Wednesday Potpourri

First, suppose the Secretary of Defense disappeared and no one noticed?

Idem for his backups? Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was on vacation and did not know that he was AWOL.

Aside from the fact that it all demonstrated grotesque incompetence at the highest levels of the Biden administration, it also suggests that Lloyd Austin-- the architect of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal-- is not really in charge.

Fred Kaplan wrote in Slate:

If Austin were a vital member of Biden’s national-security team, if he were deeply enmeshed in decision-making on the wars in Ukraine or the Middle East, excuses might be made and tolerated. But the fact that Biden learned of Austin’s absence only after four days—i.e., the fact that Biden hadn’t been in touch with his secretary of defense for four days during a period of round-the-clock military operations and crisis—suggests that Austin is far from essential.

Then again, the leadership of the Pentagon is diverse. Isn’t that what really matters?

Second, on the insurrection front, I offer this from Libertarian Mama on Twitter:

If you believe you’ve had an insurrection lasting three or more years, consult your doctor.

Sounds about right to me.

Third, from the inimitable Libs of TikTok account on Twitter:

In Canada, patriotic truckers get their bank accounts frozen but pro-Palestine protesters blocking a Jewish community get hot coffee delivered to them by police.

Fourth, also from Libs of TikTok:

Here’s your daily reminder that BLM burned down our country for 6 months and most protesters had their charges dropped while people waiving flags in the Capitol on Jan 6th were hunted down, thrown in gulags, and given more prison time than prosecutors sought.

Fifth, apparently there is nothing worse in the known universe than questioning an election result. Nevertheless, the House Democratic leader, one Hakeem Jeffries, did precisely that, via Twitter, in 2018:

The more we learn about the 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE president in the Oval Office.

Sixth, a few words of wisdom from Thomas Sowell:

Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, "social justice."

Seventh, a girls high school basketball game was called off the other day because the students from one school started shouting anti-Semitic slurs at the students from the other, Jewish school.

The coach was relieved of his duties and one of the players was kicked off the team.

Wilfred Reilly gets to the heart of the matter on Twitter:

The only reason this isn't the biggest story in the world right now is because the people saying things a la "I love Hamas, Jew bitch" were all Black or Hispanic.

So hard to imagine!

Eighth, you know that the Biden administration and the American public see the economy differently. The Biden crowd and their media enablers tout the virtues of an economy that is producing jobs at a fever clip. The American people seem not to have noticed.

Funny thing, now we learn that Commerce Department figures about job production were mostly lies. 

This, from the Daily Caller:

The original number of jobs reported by the federal government in 2023 was revised down by a total of 749,000 jobs, meaning nearly one-fourth of jobs thought to be created in the year were not actually there, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Of course, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We cannot imagine that they would be fooling around with the numbers, in order to make things look better.

Ninth, Jodie Foster, of all people, got herself in a bit of hot water by expressing her views about Gen Z. She was addressing the work ethic of this group in the Guardian:

“They’re really annoying, especially in the workplace,” Foster joked. “They’re like: ‘Nah, I’m not feeling it today, I’m gonna come in at 10.30am.’ Or in emails, I’ll tell them: this is all grammatically incorrect, did you not check your spelling? And they’re like: ‘Why would I do that, isn’t that kind of limiting?’”

Tenth, Gen Zers took serious exception to Foster’s judgment. And yet, the New York Post seems to have discovered the same thing by researching the issue:

In a Dec. 2023 study, the New Jersey-based research group Intelligent surveyed 800 U.S. managers, directors and executives who are involved in hiring.

The respondents reported that Gen Z candidates struggle to pick up professional cues, causing 39% of employers to favor hiring older candidates.

About 60% of employers said they are willing to offer more benefits and pay higher salaries to attract older workers rather than recent grads.

For that same reason, 48% of employers are offering remote or hybrid positions to older employees and 46% are willing to hire overqualified candidates, according to the new study.

One in five employers reported that recent college grads are generally unprepared when it comes to interviewing for a job.

More than half of employers surveyed said Gen Z candidates struggle the most with eye contact during interviews.

Candidates in this age group also ask for unreasonable salaries and have dressed inappropriately for in-person interviews, according to about half of the study respondents.

Even virtual interviews have posed issues, with 21% of employers reporting that some candidates refuse to turn on their cameras for the interview.

Nearly 20% of employers said they’ve even had a recent college grad bring a parent to an interview.

Two in three employers reported that Gen Z employees are unable to manage their workloads, while about 60% said they are frequently late to work and often miss assignment deadlines.

Sixty-three percent of employers consider Gen Z employees to be entitled, while 58% said they get offended too easily and are overall unprepared for the workforce.

Employers also noted that their youngest employees lack professionalism, do not respond well to feedback and have poor communication skills.

Almost half (47%) of employers in the survey said they’ve fired a recent college graduate.

Truth be told, it’s worse than you think.

Eleventh, the news out of Oakland, CA concerns carjacking. 

The Daily Mail reports:

One in thirty Oakland residents had their car stolen last year as 15,000 vehicles were stolen - a 45 percent increase in just a year. 

The shocking figure is the highest in 15 years. 

However, less than five percent of those auto theft cases lead to an actual arrest as the California city's understaffed and underfunded police department are preoccupied dealing with a 21 percent spike in violent crime. And there are also just two police officers assigned to deal with car theft….

The city's mayor and DA are both outspoken progressives who have both said that police accountability and racial equity are a priority, but fed-up locals have pleaded with them to make the Bay Area city safer.

LOL

Twelfth, remind me why we are funding the United Nations.

BREAKING: A Telegram group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza celebrates the Hamas massacre of October 7th, praises the murderers and rapists as “heroes,” and gleefully shares photos of dead or captured Israelis and urges the execution of hostages.

The word humanitarian would clearly be a misnomer.

Thirteenth, people who drink bottled water feel healthier. It’s a form of enviro-conscious virtue signaling. People drink it because they do not want to be polluting their sacred corporeal envelopes with tap water or Diet Coke.

But now, the New York Post reports that bottled water is filled with certain things that you should not want in your body-- like plastic nanoparticles. If you thought that microplastics were bad, consider the danger posed by nanoplastics.

The average one-liter plastic bottle of water contains levels of “nanoplastics” that are 100 times higher than previously thought, according to a new study.

The peer-reviewed study, the first to test for particles under 1 micrometer in length — or 1/70 the width of a human hair — found the liter bottles were loaded with an average of 240,000 plastic particles, according to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies only analyzed microplastics, which are between 1 and 5,000 micrometers in length.

Nanoplastics, however, pose potentially a greater health risk because they’re small enough to penetrate cells and enter the bloodstream, plus have the ability to impact organs, experts said.

They can also pass through the placenta in a pregnant woman and affect unborn babies.

Fourteenth, my new book, entitled Can’t We All Get Along is seeking a publisher and/or literary agent. If you have any suggestions please forward them to me directly at StuartSchneiderman@gmail.com