Who Is Radical

Power Line's Steve Hayward posts two charts depicting how the Democrats have moved dramatically leftward while Republicans have moved modestly rightward in response.

This establishes conclusively which of our two major parties has become radical. For the first time in modern memory, there are more registered Republican voters than registered Democrat voters in our great nation. Many Americans can now echo Ronald Reagan who famously said "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me." 

We Republicans can be thankful while marveling the Ds chose to move left in what is generally a center-right nation. Napoleon Bonaparte's "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" is advice we Republicans should now heed.

Happy New Year's Eve

Tonight, at midnight, we celebrate the arrival of a new, as yet unsullied, year. Let's try not to mess it up, okay?

Are you looking forward to what 2025 brings? I am.

I'd suggest celebration in moderation if I thought it would do any good. I don't ... it won't. If moderation is your shtick (as it is mine), you (and I) will continue in that vein. If it's not, my exhortation would fall on deaf ears. It were ever thus.

I've walked the path I'm on for decades, and it works for me. You will do you. My wish for you is that yours works as well for you as mine does for me.

Farewell 2024, you were interesting and had a strong finish.
Welcome 2025, I hope you live up to your promise.

The Ascension

Carter's famous 'killer' swamp rabbit waves goodbye.

Image courtesy of newsammo.com.

Sunday Snark

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics Cartoons of the Week.

Natural Constituencies

I’m playing with some ideas here, seeing if they fit together. It’s a first cut at redefining the two major parties’ natural constituencies.

I view modern Democrats as representing everyone in our society who feels him- or herself a victim. Plus those who enable the self-identified victims, or utilize others’ claimed victimhood for their own selfish purposes - DEI staff, for example.

I view modern (aka MAGA) Republicans as representing everyone who doesn’t view themself as a victim (aka “normies) and who is parsimonious with granting victimhood to others whose supposed victimhood is the result of choices they made.

Perhaps that last concept needs explaining. If an individual is truly handicapped by birth defects, sickness, injury or serious mental disorder such that they cannot function independently, their victimhood is a given. 

OTOH, too many people declare themselves victims because it excuses their lack of effort to succeed, their substance abuse, or laziness or other self-defeating behaviors. Such folk are slackers in the eyes of modern Republicans. 

They truly are discriminated against in the sense they do not get the sympathy and aid from us to which they believe their chosen victimhood entitles them. The result: petulance and whining.

Brrrrr

This is what the weather looks like up home in Wyoming, no shortage of white Christmas there. Meanwhile here in eastern Nevada, we were out on the patio in short sleeves this morning dismembering the Christmas tree so its various constituent parts would fit into the trash can.

The contrast between the rain/snow shown above and the warm sunshine here is all you need to understand the charms of being a snowbird. It is a way not to have to take the bad with the good, weatherwise. 

Summers there are perfect, winters here are perfect, neither is worth spit in the off season. If ducks and geese are smart enough to migrate, why not us?

Jimmy Carter, a Remembrance

Former president Jimmy Carter has died at age 100 after spending months in hospice care. He was a one term President who failed at reelection and, by all accounts, a strange fellow with a toothy grin that felt a bit "off."

I shouldn't wonder if he was somewhere "on the spectrum" as we now designate socially awkward people. He is remembered for the failed attempt to rescue the hostages taken when Iranian fanatics overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran and, peculiarly enough, for deregulating airline fares.

My own personal memory of "Jimmah" as his fellow southerners called him, centers on an event on the White House lawn. I saw him at a distance and was surprised at how unimpressive and diffident he appeared at this symbolic ceremony welcoming a foreign head of state.

In those halcyon days when a President needed a supportive crowd as a backdrop while greeting a foreign visitor, several hundred federal workers were allowed to leave their desks and go be his cheering section. As I remember it, we went to White House or maybe were bused there, showed our federal employee ID card, and were admitted to a taped-off section of the lawn. 

We stood there while a color guard did their thing, a band played the national anthems of both leaders' nations and POTUS made a brief speech of welcome which we applauded. Then the visitor spoke thanking him for the hospitality which we also applauded, and they adjourned inside. We were then allowed to trickle back to our desks, taking our time and maybe stopping for lunch. 

It amounted to a half day off with pay in return for standing around and applauding a couple of times. As a temp I relished the experience. Some of the old-timers had done it repeatedly and didn't care to do it again, I understand the novelty wears off quickly. This was in the mid-1970s and it may no longer be SOP.

Making Politics Entertaining

Politico leans left, largely unapologetically, and much of their stuff is behind a paywall. In spite of those two drawbacks, today they feature a roundtable of four reporters on the topic “How Donald Trump transformed mass culture” that is both readable and not paywalled. All of it is interesting; here is a bit that especially resonated with me, the speaker is Jessica Piper.

Trump isn’t as culturally toxic as he was the first time around. A common line in the first Trump presidency was that his supporters maybe didn’t like everything he tweeted, but he was good on the economy. But now I think we’re seeing at least a subset of culture that likes — maybe not literally Trump’s posts on Truth Social — but likes his persona, likes that he’s off color. And that’s more accepted.

No kidding. Bill Clinton proved the public forgives a pol who is an affable horndog. If you take Trump “seriously but not literally” and understand him to be one of history’s all-time great “charming rogue” raffish storytellers, what’s not to like? 

If Bill Maher ran for office, he might resemble Trump. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) is another wisely droll dude. They share that whiff of show biz that spices the mix, makes them fun.

A Recommendation

Two days ago I wrote that I will not be doing a year-end wrap-up column, and I stand by that decision. Mostly I don't find them useful and presume you feel largely the same.

However, there is one that appears each year that I do recommend, written for the Miami Herald by humorist Dave Barry. Like the others, it isn't useful, but it is wryly funny and funny is a good thing. 

Barry lampoons Democrats, Republicans, and third party bizarro pols with equally acid observations concerning their collective short-comings and self-serving silliness. You already know what happened in 2024, now read along as Barry ridicules it all in fine fashion. Boeing has to be cringing.

Enjoy.

Revenge on Society

The mainland Chinese are well-known for copying innovations occurring elsewhere, and apparently conduct espionage with that aim. Mostly we aren't impressed with their methods and thoughts and so we don't do much copying of China.

I just ran across an example of something originating in China that truly might be worth 'stealing.' When someone rams a car into a crowd killing and wounding many, or stabs several strangers on a street corner, the Chinese have coined a term for that behavior, calling them "revenge on society" crimes.

Obviously, similar crimes happen elsewhere, including here and in Europe. Since the perp doesn't know the victims the violent acts initially appear motiveless. I believe an argument can be made that he or she (mostly he or trans) wants revenge on society for their current angst, plight, anomie, hopelessness, incel state, anxiety or whatever else is making them miserable.

If there is a protest cause handy they may channel their rage through that, but when that outlet isn't available or relevant to their misery, they may do a mass attack on strangers taken as a proxy for the society at large.

Elections bleed off some of the protest energy in our society, the lack of meaningful elections in CCP-run China may make such acts marginally more likely but they certainly occur in many places around this globe. I expect calling these revenge on society crimes/killings may help us focus on the kind of motives propelling the misbehavior. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Unmasking the Deception

The National Archives have recently released photos showing then-Vice President Biden plus son Hunter meeting with China’s Xi. These have been embargoed until now, when the political fall-out does damage only to the Biden legacy, but harms no one’s political prospects. 

Meanwhile various sources are reminding us of the many times Biden Senior falsely claimed no personal interaction with Biden Junior’s overseas business associates. Fairly clearly our federal government blob is more corrupt than we know or even suspect. Those who claim the Democratic Party is more criminal conspiracy than political party will find ammunition in these photos making that point. 

To those who keep urging us to “reach across the aisle,” the photos represent a sizable stumbling block. Doing so starts to feel like wading into a cesspool clad in a thong.

Kotkin in the LA Times? Truly

In recent decades the Los Angeles Times has been reliably leftwing in its editorial policy and endorsements. I am old enough to remember when it was rightwing, which stance angered my late father - an unregenerate southern Democrat living in SoCal - very much.

Recent news of the paper's purchase by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the new owner's concern that LAT had become too far out on the left has many wondering if he means it. Perhaps he does.

Today the paper publishes a "California is on the wrong track" column by somewhat conservative essayist-on-steroids Joel Kotkin, he is a SoCal resident and a leading critic of the state's decline. Giving Kotkin a platform, and thus implicit approval, must have lefty LAT regulars like Robin Abcarian projectile vomiting. 

I say let's give the new owner of LAT a chance to rescue the Gray Lady of the Left Coast. It can't happen overnight.

The following is a guess. It is obvious from his writing Kotkin loves SoCal and CA generally. I'll bet Soon-Shiong does too.  CA's combination of sunshine, low humidity, mild winters and geographic diversity is easy to love.

If you love a place, it's not fun watching it go bad, being abused and mismanaged. Soon-Shiong and Kotkin may bond over that shared experience, who knows? Full disclosure: CA still owns a piece of my heart. 

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of Politico's Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

An Analogy

It is an occasional thing that in agricultural fairs, especially state fairs, someone will carve a statue out of butter and put it on display. Sometimes that statue is of a cow. I remind you of this for I wish to use it in an analogy.

We are all clear that, although it has the shape of a cow, and is made from a product whose raw material is produced by cows, it is not in fact an actual cow. It is never confused with, or mistaken for, a live cow. 

It merely resembles one’s overall shape and configuration. It is evidence of a lot of skilled work on the part of the sculptor. That, and the waste of a lot of tasty butter.

Now for the analogy. Fifty-one so-called “intelligence experts” said the Trump Russia collusion report and the Hunter lap top story had “all the earmarks of a Russian disinformation op.” They were probably at least somewhat correct in this exaggeration, made in an attempt to aid the Hillary campaign.

The dossier looked like Russians fooling around in our election, because it was designed by the Hillary Clinton campaign to look that way. It has been shown to be a false-flag operation paid for by the Clintonistas.

My question is why no reporters recognized that it was a fake? We intuit the butter “cow” is just a statue but not that a fake intelligence report is a Potemkin village, a false front with nothing behind it. 

I conclude the news media have diligently earned the lack of trust and of income from which they now suffer. And that the multi-agency intelligence community needs a vigorous house-cleaning, having forfeited any supposition that their ‘expertise’ is even-handed and data-driven.

In Praise of Poilievre

Just for fun, check out the conclusion of a sassy-but-good-hearted Washington Free Beacon editorial “rumination” on Canadian politics.

So let's raise our beers, cook some back bacon, and salute Pierre Poilievre as the toppler of Trudeau the Terrible, a conservative who will Make Canada (Relatively) Great Again, a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year, and the next governor of America's soon-to-be 51st state.

Bacon from the Beacon, cooked "ala Trump, what’s not to like? 

Global Cooling?

I share the Xray below indicating my approval, links to NOAA data sources in original. The text says the following:

Antarctic sea ice extent is 17% higher today than it was in 1979. Ice doesn't lie, but climate scientists do.

Wandering the Labyrinth

One subject a Management professor studies while attaining his or her doctorate is Organization Theory (and Practice, where that differs). Yes, we concern ourselves with how people behave (and misbehave) at work. We also concern ourselves with how the organizations themselves behave, what works, what doesn’t and why.

Any organization is complex, the bigger and the older it is, the more complex. Which of course makes the biggest, oldest organization on the planet - the Roman Catholic Church - a fascinating case study. 

For a quick look at the inner workings of the upper reaches of the Church, you could do worse than this column at UnHerd, by author Damian Thompson. It is every bit as labyrinthine and multileveled as you’d suppose it would be. 

Hat tip to RealClearWorld for the link. I think my favorite bit was his identification of Argentina-born Pope Francis as ideologically, if not theologically, an unreconstructed Peronist. Full disclosure: I am not a Roman Catholic.

Changing of the Guard

On at least three prior occasions I’ve quoted in COTTonLINE the following French military “wisdom.”

La Legion Etrangere c’est le gendarme de l’Afrique

Roughly this translates as “The French Foreign Legion is the policeman of Africa.” 

Now comes a column in the US edition of Brit paper The Independent suggesting the aphorism may be much less true going forward. A close reading implies the Russian Wagner Group’s semi-governmental mercenaries may replace the Legion in many former French colonies. 

I don’t suppose the French are thrilled. Evidence like this of their more-or-less continuously waning international influence tends to give them la grippe. 

As for the Russians, I’m inclined to wish them the joy of it, lording over what most consider the world’s least successful region. A real cynic would conclude the region and the Wagners deserve each other.

Ancient History

Concerning the previous post, Wikipedia describes Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest thus.

Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind, including a critique of psychiatry and a tribute to individualistic principles.

As it happens, my life intersected briefly with Ken Kesey’s quasi-fictional world. Let me tell you a true story. 

Fifty plus years ago I was a doctoral student at the University of Oregon. I was unmarried and good friends with a married student - Tom - in the same program. Tom’s wife Mary (not their real names) was a young tradwife and they lived in ramshackle married student housing, a relic of the GI Bill days.

Transplants from sunny CA, Tom and I studied together, consumed pizza and beer together, and cursed OR’s gloomy skies. Mary developed psychiatric problems and was treated locally, to little avail.

Mary needed more treatment. Tom having little money, the state psychiatric hospital libeled by Kesey was not only the obvious, but probably the only choice for her treatment. My VW beetle being more reliable than his junker, we piled Mary and Tom in and I drove them north to Salem where she was admitted. 

That much-maligned hospital actually helped Mary and she eventually came home to Tom. We both graduated and stayed in touch but lived in different parts of the country. 

With the same degree our careers took different paths, he went to industry, I to academia. He earned more money, I had more stability.

As you might surmise, her problems recurred off and on for another couple of decades, through a couple of successful pregnancies. They eventually divorced when their sons were adults. 

The late 1960s were a strange time. I drove a psychotic Mary north to Ken Kesey’s hospital and another friend and fellow grad student drove a heavily pregnant Mama Cass Elliot south to LA. And more than once I took cases of embargoed Coors beer north to Oregon where the sixpacks were prized trophies. 

By the way, the answer to your unspoken question is “No,” I did nothing stronger than vodka, and not much of that. But I sure knew lots of losers who did the illegal stuff, even in the Business grad school.

Perverting Compassion

I’m glad to see an editorial in the New York Post concerning the very real “perversion of compassion” issue the left has saddled us with. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link. The key thought:

Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres got it 100% right this month when he slammed progressives for their “perversion of compassion” in allowing vagrants to haunt our transit hubs and streets. Particularly those who are mentally ill and in need of help. They make life miserable — and dangerous — for everyone. Including themselves.

Progressives think they’re being kind, considerate, compassionate to these troubled people. Civil libertarians think they’re protecting their freedoms. Many of them truly believe they’re doing the moral thing by letting these people fester. They’re horribly wrong,

Longtime readers know COTTonLINE has been steadfast in this view, essentially forever. Mostly we’ve been a lonely voice, a decidedly minority opinion. 

It is nice to have some public reification. It is long past time to undo the damage Ken Kesey wrought in 1962 with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Process Note

The next week - the week between Christmas Day and New Years Day - is when the pundit class traditionally write their annual summations. It is a tradition I normally manage to resist, as I'm not certain it serves a function.

If you've paid attention this year you know what's happened, and if you haven't, you won't want a year-end catch-me-up. So I don't write the summary. Those others do it because this week newsworthy topics are scarce and they need to earn a living.

About the year that lies ahead, all I can predict with any certainty is that it will be eventful and interesting and probably frustrating too. I am cautiously optimistic, I hope you are too.

Sorry, Not Sorry

Michael Baharaeen has written a Substack piece with this quite reasonable title: “Growing Tribalism Threatens the American Experiment.” You will find, I believe, that it is unusually balanced compared to much modern journalism.

The author pleads for efforts to reach out to the other side, find common ground, etc., pleas you’ve seen and heard before. He argues:

Part of the reason it can seem to difficult to reach across the tribal divide is because of an assumption that those on the other side of it are acting in bad faith. If people from the other tribe hold what we consider to be bad values, it must be because they are themselves bad people or hold a perverse desire to be bad. But Occam’s razor would suggest this is unlikely. If we didn’t come to our own beliefs out of a desire to be a bad person, chances are pretty good our opponents did not either.

Unfortunately, being a bad person isn’t what the right believes, with considerable evidence, the left wishes to be. A substantial body of findings suggest many on the left suffer from various types of mental disorder, and the rest are their enablers. Their policy prescriptions come from trying to reconfigure society such that the anxious, the depressed, the delusional, and the spacey can all be comfortable wallowing in their dysfunctionality.

Q: You know what they say about trying to teach a pig to sing?
A: You won’t succeed but you will infuriate the pig. 

The left’s policy prescriptions are the functional equivalent of trying to teach a pig to sing. They don’t work and they irritate the hell out of the rest of us. 

Their policies amount to a kind of well-meaning utopianism that ignores the realities of healthy human nature. The recent election was us “normies” rejecting those Harrison Bergeron-lite policies.

Merry Christmas, Dudes and Dudettes

Image courtesy of Power Line.

Thinking Aloud

At various times recently President-elect Donald Trump has laid claim (sort of) to the Canal Zone in Panama, which we built and once owned. He has also raised again the idea of acquiring the large (and largely empty) island of Greenland, currently owned by Denmark. 

If that wasn't enough, he also teased Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada, that Trudeau would be fine as the "governor" of our 51st state. Do you sense a common theme here?

Maybe a desire to expand the American Imperium? Has he got enough clout to make that happen? Probably not.

One way to think about his musing of this sort is him being "Donald the Deal-maker" laying out an extravagant initial bargaining position. It needs to be one which he has no real prospects of achieving. It sure gets the attention of the other party.

Or just maybe he'd like the history books to remember he added to the size of the country in which case he's serious. It will be fun to see which it is, maybe he is keeping his options open. Or maybe those are trial balloons.

About Luigi

I just read a longish column posted by a writer - Gurwinder Bhogal - who was in online and telephone communication with Luigi Mangione, the alleged shooter of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson. Bhogal self-describes as having Asperger's syndrome. For what it's worth, his perceptions might not be yours.

His insights into the mind of Mangione are interesting, they involve the extent to which modern individuals do or do not have "agency" or the ability to act, related to free will. Apparently, Mangione was concerned too many of us, including himself, have too little.

What may be involved is Mangione's supposed feelings that he was controlled, not by others, but by impersonal societal forces created to suppress or damp down agency, and his anger that this should be so. Viewed that way, shooting Thompson was a way to demonstrate the system didn't control his acts.

Bhogal does not in any way defend Mangione's supposed shooting. What he offers could be an explanation of motive. I put this link in the category of "It is interesting, but may be more speculative than factual." Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.

N.B., The acronym NPC is used by Bhogal without definition. It is gamer slang, for a non-player character in an online game. NPCs perform in predictable ways, as programmed. Gamers think of them as "furniture," to borrow a derogatory term from the film Soylent Green.

Desert Living

It is in the nature of little desert towns to be scruffy and down at the heels. I’ve seen literally dozens of them, very few buck the trend. 

Desert land is cheap, so lots tend to be larger. Having room means people can freely exercise their packrat tendencies to hold onto old cars, RVs and other stuff that might come in handy one day. 

The lower costs tend to attract impecunious dreamers whose impulses rarely turn into much. People go off and abandon “stuff” that, at some prior time, meant something to somebody. Later it sometimes appears as picturesque ruins but more often as the remnants of a failed dream or a low-density junkyard.

Thus the typical desert town features a random mix of mini-mansions, single-wide mobile homes, hard-scrabble attempts at agriculture or animal husbandry, small ‘ranch’ homes, squatter shacks, and junk, intermixed with sage brush, tumbleweeds, and dry land chaparral. Zoning is nonexistent.

It is possible to buck the trend and do an attractive desert town, the DrsC winter in one such. A couple of more well-known examples include Palm Springs and Palm Desert. Even there, you get to the outskirts and the little outlying settlements revert to the shabby, wind-blown norm.

On the other hand, I just went to the store for some last-minute groceries on Christmas Eve day, and was comfortable in short sleeves! Try that in most of the nation.

Feliz Navidad, amigos.

Weird Adenotonsillar Science

 A large scale study in Sweden shows that children who have their tonsils removed - a common procedure - are more likely to exhibit PTSD and anxiety-related illnesses in later life. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

[Scientists] analyzed data on over a million people held in a Swedish health registry, finding that a tonsillectomy was linked to a 43 percent increased risk of developing conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety.

Being an observational study, the research can't determine the cause of this outcome, however the increased risk was present even after accounting for the sex of the participants, the age at which they had their tonsils out, any family history of stress-related disorders, and the education level of the parents (an indicator of socioeconomic status).

The researchers compared children who had tonsils removed to their siblings who had not had the procedure. Those with the operation had a 34% greater risk of anxiety disorders than their sibs who still had their tonsils. 

These effect sizes are large and must mean something, though what exactly remains unclear. Some possibilities: surgical trauma, anesthesia poisoning, antibody shortfalls, the effects of chronic illness on childhood ego development?

Full disclosure: Mine were not removed.

Republican Voters: More Kids

The latest chart from Steve Hayward, Power Line's roving academic, shows blue dots for counties won by Democrats and pink dots for counties won by Republicans. I presume the gray dots were counties effectively (or actually) tied.

How the counties voted is plotted against the total fertility rate for that county (births per adult female). What you see is that Republican counties have higher birth rates than Democratic counties. The differences shown are statistically significant, unlikely to occur by chance. Hayward concludes:

Red counties that Trump carried have higher fertility rates than Democratic blue counties. Tells you something about who is optimistic about the future.

 

Or maybe, about who is sane enough to cope with the stresses of child-rearing. They are non-trivial.

Review: Tabernacle Choir Christmas Show on PBS

While not especially religious, I very much love Christmas music, decor, and the holiday festivities. Over the decades I suppose I've seen the LDS Tabernacle Choir show on PBS from Salt Lake City dozens of times.

Last night the other DrC and I watched the Tabernacle Choir and orchestra Christmas show. It may have been the best one ever, certainly the best I've ever seen. If you like Christmas music, do see this year's show.

Broadway's Michael Maliakel was their soloist and was amazing. And they did a bit on Victor Hugo's penchant for simple charity which, if accurate as I assume it was, taught me things about the author I didn't know. 

Plus I dare say you will never see so many wholesome, happy people gathered in one place, dressed to the nines, performing in absolute unity and with great skill, anywhere else on this planet. That spectacle alone is very special.

Musk's Political Power

Tech "godfather" Marc Andreessen X-rays the following about another, similar figure - Elon Musk.

The thing about Elon’s alleged political power is that it mainly flows from just saying things out loud that are obviously true.

Indeed. Musk's vast wealth and obvious genius enables him to brush aside "you can't say that" carping like an annoying housefly. Plus he has a pre-baked audience for his observations.

Holy Sh*t, He's Right

Politico's Jonathan Martin interviewing Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio about his boss; as reported at Instapundit by site regular Ed Driscoll.

I am always amazed, I’ve learned not to be amazed, but he has this ability in most cases to put his finger on something. And you say to yourself: “Where did he come up with that?” But he just does. Then you test it and, holy shit, he’s right.

For sure, Trump is a talented dude. Like FDR, he has his finger on the public pulse, no one "reads the room" better than Trump. 

An Anniversary

Today is the 18th anniversary of the founding of COTTonLINE. I dropped the first substantive post on December 23, 2006. Just for fun, I reread it and I believe it holds up. It is easy to see for yourself.

Obviously my perspective has evolved somewhat different during those 18 years. I’d be embarrassed if it had not.

I’ve done a bit of diary-keeping off and on over the years but my life has too much routine in it for a diary to have much interest. Instead of a diarist, I think it’s fair to call me an essayist, one who comments on the passing scene. 

Thank you for joining me on this journey, it's a labor of love.

A Relationship Explored

 A quote to cherish on a Sunday morning in the run-up to Christmas. My source is Instapundit, his source is Ace of Spades HQ. The original source is unknown to me but I like it enough to ‘borrow’ it.

Radical, revolutionary politics, which promises to bring down society's winners and replace them with society's losers, are naturally favored by society's losers.

#SorryNotSorry but that's the truth. Marxism is a politics for the ugly, unwanted, uneducated, unhealthy, and insane.

It feels like an extension of a quote sometimes attributed to Paul Begala. He alleges, “Politics is show biz for ugly people.” Perhaps we could conclude the more radical the politics, the more screwed-up and marginalized the people attracted thereto.

The Real Luxuries

This meme comes from the Comments section of Power Line's The Week in Pictures. It is not snark. 

Somehow after a mostly good, long life I find I have nearly all of these. I can't believe how fortunate I've been. My Christmas wish for you, dear readers, is that you can honestly say you have most of them as well.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

A Stealth Regency Is Ending

Two days ago the Wall Street Journal reported at length on ways Joe Biden was exhibiting diminished ability as long ago as 2020. That article is behind the WSJ paywall but many reputable sources have reported on what they found. 

What is now public knowledge is that Joe was suffering physical and mental lapses when he ran for the presidency in 2020, lapses which have only become much more severe since. The first time these became something his "handlers" couldn't camouflage, schedule around, explain away, or cover up was the debate with Trump.

Just imagine if they'd chosen to declare "A President of the United States does not debate a convicted felon." and refused the debate. It is conceivable the gaga geezer could have been reelected.

I call that a criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people of a compos mentis President. If it doesn't rise to that level in law, we need to restructure the criminal code so in future it will.

There likely were times during the last four years when Joe Biden had a "good day" and actually functioned briefly as President. There were lots of other times when for some non-trivial periods he was out of the loop and "resting." Unelected, unidentified people were making decisions in his name.

I dub what we've just lived through a stealth Regency. I allege we've been defrauded by malicious elements of the Democratic Party.

Fool’s Gold? Maybe

I often like the work of David P. Goldman who, when he writes for an Asian paper, uses the pen name Spengler. Lately his work has been appearing in The American Mind, a publication of the Claremont Institute, home of the puckishly nicknamed "Claremonsters."

Today he tackles the twin problems of how to put the EU on a path to real self-defense and what to do about the Ukraine war. His approach is intriguing, as it relies on Europe’s nationalists to be empowered while Ukraine is left to cut the best possible deal with Putin and Russia. He believes the nationalists will defend Europe.

I fear his first premise is as likely as getting all EU citizens to paint their noses blue. My sense is that the majority of Europeans who don’t belong to one of the nationalist parties are in agreement that keeping nationalists out of power is “the hill they’ve agreed to die on.” They will "coalesce" with truly fringe groups to keep it from happening.

Goldman seems to feel otherwise, and clearly may know more about current EU sentiments than I. If the nationalists are opposed by majorities in most countries, then leaving Ukraine to bargain the best available deal from Russia is losing something without gaining anything in return. Putin wins and the EU is still dithering and undefended.

Goldman writes well, but I think this time he’s missed the mark. Take a look at his column and make your own judgment.

The 'Bomb' Was a Dud

Power Line's Steve Hayward posts a chart showing data from the UN and World Bank, here it is.

The stunner is in the headline, "Global fertility, set to fall below the replacement rate." Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb couldn't have been more wrong about population growth. 

That's the problem with projecting current trends out into the future. Sometimes a thing you believe is an immutable part of human nature turns out - given technological help and social change - to be a variable. 

Human sex drive is powerful; however birth control disconnected it from reproduction. Religions complain, but birth rates are also dropping in places where the dominant faith or political ideology would have it otherwise. 

Can you imagine writing the following sentence? "It is possible that the last South Korean will be born some time late in this century."

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Humans have wondered why our Earth hasn't been visited by space-faring extraterrestrials who had a couple of thousand years head start on us. Leave aside that perhaps we've been visited but they chose to be discreet and not mess with our heads by creating culture or tech shock.

Perhaps there is a point - one we humans are just reaching - when most or all intelligent species get control over whether they choose to be burdened with child-raising. Maybe liking the freedom, they basically quit. It might coincide with when the species gets substantial control over aging, enabling Methuselah-like lives for some.