…Let’s lead with a poll conducted by the global marketing firm Ipsos and reported by the Daily Beast. It found that 43 percent of self-identified Republicans said they believed “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.”
When asked if President Trump should shut down The Post, CNN and the New York Times, 23 percent of Republicans said yes….
 |
| Click on graphic. The Reb's place and my place are indicated by the green dots at left. The fire has spread eastward and northward. From our perspective, it is "behind" Santiago Pk. and the north end of Trabuco Canyon (i.e.. Holy Jim Canyon). The fire can seem quite menacing, especially at night, but that is owing to various illusions mostly. For instance, last night, Santiago Peak was weirdly aglow, and yet, according to the map, the fire was well behind and below the peak. We've been dealing with such illusions since Monday. At night, it's best not to look at Mr. Fire. He looks like the Hellmouth. Hellmouth, OC. |
 |
| Updated map: the fire is spreading quickly The wind continues to blow about 10 mph to the east/northeast, which is bad for Corona/Elsinore but good for us in OC As you can see, despite the wind, the fire has crept up the slope toward the top of Santiago Peak, but, at the top, the winds will be favorable for containment. I think. Hope so. |
 |
| Most recent map (see secondary red area) |
President Trump characterized the vast majority of Chinese students in the U.S. as spies during a dinner Tuesday night with CEOs at his private golf club in New Jersey, according to a report in Politico.
According to the report, which quoted an unnamed attendee:
At one point during the dinner, Trump noted of an unnamed country that the attendee said was clearly China, “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy.”The White House declined Politico’s request for comment. An account of the dinner from CNN is much more mild, noting that during the dinner "Trump expressed concern that some foreign students were acting as foreign agents, particularly from China, according to one of the attendees."
There are more than 350,000 Chinese students studying at U.S. universities — the largest group of international students by far — and Chinese students earned about 10 percent of all doctorates awarded by American universities in 2016….
A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that only 60,000 students out of more than one million who started their educations at two-year institutions [i.e., fewer than 6%] transferred to another college after receiving a certificate or associate's degree.
The report also found that more than 350,000 community college students transferred to another institution without getting a degree….
. . .
Transfer students who go on to earn a four-year degree don't count toward the graduation rates of community colleges unless they also earned an associate's degree....
...They were running out of land ahead of them, and to remain still would mean certain death. Melodi wanted to stay on the trail and continue the clear ascent to the Mesa clearing. Tilson wanted to scramble the face of the mountain to the clearing. Tilson’s route would be shorter, but more daunting, and for the Schumates–who’d already struggled through nearly ten steep miles of rugged terrain–the choice between weary expediency over bushes and an unimpeded longer path could also be the choice between life and death. After a short argument, they chose Tilson’s route, climbing toward the Mesa, hoping a rescue helicopter would pull them from the flames....
 |
| As of Thurs afternoon |
July 31, 2018, was a Tuesday, which meant that constituents of Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican congressman from Orange County, were out protesting. Until recently, the weekly demonstrations had been in front of his office, but for the summer, activists from Rohrabacher’s district, the 48th, are teaming up with those from the neighboring 45th, represented by Republican Mimi Walters. Fifty people met in a small park in Newport Beach, then stood with protest signs by the side of the road. They earned a surprising number of appreciative honks, given that Orange County was once at the very heart of the American right.
. . .
A few years ago, this might have seemed fantastical. Since its creation in 1993, no Democrat has ever represented the 48th district. Hillary Clinton won it by 1.7 points in 2016, but Rohrabacher was re-elected by more than 16 points. But since 2016, Rohrabacher’s odd Russophilia has been thrown into high relief by the Russia investigation. (“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a secretly recorded 2016 conversation.) Some of his constituents are up in arms by the prospect of oil drilling off their gorgeous coast.
. . .
The affluent seaside region [OC], after all, used to be so far right that in 1968 Fortune Magazine called it “nut country.” In her book “Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right,” the historian Lisa McGirr described how Orange County activists in the 1960s “organized study groups, opened ‘Freedom Forum’ bookstores, filled the rolls of the John Birch Society, entered school board races and worked within the Republican Party,” believing their very way of life was in danger.
. . .
Since then, the demographics of the region have changed, thanks to an influx of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. More significant, however, may be the demographic changes in the Republican Party. The former Trump strategist Steve Bannon recently told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, “The Republican college-educated woman is done.” Unlike many things he says, this appears to be true. In one recent poll of House preferences, college-educated white women favored Democrats by a staggering 47 points. (College-educated white men favor Democrats as well, but by much smaller margins.) Thanks to the fear and revulsion Trump evokes, the intense suburban civic awakening is now happening on the Democratic side….
This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...
