110 thoughts on “TSN Open Mic for the week of 2/27/2023”

    1. I was more surprised that the ‘peak’ in 1970 was only 13% for men. For English, Philosophy and Languages. Seems low. Is there a reason why History and Economics and other Humanities aren’t included?Report

      1. Besides the cost, a big problem is that many of the algorithms used to shift through job applications before a set of human eyes sees them seem designed to eliminate people with humanities degrees. Even if you go to a big Ivy. Since most Ivy grads have more informal methods of getting jobs, this doesn’t effect them though.Report

  4. Something, something, something Baltimore schools have have zero competent learners, something something…

    Oh wait …

    In the last three state rankings of reading and math proficiency by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (in 2017, 2019 and 2022), Townsend writes, “Florida ranked sixth, fourth and third among states in fourth grade math. In those same years, Florida ranked 33th, 34th and tied for 31st in eighth grade.”

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    Moreover, the rate at which they drop below their peers in other states is accelerating. Townsend explains, “Florida’s overall average NAEP state rank regression between fourth and eighth grade since 2003 is 17 spots (math) and 18 spots (reading). But since 2015, the averages are 27 spots (math) and 19 spots (reading).” In fact, the deterioration in Florida schools “matches and mostly exceeds the negative impact of COVID” nationwide, he writes.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/28/desantis-florida-school-performance/Report

    1. You don’t get it. The problem isn’t that the Baltimore schools are in Baltimore, or that Baltimore is controlled by Democrats. The problem is that those schools are not educating students.Report

          1. What I care about is educational success across the board. Jaybird has confined his discussions if that to a Democratic led city in the mid Atlantic. If he’s as concerned as you say about this, he ought to be here ranting and raving about this drop as well.

            Hell – so should you. But hey, you do you.Report

            1. Personally, I think that this represents an institutional failure too.

              But I don’t think that this is one that will be fixed by more funding either.

              Do you?Report

              5. Well for starters, you can’t recruit or retain effective teachers when you are 48th in teacher pay.

                And frankly you can’t mitigate all the non-school system related factors preventing educational success without additional funds either.Report

              6. The schools in the mid-Atlantic are in the top quintile in the country.

                And they have dozens of schools without a *SINGLE* proficient student and dozens more with only one or two.

                (Personally, I assume massive (like, *MASSIVE*) amounts of fraud and graft going on there.)Report

  5. The humanities did well when fewer people went to university and going to college was a near guarantee of some type of white collar employment. It also helped that before the mid-20th century, the elite educational ideal was too produce all-rounders with a smattering of knowledge about everything rather than specialists. Specialists were always the middle management underlings until recently.Report

  6. Everyone here has seen the reveals about how Fox News deliberately lied to their viewers about nearly everything.

    What is particularly revealing however is the reaction from the viewers. Upon being told that Tucker Carlson and Hannity were straight up lying to them, did the base react with outrage? Astonishment? Disbelief?

    Nope.

    They shrugged and continued watching, swallowing lie after lie after lie. This is one of the many reasons I just don’t take their words or arguments at face value anymore.
    They lie so often, with such breathless self assurance, that I just assume everything they say is a lie until proven otherwise.

    Do they want to peacefully divorce? Nah.
    Do they want abortion returned to the states? Nah.
    Do they care about free speech? nah.
    Federalism? Limited government? Fiscal responsibility? Nah, nah, nah.

    The thing they are clear about, and speak honestly about, is the idea that white males are victims of some wide ranging persecution.Report

    1. ICYMI

      Speaking under oath, Murdoch confirmed the suggestion by a Dominion lawyer that Fox was “trying to straddle the line between spewing conspiracy theories on one hand, yet calling out the fact that they are actually false on the other.”

      Asked by a Dominion attorney whether “Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election,” Murdoch demurred, saying, “Not Fox, no. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria [Bartiromo] as commentators.”

      The lawyer pressed on. Did Fox’s Bartiromo endorse it?

      Murdoch’s reply: “Yes. C’mon.”

      Fox News host Jeanine Pirro? “I think so.”

      Then-Fox Business Network host Dobbs? “Oh, a lot.”

      Fox News prime-time star Sean Hannity? “A bit.”

      Pressed whether they endorsed the narrative of a stolen election, Murdoch finally gave in: “Yes. They endorsed.”

      Of course, the on-air talent didn’t believe it, either:

      In the days and weeks after the 2020 elections, Fox News Channel repeatedly broadcast false claims that then-President Donald Trump had been cheated of victory.

      Off the air, the network’s stars, producers and executives expressed contempt for those same conspiracies, calling them “mind-blowingly nuts,” “totally off the rails” and “completely bs” — often in far earthier terms.

      The network’s top primetime stars — Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity — texted contemptuously of the claims in group chats, but also denounced colleagues pointing that out publicly or on television. …

      [¶]

      Fox News host Maria Bartiromo was first to interview Powell, the Trump attorney, on Nov. 8, 2020, a few days after the election. Powell would become one of Trump’s most fervent legal advocates. In her deposition, Bartiromo conceded Powell’s claims lacked any substantiation.

      Everyone knew it was lies and the on-air talent pushed it anyway because they were afraid of Newsmax eating their audience. And Murdoch, who also knew it was all lies, did nothing to stop it, despite him admitting:

      “I’m a journalist at heart,” the elder Murdoch, who is just two weeks shy of his 92nd birthday, said in his deposition. “I like to be involved in these things.”

      When you’re involved, and you’re doing nothing to stop it, you’re choosing to allow it to happen. Maybe that’s not “endorsement,” but it also fails to exonerate.Report

      1. And my comment isn’t aimed the liars.

        It’s aimed at the people demand they be lied to, and who continue to amplify the lies.

        Because they haven’t stopped lying.

        Covid, Ukraine, groomers, white male grievance, they lie about it constantly.

        I’m done with playing “let’s pretend” and politely giving lies a respectful hearing.Report

    1. I notice that in this election cycle, the Republicans aren’t even hiding it anymore.

      This year, they’ve gone full metal fash, and letting their freak flag fly. Anti-vax bills, book banning bills, child labor bills…Not to mention things like Jessa Duggar getting an abortion with almost certain impunity, while other women live in terror of being forced to choose between prison for an abortion or death by infection.
      In the Before Times, these were the sort of things that Respectable Republicans indignantly assured us were mere hysteria, wild hyperbole that they would never do such a thing. Now? They brag about it.

      Will it work? Bold move, Cotton, lets see how it works for them.Report

      1. The problem with our electoral system is that it insulates Republicans a lot from their worse instincts. This bill is almost certainly doomed to failure but it the craziness will continue.

        The big problem is that the urban-rural divide for partisan affiliation and voting gives the GOP a lot of advantages and their voters clearly want this stuff and can’t resist it. So on the Presidential level, enough people might think this is nuts and it could take the GOP out of the White House for a while. On a state level or even for the House and Senate, there are still a lot of people who might view this as crazy but will not break with the GOP under any circumstances because it means voting for those socialist, atheist, abortion loving, gun hating, prison abolishing, tax raising, DEI enforcing Demycraps.Report

        1. We see this pattern repeated thru history where only a tiny faction actively wants purges and pogroms, but the larger group of petit bourgeoisie can be counted on to shrug and handwoven it away so long as it doesn’t touch them.

          As the Jessa Duggar case shows, Republicans are still confident that the leopards won’t eat their faces.Report

        2. “The problem with our electoral system is that it insulates Republicans a lot from their worse instincts.”

          That’s actually a benefit and it goes in all directions.Report

      2. Many liberal commentators thought that Trump might be able to get away with imposing authoritarian rule on the United States because it would be the boring type of authoritarianism found in South East Asia where normal life is undisturbed for most people as long as they keep their heads down. I knew that the Evangeliban wouldn’t allow for boring authoritarianism and would go for the hardcore stuff.Report

    2. Good riddance. She was dealt a terrible hand coming into office when she did, but she didn’t play it well at all.

      The only downside is we have 2 candidates in the runoff who are beholden to public employee unions. Blech.Report

  13. A good many of us on the left have long argued that when it comes to the global climate crisis, what China and India are doing or not doing about their emissions should not be a factor in US decision making. We can do good things, things that grow new industries, and things that make the Earth more sustainably livable regardless.

    But China’s emissions keep being thrown in our faces. So here’s some interesting reporting by the WaPo – showing fairly conclusively that the Chinese won’t emit more CO2 then the US does until 2050. If that’s true, and the WaPo article presents some compelling evidence, then waiting for the Chinese to clean up their act before us is a red herring.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/global-warming-carbon-emissions-china-us/Report

      1. Also, horse-trading. Neither is possible in a world where people insist that bad-faith actions be treated as the equivalent of good-faith actions.

        I can imagine some things conservatives might suggest in good faith, like legislatively carving out an exception to anti-discrimiantion-in-public-accommodation laws for providers of products and services intended for weddings. That probably wouldn’t violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause on its face the way this proposal does. I don’t know whether I’d support or oppose such a proposal, but I wouldn’t think it offered in bad faith.

        This isn’t such a proposal.

        (N.b., of course, almost no one of any political alignment actually cares about abstract principles of Constitutional law and in particular the nuances of federalism; such things are weapons to use or, alternatively, obstacles to be dodged, in pursuit of victory.)Report

      2. Here’s a totally reasonable non-bigoted Republican who merely wants to curb the excesses of bad DEI:

        “There are those attempting to push a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids they’re in the wrong body and the solution is to drug, sterilize, and castrate themselves.

        To these radical activists I only have one thing to say: Not in Mississippi!Report

    2. Remember how just a couple years ago we were all talking about how same sex marriage was accepted by Republicans, and how wonderful it was and how much progress we have made?

      Like a bad infection, bigotry was just dormant, and now has a breeding ground in Republican circles.Report

  15. Welcome to the party, pal!

    LAPD should stop handling many non-emergency calls, police union says

    As part of its upcoming contract talks, the Los Angeles Police Protective League intends to tell city negotiators that it is willing to let other city departments or nonprofit agencies respond to calls about panhandling, illegal sidewalk vending, urinating in public, mental health episodes in which there is no threat of violence or criminal activity, and dangerous dog complaints in which “no attack is in progress.”
    …
    The proposal coincides with efforts by some council members to shift certain duties away from the LAPD, including traffic enforcement and nonviolent mental health calls. Two of the council’s newest members — Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez — called during last year’s election campaign for the city to shift money out of the LAPD and into social services, such as mental health teams.
    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-01/lapd-officers-want-to-stop-responding-to-nonviolent-callsReport

  16. When leftists write about systemic racism in America, they look at things like this – where Black Americans still suffer redlinning, receive significantly higher mortgage rejections rates, and are more cost burdened by housing costs. None these outcomes is, in and of itself, created or maintained by openly avowed racists. But all of them come from systems that are not race neutral and are maintained by the dominant culture.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/homes/race-and-home-buying-nar/index.htmlReport

    1. It’s worse than that.

      Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.

      It’s about writing about government officials in general!

      This is as unconstitutional as using the Covid emergency to pay off student loans!Report

          1. The proposed Florida law is a clear prior restraint on speech and anyone who took Con Law should be able to tell you that. You might not like or approve of Biden’s proposal and that is fine but the constitutionality on the issue is not based on whether Republicans or Libertarians think it is a good policy or not.

            You aren’t as clever as you think you are.Report

            1. I don’t know of *ANYONE* who supports this policy nor of anyone who thinks it’s constitutional nor of anyone who thinks it’s a good idea.

              It’s a bad unconstitutional idea and the *ONLY* people it benefits are the people in power.Report

          2. Dude – if this holds up – and I can see DeSantis signing it – every writer or commenter here will have to register. Including you. Do you think that’s Constitutional? Do you think its morally right?Report

            1. I’ll let others comment on the constitutionality of it.

              What it means for us citizens is yet more evidence that DeSantis and his supporters fully embrace state-mandated coercion of thought and speech.

              Unlike a lot of other measures, we don’t even need to engage in the sly fan dance of pretending that there is some reasonable purpose or noble principle here.

              If you speak up and dissent from the party line, DeSantis will try to punish you, whether you are a business or individual.Report

            2. It’s neither constitutional nor morally right and, you know what?

              I’m going to refuse to register. I’ll just never get around to it.

              Hey. Do you think that whomever is setting this up is trying to make an oblique point about the 2nd Amendment?Report

              2. Well, it seems obvious to me that you shouldn’t have to be a member of some sort of special class to engage in this particular Constitutional Right.

                I also don’t understand the mechanism whereby Florida law on this issue would apply to me. Are the cops going to arrest me in Colorado for something that isn’t illegal in Colorado for something that is illegal in Florida?

                There is, at the very least, a jurisdiction issue.

                This strikes me as, at best, showboating and, at worst, tin pot dictatorship bullshit that would be laughed out of the room no matter who floated it as an idea.Report

              3. The question for us citizens is how to distinguish this from any other Republican branding efforts.

                Like, really, how is this any different than Chris Rufo promising to install ideological straightjacket on colleges? Or DeSantis promising to restrict Disney from making films he doesn’t like?

                Or more generally, the millions of Republicans across the country trying to make drag shows illegal, or ban books, or demonize trans support as “child mutiliation”.

                Hard for me to see how this is off-brand. This just seems like who they are, what they want.Report

              4. I feel the exact same way about (insert any number of laws here, including (but not limited to!) ones that were later found unconstitutional).

                This is what those people are actually like.

                They accurately represent the people who voted for them.

                They accurately represent the people who identify as being in the same party as them.

                The only moral response is to register independent and vote 3rd party.Report

              5. Additional information:

                The “pay for play” culture in Florida journalism vexes state Sen. Jason Brodeur. He’s filed a bill (SB 1316) requiring “bloggers” who get paid to write about “elected state officers” to register and file reports with the state. “Paid bloggers are lobbyists who write instead of talk,” said Brodeur, a Sanford Republican. “They both are professional electioneers. If lobbyists have to register and report, why shouldn’t paid bloggers?” If the bill gets heard, passed and signed, some bloggers could end up losers. Florida Politics suggests a possible motivation, mentioning a ‘ghost candidate’ scandal in his last election. But he says no.

                So this wouldn’t require me to register.

                I mean, I wouldn’t have… but it would have been nice to feel defiant in my inaction.Report

              6. Wait, a Republican legislator passing a bill to deflect from examinations of HIS OWN campaign conduct (no doubt by bloggers)?!?!?!?!

                OMG.

                These people really will burn down the bureaucracy to save their own skins won’t they?Report

              7. Just the ones getting paid to do it, I guess.

                The ones doing it for free can still write whatever they want without being put on a list first.

                I remain opposed to registries, myself.Report

              10. The text of the bill is here.

                It looks like the relevant section is Section 3. Section 286.31.

                Here’s the sub-section:

                (d) “Compensation” includes anything of value provided to a
                150 blogger in exchange for a blog post or series of blog posts. If
                151 not provided in currency, it must be the fair-market value of
                152 the item or service exchanged.
                153 (e) “Elected state officer” means the Governor, the
                154 Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the
                155 Legislature.
                156 (f) “Office” means, in the context of a blog post about a
                157 member of the Legislature, the Office of Legislative Services
                158 or, in the context of a blog post about a member of the
                159 executive branch, the Commission on Ethics, as applicable.
                160 (2) If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected state
                161 officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that
                162 post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as
                163 identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first
                164 post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.

                So it apparently means “anything of value”.

                If your “boss” pays you in dime bags, you have to register that you got dime bags in exchange for your post that so much as mentioned an elected state officer.Report

      1. Good news about Zimbabwe:

        Zimbabwe’s central bank cut its policy rate by 50 bps to 150% on February 2nd, 2023, saying monthly inflation has been trending down since the last quarter of 2022. Consumer prices went up 1.1% from a month earlier in January, easing from a 2.4% rise in December, prompting the annual rate to ease to 229.8% from 243.8%.Report

      2. Our first mortgage was in that time frame and was 14.5%. Friends who did not have a sufficient down payment paid 17.5%. The good news was that we got to ride the interest rate decline for 20 years, refinancing when we could do it on terms we liked, and paid the mortgage off early.

        More importantly there was a brief period where you could buy 30-year Treasures that paid 13%.Report

      3. I think this is an incomplete data point, but what you suggest sounds right.

        It looks to me like if you compare median home price to media income, both nationally and by region,, things started to get seriously out of whack in the early 90’s along the NE corridor and the west coast, and other NE and W markets following by the mid-to-late-90’s.

        But average mortgage rates over about the same period of time slowly but steadily declined, up until literally less than a year ago.

        Seems to me that this data suggests mortgage rates don’t have a direct effect on the price-to-income ratio, but lowering mortgage rates over time might have catalyzed whatever other thing it is that’s made housing prices escalate faster than incomes.Report

  20. Hey, there’s a First Amendment problem here as well . . . .

    Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.

    Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.

    https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-to-register-with-the-state/Report

  21. At first, very slowly.

    Report

          1. Are conservatives out of touch with the concerns of young women, with an unseemly obsession with their private parts?

            No. It is the young women who are wrong.Report

      2. Just skim the headlines-
        “This fall’s HOTTEST Mao jackets!”
        “Also, how to tell if he is really your dreamboat, or just a counterrevolutionary running dog of imperialism!”
        “What to do when Matt Gaetz shows up at your little sister’s slumber party”Report

    3. I don’t agree with Gilman’s framing. First of all, what he calls a rightist critique is simply reading universities’ statements aloud. And I’ve never heard libertarians make the critique he credits to them. But most importantly, the “waste of time and money” argument has become fairly common. It’s not bound to any ideology, if it even had an origin in one.Report

      1. I think that the libertarian critique was something that missed the point entirely. Something like “just get a certification in C++! Go to a boot camp! Become a programmer in 6 weeks for 10k instead of 5-6 years for $190k!”Report

        1. The step after that is “hack into a major company, extract secrets, and get hired as security, because their current security is idiots.”Report

        2. That isn’t really a critique as much as career advice. It may be a good fit for a libertarian’s personality, but it doesn’t derive from libertarian principles.Report

  22. Local news about a guy who made himself a national figure. The readout from Multnomah County Circuit Court is:

    1. Assault in the Second Degree: Acquitted
    2. Assault in the Third Degree: Convicted
    3. Assault in the Second Degree: Convicted
    4. Assault in the Second Degree: Convicted
    5. Assault in the Third Degree: Convicted
    6. Unlawful Use of a Weapon: Convicted
    7. Unlawful Use of a Weapon: Convicted
    9. Riot: Convicted
    10. Riot: Convicted
    11. Criminal Mischief in the First Degree: Convicted
    12. Criminal Mischief in the First Degree: Convicted

    Sentencing is in three weeks.Report

  23. What’s remarkable about this story is that it is greeted with a collective yawn:
    Trump calls for contest to create futuristic ‘Freedom Cities’

    Trump’s plan, shared in advance with POLITICO, calls for holding a contest to design and create up to ten new “Freedom Cities,” built from the ground up on federal land. It proposes an investment in the development of vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles; the creation of “hives of industry” sparked by cutting off imports from China; and a population surge sparked by “baby bonuses” to encourage would-be-parents to get on with procreation. It is all, his team says, part of a larger nationwide beautification campaign meant to inspire forward-looking visions of America’s future.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/03/trump-policy-futuristic-cities-00085383

    The fact that this is creating absolutely no news, either positive or negative is remarkable for several reasons.

    One, it shows that no one takes his words seriously. He may actually become President again, and is still a major figure in our national politics. So it isn’t that he is irrelevant.

    But like one of those figures from a banana republic or East Bloc Communist country, everyone knows better than to take his words as anything other than a jumble of mouth-noises, untethered from reality or meaning.

    Which by itself is revealing of the Republican party mindset, where there aren’t really any ideas, like free markets or national security, but merely an inchoate sense of grievance and resentment which can’t really be put into words anyway so no matter what you say, it doesn’t matter.

    But another aspect of his mouth-noises is actually more interesting. His proposal is straight up Maoist Great Leap Forward stuff, where the government seizes command not just of the factors of production, but the personal lives of the people themselves, using its brute force to steer their family planning and social lives.

    This is where he merges with Ron DeSantis and party figures like Chris Rufo and the Christian Nationalists. The purpose of government is to steer the moral and social lives of the people, to coerce them into correct ways of thinking and action.

    Even twenty years ago this sort of thing would have been a bizarre fringe of the Republican Party. But today it can be spoken of casually, without causing so much as a ripple.

    Not because no one takes it seriously, but because so many of them do.Report

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