The Argument Against Affirmative Consent Laws Gets Voxjacked

KissTwo days ago, Ezra Klein, the editor of Vox.com,
penned what may be
the most repulsive article yet on the subject of affirmative
consent laws. Klein’s argument in a nutshell: yes, these laws are
overbroad and will probably result in innocent men being expelled
from college over ambiguous charges. Which is good, because the
college rape crisis is so terrible and the need to change the norms
of sexual behavior is so urgent that this requires a brutal and
ugly response. Or, as Joe Stalin was fond of saying, “When you chop
wood, chips must fly.” That’s the Russian equivalent of “You can’t
make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

Toward the end, Klein writes:

Then there’s the true nightmare scenario: completely false
accusations of rape by someone who did offer consent, but now wants
to take it back. I don’t want to say these kinds of false
accusations never happen, because they
do happen, and they’re awful. But they happen very, very
rarely.

I only just found out, from this
column by James Taranto, that the link in this passage goes to
my recent piece on Slate XX.

The whole point of which was to rebut the idea that false
accusations of rape are so infinitesimally rare that they needn’t
be a serious factor in deciding whether laws dealing with sexual
assault are unfair to the accused.

I repeat.

I wrote a piece (extensively fact-checked, I might add) arguing
that wrongful accusations of rape (either deliberately false or
based on alcohol-impaired memory and mixed signals) are not quite
as rare as anti-rape activists claim, and that we need to stop
using their alleged rarity to justify undermining the presumption
of innocence in sexual assault cases.

And Ezra Klein cites this very piece in an article that
justifies, pretty much, throwing the presumption of innocence out
the window.

Is there a word for having one’s writing hijacked to support (in
an egregiously misleading way) the very point you are arguing
against?

I suggest “voxjacking.”

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Tonight on The Independents: John Stossel on the Constitution, Ebola Blame, Iraq WMDs, Hong Kong Violence, Bad Polls for Everyone, and our Weekly Enemy of Freedom

You can't unsee. |||Tonight’s episode of The
Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT,
with re-airs three hours later) includes John Stossel wearing
(however briefly) a comical 18th-century wig and some kind of weird
robe, to promote his show tomorrow about
why the Constitution still matters. Do you really need any
other come-on?

Ebola is still secreting itself hysterically
into the news; we’ll attempt to assess some blame for bad planning
with Party Panelists Ellis
Henican (Newsday columnist) and Lisa Boothe (Republican
strategist). The duo will also discuss how
every poll is terrible, for everybody. The New York
Times last night published a
bombshell about how successive administrations hushed up news
about the old chemical weapons that U.S. troops discovered (and
sometimes suffered from) in Iraq between 2004-2011; we’ll have
longtime national security reporter Noah Shactman of The
Daily Beast on to break down. And the co-hosts will crown our
weekly Enemy of Freedom, who will be no surprise to alert
Reason readers.

Follow The Independents on Facebook at http://ift.tt/QYHXdB,
follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, and
click on this page
for more video of past segments.

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2nd Ebola Patient’s Akron, Ohio Family Home Cordoned Off

Having now identified the 2nd health care worker infected with Ebola as Amber Joy Vinson, and discovered she (against CDC advice) traveled across the nation to her family home in Tallmadge (near Akron, Ohio), we now find out that, as WKYC reports, police have cordoned off the home of her mother and are allowing only limited access to the residential development.

 

 

As Cleveland.com reports,

Dallas nurse Amber Joy Vinson spent last weekend in Tallmadge, an Akron suburb, before testing positive for the Ebola virus.

 

Summit County Public Health officials are still trying to determine who Vinson may have seen and where she went while she was visiting family. A family member has already self-quarantined himself in a Tallmadge home following Vinson’s positive test.

 

Interviews to determine Vinson’s whereabouts are expected to take time, said Summit County Public Health Medical Director Margo Erme, and people will be interviewed twice to determine whether or not they were in contact with Vinson.

 

“We have been in there all day to see if there are additional contacts and to see where those additional contacts may be, and also the nature of those contacts,” Erme said.

 

Quarantine needs will be determined on an individual basis, Erme said.

 

Health officials learned the Vinson had been in the county at around 10 a.m. Wednesday.

And now as WKYC reports,

Police have taped off a home in Tallmadge they believe belongs to the mother of Ebola patient Amber Vinson.

 


 

The home is on Stonegate Trail, in the Stonegate Reserve housing development.

 

At one point, about seven police cars were outside the home and later, that number went down to three.

 

Police are only allowing limited access to the development for residents.

 

 

 

The development is here…




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Market Humor: Articles from the last 3 months

Amazing how much things change in such little time. Remember, “it’s different this time.”

 

July 21st

 

 

 

August 27th

 

 

 

 

September 15th

 




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Humpday Humor? Blame The Moon

As market prognosticators search for something to pin the recent weakness on (Ebola panic, macro data weakness, global growth scare, M&A boom over, fund liquidations, oil crash.. and so on), there is one much larger driver of hysteria that is missing from this list… The Moon and the madness of crowds.

 

While perhaps a little ‘out there’ the coincidence of full moon’s major gravitational impacts and turning points in stock market volatility is remarkable…

 

Of course, the surge in volatility also coincides with the end of QE (in seasonally-painful October no less) as the gap between reality and market perception finally becomes clear…

 

Charts: Bloomberg and @Not_Jim_Cramer




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For Bank Of America, Crime Is Now An Ordinary Course Of Business

Once upon a time banks made money in one of two ways: either by borrowing short and lending long, a/k/a the conventional banking way, or through investment banking, which includes advisory, underwriting and trading with the backstop of billions in deposits, aka the proto-hedge fund way.

Then things changed.

For a profoundly philosophical, if comically metaphysical essay, that uses several thousand excess words and footnotes to come at the miraculous conclusion that bank accounting is, get this, fickle, the following Bloomberg take should be an amusing way to kill a few extra hours. Philosophical ramblings aside, it is, of course, very easy to determine if a bank made or lost money, and that does not even involve looking at the cash flow statement. One looks at the Non-GAAP bottom line and excludes the “excluded”, or added back items.

As a reminder, the reason non-GAAP exists in the first place, is to goalseek an already meaningless number to just a cent or two above Wall Street consensus, so as to kickstart the buying of the stock by headline scanning algos. Because EPS may be meaningless but stock-tied compensation/incentive awards are quite meaningful, and lucrative, to executives.

Still, even when it comes to the wizardry of non-GAAP, for a number to be somewhat credible, it has to follow a few basic guidelines, namely that in order for an expense or charge to be “excluded” from the bottom line, it has to fall within the “one-time“, “non-recurring” category. Add it back too many times and the magic falls apart as even the mutually-accepted fabulation by circle-jerking ostriches that is non-GAAP. promptly evaporates.

Which is why we ask: why do Wall Street “analysts” continue to add back Bank of America’s legal and litigation charges and settlements from its bottom line when calculating its non-GAAP EPS?

As the chart below clearly show, any myth that Bank of America’s legal fees are “one-time” or “non-recurring” is by now long dead and buried. In fact, in 2014 they have never been greater!

 

How does this nearly $30 billion in legal “addbacks” over the past three years compared to the so-called Net Income Bank of America generated over the same time period? Here is the answer:

In short: between Q4 2011 and Q3 2014 Bank of America produced “Net Income” of $15.9 billion. However, the amount of added back “one-time, non-recurring” legal expenses is a stunning $28.9 billion: two of every three dollars, non-GAAP as they may be, comes from Bank of America engaging in criminal activity… and getting caught for it!

So perhaps an even more relevant question than how long will the EPS “addback” bullshit continue, is how long will the regulators and enforcers allow Bank of America to exist as an organization for which two-thirds of its “ordinary course business” is, for lack of a better word, crime?




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As US Politicians Consider Travel Bans, Istanbul Quarantines Hospital Of Suspected Ebola Patient

Istanbul’s Marmar University Training and Research Hospital is not accepting new patients after, as Daily Sabah reports, a person suspected of being infected with Ebola has been quarantined. The patient, who arrived by plane from Ivory Coast, is suffering high fever and nausea. While Lagos, Nigeria was CDC Director Frieden’s worst nightmare with regard Ebola contagion, we suspect Istanbul is a close second with over 14 million people living there. This news comes as US politicians begin to call for visa restrictions and travel bans from infected nations.

 

 

  • *MAN WITH EBOLA HOSPITALIZED IN ISTANBUL: DAILY SABAH
  • *ISTANBUL HOSPITAL TEMPORARILY QUARANTINED ON EBOLA: DAILY SABAH

As Daily Sabah Reports,

A man arriving from Ivory Coast infected with the Ebola virus has been hospitalized in Istanbul on Wednesday.

The patient was brought to the Marmara University Education and Research Hospital. He was diagnosed with Ebola after landing in Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. The hospital was briefly quarantined and current patients immediately were transferred to other hospitals.

The patient will be transferred to Süreyyapa?a Breast Diseases Education and Research Hospital on Thursday morning.

Just before this news broke, US politicians started raising the rhetoric on travel bans…

  • *MCCAUL, R-TX, IS CHAIRMAN OF U.S. HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY CMTE
  • *REP. MCCAUL CALLS FOR U.S. VISA SUSPENSION FOR EBOLA-HIT NATION
  • *MCCAUL PROPOSED VISA BAN FOR LIBERIA, GUINEA, SIERRA LEONE

House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul says a temporary travel ban targeting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is needed until the outbreak of Ebola “is under control.”

McCaul, R-Texas, called on the Departments of State, Homeland Security to temporarily suspend visas of individuals from those countries

Travel ban would impact 13,500 visas, McCaul says

McCaul’s letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson co-signed by subcmte chairmen Reps. Peter King, Candice Miller, Jeff Duncan, Richard Hudson, Susan Brooks, all Republicans

And then:

  • *BOEHNER: U.S. SHOULD MULL TRAVEL BAN FROM COUNTRIES WITH EBOLA
  • *HOUSE ‘READY TO ACT’ IF EBOLA LEGISLATION NEEDED: BOEHNER

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement on the growing Ebola crisis:

“Our hearts go out to the health care workers who have contracted the Ebola virus here in the United States, as well as those who have been impacted by it around the globe.  We pray for their speedy recovery, and we pray for those who are helping to treat and care for these individuals, including our medical experts and military personnel who are in West Africa to help stem this deadly disease.  Concerns about the possibility of an outbreak of this sort prompted the House to provide more funding for the CDC than requested, and the tragic developments seen in recent weeks demonstrate that decision was a prudent one.

“In a September 16 speech in Atlanta, President Obama said the ‘chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low.’  Since that time, several Americans have been diagnosed with the virus and untold more potentially exposed to it.  Today we learned that one individual who has contracted the virus flew to Ohio through the Cleveland airport in the last few days.  A temporary ban on travel to the United States from countries afflicted with the virus is something that the president should absolutely consider along with any other appropriate actions as doubts about the security of our air travel systems grow.

“It is also imperative we ensure that federal, state and local agencies, along with our public health infrastructure, are prepared, remain vigilant, and follow proper protocols to identify the virus and take appropriate measures for those who have been exposed to it.

“Numerous committees – including the House Armed Services Committee and the Committees on Appropriations, Homeland Security, Energy & Commerce, and Transportation & Infrastructure – are actively assessing the administration’s response, and hearings have already begun.  The Homeland Security Committee held a hearing in Dallas to examine the federal, state, and local response thus far.  Tomorrow, the Energy & Commerce Committee will hear from the CDC and NIH to look into their response to the crisis.  These oversight efforts will continue, and the House stands ready to act if it becomes clear legislation is needed to ensure the threat is countered aggressively and effectively.

“The administration must be able to assure Americans that we will stop the spread here at home.  We will continue to press the administration for better information about what steps will be taken to protect the American people, including our troops, from this deadly virus.  And we will work with the administration on appropriate policy options that will help stop the spread of this horrific disease both here in the United States and around the globe.”

*  *  *

And so it begins…




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Video of the Day – Hologram Julian Assange Talks George Orwell, Bitcoin and Preserving Human History

What got me really interested in Bitcoin back in the summer of 2012 when it was worth a mere $10, was the realization that Wikileaks was able to avoid a banking system and PayPal blockade by accepting donations in BTC. Upon this realization, I published my first public thoughts on Bitcoin in the post: Bitcoin: A Way to Fight Back Against the Financial Terrorists?

For those of you who still think Bitcoin is merely a currency, or merely a payment system, take 8 minutes and listen to hologram Assange:

For more posts focused on Assange’s thoughts see:

Highlights from the Incredible 2011 Interview of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange by Google’s Eric Schmidt

Julian Assange Discusses Mainstream Media, the “Wikileaks Party” and our Global Awakening

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

Protect your wealth – Buy Gold and Silver Bullion with Goldbroker.com

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 1LefuVV2eCnW9VKjJGJzgZWa9vHg7Rc3r1

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Video of the Day – Hologram Julian Assange Talks George Orwell, Bitcoin and Preserving Human History originally appeared on Liberty Blitzkrieg on October 15, 2014.

continue reading

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Punishment for Hash Brownie Baker Drops From 10 Years in Prison to Seven Years of Probation

The
Austin American-Statesman reports
that Jacob Lavoro, the Texas teenager who originally faced
a sentence of 10 years to life after he was caught with a pound and
a half of hash-infused cookies and brownies, will get seven years
of probation under a plea deal with the Williamson County District
Attorney’s Office. The dramatic penalty reduction became possible
after prosecutors
dropped a first-degree felony charge that treated Lavoro’s
baked goods as if they consisted entirely of hash oil. Instead he
pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony, possession of four to 400
grams of hash oil.

Probation is what you would expect for a first-time offender
charged with a low-level, nonviolent crime, which raises the
question of why prosecutors dangled a long prison term over
Lavoro’s head for months after his arrest last April. That threat
attracted nationwide attention, driven by dismay at the insanely
harsh way that Texas law treats offenses involving marijuana
concentrates. Williamson County First District Attorney Mark
Brunner at first implied
that he had no choice, only to discover some leeway as the
criticism mounted (much like
Jim McClain, the New Jersey prosecutor in the Shaneen Allen
case). It probably also helped Lavoro that what counts as a felony
in Texas is now a legitimate occupation in Colorado and
Washington.

[Thanks to Marc Sandhaus for the tip.]

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Low Rates and QE are Deflationary at the Zero Bound

By EconMatters

 

 

San Francisco Fed’s John Williams is part of the Problem at the Federal Reserve

 

Sure enough the S&P 500 drops 6% from its all-time highs, and all the idiots start talking about another round of QE when we haven`t even finished with the latest one (still buying bonds through October). The latest lemming who this time isn`t some dumb analyst on CNBC needing to pump his firm`s lagging stock, but no less than a voting member of the Federal Reserve in the form of the San Francisco Fed’s John Williams, where do they get these clowns? Really QE again with a 5.9% unemployment rate and more JOLTS jobopenings than the US available workforce can possibly fill? Enough of this QE Forever crap, when are these clowns going to realize that low rates are actually incentivizing poor and inefficient uses of capital allocation. 

 

San Francisco Innovation an Argument against European Weakness Having Any Direct Correlation with ZIRP or QE Infinity – Structural Issues Cannot Be Fixed with QE!

 

 

If ZIRP and QE Infinity hasn`t brought the economy back to normal operations after 7 years, then maybe these geniuses will figure this out that their policies are actually part of the problem, and have been proven not to be the solution. Every time I have heard San Francisco Fed’s John Williams talk it reminds me of the Peter Principle, and how incompetent people rise within organizations and society because even more incompetent people feel comfortable and not threatened by their presence. In a sense this says a hell of a lot about the competence of Janet Yellen to have this intellectual lightweight as her wingman at the Federal Reserve. This guy is an embarrassment to the economics community, the Fed really stooped to all-time low levels with this hire, he literally is just there to insulate Janet Yellen from competent economists like James Bullard who should be head of the Federal Reserve, and actually can make sound objective judgments regarding the state of the US economy apart from his ideological disposition.

 

 

US Economic Data Should be Focus of Fed & Nothing Else

 

 

The US Fed is responsible for basing monetary policy on the economic data here in the United States, and not based upon an Ebola outbreak in the third world, how many times has that happened over the last 40 years? Many parts of Africa have been a shithole, and probably always will be because their values are shortsighted, yes cultural values matter, you do stupid things and you as a country are going to get stupid results, starvation, civil wars, Ebola, other diseases, etc. We seriously have not withered to a new low level of monetary policy where we are waiting for Africa to get its act together before normalizing rates and getting out of the business of manipulating market prices with QE Infinity creating more continued and unsustainable asset bubbles? Why do you think these markets freak out every time QE ends, because the asset prices were not created through a natural price discovery process – again the Fed is part of the problem with these insane bubble creating monetary policies!

 

 


US is a Capitalist Country (at least used to be) European Union is a Socialist Entity – and their Socialist Economy reflects this reality: US Fed has no control over Structural Issues in Europe

 

Does US monetary policy really revolve around whether Germany deficit spends to boost their sluggish economy, or diversifies from their current narrow engineering and manufacturing based economy? If the US really wants to help the German and European economy then just take back all the Sanctions against Russia one of the region’s most dominant trading and business partners. But since when does US Monetary policy depend on structural issues that they have no control of in the European Union? Where is that in the Fed mandate? The US cannot raise rates because Europe is a socialist mess, and until they adopt more market based capitalistic economies that can compete on a global basis, the US must continue on with recession era interest rates. How did we ever survive World War II without ZIRP & QE Infinity?

 

ZIRP & QE Poorly Incentivize Capital Allocation at the Zero Bound

 

However the biggest reason to discontinue ZIRP, never entertain QE again, and normalize interest rates is because of all the wasted capital around the globe chasing Yield Delta trades based upon 10 to 15 basis point borrowing costs, think about all this capital that could be better served actually creating economic growth in the form of project development, cap ex spending, bank lending for infrastructure projects, research and innovation, and small business loans. Literally low interest rates are actually self-fulfilling and deflationary, they are not good for any economy, and this is the Fed fallacy. 

 

ZIRP is Deflationary at the Zero Bound Level

 

If financial capital is so cheap that normal investments decisions are put on hold because investors can borrow at 10-15 basis points and without taking any project risk at all, just electronically Delta or pocket the difference between ZIRP borrowings and US Treasuries, Global Debt, Utilities, and anything else with an Electronic Yield of course this is an overall deflationary effect on the economy. The entire chase yield trade which is in the Trillions is a counterproductive, inefficient and poor use of capital allocation which only stunts long-term economic growth. What the Fed doesn`t get is that once you normalize interest rates you get healthy capital allocation strategies which boost economic growth because they are not strictly Electronic Transactions, but transactions that actually have knock on effects that add to other parts of economic growth, and thus they are growth driving and inflationary in nature. If the Fed truly wants inflation like they always make an excuse for why they need to print more money, just raise interest rates and that is the fastest way to get real inflation once you hit the zero-bound level, see Japan for the best example of the self-fulfilling policy of lower interest rates actually being deflationary, and not inflationary. 

 

If the Fed Really Cares about Raising Inflation Expectations, then they need to Raise Rates

 

The Federal Reserve has this all backwards! If they want to create inflation they need to raise interest rates off the zero-bound level period! What does the Fed have to lose [besides their whole Reason for Existence I know], but try normalizing rates and then examine the results, because we know low interest rates and QE hasn`t worked, or they wouldn`t have to be re-initiated in the form of additional QE Programs, and we wouldn`t still be having this entire conversation 7 years after ZIRP began. So enough of the excuses from these dovish Fed members, End QE, Never bring back QE Programs, and normalize interest rates ASAP, and stay the hell out of financial markets forever! Your only job is show up at economic conferences and raise and lower the Fed Funds Rate between 3.5 and 5.5%, and that is it! San Francisco Fed’s John Williams is an absolute idiot, and representative of why so many market participants have lost all deference for the Federal Reserve and their incompetent monetary policies.

 

 

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