural”: A “natural” schedule is performing backbreaking hunter/gatherer or subsistence agriculture work from dawn to dusk 6-7 days a week and dropping dead before you turn 40…
Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin vetoes dozens of gun control bills.
Boston takes over Soldiers Home to house illegal aliens.
Ukrainian drones hit a Russia drone production facility at Yelabuga, Tatarstan, which is almost 1,000 miles inside Russia, using a drone that looks a whole lot like a light aircraft.
Ukraine hits another Russian airbase with over 40 drones, and presumably took out even more Su-34s.
Whoops, make that three Russian airbases hit. including reports of three Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” bombers damaged. (Yes, Russia still has a propeller-driven bomber in service. It can carry nuclear weapons and launch cruise missiles.)
Watch President of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali absolutely dismantle a BBC reporter over his attempt to guilt him over global warming. It’s good to see that there’s at least one world leader who hasn’t drunk the green Kool-Aid…
Gun crimes evidently mean being released without bail if the perp is an illegal alien.
“Cost estimates more than double to replace failing Austin arts center building.” Note the “Extended community engagement: $1 million” which is code for “Payoffs to leftwing activists.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
“UT Austin Closes DEI-Focused Division of Campus and Community Engagement, ‘Redistributes’ Programs.” Let’s hope the “redistribution” doesn’t just end up infecting other department.
“Paxton Seeks to Investigate Boeing Parts Supplier, DEI Initiatives. Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to investigate Spirit AeroSystsems after public outrage involving Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing issues.”
Boeing stated in 2022 that “for the first time in our company’s history, we tied incentive compensation to inclusion.”
Boeing’s 2023 Global Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion report explains that “diversity must be at the table for every important decision our company makes – every challenge we face, every innovation we design. Equity, diversity and inclusion are core values because they make Boeing — and each of us individually — better.”
According to the report, racial and ethnic minorities now hold 41.4 percent of jobs in the U.S. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Unit, and 28.3 percent in the U.S. Boeing Defense, Space, and Security. In 2022, U.S. racial and ethnic minorities made up 47.5 percent of new hires at Boeing.
You know what I want at the table for every important Boeing decision? Planes not falling out of the sky.
Harvard: Segregation now, segregation forever!
“Trans woman [that is to say, a man] pleads guilty after threatening to kill, rape school children in Illinois.” According to the virtue signaling sign people, love is love even when it’s murderous hate…
Intel lost $7 billion last year. Intel has a technology roadmap to get its process tech back on track, but failure to execute on previous nodes is what got them into this mess.
“Sir Maejor Page accused of creating bogus BLM charity to swipe nearly $500K to buy lavish home, guns facing fraud trial.” #BlackLivesMatter was (and is) a scam all the way down. (Hat tip: Dwight.) (Previously.)
In addition to having fingers in the pie in Syria and Yemen in addition to their proxy war with Israel, Iran also has to deal with Sunni Baluch separatist organization Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) on their own territory, where they killed at least 11 Iranian security force members.
“Journalists with the Austin American-Statesman are on strike once again.” Time to break this out again:
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Steve Wozniak sues YouTube over fake crypto endorsement videos.
City says mobile car wash isn’t.
Yes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny lost a ton of money.
“Belew, Vai, Levin and Carey Play 80’s King Crimson.” Sign me up. Edited to Add: Crap, tickets went on sale for the Austin show in September TODAY. I was just barely able to snag two tickets in nosebleed…
The Lock-Picking Lawyer wants you to see how his Big Dick performs.
If it weren’t bad enough that illegal aliens were taking all the lawn maintenance jobs…(language warning)
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, aircraft, Austin, Austin American Statesman, Boeing, Border Controls, Boston, Crime, DEI, dogs, drones, education, fraud, Glenn Youngkin, Global Warming, gun control, Guns, Guyana, Harvard, Illegal Aliens, Illinois, inflation, Intel, Iran, Jaish al-Adl, Jihad, Ken Paxton, King Crimson, Larry Summers, LinkSwarm, Lock-Picking Lawyer, Massachusetts, Media Watch, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, New York City, Regulation, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, segregation, Semiconductors, Sir Maejor Page, Social Justice Warriors, Spirit AeroSystsems, Steve Wozniak, Su-34, Tatarstan, Texas, transexual, Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" bomber, University of Texas, Yelabuga, YouTube
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Budget, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, video, Waste and Fraud | 4 Comments »
Friday, February 9th, 2024
The Senate’s bad border deal goes down badly, Big Brother is (still) watching you, Netanyahu tells everyone calling for a Gaza ceasefire to stick it in their murder tunnels, more Democrats arrested for (or convicted of) fraud, and a tiny bit of Disney news. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
Republicans took one look at the abomination of a “bipartisan” border deal and declared it dead on arrival.
In a key vote on Wednesday, Senate Republicans moved to block the long-anticipated bipartisan border deal, which ties border-security provisions to aid for both Israel and Ukraine.
The bill was blocked in a 49 to 50 procedural vote, with only four Republicans joining Democrats in backing the legislation. The bill needed 60 votes to advance.
This setback comes after months of negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats on a measure President Joe Biden strongly requested. While the GOP wants more resources allocated toward the southern border, House Republicans and former president Donald Trump have made it clear they don’t want the legislation tied to foreign aid.
Hours after the bill’s details were revealed Sunday night, House GOP leaders rejected the package and declared it “DEAD on arrival in the House.”
Trump, who has made the border crisis a central issue of his 2024 presidential campaign, also weighed in on the border deal earlier this week. “Don’t be STUPID!!! We need a separate Border and Immigration Bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape, or form!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Before the Senate voted on the matter, Biden blamed Trump for Republicans’ fierce opposition to the bill.
“Now, all indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” Biden said Tuesday. “Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump.”
Hey Biden, I’m already going to vote for Trump. You don’t need to keep giving me new reasons.
The $118 billion Senate proposal includes about $60 billion in Ukraine funding, $14 billion in Israel aid, and $20 billion in border-security improvements, among various other items listed in the legislative package.
Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitt Romney of Utah were the only Republicans to vote in favor of the bill on Wednesday.
Lankford should be ashamed to be in such company.
Texas isn’t taking the Biden Administrations abrogation of the rule of law lying down. “Texas Attorney General’s Legal Challenge to Biden Administration’s ‘Asylum Rule’ Will Proceed. A federal judge ruled Texas raised a plausible claim that the federal government is violating the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”
The Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) announced a procedural victory in one of its many ongoing lawsuits against the federal government this week, after a federal district judge ruled against a motion by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to dismiss a legal challenge to its “asylum rule,” saying Texas had a plausible constitutional challenge.
According to the OAG, the federal government violated the Appointments Clause in the U.S. Constitution when the DHS granted power to review asylum cases to immigration officers — a power uniquely held under federal statute by immigration judges.
“This case offers a rare opportunity to litigate the application of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, which states that Congress may only vest the power to appoint “inferior Officers… in the President alone, the Courts of Law, or the Heads of Departments,” the OAG wrote in a press statement regarding the case.
The office explained that by using asylum officers to perform jobs Congress assigned to judges when said officers were not appointed in the same manner, DHS violated the Constitution.
The OAG also argues that asylum officers are granting more noncitizens asylum than otherwise would be entitled to it. This is causing surges at the border and population increases that are in turn increasing the state’s costs relating to the increases, the state says.
“It is tremendously important for Texas and for our Constitutional order that this case is allowed to move forward,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said regarding the case. “The Biden Administration must not be permitted to ignore Congress and violate the Constitution. We take every opportunity to hold Biden accountable for his unlawful overreach.”
Know who else isn’t wild about Biden’s open borders? Border Patrol agents.
Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents have slammed the Senate’s $118B Senate funding bill that would guarantee 1.5 million illegal migrants entry to the United States, while sending the majority of funds to Ukraine ($60B+) and Israel ($14.1B).
Snip.
“Now that I’ve seen more of it, they can respectfully go fuck themselves. The more I’m seeing the more it just puts what they’ve been doing in writing. You want to shut this down, it’s real easy. Team up [the Department of Defense] with DHS and let us enforce like we were supposed to,” one agent told the Caller, adding “I feel like we are the only nation in the world that is this dumb about the border. Maybe it’s because we haven’t.”
Oh, and “Aliens from noncontiguous countries shall not be included in the sum of aliens encountered.” Did America’s enemies write this thing?
Ted Cruz had his own border security bill that wasn’t considered.
Cruz went on to say he knew [the Biden border bill] “had zero chance of passage” and that the entire purpose of the bill was to give “political camouflage to Democrats running in November.”
“Joe Biden can secure the border any day he wants,” Cruz said. “He doesn’t want to.”
The Secure the Border Act, which passed in the lower chamber as as House Resolution (H.R.) 2, was introduced to the Senate by Cruz in September of 2023, a fact he highlighted Wednesday, saying to “give me Ukraine aid and H.R. 2 and I’ll vote for that.”
H.R. 2 would have continued construction of the border wall, reinstated the “remain in Mexico” policy, and added border patrol agents and technology for both the southern and northern borders.
“Democrats do not want to secure the border; they want this invasion,” Cruz continued. “The Americans who are dying as a result, they’re [Democrats] willing to look the other way.”
“Matt Taibbi Warns ‘Financial Big Brother Is Watching You.'”
A few weeks ago, Ohio congressman and Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan’s office released a letter to Noah Bishoff, the former director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, an arm of the Treasury Department. Jordan’s team was asking Bishoff for answers about why FinCEN had “distributed slides, prepared by a financial institution,” detailing how other private companies might use MCC transaction codes to “detect customers whose transactions may reflect ‘potential active shooters.’”
The slide suggested the “financial company” was sorting for terms like “Trump” and “MAGA,” and watching for purchases of small arms and sporting goods, or purchases in places like pawn shops or Cabela’s, to identify financial threats.
Jordan’s letter to Bishoff went on:
According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of “extremism” indicators that include “transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,” or “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”
During the Twitter Files, we searched for snapshots of the company’s denylist algorithms, i.e. whatever rules the platform was using to deamplify or remove users. We knew they had them, because they were alluded to often in documents (a report on the denylist is_Russian, which included Jill Stein and Julian Assange, was one example).
However, we never found anything like the snapshot Jordan’s team just published:
The highlighted portion shows how algorithmic analysis works in financial surveillance.
First compile a list of naughty behaviors, in the form of MCC codes for guns, sporting goods, and pawn shops.
Then, create rules: $2,500 worth of transactions in the forbidden codes, or a number showing that more than 50% of the customer’s transactions are the wrong kind, might trigger a response.
The Committee wasn’t able to specify what the responses were in this instance, but from previous experience covering anti-money-laundering (AML) techniques at banks like HSBC, a good guess would be generation of something like Suspcious Activity Reports, which can lead to a customer being debanked.
If Facebook, Twitter, and Google have already shown a tendency toward wide-scale monitoring of speech and the use of subtle levers to apply pressure on attitudes, financial companies can use records of transactions to penetrate individual behaviors far more deeply. Especially if enhanced by AI, a financial history can give almost any institution an immediate, unpleasantly accurate outline of anyone’s life, habits, and secrets. Worse, they can couple that picture with a powerful disciplinary lever, in the form of the threat of closed accounts or reduced access to payment services or credit. Jordan’s slide is a picture of the birth of the political credit score.
Tiabbi says worse revelations are to come…
“Netanyahu Rejects Hamas Cease-Fire Demands, Vows to Fight until ‘Absolute Victory.'”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas cease-fire demands on Wednesday, vowing to fight on until “absolute victory.”
Netanyahu made the comments shortly after meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who arrived in the region Tuesday night after meeting with leaders of Qatar and Egypt in the most serious diplomatic push of the war to secure a cease-fire agreement. Through these diplomatic channels, Hamas presented Israel with a proposal for a three-stage cease-fire that would last for 135 days and culminate in the end of the war.
“Surrendering to Hamas’s delusional demands that we heard now not only won’t lead to freeing the captives, it will just invite another massacre.”
Indeed.
The Special Counsel’s report on Biden’s mishandling paints a picture of Biden’s mental decline we all know is true but which the media refuses to report.
President Biden couldn’t even remember when he was vice president or when his son Beau had died, leading special counsel Robert Hur to conclude that he could not bring charges for mishandling of classified documents, because a jury would see the president “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In a report, Robert Hur concluded that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” But he declined to issue any charges, in part because Biden’s poor recollection would make him hard to convict.
If you want to see Fani Willis taken down only the way Ace of Spades can, then I direct your attention to “CashApp Cougar Fani Willis: Okay, Fine, So I Used Taxpayer Money to Hire a Human Meat-Mallet to Pound My Snizz Into Thin Tender Strips Like Veal Scallopini.” (Hat tip: Reader Tig if Brue.)
No less than 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority just caught federal charges for over $2 million in bribes. We call that “A good start.”
“ICE Operation Nabs a Dozen Illegal Aliens Convicted of Crimes Against Children.”
Radical, Soros-backed leftist Travis County DA has a primary opponent in Jeremy Sylestine.
“Former Houston Mayor Turner’s Senior Aide Sentenced Over Bribes Related to City Permits.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut admits that his favorite Americans aren’t Americans.
Open borders in the UK means giant lines for NHS dentists.
In order to push green graft, the Biden Administration has designated Martha’s Vineyard as “low income” so they can get EV subsidies.
The Austin City Council will vote on creating a giant slush fund for left-wing activists. Of course they’re calling it an “Environmental Investment Plan”…
Kentucky tranny gets no jail time for molesting a baby.
Pakistan had an election and both sides claim they won.
Is China exporting deflation to the world?
In China, 30 million WeChat accounts are shut down in a single day.
Did a “SIM swapping crew” steal $400 million from FTX the same day it declared bankruptcy? That timing seems…suspicious.
Members of the Austin American-Statesman took one look at the vast wave of layoffs hitting newsrooms across the country and decided “Now is the perfect time to go on strike!” (Note: Elon Musk should buy the name, fire everyone, and build a national quality newspaper from scratch.)
YouTube threatens Louis Rossmann and FUTO for violating the terms of service for the APIs they’re not using.
Microsoft Edge is stealing Chrome tabs.
Dell demands all workers (no matter how far away) return to the office. Those who don’t will be “placed on a ‘career limiting’ fully remote contract. In my experience, working for Dell is itself career limiting…
Man shoots home invader…with a musket.
Disney is evidently moving all hand animation to other countries. “I feel like this is punishment for the Burbank studio for delivering a terrible movie [Wish].” More.
Disney makes $1.5 billion investment in Fortnite creator Epic Games. Fremium games are a very tricky space, and Fortnite has been around since 2017. There’s a strong possibility that Disney has bought high here.
Mojo Nixon, RIP.
Budget drag race community comes together to help fan with terminal brain tumor who’s also the happiest guy they know. “Don’t feel bad for me. Everyone’s terminal.”
Former Houston Texas receiver Andre Johnson finally assumes his rightful place in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Who do you think treats dogs better: Palestinians or Israelis?
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:2024 Election, Andre Johnson, Austin, Austin American Statesman, Austin City Council, Benjamin Netanyahu, Border Controls, bribes, China, Chris Murphy, Crime, data security, Dell Computer, Democrats, Disney, dogs, environmentalism, Fani Willis, fraud, FTX, FUTO, Gaza, Google, Hollywood, Houston, Houston Texans, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Israel, Israel-Hamas War, James Lankford, Jeremy Sylestine, Jihad, Jim Jordan, Joe Biden, Ken Paxton, Kentucky, LinkSwarm, Lisa Murkowski, Louis Rossmann, Martha's Vineyard, Matt Taibbi, Microsoft, Mitt Romney, New York City, NFL, NHS, Noah Bishoff, Pakistan, Paul Joseph Watson, pedophilia, privacy rights, sex offender, Susan Collins, Sylvester Turner, Ted Cruz, Texas, Travis County, UK
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 3 Comments »
Sunday, June 13th, 2021
If you live outside Austin, you may be unaware that at least 13 people were injured in a shooting in downtown Austin early Saturday morning since none of the victims died:
During a briefing Saturday morning, Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon said the shooting happened at 400 E. 6th Street, which is near Trinity Street. There are many bars in the area. The initial 911 call about shots fired came in at about 1:24 a.m.
Chacon said 11 people are now receiving treatment at one hospital, while one victim went to a separate hospital and another received treatment at an emergency room. There are no deaths to report at this time.
Two of these patients are in critical condition, according to Chacon.
Police said they are still searching for the suspected gunman. Chacon could only share a vague description at this time. He said the suspect may be a Black man with a “skinny” build and locs-style hair. A motive for the shooting is not yet known.
“Locs-style” evidently means “dreadlocks.” I was previously unaware of this new linguistic usage.
“Skinny black guy with dreadlocks” would seem to be a specific enough description for police to start interviewing possible suspects, but not for the social justice-infected partisans at the Austin American-Statesman:
Translation: “We don’t want to tell you the shooter is black.” Despite their efforts, one suspect is in custody.
Back in 2019, I noted that Sixth Street (long known as Austin’s nightlife bar row) had gotten so dangerous that there’s a YouTube channel dedicated to Sixth Street brawls. (I’d provide a sample, but they’re non-embedable.)
This is just yet another example of Austin’s long slide into disorder and lawlessness engendered by the policies of Mayor Steve Adler, Austin City Councilman Greg Casar and his fellow travelers, and Travis County DA Jose Garza, who inflict this chaos on law-abiding Austin citizens while stripping away the Austin Police Department capability to maintain order.
Austinites are suffering through a crime wave because the hard left Democrats in charge of the city have inflicted policies designed to increase crime in the name of “Social Justice.”
Update: One of the shooting victims has died. “Police identified the victim Sunday as 25-year-old Douglas John Kantor.”
Tags:Austin, Austin American Statesman, Austin City Council, Austin Police Department, Crime, Democrats, Douglas John Kantor, Greg Casar, Jose Garza, Joseph Chacon, Media Watch, Sixth Street, Social Justice Warriors, Steve Adler
Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
Another day, another press scandal, this time in Texas:
Another Houston Chronicle journalist flagged me with questions about the accuracy of a story written by veteran Austin reporter Mike Ward. Ward joined the Chronicle in 2014 after a long career with the Austin American-Statesman. Specifically, questions were raised about whether individuals quoted in one of his stories were real people.
Our own researchers, after an initial review, had difficulty finding a number of sources cited in Ward’s most recent reports.
Ward has insisted that his work was truthful, that his work involved real people, and that we would eventually find the individuals behind his “man-on-the-street” interviews. However, given the questions this review raised, he offered to resign and I accepted that resignation last week. If we were in another business, that might be enough.
As a journalism organization, we owe the public more. We owe our readers the truth and to tell you if, in fact, there were inaccuracies in anything we published. We simply do not know the full story yet.
To help us ferret this out, we have hired an independent, highly respected journalist to review Ward’s work for the last year, or further, if necessary, and determine whether any reporting transgressions occurred. We have given that journalist full access to our archives and promised access to our editors as well. Investigative work takes time, and it can be tedious. Tracking down and verifying sources, especially across a year or more of work, requires significant legwork.
Ward frequently reported on state politics.
At least the Chronicle was kind enough to make a public statement about it.
Once again: If members of the media want to know why the public has lost faith in them, they need only look in the mirror.
Tags:Austin, Austin American Statesman, Houston, Houston Chronicle, Media Watch, Mike Ward, Texas
Posted in Austin, Media Watch, Texas | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 9th, 2018
My oldest dog is dying of cancer, which has rather put a crimp in my time and desire to blog, so posting may be a bit sparse for a few days. Enjoy an abbreviated LinkSwarm:
ICE conducts more raids in California. Evidently enforcing federal law is controversial when it conflicts with the Democratic Party’s goals of importing more illegal aliens… (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
The popularity of incumbent Democratic senators up for reelection this year in states Trump won is under water.
China: Colossus or Paper Dragon?
“Sri Lanka Declares Nationwide Emergency After Buddhist-Muslim Clashes.”
Nice one, Brigid at Borepatch:
You’re a passenger in a light plane. Your pilot dies. Can you get the plane safely to the ground? (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Invasion of the stinkbug swarm. (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
Oberlin College “got woke” and now they’re going broke, thanks to declining enrollment and a variety of Social Justice Warrior idiocies, including sexual misconduct showtrials and #BlackLivesMatter pandering. Now they’re complaining that they can’t get a fair trial in their own namesake town because everybody hates them.
Austin American-Statesman sold to GateHouse media for $47.5 million. The sale doesn’t include the land the Statesman building sits on, which is worth considerably more than the newspaper… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags:2018 Election, Austin, Austin American Statesman, Border Controls, California, Democrats, dogs, Elections, LinkSwarm, Oberlin College
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Texas | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2015
Happy Cinco de Mayo! My efforts to move the LinkSwarm back to it’s usual Friday position by posting early have failed, so I’m trying to get it there by letting it drift back one day later each time…
“Canadian Partnership Shielded Identities of Donors to Clinton Foundation.” Just in case you missed that. Because trying to keep up with all the sleazy bribery angles of the Clinton Foundation is like trying to drink from the firehose…
Speaking of which:
“Hillary may want to talk about inequality, but is there any better example of a couple who gorged at the trough of Wall Street and foreign autocrats, chose not to follow the rules, never could stop chasing more and more money and (in Hillary Clinton’s case) went to extraordinary lengths to destroy “personal” e-mails that might have pulled back the curtain on all that?” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Hillary hires Scott Hogan, an organizer of the failed “Everytown” gun-grabber astroturf to run her “Grassroots” campaign. Hopefully he’ll bring Hillary the same outstanding success he brought to gun control…
Russian stooges in Ukraine: “Soviet terror famine? No, that was all just a big misunderstanding!” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Islamic State murders 600 more Yezidis. (Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)
The Islamic State also claimed post facto credit for the Garland attack.
Speaking of which, here’s an interview with Bosch Fawstin, the winner of the Draw Mohammed contest. (Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.)
Emergency room visits up under ObamaCare.
Lefty lawyer Laurence Tribe calls Obama’s “force everyone to use green energy without congressional approval” plan unconstitutional. “After studying the only legal basis offered for the EPA’s proposed rule, I concluded that the agency is asserting executive power far beyond its lawful authority.”
Drug cartel violence heats up in Mexico: “Gunmen shot down a Mexican military helicopter Friday in the western state of Jalisco, killing three soldiers, and set fire to buses, blocked roads, and attacked banks and gas stations in a sharp escalation of violence against the government.” This is evidently the handiwork of the New Generation drug cartel.
Minimum wage hike hits San Francisco Comic Store.
When the Social Justice Warriors started attacking the company Protein World over their “Beach Ready” ad campaign, Protein World didn’t cave, they fought back. Result: They earned an additional $1 million in four days.
Not understanding that the Presidency is not an entry level job, and that the Republican field was already packed, Ben Carson joins the Presidential race.
Ditto Carly Fiorina, whose tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard was not an unqualified success, and whose 2010 California Senate race lost to Barbara Boxer by 16 points.
And evidently Mike Huckabee is going to run as well.
Texas Democrats are furious that a new ethics bill might keep them from scratching each other’s backs. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
The Austin American Statesman is moving printing and packing operations to San Antonio and Houston, resulting in about a 100 jobs lost in Austin. Previously. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Social Justice Warriors can’t even win elections at UCLA.
Austin’s Highland Mall closed on April 30th.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Austin, Austin American Statesman, Ben Carson, Border Controls, Bosch Fawstin, Carly Fiorina, Charlie Hebdo, Clinton Foundation, Communism, Crime, Democrats, drug lords, Elections, Everytown for Gun Safety, Garland, Garland Shooting, genocide, gun control, Hewlett-Packard, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Holodomor, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jalisco, Laurence Tribe, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Mexico, Mike Huckabee, Military, New Generation drug cartel, ObamaCare, Regulation, Republicans, Russia, Texas, Ukraine, Yezidis
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Regulation, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
I’m not sure if you noticed (and it’s entirely possible you haven’t), but the Austin American-Statesman has instituted a paywall on their website. Obviously the Statesman feels that their slow, steady decline just isn’t getting the job done, so they’ll move straight to assisted suicide.
The Statesman website was not my first choice for news. Or my second. Or my tenth. In fact, they probably come in slightly ahead of Pravda (though behind Russia Today, which is pretty quick at putting up relevant disaster videos). Despite living in Austin for decades, I’ve never subscribed to the Statesman, and purchases of single issues has been limited to the day after national elections and UT winning a national football championship.
The Statesman was never a great newspaper in the best of times, and these are not the best of times.
It’s no secret that the Statesman has suffered severe declines in circulation (possibly even more severe than the average suffered by the print newspaper industry a whole), despite publishing in one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. But finding a single source for year by year Statesman circulation figures has proved elusive. Here’s what I found from various heterogeneous sources for daily (rather than Sunday) circulation, so they may very well not line up with “official” circulation figures (especially for the three most recent years), but are probably close enough to the ballpark to get a good idea of the decline.
2004: 184,907
2005: 184,398
2006: 183,952
2007: 173,579
2008: 170,309
2009: 151,520
2010: 142,787
2011: 137,681
2012: 125,305
So, here’s a chart for Daily Average Circulation Figures for the Austin American Statesman for 2004-2012:
(Click to embiggen. Crappy chart courtesy of a 12 year old version of Excel. I’m sure Will Franklin could do much better.)
And some of that most recent number may be even more dubious, given that sometimes the Statesman won’t actually cancel people’s subscription when asked. And try to charge people more than they agreed to for the discount subscriptions they do sell. And don’t always deliver the issues people have actually paid for.
The Statesman has been in a long, steady decline in staff as well. They bought out 71 employees in 2009, another accepted by 33 people in June of 2011, and laid off an additional 53 employees in October 2011. And even after that, more copy editing jobs were to be consolidated in Florida by Cox Media.
Cox tried to sell the paper in 2009, but backed out of the deal.
One big reason for declining newspaper circulation is the obvious and pronounced liberal bias in so much of the MSM. With so many choices for news on the Internet, local news is no longer a reason to continue funding a carrier medium for liberal opinion.
The paywall seems to be the last thing newspapers institute before they go under entirely (a few of the bigger ones excepted). Initial reactions to the move are hardly ecstatic. I don’t expect the Statesman to go straight out of business next year, but I do expect their decline in circulation to accelerate.
Tags:Austin, Austin American Statesman, Media Watch, Texas
Posted in Austin, Media Watch, Texas | 4 Comments »
