January 21, 2014

Hard-hitting journalism at its finest

From the front page of NYTimes.com:
2 Friends Reach Across the Aisle on Immigration 
If there is a way to unlock the immigration stalemate in Washington, colleagues say that Esther Olavarria, a Democrat, and Rebecca Tallent, a Republican, might find it.

Is this a news article, or the blurb for a new Sweet Valley High novel for tweens?

The article isn't much different in tone:
The two women might at first seem more like political rivals than a reminder of the way things used to work in Washington. 
Esther Olavarria, a Democrat, left Cuba as a child, worked as Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s top immigration lawyer and now holds a post in the White House. Rebecca Tallent, a Republican, left suburban Arizona and became Senator John McCain’s chief of staff, briefly advised Sarah Palin in 2008 and is now a top policy aide to Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio. 
But if there is any way to unlock the immigration stalemate in Washington, colleagues say these two might find it.

Has Carlos Slim gotten his money's worth out of the Times' immigration coverage, or what?
  

28 comments:

  1. I've gotten nothing to add to this, other than to affirm that Steve Sailer is THE most substantive blogger out there with respect to politics, gender and race. Just a few words, a pic, and the analysis works itself for the culturally literate (at both high and low brow).

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  2. Harry Baldwin1/21/14, 9:31 PM

    Gee whiz, since EVERYBODY agrees we've got to put this darn immigration thing behind us, what's the mysterious force stopping them?
    They're all standing at the edge of the cliff holding hands. Why don't they just jump already? Afraid of what they may land in?

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  3. It appears Mr. Slim has done alright financially out of his loan to the NY Times.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-21/carlos-slim-still-reaping-big-rewards-from-ny-times-loan.html

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  4. Uncle Peregrine1/21/14, 9:41 PM

    Just about everyone of these stories has Cubans stepping forward as the talented tenth of a bureaucratically/politically designated Latino population.

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  5. "Esther Olavarria, a Democrat"

    MMMM, if even White Cubans are going Democratic, please explain to me again how Mestizo Mexicans are natural Republicans?

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  6. Oswald Spengler1/21/14, 10:19 PM

    You'd think someone like Olavarria who escaped a failed communist society in her youth would see the fallacy in trying to replicate it here.

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  7. Sweet Valley High...brings back memories.

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  8. Has Carlos Slim gotten his money's worth out of the Times' immigration coverage, or what?

    Danger, Will Robinson, danger!

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  9. You've read Sweet Valley High before sissy boy?

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  10. I've read ALL your work Steve and this is your best. Just amazing. You could spend 5 hours on the links alone.

    I'm giving 50$ today and if others don't donate something they are straight up stealing.

    Dan in DC

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  11. rightsaidfred1/22/14, 4:44 AM

    Why is stalemate in Congress a bad thing? We need more stalemate. Stalemate forever. Just have our federal legislature stay home and phone in the stalemate.

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  12. "Rebecca Tallent, a Republican, left suburban Arizona and became Senator John McCain’s chief of staff, briefly advised Sarah Palin in 2008 and is now a top policy aide to Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio."

    McCain, Palin, and Boehner - that's some brain-trust she has advised. She must be a super-genius.

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  13. Just you wait and see how Bezos is going to use the WaPo.

    First move: tell Ezra Klein he's not worth $10M, allow him to leave, replace him with similarly heeled wonkish dork at 2/3 the cost.

    The platform matters, the people - we shall see.

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  14. Take a look at the comments for that article, and in particular at the most recommended comments. Even the Times' reliably liberal readership isn't on board the amnesty express.

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  15. A friend of mine who ghosted a few of the books wrote me into the Sweet Valley High series as a character, along with a couple of other people we know. I was a very minor trickster figure. To have been immortalized in this way is deeply humbling.

    Off-topic, but here's a piece on one of those people who think they're supposed to be amputees:

    https://medium.com/matter/8476df17bddf

    Just as in most latter-day rhetoric surrounding "gender-reassignment" surgery, the notion that this man's problem might be treated as a mental illness is not exactly fully explored.

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  16. Okay, now I get it.

    Two beltway hens who once both worked for avowed open borders Senators hooking up is supposed to convince all us knuckedragging retrogrades between the Appalachians and Rockies that amnesty and open borders is just swell.

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  17. candid_observer1/22/14, 8:44 AM

    One thing that has been quite striking to me has been the profound discontent among the commenters at the NY Times when it comes to the Times' push for "reform".

    Few things seem more reliable at the Times than the liberal bent of the commenters on virtually every article. Yet when immigration comes up, there are great numbers who come out and point out all the problems with it, particularly the pretty obvious downside it has on jobs for citizens.

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  18. Burpleson AFB1/22/14, 8:50 AM

    And Carlos Slim supports immigration of Mexicans into the USA because they spend a larger portion of their expanded paycheques calling/texting home and paying America Movil.

    What about when all their extended family is in the USA? I don't have a good feel for the patterns of migration regarding families/extended families.

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  19. Apparently republican capitulation on every issue = reaching across the aisle. Rebecca Tallent's pedigree is befitting that of an open-borders politician, so her support for immigration reform is surprising to whom?

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  20. "Just you wait and see how Bezos is going to use the WaPo.

    First move: tell Ezra Klein he's not worth $10M, allow him to leave, replace him with similarly heeled wonkish dork at 2/3 the cost."


    Ezra was getting $10mm? That sounds pretty high. That said, Ezra has matured from a lefty water carrier to more of a centrist policy wonk. This was one of the smarter health care op/eds I've read in a long time: "What liberals don't get about single payer".

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  21. That really was a great piece. As a smart bus driver once advised me, you have to reflect their nonsense right back at them. I can't wait for the chance to use, "you're privileging facts at the expense of compassion." The only thing that journo did wrong was fail to confront David Frost about why he was still messing around with new putters. He's been known as one of the top 5 putters in golf, on any tour, for 20 yrs.

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  22. Slim got his Narrative bang and an exorbitant interest rate for his buck. NYT (smh), schmucks!

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  23. "One thing that has been quite striking to me has been the profound discontent among the commenters at the NY Times when it comes to the Times' push for "reform"."

    A lot of old white liberals feel very threatened by Hispanics in general. Most of those old lefties and homos assumed that they would dominate the Democratic Party forever, and that those nice darker-hued folks could be bought off into a subservient role. This current immigration push and the aggressive activism associated with it is a wake up call to them. Those brown people are quickly becoming the party, and they don't share the same goals or priorities as the old Boomers.

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  24. She must be one of the "Tallented Tenth".

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  25. This is rich on so many levels.

    There's the obligatory (white Cuban) chief in search of more Indians to rule.

    Then there are the resumes that exemplify the intellectual mismatch between the Evil Party and the Stupid Party.

    Of course, the most precious aspect of it is the blatant Zuckerbergesque sock-puppet triangulation: If this wacky, polar-opposite odd couple can agree on immigration, then you know it's gotta be a slam dunk!

    No, I just know that two Party apparatchiks are colluding to screw America. Same old, same old.

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  26. I'm sure we'll soon be reading about a friendship between a Deep South Republican and a Rust Belt Democrat who have found a common cause in protecting American workers. Right, NYT?

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  27. Tallent is probably just giving Boehner hummers. He seems like the sort who'd go for fat chicks.

    As for Ms. Olavarria, she looks like the most Jewishy Cuban I've ever seen. Can't find anything that says she's Jewish, but why is there a biography of her on the B'nai B'rith website?

    http://www.bnaibrith.org/uploads/7/8/5/9/7859990/esther_olavarria.pdf

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