It's Groundhog Day and Ayn Rand Day
More on Groundhog Day below...here's a bit on Ayn Rand Day.
AYN RAND DAY - February 2, 2024 - National Today
And a bit about Ayn Rand: About Ayn Rand - Biography - AynRand.org
Followers of Ayn Rand's philosophy are called Objectivists. I consider that the closest term to my own philosophy though I think my world views mostly pre-dated my exposure to Rand, which is to say that she's more a reflection of my philosophy than the cause of it. For many folks, Objectivism can be a little cultish. I try to avoid that although I think her focus on the importance of reason over emotion and on the inherent evil of forced "altruism" (and the forced part there is important) are exactly right. One my my kid's has the middle name Rand. And I asked my then-girlfriend to read Atlas Shrugged to see how she'd react before I'd ask her to marry me. Yeah, I know it sounds a little cultish when I put it that way but I assert that it isn't; instead it represents my own personal strong commitment to certain principles and wanting to keep those important in my life.
Ayn Rand on Israel (on Phil Donahue Show in 1979)
Just One Thing: Swift Psy-op Blowback
I know that there's been too much about the @taylorswift13 "psyop" and rigged Superbowl stuff already but let me pile on for a second:
Ms. Swift has more Twitter/X followers (about 95 million) than Trump did at his peak. (around 88 million). Among those fans old enough to vote, most 1) would lean slightly left already just due to their ages and 2) would NOT vote just due to their ages. Trump won in 2016 by less than 80K votes across a few swing states and lost in 2020 by about half of that.
The folks like @VivekGRamaswamy and @JesseBWatters (who may have been half-joking) when promoting nonsense about Swift and @tkelce (let's call them #Swiftce, the new version of Brangelina) being Democratic political operatives who plan to endorsie @joebiden after the @Chiefs beat the @49ers in a "rigged" superbowl -- even separate from their desire to just say something to go viral -- are making a huge mistake if their goal is actually to help Trump.
If there's a 22-year-old female Swift fan who doesn't think voting is a good use of her time, there are few things more likely to get her to actually vote (well, other than Republicans talking about federal involvement in abortion) than hearing Republicans bash their favorite musician-role model-princess-cultural icon. And of the people who are thus motivated to vote, 0% will vote for Trump. .
Not only that, but by their stupidity, Vivek et al are actually daring #Swiftce to get more involved politically than they otherwise would. Seriously, if just the claim that Swiftce is a psy-op isn't moronic enough, the political ramifications of saying so (even if you're joking, because you have to know that so much of your audience won't think you are) might come back to haunt MAGA world. And THAT is MUCH dumber than just making up nonsense about a "psyop".
(And if that's not bad enough, it's going to create a lot more @Chiefs fans when really what we need is more @Broncos fans.)
Fox News exposes Taylor Swift as obvious Biden campaign asset (cincinnati.com)
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Today's Guests
Neal McCluskey is Director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute
Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute
The "College Cost Reduction Act" is a big bill with lots of provisions but one which will get a lot of attention will require colleges to take some of the financial risk on loans taken out to study there. I love the idea as the best way I can think of to limit price increases and cause the schools to have incentive to create graduates not massively burdened by debt. (I can also imagine the provision causing a little bias against students who need loans.) This is a subject for experts. I'll see if I can get one to talk about it with us.
The College Cost Reduction Act: What You Need to Know (acenet.edu)
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Yaron Brook is former president and current chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute. He's the host of the Yaron Brook Show (podcast and YouTube channel) and a former university finance professor. We'll talk briefly about Ayn Rand...in a very introductory kind of way, e.g. how we might describe and explain Rand to someone who had no previous contact with her work.
Meet Our Experts - Yaron Brook | The Ayn Rand Institute
Yaron recently spoke at the University of Texas and a young moron was arrested for disrupting the event: Man arrested after disrupting "Israel's Moral War" event at UT Austin (msn.com)
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Scott Pribble is Director of External Communications for Denver Public Schools. We'll talk about the impacts on Denver Public Schools (in various aspects, not just financial) of the large influx of "migrant" children kids into the district.
I think this article overstates the financial issue: Migrant influx leaves Denver Public Schools short $17.5M in funding (denverpost.com)
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Other Stuff
Seriously, people, just STOP voting for Democrats: Pet Animal Registration System | Colorado General Assembly
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Update on a story I shared about 10 days ago: Russian billionaire loses art fraud suit against Sotheby's | AP News
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I'm not someone who will look for any reason whatsoever to criticize Joe Biden. But obviously he does so much that's worth criticizing and I think the fact that he's done so much talking and so little of anything else since 3 Americans were killed and over 40 injured by an Iranian-made drone operating by an Iranian proxy militia is really bad: Biden Team Signals Calibrated Response to US Troop Deaths (yahoo.com)
Here's how Nellie Bowles, writing for The Free Press, put it this morning:
The key to military strategy is to announce it loudly and clearly a week or two ahead of time, that’s what it said in The Art of War, I’m pretty sure. Soon, several empty buildings are about to be shown what America is all about. Within days, a random drone left on the desert floor is going to see into the blinking red light of a state-of-the-art weapon and know why we don’t have free healthcare. Several strong, terrorist-affiliated long-eared hedgehogs are going to be obliterated. Iran will never strike again! Mission—I can’t believe we’re back here—Accomplished.
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Punxsutawney Phil is wrong a lot, but for what it's worth: Watch: Punxsutawney Phil does not see his shadow on Groundhog Day 2024 - CBS News
(See video at the bottom of the page)
Are Groundhog Day results accurate? Phil's record over the years (usatoday.com)
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They will NEVER stop coming for your Second Amendment rights. And by the way, if "Second Amendment rights" sounds too abstract to you, how about this: They will NEVER stop trying to prevent you from being able to defend yourself and your family.
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Would you have this kind of "lifestyle" if you could? And by "could", that mean many things but should include "wouldn't get divorced, assuming you don't want to get divorced".
Polyamory: Lots of Sex, Even More Scheduling - WSJ
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As I mentioned the other day, while the thing about 5,000 people coming in (per day) before the gov't would really control the border sounded bad, my guess was that it was erroneous and was a leak by a pro-Trump senator or staffer to try to torpedo the incipient border/immigration deal. Now I am NOT saying I'll end up thinking the deal is good but I'm not surprised to hear that that particular data point, which was one of the ones most upsetting Republicans, is wrong.
The real test for the Senate border package is about to begin (axios.com)
I also note that this is the only time and only issue where Republicans have significant leverage over Biden. They should use it and pass a GOOD deal. And if Trump tells House (or Senate) members to vote against it, Republicans should aggressively criticize Trump. (OF COURSE I know they won't.)
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Another one??? Harvard Professor’s Papers Contain Copied Images, Says Science Sleuth - WSJ
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Seems about right to me: Ex-CIA hacker who leaked secrets to WikiLeaks gets 40-year prison sentence (axios.com)
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I think the "classified documents case" represents the most, maybe the only, legitimate lawsuit facing Donald Trump, and I think he stands greater than a 50% chance of being convicted of something in that case: Special counsel questioned witnesses about 2 rooms FBI didn't search inside Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence: Sources (yahoo.com)
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Ukraine claims to have sunk small Russian missile cruiser with exploding sea drones:
A Pod Of Ukraine’s Drone Boats Chased Down A Russian Missile-Corvette (forbes.com)
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Don't let my little French and English bulldogs read this: Huge study of dog longevity reveals which breeds live the longest | New Scientist
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It really is an Us vs Them, elites versus everybody, election. Both Biden and Trump position themselves as the party of the non-elites but they're both lying.
Them-vs-Us_CTUP-Rasmussen-Study-FINAL.pdf (committeetounleashprosperity.com)
Speaking of which, Joe Biden went to PA and wore his hard had backwards. Everyone noticed. Snopes, the left-wing hacks that they are, "fact-checked" the claim as "false" (that Biden's hat was on backwards.) After much pushback and some stupid excuses, they relented and now say it's true that the hat was backwards: Snopes Changes Rating to True On Photo Of Biden Wearing a Hard Hat Backwards (mediaite.com)
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I wonder if Trump supporters will ever get tired of paying the billionaire's legal bills. I suspect the answer is "mostly not": More than $27M in Trump campaign fundraising went to legal costs in the last six months of 2023 (msn.com)
BUT...when you're talking about spending tens of millions of dollars on legal fees instead of on campaign ads, it's not hard to see how Trump's legal troubles could impact the effectiveness of his campaign (even separate from the fact that he'll be spending a lot of time in court rather than courting voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan.)
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The upside of the US appearing uncertain about what we'll do re Ukraine aid: EU agrees new €50 billion Ukraine package despite Hungary’s threat | AP News
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Today's Videos
The video "Facts" starting Ben Shapiro and Tom McDonald is #1 on the iTunes charts
Ben Shapiro’s new song hit No. 1 on iTunes. How did that happen? (msn.com)
A little more from the Babylon Bee...make sure to read the caption that goes with the video
Fun with economics
Unusually, Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow this morning in Gobblers Knob!