Society's Child
The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America's endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia. Diversity commissars denounce meritocratic standards as discriminatory, enforce hiring quotas, and teach students and adults alike to think of themselves as perpetual victims. From #MeToo mania that blurs flirtations with criminal acts, to implicit bias and diversity compliance training that sees racism in every interaction, Heather Mac Donald argues that we are creating a nation of narrowed minds, primed for grievance, and that we are putting our competitive edge at risk.
But there is hope in the works of authors, composers, and artists who have long inspired the best in us. Compiling the author's decades of research and writing on the subject, The Diversity Delusion calls for a return to the classical liberal pursuits of open-minded inquiry and expression, by which everyone can discover a common humanity.
After being lied to over and over again and voting party after party into government, only to see the same corruption spread, a town in Bosnia just banned all politicians.
Bosnian politicians are wrapping up their final days of campaigning this week as elections are scheduled for Sunday. But there is at least one town that won't allow them to pass. Podgora is that place, and it is full of people who've become tired of being lied to over and over again.
The Washington Post claimed to have found "dozens of advertisements mentioning LGBT themes and words that the company blocked for supposedly being political, according to a public database Facebook keeps."
CEO of the non-profit LGBT Network, David Kilmnick, accused Facebook of targeting his advertisements "because we were LGBT."
Comment: Complaints from conservatives that Facebook and other social media platforms are unfairly targeting them may not be entirely true (although that's still open to debate). It seems more likely that the increasing pressure on the platform to censor wrong-speak has them taking a shotgun approach and banning everything anyone might find offensive, dealing with the repercussions after the fact. What an absolute mess.
See also:
- Facebook admits to using phone numbers submitted for security purposes to target ads
- Hacked: Facebook admits security breach affecting 50 million accounts
- Trump offensive? US President weighing antitrust probe into Google, Facebook & Twitter
- No Anuses allowed: Facebook forces Belgian political candidate to change his 'rude' real surname
- Facebook teams up with US government to influence foreign elections
- Facebook vows to cease 'embedding' staff in political campaigns
One unpaved street away, her next-door neighbour, 17-year-old Ruan Patrick Ramos Cruz, lay dead in the dirt after being repeatedly shot in the head and chest by unknown assassins.
"First I heard four [shots], then two more," recalled Farias, a community leader in Loteamento Alameda das Árvores, a rundown 288-home settlement on the southern fringes of Feira de Santana.
In any conversation about our online privacy, it is important to remember that our modern surveillance state was not born of the online revolution. It was alive and well long before the web era in the form of the massive data broker industry that buys and sells everything from our purchase records to our medical history. Social media merely honed and weaponized it.
Despite its transparency pledges, Facebook offers little detail about where all of the detail it obtains about us comes from. For a number of years it purchased data from many of the largest data brokers, assembling perhaps the single largest intelligence database in the world.
Amazon confirmed in an email to CNBC that the company is getting rid of incentive pay and stock option awards as it increases the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The company, however, stressed that the wage increase "more than compensates" for the loss in other benefits.
"The significant increase in hourly cash wages more than compensates for the phase out of incentive pay and [restrictive stock units]," Amazon's spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "We can confirm that all hourly Operations and Customer Service employees will see an increase in their total compensation as a result of this announcement. In addition, because it's no longer incentive-based, the compensation will be more immediate and predictable."
Comment: It had to come with a catch. No way would Amazon give a no-strings-attached pay raise without taking something else away from their employees.
See also:
- What about your workers? Amazon's Bezos gets flack for $2bn fund to help homeless & children
- 'Stop BEZOS' Act: Jeff Bezos makes over $11,000,000 an hour, lowest paid Amazon worker gets $12
- Amazon is far more dangerous and powerful than people want to admit
- Amazon paying employees to tweet nice things about warehouse working conditions, praise company
- Amazon leaves workers to suffer after warehouse injuries
- Inside Amazon's fast-paced warehouse world: Workers are under pressure, afraid to take bathroom breaks

Participants in a protest in Simferopol against missile strikes on Syria burn the image of US President Donald Trump
The share of Russians who describe their attitude to the US as positive fell from 41 percent in 2017 to just 21 percent this year, according to the paper published by Washington-based "fact-tank" Pew Research Center.
Analysts noted that the US reputation among Russians is approaching the historical low of 19 percent, registered in 2014, right after the reunification of Russia and Crimea and subsequent Western sanctions.
Comment: 88 percent of Americans are going to be really disappointed.
However, the demographic behaviour of recent years was strongly influenced by the economic crisis, but in the coming years should be "normalised".
According to the Independent Authority of Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), far from losing population, Spain will continue to gain population in the coming decades thanks to the increase in fertility and, especially, thanks to immigration, which will provide between 7 and 10 million people through 2050.
The AIReF considers that the total population of Spain will increase between 4 and 13 million people in 30 years, so that it will reach between 51 and 60 million people by 2050. Immigration will be "fundamental" to maintain this population gain.
Comment: While one needs to be cautious about the article's final comment regarding a 'takeover by Islam', what is clear is that unchecked mass migration, particularly from countries with vastly different cultural and economic backgrounds, is having ruinous effects on an already strained Europe:
- Immigration, Crime and Propaganda
- The Scourge of Modern 'Liberalism' in France
- Terrorism, Immigration and Racism in Canada: The Backlash has Begun
- Why Russia grants temporary status to refugees
- While Western countries freak out at prospect of integrating tiny Muslim minorities, Islam thrives in Putin's Russia
- Muslims have lived peacefully in Russia for centuries so what is the West doing wrong?
- "This is what I am paid to do": Italy's Salvini challenges prosecutor after blocking migrant ship carrying 190 mostly male Africans
Police said that 2,000 people gathered for Thursday's unsanctioned demonstration outside the regional government building, some on horseback and carrying Ingushetia flags, in opposition to the land exchange deal with Chechnya, signed on September 26.
Russian media reported that scuffles broke out between demonstrators and the security staff of Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who released several bursts of rifle fire.

Indonesian police guard a petrol station as people queue for fuel in Palu.
At least 1,424 people are so far reported to have died from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the Indonesian island on Friday. At least a further 2,500 have been injured and more than 100 are still missing.
More than 70,000 houses are damaged, leaving tens of thousands homeless and resorting to living in tents and shelters, with no clear idea when they will be able to begin rebuilding their homes. Makeshift shelters built from earthquake debris have sprung up across the island, while clean drinking water and food supplies remain scarce and people have been forced to queue for fuel for over 12 hours in some cases.
As the situation worsens by the day, survivors expressed hope that more government and international aid would be able to reach the area imminently.
However, despite millions of dollars in aid pledged by the UN and countries such as the US, China, Australia, UK and New Zealand, there have been delays in aid reaching the affected ares, due to difficulties transporting it into the area. Most roads were destroyed and the tiny airport in Palu was pushed to maximum capacity after being damaged in the quake.













Comment: More from Heather MacDonald: