Wednesday Potpourri

First, there is the case of one Jared Bernstein, President Biden’s Chief Economic Advisor, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

John Konrad V managed to look up Bernstein’s academic credentials and qualifications.

Bernstein has an art degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He plays jazz in clubs. He holds a Masters of Social Work from Hunter college and a doctorate in Social Welfare from Columbia.

Naturally, when asked a question that is worthy of first year economics, he could not do it.

The country is in the best and most qualified of hands.

Second, federal judges have taken note of what is happening on the Columbia University campus. A dozen or so have explained that they will no longer hire clerks from the university or its law school. 

The Washington Free Beacon has the story:

Led by appellate judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who spearheaded a clerkship boycott of Yale Law School in 2022 and Stanford Law School in 2023, as well as by Matthew Solomson on the U.S Court of Federal Claims, the judges wrote in a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik that they would no longer hire "anyone who joins the Columbia University community— whether as undergraduates or as law students—beginning with the entering class of 2024."

"Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism," the judges wrote. "It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct."

The letter’s signatories include Alan Albright, a district judge who hears a fourth of the nation’s patent cases; Stephen Vaden, a former general counsel at the Department of Agriculture who now sits on the United States Court of International Trade; and Matthew Kacsmaryk, the district judge who suspended approval of the abortion drug mifepristone in a controversial ruling last year. Others are well-known district judges appointed by former president Donald Trump.

While 12 judges joined the Yale boycott anonymously, Monday’s letter marks the first time that more than two judges have said on the record that they will not hire graduates from an elite university.

Third, cancel culture is alive and well in Germany. The EndWokeness Twitter account has the story:

German politician of the AFD party, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser was just convicted & fined $6,000+ Her crime? Posting statistics showing that Afghan immigrants are disproportionately committing sexuaI assauIt in Germany.

Fourth, here’s some news you can use, from the psycho world. Researchers have discovered something that I have long suspected. If you want to improve your mental health and emotional well-being, start by routinizing your everyday life. Forget about true love. Forget about empathy. Forget about blaming it all on smartphones. Routines are more important.

Eric Dolan reports for PsyPost:

Recent research published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B has found that that maintaining a routine in social interactions is associated with enhanced emotional well-being of older adults. The study suggests that not just the frequency or setting of these interactions, but their regular timing can independently contribute to an increase in well-being among the elderly.

“Although it is commonly agreed that social interactions are good for older adults’ health and well-being, it is unclear how older adults should engage in social interactions to maintain or improve their health and well-being,” said study author Minxia Luo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Healthy Longevity Center and Department of Psychology of University of Zurich.

“My research aims to offer information about ‘how to do it.’ For examine, based on the same dataset, we have shown diminishing returns of social interaction frequency on well-being and loneliness, suggesting social interactions frequency is not ‘the more the merrier.’ We have also shown that alternating between solitude and social interactions is beneficial for well-being. The article of interest here is a third output from this project.”

The researchers found that older adults who engaged in routine social interactions tended to experience more positive emotions such as happiness and inspiration. This pattern was observed regardless of the context of the interactions, whether they were with friends, family, or others, and independent of the frequency of these interactions.

Interestingly, the findings also highlighted that maintaining a routine in social engagements was linked to a decrease in negative feelings, such as sadness or anxiety. This suggests that a predictable social schedule might provide a sense of stability and security, which can help alleviate stress and emotional lows commonly experienced by some older adults.

Fifth, on the free speech front, France has not been had. If you declare your public support for Hamas or its October 7 massacre, you could be in a lot of legal trouble.

For France, some speech is beyond the pale.

Matthew Dalton reports:

In France, government authorities are stepping in to draw the line. Courts have ruled that public speech condoning the Oct. 7 attack or legitimizing Hamas as a resistance movement amounts to condoning terrorism—a crime under French law, punishable by up to seven years in prison. French prosecutors are investigating politicians on the far-left, union officials and hundreds of other people for allegedly condoning terrorism and inciting antisemitism since October.

Sixth, the next time someone from the Biden administration touts improving crime statistics, refer him to this report. It comes to us from a Twitter account entitled Catturd-- no kidding.

In 2022, the Biden regime made it no longer "mandatory" to report crime stats to the FBI. The results was over 1/3 (over 6000 precincts) didn't report any crimes to the FBI. Cities that hardly reported any crime stats to the FBI include NYC, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami and a ton of entire huge cities. Of course, this was done by the Democrats to hide their soaring crime numbers and easily fool low IQ sheep into believing easily provable hogwash.

Seventh, who is Maria Ressa. Apparently, she is a Philippine editor who won a Nobel Peace Prize. She has been designated the commencement speaker at Harvard University.

So far, nothing to write home about.

But then, as Matthew Continetti explains, Ressa is also a virulent anti-Semite. She has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and so on:

In a November editorial, Rappler called for a ceasefire and compared Israel's actions to those by Adolf Hitler, according to a translation.

"What Israel is doing is clearly a disproportionate response and its intention is not simply to retaliate, but to launch an all-out war," the editorial said.

 "In the intensity of Israel's godlike technology, its paleolithic instincts can be seen in the lack of effort to differentiate between civilians and its enemy Hamas."

The editorial said Israel's actions were "about to reach genocide."

"It is a great irony that the [Jewish] race that suffered centuries of oppression, even genocide at the hands of Adolf Hitler, is now [denying] the same aspirations [for] the Palestinians," said the column.

"We like to think that our world is more modern, more aware, and more compassionate, compared for example to the time of Adolf Hitler, or the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima," the editorial went on.

In its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict, Rappler has also referred to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as "militant" groups rather than terrorist organizations.

One would like to know who invited this anti-Semite to speak at the Harvard commencement? Or better, who failed to withdraw the invitation.

Eighth, speaking of detente, once upon a time, the Nixon administration tried to normalize relationships with Mao’s China, the better to undermine the Chinese alliance with the Soviet Union.

Now, it’s China’s turn. Its supreme leader, Xi Jinping is traveling to Europe to strengthen alliances with European countries, especially with France. Is it an attack on the Atlantic alliance? 

Writing in the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman expresses his suspicions.

Who is Xi Jin­ping’s travel agent? If you are mak­ing your first trip to Europe in nearly five years, an itin­er­ary that reads France, Ser­bia, Hun­gary seems a little eccent­ric.

But the three stops chosen by China’s leader make per­fect sense viewed from Beijing. For stra­tegic and eco­nomic reas­ons, China badly wants to dis­rupt the unity of both Nato and the EU. Each of the three coun­tries that Xi is vis­it­ing is seen as a poten­tial lever to prise open the cracks in the west.

Of course, one might conclude that America’s Sinophobia is producing an unintended consequence. 

Ninth, yesterday our mentally challenged vice president was in Detroit. As she was walking out of a restaurant with an order of take-out, a reporter asked her a question about the ceasefire negotiations involving Israel and Hamas.

To that Kamala replied:

Shrimp and grits. You wanted to know. Shrimp and grits.

One understands that she is a heartbeat away from the presidency. And one suspects that if there is a second Biden administration, our cerebrally defective president will retire and hand the oval office over to Kamala.

A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris.

Put that in your hookah and puff on it.

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