Sunday Snark

This mashup describes the two systems quite accurately. Hat tip to Steve Hayward at Power Line where it appeared.

The Goldfinger Aphorism

 A spokeswoman for the National Police Association asks us not to politicize the suicide deaths of four Capitol Police officers in the seven months since Jan. 6. The Daily Mail (U.K.) has the story, in which she makes some good points.

On the other hand, an old aphorism that Ian Fleming included in the Bond novel Goldfinger goes something like "once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action." I guess that would make four times something worse than enemy action, maybe moral rot from within?

Or perhaps it is the belated realization that being a Cap Cop is like being an airline pilot: months or years of boring routine interrupted by moments of heart-stopping terror.

Afterthought: The spokeswoman needs a recent publicity still. Nobody looks that good after 29 years on the Chicago PD.

Weird Infrared Science

An engineer at UCLA - Aaswath Raman - has invented a material that reflects most of the radiant heat aimed at it plus it radiates whatever heat is inside it into space. Thus with no moving parts and no expenditure of energy it becomes maybe 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding environment. The Washington Post has the story.

This could be huge as it treats outer space, which is extremely cold, as a heat sink to which unwanted heat is radiated. The SkyCool thin mirror-like film does all of this, emitting infrared light at only those wavelengths to which the atmosphere is transparent.

It requires an unobstructed view of the sky and relatively clear air to work most effectively, but will radiate even in daylight, when it also reflects incoming infrared. It seems ideally suited for desert climates.

A Dilemma

The hyper-prolific Joel Kotkin writes at Unherd.com about President Biden's mishandling of illegal immigration causing political backlash, especially in the southwest where most of the illegals first land.

Overall public support for his immigration policies started cratering as early as April, when barely two in five backed his approach. By May, according to Pew, over two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the Administration’s border polices.

And Kotkin concludes: 

President Biden faces a conundrum. Forced by his genuflecting to woke ideology to embrace something akin to open borders, he threatens Democratic support among working-class voters of all ethnicities. He can continue to please progressive editorial writers as well as corporate executives eager for ever more cheap labor, but at the cost of endangering a critical base of support in 2022 and beyond.

Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link. 

A Positive Trend

A recent San Diego Union Tribune/Survey USA poll of California voters found a majority (51%) favor recalling Gov. Newsom, while only 40% would vote no. Presumably 9% are undecided or don't care.

Republicans said they supported Newsom’s removal by an 8:1 margin, while Democrats said the same 3:1.

A previous poll from Survey USA and the San Diego Union Tribune in May found only 36 percent in favor of removing Newsom and 47 opposed.

The recall election is 40 days away, on September 14. The number of undecided has declined dramatically, breaking against Newsom, plus he is losing actual supporters.

Brooks Redux

The New York Times’ David Brooks is a sometimes conservative voice, albeit one who can’t stomach Donald Trump. He is, however, one of our best modern interpreters of sociology and its intersection with politics for the lay reader.

He’s written a long-form article for The Atlantic keying off his Bobos in Paradise book now 17 years old, which he both updates and shows where he was wrong in some of his predictions. It is a good read if you enjoy, as I do, the interactions of social class, occupational cadre, and politics. 

Ignore his anti-Trumpism and enjoy his disappointment with the creative class of which he is very much a member. Check out his sense that they’ve behaved selfishly and thus betrayed and corrupted the meritocracy of which they were the prime beneficiaries. This is Brooks working the territory of which he is master, very much worth your time.

Geopolitical Poker

COTTonLINE’s favorite commenter on foreign policy at Geopolitical Futures has written something interesting about the China vs. Taiwan tensions. It is Friedman’s contention that in giving away the element of surprise, China signals that its military bluster is not a serious threat of war but rather stage-setting for negotiations with its only peer opponent, the United States. 

Friedman’s point is that surprise is crucial to success in war, and surprise will be impossible for China to achieve vis-a-vis invading Taiwan. In order for this to be correct, for China to be essentially bluffing, it requires that China agree with Friedman that surprise is both crucial and unobtainable.

I ask, what if China believes otherwise? What if they believe the U.S. is bluffing, if our aid to Taiwan will not extend to actual counterattack but is limited to provision of supplies and weaponry? What if they are poker players and believe they’ve spotted a presidential “tell” that telegraphs we won’t go to war over Taiwan? To me, that seems equally likely.

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Imagine that in 1865 the retreating Confederacy had decamped to Cuba, approximately the same distance from the U.S. as Taiwan is from China. Imagine they’d established a largely successful regime there, got rid of slavery on their own terms, made alliances with whoever was the U.S.’s current major opponent, and never surrendered.

The result would be a “frozen” civil war, which is what exists between Taiwan and China. Now, standing in China’s shoes, how would we feel about Confederate Cuba, in many ways an ‘enemy’ base 90 miles off our coast? 

Probably about the way we now feel about Cuba, antagonistic but unwilling to invade. Except with Cuba we don’t have that sense that our civil war is on “hold,” as the Chinese apparently do with Taiwan. That difference could be crucial.

A Puzzlement

Much evidence suggests successful politicians get offered free sex by women who want to add a famous scalp to their coup stick. Why can't guys like Clinton and Cuomo just take what's offered and stop hitting on the ones who don't offer? 

I suppose the offers encourage the pol to imagine he is the proverbial "God's gift to women," a babe magnet. Therefore, women not offering sex are viewed incorrectly as playing hard to get. 

That is a guess, I've never been any sort of politician, successful or otherwise. While I've known profs who claim to have been offered sex for a grade, it never happened to me. Perhaps because I never acted like the grade was negotiable.

The Left vs. Itself

One of the left's demigods is PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, maybe best known for his series on The Civil War. Interviewed recently by The New York Times, he really unloaded on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Zuck’s second in command Sheryl Sandberg. The Daily Mail (U.K.) has the story.

Ken Burns blasted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as "an enemy of the state’" who "doesn’t give a s***" about the United States and thinks he and his No. 2, Sheryl Sandberg, should be tried for crimes against humanity and put in prison.

"He knows he can transcend it. He can get away to any place," Burns, the award-winning film documentarian and historian, told The New York Times. ‘And so it’s just about filthy lucre, that’s it.’

The filmmaker said he thought tech moguls like Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and others should stand trial like the Nazis at Nuremberg after the Second World War.

‘Because these people - and Sheryl is a complicit - the Nuremberg of this, is if it ever happens, which it won’t, will be pretty interesting,’ he said.

‘The way that we’ve been able to temporize and say, oh, it’s okay, we’ll just go a little bit further. Right?’

Conservatives don't like social media leaders because they favor the left. Burns' beef with Zuckerberg and Sandberg is that they actually let an elected President (whom Burns didn't like) post stuff for most of four years. 

How could they be that heinous? Doing so was criminal according to Burns. In a battle between Burns and Zuckerberg, ideally both of these Asperger's overachievers would lose.

Somebody whisper in Burns' ear about the First Amendment's protection of free speech. Speech everyone likes needs no protection. It's speech people don't like that needs protection from forces (like Burns) trying to stifle it.

CA Is Hog Heaven

Have you read that there will soon be bacon shortages in California? Steve Hayward has the story plus snarky commentary, because why wouldn't you?

What I know is that people will drive to Nevada or Oregon to stock up. Since those are places Californians go anyway it won't be obvious. I don't see the CHP busting pork-runners.

Pssst, hey buddy, wanna score a couple of keys of Farmer John? Maybe a spiral-cut for Easter? A couple of racks for the BBQ? The gags write themselves.

Weird Epizootic Science

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports, via the New York Post, that 40% of the white-tailed deer population in four central and eastern states (IL, MI, PA, NY) are infected with Covid-19. It apparently doesn't make the deer sick.

USDA believes the chances of catching the virus from deer is very slight, although it would be wise to mask and glove when butchering a deer taken in a hunt. Cooked, they believe the meat should be safe to eat. 

Scientists appear to think the deer caught it from us. No one is ready to hazard a guess about how that happened, we rarely socialize with deer. Maybe deer ticks bit infected humans and then deer? Ticks are a vector we share.

Americans Support Police, Stop & Frisk, Cash Bail

The Hill reports the findings of a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll looking at public attitudes for and against the police. I doubt you'll be surprised at what was learned.

Seventy-five percent of respondents said more police are needed on the street while only 25 percent say they do not need more cops on the beat.

Seventy-two percent of voters also said they oppose “defunding the police,” and a slim 52 percent majority said they support the controversial practice of stop and frisk in urban areas to “deter gun crime.” Fifty-six percent also say they oppose eliminating cash bail.

The above is the case because most of us have nothing to fear from the police, they help defend us against predators. 

CA's Most Conservative Cohort

Newsweek (it still exists, online) has an article by economist Philip Pilkington who claims demographic changes give the Republicans an advantage. Yes, you read that correctly. His position is exactly opposite to the one most legacy media have taken, they predict a demographic edge for Democrats. 

Pilkington's point is that most immigrants are Hispanic, they are socially conservative, and thus a better fit with the GOP. I wasn't sure I bought his argument, although I liked it. Then, tonight I spotted the following at the Daily Caller.

Daily Caller reports the findings of an Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll of CA voters ahead of the recall Gov. Newsom election in September.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3%, showed Californians are split on the issue with 46% in favor of recalling Newsom and 48% are against it. Among Hispanics, 54% said they would vote to recall.

A majority of black and Asian respondents support keeping Newsom, while among whites, support for and opposition to removing the governor is evenly split, according to the poll.

Who would have guessed that Hispanics are the most conservative ethnic cohort in California? Not me, that's for sure. It argues the relationship predicted by Pilkington might indeed be valid. 

In light of the above, Instapundit wisecracked, "WATCH DEMOCRATS ENDORSE THE WALL."

Cuomo a Sexual Harasser

The brothers Cuomo - Andrew and Chris - are precisely the sort of pond scum the state of New York deserves. One suspects the same was true of their father Mario and we know it of Bill De Blasio. 

It is somehow fitting that a messed up place would elect messed up people as their leaders. Let's wish New York the joy of these losers.

Later ... Both President Biden and Speaker Pelosi have called on Andrew Cuomo to resign the governorship of New York, following the NY AG's report which claims Cuomo sexually harassed many women. Fox News has the stories.

A Could-Be Messiah

Let me direct your attention to a Mother Jones article about Ammon Bundy, who has led “resist government tyranny” rallies and protests across the mountain West - OR, AZ, NV, and ID. Bundy is now running for governor in Idaho, likely without success.

It is possible you’ll find the word portrait of Bundy hard to swallow, to believe. His is an interesting mixture of idealism, individualism, quirky patriotism, and a very personal religion. If he manages to be martyred during his crusade, don’t be surprised if a cult arises around his memory.

I live in Bundy’s region, my part of WY is next door to ID and my winter place is in NV. I know people like Bundy who actively spend time considering what God wants of them. They can be amazingly stiff-backed when the inner voice says they’ve decoded God’s will, and quite genial otherwise. That isn’t who I am, but I sort of understand and often like them. They can be good hearted neighbors.

Schlichter Unloads

Instapundit posts two excerpts from columns by Kurt Schlichter which are too long to repost here. Schlichter writes about how the people at CDC squandered our trust by not leveling with us, and how we now don’t know whether to trust anybody. 

Schlichter deals in hyperbole but is essentially correct in his conclusions. We’ve been lied to, treated like stubborn children, and at least some of us are feeling mulish and rebellious as a consequence. This isn’t ideal in a pandemic; more than a few people will die because of dishonest policy decisions reflected in the government’s messaging about Covid-19. 

Looking Back at Jan. 6

RealClearPolitics links to a Dov Fischer article for The American Spectator. Fischer asserts that the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol was no insurrection, and I agree.

No hostages were taken, no lists of demands were presented, no firearms were carried, no explosives detonated, no fires started. Apparently the only person seriously injured was an unarmed woman who was fatally shot by the Capitol police while climbing through a window. 

What happened was a demonstration by people unhappy with the conduct of November's election, or if you insist, with the outcome of it. Whatever damage was done resembled in scale the torn-down goal posts following a hard-fought football game. 

Were they out of line? Of course. Did they break the law? Almost certainly. Was it an insurrection? Not even close. Did it cause a bunch of cowardly Hill-dwellers to soil themselves? Apparently, so now they're embarrassed and seeking payback.

Later ... Why have four Capital police committed suicide since Jan. 6? Did they know something about the Clintons? Was there video of them assisting the rioters?

Lebanon Update

Once Lebanon was the jewel of the Middle East, a combination of Las Vegas and Switzerland. It was neutral, libertarian, multicultural, wealthy, and civilized. Its banks held billions in oil wealth. 

Lebanon had a substantial Arab Christian population which sold alcohol, and the nightclubs were open into the wee hours. Its situation was always somewhat complicated and dicey but mostly they did well.

As this article in the Times of Israel reports, those days are long past. I won't itemize its current difficulties, suffice it to say that the author cites reasons it is headed for something not unlike the Stone Age. The name I'd give where Lebanon is headed is "failed state." The enormous explosion in Beirut a year ago didn't help.

It is sad to see an apparently successful country slide into chaos and penury. It makes you wonder if it could happen here.

An Example

On Friday I wrote about nostalgia for former colonial administrations among now-independent Third World nations. Musing about that, I remembered an experience the DrsC had in Rarotonga, one of the loveliest of the South Sea islands. Imagine Polynesian charm overlaid with a thin veneer of proper Britishness, courtesy of its association with New Zealand.

We were being shown around the island and came to their jail, its grounds surrounded by a fence you could literally step over. Our driver/guide assured us that on a small island there is no place to escape to, no place to hide out because everyone not only knows everyone else, but is related to most of them. We marveled.

Our obvious bemusement caused the guide to tell us about their police chief problem, and its solution. They’d had indigenous police chiefs who didn’t work out as the family upsets caused by arresting and prosecuting misbehaving relatives were too intense to tolerate. 

The islands’ leaders finally concluded they needed to import a police chief from New Zealand who had no relatives on island. Someone who would follow the legal code and arrest those who needed arresting.

Rarotonga was happy with how this solution turned out. They voluntarily reverted to a colonial administrator for their police force, albeit one they selected. I’d call that colonial nostalgia in action.

No Cure for Stupid

Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, reminds us of something others have called Reynold’s Law:

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people.

But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.

With the result that the first time there is an economic downturn, as in 2008, those subsidized faux-middle class individuals end up right back in the lower classes, mostly worse off than before. 

The just-expired moratorium on eviction for non-payment of rent is an example of such subsidies. That tenants couldn’t be evicted didn’t mean the rent was forgiven, it kept accruing and now amounts to more than these individuals will ever have at one time in their entire lives. 

Not only will renters be evicted, they’ll be bankrupt, have no credit and be stigmatized as bad risks. Expect the homeless population to explode. 

Government puts metaphorical Band-Aids on serious wounds and the unintended consequences just keep piling up. And Biden ‘invites’ hundreds of thousands of non-citizens to come in and join the dispossessed in their Hoovervilles. There is no cure for stupid.