Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Time For Thoughtful Regulation Of Facebook and Other Social Media Communication Giants. Are College Teaching Acceptance Of Failure? Lunch With Spencer Lawton.


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The communication industry is held to strict accountability and regulation whereas, Facebook and their sister social media companies are not.

It appears these entities have now become so large, so independent and impactful they too need to come under some government restraint.

Coming from me, this might seem as a contradiction for a conservative but when a company's activities threaten great societal interests it is time to consider thoughtful regulation.
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Are colleges really teaching students to learn from failure or are they catering to snowflake sensitivities and using this as another Trojan Horse to further lower America's standards and expectations?

Kissinger led Americans to accept failure in Viet Nam and his actions have been an albatross around our necks ever since.

The '60's was a period which set in motion attitudes and behaviour that changed American society and character.  (See 1 below slightly edited.)

Meanwhile:

Failure to protect our borders may well become another nail in our republic's demise. (See 1a below.)
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I had lunch today with Spencer Lawton.  I moved to Savannah long after Spencer was out of office but just in time to get to know and support Meg Heap, our current District Attorney.  Meg has been doing a superb job and she claims that Spencer trained her.

Spencer is a bright, articulate, no nonsense conservative.  As straight an arrow as you can find and I am delighted to say we have become good friends.  He also is a fellow memo reader.

We meet from time to time to discuss whatever is on our collective minds and such was our agenda today. Spencer is the epitome of what you would hope all public officials are: dedicated, not self-serving and honest.
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Several of my liberal friends decry the tax bill passed by Trump was welfare for the rich and stock buy backs are evidence of how it was also sop to corporate America.

I know telling them 80% of the taxes are paid by 10%  and thus,  it is only natural any tax relief would go to those who pay taxes, is not something they buy.  Second, repurchasing stock may prove dumb but it is simply another method to redistribute profits because there is no other better corporate use of the funds. Furthermore, the money goes into the hands of consumers who wish to sell their stock back to the company whose stock they purchased. Once again my liberal friends do not see the logic in this explanation.

Nothing one says makes sense because they remain fixated on their hatred of Trump  and discomfort with  Republicans in general.
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Dick
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1)By Melissa Korn
Colleges nationwide are trying to instill in students a concept that seems contrary to encouraging excellence: It’s OK to fail sometimes.
Vanderbilt University, Princeton University and other schools have workshops and post online vignettes with students and staff discussing their failures and moments of self-doubt, while University of Montana students post “Best Fail Ever” stories on bulletin boards around campus and Colorado State University has passed out thousands of stickers with inspirational quotes about resilience.
At the University of Central Arkansas, the two-year-old Fail Forward Week encourages faculty to talk about failure and show TED talks on the subject. Students write about their own failures, ranging from academic challenges to relationship woes, on large sheets of paper placed around campus.
“We always painted failing a class or failing a test in a completely negative light, and we didn’t give the space to say if this does happen, it’s a moment in time, and here’s the process by which you learn from it,” said Amy Baldwin, director of the department of student transitions.
The school’s Office of Student Success hands out certificates giving students and others permission to screw up “and still be a totally worthy, utterly excellent human being,” according to the document.
Young adults face an onslaught of curated social-media feeds that show peers’ seemingly perfect lives, school officials say, which can make them feel alone in their failures. Add to that the bubble of parental protection and the high stakes associated with attending a pricey college, and schools say students need help understanding that stumbles are inevitable, and even valuable, parts of growing up.
“Children do not become strong if they are protected from setbacks, teasing, exclusion and conflicts,” said Jonathan Haidt, a professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.”
An American College Health Association survey last spring found that 52% of undergraduate respondents said academics had been “traumatic or very difficult to handle” within the prior 12 months, the highest rate since at least 2009.
Florida State University began requiring new students this year to complete an online program addressing stressors both big and small, ranging from witnessing violence as a child to roommate conflicts. Participants choose from an assortment of videos and audio clips, and narratives of students describing their own challenges and coping mechanisms are particularly popular.
FSU sophomore Aaron Ostler says many classmates don’t know how to digest and move on from moments of failure and can benefit from hearing about how classmates bounce back.
“They feel like if they do almost anything wrong, they’ve done everything wrong,” said the 19-year-old biology major.
Mr. Ostler said he experienced “tunnel vision” about a bad grade in chemistry last year and briefly convinced himself he wouldn’t get into medical school as a result.
Officials from many schools say they’re trying to ease a resource crunch at their counseling centers, many of which have seen skyrocketing demand for services to help students with depression and anxiety.
Bentley University, in Waltham, Mass., is planning an event for next spring featuring staff and faculty discussing their own failures, and lessons learned.
Sheila Atiemo, a junior, says she felt unmoored after realizing she didn’t enjoy—and wasn’t performing well in—an accounting class last year. She previously got good grades and planned since high school to major in the field.
“I freaked out,” said Ms. Atiemo, 20. “The thing I feared most was not knowing what comes next.”
She also worried about what her peers would think. “Bentley is a very fast-paced, competitive school. People don’t like to share their downfalls,” said Ms. Atiemo, who is now studying global management.
Peter Forkner, director of Bentley’s counseling center, said the purpose of the spring event will be to help attendees accept and learn from failure.
“The truth is failure sucks,” he said. “Failure feels bad. It’s not something that we necessarily want to celebrate, it’s just not something we need to feel so much shame over.”
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1a) Thorny Issues of Sovereignty, Borders, and Migration
President Donald J. Trump understands that a border wall is essential to our sovereign national security, while multi-billionaire George Soros, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Chuck Schumer deride the concept of border walls.   
If the US does not have enforced border security with legal immigration, a disastrous migration crisis similar to that with which Europeans are currently trying to cope looms ahead.

The Justice Department declared that immigrants crossing the border unlawfully would not be eligible for asylum. This was rejected by the 9th Judicial Circuit and is being appealed. Some make the unlikely assertion that the announcement sparked hordes of Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, and others to form a spontaneous caravan and head for the US southern border in defiance of US immigration enforcement.  

George Soros, an American citizen born in Hungary 87 years ago, is of the opinion that national borders should be a thing of the past. He became a multi-billionaire through stock market investments and currency speculation which devastated millions of people. The Hungarian government credits Soros with supporting illegal immigration to further his borderless world concept through his foundations.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have poured from Soros into open border organizations through his Open Society Foundation which operates in Britain, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Turkey, Eastern, Central, and Western Europe. Western hemisphere groups receiving funds from the Soros Open Society Foundation include Pueblo sin Fronteras, which is supported by the Coalition Family Detention Pro Bono Project, and includes the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigration Center, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Many believe these groups are the vanguard for refugee invasions in Europe and at the American border. The Open Society Foundation denies involvement in migration caravans.

A mass exodus of millions of migrants from Syria, Iraq, middle eastern countries, and North Africa flooded Europe. Assimilation is not happening, and results are disastrous, producing no-go zones, Sharia law zones which overrule existing government laws, and the destruction of any local culture which might offend immigrants. Sections of major cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm have become enclaves of immigrant culture with mosques replacing churches and synagogues, modesty police for women, forced marriage, and child brides.

President Viktor Orban initiated measures to enforce Hungarian border security, and led a campaign to reject European Union mandatory immigrant quotas. Orban warns that “Hungary is up against media outlets, professional hired activists, troublemaking protest organizers, and a chain of non-government organizations financed by George Soros.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte approved hardline measures regarding immigration. They have suspended refugee applications of those deemed socially dangerous or who have been convicted of a crime. Italy blocked rescue ships from Italian ports to cut migrants arriving by sea.

Poland’s Andrzej Duda refuses to accept EU demands to allow Middle Eastern refugees to flood its borders.  Austria, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and others proclaim that the EU’s immigration policy has failed spectacularly due to a fundamental weakness in border control.

US immigration policies have evolved since the 1920’s quota system which favored northern Europeans. “Melting pot” referred to immigrants that desired the American way of life and eagerly melded into American culture.

President Ronald Reagan signed an immigration bill granting amnesty that promised to solve the problem of illegal immigration and to regain control of the borders. Amnesty was given, security promises were broken.

Chain migration was introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy, and signed into law by President H.W. Bush; it allows a naturalized citizen to bring in an unlimited number of foreign relatives, and needs serious revamping. The bill also began employment-based visas which prompted an inflow of cheap foreign labor. Each year chain-migrants are twice the number of American births. This changed the voting electorate forever.

RINO Republicans and Democrats waylay funding for a wall. The start of a border wall began last February near Calexico. In April a second section began near the Texas/New Mexico state line.  Prospects of a government shutdown have been raised. President Trump refuses to sign a spending bill that does not include funding to build a wall, which will shut down the government. Pelosi rejects a border wall, and Schumer called it a non-starter.

Protections for illegal immigrant “dreamers” was floated in exchange for wall funding last year - it was rejected. Amnesty for “dreamers” in exchange for wall funding has been floated again, and still opposed by Pelosi and Schumer.  

Increased numbers of foreign-born voters through chain migration, legal and illegal migration, have changed voter demographics. Cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco have a high percentage of foreign-born left-leaning Democrat voters. Many foreign-born voters prefer to live with the laws and values of countries from which they came, theocracies, or failed socialist/communist countries. They vote for sanctuary cities, socialist policies and candidates. Values of American voters did not change; the increasing number of foreign-born voters that make up the electorate changed.

The Great Wall of China is an awe-inspiring feat of ancient defensive architecture. Americans deserve a Great Wall of America as a feat of modern-day defensive architecture, as part of a necessary updating of the entire legal migration system.
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Failure 101: Colleges Teach Students How to Cope With Setbacks

Schools say students need help understanding that stumbles are inevitable, and even valuable, parts of growing up


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