Barbara Kay: Fascism in America? Sure, but not because of You Know Who
...When leftists say “fascist,” it often means “right-wing people or opinions that offend me.” In fact fascism can arise on the left or the right. I’ve seen several tweets linking Trump with the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here, the story of an Illinois senator who parlays extreme nativism to the White House. But they fail to mention the novel’s protagonist was a socialist.
What exactly does fascism mean? In his bestselling 2007 book, Liberal Fascism (with an afterword on Obama in the 2009 edition), conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg offers this working definition: “Fascism is a religion of the state. It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, whether by force or by regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival ‘identity’ is part of the ‘problem’ and therefore defined as the enemy.”
Sounds about right for Mussolini, but also for conservative-shunning American campuses and the velvet totalitarianism of their gender relations and speech codes...
Poll Indicates Most American Voters Support Temporary Ban on Newcomers from Terrorist Havens
Most voters approve of President Trump’s temporary halt to refugees and visitors from several Middle Eastern and African countries until the government can do a better job of keeping out individuals who are terrorist threats.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters favor a temporary ban on refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen until the federal government approves its ability to screen out potential terrorists from coming here. Thirty-three percent (33%) are opposed, while 10% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Similarly, 56% favor a temporary block on visas prohibiting residents of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States until the government approves its ability to screen for likely terrorists. Thirty-two percent (32%) oppose this temporary ban, and 11% are undecided...
Scientists Criticize 'Hottest Year on Record' Claim as Hype
Claims that 2016 was “the hottest year on record” are drawing sharp criticism from scientists who say it reflects how global warming has become more social crusade than evidence-based science.
“The Obama administration relentlessly politicized science and it aggressively pushed a campaign about that politicized science,” said Steven E. Koonin, who served as under secretary for science in Obama’s Department of Energy from 2009 to 2011.
Koonin, a theoretical physicist at New York University who once worked for energy giant BP, also blamed a “happily complicit” media for trumpeting the now-departed Obama administration’s dubious claim.
The controversy began in mid-January when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report declaring that “the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for 2016 was the highest among all years since record-keeping began in 1880.”
The report buried the fact that the temperature increase detected by NOAA was 0.01 degrees Celsius. In other words, one-hundredth of a degree – a figure well within the scientific method’s margin of error and one many scientists thus dismissed as meaningless.
This tiny fraction, however, set the global warming bell towers ringing. Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was quoted at Climate Central referring to the past temperature record and saying “2016 has really blown that out of the water.”
Following the lead of the Schmidt and government press releases, USA Today wrote that “the planet sizzled to its third straight record warm year in 2016.” The New York Times’ front-page headline said, “Earth Sets Temperature Record for Third Straight Year.” The article declared that the latest readings were “trouncing” earlier numbers and the planet had thus “blown past” the previous records.
Such characterizations are absurd, according to Richard Lindzen, a meteorology professor at MIT and one of the world’s foremost skeptics that global warming represents an existential threat.
“It’s typical misleading nonsense,” Lindzen said in an e-mail. “We’re talking about less than a tenth of degree with an uncertainty of about a quarter of a degree. Moreover, such small fluctuations – even if real – don’t change the fact that the trend for the past 20 years has been much less than models have predicted.”...
A fascinating theory from the world of sports about Donald Trump’s first 7 days
An old sports strategy: foul so much in the 1st 5 min of the game that the refs can't call them all. From then on, a more physical game.
— Sally Jenkins (@sallyjenx) January 30, 2017
That's an absolutely fascinating way to view the flurry of activity — executive orders, tweets and the rest — that have defined Trump's first nine days in office.
Trump's six executive orders in his first 10 days as president are the most since World War II, according to Smart Politics. But it's not just the raw number. It's the subjects on which Trump has seen fit to exert his executive power. One EO set in motion the much-promised construction of a wall along our southern border. Another temporarily banned refugees from entering the U.S. and curtailed all visitors from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
What Trump is doing — under Jenkins's theory — is defining the landscape on which his presidency will play out. He's seeing how far he can stretch the system before it breaks and, thereby, setting the outer limits of what he can do very, very far out...
Scott Adams essentially has been saying the same thing.
From Scott Adams: Be Careful What You Wish For (especially if it is Hitler)
I think you're going to see me posting a lot from Scott Adams over the next 8 years...
As a trained persuader, I’m seeing a dangerous situation forming that I assume is invisible to most of you. The setup is that during the presidential campaign Trump’s critics accused him of being Hitler(ish) and they were sure other citizens would see it too, thus preventing this alleged monster from taking office.
They were wrong. The alleged monster took office.
Now you have literally millions of citizens in the United States who were either right about Trump being the next Hitler, and we will see that behavior emerge from him soon, or they are complete morons. That’s a trigger for cognitive dissonance. The science says these frightened folks will start interpreting all they see as Hitler behavior no matter how ridiculous it might seem to the objective observer. And sure enough, we are seeing that.
To be fair, Trump made it easy this week with his temporary immigration ban. If you assume Trump is Hitler, that fits with your hypothesis. But of course it also fits the hypothesis that he’s just doing his job. We’re all seeing what we expect to see.
But lately I get the feeling that Trump’s critics have evolved from expecting Trump to be Hitler to preferring it. Obviously they don’t prefer it in a conscious way. But the alternative to Trump becoming Hitler is that they have to live out the rest of their lives as confirmed morons. No one wants to be a confirmed moron...
Denounce Trump or you're a racist idiot!
No, of course that's nonsense.
But I'm seeing a lot of that in the last 24 hours, since Trump announced a suspension on entry to the US from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen.
Personally, I think the way the travel ban was implemented could have been thought out better, and made more clear particularly in terms of people from those countries who are not US citizens but are already legal residents. (UPDATE: The White House has apparently come to understand that and has already issued clarifications.) But the policy of restricting travel from countries which house groups that are violently hostile to the US is not without logic or precedence.
One of my friends put up a post on facebook implying that unless I denounce Trump, I must be "a racist idiot." Here was my response (I've omitted some identifying stuff of the first few sentences and formatted it in paragraphs, but otherwise, this is it in its entirety):
Now if you want to rationally discuss his suspension of entry from those 7 Muslim majority countries, personally, I don't think it's a great idea.
I'd be more disposed towards a more, as the term is, "extreme vetting," rather than a blanket ban. But the policy isn't insane.
First of all, it's not a "Muslim ban" as there are about 43 Muslim-majority countries which aren't affected by this policy representing approximately 90% of the world's Muslim population.
However, it is demonstrably true that all of the 7 countries on the list are breeding grounds for terrorism which house numerous terrorist organizations and are rife with extremism and lots of people violently hostile to the United States.
It's also reasonable to assume that the President of the United States has access to information that the average person doesn't. Since Trump has publicly stated that he's going to take more aggressive action than the previous administration, you might consider the possibility that those hostile to the US would be planning some actions against the US, and this entry ban is a preemptive countermeasure. It's also possibly being taken in anticipation of measures that Trump has planned towards those countries but has not yet announced. That's a very definite possibility in the case of Iran in particular, and Iran has substantial influence in the other countries on the list.
And by the way, while there have been numerous precedents for this, Obama set one himself in 2011, with a 6-month entry ban on Iraqi refugees. http://thefederalist.com/.../the-obama-administration.../ .
Again, while I would not take the exact measures that Trump is, in practical terms, the US is at war with groups inside those countries, so as a matter of policy, it is not irrational to suspend entry from those places until, as Trump said, we figure out how to deal with it. And trying to use the "anyone who disagrees with me is a racist idiot" argument may play well with people who think inside the bubble, but it's just not carrying the weight it used to.
Outrage Dilution
From Scott Adams' Blog:
I’m having a fun time watching President Trump flood the news cycle with so many stories and outrages that no one can keep up. Here’s how the math of persuasion works in this situation:
1 outrage out of 3 headlines in a week: Bad Persuasion
25 outrages out of 25 headlines in a week: Excellent Persuasion
At the moment there are so many outrages, executive orders, protests, and controversies that none of them can get enough oxygen in our brains. I can’t obsess about problem X because the rest of the alphabet is coming at me at the same time.
When you encounter a situation that is working great except for one identifiable problem, you can focus on the problem and try to fix it. But if you have a dozen complaints at the same time, none of them looks special. The whole situation just looks confusing, and you don’t know where to start. So you wait and see what happens. Humans need contrast in order to make solid decisions that turn into action. Trump removed all of your contrast by providing multiple outrages of similar energy.
You’re probably seeing the best persuasion you will ever see from a new president. Instead of dribbling out one headline at a time, so the vultures and critics can focus their fire, Trump has flooded the playing field. You don’t know where to aim your outrage. He’s creating so many opportunities for disagreement that it’s mentally exhausting. Literally...
Scientists say extreme PMS symptoms may be caused by a parasite carried by your CAT
...those who suffer severe forms of premenstrual syndrome may be suffering from more than raging hormones – their symptoms could be caused by a parasite carried by cats, research suggests.
Scientists found women with extreme symptoms such as depression and anger are more likely than others to have the parasite in their bloodstream...
Student Sues College Over 'Social Justice' Activism Mandate
American college campuses are becoming the main battleground for the First Amendment, usually because faculty or administrators don’t respect the free speech rights of students. In November I wrote about such a case at Iowa State.
Another case showing the authoritarianism that increasingly characterizes the professoriate involves the master’s program in social work at Rhode Island College (RIC). A student who did not believe that lobbying the state legislature for “progressive” causes was properly a part of his education and suffered for it filed suit against the school in state court.
This remarkable case started way back in 2004, when William Felkner, a graduate student in the college’s social work program, objected to its internship requirement that called for all students to work to “advance social change.” To the faculty, that meant advocating the sorts of “progressive” policies they favor, but the conservative Felkner did not care to advocate policies that he found philosophically repugnant. He therefore accepted instead an internship in the administration of then-governor Donald Carcieri, a Republican.
hat bit of independence was too much for the Professor James Ryczek who reported his defiance to the chair of the Master’s in Social Work Program, Lenore Olsen. She then informed Felkner that he could no longer pursue his degree at RIC.
Writing here in 2005, Greg Lukianoff, then the Director of Legal and Public Advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), said “Forcing a person to publicly state one thing when he or she privately believes something else is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian state. It is shocking that (RIC) President Nazarian would allow this.”...
Trump administration debates designating Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group
A debate is under way in the Trump administration about whether the United States should declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and subject it to U.S. sanctions, according to U.S. officials and people close to President Donald Trump's transition team.
A faction led by Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Advisor, wants to add the Brotherhood to the State Department and U.S. Treasury lists of foreign terrorist organizations, the sources said.
"I know it has been discussed. I'm in favor of it," said a Trump transition advisor, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The advisor said Flynn's team discussed adding the group to the U.S. list of terrorist groups but said it was ultimately unclear when or even if the administration ultimately would go ahead with such a move.
Other Trump advisors, as well as many veteran national security, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence officials argue the Brotherhood has evolved peacefully in some countries, according to officials and people close to Trump's entourage.
They worry that a U.S. move to designate the entire Brotherhood a terrorist group would complicate relations with Turkey, a key American ally in the fight against Islamic State, and where the Islamist-rooted AKP Party that dominates the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in power...
Alan Shatter: Accusations against Israel hide the real issues
...France’s president François Hollande’s misleadingly labelled “Middle East Peace Conference” resulted in the adoption of a statement solely concerned with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
All conflagrations in other parts of the Middle East were entirely ignored. The continuing death and destruction occurring in Syria were not mentioned.
With excessive ceremony and fanfare, in the absence of the principal protagonists, the states represented reaffirmed between themselves the blindingly obvious, that “a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security is the only way to achieve enduring peace” between Israelis and Palestinians...
...No mention is made of Hamas’s malevolent decade-long destructive rule in the strip; the divisions between the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas; their many failed attempts to implement agreed measures to resolve those divisions; the total rejection by Hamas of the two-state solution; President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and Hamas lacking any current democratic mandate to rule; Palestinian elections having last been held 10 years ago; and the factions’ mutual fear of the outcome of any poll that might take place.
The 70 states participating, including the Irish State, represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, chose to ignore the current realities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the real obstacles to a permanent peace.
At their core is a complete lack of trust between the parties and the inconvenient fact that the Israelis currently have no party with whom to negotiate which credibly and democratically represents Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and in East Jerusalem...
We'll miss you, Mary!
Mary Tyler Moore died and with her, another chunk of my life.
Here's the first episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show:
And the classic episode, Chuckles Bites The Dust:
President Trump Delivers Remarks at Department of Homeland Security
It's hard to be a woman in Trump's America
pic.twitter.com/nHp0T1n480
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 25, 2017
Whatever happened to former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant?
This is a fascinating story of what happened to Ontario's former Attorney General Michael Bryant, whose precipitous fall from grace was even more striking than the rapid rise of his political fortunes.
I met him many years ago when he first campaigned for a seat at Queen's Park. Michael impressed me as honest and capable to the extent that I even door-knocked for him for his election, with my extremely cute then-3 year-old son in tow, at the four story walk-up apartment where we then lived near Bathurst and St. Clair.
I met him a few more times while he was a politician; the woman to whom Michael was then married practiced law at the same firm, and in the next office beside a very good friend of mine, who introduced us. She too seemed a wonderful, impressive person. A series of terrible mishaps subsequently changed their lives and many others.
“I HAD NO IDEA THAT INNOCENT PEOPLE WERE, EVERY DAY, BEING TREATED LIKE GUILTY PEOPLE,” says Ontario’s former attorney general Michael Bryant. “I had no idea that the presumption of innocence is a joke.” It’s a brisk fall day, and we’re having lunch in the cafeteria at the largest courthouse in Brampton. Bryant, who turned 50 this year, is clean-shaven with short grey hair, his face framed by hipster-thick black glasses. In between bites of Caesar salad, Bryant laments how much he got wrong about Ontario’s justice system when he ran it from 2003 to 2007. But he’s starting to learn. And he’s appalled.
I’ve come to court to watch Bryant spend a day conducting bail hearings. For the past year, he’s done this a few times a week, using bail court as the staging ground for his long-term plan: to build a full-fledged criminal-law practice.
On such days, his job title is duty counsel. In return for a paycheque from Legal Aid Ontario, Bryant stands in bail court all day and represents people the police have charged, but who lack a lawyer to negotiate their release from custody. Sitting in the courtroom, I watch as police haul citizens up from the cells in the basement and plop them into a Plexiglas-encased witness box. Each person then meets Bryant, and the two chat for a couple minutes over the glass before the hearing starts. If anyone recognizes him as a former attorney general, they don’t show it.
Nor do they seem aware that Bryant was once charged with a serious crime himself. Bryant may in fact be most famous for his involvement, in 2009, in a car accident that left cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard dead — and Bryant facing charges for dangerous driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death. (His lawyer, Marie Henein, built a defence so strong that the Crown dropped the charges before trial.) In court, Bryant looks anything but a criminal. He stands five foot eight, wears a grey textured suit with a matching vest, a crisp dress shirt, a bold red tie and brown leather shoes. He radiates the image of, well, a lawyer...
What Obama Owes Putin—and Why Donald Trump Is Left Holding the Bag
Is Donald Trump a Russian secret agent? Did he pay FSB hookers to pee on the bed the Obamas slept in at the Ritz in Moscow, overlooking the Kremlin? It’s silly season, so any drunk on a fat oppo-research expense account can write down any crazy foolishness they want and Buzzfeed will let you decide if it’s true because that, as Buzzfeed’s editor, Ben Smith, solemnly explained to The New York Times, is where American journalism is at in 2017. Duly noted, Buzzfeed. Enjoy the golden showers.
What’s being obscured by this grotesquerie is the origin and the actual substance of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, which in turn affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people living in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Or, to put it another way: Is Donald Trump likely to continue the policies of his predecessor, which set the Middle East on fire and led to 500,000 deaths in Syria, and to Putin biting off large chunks of the sovereign nation of Ukraine? Or is he likely to reverse those policies? Or can he, even if he wanted to?
The single-mindedness with which the White House and the remnants of the Clinton campaign have pursued the idea that Donald Trump is a pawn of Vladimir Putin is not based on silly stories about peeing prostitutes or secret computer servers that connect the Trump organization to the Kremlin. Rather, it’s an attempt to manufacture more smoke to obscure the reality of Obama’s own determination to collaborate with a hostile Russian leader in Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Sure, Obama recently sent 35 Russian diplomats packing and shuttered Russian diplomatic facilities in Maryland and New York, but this was after seven years of looking the other way while Russia seized Crimea, then Donbass; waged cyberattacks on the Baltic countries; brought down a passenger jet over Ukraine; sheltered Edward Snowden; and bombed schools and hospitals in Syria. All of these actions threatened global stability and American interests, yet Obama only puffed his chest after the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails—long after it mattered, and after the moving vans have already started to haul his stuff out of the White House...
Facebook manipulates user posts to rig the game against Trump
This morning, I tried to embed a very funny tweet from Twitter wag Godfrey Elfwick about the Women's March.
This is the tweet:
However, when I tried to post it on facebook, the hashtag #womensmarch was identified by the facebook algorithm, and I was only allowed to select from a series of images below, none of which were of the tweet I was trying to embed, and all supportive of the histrionic anti-Trump protests yesterday.
Admittedly, the images facebook selected are less likely to kill your apetite than Godfrey's, but isn't that a choice we should be allowed to make for ourselves?
Silly me! I forgot, free choice is a classist privilege that is a product of the oppressive, hegemonic patriarchy. The only choice that should be allowed is #socialjustice, meaning facebook and the Women's March crazies' idea of social justice, and any other choice must be prevented.
Not only is the media biased against Trump, but in the case of facebook, it's trying to make its users appear biased against him as well.
Racist Organizes Toronto Trump Protest, Oppression Olympics Ensues!
Not sure she realises the irony of the hammer & sickle on her sign pic.twitter.com/kgTZhDKqmh
— Greg Renouf (@grenouf) January 20, 2017
At 2pm Friday afternoon, while their American counterparts were charging through Washington DC on a violent rampage, a group of Toronto anarcho-kiddies kicked-off an “Anti-Fascist Rally And March” to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration. Organisers described the event on its Facebook page as “a day of action and resistance” created “in defiance of fascism and hatred at home and abroad”.
If you’re already familiar with organisers Wesley Williams (a.k.a. Quasir Ali) and Lane Patriquin then you’ve probably already busted your gut laughing. Both were present and spoke at a hardcore racist Trump protest back in November, and both took prominent roles in the mayhem during Dr. Jordan Petersons October demonstration at the University of Toronto.
Williams is also well known for the racist patch he wore at a 2015 Black Lives Matter protest- “I am the Death of the Palefaces”, it declared!
Barely a handful or two showed up for the protest. So despite Williams calling for “diversity of tactics”, there wasn’t much of an opportunity for violence with an almost equal balance of cops and protesters. Observers and clickbait hungry media were instead awarded by a world-class demonstration of Oppression Olympics and tragically stupid rhetoric that might make even Justin Trudeau blush...
Read the rest at GENUINEWITTY
Speaking Truth To Assholes
Day 1 of Donald Trump's Presidency: Kiss Kyoto Goodbye!
An America First Energy Plan
Energy is an essential part of American life and a staple of the world economy. The Trump Administration is committed to energy policies that lower costs for hardworking Americans and maximize the use of American resources, freeing us from dependence on foreign oil.
For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry. President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule. Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years.
Sound energy policy begins with the recognition that we have vast untapped domestic energy reserves right here in America. The Trump Administration will embrace the shale oil and gas revolution to bring jobs and prosperity to millions of Americans. We must take advantage of the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, especially those on federal lands that the American people own. We will use the revenues from energy production to rebuild our roads, schools, bridges and public infrastructure. Less expensive energy will be a big boost to American agriculture, as well.
The Trump Administration is also committed to clean coal technology, and to reviving America’s coal industry, which has been hurting for too long...
Also with the new Administration, the White House is no longer afraid to use the term "radical Islamic terror":
Donald Trump's Inauguration Speech as 45th President of the United States of America
Virgin Birth: Zebra Shark Has Babies Without Mating
Credit: Tourism & Events Queensland
...Leonie had been living apart from males for the past few years, so her keepers were surprised when she laid eggs that produced three baby sharks in April 2016. Leonie could be the first shark ever observed to make the switch from sexual to asexual reproduction.
"We thought she could be storing sperm; but when we tested the pups and the possible parent sharks using DNA fingerprinting, we found they only had cells from Leonie," said University of Queensland biologist Christine Dudgeon, who described the case in the journal Scientific Reports Monday (Jan. 16).
Leonie's case marks the first time scientists have seen this type of asexual reproduction —known as parthenogenesis—in the zebra shark (Stegostoma fasciatum).
Parthenogenesis occurs when embryos develop and mature without fertilization by a male's sperm. Rather, an egg progenitor cell that usually gets absorbed by the female's body acts as a surrogate sperm to "fertilize" her egg. This reproduction strategy is more common in plants and invertebrate organisms. However, scientists have been documenting an increasing number of vertebrate species that can have virgin births even when their species normally reproduces sexually. For example, Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, have given birth by parthenogenesis. So have wild pit vipers, blacktip sharks, chickens and turkeys...
4 Recent Examples Show Why No One (with any analytical ability) Trusts Media Coverage Of Trump
One may have hoped that the media would respond to their 2016 failures and resulting lack of credibility by reforming. Instead, it seems that many in political media are quadrupling down on the mistakes that served them and their readers and viewers so poorly in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s surprise victory in November.
It’s impossible to track all the ways in which the media are leaning into their bias, their unnecessary hostility, and their abandonment of journalistic principles. So let’s just look at a few examples from the last few hours.
Many members of the media would like to imagine themselves as brave heroes who will valiantly fight the excesses of the Trump administration. These examples show why people do not trust the media to tell the truth, much less hold anyone accountable for anything...
read the rest at The Federalist
Scott Adams asks: Could a Climate Science Expert Change Your Opinion?
...Here’s a thought experiment:
Let’s say you are new to the debate about climate change and I put you in a room with the most well-informed climate scientist in the world. The scientist spends as much time with you as you want, answering every question and making her case that climate change is a human-caused disaster in the making. Let’s say this scientists is also the best communicator in the world, unlike most scientists. So now you have the best information, from the most knowledgeable person in the world on this topic, communicated in the best possible way, and answering all of your questions. Would you be persuaded by all of that credibility and good communication?
We know that a die-hard climate change skeptic would not be persuaded by this excellent source of information because humans rarely change their minds about important things. Instead we hallucinate reasons for why we were right all along. But in my thought experiment I said you are new to the climate change debate. So let’s assume you came to it without bias. Would you be convinced by the scientist?
Probably yes. If your first introduction to a topic involved a clear and detailed explanation from the top expert in the world, you would probably be persuaded because there is nothing stopping that persuasion from happening. You have no bias to overcome and the scientist is both credible and clear in her message.
The unbiased mind is likely to be totally convinced in this thought experiment. And that mind would also think it had engaged in rational behavior. After all, what could be more rational than getting the best information on a topic, from the best expert in the world, communicated in the clearest possible way?
But your new certainty about climate change would be a fraud that you perpetrated on yourself. If you don’t yet see in my thought experiment why the best information from the best source is still unreliable, even when clearly communicated, you probably don’t understand enough about the world to participate in decision-making.
I’ll simplify this even further so you can test your hallucination. Here’s the summary of the situation. Tell me why you should not automatically trust the scientist in this thought experiment. Assume the following three things ARE true. What’s missing?
Best expert in the world on Climate Science.
Currently works in the field.
Great communicator, answers all of your questions.
See what’s missing yet?
The thing that is missing is that you can’t know what the expert didn’t tell you...
Syrian oppositionist says Palestinians are ‘living in paradise’
Credit: Reuvan Ramaz, Truman Institute
A rare public meeting between Israelis and Syrians in Jerusalem on Tuesday was interrupted by Palestinian protesters who expressed outrage that Syrians would work with Israelis. The protesters met with a furious response from the Syrians, who accused them of failing to understand what true oppression involves.
“You are living in a paradise compared to Syria,” Issam Zeitoun, a liaison for the Free Syrian Army with the international community, told the protesters as they refused to stop shouting and allow the event to continue. “You should be ashamed.”...
In a full turnaround, Pride Toronto, which began as a plea for tolerance, is now a platform for hateful extremists
When Toronto's Pride festival was in its infancy, I was there attending and usually try to make the festival. I went to Jarvis Collegiate, around the corner from the Church Street 'Gay Ghetto,' and as high school kids, our hangouts were along Church where we mingled with the gay proprietors, staff and customers of local establishments and everyone got along great.
Pride started as a a reaction to police raids on Toronto bathhouses and a call for understanding and tolerance, but to be honest, I was fairly oblivious to the politics back then. I was interested in supporting the gay community, but there was also some self-interest. When Pride started out, it was small, friendly, and the bars and restaurants along the strip were anxious to promote the event, so they would sell beer at really cheap prices. A win-win.
Pride has been no stranger to controversy from its outset. At one point, a debate occurred as to whether the pedophile group the North American Man-Boy Love Association should be banned from Pride. Eventually that group was banned from Pride as their participation became too discreditting for the growing gay rights movement. However, as the gay rights movement grew, so did Pride, and radical extremists saw an opportunity to advance their agendas through it.
It's a common radical activist tactic, to parasitically attach itself to an organization, and then eventually try to control it and steer it in a direction completely different than its original purpose. That is how the odious anti-semitic group "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" became such a force in Pride. For the overwhelming majority of North American gay (or straight) people, middle east politics is no more relevant than Mongolian politics, If anything, the gay community mostly sympathizes and empathizes with Israel, which is one of the most tolerant countries in the world insofar as gay rights are concerned and is home to one of the world's top gay tourist destinations in Tel Aviv, which has its own huge annual Pride festival.
But radical neo-Marxist extremists who despise Israel and western capitalist culture in general infiltrated Pride and pushed the antisemitc agenda. The result almost derailed Toronto's Pride festival, when sponsors started withdrawing support and the City of Toronto threatened to withhold funds so as not to have any association with the anti-Israel fanatics.
The same type of extremists have now gained control of Toronto's Pride through the fanatical Black Lives Matter group. Racial equality and the elimination of racism are important goals. Those goals are not what Black Lives Matter stands for. It's an extremist, racist, anti-western organization which exploits the stupidity of virtue-signalling "social justice warriors," who are afraid to be seen as opposing what they mistakenly believe to be a group that strives for equality and tolerance.
Much has changed since Toronto's Pride festival began in 1981. Police are now supportive of and eager participants in Toronto's Pride festival and have been for the last two decades. That will now change, thanks to the Black Lives Matter extremists. Pride has capitulated to Black Lives Matters' demand to exclude Toronto Police entirely from Pride. Well, not entirely. They still expect Toronto Police to provide free security to the festival and parade.
It's standard Marxist inanity: "We hate you, you're an oppressor. Oh, and give us free stuff that we've done nothing to deserve."
The City of Toronto should withdraw all support from Pride until the despicable decision to exclude police from the festival is reversed. But perhaps, better still, the City should start an alternative Gay festival that is the symbol of inclusiveness and tolerance that Pride was meant to be, and leave the fanatics and hatemongers who dominate Toronto's Pride organization to have a tiny, masturbatory gathering of their own, which they can pay for with their own resources.
The self-affirming Hollywood bubble
The self-affirming Hollywood bubble in a nutshell. People in near total agreement are considered "a mix of voices." https://t.co/udtBCx7hxE
— Richard Klagsbrun (@KlagsbrunTO) January 17, 2017
A typical day on the West Bank
Are US Intelligence agencies about to go to war with their own Commander-In-Chief?
If this report is true, then it bodes terribly for the state of affairs among certain quarters of some US intelligence agencies. It is a sign of a serious problem either way, since it translates to a either security risk or a terrible politicization of US Intelligence.
...American intelligence officials expressed despair at the election of Trump during a recent meeting with their Israeli counterparts, Bergman reported. They said that they believed that Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump, though they did not elaborate. The American media reported on Wednesday that Russia has embarrassing intelligence about the president-elect.
According to Bergman, the American intelligence officials implied that Israel should “be careful” when transferring intelligence information to the White House and the National Security Council (NSC) following Trump's inauguration – at least until it is clear that Trump does not have inappropriate connections with Russia.
Cooperation between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities has intensified over the past two decades, with most of the joint operations directed, according to reports, against Iran. Hezbollah and Hamas were also intelligence targets. An official agreement in 2008 for comprehensive cooperation, including the exposure of sources and methods of action, reportedly led to impressive results, including the disruption of the Iranian nuclear program.
President Barack Obama put an end to offensive activity against Iran in 2013, at the start of secret talks between the U.S, and Iran over a nuclear agreement...
When the country that spawned the evil of Nazism teams up with Islamofascism
A German regional court in the city of Wuppertal affirmed a lower court decision last Friday stating that a violent attempt to burn the city's synagogue by three men in 2014 was a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.
Johannes Pinnel, a spokesman for the regional court in Wuppertal, outlined the court’s decision in a statement.
Three German Palestinians sought to torch the Wuppertal synagogue with Molotov cocktails in July, 2014. The local Wuppertal court panel said in its 2015 decision that the three men wanted to draw “attention to the Gaza conflict” with Israel. The court deemed the attack not to be motivated by antisemitism...
Obama's farewell speech heightened divisions rather than healed them
White voters in America aren't mostly underemployed, middle aged people who feel left behind, African-Americans aren't all oppressed, underprivileged victims who are the daily targets of racists, or angry activists blocking public thoroughfares, and Latino-Americans aren't mostly first generation immigrants, most of whom are in the country illegally.
The average white Trump voter makes substantially more than the US median income, most African-Americans are solidly entrenched in the middle class, and most Latinos have been in America for generations, immigrated legally and a substantial number of them voted for Donald Trump.
You'd never realize that from Barack Obama's farewell speech Tuesday night.
The growth and entrenchment of Identity Politics has been the most divisive element of western culture in the last eight years and Barack Obama has made the issue worse by reinforcing rather than debunking many stereotypes.
President Obama is one of the great political orators of his generation, and there was much good in his farewell speech. His telling Americans that they need to get out of their self-affirming bubbles is one of the most crucial things that needs to be heard at this juncture.
But Obama also reiterated the patchwork of distinct, boilerplate categories of cliched racial, religious and ethnic divisions that would be described as racist generalizations if anyone other than the 'post-racial' President uttered them.
The inculcation of those divisions has, during Obama's presidency, taken firmer root in education and government policy. It's destructive and divisive.
When Americans are encouraged to be Americans, and we see pigmentation and ethnicity as another facet that separates people from each other no more than hair color or taste in music, then thge nation will grow stronger. The Book of Proverbs predicts what the sort of divisions Obama's America may reap: "He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
With an new presidency on the horizon, let's hope Americans can repudiate that prediction.
Vampire Bats In Brazil Now Start To Feed On Human Blood
Wild vampire bats in Brazil that are believed to exclusively feed on bird blood have started to feed on human blood by night.
Better Adapted At Processing Bird Blood
The hairy-legged vampire bat, Diphylla ecaudata, which lives in northeast Brazil typically targets large birds to feed on at night time.
The bats primarily feed on birds because they have evolved to be better at processing bird blood, which is characterized by high levels of fat, than at digesting the thicker and high-protein blood of mammals. The nocturnal animals would suck a spoonful of blood from one animal as meal.
Earlier experiments have shown that many of the bats would opt to fast and starve to death when only pig and goat blood was available.
Enrico Bernard, from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and colleagues, however, have found evidence suggesting that the bats have started to eat something that is outside of their traditional diet.
Traces Of Human Blood In Fecal Samples
Bernard and colleagues analyzed fecal samples from a colony of the hairy-legged vampires that live in Catimbau National Park in northeast Brazil. The researchers found that of the 15 samples that they managed to get DNA from, three had traces of blood from humans, suggesting that the animals have started to suck on human blood...
Cruz, Graham 'Safeguard Israel Act' aims to slay Obama's abandonment of Israel
Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are set to introduce legislation Thursday to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations until the anti-American organization rescinds its recently passed, vehemently anti-Israel resolution.
U.S. contributions to the body’s regular and peacekeeping budgets stand at roughly $3 billion a year — about a quarter of the respective budgets.
The senators’ Safeguard Israel Act of 2017 seeks to “prohibit voluntary or assessed contributions to the United Nations until the President certifies to Congress that United Nations Security Resolution 2334 has been repealed,” an advance copy of the draft bill obtained by Conservative Review states...
Terence Corcoran: Chavez’s Canadian fan club is awfully quiet about Venezuela’s utter meltdown
It’s time for a break from the great media/Hollywood fixation on the imminent malfeasance of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Better, for sanity and perspective, to reflect on a former media/Hollywood fixation: The ideologically sainted Hugo Chavez, a national leader whose wondrous achievements as socialist president of Venezuela were hailed and celebrated for almost two decades.
With Venezuela currently slipping deeper into financial and economic ruin, not much has been heard from the dead dictator’s legion of supporters, including those Canadian media celebrities who joined hands with Hollywood types such as Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and Sean Penn to support Chavez as a great South American democrat.
One such Canadian, Naomi Klein, retweeted approvingly on the 2013 death of Chavez: “Yes, the Venezuelan president could be a strongman. But he leaves behind what might be called the most democratic country in the Western Hemisphere.”
The Western Hemisphere?! More democratic than, say, Canada? I suppose Venezuela might be called that, but not with a straight face. What Chavez actually left behind is one of the most horrifically destitute countries in the world. In December, Transparency International listed Venezuela as the only country in the Americas among the world’s 10 most corrupt governments...
Against and For: Senators Al Franken (D) and Ted Cruz (R) question Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General at confirmation hearings
Jeremy Corbyn backs "idiotic" cap on earnings to reduce inequality
Jeremy Corbyn has backed a cap on high earnings as a way to reduce income inequality, as the Labour leader makes a fresh pitch to UK voters.
Mr Corbyn told the BBC on Tuesday: “I would like there to be some kind of high earnings cap, quite honestly.”
The Labour leader described the UK as a bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe. “We have the worst level of income disparity of most of the OECD countries,” he said. “It’s getting worse and corporate taxation is a part of it. If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.”
However, Mr Corbyn was reluctant to be drawn on details of an earnings cap: “I can’t put a figure on it and I don’t want to.”...
Imam who issued fatwa against Indian PM Modi now threatens Tarek Fatah with beheading
Recently, the Shahi Imam of (India's) Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, Maulana Noorur Rahman Barkati was in the news for issuing a fatwa against Narendra Modi. The Imam had declared an award of Rupees 25 lakhs for shaving the head and beard of the Prime Minister. He was speaking at a joint conference by the All India Majlis-e-Sura and All India Minority Forum, in a promotional campaign for Mamata Banerjee.
Now it appears the Imam has gone quite a few steps ahead. The Imam was invited to a panel discussion on Zee News, to debate his controversial fatwa. Among the panelists, was Canadian columnist and staunch critic of radical Islam, Tarek Fatah.
In a shocking incident of gross “intolerance”, out of nowhere, the Imam declared during the debate that Fatah “would be beheaded”...
Piers Morgan: Sorry, Meryl but that hypocritical anti-Trump rant was easily the worst performance of your career (apart from that time you gave a child rapist a standing ovation)
...Really, Meryl?
For starters, the incident to which she referred didn’t happen last year, it happened in 2015. There’s even been another Golden Globes in between then and now, at which it was never mentioned.
Second, Trump has always furiously denied – and has again today on Twitter - he was mocking the reporter’s disability and a Conservative website produced video evidence of numerous other instances where he made the exact same gesture to fully able-bodied people when attacking them. (See here and decide for yourself)
Third, the reporter is hardly a powerless individual with ‘no capacity to fight back’; he’s a long-time Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist at the New York Times, a paper that’s trashed Trump for decades.
But putting all that to one side for a moment – and if Trump WAS mocking a man’s disability then I agree it was disgraceful - let’s move to what Streep said next: ‘Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.’
At this point, I laughed out loud with incredulity.
Not at the words themselves, which are laudable.
No, it was at the hypocrisy.
You’d be hard-pushed to find an industry that encourages more disrespect and violence than Hollywood...
Dear celebrities: Stop making political videos
CNN least trusted news network
CNN is less trusted by likely voters than its competitors at MSNBC and Fox News, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, said that 75 percent of likely voters tend to watch at least some cable news per week to keep up with politics. Among that group, 42 percent watch Fox News, 35 percent watch CNN, and 19 percent watch MSNBC.
However, the poll said a larger portion of Fox News and MSNBC viewers trust those networks...
Rafsanjani Was Iran’s Mythical ‘Moderate’
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was the original Mr. Moderation. Western observers saw the former Iranian president as a sort of Deng Xiaoping in clerical robes: a founder of the Islamic Republic who was destined to transform the country into a normal state. Rafsanjani, they thought, was too corrupt to be an ideologue.
Yet Rafsanjani, who died Sunday at 82, consistently defied such hopes. His life and legacy remind us that fanaticism and venality aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s a lesson in the persistence of Western fantasies about the Iranian regime...
Barbara Kay: Fascism in America? Sure, but not bec...
Poll Indicates Most American Voters Support Tempor...
Scientists Criticize 'Hottest Year on Record' Clai...
A fascinating theory from the world of sports abou...
From Scott Adams: Be Careful What You Wish For (es...
Scientists say extreme PMS symptoms may be caused ...
Student Sues College Over 'Social Justice' Activis...
Trump administration debates designating Muslim Br...
Alan Shatter: Accusations against Israel hide the ...
President Trump Delivers Remarks at Department of ...
Whatever happened to former Ontario Attorney Gener...
What Obama Owes Putin—and Why Donald Trump Is Left...
Facebook manipulates user posts to rig the game ag...
Racist Organizes Toronto Trump Protest, Oppression...
Day 1 of Donald Trump's Presidency: Kiss Kyoto Goo...
Donald Trump's Inauguration Speech as 45th Preside...
4 Recent Examples Show Why No One (with any analyt...
Scott Adams asks: Could a Climate Science Expert C...
Syrian oppositionist says Palestinians are ‘living...
In a full turnaround, Pride Toronto, which began a...
Are US Intelligence agencies about to go to war wi...
When the country that spawned the evil of Nazism t...
Obama's farewell speech heightened divisions rathe...
Vampire Bats In Brazil Now Start To Feed On Human ...
Cruz, Graham 'Safeguard Israel Act' aims to slay O...
Terence Corcoran: Chavez’s Canadian fan club is aw...
Against and For: Senators Al Franken (D) and Ted C...
Jeremy Corbyn backs "idiotic" cap on earnings to r...
Imam who issued fatwa against Indian PM Modi now t...
Piers Morgan: Sorry, Meryl but that hypocritical a...
How Edward Snowden Helped Terrorists Succeed
Fans of Homeland will get a real treat out of Netf...
Sen. Cruz: Congress Must Cut U.S. Taxpayer Funding...
Obama's Legacy of Failure - The US House of Repres...
Bill C-16 – What’s the Big Deal?
How George Soros destroyed the Democratic Party
Real Housewives of ISIS is infuriating humorless "...
Prominent climate scientist retires from academia ...
The Age of Liberal Unreason
Crumbling ‘Consensus’: 500 Scientific Papers Publi...
Charities linked to terrorism at record high: extr...
Celebrity attempt at Milo book ban backfires biggly
A proposal to let people in need in Toronto help t...
Vandal Changes Famed Hollywood Sign Overnight To R...
AUREL BRAUN: Save the fake outrage: Obama has know...


Author: Jessie Bauters Apr 24, 2017
Jill of All Trades plays Linda in “Red Hot and Cole”
The Denver native graduates this May with a master’s degree in voice performance.
Nadya Hill is a vocalist. A violinist. A visual artist. A full-stack Javascript web developer. But on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, as she performs in Eklund Opera’s season-ending “Red Hot and Cole,” she’ll just be Linda Porter.
“I get to sing ‘In the Still of the Night,’ which is for sure my favorite Cole Porter song. I’m really excited.”
The Denver native graduates this May with a master’s degree in voice performance, and after turns in opera classics “Die Fledermaus,” “The Magic Flute,” “L’incoronazione di Poppea” and “Così fan tutte,” she’s looking forward to going out on a slightly different note.
“‘Red Hot and Cole’ is really more musical theatre than opera,” she says. “It’s also wonderful to be able to work with [Professor of Theatre and director] Bud Coleman. He’s an amazing person and a brilliant director.”
Music is in Hill’s blood: Her father is principal timpanist for the Colorado Symphony, her mother is a violinist and her brother Colin is a junior jazz drum major at CU. Hill started playing violin as a child and since then, music has been intertwined with everything in her life.
“It’s hard to say exactly why music is so important, because for me, it’s just necessary and omnipresent. It’s as much of a need to me as eating, breathing or sleeping.”
Anyone who’s watched Hill perform can plainly see that passion shining through in her skill and engaging stage presence. So, with all that natural musical talent going for her, why computer programming?
A series of twists and turns altered Hill’s vision of her future, after a couple of bouts with tendinitis put her violin career in jeopardy. The second time the condition flared up—while she was an undergraduate violinist at the University of Michigan—she saw herself at a fork in the road.
“I got tendinitis in my back, neck and arms horribly my freshman year—to the point where I couldn’t play,” she recalls. “So my roommate suggested I try voice lessons for fun. After about six months, I got into the voice program there.”
Fast forward to her time at CU Boulder, and Hill has had roles in five operas, seemingly putting the uncertainty of the past behind her. But for a perfectionist, it wasn’t enough.
“After my first year of grad school, I was overwhelmed by the possibility that I might not be able to support myself as a musician. So I started teaching myself to code; then I took a 10-week intensive course in Boulder.
“I’ll always be a singer and a violinist, but now I’ll always be a computer programmer as well. The world of professional musicians is notoriously financially unpredictable, so there’s something comforting in knowing that while I have the skills to be a professional performer, I can also always know where my next meal is coming from.”
Now Hill, who manages the website for the Colorado Youth Symphony Orchestras in her free time, has yet another creative outlet.
“Coding is definitely an art form in itself,” she says. “To make a successful website, it has to be fun, easy to navigate, and personalized for each individual business, which ends up feeling like solving puzzles all day. I also love programming dorky and entertaining little Easter eggs into websites—with the business’s permission, of course!”
And as if that weren’t enough on her plate, violin is also still very much a part of her life. Once a week, Hill makes the trek south of Denver, where she sits as concertmaster for the Parker Symphony.
She says she’s able to do it because singing helped her get her health issues under control.
“Singing is such a different approach to music than violin that I found I was actually able to play violin better after I started singing,” she says. “Physically, I found tension singing where no one was able to see it before. And that helped me feel a lot better, too.”
As her time in Boulder draws to a close, the Jill of All Trades hopes to put her many skills to use wherever her path leads her next. And she’ll look fondly on the lessons she learned and friends she made at the College of Music.
“I’ll really miss working with such amazing colleagues and teachers,” she says. “I’ve been really lucky to be surrounded by incredibly supportive people here.”
“Red Hot and Cole” is Thursday, April 27 through Sunday, April 30. For tickets, visit CUPresents.org.
Upcoming Eklund Opera Events View all events
Close Cendrillon Performance Details
An opera by Jules Massenet
Composed by Jules MassenetLibretto by Henri Cain Massenet's wistful interpretation of the classic "Cinderella" fairy tale is opulent, romantic and fu...
Buy Tickets - Cendrillon
Learn more about Cendrillon
Latest Eklund Opera News View all news items
Eklund Opera’s “La Bohème” featuring…
Giacomo Puccini didn’t go to the well of Greek and Roman myths…
Learn More - Eklund Opera’s “La Bohème” featuring alum Wei Wu offers a fresh take on Puccini’s “quintessential opera”
Single tickets for CU Presents…
CU Presents will begin offering single tickets Monday, Aug. 15, for its…
Learn More - Single tickets for CU Presents 2022-2023 season on sale now
From Sharps & Flatirons: Eklund…
Dominick Argento and John Donahue’s one-act opera Postcard from Morocco definitely doesn’t…
Learn More - From Sharps & Flatirons: Eklund Opera presents colorful 'Postcard from Morocco'


Impaired New Year’s drivers keep police busy
Local law enforcement netted several motorists for suspected impaired driving during the New Year’s holiday.
The arrests began on New Year’s Eve and continued into the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
Just after midnight on New Year’s Eve, Ruston Police stopped Melba I. Jones-Williams, 61, of Ellenwood, Ga., for an improper U-turn on La. Highway 33. Detecting possible impairment of the driver, a trooper from the Louisiana State Police came to the scene and conducted field sobriety tests. Based on the trooper’s observations, Jones-Williams was arrested and taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for a breath test.
Jones refused to provide a proper breath sample and a search warrant was obtained to draw her blood. The blood was later submitted to the state police crime lab for analysis.
Jones was booked for first offense DWI and improper turning. Bail was set at $1,500.
About 11:00 p.m. New Year’s Eve, a Lincoln Parish deputy sheriff found a driver asleep behind the wheel in the roadway on U.S. Highway 167. When the driver awoke, he attempted to drive off but did not realize the car was in park. The deputy was able to remove the keys but Jeff Tatum, 77, of Spearsville, refused to step out of the car and had to be forcibly removed.
Tatum was arrested for simple obstruction of a highway and resisting an officer and taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center where a Louisiana state trooper administered field sobriety tests. A breath test indicated Tatum’s blood alcohol content was .123g%. He was additionally charged with first offense DWI. Bail was set at $1,500.
At approximately the same time, another state trooper stopped a car for speeding on U.S. 167 south of Ruston. The driver, Jose E. Cruz, 33, of Hodge, told the trooper he did not have a driver’s license as he was not a U.S. citizen. After administering field sobriety tests, the trooper arrested Cruz and took him to the detention center for a breath test.
The test indicated Cruz’s blood alcohol content was .170g%, over twice the state’s legal limit.
Cruz was booked for first offense DWI, speeding 65 in a 55 zone, improper lane usage, and no driver’s license. Bail was set at $1,750.
At about 2:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day, a state trooper stopped Rodney E. Cobb, 52, of Dubach, for crossing the center line into the opposing lane several times on La. Highway 821.
After Cobb reportedly performed poorly on field sobriety tests, he was arrested and taken to the detention center. When a breath test was attempted, the testing device indicated Cobb needed medical attention. He was taken to the Northern Louisiana Medical Center when he was checked out and provided a blood sample for analysis.
Cobb was returned to the detention center and booked for first offense DWI and improper lane usage.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
← Ricky Durrett wins Week 17 of NFL Pick’em Contest
Lady Cougars roll; Cougars fall late →


News Roundup – 21 March 2014
Katharine Fortin
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University where she teaches IHL and IHRL. Before joining Utrecht University, she worked at the ICTY, ICC and Norton Rose Fulbright. She is the author of The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2017) which won the 2018 Lieber Prize. She has written widely about the framework of law that applies to armed groups in non-international armed conflicts and is one of the editors of the Armed Groups and International Law blog.
‘There is no sectarianism in the army’ – Syria’s war, the general’s view.
Nigerian army facing questions as death toll soars after prison attack.
Boko Haram, it’s now fire-for-fire – Jonathan
Narcisse Arido makes first appearance before ICC.
World must ‘sit up and pay attention’ to situation in CAR, UN human rights chief.
Burmese armed group commits to child protection and the prohibition of sexual violence.
News Roundup 12 December – 18 December
By Begüm Simsir / December 21, 2022 December 18, 2022
News Roundup 5 December – 11 December


Growing Christmas trees is difficult but 'beautiful' labor by these Oregon workers
Dora Totoian
Salem Statesman Journal
Last August, Joel Banderas Almonte posted to TikTok a video he’d had on his phone for a while, joking alongside his co-worker as they worked on a row of Christmas trees at a Mid-Valley farm.
Nearly 380,000 followers and several viral videos later, Banderas Almonte’s videos showcase the labor of Oregon’s Christmas tree workers, who power the state to being the nation’s top producer of Christmas trees and have been especially busy in the past month harvesting trees that will end up in every corner of the U.S. and beyond.
“I think people are interested in the work of growing Christmas trees,” Balderas Almonte said in Spanish. “The quality of our work is just always improving. One sees the reaction of the Christmas tree buyers and how beautiful the trees are, and one is motivated to do better and better.”
'Really beautiful work'
Last year, Oregon Christmas tree sales totaled $107 million, with workers harvesting 3.44 million trees, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Clackamas County leads Oregon in Christmas tree acreage with 9,472 acres, and Marion County is next at 7,198 acres.
Clackamas County ranks first in the nation for Christmas tree production by acreage, with Marion County in fifth place and Polk County in sixth place, according to the 2017 National Census of Agriculture by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Depending on the variety, it can take five to 10 years to grow and harvest a Christmas tree. Some Mid-Valley tree farms began their harvest in mid-October, with the pace picking up significantly in November.
Alejandro Cortes Hernandez arrived at Salem's A&E Farms in September from the state of Michoacán in Mexico through the H-2A temporary guest worker program. It requires employers to certify they could not find domestic workers to fill job openings and requires growers to provide housing, meals and transportation to their employees.
Luis Cória, owner of A&E Farms and Cória Estates vineyard and winery, bought the tree farm 27 years ago and has turned to the H-2A program the past four or five years, he said. Some years, it’s been more difficult than others to find workers, he said, as people are reluctant to do the work of growing Christmas trees.
The farm harvests about 20,000 trees per year, he said.
It’s especially difficult planting the trees and tending to them in their early years when people have to stoop and be “like a staple” all day, said Cória, who also lost about 20,000 young trees during this summer’s heatwave.
Until the trunk of the trees is big enough, the trees require a lot of care to ensure they grow correctly.
“Last year, someone lasted two-and-a-half hours and said, ‘It’s a job for donkeys,’” Cória said.
Cortes Hernandez is learning a lot in his first year in the Christmas tree industry. He said the work is more fast-paced but less tiring than his previous job in reforestation in Salem, he said. It’s challenging to find work in Mexico, where he worked as a salesman and construction worker, and crime can be a problem, Cortes Hernandez said.
He’d like to work at A&E Farms again next year if possible, despite the bitter cold in the morning and occasionally working in the rain. But for now, he plans to take a few vacation days with his wife and two young children when he returns to Mexico in mid-December, he said.
“It’s really beautiful work,” Cortes Hernandez said in Spanish, gesturing east toward Mt. Jefferson on a windy fall day.
Getting that cone shape
Christmas trees require shearing to achieve their cone look, and that work is a lot of what Banderas Almonte highlights in his TikTok videos, which he sets to Christmas music and audios describing the struggles and joys of immigration.
In his videos, he shows how the workers use machete-like knives to trim the branches and lop off excessively long pieces on a regular basis.
Banderas Almonte, who is also from Michoacán and is in his tenth year at Noble Mountain Tree Farm near Salem, said he enjoys every part of his work. Noble Mountain Tree Farm is the largest contiguous tree farm in the world and harvests over half a million trees per year, many of which end up at Home Depot and Walmart, general manager Bob Schaefer said.
This summer’s heatwave put the Pacific Northwest Christmas tree industry in uncharted territory, as growers will have to wait and see how long it will take the trees that were impacted but not killed, such as those sunburned on one side, to recover, Schaefer said.
Noble Mountain lost some seedlings, which can be replanted, while some older trees were generally undamaged, he said.
Banderas Almonte carefully described the differences and his favorite components of the four main varieties of Christmas trees Noble Mountain grows — Noble, Douglas, Grand and Nordmann.
“I love everything about my job,” Banderas Almonte, 31, said. “I enjoy pruning them, I enjoy the harvest, and I enjoy breathing in clean air among the Christmas trees.”
His shyness kept him from posting on TikTok after downloading the app, he said, but eventually his videos capturing his workday received millions of views and he figured out many people are curious about the work of harvesting Christmas trees.
Commenters often ask about the shaping of the trees. Some are surprised Christmas trees are a specifically cultivated agricultural product. And many thank workers for providing one of their favorite parts of the season.
Banderas Almonte, who lives in Salem, said he doesn’t view the work as difficult since he has been working since he was a teenager. But he is impressed when the product he’s tended to in the Mid-Valley ends up as far away as Dubai and Singapore.
Omar Uscanga, from Veracruz, Mexico, lives in Salem and has also worked at Noble Mountain for 10 years. His job there is seasonal and he also works in the grape harvest, nursery industry and as a wildland firefighter.
Tree quality varies based on the fullness and evenness of the branches as well as its color, he said. He looks forward each year to choosing the most beautiful tree and cutting it exactly how he wants.
Workers are paid by the piece, and a person who works nimbly can make upwards of $200-$250 per day, he said, though it depends on the person. Working hard also means dealing with blisters on your hands and working when it’s foggy and cold in the morning, and even working through occasional snow, which freezes the trees, Uscanga, 38, said.
“Oregon is really beautiful, but the weather can be (a lot),” Uscanga said. “Dealing with the weather is difficult but we try … to do the job the way they ask us to. We’re used to the rain. It’s not like it rains and we get scared."
The pandemic has made workers more diligent about staying home when they’re sick, he said, but their work has also remained much the same because people depend on agricultural workers.
“If we’re not in the fields, there’s nothing. Nothing will get done,” Uscanga said.
When it comes to trees, his work is also about capturing the most important moments of the Christmas season.
“One feels satisfied they’re going to bring joy to a family. That’s what it’s about — bringing joy through having a tree and putting presents under it and remembering people who are no longer with us. There’s a lot of satisfaction,” Uscanga said.
Humanity of homelessness evident during annual count Phoenix amends Super Bowl 'clean zone' sign rules after lawsuit More layoffs at Reno-based Clear Capital amid ‘seismic shift’ in housing market Developers granted second shot to pitch baseball stadium at Ventura County Fairgrounds Salem chef nominated for James Beard award for second year in a row
Dora Totoian covers agricultural workers through Report for America, a program that aims to support local journalism and democracy by reporting on under-covered issues and communities.You can reach her at dtotoian@statesmanjournal.com.


Buyout Opportunities On The Rise In Africa’s Family-Owned Businesses
Opportunity for investors to buy stakes in family-owned businesses in Africa is on the rise as private equity firms chase for large deals on the continent, South African law firm Bowman Gilfillan has said.
Family-owned businesses are companies in which one family own more than 50 percent stake. In Africa family businesses account for nearly 85 percent of firms and they remain the essential backbone to most economies.
While many of them remain tightly held by the controlling families who prefer not to list on the local stocks markets, they pack a lot of potential for investors seeking to buy into small and medium sized companies that can be transformed into private equity targets.
“There seems to be a view that people are battling to find deals. The deals are there but not as big as South Africa. It is smaller deals and many of these companies are family businesses,” John Bellew, the head of private equity at Bowman Gilfillan, told BDlive.
“A lot of capital that has been raised is looking for bigger transactions. That creates a gap for people that specialize in the mid-market. If you are successfully invested in a mid-market deal and if you have managed to grow that company … you can sell it as a bigger company.”
As family businesses grow bigger challenges like sibling feuds and succession politics usually crop up like in the case of leading Kenyan supermarket chain Tusky’s.
In some cases management of the business becomes difficult for the founder’s’ children and they decide to let in partners with more knowledge on how to run the business in exchange of a minority stake.
These weakness in family-owned businesses are opportunities for private investors, especially where the is no long-term growth plan, proper governance structures and industry best practices.
According to Kurt Davies, “Inter-generational issues, including differences in thinking and leadership successions, create a void for crafty and innovative investors to build multi-facet management teams that fairly allocate power and leverage the strengths of siblings.”
Though Africa in general attracts a smaller proportion of global private equity money, Deloitte’s 2015 Africa Private Equity Confidence Survey showed that “interest has grown buoyed by oil and gas discoveries and a growing consumer class”.
Research by the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association showed that $8.1 billion worth of private equity deals were made in Africa last year, second only to the $8.3 billion of deals concluded in 2007.
According to Bellew, Nigeria in West Africa and Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa are the leading investment destinations with capital being allocated for the infrastructure, fast moving consumer goods, agribusiness and real estate sectors.


China’s use of big data might actually make it less Big Brother-ish
Why the country’s adoption of ever-more-intrusive technology could, paradoxically, lead to stronger civil liberties.
Yasheng Huangarchive page
Magoz
By 2020, China’s new system of social credit scoring is expected to give each citizen a trustworthiness rating based on anything from shopping habits to choice of friends. It may seem like an ideal tool for an authoritarian government that wants to control its citizens. But while authoritarian regimes have always been enthusiastic adopters of surveillance technology, in China’s case big data may (inadvertently) make the country a little less repressive.
Privacy is now a thing in China
A few years ago, in an article for the Boston Globe called “How Privacy Became an American Value,” historian and author Ted Widmer detailed how Americans inherited and amplified the British sense of privacy—the idea of “keeping oneself to oneself.” Things such as income, health, and leisure pursuits are routinely considered private—most of all from the government. The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures,” promising that Americans have the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.”
Although it’s dangerous to make generalizations, it’s fair to say Chinese and Western citizens differ in the weights they assign to privacy, individual rights, and freedom of speech. It’s not that Chinese people don’t value those things; it’s just that they may value things like economic growth and income more. (In the West, too, people are sometimes willing to trade rights for other benefits. In a survey earlier this year by Credible, a personal-finance website, nearly half of American millennials said they would give up their vote in the next two presidential elections in exchange for having their student loans forgiven.)
One reason Chinese attitudes are different is that as recently as the 1980s, the word “privacy” had negative connotations in China. Chinese norms are anchored in 2,000 years of a Confucian culture that values the intensity of interpersonal relationships. One way to solidify those relationships is through transparency and full disclosure. A circumstance that triggers secrecy is typically an unsavory one. If something is good, why not tell us? Privacy in this context was equated with preserving a dirty secret. To be private was to be antisocial.
Yet as social interactions have evolved in China, so have Chinese values. The rise of big-data technology in China has contributed to a far more acute awareness of privacy than other—momentous—socioeconomic developments such as GDP growth, globalization, and urbanization.
The reason for this is that big data has decisively broken the personal intimacy of Confucian culture. On WeChat, you can friend thousands of people you barely know. On Alibaba, you can do business with people you wouldn’t recognize if they knocked on your door. The digital economy is impersonal to an unprecedented degree, and as a consequence the old Confucian social contract, built on solidifying personal relationships by telling your neighbors everything, has crumbled. Though it may threaten privacy, big data has also brought unprecedented attention to the very notion of privacy. In the long run, this may be the force that undermines Big Brother.
Better or worse than what?
China’s surveillance culture existed long before the rise of big data. In his book The Government Next Door, Luigi Tomba details how Chinese politics have been micromanaged at the neighborhood level. Residential communities are monitored by neighborhood committees performing semigovernmental functions: reporting dissent, resolving conflicts, and managing both petitions to the government and protests against it. These functions used to be the task of retired elderly women, whom the former Wall Street Journal reporter Adi Ignatius memorably called the “small-feet KGB.” (In traditional China, women had their feet bound at birth.) The question is whether monitoring and repression through impersonal technology is better or worse than these personal intrusions.
One of the most important roles of the small-feet KGB was to enforce China’s one-child policy. The Chinese fertility rate fell dramatically while the policy applied, from 1979 to 2015—a testament to the effectiveness of these personal surveillance tactics.
In ancient China, there was a joint liability system under which three to five households were linked together. If a member of one household committed an offense, all the households were punished. During the Cultural Revolution, punishments for political dissenters were routinely meted out to their immediate family members. The political system compensated for a lack of data on individual activities by deterring dissent broadly and harshly.
Big data would be a threat if Chinese citizens could be expected to have an abundance of political and civil liberties in its absence. But China is a repressive, authoritarian society with or without big data. Technology has made the repression more precise, but precise repression might be an improvement over indiscriminate repression.
Traffic is expensive
In a segment on The Late Show earlier this year, comedian Stephen Colbert told his audience that the social credit scores being rolled out in China would dock citizens for instances of jaywalking, among other things. That might sound harsh, but then Colbert has evidently never driven in Beijing.
Alibaba, China’s largest online retailer, is using cloud computing to combat China’s suffocating traffic. In 2016, the company introduced a traffic management system called City Brain in Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered. Unlike Google Maps, City Brain is a collaborative project with the city government; it can tap into the traffic and transportation bureaus’ systems for video footage of traffic incidents. The municipal government relies on City Brain to identify the best routes for emergency vehicles and to plan new roads and bus routes.
Might City Brain also be used for some Big Brother–ish functions? Probably, but easing China’s traffic nightmares and getting emergency patients to the hospital faster aren’t trivial gains. According to the Chinese transportation ministry, traffic congestion in 2017 cost about 20 percent of total urban disposable income, or about 5 to 7 percent of China’s GDP. About 20 percent of the gasoline consumed in China is wasted.
The social benefits gained through big-data technology don’t obviate the political downsides. The question is: just how “down” is the downside, and how “up” is the upside?
Yasheng Huang is a professor in international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also the author of Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State.
by Yasheng Huang
The politics issue
This story was part of our September/October 2018 issue.


Analyst Update: NXP Semiconductors NV, Analog Devices, Inc., and Maxim Integrated Products Inc.
BofA-Merrill Lynch downgraded semiconductor stocks NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI), and Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ:MXIM)
MXIM
NXPI
BofA-Merrill Lynch downgraded semiconductor stocks NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI), Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), and Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM)
Brokerage firm BofA-Merrill Lynch is weighing in on semiconductor stocks NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), Analog Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADI), and Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (NASDAQ:MXIM), downgrading all three to "neutral" from "buy." The analysts cited the unexpected "Brexit" vote and a slower seasonal period, which should imply "a cautious stance" on semiconductor stocks until at least the end of second-quarter earnings season/late August. Below, we'll take a closer look at how this bearish outlook is affecting NXPI, ADI, and MXIM.
NXPI has lost 5.8% to trade at $75.40, as BofA-Merrill Lynch also cut its price target by $20 to $90. The stock has now lost almost 23% in the past 12 months, and short selling is starting to pick up. Specifically, short interest popped by over 19% during the past two reporting periods. Analysts, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly optimistic toward NXP Semiconductors NV, with 15 of 16 calling the stock at least a "buy," while none recommend selling it.
ADI has shed 5%, and was last seen at $52.30, set for its worst close since Feb. 24, with BofA-Merrill Lynch trimming its price target by $1 to $60. While short interest has actually been declining on the stock, options traders have taken a strong interest in put buying. In fact, more than 3,300 puts were bought to open over the past two weeks on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), compared to just 60 calls. Meanwhile, analysts' are mostly bullish, with 13 of 20 calling Analog Devices, Inc. at least a "buy."
Lastly, MXIM has dropped 4.1% to hit $33.67, bringing its year-to-date deficit to 11.4%. What's more, BofA-Merrill Lynch cut its price target to $39 from $41. This is all likely bad news for options traders, since nearly 43 call options have been bought to open for every put option during the past two weeks at the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX -- albeit amid relatively low absolute volume. Meanwhile, analysts are mixed on Maxim Integrated Products Inc., with 10 brokerages giving the shares a "hold" or worse rating, versus nine "buy" or better suggestions.
For other stocks in analysts' crosshairs, read Analyst Upgrades: Barrick Gold Corporation (USA), Eldorado Gold Corp (USA), and Goldcorp Inc. (USA) and Analyst Downgrades: McDonald's Corporation, Barclays PLC (ADR), and Deutsche Bank AG (USA).


Do 350Z come with back seats?
The Nissan 350Z is a two-seat sports car, and it does not come with any back seats. The vehicle has a low, sleek design that provides plenty of room and luxury for the two passengers it was built to seat.
The lack of additional seating and the focused design on the two passengers is part of what makes the vehicle uniquely sporty and nimble. The interior of the vehicle is comfortable and spacious, but there is no room for additional passengers or seating.
Additionally, the 350Z’s trunk is relatively small, meaning that it can only accommodate a few suitcases or other items.
Does the 350Z have rear seats?
Does any Nissan Z have back seats?
Is a 350Z a 2 seater?
Is there a 4 seat 370Z?
Is the 370Z bigger than the 350Z?
Do 370Z seats fit in a 350Z?
What are the main problems with a 370Z?
How many seats is the new Z?
Can a Nissan 350Z fit 4 people?
Is a Nissan 300ZX rare?
How much is a 300ZX worth today?
Why is 300ZX unreliable?
Is the 300ZX a collectors car?
Are Nissan 300ZX increasing in value?
No, the Nissan 350Z does not have rear seats. The 350Z is a two-seat sports car that was first introduced in the United States in 2003. It is designed with a classic FR (Front-engine, Rear-wheel drive) layout, which means the engine is placed in the front while the power is sent to the rear wheels via the transmission.
The shape of the cabin is also adjusted to match the look of a sport model. With the lack of a rear seat, the interior of the 350Z features 2 separate seats for the driver and passenger and a storage compartment behind the passenger seat.
Yes, some Nissan Z models have back seats. The Nissan 350Z and 370Z are coupes that have two-seat back configurations, while the Nissan 400Z, which is not yet released, will have four-seat configurations.
The Nissan Z models have had a variety of different back-seat configurations over the years as the cars have been redesigned and updated.
Yes, the Nissan 350Z is a 2 seater. It is a two-door sports car that was produced by Nissan from 2002 to 2009. It was designed as a performance car with a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. The 350Z was powered by a 3.
5-liter V6 engine that put out 287 horsepower. The 350Z was available in two body styles—a coupe and a roadster. Both of these body styles were two-seat vehicles, meaning they could only fit two people at once.
Inside the 350Z, you could find comfortable leather or suede seating. The cabin is surprisingly spacious for a car with a 2-seater layout, making it a great choice for a long drive. In addition to its performance capabilities, the 350Z has a great design that features smooth curves, a long dash, and stylish headlights.
All of these features give the 350Z an elegant and modern appearance.
No, at this time the Nissan 370Z is only available as a 2 seat coupe or convertible. However, if you are looking for a 4-seat vehicle with a similar sporty look and feel, you may want to consider the Nissan Maxima or Murano.
The Maxima is a 4-door sedan, while the Murano is an SUV. While both vehicles might not offer the same performance as the 370Z, they still offer a sporty look and feel with plenty of room to accommodate four passengers.
The 370Z is indeed bigger than the 350Z. The 370Z is 5. 5 inches longer than the 350Z, measuring in at 4. 4 inches longer than the 350Z. Additionally, the 370Z has a wheelbase of 100. 4 inches, making it slightly longer than the 350Z, which has a wheelbase of 98.
9 inches. The 370Z also has a slightly wider body than the 350Z, and the 370Z sits roughly 0. 5 inches higher as well. On the inside, the 370Z is more spacious than the 350Z, as it has increased legroom, headroom and shoulder room.
Furthermore, the 370Z has a larger trunk than the 350Z, with 6. 3 cubic feet of storage versus the 350Z’s 5. 04 cubic feet of storage.
No, the 370Z seats do not fit in the 350Z. The 370Z is slightly larger than the 350Z, making it difficult to fit the seats from the newer 370Z model into the 350Z. The 370Z seats also have a different shape and attachment points than the 350Z, making them incompatible for use with the 350Z.
Additionally, the 370Z seats have additional side bolstering and other changes that make them incompatible for use in the 350Z. Therefore, the 370Z seats are not compatible with the 350Z vehicle.
The Nissan 370Z is a great sports car, but due to its age, there are a few issues that may affect its reliability. A common problem is that the engine may need more frequent oil changes due to its higher oil consumption rates.
Other issues include a worn-out starter motor, transmission problems, wheel bearing failure, worn-out ignition coils, and worn-out oxygen sensors. Other mechanical problems include camshaft sensor failure, and engine power loss during cold starts.
Some other mechanical issues that may arise include airbag failure, and an exhaust system that needs frequent repairs. On the exterior, the car can suffer from rusting, and the paint can start to fade and lose its luster over time.
Additionally, electrical issues such as wiring problems, starting issues, and connections that may have become worn can cause issues with the car in the long run.
The new Z car is available in two seating configurations: a two-seat coupe and a four-seat convertible. The two-seat coupe has just two lightweight bucket seats that offer great comfort and support while still offering plenty of space for passengers and their items.
The four-seat convertible has two additional rear seats that offer increased levels of comfort and convenience while still remaining lightweight. The bucket seats can be adjusted and reclined in two positions, making them suitable for longer journeys.
The four-seat convertible also offers the option of folding the rear seats down to create additional cargo space when needed. For those wanting even extra cargo space, the two-seat coupe can be optioned with an extra storage tray underneath the cargo floor.
No, the Nissan 350Z is designed as a two-seat sports car, so it is not capable of fitting four people. The 350Z has front bucket seats and a rear seat that is primarily used for extra storage or carrying items, as it is small and not suitable for humans.
The interior dimensions of the Nissan 350Z are quite compact. With a width of just 68. 5 inches, a height of 51. 8 inches, and a length of 167. 3 inches, the 350Z does not provide enough room to comfortably accommodate four people.
Whether or not a Nissan 300ZX is considered rare is largely dependent upon the model year, condition, and production locations. The 300ZX was produced between 1984 and 1996, and the first generation, produced from 1984-1989, is often considered rare due to their low production numbers and limited availability, depending on the model and production region.
For example, the 1989 300ZX 50th Anniversary edition, of which just 500 were produced for the U. S. market, is highly sought after by collectors.
The 300ZX was available in two models, the naturally aspirated (NA) and twin-turbocharged (TT) models, and these variants come with their own rare distinctions. The NA engine was only produced from 1984-1988, making them more difficult to find for collectors.
The more powerful twin-turbocharged 300ZX was only available from 1990-1996, and – like the NA engine – production numbers were fairly low.
In addition to the condition and production year, the overall condition of the vehicle can also affect its rarity. Vehicle condition ranges from good to fair to poor, and collectors often prioritize finding a vehicle in excellent or good condition.
Finding a 300ZX in great condition is much harder than finding one that has fallen into disrepair, so it will naturally be rarer.
Overall, the Nissan 300ZX can be considered a rare vehicle depending on the model, year, and condition. The first generation, along with certain anniversary models, the NA and TT engines, and the condition of the vehicle can all increase its rarity.
The exact worth of a 300ZX today is hard to determine since it largely depends upon the condition and mileage of the car, as well as any additional features/modifications that have been made to the car.
With that said, 300ZXs that are in excellent condition with low mileage can range from anywhere between $6,000 and $15,000, depending on the model year and any additional features/modifications that have been made.
Those that are found in less than desirable condition can range from anywhere between $1,500 and $4,500.
The 300ZX is considered to be an unreliable car because it has a number of known issues that contribute to its poor overall reliability. One of the most common problems with the 300ZX is its engine, which can suffer from a variety of issues.
These issues range from oil leaks and head gasket failure, to leaks in the cooling system and transmission problems. Other common unreliability issues include brakes and suspension problems, as well as electrical issues such as faulty fuel ignitions and failing oxygen sensors.
The 300ZX was also known to suffer from some interior problems such as faulty interior lights and air conditioning.
Additionally, some models of the 300ZX had issues with rust, which can further contribute to the car’s overall unreliability. Rusting can accelerate the rate of wear and tear on all of the car’s components, reducing the life of the vehicle dramatically.
In addition to these issues, the 300ZX was prone to overheating, which was caused by ill-fitting thermostat and related cooling system issues.
For these reasons, the 300ZX was considered a notoriously unreliable car by most reviewers, and the number of issues it had made it difficult to maintain and not be surprised by potential issues.
The 300ZX is certainly worthy of consideration as a collector’s car. It is well designed, has ample space, has great performance, and a reliable engine that makes it an attractive choice for performance and classic car enthusiasts.
The 300ZX was one of the first Japanese cars to achieve an international following and it has since become a cult favorite of classic car collectors worldwide. It has a classic silhouette and design cues that still look modern today, while still being nostalgic.
It also has an impressive engine that produces up to 300 hp and is equipped with multiple performance and aftermarket parts available to increase its power and performance. Its features, such as its optional twin turbocharger, titanium camshafts and adjustable suspension, make it a great candidate for customization.
Additionally, its engine is quite reliable and will often last 200k+ miles without any major repairs or rebuilds. The 300ZX also has a large and loyal fan base, with many car clubs, message boards, and forums dedicated to it.
So all in all, if you are looking for a classic or performance car that is reliable, visually appealing, and has a large presence in the enthusiast community, then the 300ZX would be an excellent choice for a collector’s car.
Yes, the Nissan 300ZX is quickly increasing in value due to its appreciation as a classic car. According to Classic Cars’s analysis, the Nissan 300ZX has appreciated in value by over 23% in the past year alone.
The Nissan 300ZX is a collector’s ideal car because of its timeless design, legendary performance, and iconic badge. It is one of the most sought-after cars in the collector’s market and its values are sure to keep on increasing as the years go by.
Furthermore, with the growing demand for vintage Japanese cars in recent years, the Nissan 300ZX is only projected to further appreciate in value in the near future.
Can you put a twin turbo in a Nissan 350z?
Can you put a LS motor in a 350z?
Are 350Z Nismo rare?
Is it worth getting leather car seats?
Are floor seats OK for baby?
What fabric is used for golf cart seats?
How much did Haaland actually cost?
Is nylon a cheap fabric?
Why is the handpan so expensive?
How rich do you have to be to own a jet?
How much is a cobble stone?
Does Invoice2go charge a fee?
Why do I get so many cavities even though I brush?


Giants' Canario undergoes shoulder surgery
No. 7 prospect tore left labrum during recent instructional camp
Alexander Canario hit 16 homers in 59 games between the Rookie-level Arizona and Class A Short Season Northwest leagues in 2019. (Jared Ravich/MiLB.com)
By Joe Bloss @jtbloss
Giants outfielder Alexander Canario underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum after dislocating his left shoulder during the final week of the team’s instructional camp in Scottsdale, Arizona. The team's seventh-ranked prospect will return to Arizona soon to begin rehabbing.
Giants outfielder Alexander Canario underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum after dislocating his left shoulder during the final week of the team’s instructional camp in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The team's seventh-ranked prospect will return to Arizona soon to begin rehabbing.
The injury adds a wrinkle to Canario’s bid for a spot on the 40-man roster. MLB.com reported that Canario -- one of several talented outfield prospects in the Giants system -- was likely a lock to be added prior to the Nov. 20 deadline for protection from the Rule 5 Draft. If the Giants don’t add the 20-year-old to the roster, he can be selected by another team in the Dec. 10 draft because he signed in 2016 prior to turning 18 years old and has spent five seasons in pro ball.
• Find news on your favorite affiliate
• The state of each team's farm system
• Nationwide's Road to the Show
• Listen to the Show Before the Show podcast
• Download MiLB First Pitch
While the injury might not help Canario’s case to be added, his most recent on-field performance did. The native of the Dominican Republic spent most of 2019 at Class A Short Season Salem-Keizer, where he hit .301/.365/.539 with nine homers and 40 RBIs in 49 games. He struck out 71 times in 193 at-bats. That stretch with the Volcanos followed a 10-game stint in the Rookie-level Arizona League during which Canario went deep seven times and put up a .395/.435./1.000 slash line.
On July 19, the Giants added Canario to the 60-man player pool at their alternate training site in Sacramento.
San Francisco has 39 players on its 40-man roster as of Saturday.
Joe Bloss is a contributor for MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @jtbloss.
Alexander Canario
Giants Affiliate