Today’s students are idiots

An interesting but troubling story in today’s SF Chronicle about students, although internet savvy, can’t distinguish fake news stories from the real facts. You can read it at http://tinyurl.com/zpow9ye

An excerpt:
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When presented with a big, colorful chart sponsored by the oil company Shell versus a screenshot of an article from the Atlantic, high school students overwhelmingly argued that Shell’s post was the more reliable of the two “because it provided more data and information” than the article did. Only about 15 percent of students noticed the paid post
was sponsored by Shell and said the science article was the more trustworthy source.

This inability to evaluate information persists even after students are accepted to major colleges and universities — including Stanford, Wineburg said.

The “great majority” of college students tasked with evaluating information from the American College of Pediatricians, a conservative advocacy group that has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its vehement opposition to women’s and LGBT rights, were unable to suss out the group’s bias, even when given the chance to independently check the group’s credentials. Some even cited the professional-looking website of the organization as reason to trust its pseudo-science.

Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back

employment

[T]he total inflation-adjusted output of the U.S. manufacturing sector is now higher than it has ever been. That’s true even as the sector’s employment is growing only slowly, and remains near the lowest it’s been. These diverging lines—which reflect improved productivity—highlight a huge problem with Trump’s promises to help workers by reshoring millions of manufacturing jobs. America is already producing a lot. And in any event, the return of more manufacturing won’t bring back many jobs, because the labor is increasingly being done by robots.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602869/manufacturing-jobs-arent-coming-back/ via DuckDuckGo for Android

Fox News Had To Explain To Trump’s Attorney Why Killing Megyn Kelly Would Be A Bad Thing, Politically

Trump supporters unleashed a barrage of death threats at Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly. The Trump campaign didn’t seem interested in stopping the threats until . . .

“What Bill Shine [an executive vice president at Fox] said to Michael Cohen [Trump’s top lawyer and executive vice president with the Trump Organization] was, ‘Let me put it to you in terms you can understand: If Megyn Kelly gets killed it is not going help your candidate.’”

Source: Fox News Had To Explain To Trump’s Attorney Why Killing Megyn Kelly Would Be A Bad Thing, Politically

The Bitemaster predicts

Here’s your chance to match your prognosticating skills against the Bitemaster!

I predict:

  • The EPA gets eliminated
  • The Department of Education gets eliminated (liberals hate Common Core; conservatives want more Jesus in the curriculum)
  • There will be big changes in Social Security. The question is what those changes will be. Conservatives want to privatize it. The Bitemaster would have raised the eligibility age, raised the $118,500 cap, and means-tested the payout.
  • Tax cuts — you betcha!
  • Obamacare — gone
  • The Great Wall of Trump. The wall would cost ‘way more than any Republican wants to spend. They’ll build a fence instead.
  • Muslims — Bigots of every stripe are already feeling empowered, but the section on “Muslims” has been scrubbed from the Trump campaign website.
  • Defense spending — goes up.
    • We’ll need it as we become more isolationist
    • Trumpers are xenophobic
    • And every Member of Congress wants more defense spending in their district
  • Infrastructure spending — Trump loves it and the unions (remember them?) love it, too.
  • Abortion rights — kiss ’em goodbye.
  • Transgender bathroom rights — Gone; even the Bitemaster had problems with this one.
  • Protectionism — centerpiece of Trump’s plan but big business and many Republicans hate it. Hard to predict this one.
  • Trump’s enemies list — He’s promised to prosecute, sue, or deport tons of people from Mexicans to Hillary to journalists. It’s only a matter of time before you’re on the list.
  • Internal surveillance — all governments love it. Obama was horrible on privacy rights. Trump will be worse (hey, what have you got to hide?).