Of these 84 per cent were men, and 72 per cent were aged between 18 and 29.In other words, 85% were angry left wing snowflakes whose parents need to stop enabling their radicalism. One of them may write this generation's Mein Kampf or Das Kapital, something the rest of us could handily do without. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.
A third of them were unemployed, and 92 per cent still live with their parents.
In 15 per cent of these cases, the victims were right wing activists.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Losers All
The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports statistics on who were the G-20 protestors arrested in Berlin. The data was compiled by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's FBI equivalent.
Deeply Corrupt and Incompetent
Instapundit Glenn Reynolds links to a Washington Examiner article wherein Lisa Boothe puts the "Don Jr. meets a Russian lawyer" thing in perspective. See her conclusion:
To be clear, none of this is okay. This isn't an effort to justify Donald Jr.'s decisions. But politics is a dirty industry. Many of the people criticizing him have spent plenty of time playing in the mud. They could at least wipe themselves off before handing down hypocritical moral judgments on others.To this, Reynolds adds:
Given that we have the worst political class in our history, yelling “Trump is not normal!” doesn’t persuade. Given that our political class is also deeply corrupt and incompetent, calling Trump corrupt and incompetent doesn’t carry a lot of weight either. Given how many of them — *cough*Hillary*cough* — are on the take from foreign countries, the Russian thing seems like weak sauce.Analysis: If anything, understated.
Nevada Goes to Pot
When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana I was puzzled, it didn't seem like a logical move for the home of 3.2 beer. On the other hand, when Nevada did the same thing my reaction was: "Weed is a perfect fit for Nevada, the only state in the nation with bars that never close and legal brothels."
Nevada is the libertine state, a place for Baptists and Mormons to let their hair down "off the reservation." What happens in Nevada stays in Nevada, as does your money, unless you bring home an STI or an unfortunate tattoo.
Nevada is the libertine state, a place for Baptists and Mormons to let their hair down "off the reservation." What happens in Nevada stays in Nevada, as does your money, unless you bring home an STI or an unfortunate tattoo.
Be Careful What You Wish For ...
Instapundit Glenn Reynolds shares a whimsical thought on the whole dump-on-Trump thing.
Say Trump actually gets tired of this and resigns. Will Democrats be happy with what comes next? I suggest that they won’t. Two likely things: Trump doesn’t actually go away, but wages full-time political war against his critics, while Mike Pence becomes miraculously transformed into Hitler, just like all Republicans do once they’re president. Then if I’m Pence I name Ted Cruz VP, because enough Dems and Republicans would fear a Cruz presidency to put the kibosh on any efforts to get rid of Pence — and enough Dems and Republicans in the Senate dislike Cruz to ensure they’d confirm him just to get him out of there. . . .And a Pence presidency would likely push a law requiring weekly church attendance ... just kidding, I hope.
The New Religion
William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep: the Miseducation of the American Elite, writing on the problems facing higher education, as quoted in a retrospective on Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind.
Selective private colleges have become religious schools. They possess a dogma, unwritten but understood by all: a set of ‘correct’ opinions and beliefs, or at best, a narrow range within which disagreement is permitted. . . . The assumption, on elite college campuses is that we are already in full possession of the moral truth. This is a religious attitude. It is certainly not a scholarly or intellectual attitude.Sadly, the so-called "elite colleges" as opinion leaders are being copied by the less elite schools. The dogma is globalist, multicultural, and white-and-male-hating. Fortunately, many students go through the motions without internalizing much of it.
Third-World Politics in CA
Politico is reporting California Democrats are battling among themselves, dividing into factions. This is being treated as somehow unusual or newsworthy. It may be newsworthy, but it is exactly what one should expect.
California has become, de facto, a one-party state. Republicans exist and elect a few Reps. to Congress but are such a small minority that Democrat supermajorities exist in both legislative houses in Sacramento. No statewide office is held by a Republican.
We know what happens when one party dominates a polity, we saw it in Mexico with the PRI's dominance for decades, in Japan with similar decades-long one party control, and it persists in China today. Under these circumstances, all decision-making occurs in negotiations among factions of the ruling party.
That is how California will experience politics for the foreseeable future, it has become a quasi-representative government. For the past several decades New York has operated this way. It works, after a fashion, but often becomes corrupt as "rascals" don't much get thrown out of office.
Several state officials in NY have gone to jail for corruption in the last decade. Also, a stream of elected officials in Illinois have left office in handcuffs, headed for the state penitentiary. This "feature" shouldn't take too long to surface in CA, perhaps a decade.
California has become, de facto, a one-party state. Republicans exist and elect a few Reps. to Congress but are such a small minority that Democrat supermajorities exist in both legislative houses in Sacramento. No statewide office is held by a Republican.
We know what happens when one party dominates a polity, we saw it in Mexico with the PRI's dominance for decades, in Japan with similar decades-long one party control, and it persists in China today. Under these circumstances, all decision-making occurs in negotiations among factions of the ruling party.
That is how California will experience politics for the foreseeable future, it has become a quasi-representative government. For the past several decades New York has operated this way. It works, after a fashion, but often becomes corrupt as "rascals" don't much get thrown out of office.
Several state officials in NY have gone to jail for corruption in the last decade. Also, a stream of elected officials in Illinois have left office in handcuffs, headed for the state penitentiary. This "feature" shouldn't take too long to surface in CA, perhaps a decade.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Self-Interest
RealClearWorld links to an article at the SupChina website which details a split in the Chinese-American community. The non-Chinese author, John Pomfret, writes that recent arrivals from mainland China are politically conservative and voting Republican whereas long-time residents and those from Taiwan are more likely to align with Democrats and liberals.
Opposition to affirmative action is the motivating issue. Pomfret describes the writings of a prominent Chinese-American blogger as claiming:
Opposition to affirmative action is the motivating issue. Pomfret describes the writings of a prominent Chinese-American blogger as claiming:
While affirmative action made sense “in the last century” to right historic discrimination against minorities, its use in today’s America as a way “to dole out racial quotas” marked a distortion of its original purpose.The Pomfret article ties in nicely with something I wrote two days ago, reflecting on another article about people sorting themselves politically into like-minded communities. Of its author, I wrote:
He also assumes or hopes minorities will vote progressive forever more. Hispanics and Asians may do nothing of the sort, many don't now.Once again, demonstrating the truth of an old Washington adage: Where you stand depends on where you sit. Translation: your stand on issues generally is determined by what will benefit you and those you care about. A truism that is neither new nor controversial.
The Next Target
Writing at National Review, Elliot Kaufman makes an interesting prediction.
The next successful Republican politician will rally the Right by making America’s universities his punching bag — and the universities will prove even more vulnerable to that politician’s attacks than the media were to Donald Trump’s.Why will this work? What will be the specific targets?
Republican voters may disagree on policy and principle, but they can agree on whom they don’t like: Radical professors, race-obsessed provocateurs, gender-studies grifters, anti-Israel fanatics, weak-kneed administrators, disgusting libertines, angry feminists, and illiberal student protesters.Kaufman draws a not-surprising parallel.
By refusing to own up to their own bias and weaknesses, the media didn’t make their critics disappear; they only angered and empowered them, making themselves more vulnerable to attack.Thus, Kaufman's conclusion:
The educational establishment makes the same mistake but expects a different result, while its left-wing allies cheer it on.
The next Trump, then, will play to the worst fears of parents by going after colleges and universities. In doing so, he will unite the best, the worst, and all the other elements of the Right. They will be primed to hear the critique, which will be partially or even largely correct. The next Steve Bannon will seek to “overthrow” the university system from behind the scenes. And the universities, like the media before them, will walk right into the trap, while the Left rejects potential voters as deplorable ignoramuses.Unsurprisingly, most voters reject being characterized as "deplorable." Meanwhile, the university I retired from now tells professors they should not fail minority students. For untentured faculty, including the many adjunct faculty, "should not" is understood to mean "must not."
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Another Carter?
One of the downsides of "living long" (Spock's words) is that you begin to see patterns in events. One such occurred to me yesterday, let me share it with you.
A very religious outsider, Jimmy Carter was elected President in large part as a reaction to Watergate and to Ford's pardon of Nixon. Up to that point he had spent essentially no time in Washington, and if truth be known, probably didn't care much for it. Carter surrounded himself with personnel from Georgia who were likewise newbies in DC, Hamilton Jordan comes to mind as an example.
As we know, Carter was widely perceived to be a failed president and was not reelected for a second term. To some extent his outsider status, and that of his people, can be blamed for his lack of success.
Donald Trump is likewise an outsider, elected as a reaction to Obama's anti-Americanism. Like Carter, Trump probably doesn't much like Washington. He too has surrounded himself with outsiders, many of them family or campaign staff. They are newbies in DC, and to politics. Reince Priebus and Mike Pence being notable exceptions. Don Jr. chatting up a Russian lawyer is a classic outsider stumble.
I support Trump's program of action, and would hate to see it fail. What concerns me is the many similarities to the failed Carter approach I see happening under Trump. The Deep State has devious ways to get even with an upstart outsider, a Carter or a Trump.
A very religious outsider, Jimmy Carter was elected President in large part as a reaction to Watergate and to Ford's pardon of Nixon. Up to that point he had spent essentially no time in Washington, and if truth be known, probably didn't care much for it. Carter surrounded himself with personnel from Georgia who were likewise newbies in DC, Hamilton Jordan comes to mind as an example.
As we know, Carter was widely perceived to be a failed president and was not reelected for a second term. To some extent his outsider status, and that of his people, can be blamed for his lack of success.
Donald Trump is likewise an outsider, elected as a reaction to Obama's anti-Americanism. Like Carter, Trump probably doesn't much like Washington. He too has surrounded himself with outsiders, many of them family or campaign staff. They are newbies in DC, and to politics. Reince Priebus and Mike Pence being notable exceptions. Don Jr. chatting up a Russian lawyer is a classic outsider stumble.
I support Trump's program of action, and would hate to see it fail. What concerns me is the many similarities to the failed Carter approach I see happening under Trump. The Deep State has devious ways to get even with an upstart outsider, a Carter or a Trump.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Low Tax, Well-Run GOP States
Investor's Business Daily reports the Mercatus Center at George Mason University has issued its annual ranking of the 50 (not 57 as Obama thought) states based on their fiscal condition.
The rankings in the fourth-annual "Ranking of the States by Fiscal Condition" report, which was released this morning, are based on a review of audited financial statements for 2015 covering five measures that gauge the states' ability to pay bills, avoid budget deficits, and meet long-term spending needs and cover pension liabilities.The top ten states were these:
01. FloridaIBD notes each of these states voted for Trump and only Montana has a Democrat governor. The bottom ten states were these:
02. North Dakota
03. South Dakota
04. Utah
05. Wyoming
06. Nebraska
07. Oklahoma
08. Tennessee
09. Idaho
10. Montana
50. New JerseyIBD says 6 of these 10 voted for Clinton, two more have Democrat governors (LA, WV). Plus:
49. Illinois
48. Massachusetts
47. Kentucky
46. Maryland
45. Pennsylvania
44. Louisiana
43. California
42. West Virginia
41. New Mexico
The most fiscally sound states also tend to have the lowest tax burdens, according to a separate analysis by the Tax Foundation, which measures state and local tax burdens as a percentage of state income.
Birds of a Feather
MSN.com has a story about the sorting-out that progressives and conservatives have been doing in regard to where they live. Author Reid Wilson casts the story in economic terms - the prosperous cities and suburbs voting Clinton vs. the not-so-prosperous countryside voting Trump.
Wilson's interpretation of what's happening isn't entirely wrong or right; some of each I think. He gives basically no weight to cultural issues - the countryside's rejection of the urban 'social justice' and multicultural globalism agendas.
My favorite part of the article is a map which shows the counties which voted 80% in favor of Trump (371) or Clinton (17). Many of Trump's supermajority counties are in a swath that runs north from TX and OK thru KS, CO, NB, WY, ND, SD, and MT. Mine is one of the WY counties.
He also assumes or hopes minorities will vote progressive forever more. Hispanics and Asians may do nothing of the sort, many don't now.
My suggestion is to concentrate on Wilson's demographics and skim his analysis. The former is data, the latter is opinion with which you may disagree. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
Wilson's interpretation of what's happening isn't entirely wrong or right; some of each I think. He gives basically no weight to cultural issues - the countryside's rejection of the urban 'social justice' and multicultural globalism agendas.
My favorite part of the article is a map which shows the counties which voted 80% in favor of Trump (371) or Clinton (17). Many of Trump's supermajority counties are in a swath that runs north from TX and OK thru KS, CO, NB, WY, ND, SD, and MT. Mine is one of the WY counties.
Nearly 59 percent of Americans - almost 187 million of us - live in counties that voted for Clinton or Trump by 20 or more percentage points. An incredible 1,559 counties gave Trump more than 70 percent of the vote in 2016, and 99 gave Clinton the same percentage.Wilson assumes (perhaps "hopes" would be more accurate) young people who move to the city and vote progressive will continue to do so lifelong. Considerable evidence suggests people become more conservative as they grow older.
That's a marked contrast from the 2000 election, when another Democratic candidate also won the popular vote while losing the Electoral College. That year, George W. Bush took 70 percent of the vote in just 546 counties. Al Gore won the same percentage in 46 counties.
He also assumes or hopes minorities will vote progressive forever more. Hispanics and Asians may do nothing of the sort, many don't now.
My suggestion is to concentrate on Wilson's demographics and skim his analysis. The former is data, the latter is opinion with which you may disagree. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
Monday, July 10, 2017
"Settled" Science
Two headlines from Science Daily, posted at Power Line by Steven Hayward. The first, dated September 15, 2016:
Pacific Ocean's response to greenhouse gases could extend California drought for centuries.The second, dated July 6, 2017:
California projected to get wetter through this century.Hayward's comment:
Amazing how one wet winter can change the science.Analysis: Climate "scientists" are largely clueless.
Climate Armageddon
Writing at New York Magazine, David Wallace-Wells poses the doomsday scenario:
If Wallace-Wells is anywhere near correct, Europeans who have no children whatsoever, including the elected leaders of most European nations, have the right idea. You wouldn't wish his dystopian future on anyone for whom you felt even a little love.
Wallace-Wells foresees a real shit-storm; a climate-driven Hobbsian state of nature - a war of all against all, where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." If you suffer from excessive elation and ebullient spirits, and feel the need of a serious downer, this article''s your ticket, an express bus to depression.
There is, of course, at least some possibility that Wallace-Wells is correct, that all our worst nightmares will come to pass. It is also possible you could be struck by lightening or a meteor, or even a chunk of toilet ice falling from an airliner.
Most of us do not dwell on such outcomes, for good reason. While possible, they aren't exactly high probability outcomes. We're much more likely to experience our inevitable mortality from cancer or a heart that quits, or a car crash. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
The Uninhabitable EarthYou can imagine Wallace-Wells asking himself "What are the worst climate-related disasters I can imagine, assuming everything goes at least as badly as the worst pessimist can fear?" This article is the compendium that resulted. The operational word in his subtitle is "could."
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak - sooner than you think.
If Wallace-Wells is anywhere near correct, Europeans who have no children whatsoever, including the elected leaders of most European nations, have the right idea. You wouldn't wish his dystopian future on anyone for whom you felt even a little love.
Wallace-Wells foresees a real shit-storm; a climate-driven Hobbsian state of nature - a war of all against all, where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." If you suffer from excessive elation and ebullient spirits, and feel the need of a serious downer, this article''s your ticket, an express bus to depression.
There is, of course, at least some possibility that Wallace-Wells is correct, that all our worst nightmares will come to pass. It is also possible you could be struck by lightening or a meteor, or even a chunk of toilet ice falling from an airliner.
Most of us do not dwell on such outcomes, for good reason. While possible, they aren't exactly high probability outcomes. We're much more likely to experience our inevitable mortality from cancer or a heart that quits, or a car crash. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Snark at the NY Post
The New York Post is having too much fun with NYC Mayor de Blasio's trip to protest the G-20 in Hamburg, Germany. Their July 9 cover page shows him grinning with the following caption:
DEUTSCH BAGVery cute play on words, guys. "Mourning" refers to the NYPD officer who was shot in cold blood the day before de Blasio left.
Mayor feeds his
ego in Germany
after fleeing
a city in mourning
A Strange Resemblance
Either a talent or maybe a failing I have is seeing individuals who remind me of others. Right now Drudge Report has a photo of Donald Trump Jr. as its lead.
In that photo Don Jr. is a dead ringer for Nicholas Lea. Lea is the Canadian actor who played the character Alex Krycek in 24 episodes of the TV series X-Files.
In that photo Don Jr. is a dead ringer for Nicholas Lea. Lea is the Canadian actor who played the character Alex Krycek in 24 episodes of the TV series X-Files.
California Nightmare
As California sinks into a Venezuela-like morass, Hoover Institution historian Victor Davis Hanson chronicles its decline, here for Investor's Business Daily. He asks why someone won't take action.
Like many of us oldtimers, Hanson remembers a time when California was a beacon of hope for Americans everywhere. Now it's a mess. My favorite line from his IBD piece:
Like many of us oldtimers, Hanson remembers a time when California was a beacon of hope for Americans everywhere. Now it's a mess. My favorite line from his IBD piece:
One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.That can't be good.
Thoughts on the Presidency
Our presidents are complicated individuals. Very few are "plain vanilla" folks where what you see is what you get. Some examples from the years when I was paying attention.
JFK was elegant and polished in public, a philandering cad in private. Johnson was crude and ruthless, but a superb legislator and someone who knew when to leave the stage.
Nixon was privately paranoid and nasty, one of the best foreign policy presidents we've had, and couldn't finish his second term. Ford wasn't elected to the office, so let's skip him as he's basically a historical footnote.
Carter, a demonstrably smart man, tried his darnedest to be a Christian president, and was mostly a cheek-turning flop. Reagan played the role of president better than most, as he understood its many "performance" aspects as most do not. Bush I won a war (Gulf I) and couldn't get reelected in spite of it.
Clinton was both lucky and a natural politician, but what my grandmother would have called "a masher" who pushed himself at women who weren't interested in sex with him. Bush II was very likely a decent man but not entirely up to such a big job including the ill-omened Gulf II. Obama was personally elegant and smooth, but revealed his basic dislike for most things American entirely too often, and gave up our gains in Iraq.
That brings us to the current occupant, Trump is both crude and polished, a bully and a salesman, and a much-married family man seemingly popular with his five kids. Like many entrepreneurs he has failed more often than he's succeeded, but succeeded enough to breeze past the start-ups that didn't make it.
Spending time in show biz has given Trump practice in selling himself. And he is able to monopolize media attention like no one since, perhaps, FDR. He is able to both give brilliant speeches and tweet ugly put-downs. A complicated man, indeed, in good company with other complicated men who've held the office.
JFK was elegant and polished in public, a philandering cad in private. Johnson was crude and ruthless, but a superb legislator and someone who knew when to leave the stage.
Nixon was privately paranoid and nasty, one of the best foreign policy presidents we've had, and couldn't finish his second term. Ford wasn't elected to the office, so let's skip him as he's basically a historical footnote.
Carter, a demonstrably smart man, tried his darnedest to be a Christian president, and was mostly a cheek-turning flop. Reagan played the role of president better than most, as he understood its many "performance" aspects as most do not. Bush I won a war (Gulf I) and couldn't get reelected in spite of it.
Clinton was both lucky and a natural politician, but what my grandmother would have called "a masher" who pushed himself at women who weren't interested in sex with him. Bush II was very likely a decent man but not entirely up to such a big job including the ill-omened Gulf II. Obama was personally elegant and smooth, but revealed his basic dislike for most things American entirely too often, and gave up our gains in Iraq.
That brings us to the current occupant, Trump is both crude and polished, a bully and a salesman, and a much-married family man seemingly popular with his five kids. Like many entrepreneurs he has failed more often than he's succeeded, but succeeded enough to breeze past the start-ups that didn't make it.
Spending time in show biz has given Trump practice in selling himself. And he is able to monopolize media attention like no one since, perhaps, FDR. He is able to both give brilliant speeches and tweet ugly put-downs. A complicated man, indeed, in good company with other complicated men who've held the office.
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Liberal Self-Hate
At Power Line, Steven Hayward quotes a lengthy passage from James Burnham's 1964 book Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. I reproduce that passage (ca. p. 178) here for your enjoyment.
The average liberal is just not too concerned about, not so emotionally involved in, nationhood, national patriotism, sovereignty and Liberty as is a fellow citizen to his ideological Right. It does not shock him when bearded young men say they will never fight for their country, nor is he indignant even when they express preference for a country other than their own. If a mob in an underdeveloped land smashes the consulate or embassy of his nation, he is not much aroused; indeed, he may well conclude, after interpreting the facts, that justice was on the side of the rioters.It is getting ever harder to shrug off the self-hatred Burnham describes eloquently. Part of me says it's okay to hate people who hate their own society. Some part of me still disagrees, I'm not sure for how long.
He feels little thrill when the flag goes by. And quite probably finds pledges to the flag or oaths of allegiance actively distasteful. He approves of many of the weighty books setting out to show the relativity and morality equivalence of diverse religions and cultures, and to decry the backwardness of those Westerners who still believe that in some rather important sense Western civilization is superior to Buddhism, Islam, communism, atheism and animism, and therefore worth preserving. . .
It does not seem to him an anomaly that his own nation’s communications industry should on a massive scale print the books, produce the plays and movies, present the television scripts of those who hate his nation and his civilization, and seek, often avowedly, the destruction of both.
Francis No Friend
CNSNews reports the content of an interview Pope Francis gave Italian reporter Eugenio Scalfari, published in La Repubblica and translated by Agence France Presse.
I worry about very dangerous alliances between powers which have a distorted vision of the world: America and Russia, China and North Korea, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Syria’s Bashar al-) Assad over the war in Syria.This is exactly what you'd expect from an Argentine leftist, which Francis was before being elected Pope. His pronouncements are redolent of Liberation theology. That leftist movement, condemned by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, is in favor under Francis.
The danger concerns immigration. Our main and unfortunately growing problem in the world today is that of the poor, the weak, the excluded, which includes migrants.
This is why the G20 worries me: It mainly hits immigrants.
An Echo from the Past
I'm placidly reading Instapundit on a quiet Saturday afternoon in Western Wyoming when I see a link to a story about my long-time employer, colloquially known as "Chico State," more formally it's California State University, Chico. This I don't expect.
The Heatstreet story reports employee SJWs there removed copies of the student newspaper, The Orion, from the Student Health Center because they believed an article therein might be "triggering" for transgender or other fragile individuals. This behavior was praised by several employees, including faculty.
It turns out the SHC broke State law in so doing. CA state law prohibits removing multiple copies of a free newspaper in order to prohibit the dissemination of ideas, ruling it a misdemeanor.
I expect Democrat supermajorities in the state legislature to revoke this law in their next session. A politically correct state can't have heretical thought lying around in free newspapers where some poor snowflake might read it and melt down.
The Heatstreet story reports employee SJWs there removed copies of the student newspaper, The Orion, from the Student Health Center because they believed an article therein might be "triggering" for transgender or other fragile individuals. This behavior was praised by several employees, including faculty.
It turns out the SHC broke State law in so doing. CA state law prohibits removing multiple copies of a free newspaper in order to prohibit the dissemination of ideas, ruling it a misdemeanor.
Penal Code section 490.6 The Legislature finds that free newspapers provide a key source of information to the public, in many cases providing an important alternative to the news and ideas expressed in other local media sources. The Legislature further finds that the unauthorized taking of multiple copies of free newspapers, whether done to sell them to recycling centers, to injure a business competitor, to deprive others of the opportunity to read them, or for any other reason, injures the rights of readers, writers, publishers, and advertisers, and impoverishes the marketplace of ideas in California.
I expect Democrat supermajorities in the state legislature to revoke this law in their next session. A politically correct state can't have heretical thought lying around in free newspapers where some poor snowflake might read it and melt down.
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