Friday Snark

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The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics'

Cartoons of the Week.

Rents Decline

Yesterday we wrote deporting illegal immigrants must have lowered rents by increasing supply of vacant units and decreasing those seeking shelter. 

Today we have evidence this has occurred. And we should be able to anticipate the trend will continue this year, further contributing to affordability.

XX vs XY Is a Real Thing

Recent research has demonstrated the the brains of male and female fetuses develop differently, meaning not all observed mental differences are socially transmitted. A key quote:

By linking scans taken before and after birth, the team reports that measurable differences in how male and female brains grow can already be seen by mid-pregnancy.

No kidding. Humans evolved to have complementary abilities in men and women as there was (and probably still is) species survival value in those differences. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

Demographic Doom Loop

Rick Moran writes at PJ Media about how "demographics is destiny." Hat tip to Mark Tapscott, posting at Instapundit, for the link.

The blue states are in a demographic doom loop. They need to create high taxes to pay for the numerous goodies they give to residents, but that leads to an exodus of wealth and people. To make up for the losses, blue states import and encourage illegal aliens to settle there. But illegals are a huge drain on the state treasury, leading to the need to raise taxes, and the loop closes on itself.

There you see the downside of the Curley Effect. 

Trump 48?

We're hearing about new findings in the vote miscount investigation in Fulton County, Georgia. It is at least possible it will eventually be found that Trump should have won in 2020.

I see a highly unlikely, but nevertheless intriguing path to a Trump third term. Let's say is is shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump had the votes to win in 2020 but truly "wuz robbed," as they say. 

Isn't there an argument that equity demands we owe him a third term, since he won three times? Imagine a lawsuit with the finding that Trump is awarded another term for 2028-2032, meaning no election is required in 2028.

I float this as a trial balloon. Listen for progressive heads exploding across our fruited plain.

Yogi’s Blond Cousins

There has been much written about global warming endangering Ursus maritimus, aka polar bears. As the sea ice retreats their ability to hunt basking seals - their main food diminishes.

On the other hand, recent findings from Svalbard suggest at least some the local big white carnivores are fatter than ever. This is triggering speculation about how this can happen. Hat tip to RealClearScience for the link.

It is also well known that Ursus maritimus and Ursus arctos (brown or grizzly bears) are closely related. They can and do interbreed and the offspring are, I believe, fertile.

Brown bears are well known omnivores, I’ve watched them sit in a patch of flowers happily eating the blossoms, but they’ll also kill and eat moose, reindeer, hibernating ground rodents, and spawning salmon.

If brown bears are omnivores, might not polar bears diversify their diet to include birds, eggs, and land animals too? I think they might, and some evidence suggests they do. I believe they’ve been known to raid the garbage dump at Churchill, Manitoba.

Alas, there are no panserbjørne, hat tip to Philip Pullman for their charming portrait.

Affordability and Illegal Immigration

Affordability means prices low enough you can pay them without pain. Economics teaches us prices are set by the interaction of supply and demand. When demand is high relative to supply, prices rise. When demand is less than supply, prices fall. That is Econ 101.

Recently we have stopped taking in illegal aliens (who increase demand) and began deporting them, voluntarily or otherwise (lowering demand). As this article points out, rents have declined as vacancies are slower to fill. Some 2.5 million mouths are no longer demanding food here, easing pressure on grocery prices.

The deportations have reduced the supply of labor, relative to demand. So wages have risen, especially in trucking and construction, fields which have employed many illegal aliens. Many of those now departed were receiving welfare, reducing pressures on government to increase spending.

For American citizens, the more illegal aliens we can squeeze out of our society, the more affordable life will be for those who remain. As noted below, who loses are the Democratic machine politicians in our big cities, slumlords, plus construction and trucking firms. Who wins? Everyone else. But don’t expect the losers to give up without a fight, as in Minnesota.

Reason to Celebrate

We’ve commented often about the migratory population shifts happening within the US, mostly from Democrat-dominated states to Republican-dominated states. This morning brings an excellent City Journal article which fairly bristles with statistics making that exact point. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

It is even true that birth rates - number of children per adult woman - are higher in red states. This migration implements the Curley effect on a national scale, entrenching Democrats ever more strongly in the states now losing population.

Some are calling this process the Great Sort, as we Americans sort ourselves out ideologically into polities following quite different paths. And with the sort causing blue states to lose congressional seats, and an inflow of census-counted illegal aliens helping to stem that loss, we have an explanation for the otherwise counterintuitive Biden open-borders policy.

If demographics is destiny, we conservatives have reason to celebrate.

Malpractice

I do a lot of scanning and reading as prep for this blog, and I enjoy doing it. One thing I don't enjoy is when article titles turn out to be non-descriptive of the article they label.

A recent misleading example from the RealClear group of websites is the following. First the article title: "Warning: Winter Surgeries and the Frail Patient." I took that to mean they'd found out it was dangerous to schedule surgery for frail patients during winter, meaning winter posed additional risks.

So I read the article and found out winter posed no risks. Winter was only mentioned because people are more likely to schedule elective surgeries (hip or knee replacements, etc.) then, possibly because they will be shut in anyway because of cold weather.

That is only one example, I often see titles claiming an answer to the question of "why" some phenomenon does or does not occur, only to find the article describes the phenomenon, demonstrates it is common, and leaves it at that. I'd estimate I see one of those every couple of weeks.

It is a form of bait and switch, and it leaves me feeling like Charley Brown when Lucy whisks the football away. It is hard to know who to blame, sometimes the editor will rename a column and sometimes it's the author's fault. 

Whoever is responsible, I'd sure love it to stop.

The Key: Who Decides

I have repeatedly made the argument that V. Putin fears he cannot survive the Ukraine war without a victory. I’ll admit I haven’t made the same claim about V. Zelensky, but perhaps I should have.

Writing at The American Conservative, Ted Snider argues that Zelensky believes being defeated on the battlefield is preferable to losing at the peace table. Honestly, I think he makes a pretty good case for that conclusion.

The gist of Snider’s argument is that Zelensky can blame defeat on the US and Europe, both of which have been less-than-wholehearted in their support of Ukraine’s fight. Whereas, he cannot blame them if he agrees to a peace that gives Russia all of their present ill-gotten gains, getting in return only a cessation of hostilities. 

If Snider is correct, as I suspect he is, then neither Putin nor Zelensky can afford to make peace. The meat grinder war will continue, not because that is best for either nation, but because that is best for both leaders. 

It is possible the people of both nations would prefer a simple cessation of hostilities in place and an end to the dying and maiming. However, they are not the ones deciding.

Tuesday Snark

Interesting shadow.

Image courtesy of News Ammo.

Geography Is Still Destiny

Longtime readers know I believe a knowledge of geography is important in understanding our world. A quick search of this blog's entries finds I've mentioned it many times.

Here is a longish column in the bulletin of the American Enterprise Institute think-tank which, among other things, shows how geography explains the salience of both Ukraine and Taiwan in influencing the policies of their neighbors.

It is unfortunate that geography is little taught in recent years. I believe that lack to be a policy failure.

Huntington … a Prophet

Writing at Civitas Outlook, Graham McAleer harks back to Samuel Huntington’s book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), and surfaces this Huntington quote.

The dangerous clashes of the future are likely to arise from the interaction of Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance, and Sinic assertiveness.

Not a bad prophet, was Professor Samuel Huntington. Thirty years later, our main adversaries are militant Islamism and the PRC. 

The Trump Era

Opinion columnist Gary Abernathy served the same “token enemy” role on PBS that Jessica Tarlov or Juan Williams serve on Fox News. The job is to rep the opposition viewpoint w/o making the main folks look bad. CNN’s Scott Jennings doesn’t “get” the second part of that job description.

Abernathy writes a Substack column about the filthy, disgusting, even threatening hate email he gets from PBS viewers. He attributes the vitriol to Trump hatred (TDS), and muses about its all-consuming nature. 

I believe the strength of TDS is proportional to Trump’s talent as a public persona, both are very great. People who don’t like him or his MAGA program are made frantic because Trump is able to make nearly all the news about his actions. 

Trump is hyperactive on so many fronts - from war to peace, from show biz to economics, from MMA to auto racing, from rebuilding the capital to anchor babies. His omnipresence supercharges the haters’ obsession. 

I can imagine a Trump hater feeling “there is no sanctuary in which I won’t see Trump grinning back at me.” The only way to avoid him is to stop watching or caring about media altogether. 

I guess there are some aspects of culture which he hasn’t penetrated - maybe pedigreed pets or flute playing, possibly pottery or calligraphy. 

Approvingly or otherwise, bemused historians will likely refer to this as the Trump Era. His 'fingerprints' are almost everywhere you look. Hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

Something Trump and I Shared

Stephen Green does a column for PJ Media, and also posts at Instapundit. Here he lays out the rebuttal to the claim Donald John Trump dodged the draft. He cites his source and claims to have checked that the following is accurate.

Trump registered for the draft after his 18th birthday on June 24, 1964 (draft dodgers don't register*). 

He was given an S-2 (college) deferment on June 28, 1964 (perfectly legal, not a draft dodger). 

His S-2 status was renewed on Dec 14, 1965 (legal, not a draft dodger), and he was then classified on Nov. 22, 1966, as 1-A (available for service). 

Dec. 13, 1966, his S-2 was again granted to attend Wharton (legal, not a draft dodger). His final deferral was granted on Jan. 16, 1968. 

After graduating from Wharton, he was reclassified 1-A on July 9, 1968. He went to his Armed Forces Physical (something a draft dodger probably would not do) on Sept. 19, 1968, and was categorized as 1-Y, disqualified for service except in war or national emergency (due to bone spurs in both heels). 

He received a high draft lottery number and was never called up. On Feb. 17, 1972, after the abolishment of the 1-Y classification, he was classified 4-F (not qualified for military service).

I'm a few years older than President Trump, guys a lot younger than him don't know much about the draft. I have met very few individuals who were aware of the 1-Y draft classification; most only knew of 1-A and 4-F. 

I know because I got a 1-Y myself. In my case the disqualifying issue was a blown rotator cuff in my left shoulder. If I lift my left arm over my head it can dislocate, something I've experienced a several times. It is more painful than you can imagine, I'm very careful not to let it happen.

The purpose of the 1-Y was that in the event of World War III, guys like me and "the Donald" could drive trucks, pound typewriters, run warehouses, and do other non-athletic stuff in uniform, freeing up healthy guys to serve in the combat arms.

Fortunately, no total war occurred. We got "too old" to be drafted, and then the draft went away in 1973 as the military became all-volunteer. 

My Selective Service record looks a lot like Trump's, I had college deferments, graduated, and was called for a draft physical. I was told to come back in a year, which I did. I was then given the 1-Y and told to go home and get on with my civilian life. If reclassified as 4-F, I was never told about it.

Good News from Down South

The Wall Street Journal uses the election of conservative Laura Fernandez to be Costa Rica's new president as the news "hook" for a discussion of conservatives winning elections across Latin America. The article is echoed on msn.com, making it available outside the WSJ paywall.

Hondurans late last year elected right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura, whom Trump publicly supported. Chileans in December voted in conservative Jose Antonio Kast. 

Bolivia in October ended two decades of socialist rule with the election of President Rodrigo Paz. And Argentina's libertarian leader, Javier Milei, cemented his hold on power in a crucial in a crucial midterm election in October.

A right-wing candidate is expected to win Peru's presidential election in April, polls show. Conservatives are also vying for power in elections later this year in Brazil and Colombia, which are ruled by left-wing presidents.

Also mentioned favorably is El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele. He's a hard-liner known for jailing thousands of violent criminal gang members, more or less permanently.

Saturday Snark

A Tri Delt looking good at 61.

Excellent wordplay.

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Friday Snark

He's hyperactive.

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

'Twas cider vinegar.

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics'

Cartoons of the Week.

A 'Coincidence' Questioned

Writing* at the Wall Street Journal, author Louise Perry looks at falling birth rates worldwide, relates them to political orientations, and ends up with more questions than answers. One conclusion she does reach is this.

Twin studies suggest that political attitudes are roughly 40% heritable. Of course, children do sometimes diverge from or react against their parents’ politics. But in general, expect the partisan fertility gap to usher in a U.S. that is more conservative. In fact, the whole of the developed world is on track to become more conservative.

In brief, wherever found, conservatives are having more children than progressives. 

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I'm going to suggest a possibly related factor. The sexually conventional have more kids than those whose sexuality is unconventional.

The sexually unconventional have tended to be progressive for absolutely rational reasons. Declining repression of unconventional sexuality throughout the developed world has paralleled declining birth rates. I believe this parallel may not be a coincidence.

_______
*Article is behind a "semi-paywall." You can scroll it on the top half of the screen while your screen's bottom half is filled with a pitch to sell you a WSJ subscription.

Pence Another Gore?

Tim O'Brien at PJ Media writes: "Looks like Mike Pence is gunning to be the next Al Gore." I freely admit I hadn't made the connection. In my defense, I am unlikely to think of either Al Gore or Mike Pence in any context.

The comparison may become one of those things that once seen, cannot be forgotten. Both men are former Vice Presidents, both are nags and stiffs. Both strike a "holier than thou" pose that is hard to stomach.

Current VP Vance is none of those things, though his place in history is yet to be revealed.