Patterico's Pontifications

7/12/2017

Tucker Carlson and Max Boot Face Off

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:00 pm



Tucker Carlson has a knack for creating viral content in his often aggressive interviews. This time, however, he lets the sneering and snide side of his personality completely take over, as he takes on Max Boot, who gets down in the gutter with Carlson to create a nasty exchange that I find embarrassing for both parties:

The two men repeatedly interrupt each other, snipe at each other, and generally act like an old married couple who have been cooped up in the same tiny house for far too long. Three cheers to you if you can keep watching after Carlson sneers: “Maybe you should choose a different profession. Selling insurance. House painting. Something you’re good at.”

The only thing that could make the clip more unbearable would be to have Jon Stewart materialize between them to start lecturing them both.

I see people all over the Internet saying that one of these men “destroyed” the other . . . although opinions seem to diverge widely as to who was the destroyer and who was the destroyee.

Me, I think they both come out of it looking a little smaller.

But hey, it’s great for ratings.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

Babies Are Killing The Earth, They Must Be Stopped!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 4:42 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Untitled

For those who already have more than one child, I guess it’s time to pick and choose which one really *isn’t* your favorite. Sad!

Before pushing the Earth First zealotry, it would be good to take a moment to consider the economic and societal impact of declining birthrates:

With an aging population and shrinking pool of younger citizens, we would face increasingly intractable problems in providing for our elders. It’s not a terribly controversial notion to admit that younger, productive workers are needed to pay for the tax system that sustains our elders.

At best, Filipovic’s proposal would lead to massive tax hikes on workers and declining standards of care. This would inevitably reduce private sector investment and productivity, growing debt, and a restraining influence on the economy. Put simply, we would live less-wealthy, less-happy lives.

Consider Japan, where birthrates are plummeting:

Last year, the number of births in Japan dropped below one million for the first time, the ministry of health, labour and welfare said Friday.

The shrinking of the country’s population – deaths have outpaced births for several years – is already affecting the economy in areas including the job and housing markets, consumer spending and long-term investment plans at businesses.

For now, the Japanese economy is growing despite a dwindling number of workers and consumers. Growing global demand for Japanese products is one reason. But the real decline has barely begun.

After Japan’s population hit a peak of 128 million at the start of the current decade, it shrank by close to 1 million in the five years through 2015, according to census data. Demographers expect it to plunge by a third by 2060, to as few as 80 million people — a net loss of 1 million a year, on average.

This naturally followed by the inevitable vicious cycle:

Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years…

Economists have a name for countries that contract because of these swirling forces: “demographic time bombs.” In these nations, falling spending shrinks the economy, which discourages families from having kids, which shrinks the economy further. Meanwhile, people are living longer than ever before.

“An aging population will mean higher costs for the government, a shortage of pension and social security-type funds, a shortage of people to care for the very aged, slow economic growth, and a shortage of young workers,” Brinton says.

Not to put too fine a point on it but Japan now sells more adult diapers than baby diapers.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Trump

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:55 am



LOL

Is he responding to a claim he saw on TV? Only The Shadow knows.

To be fair, the claim was in POLITICO too. (No links for bullies.) But Trump doesn’t strike me as much of a reader.

To me, the fact that Trump claims he has very little time for TV is the best evidence that he has loads of time for TV. You know, on account of his being a huge liar.

Here’s another interesting timing coincidence.

Oddly enough, after Junior’s meeting with the Kremlin-connected lawyer — and she is Kremlin-connected, not a random Russian citizen as the hacks tried to portray her — the promised Trump speech about Hillary dirt did not materialize. It ended up focusing on national security instead.

It’s allllmost as if Junior told Daddy that dirt would be forthcoming, but then struck out.

Of course Junior and Daddy say Junior didn’t tell Trump about the meeting with the Kremlin-connected lawyer. Which, to me, is the best evidence that he did. You know, on account of both of them being huge liars.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back, possibly the only place I will comment.]


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